Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Cam comes back on to talk Penguins season MVP, most surprising player for the Penguins, and much more!

Episode Date: June 6, 2020

Cam (NotThatFehr) from Penguins twitter comes back onto the show for the first time in a couple months and he and Hunter go around the horn! They talk about who their season MVP was for the Penguins before the season paused, plus who they thought was the most surprising player for the Penguins. Cam also talks about his thoughts on the 24-team format, plus much more! 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 Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes, follow me on Twitter. At Hunter Hodes, follow the show's Twitter at L-O-U-U-Score Penguins. Happy Friday to you. We've made it to another weekend, the first one in the month of June. Thank God. We'll just keep chugging along here and day whatever now with quarantine. I'm not sure if the Hockey Jeopardy is up yet at Lockdown Ducks.

I don't think it's been tweeted out, but when it does, like I said, Yosha, please be sure to check it out. watch me get my ass kicked. Pretty, pretty bad. I ended up with zero points because I wagered all my points for Final Jeopardy and I lost. So, yeah, check that out. But we also have a special guest. He's back after, this is probably the longest we've not had him on. Cameron Easton, buddy, how are you doing, man?

I'm hanging in there like everyone else. How about yourself? You know, it's the same thing. You know, same shit, different day, I guess, is the right word to call it. eat eat sleep, play video games, do this write a little bit and just watch YouTube videos. That's basically all I do.

Yeah, thankfully I got a new job opportunity doing graphic design work and stuff for an ad agency here in Virginia Beach. So you gotta take the positives with the negatives and work with what you got

during this crisis and just hope for better things, you know. Things are going to get better here. soon for everybody so i think so too buddy well i'm glad to have you back on it's just been yeah it's been like what two months since you've been on or something so something like that what's hockey what really is hockey what's what's a hockey i know well the nchel well they did announce today that phase two will officially begin on monday uh june june june 8 yeah june 8 and the penguins officially tweeted out that their um little mini practices will be starting on june 9th closed to the media

close to the fans, of course. They're not going to allow anyone in there for safety reasons. No one wants to get COVID, especially after the penguin player, a penguin player tested positive for yesterday. Can I've been trying to guess who it is. He's not in Pittsburgh. The evil person in me says it's Jack Johnson, but I really honestly don't know who it is. I said yesterday, I don't really think we'll ever find out who it is. They're probably not going to ever disclose that info.

No, and I don't personally don't want to speculate myself because, I think the Penguins and the NHL probably advised teams, you know, not to disclose that kind of information, especially with them trying to get back into the rhythm for these teams playing in the playoff tournament. And if news broke out, I think, you know, all eyes would be on that sole player. Like, oh, is he, you know, healthy? Is, you know, getting near the players and all that? I think there'd be a lot of attention on a player getting announced, you know, them having COVID. I think that's a good thing that they're now announcing it.

But I've had my worries about this whole, you know, the tournament coming back and just are we opening up too fast? And it's just, it's, there's a lot of questions, you know? And I think the right precautions are being taken right now. now. I think everyone misses hockey, too. I know there's a, there's, there seems to be a divide where some fans are like, just canceled the season. Let's just move on to 2020 and 2021 season. Yeah. There's a very big divide with that. I would say. Oh, yeah. You just look at the responses to Elliot Freeman's sweets. Just cancel. Just cancel. Stop it. Stop it. And then you got the other ones like, no, no, just play it. It really is just funny to look at the replies to some of those sweets,

especially with the NBA coming back to yesterday. Just look at the responses to Adrian. Just Woj's, I'm not going to be able to pronounce this. Wojvvom. Just look at the responses to his tweets. You know, oh, my God, Lakers in four. Oh, Pog, champ, Ws. It's just so funny.

People just, like, post all these memes under his tweets. I'm really on the fence, though, when it comes to these, the sports coming back right now. I was going to ask you, what do you think about the format that they're using since it was announced last week? I think a lot of, I've seen a lot of fans kind of worry about, I would say a lot of fans, I've seen a couple, but about Kerry Price being, you know, rest, well rested, and this isn't fair to the penguins going against Price and all this. But this also plays in favor for the penguins as well, having the injury was they were having at that last stretch before the hiatus. And yeah, you know, I think having the Penguins healthy It's just so beneficial for them, you know? I just, I know I told you I don't want to speculate,

But I am worried about the players, you know, health. And we saw Malkin on Instagram, the little cool little Instagram pick of them coming back on the plane. He looked bad ass today, man. He's rocking no stash right now, looking all serious. with those glasses on. Gino is ready to gun for that fourth cup. I think, yeah, and I think Sid is the same way.

