Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Are the Penguins turning into a Stanley Cup Contender?

Episode Date: December 21, 2021

Make it lucky number 7! The Penguins continue to be the hottest team in the league and beat the New Jersey Devils on Sunday night, 3-2. Hunter recaps that performance and starts with the obvious: Yes, the team stunk. That said, he goes into how winning these kinds of games is a sign of a really good team. He also touches on Teddy Blueger's goal and how he was able to completely fool Gillies, then breaks down Danton Heinen's powerful shot. Is this the best level of Heinen we have seen since his days in Boston? Hunter also touches on how this team continues to be slept on by numerous people and how it should stay that way, plus does a small preview on the Flyers game for Thursday. All that, plus much more on this episode of Locked On Penguins.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.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.StatHeroStatHero is the first of its kind Daily Fantasy Sports platform where it’s YOU vs. the HOUSE in head to head fantasy matchups - winner take all. Sign up for FREE - RIGHT NOW - at StatHero.com/HOCKEY and use promo code HOCKEY for a One Hundred Percent Deposit Match. 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.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello, welcome to this Monday evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Myr to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show's Twitter at L.O. Understool Penguins.

And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. freshly shaven if those that are watching on YouTube, the beard just had to go. I have the beautiful party at the point shirt from 2016. It somehow still fits, even though that shirt is from five years ago. I guess I just really haven't grown too much in height. I think at this point, or weight-wise, I guess as well. One thing before we get into the meat of our show. So I posted this on the personal Twitter.

I'm going to retweet it onto the show's Twitter. So overall for the Locked-on NHL channel, it increased 135% in listens and views from last year. And the Locked-on Penguins podcast was one of the five shows with the largest growth rate from 2020 to 2021. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you all so much for continually listening in supporting this podcast. I don't care if you have listened to one episode, two episodes, every episode. each week or every episode known to existence with this podcast, every listen means the absolute world to me just because I love talking about this team on an everyday basis. And I love sharing my opinions and just my takes and bringing high profile guests on and talking

to them about this team and everything else about the Pittsburgh Penguins. So again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for continuing to support this show, sending in the reviews and all that. I take those really seriously. Honestly, it's pretty personal to me when I read them just because I like to incorporate some new stuff into the show from time to time. So, again, I really do appreciate everyone listening to the show. And just for how it's grown from last year this year, I want to trump that from 2021 to 2022. And I know that I'm going to do it.

So I wanted to start off the show, which is with a big thank you to you all for continuing to support this podcast as we transitioned into 2022. That'll be the fourth year overall that I've been doing this. It's season three right now, but I started this show in late 2019. So we're basically at the third year at this point that I've been doing this. And it's crazy that the show has grown so much throughout that time. But overall, let's make it seven. Their Pittsburgh Penguins have now won seven in a row, the hottest team in hockey. And, you know, my biggest takeaway from the game on Sunday night against New Jersey.

So what? if they played like crap. You know, I've seen a lot of takes on a lot of different places today, you know, scrolling the internet. And it's not just social media. You know, some reporter stories that, you know, people just, I guess, what's the word I'm looking for here?

Harping mainly on the doom and gloom with how bad they played, good teams are allowed to play like crap on nights. You know, this was probably the worst game they've played since the Calgary won about two weeks ago, that's going to happen. It's a late December game against the New Jersey Devils, a team that has been pretty bad these last few weeks. I mean, they've lost, what is it now, 11 out of the last 12 games. They're well out of playoff positioning at this point.

They're a little banged up, especially in goal. He sure was out for that game as well. But, I mean, this is still a team that has some pretty decent talent, although not that good depth. But sometimes it's hard to wake up. for that kind of game. I mean, and this is also a devil's team. They always play the Penguins tough.

This has been going back the last several years, you know, when John Hines was dead before he got fired. I mean, for whatever reason, this is a team that they just, they know how to play against in Pittsburgh. And I thought the Penguins were pretty fortunate to win that game last night. And I guess overall, it was a bit of a slok. I mean, the Devils played boring,

but also the Penguins played boring. And, you know, for a lot of that game, especially those first two periods, I did not think the penguins had their legs. But overall, at the end of the day, a win is a win. This was the kind of game, at least to me, with his takeaway, you know, you needed to find a way to get two points and get the hell out. And that's exactly what the penguins did. They found that way.

