Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Can the Penguins live to fight another day?

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Pittsburgh Penguins season is on the line on Saturday in Philadelphia, and Pat and I are going to get you all set for that game coming up right after this. You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, and welcome to the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-com. post, Patrick Damp, you can follow him on all social media platforms at Sendin Verwet.

Starting point is 00:00:40 You can also follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. And you can find this on Instagram at Locked-on underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch the day. We are free and available on all platforms. Pat, we're going to preview game four of the Penguins Flyers series on Saturday coming up here in just a couple of seconds before we get into our second segment talking about how the penguins can somehow pull off a miracle here in reverse sweep the flyers and also talk about how they could potentially not pull off that miracle

Starting point is 00:01:11 and then we'll end the show looking at the rest of the series because we have some very intriguing series going on right now in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs that is not the Penguins Flyers series. But Pat, let's get into it. The Penguin season is officially on the line on Saturday, excuse me, in Philadelphia. And with that, you saw some more lineup changes

Starting point is 00:01:32 from Dammeuse today at practice. practice. Raquel Crosby Rust, that is intact. That is also the right call. Ditto for Chinokov, and Malkin. Thank you to Dan for reuniting Chinokov with Malkin. That was a very strong line for the Penguins during the regular season. You kind of have no choice but to put Chinoakov back up with Malkin since your season is literally on the line. They want to try him out with Ben Kindle in game three. Didn't work. So now he's making that adjustment. And then Ben Kendall and Anthony Mantha on the third line, as well as Elmer Sodorblom now. So it looks like Justin So comes in for one game.

Starting point is 00:02:06 He's then going to come out for game four. Okay. Connor, Duer, Blake Lazot and Noachari on the fourth line. No changes there. Defensively, though, Pat, we do have at least one change. So Lotherspoon Carlson, that's the same. Girard LaTang, that's the same, sadly. And then Ryan Shea with Ilya Solov.

Starting point is 00:02:25 So it looks like as of right now, Connor Clifton is going to be a healthy scratch for game four, which is the right call. I was calling for that ahead of game three. I did not think he was playing well in the first two games. He struggled once again mightily in game three, taking him out for Ilioslovia, who, you know, he's not, you know, insanely good. He's not going to be, you know, oh my God, like what a massive, massive upgrade.

Starting point is 00:02:49 But you have no choice to at least see what you have in him, because I have liked a little bit from what I've seen from him during the regular season, even though he has struggled a bit at times as well. Desperate times, call for desperate measures. So throw him in there, see what he's. he can do. However, Pat, I still don't understand why is Gerard still with Chris LaTang? Come on, Dan. I don't get it. I really don't. I mean, listen, we talked about Mews and his playoff performance as a rookie head coach. And for the record, it doesn't mean that we're out on

Starting point is 00:03:24 him. It doesn't mean we think he's bad all of a sudden. But it's just, it has been a substandard performance in the postseason. But he is on a. long list of people who have disappointed for the penguins in this series. I know Chris Latang's a legend. Today's his birthday. Happy birthday to Chris Latang. Yes, sir. He is an all-time Pittsburgh penguin, arguably the best defenseman in the history of the

Starting point is 00:03:49 franchise. Yes. But it's just not there anymore. And on top of it not being there, other than a couple weeks stretch, Gerard and Lattang are oil and water. They just don't work together. And the thing I push back on with a lot of people is people are, you know, out on Gerard now. There's a good player with Sam Gerard.

Starting point is 00:04:10 He's got good vision. He can move the puck and he can skate. But he just doesn't mesh well with Chris Latang. That pairing has not worked. And I do think there would be a better opportunity for this team if you put Latang and Shea on the third pairing and bump Sloviov up with Gerard. Because the way Solov plays, I think mesh. is with the way Gerard plays, and you could have, at the very least, a pairing that you don't have to worry about. They may not be totally effective.