I think the whole team, I think, you know. I think this is a hungry Penguins team. We're in the last stretch here of the Crosby and Malkin era, you know. And that's why I kind of want the season to play out and have these playoffs, because I do want to see Crosby and Munk and get a shot here. Yeah, I think, like I've always said this. after they got their third one.

If they get a fourth one, they're basically into immortality mode. You get four, not many players do that. I think with Gino, he'll have the most cups ever by any Russian-born player. I believe that.

I think that's the case. Imagine if he goes on a, like a Malkan tear, you know, and he gets another consmite as well. He goes full 2009 mode like he did against just every team in that playoff run.

It's just crazy how the good is. And he was having a great season up to the, the hiatus we had, and especially with all the criticism he faced last season. I thought he was the team MVP this year, to be honest. You know, everywhere there was all these questions. Oh, my God, you know, Malkin was struggling last year.

You know, is it this the end for Hvgeny Malkin? And it's like, you know, when you give him good minutes with some actual good defensive partners, not named Jack Johnson, you know, it works. But, I mean, he was off a little bit last year. I will say that. but I think people over-exaggerated his demise, and he was just a utter monster this season. Well, and Crosby had the injuries issues this season, you know,

and Malcolm definitely, he seems to do that pretty often when Crosby's injured. Just put the team on his back and, you know, rings the belt, you know? Yeah, did you see the interview that his wife did for like a Russian outlet, but basically she was talking about the rest of his playing career, basically? I have not. Okay, yeah. So she basically said that, you know, he loves it still in Pittsburgh. You know, he really loves taking over when Crosby gets hurt.

I think, well, one thing that did strike out to me was that apparently she thinks that Malkin for his final season of playing hockey is going to go back to Russia to play in the KHL. So that was that like Pavel Datsuit kind of did for his last year. So that was interesting. I'm not sure if that's going to happen. I mean, she also said, I don't think he's going to go anywhere else. that's not happening.

I mean, any NHL team, I should say. But I thought that was interesting that she said that he may go to his Russian hometown KHL team after his NHL playing days are over. I just, I don't know. Yeah, I personally don't think that would happen like, you know, in two seasons. Yeah. It's just like he's still playing really great. And then he's like, oh, all right.

See you guys. Yeah. I think it's, I think there'll be indications where the team is going to start declining. and A, just catching up to Sid and Gino. And as I say, bite the bullet, Malkin's just going to respectively go to Russia. Yeah, no, I agree. Especially as my dog right now is trying to just give my hand a bunch of kisses, if my dog can just stop doing that, that would be very, very great.

It's just very distracting. But she also said apparently he cut out, I think, some potatoes from his diet. He really doesn't eat a lot of carbs anymore. There you go, going the keto day. Gino is just, you know, doing his thing. Taking a page out of the Brady handbook, you know? Yeah, but I'm glad that he was going back to Pittsburgh today. You know, he looked ready, and I think he's going to be,

I think he's going to pick up right where he left off, I think. Yeah, and I think I really like seeing players like Teddy Blugher and Sam Lafferty and the lower, you know, bottom tier players that you don't really get to talk about as often, like this is in Gino's. And, you know, I'd like to see them kind of step up to the plate in this tournament and almost kind of do what Rust and Sherry and Koonakle did back in the 2015-16 season.

Yeah, the Ashton-Reece-Tanav-Lugar line is going to be fascinating to watch. defensively, of course, their underlying numbers are disgustingly good, but also offensively, I thought they were just producing. I know Tanaf had stretches where he wouldn't produce, but then he would produce some goals. I know Aston Reese was having the best defensive season of his career, and then just Teddy Bluger, what a player he's become, like you said. I mean, I still think he should have been playing a lot more last season, but they had to

play, of course, Matt Cullen, and Matt Cullen was just a corpse at that point. That was not 2015-16 MacCohlin. That was team grandpa. Yeah, that was a grandpa. It was hard to watch Matt Cullen because he just was not good. And you could easily see just how good Teddy Blugher was because he was just outperforming him. Outperforming him, Jesus, in every possible way. And it was good to see him finally get rewarded for getting the fourth line center, nod this season, and playing like it.

Oh, yeah. And he produced, I think, better than what many people expected. Yeah. going back to TANF. I mean, going back to the past couple of podcasts, I've been on, I was criticizing the TANV signing.

