Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - A true test comes next for the Pittsburgh Penguins...

Episode Date: October 15, 2022

Happy Friday, Penguins fans! The Pittsburgh Penguins are set to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday evening and Hunter has a full game preview for yinz. He starts the show with how the Lightning looked against the New York Rangers & how it was pretty similar to their performance against the Penguins in the first game of the season last year. He then looks at their lines and what fans should expect to see, plus how they may not have one of their best players playing since they also play on Friday night. Hunter also goes over some of the recent history between these two teams and how the Penguins have fared against the Lightning. Who are some players that have played well against the Lightning? Is Jason Zucker going to continue his hot start? Is Teddy Blueger going to be in the lineup? All that, plus a scoop on the RoboPenguin jersey, on this episode of Locked On Penguins.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!SimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnNHL to learn more.Athletic GreensTo make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORK Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello, good afternoon. Happy Friday Penguins fans, October 14th as we end the week here with this final episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. For today's episode, we're going to get into a full preview of the game against Tampa Bay. I'm coming to you live just outside of Pittsburgh right now. Actually, obviously I'm not in my room and not back in Richmond. I arrived in Pittsburgh earlier today. I'm just easy, easy driving. It's always so beautiful. You come in from the turn bike. You get on 370, or the parkway, as all the insurers call it. And you come in, you go through the Squirrel Hill Tunnel, which is always backed up, come out, do a little turn, and then you see the skyline. It's like, nothing beats that. Like, I mean, it's just a pure, like, welcome home kind of moment.

So that was really awesome. But again, for today's episode, we're going to do a full preview of the game against St.B. Look at how successful the Penguins of Venigants and the Lightning. The last few years, look at who could play a big role in this game. Look at the lightning lines coming into this one. and how the penguins may not see one of Tampa Bay's best players coming into this one. And I'll also have a couple of scoops regarding the reverse retro jersey for the penguins.

I've been kind of teasing at it on my Twitter account because there's been some stuff that's being reported from different outlets. I'm going to give you all the scoop on that a little later on in today's episode. So that's all coming up right after this drop. You're Locked on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow the shows, Twitter, at OnerS4 Penguins, and, of course, thank you so much for making this show first listen of the day. Today's episode is brought to you by Bet Online. It has you covered this season with more props, Ons and Lines than ever before. That is Bet Online, where the game starts. So let's jump right into it to The Penguins.

to get to 2-0-0 on the season on Saturday night against Tampa Bay. I've said this all week, said this on the second of the last week. So excited to be back in Pittsburgh for this game. It's my first one since before COVID hit. I believe the last one I went to was 2019 right before New Year's. I was dating someone else at the time. And that was the game. Funny that they played the Ottawa Senators.

And boom, that's when Jay Gansel's collarbone went out. He scored the goal when crashing into the boards, saw him get up. He's hunched over with his collarbone. And I'm like, once I saw that, I'm like, okay, that looks like a serious injury. Nice goal. But I'm like, he's probably going to be out for a while. And, you know, sure enough, he was out for a while because the whole league was out for a long time with the COVID shutdown and all that. So first time in basically three years that I'll be back at PBJ paints arena.

I am so stoked to be coming, you know, to just watch this team play a really good Tampa Bay team. And let's get into it. I know the lightning looked really bad against the Rangers on an open. opening night, at least in North America, there was a game, a couple of games in Europe a few days before. I believe the Sharks and the Predators played two games. And funny enough, you know, I think a lot of people, myself included, did not even know that the regular season started during the weekend. I thought it was just a preseason game. Nope, the regular season started with those two Predators' games.

The Predators won both games. But it's just like, okay, you can play those games in Europe, but those should not be the first two games of your season. Anyways, don't want to get off track here. As for the Lightning, you, they lost that game three to one. to the New York managers. At 5E5, they got out attempted. 39, 28, then we had 41% of the shot attempts. At 5V5, they mean, no goals for, one goals again,

so they gave up a couple of power play goals. Only 39% of the expected goals at 5V, 42% of the scoring chances, 47% of the high danger chances, really bad performance. It was honestly similar to how they played against the Penguins. Last year on opening, And I remember the penguins come into that.