Starting point is 00:04:40 They may not be a positive, but I don't think they would be a negative. And then, I mean, I can't believe it's taken until game three of the postseason, but, or game four, I should say, is Chinikov and Malkin. Like, we've seen it. They, they, they, they, they, they, they, as soon as they show is, Chinikov showed up, he meshed with Malkin. I don't know why we ever went away from it. If this was November and you wanted to kind of do a little bit of a test run of Chinikov with Crosby just to see, hey, if we get to that point, will this work? I'd understand it.

Starting point is 00:05:17 But we're at the point now where your season's on the line. You have to go with what works. And if you're not doing that, you're doing a disservice to your team. Yeah. Again, I just simply don't understand some of these defensive combos. it continues to boggle my mind why damn muse does not want to make a change to that second pair. I will still maintain

Starting point is 00:05:37 that Letang and Gerard are fine on their own pairs. Again, you can have one pure puck mover on each pair because you always have Eric Carlson on the first pair who's the pure puck mover. He's the more offensive guy. Pair with Parker Wadderspoon, who's that more stay-at-home defenseman also can be physical along the boards.

Starting point is 00:05:54 If you did Ryan Shea and Latang, Ryan Shea, physical on the boards, more stay-at-home, Lettang. I know he's not what he used to be, but he'll at least still move the puck up the ice a bit. And then Gerard, you know what he can do with moving the puck. And then if you have a more defensively responsible player with him, again, like an Ilya who again, I don't think he's a, you know, world breaker or anything like that. But he's at least potentially okay for a game. That's what at least I would do for game four. I'm not the head

Starting point is 00:06:22 of coach. I'm selling behind a microphone. But I just still don't understand why he wants to keep trotting out Gerard and Le Tank, considering how much of a mess they have been in this series. Power play combinations. Pat, you might disagree, and that's fine. I understand that they score two powerplay goals in game three. However, I have still not liked that unit for the majority of this series. The puck movement has not been very good. The zone entries have been a big struggle, playing Patty Kegg way too often, even on the two power play goals that they scored.

Starting point is 00:06:53 They weren't pretty. Like, yeah, they score on those two power plays, which was nice. But the power play itself is still not pretty. Put Igor Chinakov up on there. I'm going to continue to say it. Tom Blue in the face. He should be on that top high play unit. That's all.

Starting point is 00:07:05 That's really the only big change after game three that I would make to the power play. I think you need to have that shot on the power play. You need to have that weapon. If for no other reason, make it a decoy. Make it something that they have to respect and pull their penalty kill out of position because you don't want to leave him wide open with a lane to the net. But at the very least, I would put Chinikov. up there. The thing I'm looking at at this point is they scored two goals in game three.

Starting point is 00:07:37 I think at this point, you just accept that top power play unit is boom or bust. They're either going to be really good or really bad, which not a great place to be in in the postseason. But at this point, it's rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. There's so much talent on it that you might as well just let them cook for a while. I think other than the Chinikov thing, though, there's really not a whole lot I think you can do right now. So I don't know. I'm disappointed in the fact that he hasn't been as willing to put everything in a blender

Starting point is 00:08:14 as I think he should. But at the end of the day, you're down 3-0. You got two power play goals in game three. So at the very least, it buys your top unit, a stay of execution, I guess. sure okay i'd still make the change but whatever as for me flyers perspective looks like they are basically putting out the same lineup though pat dan vladar it sounds like is questionable according to some of their top reporters member he did get hurt in the third period he was seen really grabbing his arm looked like for a little bit but he couldn't move it that well he

Starting point is 00:08:47 still finished the game of course but i am curious to see if he doesn't play i mean sam urson comes in from the penguins i'm peppering him as often as possible they came out that shoot first mentality in game three, you're going to have to be doing that tenfold for a goalie who has yet to play in this series. So he's questionable. It sounds like he hasn't been at practice, but no, we'll have to see if he does play Dan Vladar, that is. That'd be a huge break, honestly, for the Penguins, because there is a very massive golf between Dan Vladar and Sam erson. Yeah, if Samerson has to, if Samerson goes, you have to double your shot first mentality, because Samerson is not very good.