And I really didn't agree with the length of the contract. But I think TANF was a great signing. And I'm kind of biting my lip, kind of regretting saying that stuff about him. Because I do think he fits perfectly in that fourth line. And I'm hoping the. chemistry stays there going into this tournament. And that's another thing, too, is considering

chemistry, team chemistry. I know me and you were watching those, that Western road trip. I was on Discord. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. We were watching it together and it was just, we were so disappointed in the scene. And I think, you know, some of it had to do with the chemistry, with, you know, getting Marlowe and Rodriguez in there.

And even Zucker, even though Zucker was playing really well, I think the lines just Sullivan hadn't had the lines figured out just yet, you know? Yeah. So, and another thing I thought about too is the fact that the penguins historically don't always start really good at the beginning of their seasons. Am I wrong?

I mean, I always see it. They did this season, though. They took something that they never do before and they did it. Because usually, like you said, they start slow and then they really heat it up. But this year it was the opposite. They started out fast. And then they just totally, they just, that six game losing streak, whatever, six game, seven game, lose streak. You know, that costs them a spot in the top.

Yeah. And I'm just hoping this hiatus doesn't like give that same effect where it's almost like a new season for these guys. Yeah. You know what I mean? and because they haven't, I mean, they've probably been skating. Some of them have been skating and, you know, they've been doing their training and all that. But it's not to the same thing as, you know, a training camp, you know, and being with the team. And, you know, so.

Yeah. It will be interesting to see all the NHL teams and how, especially not in the NHL, but all sports and how they come back from COVID. and I mean you look at the NFL and I was I was you know looking at some YouTube videos on some interviews with some player Steelers player draft players and that's got to be so weird getting drafted and you don't even get to go to the facility or meet the coaches or you know it's all online and you're going to be expected to be you know in the same shape and the same um athletic talent you have without all the you know amenities yeah it is it is going to be pretty weird but

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So there's an amazing selection. You get really good low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. That's rock auto. Dot com. All right, Cam, so, you know, one thing I've been doing lately, I'm sure you've been listening, you know, this day in Penguin's history. And, well, this day in 1967, Cam, the Penguins franchise, joined the National Hockey League.

So, Paul, give in the chat for that. Wow. Yeah. It's been... I wonder if this team will be good. I know, yeah. I wonder what they'll do for the next 53 years. So that is the anniversary of that.

Hey, for 53 years, they did pretty good. I know they had their rough beginning and they went through that stretch where, you know, the Mew had his, you know, his unfortunate injuries and going through the cancer and in the possibility of the team being sold. But I think rebounding from that, they've done pretty well for themselves. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Of course, you know, with the two bankruptcies they had, you know, some people like to say that it's the fan's fault and everybody was the fans fault.

You know, shitty ownerships will blind people into thinking otherwise. especially around the time of, you know, 1999 through 2005, just a lot of, that was a lot of hard times. Thank God for Yarmier-Yager in 1999. I know I sound like a broken record, but without...

She doesn't get no love from the city, I'll be honest. We love Yarmier-Yager on this podcast. Yep. People who hate them, you know what? You have problems. That's all I'll say. But what else here, Cam?

What else can we talk about here in the hockey world? What else do you got from here? man give me your thoughts on the okay the round robin format I know I've talked about it enough I've shared my thoughts what do you think the round robin

for the top four teams in each conference I don't you know it's gonna be interesting for the flyers I think yeah because they were going on that street but I don't see them

as like a powerhouse from the east you know what I mean yeah they were playing good but you know if they go 3 and O in that round robin dude they get the number one seed over Boston who's way ahead of them. Right.

And what's funny is talking about where the penguins are seated, if they lose, they'll still have their protected lottery traffic. That's right. And you know what that means, Cam? Get the number one overall pick. That would work so well for the penguins. I had Josh Yoey and Chad on last week. They were talking about, I was saying to them, you know,

The conspiracy theories will be out in full force on Twitter.com. I will love to see all the take saying how Penguins paid Bettman. Oh, my God. The league favors. The hockey world would be on fire if that were to happen. Oh, the league favors the penguins. Gary Bettman loves the penguins, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Pittsburgh against the world, right?

Yeah, it's Pittsburgh against, yeah, Pittsburgh. It really is Pittsburgh against everyone. I love those people that had those conspiracy theories. It just makes me laugh, you know. Oh, my God, the penguins are favorites. by the rats. It's just like, who comes up with this nonsense? You have Tom Wilson on your team? Yeah.