They got that nice goal from Danton. That's now nine goals from him on the year, which is just incredible. At this point, Teddy Bluger gets the penguins. first short-handed goal of the season. That was his ninth of the season as well, if I'm not mistaken. And then Mike Matheson was able to score that third goal to restore that two-goal lead, at least for a couple minutes before Mike Madison again did a really stupid penalty. So he giveth and then he taketh away.

That's just that's the Mike Mathis is an experience for everyone. But, you know, if you go to natural statric, it is interesting because if you look at the full report from here, I mean, Pittsburgh dominated in shot attempts. 61% of those at 5E5, 60% of the scoring chance of score. They led in high danger at 58.3%. Expected goals for 1.89 for the penguins, 0.95 for the devils. And then Pittsburgh also had 66.6% of the total expected goals for. And a lot of that had to do with the third period.

And that was the biggest period of the game. I mean, it's always the biggest period of any game, but especially last night where the penguins not have their legs through those first 40 minutes, you wanted them to show up in that third. And they definitely did that. They played some really nice lockdown defense for the most part. The only goal the devil scored was on another deflection on the power play.

That was the Penguins' first power play goal given up in over a month. The streak had almost gotten to 40. They were a little over 10 kills away from breaking the all-time streak for most consecutive penalties. killed. There was a stat last night that I saw going in that they were 16 away. They killed off a couple, got it down around 13 to 14, and then they gave up that goal. So if they were able to do this for the next week or two, they probably would have had the NHL record for the most consecutive penalty kills in NHL history. They were not able to do that. But still, it took a really

nice deflection and a great play by Dougie Hamilton to um what was I going to say here oh sorry it's just a really nice way by Dougie Hamilton to keep that in the zone fire that puck on net and then Bastian gets the goal to make it three to two and of course the penguins ended up winning the game but anyways I'm probably getting a little sidetracked at this point but you know there's just really no need for the doom and gloom stuff a good team is allowed to play like crap against a bad team and still win. I mean, we've been seeing the Pittsburgh Steelers do this for many years under Mike Tomlin. Sometimes it can happen under Mike Sullivan.

I'm just glad the team got the two points to continue its seven-game winning streak. They're now only four points out of first place. That's why I think it might be getting lost here. They're in a really good position right now with the injuries that we're going to get to that later on in the episode. They're in a really good position right now where they can make a run at the top of the Metropolitan Division starting after the holiday break because, again, they're only four points out, if I recall correctly, nine points up on the ninth place team, the Boston Bruins.

I know the Bruins have been battling some COVID issues, as basically most of the league at this point. The Penguins have been lucky that they haven't had a second outbreak at this point. But, you know, the fact of the matter is they have been baking points, and that's all you can do at this point, especially with the players that they have out right now. So I know it probably wasn't the best ever by the Penguins, but you know what? I'll take a win at a day of the week, especially against a team that always plays the Penguins well

and the Devils. They will play New Jersey at some point in the near future. For those that we're not aware, did not see the announcement. The Penguins Devils game for Tuesday in Pittsburgh has been postponed. The Devils are doing with a COVID issue right now. Hopefully, God willing, it does not go to the Penguins.

But that game has not been rescheduled as yet. As soon as I know, I will let you all know. So you guys should figure out your ticket plans and the start time, everything. The thing was we'll have one more game before the holiday break, Thursday against Philadelphia Flyers at PBJ Pants Arena. That'll be the final game against Philadelphia in Pittsburgh this year

before they also play them twice in Philadelphia later on in the season. But overall, again, my biggest takeaway before we get to the next segment, excuse me, just a really, it's just a strong win. You know, when you don't have your best, sometimes you need, you know, some of your other players to step up when you need them to. That was Tristan Jari, especially late in the first. third period where for some reason they gave up a breakaway with five seconds left. I think Crystal's hanging in buying Duman's controllers just flat out disconnected there.

It was just like I'm playing NHL 17 back in the day and my batteries just died and then I get scored on this. I think exactly what happened there. Really nice saved by Jari on Andreas Janssen. If he would have scored there, I believe that would have counted. I think there would have been at least a second or two left on the clock. But did not happen. Penguins get away with two points and they continue to run each week.

So a lot more to get to for this episode, including the play of Danton Hine with that goal that he scored last night. Also have Teddy Bluger's goal to go into and a couple of other things as well. But before we do that, this holiday season, grab the protein bar that tastes like a candy bar or even better than a candy bar, Bill Bar. It's still with so much holiday goodness, rich with decadentate flavor, covered in chocolate. But it's amazingly low in calories, sugar, neb carbs, and fat, and high in protein. you get the best of both worlds. It's delicious and it's healthy. So many flavors, you'll have a hard time choosing.

