Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Another win for the Penguins, plus will Sidney Crosby get his 500th against the Flyers?

Episode Date: February 15, 2022

The Pittsburgh Penguins win again! They took down the New Jersey Devils on Sunday afternoon with a 4-2 win in a game where the Penguins were the better team. Hunter begins the show with a shoutout to Mike Matheson as he continues to play his tail off. How is he continuing to have the best season of his career? Should he get more minutes? He also goes into some of the underlying numbers before switching over to Bryan Rust. Hunter explains how this is a player who the Penguins may not be able to let walk. How can the team create enough cap space to sign him? Will the contract likely age well? After that, Hunter touches on Brian Boyle and how he's continuing to prove him and everyone else wrong. Should he be in the playoff starting lineup? How has he been able to do this on a consistent basis? Finally, Hunter previews Tuesday's matchup against the Flyers as it seems like it's going to be fate for Sidney Crosby.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Primal Origin OilsStop the itch and make your beard look healthy & groomed. Check out PRIMALORIGINSOILS.COM to learn more about their full line of beard care products. Use the code “LOCKEDON” for a 20% discount at checkout.BetOnlineBetOnline..net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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.

Well, the Pittsburgh Penguins are winners again. They defeat the New Jersey Devils by a score of four to two. That's now two out of three against New Jersey this year. They have the Devils coming up next week in Pittsburgh. I have a full game recap coming up for you all 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 am your host, Hunter Hodes. I'm not to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter, L.O. underscore Penguins. Today's episode is brought to you by Bet Online.

Bet Online has you covered this season with more props, odds, and lines that are before. That is, Bet Online, where the game starts. So I do have this new microphone. This is the debut of this. Just let me know how the audio is. You know, just go on YouTube, leave me a comment. You can DM me on any social media or anything like that. I haven't set out.

I'm not like obviously talking directly into it. I think that would be a little overkill for your ears. But I think this, I've been doing some testing with it, just with audacity and whatnot. Just let me know how this sounds and how it came out. Or, you know, if the audio is better than what I did on my Mac. Because, you know, I paid about 60 to 65 bucks for this thing. So I would like to think that this is pretty good here. But I'm very happy with it for right now.

The Penguins, of course, they get that 4-2 win over the New Jersey Devils. It was just a win that, you know, I wouldn't say that they needed, but, you know, it's a game that you're expected to win. And, you look at the underlying numbers here as I loaded up on my PC. 62% of the shot attempts for the penguins, you know, 62 to 38 overall with that regard. The Penguins also had 53.6% of the scoring chances at 5E-5. overall 50% for high danger. But the penguins, for expected goals, the devils were a little bit better, 50.5% to 49.4%. But the penguins did lead in high danger goals, of course, 3 to 2.

If now we go to all situations, the penguins had 60% of the shot attempts there. They also had 53.8% of the scoring chances. They led in high danger 9 to 6, and including that third period where they took it to New Jersey. I'll get to that a little later on. six high danger chances in that period compared to one for the devil's 3.84, expected goals for 2.76 for New Jersey. But, you know, I thought in the game's opening, you know, five to ten minutes, the Penguins really brought it with regard to their forecheck.

They were definitely, I would say, passing the vibe check as, you know, Jesse Marshall and a couple other people say on Penguins Twitter. I thought they were skating with authority. they were just looking really well on the ice. You know, they were defending hard, you know, everything that, you know, they needed to do in those first five to ten minutes, they did. And then some, you know, I know there was no score after the first period.

But, you know, John Daley's, he was playing a really nice game, really nice period. Annette, I should say, for New Jersey. Tristan Jari matched him at the other end. Second period, though, you know, the Penguins obviously give up that goal to Jack Hughes. I saw some people kind of ripping on John. sorry for that. I didn't really understand that just because, I mean, I don't know. I mean, that was just a really nice deceptive shot, I should say, from Hughes. And he's, he's always been

that kind of player, you know, just to see that jump from year one to year two to year three now. For him, you know, this guy's a superstar and he's only going to continue to get better. Obviously, you know, the Penguins, they were able to tie it up a few moments later, courtesy of Mike Matheson. What a bomb that was. And, you know, I'll say it now for you all here. This is probably the best hockey we have seen from him throughout his career. I'm pretty sure, you know, Jason of Penguins' Twitter put up this graphic if I can go into, you know, I DM with him all the time.