It's just, yeah. All right. I'm done. I'm done with these little conspiracy theories. I just had to put that out there. I haven't been able to do that in a while since we haven't had hockey. So it was good to. I don't know. For me, it's been weird because it's, you know, you tune into ESPN and you see Cornhole tournaments and stuff. So it's like I have to be watching ESPN or any of that, you know. It's just been kind of weird without sports. And to be quite honest with you, other than doing my little Photoshop jersey swaps for some athletes, I don't really think or watch. I watch some highlights, you know.

I'll reminisce, but I'm not really, you know, in depth with sports as I usually am this time of year. I mostly just go on YouTube, to be honest with you. I'll just look up old penguin highlights. I've been going back to 2016, 2017 stuff. Well, I just, I actually turned on the full, game one against the Rangers.

Mr. Game 1, Mr. Jeff Zatkoff. Yeah, Paul, in the chat for Jeff Zafoff, everybody. That was a great game. Yeah, because I really set the tone for that, for that Staling Cup run.

Yeah, I still can't believe they won that game. Sucks, they didn't win game two for you, though, when you were there. I still, I still, yeah, that was a great experience. Yeah,

that was wrong. Yeah, I play, I was talking yesterday, you know, June 4th was the 11-year anniversary of the game four against the Red Wings, where Jordan Stahl went around Brian Rolski for, I think, one of the best goals, one of the most best and one of the most important goals in franchise history. I mean, that goal, I've said it so many times, you know, that turned that series in the Penguins favor because the Red Wings were looking like it was going to be like last year in 2008, and they were going to go up three games to one. But Jordan Stahl said, you know, not on my watch. Yeah, I miss Jordan Saul I mean, I'm glad we kind of didn't give him that money Because he asked for a lot of money But it ended up working, you know, well for both Hey, he's the captain over there in Carolina So yeah, Jordan's

You know, he's Yeah, I miss him a lot You know, he just turned into such an utter monster He was just so good And Cam, I'll tell you what else is good And you know, the Bill bar, Potein bars, Cam just so good.

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at Biltbar.com. Wow, so that was actually a pretty good transition into a live ad read. I've not been the best at those, but, you know, Cam, if you ever want a protein bar, you know, I'll hook you up with some. Hey, that meant brownies sounded pretty good. Yeah, I'm going to have to look into that. I've had it. Yeah, it's really, really good. You know, they do a good job with those.

Let's see here, Cam, I'm trying to think of other things to talk about because, man, there is just not a lot going on. Oh, the pain. Well, well, how about this? Who was your most improved player for this year? Most improved? Oh, that's a good question. Wow. This one actually has me stumped a little bit.

Because I'm going to go ahead and say Brian Rust. Yeah, yeah, that's probably. That's the easy point. Either him or Malkin, but I think I got to give a credit to Rust because he set season or career records for himself with points. Yep. I'm sure he would have continued to add on to that, you know. But I think there was a lot of questions with him because he had a couple of injury issues.

And I think he had a fully healthy season. And he is really a good top six winger, I think, for the Penguins. And it's a great contract that he signed too, that Jim Rutherford got him. So I would go ahead and say he was most improved. Yeah, you know, that's probably the easy answer. He was going to have 30 goals. I mean, he's probably going to have probably 35 goals if we're being honest. Yeah, at the rate he was going.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'm trying to think of like other options here. You know, Teddy Bluger, you know, we talked about him earlier. I think he's up there too. Like I said, he really came into. Good choice. That's a really good choice. Aston Reese is a good one.

You know, we really hadn't been noticing him. He'd always been hurt. Every time he would go on like a nice run, he would go hurt. He still was hurt a little bit this year, but for most, the most part, he was healthy. And when he was healthy, you know, I say he was a force in the defensive zone on that line. That was their penguins, they would use that as their shutdown line. They would almost make it their third line at times. And, you know, I think a big question is, you know, how much, how many minutes are they going to give that line over a line like their third line that they're going to have,

which is probably going to be Patrick Marlowe, Jared McCann, and Patrick Hornquist. I think they may split those two lines and give them the same minimum. to be honest. That's just my guess, though. I agree. Who would your most... Not most, but who's the player you would question going into this tournament? Like, will they be successful or will they tank? Honestly, it's probably the goaltending.

That's their biggest question. And it's for both of them. This is not just a Matt Murray thing. This is also a Tristan Jari thing. His numbers were going down prior to the hiatus. they were not at the level that they were. I mean, they weren't going to stay that way. This guy does not have a big sample size.

