Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Are we heading towards a season shutdown?

Episode Date: June 20, 2020

The NHL announced today that 11 players have tested positive for COVID-19 out of 200 that have been tested multiple times since Phase 2 was implemented. Hunter shares his thoughts on the situation and how those 11 players definitely won't be the last to get the virus as phase 2 continues. He also wonders if this will head towards a cancelled season if cases keep spiking in some areas in the country and when more players get it. Later in the episode, Hunter touches on Josh Yohe's article from today where he talks to Mike Sullivan on how Sidney Crosby is ready to lead the team to another championship if the season resumes. 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, welcome to this Friday evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the shows Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-Square Penguins. We have made it to yet another weekend on this June 19th. You know, I say this every day. You know, we are just flying through the month of June. We have a bit of stuff to talk about on today's show.

A lot of news came out today with some coronavirus testing. A lot of players have tested positive for it, including Austin Matthews. But to start, we do have this day in Pittsburgh Penguins history. on this day in 1984, the greatest hockey player of all time. Mario Lemieux signed his first contract at the Pittsburgh Penguins, and what a career that would turn out to be. And, you know, that's putting it lightly.

On this day in 1996, Mario also won his third heart trophy as the NHL's most valuable player, and he also won the Lesterby Pearson Trophy. Also, we have a birthday today. On this day, in 1940, Pittsburgh Penguins' Left Winger, Keith McRee was born. So happy birthday to Keith.

Yeah, Mario did a lot of awesome stuff on this day. Like I said, signing his contract and winning his third hard trophy. It's never a bad day to talk about Mario Lemieux. But the big news today that came out. So this morning, Bob McKenzie was basically tweeting out. There was a team that had three players test positive and two staff members, and that team ended up being the Tampa Bay Lightning because, well, of course, it's Florida. Florida has seen a massive spike in COVID-19 cases these last few days.

It's last week. It's like 2000, 3,000 a day because I think their restrictions are not as heavy as some other states still are. They're probably going to have to change that at this rate as these cases just keep spiking there. I think that's the state that's spiking the most, along with Arizona, Nevada, I think I saw South Carolina has been also spiking as well. So, I mean, it also should come to no surprise that the first, well, some of the first positive tests during phase do come from Florida because they're just their cases are spiking all the time. We also saw Austin Matthews. Apparently, according to Steve Simmons, he has tested positive for the coronavirus. I believe he's also quarantining with Frederick Anderson. So hopefully Freddie

did not get it. But yeah, to say that, you know, as Travis Yose said, who of course works for TSN, I'm trying to find the tweet here. I mean, this is a pretty disastrous start for the NHL and their return to play pan. You know, when you have Austin Matthews, one of your best players in the league on, well, I should say, in a city that has hockey's biggest market and he's testing positive for COVID-19. Yeah, I would say that's pretty bad, especially also, you know, three Tampa Bay players have tested positive to their staff members. They've had to close down their facilities and they've also had to test the rest of the players there and everyone else that's been at the facility. So, yeah, it's a giant mess to start. The initial, their PR team

actually just released a statement. Just as basically I started to start. recording this. That's actually kind of funny. So it says since NHL clubs were permitted to open their training facilities on June 8th, all players entering these facilities for training have been subject to mandatory testing through today in excess of 200 players have undergone multiple testing. A total of 11 of these players have tested positive. All the players who have tested positive have been self-isolated and are following to the CDC and Health Canada protocols. The NHL will provide a weekly update on the number of tests administered to players in the results of those tests. The league will also not be providing information on the identify, on the identity of the players or the club. So I have 200 players that are undergone testing. 11 them have tested positive. That's still 11 too many. That's not good. And, you know, and I think back to that quote that I saw in Elliott Freeman's 30

thoughts yesterday, it wasn't his 31 thoughts, he just had three thoughts. I think back to this quote where he had a quote from, I think, was like a doctor in there or something like that. And, you know, it basically said, you know, it's not a matter of if players are going to test positive. It's a matter of when. and how they can meditate this and basically, I guess, just like get on with it. So, I mean, like, these 11 players that test positive, these are not going to be the last 11

players that test positive for the coronavirus during phase two, phase three, phase four. You know, I know you have all the people saying, shut it down, you know, I mean, if this continues, I think you're going to have to, you know, especially with how the cases are spiking in some of the states. I know I stay like Pennsylvania. They're going really well. I'm in Virginia. The governor here is being very, very careful.