And he's probably one of the best followers on Penguins Twitter. He looked up, you know, Matheson's underlying numbers, courtesy of Andy and Rono. know. And all of these percentiles are dated from natural stat trick, puck IQ and Corey Snatched with his, you know, his project. Matheson is in the 90th percentile this season for offense, 90th for scoring, 87th for shot contribution, 91st for defense, 94th for transition, zone entry denials, 97th percentile, play driving ability, 95th percentile, shooting overall, 94th percentile, entry passes, 76 percentile possession exits. So obviously coming out of the zone, 79th percentile.

The only one that he is not, you know, above 50 percent, high danger assist. It is crazy how good this player is this year and, you know, what they're getting out of him, you know, for how much money he makes. And, you know, Adam Gretz from Penguins Twitter also wrote about this as well, you know, did, well, he's going to be writing about this as well. I'll talk about this here. Did the Penguins potentially win the Mike Matheson for Patrick Hornquist rate? I mean, I'm not going to sit here and say, oh, my God, you know, slam dunk train.

You know, obviously my thoughts are, you know, that it's still probably a bit much, especially with his contract. But this year, he's living up to that deal. I wouldn't say in Denham. I think, you know, this is the kind of hockey that I think the fan base and the management needed to see from him because of what the team gave up. you know, Hornquist, obviously great in the locker room, a really big leader off the ice. But, you know, his play on the ice was huge.

I mean, one of the best net front presence is in hockey. Great on the power play. Great and even strength. You know, he cleans up the garbage anytime. Heck, you know, he also has an underrated shot, I would say as well. But, you know, and then to get Matheson back, who really wasn't moving the needle much in Florida. I mean, sure, you know, we always joke about the Mike Matheson experience and all that. But, you know, he's been also able to turn around his defensive numbers this year as well,

because usually that's where he's weakest with his game, right? He's usually not good in the defensive zone. He allowed a lot of, you know, zone entries last year. But this year, it's been a complete 180. And I think a lot of that, you know, does have to do with Tar Reardon doing a really good job with him. I mean, I think that's the thing there. And, you know, they were able to maybe work on some stuff over the offseason. I've noticed skating is much better.

but every time he exits the zone, no one can touch him. He'll have to knife around sometimes two or three other players and he does it with ease. I mean, he has a bomb of a shot from the point he's used that to his advantage this year. Honestly, outside of Chris LaTang, one could easily make the argument

that Mike Matheson has been the team's best defenseman this year. And I know Brian Dumont has been really good since those early season struggles. I'm not discounting that. But with how much offense Matheson has brought to this team. You know, honestly, I right now would put Matheson over Dumlin just for this season alone. I think he is having a better year.

And again, I know how great Dumlin is defensively. But, you know, what I saw in that game against New Jersey was just, it was top notch. And, you know, I don't think enough people are talking about Matheson this year for how good he's been. I would love to maybe see him get some more minutes if they want him to. but if they also want to keep playing him with Chow Riedel, I'm fine with that because at the end of the day, this player can't exceed playing top pairing minutes, or even sometimes higher second pairing minutes,

which is 22, 23 minutes a game. If he's playing 15 to 16, maybe even 17 minutes a game, that's perfectly fine. And he's been doing that for a lot of this year. So honestly, I think that was my biggest takeaway from that game, which is how great he was. know the team overall was pretty good, but I figured we had to start with Mike Matheson because of how awesome he was. So I have a lot more to get to for this show of Locked Up

England's podcast, including a preview for Tuesday game against Philadelphia, going over a couple of stats when it comes to Siddy Crosby chasing his 500th goal. There's a couple of nuggets that I do want to share with you all on that and how this is definitely feels very poetic if happens on Tuesday. Going to also bring up Brian Russ and why I think I'm warming up to the idea a lot more than I used to be of paying him whatever the hell he wants. Brian Boyle and how he's making me eat crow and another stellar performance from Tristan Jari. But before we get to that, this is the time of year that I've pretty much given up on all my New Year's resolutions, but it's not this year. I'm sticking to my resolution to eat right.