Very short-handed, no Crosby, no Malk, and a couple other regulars were out due to COVID and all that stuff. But Penguins were like, you know what? Next man up. And they go down there and blitz them. What was it, six to two? I'm not mistaken. And John Cooper even said after the game, you know,

we don't care that Crosby and Malkin were out. We got our butts and whoops. And, you know, that's basically what happened against the Rangers as well. That game would have been a lot worse, had Andre Vasselovsky. not been a net. And he was making save after save after save. But luckily for the Penguins, it looks like they will not be seeing him on Saturday.

Tonight, funny enough, so I'm recording this at about 6.20 p.m. Eastern time, lightning about to play in the next 40 minutes to an hour. They're playing the Columbus Blue Jackets in Columbus tonight. And Andre Vasilevsky was the first going off the ice. He is the confirmed starter for the game. So John Cooper is not going to start Brian Elliott against a lesser team like a bluejackets. He's going to go for Vasilevsky.

And then it looks like Brian Elliott, usually one of the not so good backups in the NHL. He will be going up against the penguins on Saturday. You know, that's very good news for them. You know, Vasilevsky, one of the two best goaltenders were all. I personally have him as the best gold tender on the planet, right, you know, a little bit above Igor's Shosturkin. but you know you can honestly take either one um at this point um you know it's brian elliott just not it obviously doesn't have like that same kind of spark i guess as you know playing and vasselovsky and pittsburg you know vaselveski he played all three games

against the penguins last year you know played really well um in those games as well making sure of course i'm recording on my mac and that's just like the last thing I want to hear during my recording anyways. You know, Vasilevsky played in all three games this year, and the Penguins, funny thing was, they won two of those three games, and the Penguins have played really well against the lightning for the last several years. Going back, their last 25 home games against them, 16 and 6 and 3, they're also 4 and 2 and 1 in their last 7 total games against them in their last 27 games, the Penguins Power Play,

also 31.6% against the Tampa Bay. The last meeting the Penguins played against them, five to one victory. Higgeny Malkin played one of his best games of the season, had three points. Danton Hinen was spectacular against them last year, had two goals in three games. We Hinen actually had the opening night goal

for the Penguins last season against Tampa Bay. Jake Gensel also had three points. Crystal Tang had three points against the Lightning as well. That was a team that the Lightning, I screwed that up. I think a lot of lightning fans were kind of a little scared of the Penguins last season just because Pittsburgh, they were giving them fits. They were out skating them.

I think, you know, in all three games, honestly, we're finishing their chances. I think their defensive zone structure with their 1-2-2 was really frustrating John Cooper's team. And, you know, I saw plenty of lightning fans last year that were saying, who, you know, hopefully we don't see this team in the playoffs because they definitely had our number at times. So, you know, I'm not saying this is like a very favorable matchup for the penguins,

but I am saying that, you know, the Penguins, they can play with these guys. And, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if they do do well against them again this season. As to the lines that you will see from the lightning in this game. Brandon Hagle is on the top line with Braden Point and Nikita Kutrov. Nick Paul is with Steven Stamcoast and Alex Kallorn, Ross Colton with Ladislav Nemestikov and Corey Perry, and then P.R. I. Woodal-Belmore and Patrick Maroon on the fourth line, Victor Hadman and Calfoot on the top defensive pair, Mikkel Sergichette and Eric Chernak are on their defense and then Flurry with Myers on the bottom pairing. You know, definitely when you look at past Tampa Bay teams, I know they don't have that third line, you know, with Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow and Yanni Gord.