The numbers have gone down a lot. I think the numbers even in New York have gone down. But, you know, the same can't be said for places, you know, like Arizona, Nevada, Florida, South Carolina. I'm sure there's plenty of others. So, yeah, I mean, these 11 players test positive, like I said. They will not be the last ones to test positive. You know, we just have to hope that the numbers continue to trend down for a lot of this country and hopefully some other parts of this country actually start to put some restrictions back in place.

like I said with Florida. I know Florida is a very, very easy target because there's a lot of stupid people down there. Honestly, there's a lot of stupid people that have just been doing stupid things during this pandemic. I don't want to make this just an entire rant, but you know, you have a bunch of idiots, oh my God, you know, it's been three months. I'm just going to go out and do this. And it's just like, you're just going to make this worse as the cases continue to spike in some areas of this country. And, oh, yeah, there's still medical experts are still saying that there's going to be another peak coming around the fall when it gets colder. So, I mean, you know, I've seen the tweets that say, you know, we're probably not going to have

sports until 2021. Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest with how people behave during this pandemic. There's just, I always remember when my uncle told me, you know, people are funny. There's a lot of really, really dumbass people in this country that, you know, they don't follow the protocols. They don't wear masks when they go out in public. They don't social distance. You know, you got people going out to the beach with like 50 to 60 people just partying their asses off, you know, going to all these bars, sitting very close to each other with no masks on and it's just like, you know what, you're going to make this worse and it's just going to set us back that much, that much further. But I know I'm ranting a little bit.

That shit just pisses me off that people continue to do that shit. Yeah, I mean, you know, what the league can do at this point? You know, continue to social distance. Have the players wear masks except when they're not on the ice, don't have them. Hopefully they're not going out too much anyway to do stuff. But, you know, for the people that thought, oh, my God, you know, this virus is going to go away. three months. No, I mean, this shit is going to be here until a vaccine is out and how it's going to be here long, honestly, after a vaccine comes out anyway. I mean, you know, we'll just, we'll see

if we have sports this summer. That's all I'm going to say, you know, with the things we had today, the results with the test about, I think 11 out of 200. I'm trying to do the math here real quick. I'm not a math major. It's about, I think, what, 5% of players, 5% too many. So, yeah, I mean, like I said, I'm not, I will not be surprised in the slide. I say if there were, were no sports this summer. Hell, I won't be surprised if there's no sports going into 2021. That's just, that's my take on it. I'm sure you, I'm sure those people that will disagree. I'm sure there's people that will agree. But yeah, I just won't be surprised with it in the slightest. There was Tampa Bay, they, Julian Breezeboy, the general manager of the lightning,

they did have a statement today that talked about what happened. I'll just be telling it for you guys, you know, he said, we have learned that three players and additional snap members have tested positive for COVID-19. They've been self-isolated following CDC protocols and are asymptomatic other than a few cases of lower-grade fever. Those who have been in contact with these individuals have been notified. The lightning continue testing and are strictly following an NHL. All NHL and government procedures as part of the league's phase two guidelines. The team training facilities were immediately closed with all players and staff being sent home.

Those facilities will remain temporarily shut down until we can ensure a safe environment. I almost hiccup during that statement. We did like this end of the statement, though, basically with a significant rising cases in the city of Tampa in the state of Florida, we are imploring everyone in the Bay Area, especially young people to help slow the spread of this pandemic by following the recommendations of the government officials by wearing a mask, practicing social distancing, and continue to wash their hands regularly.