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I am your host, Hunter Hodes. I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Also follow the show's Twitter at L.O. Ernst War Penguins. So getting into Brian Russ's goal, you know, he has now 16 goals in the last 16 games. And, you know, honestly, you know, I really was against this idea, probably about a few weeks ago, but as he's continued to produce, and I believe right now, he's up to 37 points in 27 games. That's almost over a 100-point pace for an 82-game season. I think the payment ones

are going to have to do whatever it takes to keep this player at this point. And, you know, if you listen to this podcast for a while, you know that I'm not a fan of paying players who are, you know, at his age limit. You know, he's around 30 years old. He's going to be chasing the bag, you know, the chance, you know, the one chance that he can because, you know, remember that that last deal he signed, he didn't really have the value he has now just because, you know, that he didn't have a lot of, a big sample size. Now that he does, and he's been a great player for the last few seasons, more and more teams are noticing that and they're going to be like, okay, we need to outbid this one team and, you know, he could be a player that, you know,

certainly goes for over seven million per on the market. I can easily see a Zach Hyman kind of deal for him a bit later. But, you know, I think for the penguins, they're going to need to figure something out because, you know, he's great on the top power play. He's great at even strength on Cindy Crosby's line. You can put him on the penalty kill. Honestly, you can put him in any situation

and he will excel. You know, this is not just, you know, that speedy player that we saw in 2015-16 who came up out of Wilkesbury and didn't really know what he was doing. Did he struggle? You bet he did. You know, he couldn't really score that much.

You know, he started playing a little better in the playoffs, but, you know, it was that next year. in a year after that that really I think showed a lot of people, wow, okay, this is not just, you know, a third or fourth-fund player. This is a bona fide top six-winger. And, you know, the Penguins, I mean, they're going to have to figure out a way to do this, though. Obviously, the big question is the salary gap. You know, you saw Chris Teng and again, Imalcon, unsigned. You know, I know Jason Zucker still as another year left at 5.5 million.

And if the Penguins can get a taker for him, I think that would be huge. obviously, Casbury Capitan. I'll get to him a little later on in the show. I think if they don't decide to bring him back, there's a lot of money opened up right there. I don't know what's going to have when Evan Rodriguez. If he's going to come back, are they going to make money,

are they going to make room, excuse me, for P.O. Joseph. That's also a good question, too, because they would maybe have to move one of the defensemen, though, with how Pedersen and Matheson and Dumlin had played this year, I don't see that happening, at least in my opinion. I think right now the Penguins are going to have to be creative with how they do it,

but I still think this is a player that they can't afford to lose. I know the cap it's going to be a lot. There's probably going to be some no trade protection in there, but with how he continues to produce and how he continues to get better game after game after game, this is a no-brainer. You know, he's a player that they can't afford to lose because if he does walk, and again, there's still a good chance that he does, I think the penguins are going to have a hard time replacing that value,

or a hard time replacing him overall. You know, it's not going to be in-house. I'll tell you that you're going to have to go outside the organization and get someone that can do what he does, because they do not have anyone in Wilkesbury that can produce like he does. Or in the lineup, I'll say that here as well. But, you know, great deflecting a goal to again. It made it two to one in the third period before New Jersey got

a ridiculously lucky goal from Nico Hesha. I don't think I've seen a more luckier a more luckier goal than that. I probably have, but you know, I got to be, you know, a little over the top at some times. But, you know, basically shoots it, goes off the Tang Skate, hits the post, and then off Tristanjari's patented in the net. It's just like, wow, you can't make that up. But, you know, another big takeaway that I did have as well, you know, outside of that goal, because it goes hand in hand with this, I think, is that the penguins really outskated the devils in that third period. You know, they were skating them right off the ice.

I think, in my opinion, New Jersey really couldn't do anything outside of that. He's a year goal. And, you know, the penguins were able to make it three to two, courtesy of guess who? Brian Boyle, he gets his sixth goal of the year. And I will say this right here right now. I've probably said it a couple times. But, excuse me, I haven't said in a while. I was wrong about him. I have no problem saying it. I will eat a lot of crow on that,

just like I did with Cody Cici. I didn't expect anything out of Boyle this year. I certainly didn't expect him to be over halfway to 10 goals on a fourth line role playing with Dominic Simone and Zach Aston Reese for a lot of these minutes. But he has just been a great veteran presence for the Penguins. And a player that, you know, he can do it all in a bottom six role. If he were to be in the starting lineup for the playoffs, even with, excuse me, Kisbury Kappenant and Jason Zoker Healthy, I don't think I would have a problem with that. I mean, the Penguins would have to figure out something you're going to keep him in the lineup. I mean, do you scratch Kispera Kappen over him? I mean, I'm sure some fans would have a grovel about that, but, you know,