Starting point is 00:09:28 There is a wide, wide gap between these two goalies on the Flyers roster. If it's Vladar, it's going to be a rough outing because he has been pretty good this series, even though I don't think they've tested him enough because I know I have seen comments that directed at me saying I have underestimated Dan Vladar. It's not me saying that I think he's bad or he's not playing well. He just hasn't had many tests. So his workload hasn't been that great. And when it has been, he's been up to the task.

Starting point is 00:10:00 So if they're stuck with Sam Erson, that could be a nice little break for the penguins going into game four. Yeah, potentially. I will say about Erson, you know, three of his last five starts, he was over 920. His last start of the season, he was 931. You go back to a couple of games in March, 962, 944. However, he did end the season with a 3.1, 2 goals against average and an 877%. So there definitely is a drop-off between Vladar and Arson. We can look at goals state above expected as well.

Starting point is 00:10:30 Dan Bladar was literally top 10 in the league this year for that stat too. So definitely a drop-off. If it is Erson, again, I want to see more of a shoot-first mentality, even more so from the Penguins if he does go. But if Ladar is good to go, that conversation doesn't mean anything. So that'll do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to discuss ways that the Penguins can somehow mount up.

Starting point is 00:10:54 miracle here and ways where they cannot and then the series will be over and that's coming up right after this but first we have to tell you all about our first sponsor which is warby parker spring is here weddings trips rooftop hangs basically a lot more photos getting taken and if you wear glasses you're wearing them at all of those moments so if you don't love your frames you feel it pretty quickly and that's where warby parker helps out they've completely changed how easy it is to find glasses you actually like The virtual try on lets you see how frames look on your face right from your phone. Just point your camera and you can try on tons of styles in real time. It's funny, I had an eye appointment this week, and I picked out a new pair of glasses from

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Starting point is 00:13:18 nothing deficit the odds very stacked against them and for obvious reasons it is a extremely hard to do. But as I said yesterday, you have to take this one game at a time. You went on Saturday. Okay. You live to fight another day. You bring this series back to Pittsburgh. Your fans will be behind you. You win that game. Okay. You go back to Philadelphia. And then you'll try to drag them back to Pittsburgh one more time. But we're going to focus on just game four. I've talked about them playing with the lead. That is still obviously a big key because I like the way they came out in the first period. They just have to do that for, I think, the entire game. but another big key, and this is another obvious one.

Starting point is 00:13:55 Pat, the Penguin's best players have to be their best players here. Fgemony Malkin, I have liked the way that he has played in this series. He has scored a couple of goals. He's been lively. But Cindy Crosby has yet to show up, really, in this series. Brian Rust, I think could play better. Ricard Raquel has not played well. Igor Chinochof needs to play better.

Starting point is 00:14:16 Eric Carlson needs to play better. Chris LaTang also needs to be a lot better. I can keep going down the list here if you want. Even again, I'm not going to hold this against him because it's this first national season. I think Ben Kindle could obviously be a lot better compared to what we saw during the regular season, but I also understand that he's only 19. He's going to be fine in the long run. But those are just a handful of players that I can name that simply need to be better

Starting point is 00:14:39 if the penguins want to somehow mount a comeback here. All in all, their best players have simply just have to start showing up. Well, before I get into the penguins themselves, let's run through some numbers here. In the history of the Stanley Cup playoffs, 211 teams have been down 3-0, and four of them have gone on to win the series. That's a little less than 2% of teams that do this.

Starting point is 00:15:09 So it's a monumental lift. Let's go through it. And here's the thing. There is precedent for both of these franchises. They have been on the opposite. ends of it, though. 1975, Stanley Cup quarterfinals, the Penguins open up a 3-0 lead on the New York Islanders.