You know, and now another big loss that they had this all season, no Andre Palat. he was one of their three to four best players in their last run to the final no they didn't three p but when he was on the ice with kutrovra stand coast he was doing everything and the other two players were but when that other line when that line was none on ice excuse me the lightning really couldn't do much of anything it felt like in the playoffs i was honestly kind of surprised that they got to the final when just having one really elite line but you know that's what elite goaltending does in and d'ra vasselvesky and the penguins it looks like it right now now they'll be pretty lucky to not see him in that game.

So overall, I think this is a big measuring stick game for the penguins. I know the lightning did not look good against the Rangers. I assume they will look better tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets. And then I know they'll be playing on a back-to-back on Saturday, but I assume they will play a little bit better against the Penguins than they did against the Rangers. Penguins, you know, they have some history on their side. When it comes to these two teams playing, they have the head-to-head record, and all that.

But, you know, it's any given day for a reason in hockey. Another cool stat, the Penguins, in the last 24 games last season, the Penguins were 14 and 7 and 3 against Atlantic Division teams. Another player to look out for. Actually, no, I'm going to save some of the players to look out for this game coming up in this next segment. But Penguins have always done really well against Atlantic Division teams, again, 2 and 1 against Tampa Bay last season.

I think they can definitely play with these guys. I mean, the game they lost against Tampa Bay last season, that was just a couple weeks after the Penguins blew them out in Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay comes out in Pittsburgh. They beat them by a few goals. I thought the Penguins played well in that game. It was the only home game in Pittsburgh that they played against Lightning. But they just, they didn't have enough oomph offensively.

And you saw that, you know, Vasilevsky also made some really many saves. But that wraps up this first part of the preview for the game against Tampa Bay. coming up in the next one I look to, some players to watch for this game, one of which had a great start to the season on Thursday night against the Arizona Coyotes. But before I get to that, betonline.net is your number one source for football betting info this season.

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You can head to bed online or use your phone to learn more. That is but online where the game starts. All right, I'm back in this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honored Hoddes. You want to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. We're also on the shows, Twitter, at LNNNNSquare Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. So let's look at some players that, you know, could be key contributors,

this game. And funny enough, one of them is Jason Zucker, who had a outstanding game against the Arizona Coyonis. When he was on the ice with Malkin and Rust, they had 17 shot attempts for five shot attempts against scoring chances, well over 70 percent high danger chances. The same thing. He was electric on that line with Malkin and Rust, and he was firing a lot of shots from that left circle, about 20, 25 feet out. He was obviously had that really nice goal to make it two-ne-nine. thing early on in the first period. He was a menace, and I'm really hoping the Penguins can get more out of him overall coming into this game.

And, you know, when you look at his stats against the lightning, overall, he's played 16 games against the lightning in those games, nine goals, 11 points. And he has a shooting percentage of 27%. Nine goals. Look, I look this up, nine goals on 33 shots. Yes, very unsustainable. would love if he could do that overall spread across like the league as a whole have a 27% shooting percentage.

I mean, that would just be hilarious. But I mean, it's actually crazy that in 16 games, he has a 27% shooting percentage. Yeah, small sample sizes, but he's played really well against them. And he also has three goals on seven shots against Brian Elliott, funny enough. So again, who the Penguins are likely to see in that game? Jeff Carter, he's played a lot of games against the. lightning. He's played really well against them 16 goals, 27 points, and 38 career games against Tampa Bay. Here's a cool stat. This is courtesy of Penguins PR. Only five active players have more

goals against the lightning than Jeff Carter. So I could definitely see him having a big game against Tampa Bay. I like the third line for the most part against Arizona. I thought Carter was fine defensively. His skating looked good. If he can continue to get those kind of minutes throughout the season and Malkin and Crosby were able to stay healthy. I think you can see him do what he was doing in the first half of last season for the entirety of this season. I know I've said that I didn't like the trajectory that he was on because he kind of looked washed down the stretch last season.

You know, part of that could be due to him just playing a lot more minutes during the first half just because he had to be this team's two C. But if he remains that 3C or most of this season, hopefully, you know, he'll still have his legs and maybe he'll be able to contribute even more offensively. That would be awesome. Penguins power play, if they were able to get some opportunities, look for that. That could be a big momentum swinger, I think, for the Penguins. You know, Pittsburgh had a couple power play goals against the coyotes.