I think some others would be like, okay, maybe this is Mike sending him a message just because Kaepenon has not been good this year. But, you know, again, I would have no problem seeing Boyle in the starting lineup. Just, you know, like just that goal that he scored, just, you know, right from the slot gets that puck from Matheson, who originally shot it from the point, and he's able to fire it. Blocker's side past Gilles, a goal when the Penguins badly needed it. And, you know, you can see how much he means to the other players as well, because

whenever he scores or whenever he does something well, they swarm him, you know, with so much love and all that. I was watching Mike Matheson's post-game press conference, and the way that he was talking about him, it just goes to show, I think, how much respect the players in the Rocker Room have for him, just because, you know, he's obviously been through so much in his career. He didn't play last season,

but to see him playing at this level has been awesome, what a fine this was for Martin Hextall. Because, again, you know, I thought there were players in Wilkesbury that, you know, could easily do, you know, what he's been doing. But, you know, the fact that he has six goals, already this season and with how good of a penalty killer he's been, I mean, he was basically killing penalties by himself against New Jersey. It's a no-brainer for him to continue playing.

I think when Bluger comes back, and I think he'll be the first one to come back, I believe he's in week four of his recovery right now. I would scratch Simone and keep Boyle just because of the level of play that he is out right now. And I don't think Simone has been bad per se. I just think Boyle is playing. a better level right now than Simone. So want to shout out Brian Boyle. I would not be, I would not have a problem if he were in the playoff lineup. And it's just great to see him, you know, use, you know, his long, you know,

reach to his advantage. His skating has been really good, you know, just been a great player on both ends of the rink. Now, a player back continues to struggle, of course, Kispera Kappin. I mean, the amount of times that he comes into the offensive zone and just, pulls up at the defensive blue line and stops. You could have enough stuff to fill the Allegheny River. It is, I don't know what's going on right now.

I got to think it's 90 to 95% confidence. I know he talked to Joshio of the athletic recently and saying, you know, he knows he needs to play better and all that. But it's like, Kaspari, man, you got to show it. I mean, you're an RFA after this year. We're going to know pretty soon how the organization feels about you because if they don't extend him a qualifying offer, I mean, this player could be out of the door.

And right now, I mean, you're seeing people, you know, say that he should be traded at the deadline. I honestly wouldn't mind if he was. I still think the team does need another top nine forward. You know, if Casey DeSmith continues this up, and I know it's only been two starts, so it'll just pump the brakes. I know a little bit here. But if he does, I think the next immediate need for the penguins is a top nine forward.

because you can't trot both Kappin and Zucker out there for the playoffs and expect both of them to produce. I personally trust Zucker a lot more than Kappan. I know that might be a hot take to some people. But, you know, A, Zucker at least plays his tailwalk. He actually played pretty good in the one game coming back from injury. And, you know, I think he's, there's a lot of talent in there. It's just a matter of him finishing his chances.

And once those start to happen, will be perfectly fine with. Because Perry, he's barely even getting chances just because he has no confidence. And, you know, he's not using his foot speed to his advantage. You know, I was looking at some clips today from Danny Shirey of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports. And, you know, one of his biggest attributes last year with his success was him just going into the offensive zone and just blowing past defenders, firing wrist shots over the goalie. And then boom, you know, he's on the score sheet.

He hasn't been doing that at all this year because he's not trusting it for whatever reason. I don't get it. I don't know why he's not doing it, but if he can get back to doing that, you know, maybe more people, including myself, will get off his butt a little bit. But until that starts to happen, people are going to continue to come after him because he has been probably the worst player on the team this year. I'm not going to sit here and say that it's Jack Johnson level or anything like that, but it still needs to be better.

That's for sure. Then, of course, you know, Jake Ensel was able to end the game with an empty-netter about a minute ago, and the Pittsburgh Penguins are now first place. in the Metropolitan Division going into that game on Tuesday. That will be previewing that coming up, excuse me, in the next segment. I don't know why I just started over that. And of course, you know,

I'll give you all a couple of stats regarding some big history that could go down with Cindy Crosby. But before we get to that, football might be over now, but basketball is in full esteem with both pro and college hoops from the latest odds, totals, play performance prompts to where the next fire coach is going to land. Then on line is the new number. one spot for all your sports betting meets.

Ben Online remains the best spot for all of your sports scores, podcasts, and news this season. You can head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends and action. That is Ben Online where the game starts. All right. We're back here on this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Follow the shows Twitter at L.O.S. So Penguins, you know, cross-state rival of Philadelphia coming in. the PV2 Paine's Arena on Tuesday. The Penguins will try to make it three in a row over the Flyers this season. They'll also try to make it four in a row overall against the Flyers going back to last season. The Penguins lost five of eight last year to Philly. But in their final meeting of the season, the Penguins actually won that. And of course, the Penguins have won the first two meetings this year.