Starting point is 00:15:29 They blow it, they lose. Philadelphia Flyers, however, in 2010, they were down 3-0 to the Boston Bruins. They were able to come back and win that series and go to the Stanley Cup final, which they ultimately lost to the Chicago Blackhawks. And the Bruins also had a 3-0 lead in that game seven, which they blew. and the Flyers still won that game. Now, another connection for this, it's not as fun, but it is a connection

Starting point is 00:15:58 and in very recent memory. Penguins goaltender, Stuart Skinner. He was with the Edmonton Oilers in the 24 Stanley Cup final when Florida opened up a 3-0 lead over the Oilers. The Oilers were able to battle back force game seven, which they ultimately ended up losing to the Florida Panthers. So there is a lot of history and, quote, unquote, quote, experience for this with these two franchises historically, but realistically,

Starting point is 00:16:28 nobody involved, saved for Stuart Skinner, has been around for any of this. So this is going to be a really monumental lift. But I'm going to go for the penguins, because I agree with everything you said about the roster needing to step up. It's to a man saved for basically Stuart Skinner and Gino, everybody's got to show up because really nobody has shown up to the best of their ability. in this series. This is the painfully obvious one. Game five, it doesn't exist. Game six, it doesn't exist. Game seven, it does not exist. Game four is the only thing that exists.

Starting point is 00:17:07 You don't worry about anything other than the shift right in front of you. I'm not even talking the next period. I'm not even talking the next shift. The minute your skates touch the ice, your job is to win that shift. Period. End of story. You cannot look forward whatsoever. You can have it in your head and be confident that you think we can win and we can do this, but the way you start there is you act as if there is no tomorrow because there is not one. The other thing I will say before I toss it back to you, Hunter, is this.

Starting point is 00:17:43 I brought this up earlier in the week. playing in Philadelphia is the equivalent to playing in a Roman Coliseum. The fans are nasty in a good way. They make it a hostile environment. They want blood. They want physicality. And the Flyers team themselves feeds off that energy. You know they're going to poke you.

Starting point is 00:18:05 You know they're going to prod you. You know, they're going to take shots at you. Do what Gino bot did in game three. The minute they start poking and prodding at you, stand straight up, stare at the ref, and quietly or silently say, I'm not the one doing this. Let them get themselves all fired up. Let them get themselves all hyper and throwing hits and going physical

Starting point is 00:18:28 and stay out of it. Even though this power play has not been great, you need to give yourself every opportunity to win game four. And also just for the penguins, don't take any stupid penalties to begin with. I don't need to see garbage like we saw from Mantha in game three where he's just sending the puck over the glass for literally no reason, especially after you got a little bit of momentum from Eric Carlson's goal that made it

Starting point is 00:18:53 3-2, it got you right back in the game, you started to get some shifts together, and then you just threw it all the way, and then the flyers made you pay there. So you don't need to be doing stupid stuff for the sake of it. Again, this is a type of system that you're going up against where you have to stay very patient. It's going to be annoying. It's going to be frustrating, but you've got to stick with. it. You win this game, maybe you can have a thought in your head of, okay, that's one. Now, let's do it again at home in front of our fans, but the focus has to be one game at a time.

Starting point is 00:19:27 The only thing that matters is Saturday in Philly. You win that? Okay, great. We live to fight another day. You bring them home to Pittsburgh. Crowds are going to be fired up, even though the Flyers have been a very good road team in this series. But sole focus has to be on tomorrow. And again, their best players. simply have to step up. I talked about a lot of the tactics and the adjustments that Demus and the rest of the players should make and how they've been too stingy, trying to do what they've been doing for most of the series and how they haven't adjusted. Again, they still need to make some adjustments, but it's up to the Penguins' best players

