Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Can the Penguins sweep this road trip?

Episode Date: November 22, 2021

Well, well, well. The Pittsburgh Penguins aren't dead just yet! Hunter recaps the Penguins' ginormous 2-0 win over the Maple Leafs on Saturday night as it was everything they needed. He goes into that while it was boring, Toronto didn't do a lot offensively in the high-danger areas. Is that the blueprint going forward? Was it a testament to how great of a coach Mike Sullivan is? He also touches on Jake Guentzel and the hot streak that he's on. Was this always expected from Jake? He then ponders on Jason Zucker and whether he's still having a great season, despite the goals drying up. Is it still good when he's making excellent passes like the one to Jeff Carter? Also, discussed: When is that special announcement coming? How are the Jets better this year than previously anticipated? Has Brock McGinn turned the corner? When will ZAR get back on the score sheet?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, everyone, and welcome to this Monday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hoodies. You're not to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow this show's Twitter at L-O-Nsore Penguins.

And, of course, thank you all so much for making the Locked-on Penguins podcast your first listen of the day. a couple things before we get into the meat of today's episode. So the tease or the announcement tease, whatever you want to call it that I talked about on Friday. It looks like I think it's going to be announced on Black Friday in four days. I touched on it on my personal Twitter account and on the Lockdown Penguins' Twitter account. Some of you have probably already seen it. So the rumor announcement is going to be the Penguins third jerseys. I'm probably cleared that I can talk about it now.

And what the jersey is likely going to be if this comes to fruition, if it doesn't, you know, come at me, come at the person that I've heard this from or I've seen it, it's going to be the Snoop Dog jerseys from the 90s coming back. So they had the reverse retro last year with them in white. This time, it's going to be them in black. And I believe the logo is going to be a bit different on the dress. shoulder crest. I've heard that from someone who is a bit more in the know than I am. So expect a different penguin's logo on the shoulder crest of this jersey. And I think it's going to be announced on Friday. It makes a lot of sense. That's when the Christmas shopping starts for a lot of people. And, you know, this is also, I think, the last jersey that hasn't been announced yet. You know, the person that I know

that has this information has been right on all of the other rumored jerseys that have that have come out this year and in recent years so again it's not finalized but that is look it that's looking like that's going to be the announcement this coming friday is the penguin's third jersey for the rest of this year and i think for next year as well it's going to be the snoop dog third jersey that the team wore in the 90s um that would 100% be copped by me um for the holiday season now getting back to saturday Saturday's performance is the Penguins shut out the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-0. They have now shut out their last two opponents and outscored Montreal and Toronto by a combined 8-0. And my biggest takeaway from that game, sure it's boring, but who really cares? I mean, the Penguins, when they went up 2 to nothing in their first period, they didn't just magically stop skating, right? They continue to play hard, they put a lot of shots on Jack Campbell.

And credit to Campbell, he made a lot of 10 bell saves to keep that game. from being 3-0, 4-0, heck even 5-0. So the Penguins were not turtling like we've seen them do in years past, or even a couple times this year as well. You know, they kept skating and they kept playing hard. And while doing that, they were also limiting Toronto with the high danger chances. I believe Toronto at 5E-5 only finished with six high-danger chances. So I don't really give a crap if Mitch Marner wants to skate around the offensive zone to the perimeter.

He can do that all day if he wants to. with Austin Matthews, same with William Nealander, who was doing the same exact thing as well. John Severus, all those people. If you're not letting them get to the high danger areas, that is what matters to me. And that's exactly what the Penguins did for that game. Tristan Jari made some pretty big saves, I should say, in the first period. Brian Dumlin had this really bad giveaway that I saw. Basically gave it, I think, right to William Nealander's stick.

It was either him or Marner, and they got lucky that Marner hit the crossbar. he had Jari beat. And then a couple of other times as well, you know, made some really big saves and, you know, on the five on three in the third period. There's also a five on four power play, I think, at the second period where Toronto, I think, had the puck for almost the entirety of the two minutes. And Jari was basically the entire team on that PKK. I was very surprised that the Penguins could not get the puck out during that time.