Well, Julian Brisbane, you know what you can do with that statement, which is a really, really good end to the statement? Show that to the Florida governor who has eased up on restrictions and honestly doesn't really seem to give a shit about what's going on in his state because, you know, there's just been spikes going on in that state for the last week or so, and I'm not sure it's going to stop until they actually put more restrictions back into place, but still well said by Julian Brisbane.

To sum it all up, I know I've said this three to four times already. Those 11 players test positive. Those will not be the last players to test positive during this phase two. Who knows when phase three is going to start? I know they want to start July 10th. That's a temporary day, but with the news that came out today, I think they may have to potentially push it back. Because, you know, honestly, I mean, I know I can't predict the future,

but I think there's a good chance that you'll probably see more results. coming next week with more positive tests for COVID-19 for players and staff members. That's just my opinion on that. It's still just very, very much alive in this country and will be for a long time where people just aren't going to just not test positive for it, I guess, is how I should describe it. And, you know, top it all off, you know, we have the Phillies and the Clemson today. I think Phillies, I think they have, what, five.

I think the number was like five to eight players, test positive down in Clearwater, Florida, where their spring training facility is. they have to close that. I think 23 Clemson football players from college football tested positive. I think five more staff members. Yeah, it's just, it's not good. So, yeah, I just wanted to get that off my chest for this first segment for today's episode. But with that said, it is now time to talk about rockadoadho.com.

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Josh Joey, who's been on this podcast before, great outstanding article today. He talked to Mike Sullivan about Cindy Crosby and The Drive about how Mike Sullivan is just very excited. I'm not going to spoil the whole article, but I will share some quotes that Sullivan told Josh. A couple of, you know, this article just honestly made me run through a brick roll. If you guys are not subscribed to the athletic, please do it. I think they're running a 30-day free trial right now, actually, So, yeah, if you're not on the athletic train yet, I would very much recommend that you do. They have absolutely amazing sports articles there for not just the penguins, but just, you know, college football, you know, baseball. Ken Rosenthal has done a magnificent job covering why the baseball owners are so damn cheap and why they just can't come to agreement with the players.

That's, I wish I could talk about that on this podcast for a whole episode because I would just slam the owners because I guess I'll talk about it a little bit. I know this is not a baseball podcast, but I'll rant a little bit. You know, the owners are just being so cheap right now with baseball, and they're just, they're killing their store. You know, the players want their pro-rated salaries. Obviously, they're not going to get their full, freaking 162 game salary. But the owners are just being so cheap about it. Okay, so like, they, the MLB requested 60 games.

And then the players went to 70 games. It's like, okay, let's meet in the middle. And then MLB is like, no, we're not going to come to an agreement halfway. We're just going to, like, do what we want. And it's just like, okay. I mean, you're killing your own sport by just pissing off the fans and just everyone, everyone is around baseball is just pissed off right now. And Rob Manfred, I think, is not a terrible job. But okay, that's my quick rant on that.

But still, point being, you guys should subscribe to the athletic. It's absolutely outstanding. One of the quotes that Mike Sullivan told the athletic, told Josh of the athletic, he said, let's put it this way. I know this has his attention, this postseason. If it happens, it has his attention. I know what it means to him to win championships. and this is an opportunity to win a championship. Those opportunities don't come around all the time.