Starting point is 00:20:03 to say, hey, we're not going home tomorrow and we're going to extend this thing by at least a couple of days and bring these guys back to Pittsburgh. Now, how they can't come back Pat, again, it's kind of what I hinted at, if they keep doing the same thing over and over again in slamming themselves into a wall. Like, that's really what it comes down to for me. That's the biggest thing is I know that a lot of Flyers fans have come to this show over the last week and they're waiting for us to melt down. They're waiting for us to freak out. And one, we're not doing that. And two, as much credit as as the Flyers have gotten from us and that it is deserved,

Starting point is 00:20:48 I still look at the first three games. And I think it's 50, 50, the Flyers won and the Penguins beat themselves. Like the Flyers have done a lot to earn these wins. Let's not get that twisted. They have played an incredibly disciplined system. They have rendered the Penguins offensive attack completely moot. And that is a credit to them. but a lot of what the penguins have done has fed right into their system.

Starting point is 00:21:18 Yeah. So the way they don't do this is exactly what you said. If they keep trying to do the things that brought them success in the regular season in this series, they will lose game four or maybe they sneak out a game four win and then we just go right back to the well in game five. But you can't keep trying to do bump passes in the neutral zone. You can't keep trying to break a one-one three by skating through it. You are going to have to put the hard hats on, pick up the lunch pail, and play a stupidly simple, hardworking system that breaks a one-one-three.

Starting point is 00:21:56 Because if you keep doing what you've been doing, it's going to be the same result. I 100% agree with that. So we'll see. Can they extend this and send it back to Pittsburgh? or will the brooms have to come out in Philadelphia? Again, they have a chance to rewrite their story yet again here. Let's see if they can scrape out a win here. I thought you were going to say it.

Starting point is 00:22:21 I thought you were going to say it. Flip the script. Flip the script. Someone put that in our comments for Thursday show, and I had a good laugh about that one. But hey, dole the shot here at least to try to start doing that. But one game at a time, focus on game four, Saturday night in Philadelphia. But that's going to do it for this second segment.

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Starting point is 00:24:55 I'm one of your hosts on Trujones, joined by my host, Patrick Damp and Pat. We'll try to be quick here because we're starting to get close to running out of time. but a few of these other series are really fun so far. I'm having a blast with Montreal, Tampa. Those two teams are just punching each other right back and forth. I really hope that series goes seven. Minnesota, Dallas, that's been a lot of fun. Even without Roop Bay Hens, Dallas is just so formidable.

Starting point is 00:25:19 Jake Ottinger has been fantastic, especially in game three. Well, I shouldn't say fantastic overall. Game one, he was really bad. Game two, he was better. Game three, he was on basaltz in overtime. So I had to correct myself a little bit there. He has not been fantastic for the entire series, but he was really good, especially in game three.

Starting point is 00:25:37 But L.A., they're down 3-0. No surprise there. I am stunned, though, that Colorado, not Colorado, Carolina is up 3-0 on Ottawa. I did not see that coming. I felt Ottawa was going to give them a much tougher fight than this. Lena Solmark is at 933 in three games, but has not won any of these games.

Starting point is 00:26:01 They can't score to save their life. I mean, I'll say this about the other two series that are 3-0 is I feel like they're all in the same kind of boat where the games have been relatively close. And I know a bunch of people are going to look at the Penguins series. Like, oh, what are you talking about? Listen, like the first two games of Penguins Flyers were pretty tight. It was just the Flyers capitalizing on every single mistake the Penguins made. but it was pretty close otherwise. And then game three, until the melee, it was a pretty tight game.

Starting point is 00:26:37 And even down the stretch, it got tight until Anthony Mantha chucked the puck over the glass. But I know that it's 3-0 in Colorado. L.A. has put up a much better fight than I could have ever expected. Game three was 4-2, but like, L.A's hanging with them. And you can tell that this is a talent disparity series where L.A. also can't. can't score like let's go i can't score but they are keeping a very potent Colorado avalanche offense pretty tame 2 1 2 1 and 4 2 that's a pretty valiant effort against a really good Colorado team and you said it for carolina Ottawa Ottawa is hanging with carolina pretty well they just can't

Starting point is 00:27:22 score and if they were able to get one or two more goals here or there this is an even series because it's being played evenly. The 3-0 deficit does not accurately depict that series. Buffalo Boston, holy crap, man. That series, it's got everything, a center ice goal. It's got physicality. It's got two teams just playing really well. And man, the atmosphere in Buffalo.