This is obviously a little bit different type of Tampa Bay's penalty kill, usually well above league average. Every season, I believe last year it finished in the top 10 overall. last season. They were two for six on the power. Actually, no, excuse me. Yeah, two for six against Arizona on Thursday night. Also last season, they went 24 and 8 and 7 when scoring a power play goal. So when they score a power play goal, most games, they get at least a point.

So there's that. Obviously, Danton Hinen, he was really good against the Lightning last year, scored the first goal of the season against him. of a day. I also had a couple of points against Simonyi Crosby always has fun playing the lightning. Brock McGinn, even, you know, he had that great breakaway goal in that five-to-one game back in March when he just came streaking down, had a beautiful shot that beat Vasilevsky clean. And, you know, he usually can make those kind of saves.

But nope, McGinn just came down and snapped that blocker side past him. Really nice job there. I'm really hoping that before flying, especially, can have a better game. You know, I talked about that on my Thursday episode. That was one of my, I guess, one of my negatives from the game against Arizona. I really only had two or three negatives anyway, but, you know, one of them was the four lines just because they were the only line on the team to get out attempted by the coyotes.

I just don't want them pinned down in the defensive zone a lot. I think Teddy Bluger's return is going to help a lot. He was back. He was at practice again on Friday, but he's still not participating in a full contact capacity. he looks like he is going to miss this game again for the Penguins. We'll have to see if he comes back next week, maybe the week after with the full Western Canada trip. But, you know, it looks like right now he's not going to be playing in that game.

Goaltending-wise, at least for the Penguins, I would expect Tristan Jari to start in this one. I mean, you're going up against the Pan-Bay-White in here. I mean, if that's not called to start your number one netminder, you know, then what the heck is at this point? So that basically wraps up the first two segments while going, diving deep in the lightning, looking at their numbers, looking at the lines, looking at who could be big for the penguins against them while also seeing the history has been on their sign against this team. But you know what? That honestly goes out the window when, you know, you step foot on ice and you play this team.

They have a lot of better experience. They're one of the best teams at the Saturday Cup era. They have elite, elite level players that can break open the game. Well, penguins will have to be on high alert for those. of course talking about Kutrov, Point, Stancoast, Headman, you know, those kind of guys. They still have some good, you know, debt players, Mane and Hegel, and Paul's not bad, even though that contract extension, a little much, you know, Pat Maroon has some experience, Peter Ebbler Belmar, has some experience down there.

Corey Perry is always a pain in the butt to play against. You know, this game should be a lot of fun. As I said, a little few minutes ago, good measuring stick of going up against one of the best teams in the conference. You know, I think the penguins, they looked kind of bored against the coyotes, especially in the second period, you know, the game's 3-0 at that point. And I think a lot of the players probably thinking like, okay, you know, can we go home? We're playing against an HL team at this point. And, you know, they were definitely outplayed for stretches during that period last night. I think, you know, after like the halfway point of regulation, so like with less than

10 minutes ago, Arizona started creeping up their, Arizona started to up their shop total. part of that had to do with power plays and stuff. But they were taking into the Penguins a little bit. But I think the Penguins were just kind of starting to get bored. And that was definitely true as well in the third period where it was three to one and four to one. I think they were just like, okay, kind of gliding around, but they just want to be in there. That's not going to be a problem against the lightning. You know, they're going to try to play a full 16 minutes.