So Pittsburgh is currently on a three-game winning streak against them. You know, the Flyers lines this year, let's just say that they're really freaking bad. right now. So obviously, I definitely think Carter Hart is going to start, but Oscar Lindblum, Claude, Camackinson. Okay, not a bad top line. James Henry Stike, Scott Lawton, and Travis Kneckney. But then their bottom six, Morgan Frost is their third line center. Rackcliffe, Bunnaman, Wilman, Brown. A lot of these players, I honestly do not even know that well. And that just goes to show, you know, how banged up the flyers are. I mean, obviously, not having Sean Couturee is so huge.

He's going to be out for the rest of the season due to having surgery. He's one of the best defensive centers in the league. Then you get to their defense, and it is a whole other level of that. Ivan ProVrov with Justin Braun as the top pairing. That is bad. Travis Sandheim with Seeler on the second pairing, and then Kevin Kahnotton and Keith Yandel on the third pairing. That honestly might be the worst Flyers lineup.

I have seen in close to a decade. It's been a while since Philadelphia was this bad. Usually they're a middling team. They're in it until the end, even last year. Remember, for a while, they were top three in the Metropolitan Division before, you know, they had that awful month with their goaltending Carter heart just stunk. And, you know, Brian Elliott was real bad. And then, you know, that just basically screwed their season.

But this year, no, they just haven't gotten scoring. Their defense is not that. good. And it's funny because Carter Hart is actually having a great bounce back year. And again, he just hasn't gotten any help. But, you know, obviously the big news for this game, Cindy Crosby chases his 500th goal. If I were you all listening to this podcast, please, you know, bet the house on him doing this. This would be his 50th career goal against the Flyers, a team that he loves to dump on every time he plays. Again, also his 500th goal. And if he scores that goal. It'll be Yarmier-Yager's 50th birthday.

So again, to repeat, if Cindy Crosby scores tomorrow, it'll be his 500th goal, it'll be his 50th goal all time against the Flyers, and it'll all come on Yarmier-Jogger's birthday, 50th birthday. So that is just very poetic right there. And I hope Sid does it. This is the game that I've been waiting for just because, you know, it would be a peak, you know, Penguins Flyers thing just because, you know, Sid, you know, he loves to torment back team. But overall, I still think this is a team that the Penguins should beat. Philadelphia is not good in any facet this year. They're going to be selling, I think, a few assets at the deadline, especially called Drew. I mentioned that it would be funny if Drew made his way to Pittsburgh,

but I think in my opinion, he's probably going to go towards a team like Colorado. I think that makes a lot of sense just because they're all in. A lot of their players are having, you know, career years, Cal McCar. Nazim Kadri, Nathan McKinn has been great. Andre Berkowski's playing well. You know, Miko Randon and Gabriel Landiscag. The list goes on and on and on for that team. So I personally think it makes a lot of sense for Colorado. But this will be the third of four meetings against the players.

They'll play, I believe they'll play them one more time in Philadelphia a little later on in the season. But after this, I'm going to say this right now. the penguin's schedule is about to get nasty. We are about to find out just how good this team is. I'm loading this on my phone for you all right now. So if I can go to the penguin schedule here, after this game against Philadelphia, they go to Toronto, they host Carolina for the first time this Sunday,

February 20th in Pittsburgh. New Jersey comes to town. That should hopefully be another win. They then play the Rangers at home. They then go to Columbus. Then they then go to Tampa Bay and Carolina on a back-to-back to start March. and then they have Florida at home, Vegas at home, Carolina at home. They go to Nashville, St. Louis, post-Columbus, go to Buffalo,

the Rangers again. The Rangers again after that on March 29th at Minnesota, at Colorado to start April. The penguins are going to be running the gauntlet here. I know they're in first place right now. I understand the hurricanes have three games in hand as well. And I would say that they're the favorite at this point for the Metro. But again, we are about to find out just.

just how good on this team is. You know, I've been saying, you know, for a while now that they're a Stanley Cup contender, let's see if they can go out there and prove it, you know, by beating a good chunk of these teams. So we'll have to see what happens. I definitely think Teddy Lugar will be coming back here in the next couple of weeks. That'll be huge. There's so far no update on Jason Zucker status.

But, you know, good win for the Penguins on Sunday. I'll be back tomorrow with another full game recap episode for the matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers. I hope you all enjoy listening to this one. I'm also going to have my camera a little bit actually on my PC. I had to move it just for a couple of reasons. But again, let me know how the audio is. Be greatly appreciated. And I will talk to you all on Tuesday.

Have a great Monday.