Josh actually mentioned something that I totally forgot about, and that Cindy Crosby, if this season does happen, and who knows if it's going to happen with the tests that came in today with 11 players testing positive, I have a 200. Of course, there's probably going to be plenty more as I keep repeating myself. But Cindy Crosby will be playing on his birthday, which is August 7th. So, wow, how did he get 87 for his number? Yeah, 8-7.

because, you know, that is Sidney Crosby. He's easily the most superstitious hockey player I have ever seen in my life. I mean, the stories that I have read about how superstitious he is, I think he doesn't really talk to his family on game day. He's had, like, the same basically meal on game day ever since. I think he came into the league. I think I remember reading one time. I remember when the Penguins won the Eastern Conference of 2008,

they didn't touch the trophy. So then they lost that year So then when they won it the next year Sid's like, okay, I'm going to change it out I'm going to be superstitious So they started touching it And then they won Then in 2016

He's like no, we're doing the same thing I'm going to touch it this time 2017, yep, if the name broke Don't fix it, he did it again, they win So if they go back to the Stanley Cup final this year Or if they go back another year You bet your ass He is going to touch the trophy

Along with Hivgeny Malkin and Chris LaTang And whoever else And I think I remember in 2016 When I was watching it He told them to come And he's like no, you go here because he remembered exactly how they did it in 2009. I'm telling you,

he's the most superstitious hockey player that I have really ever seen in my life. It's just honestly really funny. Gino, though, will not be able to play on his birthday. I think the season would theoretically start August 1st, and I think his, Gino's birthday is July 31st. I mean, through reading this article, I could just kind of tell that,

I mean, I think a fourth one really does mean a lot to Crosby, because he'll tie Gretzky for four. I think the duo of Gretzky and, Messier. They won four Stanley Cups in Edmonton. Geez, I almost forgot. I almost thought it was five Stanley Cups that they won together, but no, it's four. So if Sid and Gino do win a fourth one, that would tie Gretzky and Messier with four. That's, yeah, that's a pretty good bar to hit, I would say. I know that's going to drive Sid a lot. You know, this just, he's just, I'm sure he's just ready to run through it all. Another quote that I loved, you know, the thing with, from Sullivan, the thing with Sid is he's had the benefit of winning. He knows what it takes, but he's had a lot of success in certain years and in certain situations, but he's also tasted disappointment. So he's at the stage of his career where he has a certain perspective. And because of that, I think he views this summer as a really special opportunity. And I know Gino and Chris Lattang feel the same way.

Those guys have been on both sides of it. They love playing together. They love winning championships together. I know what he means to them, and I know they'll be ready. Yeah, to see the trio of them win for Stanley Cups, I mean, that would just be just awesome. That's the word I think to use for it. if they do win a fourth one this year if they have it or down the line

I'd love for them to get a picture with the Stanley Cup just the three of them around just kissing it like how Sid and Gino did for the third one and then the Penguins did the Photoshop of what Yager and the Mew did when they had their arms crossed they did the same for Sid and Gino

that was just that was awesome I loved how they did that because they did that after the back to back in 91 and 92 I'd love to see them do that kind of with an ad Chris Latang because you know that's their true But yeah, like I said, please read that article. You know, it made me want to run through a wall.

I know Cindy Crosby is more than ready to lead this team to another Stanley Cup. I think they have the team to do it. I was actually having a funny conversation with one of my, Jeff, who, of course, he's been on this podcast from Penguin's Twitter. In a group chat, one of my friends, he's best friends with one of my good friends named Matt. And that basically just joke, he's like, wow, an athlete that's ready to play and win, he's like, holy shit. And Jeff's like, no, I honestly don't think you understand Cindy. Crosby. I've honestly never really seen anyone obsessed with anything like Sidney Crosby is with winning at hockey. If there's a word more emphatic than obsession or

possession, that's it. So, I mean, that literally describes Sidney Crosby in a nutshell. He wants to win every single year. I mean, what player doesn't want to win every single year? But to still, to get that fourth cup, you know, I've talked about this before. I know it sounds like a dumb cliche, but, you know, the immortality stage, basically. Everyone already considers him a top 10 player of all time. I think if you don't consider him a top 10 player of all time, you're behind the curve, you know? That's your call. It's your opinion, but I think that's the wrong opinion to have.