Starting point is 00:27:54 It's incredible. Thank God they've got playoff hockey. hockey back because they deserve it. And then I got to give a big shout out to Anaheim. Like, I know this isn't the Edmonton of the last couple of years, but they've still got the super weapons. Anaheim is hanging right with them. That is a team that looks like for the next handful of years, they are going to be a problem in the Western conference. Yeah, I've liked the way Anaheim has played Edmonton in this series. They've been able to score with them. They've also held McDavid pointless in the first two games, which literally seemed impossible.

Starting point is 00:28:28 considering how great he usually is in the playoffs. But I also think he's a bit banged up right now. I don't know if you saw he kind of rolled his ankle look like in game two. I don't know if he's fully 100% healthy. So if he's not, that's obviously not good news for the Oilers, considering how much they depend on McDavid. They do have Leon back, which is obviously massive as well. Bouchard had a great season offensively.

Starting point is 00:28:51 If Connor Ingram can just be average for them, I still think they can find a way to win this series. But hey, the ducks are showing that they can sort. score with them. They don't play good defense. That's been the case throughout the season. It's a lot of firewagon hockey, but they can score with them. So I think you're going to see a lot more high scoring games in that series. I will say about the Kings, they're very much parking the bus. They tried to win that game one nothing before it went to overtime in Denver. Pinnair had a nice school, but it's like, if you try to win a one nothing game over Colorado, more than not, you're going to

Starting point is 00:29:24 lose it. I mean, given the matchup, though, that's pretty much how L.A. has to, it's, it's not dissimilar to penguins flyers. The flyers are going to have to continue to play insanely stout defense and stop the penguins attack, which they have done pretty successfully through three games. That's how LA has to do it, but Colorado has been able to break it, unlike the penguins. The other thing I'm looking forward to is tonight. Really, yeah, tonight, I got to look at the schedule here, but tonight, first ever playoff game in Utah. That's, that's going to be, that's going to be a lot of fun 930 tonight. That series has been fun. And shout out Logan Cooley, the Pittsburgh kid scores the first playoff goal in Mammoth history. We love to see that. Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:30:11 And Utah can also score with Vegas. I think they've shown that in these first two games. They're getting solid goaltending. Utah has what it takes to really scare Vegas. We'll see if they can win this series. But at the very least, they're going to scare them. I picked that series to go, I believe at least six to seven games. I believe it was seven. If I had to call correctly, I believe I took Vegas. I believe it's in seven games. My mind, my memory is just, I guess, going away.

Starting point is 00:30:38 I know I took Vegas, though, but Utah is going to keep scaring them in this series. That's been a lot of fun to watch again. Excited for more Minnesota, Dallas. I wanted those two teams to play all night the other night. It went to double overtime, but just give me a nice triple over time. How about a quadruple overtime? Play until three in the morning. Why not?

Starting point is 00:30:55 But a lot of fun series so far. But as for this one here, Pat, game four Saturday in Philly. Come Monday, we're either talking about, hey, we're preview in game five, or we're talking about the broom is coming out,

Starting point is 00:31:10 and the season is over because that's when we're going to talk to you all next. We're not going to have an episode this weekend because we never have episodes on weekends. And we're going to talk to you all on Monday after game four. We're going to recap it, potentially preview a game five, if not, just going to recap the series as a whole and then get set for the offseason.

Starting point is 00:31:29 So we'll see what happens on Saturday. For Patrick Damp, I am Hunzer Hodes. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We appreciate it. We'll be back on Monday.

Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Can the Penguins live to fight another day?

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