I don't think they're going to just start taking shifts off and gliding around and looking for it. This is the Tampa Bay Lightning here, people. So looking forward to that. That wraps up the full preview for this game. Coming on the final segment, I'm going to have a couple of small scoops for you all about the reverse retro jerseys, when those will be released,

and what it looks like it's going to look like. So stick around for that coming up in this final segment. All right, I'm back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honore Hodes. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Honored Hodes, follow the shows Twitter at Elmerst for Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much

for making this your first to listen of the day. So definitely been some reverse retro stuff that's been going on the last couple of days. It was funny. I heard a couple of scoops. I should have heard some whispers from someone that I do trust, you know, that works in the organization. And, you know, he told, this person told me that it looks like the release is going to be next week. Funny enough, a couple people did tweet at me saying, like, yeah, it's looking like it's the 19th of the 20th. I did not know the exact date, but it looks like that has those have been the long rumored dates.

all I was told, but it's coming next week. And, you know, right now it's, what, October 14th. On the 20th is next Thursday. So that would line up with a scoop that I got on Thursday. And I was also told that it sounds like the gradient style for this jersey is not going to be returning. It sounds like it's going to be just kind of a black and, you know, just a black and gold jersey. I may try to share my screen here for the YouTube people. just let me see if I can do this well you know actually not I might just I actually I'll probably

just link it down what for my episode description for you all I'm going to put the link to the tweet down there and both YouTube and whether you're listening on Apple and Spotify you can go check it out so it's not going to be like you know the gray one that some of you may have seen on social media and stuff it's going to be black with a lot of yellow a little bit of a white stripe as well And that is also what I heard you. I think Gabe at G-TAC 13 jerseys, he is very reliable when it comes to Jersey scoops. He put this scoop out there on Friday afternoon. And that came after what I was heard of Whisper on Thursday that it looks like it's going to be something similar to what he put out.

That is going to be the reverse retro jersey of the payments. It's going to probably come out the 19th of the 20th next week. I know some people may not like it just because that jersey. kind of and it looks like maybe, you know, their home jersey, but just a different logo and stuff. But, you know, I honestly could see them doing this jersey. Remember how they did the reverse retro jerseys a couple of years ago during COVID, right? They brought back that white diagonal Pittsburgh one. Some people liked it.

Some people didn't. Next year, though, they bring back the original Pittsburgh diagonal, all black. Everyone loves it. I could honestly see them doing the same thing here. bringing back this reverse retro jersey and then they're like okay if this doesn't maybe sell like you know we they want it to they're going to be like okay maybe we'll just bring back an original one next season and then they can wear that plus the Pittsburgh diagonal plus their home and away jerseys um i could easily see um them doing that so um that's what i have for you all

with the reverse retro jersey scoops um if i hear anything else i will surely pass it along to you guys, but it looks like, yeah, it's going to be a, you know, a nice Robe Penguin logo in the center. It's going to be kind of, that's where the black portion of the jersey is the upper part right here, for those who are watching YouTube, the collar, that's going to be yellow, and then below the black area, going to be a white stripe and then another yellow stripe. And then the sleeves going to be black, white, yellow, and then the numbers are going to be yellow. it looks like. I mean, that's the design that he has, but it's, it, the jersey from what I've been told is going to look really similar to that. And that's this, that's the whisper that I heard. Um, so again, wanted to pass that along to you all to end today's episode. Um, and yes, that will do it for today's episode of the Lockton Penguins podcast. I really appreciate all of you listening to this one. Um, last off, lastly though, um, it's amazing what hockey can do for the listenership of this podcast. We're basically, uh, to 10,000 monthly downloads, barely even halfway through this month.

That is 139% better compared to September 1st through September 14. Thank you all so much for continuing to listen and continuing to support this podcast. It means the absolute world to me. Again, if any of you are going to the game on Saturday and you haven't told me yet, send me a DM on social media. Leave a comment on the YouTube page. Just let me know. and if you want to meet up in Tox and Penguins Hockey, I will, you know, be very glad to do that with you.

So again, that will do it for this episode. Thank you all so much for listening. Let's go, Penns. I can't wait to watch the game on Saturday and make some observations. I'll full game recap episode for you all on Monday. Then we'll preview the action for next week and have five full episodes coming for you all starting on Monday. So that'll do it. Have a great weekend.

And let's go, Penn's.