I think, I mean, I think he's honestly a top five player of all the time. But if he gets that fourth one, I think people will honestly start to come around and be like, yeah, well, I think he is a top five to 10 player of all time. And definitely top 10, but you can easily make the case right now that he's top five. But especially if he gets that four, people will be like, oh, yep, he's top five now. It's amazing what a four-s Stanley Cup will do, especially if he ties Wayne Gretzky. you know, that'll get people talking. But wanted to share a little bit of that article for you guys, as it's something to talk about at this time

where there's not a lot of Penguins' News to come about right now. Please go check out the rest of it. Like I said, I'm not going to spoil all of it. But with that said, it is now our favorite time of the episode. It's time to talk about Bill-Barr. I know you guys love hearing about Bilt Bar every single first ad break or second ad break. I know I love talking about it too, but still,

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You can go to BiltBar.com, use promo code locked on. You get $10 off your first order. That's promo code locked on for $10 off at BiltBar.com. All right, so welcome back to this episode of Lockdown Hanguons. We'll just do a couple, just a quick two and three-minute segment here. I don't know if you guys are aware of the lawsuit, the Daniel Carcillo one and another former junior player. they're basically alleging against the CHL, the CHL.

If you guys haven't seen it, please check it out. There's a lot of language in there. If you guys don't like some cussing, and a lot of stuff in the story may disturb you. But, I mean, it's heavy. Basically, there's this huge lawsuit. And they're basically alleging that from players 15 to 17, they were routinely victims to hazing, bullying,

physical and verbal harassment, physical assault, sexual harassment and sexual assault. I'm not, I can't read all this because I don't want to get in trouble on here, but there is a lot on. Apparently they were, I'll read a couple. There's a couple of things in here that I will not read because, like I said, I don't want to get in trouble. But apparently some of the players were forced to consume saliva, urine, and just basically

shit of other players and to sexually engage with animals. there's a lot of really other stuff in here that my jaw dropped while reading it. It was truly horrifying to read. And, you know, I honestly don't doubt it. I remember actually Daniel Carcillo. I think he responded to this guy. He was like, oh, yeah, then Daniel Carcillo probably did it. And he actually showed an article from Rich Clune that basically a quote from that article with Rich Clun Row was basically, he's like,

this was back in the days when physical hazing was pretty prominent. But lucky, one of the older guys on the team, Daniel Carcillo, up for me for some reason and made sure the older guys didn't mess with me too bad so i mean that person that said daniel carcelo i guess participated in it i mean he's 100% dead wrong it looks like when rich clune wrote his story for the players tribune i mean you know it was it was it was hard to read through it you know it was just my i almost shed a tear to be honest with you it was just it's truly horrifying it's disgusting to read it's disgusting that stuff happens um in junior hockey where these players are not even 18 yet they're just teenagers high school students

It's just, it's disturbing. You know, I have a buddy of mine. I think he's told me some stories when he played when he was around 11 or 12, like 13. And those stories are, they're not up to that, but he's told me that there has been hazing that's gone on in the locker room that he's seen. And he was disgusted by it. I mean, I may honestly have to have them on at some point to talk about this and just to maybe tell a couple of those stories. I mean, that are also, you know, show friendly. So, yeah, hopefully we'll get that set up.

at some point I'll have to text him and talk with him about it and see if he wants to do it. So I think that does it for this episode of Locked on Penguins. Again, I really appreciate you guys taking your time out of your day to listen to me ramble about this team for 20 minutes, three times a week. Next week we have a cool, interesting segment that we're going to be doing for the show. You know, it's going to be back to the future. So basically, we're going to be looking at, you know, what the team looks like. You know, maybe three years from now, five years from now.

I have some stuff that I've thought about for it already. Maybe we'll get some guests on to talk about what they're. think the team could look like, you know, we'll go back to the future for it and do this segment. But, you know, continue to be safe. Keep washing your hands, social distance, keep wearing a mask out in public. We are not out of this and not by a long shot. So, like I said, hope you all stay safe, stay healthy. And we'll be back with more episodes for this podcast coming next week.

So we will talk to you all soon.