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Plus, you'll have a nice, melty bill bar to go along with it. Be sure to have a couple of napkins on hand as well. You can go to built.com. Use phone code lock 15 and get 15% off your order. That's promo code lock 15 for 15% off at built. Tom. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locktown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hoadies.

You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. So Dan Hein, he gets his ninth of the season. Jeff, if you're listening to this episode, one more until I get my free cock-eye barrykew. If he doesn't score one goal over the next 50 games, hands will be thrown, I think, to say the least. But what a release that was there by Hinen. I mean, John Gillies had no chance to say. that I was able to corral that puck beautifully,

basically stops on a dime a little bit, picks the corner, bar down, long side. You don't teach that in hockey school. And that is just a hell of a release. I love this take. I saw from Corey Masick of the Athletic. He covers the New Jersey Devils. He's now saying he thinks at least that this might go down

is the best bargain signing from the NHL free agency of this past year. And you know what? you would have a hard time arguing against it with what he has done with the money that he makes for basically not even barely a million nine goals already in 30 games he's on pace for well over 20 goals at this point it's almost like this player that we saw last year in anaheim is not this year's player and all he needed was a change of scenery so a couple of other takes on social media saying remember when the brubans tried to run him out of town which you know they

eventually did because they traded him for richie um we've seen glimpses of of this player that he's, how he was playing this year, in Boston with how he played next to Craig Cheek. He even had to spend time with Marshawn and Bergenron. This is the, this is the, the Hinen that we are getting this year from what we saw in Boston. And he has just been a delight to watch in. You know, he eventually actually got elevated to the top line in the third period with Cindy Crosby and Evera Rodriguez. And I hope that Mike Sullivan continues that, excuse me, going into that next game against Philadelphia, because I, really think there could be something there.

Capitan went back to struggling last night, and it's weird. You know, Danny Shirey of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports had a really interesting take this morning. And it's something that, you know, I also touched on on the show last week because, again, the underlying numbers have been really good for Caponan. And again, Danny says it here. With him on the ice at 5B5 this season, the Penguins have outscored the opposition 15 to 6 and have a 71.4% of the goal share. That's the eighth highest mark in the NHL.

Obviously, the great goal tinting behind him, as Danny notes, he's 97% on ice eight percentages. First on the penguin six in the NHL, it helps that the goal. He's making all the saves when Capon is on the ice. But it's still weird that that's not translating to Capon and getting more on ice results. I thought coming into this game that he had been playing better,

and then it all goes straight south. You know, he had a hard time prowling the puck, I thought. during the game did not have his legs. His skating was pissed for. There were a couple of plays where he kind of just, you know, cost the penguin's zone time because he was just being selfish with the puck or, you know, Sidney Crosby and him were also off on a couple of passes in the offensive zone in the first couple of periods.

And Mike Sullivan just said, you know what? I've had enough. I'm not doing this crap anymore. And he pulled the plug, excuse me, on that. And he elevated Hayden. And the first line looked pretty good, I thought, with Heinen in the third period. So I'm curious to see what happens with Caponet for that game on Thursday. Obviously, the pending return of it getting Malkin potentially for that game could be, you know, impact with Capitin.

I'm sure they'll just put him down there with Gino if Malkin is ready to play. We'll have more on that coming up later on in the show. But, you know, I still want to see more from him. Overall, just I thought last night was a really big step back from him. But, you know, Teddy Bluger, he's making his case for arguably the best penalty killer. in the NHL. It's a great job to coming on a breakaway and completely fool John Gillies. Comes in, does a little mini backhand, forehand move.

Goes right between the wickets. Again, you don't really teach that in hockey school. Gillies had no shot on that he bit for the fake so hard. And Blugher made him pay. I love the celebration that he had there. And, you know, he's been awesome this year. I really have nothing bad to say about Blugher. point he's also on pace for 20 plus goals this season.

His impact to the team can't be overstated. You know, great penalty killer, great on even strength, good goal score, good playmaker, really good defense to live at 5E5, just the perfect bottom six player that this team needs. And, you know, sometimes if this team is really banged up, he can even play top six minutes for them if he needs to. Obviously, you don't really want that to happen. He's much better suited for a depth role. But another really great game from Bluger last night overall.