So they were down to regress a little bit. But, you know, Matt Murray, he was playing better, but, you know, it would tank a little bit. Then it would go back up and it would tank a little bit. I do think if I were a betting man, I think Jim Rutherford is going to have Mike Sullivan have Matt Murray start. I think when they'll probably talk about it,

and I'm sure they will. I think it is going to be Murray. But that is the biggest question. for me. They could both easily tank, then you've got to be worried about them. Because you never know with goaltending. I agree.

I think for me it's probably this defense. And more importantly, Jack Johnson and Justin Schultz, I think... Yeah, that pairing is juice. Yeah, it sucks. And, you know, Schultz had his shining moments

in 15 and 16, you know what I mean? But they were... He still hasn't panned out to what he could be. And, you know, I think you look at the numbers and how he's played this year and the pairing with him and Jack Johnson. I think something needs to change there. And hopefully, for some players on this team, like Jack Johnson, this break will be beneficial

for them. You know what, Jack, you can just have you so vehicle to take your spot. And you can just stay quarantined at home with your family. You know, we won't complain. All right, that was my time. I'm sorry, Jack. But, you know, Yuselika Lo was outperforming him. But, okay, I can't slander Jack Johnson anymore.

But I hear where you're coming from. Justin Chilts, I thought his best year with the Penguins, honestly, was 2016-17, when he put up 50 points that season, when Trisletang was out with his herniated disc, took it to a whole new level in the playoffs. But, you know, when he had that – remember that ankle injury he had? And it's just – that's where it's been –

It was in Montreal, right? When that happened? Yeah. It was just bad – when he came back from that, I'm like, yeah, this guy isn't right. Like, he just does not look the same. And I feel bad. And he's probably getting,

he's probably getting cash in, too, if I'm not, if I'm a betting man. Someone will sign him. I don't think he's going to get, like, a monster amount of money, but someone will give him a good money.

He's going to get more money than the penguins would offer. So. Oh, easily. Yeah. I absolutely think. And, you know, good for him.

But I think, thankfully, we have John Marino that has stepped up tremendously this season. Dude a stud. A stud. And you are,

You were big on him earlier in the season. And, you know, I am so impressed that the season he had, he had that injury. But I'm excited to see what he does in this tournament, too. Yes, yeah. I really am too. John Marino is just, he was so good all season. I saw Greg Wijinsky's article from ESPN, right? He did, like, his NHL award stuff, you know, like the snubs and the contenders and all that.

And, you know, like the dark horse pick. No, John Marino wasn't on there. pretty uh i even i even quote tweeted it i'm like come on gregg that's just getting slept on yeah he's been getting really slept on and i know the injury kind of screwed him out maybe of getting a finalist but doesn't doesn't pittsburgh always get slept on him i mean let's be real a little bit a couple years that they have a couple years yeah just a couple but especially this year i'm just uh yeah marino he was just he's he's gonna be really good for a long time that pairing with Pedersen, I'm excited to see.

Hopefully this break benefited Pedersen luck is, I thought he was just mainly okay this season. He wasn't doing anything special. But, Cam, you got anything else from Ray before we call it an episode? Yeah, I don't know. Probably going to, you know what?

I'm going to watch a game, a rewind tonight. I'm going to look at a Penguin game and just kind of reminisce. You know, I didn't really, I did it on Monday night. I watched a game. I haven't really done it that much since the hiatus. I need to get back in that rhythm, you know? Yeah, I got you.

I got you. I'll probably just, you know, probably play some video games, watching YouTube videos, that kind of stuff. But, excuse me, Cam,

I really do appreciate you coming on. We're going to have you on. I'm sure as the season comes back to hopefully resuming, I all know that's well over a month and still about a month and a half away. Camps probably won't start for another month, I think that's when phase three begins.

So like I say, Cam, you coming on for this. Hey, I appreciate you. Thank you to everyone listening. It's always great coming on here and always getting the invite from Mew Hunter. Of course. Yeah, stay safe, stay healthy. Yeah. Don't get bored. Yes, yeah. Don't get bored. You know, I know a lot of states are starting to reopen a bit. You know, Virginia, most of Virginia moved to phase two today. Yeah, Cam did, but, you know, Northern Virginia didn't because, you know, Northern Virginia.

up here where I live takes up almost over half of the state's population. It was donut day too, and I got a free donut at 7-11. There you go. That's nice. That's a nice little positive in the world. It was donut day. There you go. That's awesome. But yeah, we'll have another episode coming next week.

Well, three episodes coming next week. Jeez, it is too wait for this. We'll have another episode. The next episode will be coming back on Monday. So thank you guys so much for listening. and we will talk to you all then.