Mike Matheson gets the third goal, excuse me, for the Penguins. And that was just a seeing-eye shot. But the biggest one on that play, if you go back and watch it, or if you remember watching it, Sam Lafferty's screened there. John Gillies had no chance to see it because Lafferty probably made the best play of his Antichael career by completely shielding him of the puck. Matheson was able to fire it from the point. And usually that's a routine save for the goaltender.

but excuse me you know the only reason why I went in was just because he couldn't see it and again credit to Sam Lafferty for that screen that was a really nice job by him to take away

all the eyes of Gillies so I was really impressed by Lafayette just be able to stand in front of them and just take everything away but you know Matheson did take it away that was a foolish penalty

by him on I'm trying to remember who it was now it's probably going to come to me as a show goes on. But just a really foolish penalty there. Right after you score the goal a little over halfway through the third period, it's three to one. You're playing your best hockey of the night. And then you're asked your P.K. to go out and try to continue the streak. Obviously, they weren't able to do that. But you know, you're hurting your team in that situation. You've just restored your two-goal lead. There's no need to make a dangerous cross-checking play.

Like that, I really don't know what Matheson was doing there. Again, just a really pissed point. war play. And, you know, this is the Mike Matheson experience. He does a great play, like the one on his goal, a nice seeing eye shot. And then it gives it all away with a really just dumb penalty. So I didn't really understand why Matheson had to do that. I know New Jersey ended up schooling there. But after that, the Delisbvre didn't really have that good of a scoring chance

until five seconds left when Jari had to bail both Crystal Tang and Brian Dumlin out. Obviously, you know, there is some negative, just didn't like overall how most of the team played. Cindy Crosby had a bit of an off game. Rodmiguez was okay. I think the puck was jumping off his stick a little bit more than normal. I shouldn't even say more than normal.

It doesn't usually jump off his stick. But I was noticing that a lot more last night. I thought Let's hang, had a bit of an off game. But overall, I mean, that's going to happen sometimes. If you look at his game score overall, it was pretty good. And also, if you are not looking at that, it's the hockey stats cards account on social media. They also have a website as well, Hockeystackcards.com. Chris LaTang was, if I can look at this right now, I'm just, all right, well, my eyes are just too bad.

He's still up in the positive above zero for last night. Marcus Pedersen actually led everyone with nearly a 3.1 game score. Mike Matheson was right behind him. John Marino was up there. Dan Hine and Jason Zulker was up there as well. and there's a whole lot of negatives for all of the devil's players. I did see this tweet courtesy of Mad Chad this morning. Chris LaTang, out of all the defensemen this season, ranks eighth in average game score.

It's just it's ridiculous at this point what he's been able to do for this team. One bad game is not going to change my perception of him from this season. But, you know, when Jari needed to make a big save, he was there. and what he wasn't really tested that much because the penguins only allowed um 19 overall shots for the game again it was it was a really boring dull game just a nice little slog um you know i guess that's what lindy rough and the devil's like to do against the penguins but again when jari uh needed to make a big save like like the one i've said probably five times in this episode at the end of the game he was there made that save and a couple of other

big ones as well um throughout the contest but that wrap up this second segment of the locked on Penguins podcast coming up in the next one. Might do a little preview against Philadelphia Flyers and also touch on a couple of other things relating to this team and some practice notes, especially as well. Before we do that, though, Ben-in-Line has you covered all season. That means more props, odds and lines that ever before as football season continues for the march to the playoffs. I cannot believe that we are now.

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Ben in line is the fastest, easiest way to bet on all of your favorite sports. That has been online where the game starts. All right, so we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am, of course, your host, Hunter Hodes. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow this show his Twitter, at L. Orange Square Penguin. So there were some big practice notes today. Excuse me.

Evgeny Malkin was back on the ice of practice but was in a no-context sweater today. So a little bit of a stack back, but I'm sure this is probably all according to plan. According to Josh Yowie in his article from the athletic last night, he would not be surprised if Gino does make his return this week. Obviously, there's only one game, so it would have to be against Philadelphia. but he also did say if it's not against the flyers, you can bet on it being against the Bruins right after the Christmas break.

So at this point, it's only a matter of when, not if he's going to return really soon. I'd want to say it's within the next week. He's been practicing with the team for a while. Hopefully he'll be in full contact tomorrow for practice. There were no line rushes today. The Penguins did announce when the game was postponed. They will be practicing fully tomorrow.

Also, Jake Gensel and Brian Rust, were on the ice practice day, both in no contact sweaters. So the three big guns that have been hurt for the last little bit, especially Gino. They were all practicing with the team today in no contact capacity. Brian Boyle was also on the ice. The only player that was not available was Jason Zucker. He had another maintenance day. So he's definitely been battling a bit of an injury.

And of course, Brian Boyle was also on the ice for practice as well. As he continues to nurse a upper body injury. Yeah, yeah, it is. So those are the practice updates there. Again, there were no line rushes. Gino did partake a little bit in some of the power play duties, but otherwise that is really it. Big game on Thursday against the Flyers.

They've been playing a bit better hockey lately, but they're still a little ways away from being a playoff team at this point. Coming into this year, I really was not high on Philadelphia, and I'm glad that they've proved me right so far. They only have 44% of the expected goals, 45% of the actual goals, nearly 48% of the shot attempts this season. They have a minus 10 goal differential, which is horrendous. The only big thing that they've had this year is their goaltending.

Carter Hart, for as much as Penguins fans like to bag on him, and I've made my fair share of jokes at his expense just because of how bad he was last year. He's been phenomenal this year. He's got a really nice bounce back for them. The Flyers overall state percentage of season is 929. For shots on goal, actually no, 922. Excuse me, I read that wrong on Money Puck. Most of that has been from Carter Hard.

Martin Jones has been okay, but I mean, you're not going to ask him to basically carry the Flyers' goal tending. The Flyers goal score 2.16. So they have been struggling a little bit to score this season for reference. The Senators who are a worst team in Philadelphia, they have a goal score per 60 of 2.34. and they have a better goal. They have a better goals against per 60. Actually, no, they have a worse goals against per 60 in the fires. 2.93 compared to 2.58 for Philadelphia.

So, I mean, it's been a little bit of a struggle defensively, but more of a struggle offensively is just the goals really haven't come from a lot of their depth this season. But again, you know, that's that they have been playing some better hockey overall the last week. It might be too little too late for them, but it's a rival. game, these are always highly contested. I'm really excited to see how Pittsburgh plays against Philadelphia. I'm hoping I can do a crossover later this week with the fine folks at Lockdown Flyers. They've only ever done one of those. We can interested to hear their perspective on the team this year and what they think they could be doing moving forward

and just to know how the team has been playing ever since the coaching change was made with Alain Big No. I will leave you all with this in terms of some underlying numbers with the Penguins. And, you know, I keep seeing, I keep seeing the you know, from the national media, and people keep saying, like, why the penguins confuse people. But, you know, as Adam Grette says, you know, the penguins are what they look like. This is a really good team. They have some of the best underlying numbers in the league. You know, if you look at, you know, Danny Shiree's stuff, he put out a great tweet earlier today.

If I can just find this yet again, because, of course, when I'm recording this podcast, I do not have it up in front of me. Via evolving hockey, this comes courtesy of Danny. Penguins rank fifth in goal share at 56.9%. They rank second and expected goals share at 55.4%. And they rank fourth in shot attempt share at 53.9%. They're a top five team in almost any metric that you look at. And you know what? They again have outstanding depth this year.

It's probably just as good, if not better than last year. And I'll say it for the 1,000th time on this podcast, probably a bit more than this point. If this team gets average goaltending in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and if Tristan Jari can continue to play at the level that he has played at through the first couple months of the season in the playoffs, there are not many teams that can beat this team in a seven-game series. This is a Stanley Cup contending team if everyone is healthy,

and if the goal-tending is at least average. That's just the reality of the situation. You're seeing it with how they're winning. They're getting that depth scoring. Some of the stars are starting to step up. Sid's playing a lot better. but they're also getting the goaltending again. The defense is playing awesome.

This is the blueprint for how the penguins can win another Stanley Cup in the shit in Gino era. And the team is only going to get better when Rust, Gensel and Gino get back in the lineup, hopefully here in the next week to week and a half. But I wanted to leave you all off with another positive note. I really wanted this show to be mainly positive. I understand, again, that the team didn't really play good, but at the end of the day, that's not been the norm for the last.

last two and a half, three weeks, three and a half weeks. They've had way more good games and bad games. You're going to have stinkers at times, and sometimes you also win them. That's the highs and lows in the NHL season. The sign of a really, really good team is one that doesn't have their best on some nights, but still is able to find a way to win the game, even though it's against a not-so-good team. That's exactly what the Penguins did against New Jersey. But the team will have off a couple more days for their game against Philadelphia on Thursday,

assuming that it is not postponed, but that doesn't mean the episodes here stop on the Lockdown Payments podcast. I'll have another episode for you all on Tuesday tomorrow for the show. Thank you also much for listening and I will talk to you all down.