But, you know, it just speaks volumes to how high of a level Tristan Jari is playing at right now. You know, my second biggest takeaway, I guess. Again, you know, did people really need to start panicking about this team? That's now two really big wins in row. I said it on my Friday episode. They needed to get at least two out of four points to end this road trip. They have a chance to sweep the road trip tonight against the Winnipeg Jets 8.30 p.m. start time. And I just thought the penguins, they played a very methodical game where even the underlying numbers,

it was pretty split down the middle. I know the leaves had the edge in shot attempts, but in terms of high danger chances, the penguins led there. They also led in scoring chances for, expected goals for. So it definitely was weird looking at that after the game because for some of it, it looked like the Leafs were leading in all those categories. And then I was able to check NST and then see that the Penguins were actually leading in most of them. But that lines up a little bit with what we saw in the first period,

the third period especially where the Penguins came out guns and blaze. And they were not trying to turtle that lead because they know how dangerous the Leafs are. I mean, they had won nine out of their last 10 games coming in. So they were one of the hottest teams in the league. And the fact that they were able to shut the Leafs down yet again, this was the second time this season that they have limited one of the highest scoring teams in the league. That just goes to show how great of a system Mike Sullivan runs. And when it's ran to perfection, there's not much the opposition can do.

Because again, the Leafs were really not getting a lot of scoring chances during this game. And I was seeing a lot of praise from Mike Sullivan throughout this game. And it's almost like, yeah, he's a top three coach in hockey. You can make a really good argument that he is the best coach in hockey. You're starting to see this team gel a little bit. You know, it was probably going to take a week, maybe a bit more for this team to finally come together, start playing some consistent hockey. You have been seeing that ever since the third period against Buffalo. I think during that second intermission, Mike Sullivan must have woke something up inside all of these players,

and they have played some rock solid hockey ever since them. Jake Gensel opened up the scoring, as I'm sure all of you are aware. Just a really nifty move past Jack Campbell, Brian Rustin, Brian Duhlin, I'm pretty sure, got the assist on that. I thought Sid got the assist at first, but I guess, you know, the Penguins app also lied to me when I got the alert after. Because at the time, I was working my full-time job, so I was not able to start watching the game until right after that goal. But, you know, Gensel really starting to heat up. I believe that's what his fifth or sixth goal for the month of November. I knew he was likely going to be fine.

I know I said about a week and a half, two weeks ago. I wanted to see more for him because he had a really slow start to the season. I'm going to be objective about any player that starts slow, whether it's him, Cindy Crosby, Evgeny Malkin, Krista Tang, whatever. But he has answered the bell. Unlike a couple other players on this team, he has woken up, found his stride, and he is producing like he is one of the top 10 best goal scores in this league. Because I do think when he is firing on all cylinders,

there are not 10 pure goal scores better than Jake. in this league. So I guess the NHL wanted to wake up, Jake. Probably not a good idea considering how good he is. Jeff Carter was able to get another goal this season. What a pass there from Jason Zucker. He has had a really good season after struggling last year. I know the goals have not been there from him, but if he's making plays like that, especially on a beautiful pass for a primary assist, I don't really care if he's not scoring a lot of goals. Yes, I understand that his contract is a lot, but he's still contributing overall to this team,

unlike last year where he wasn't making any plays with the puck, and he also wasn't scoring. At least we're getting one of those things right now, and I do think hopefully at some point you will start to see him score a bit more as the season goes on. I think him, you know, him playing with Afghani Malkin again should help him, or if Mike Sullivan wants to, he can put Zucker up there with Gensel because he did throw Jason out there a little bit towards the end,

of the game with Sid and it looked pretty good and I wish Sully would give that more of a look with Gensel because I think that could be just as lethal as the Gensel Crosby-Russ line. Overall though I am loving the production that we are starting to see from most of the top players

on this team Sid I thought also had a pretty good game despite not being on the score sheet again he's still getting his legs back. He had COVID. He's been injured. Given another week week and a half he should be all right but overall again just liking when I I'm seeing from the team chemistry right now.

I thought it was wrong by some people to say this team is totally done, you know, going full panic mode. I was definitely worried about some aspects with this team, but I was not in full panic mode yet. There are only one point out of a playoff spot right now. Yes, I understand the top three in the Metro is really competitive, but they are still in a fine spot. Let's see what they can do on Monday night against Winnipeg. That's a really tough opponent, really good goal tender on the other side with a lot of great

top six talent, but this has been a really good road trip. Thus far, and they have some more winnable games coming up after tonight against Winnipeg. The Islanders who have really struggled this year. Vancouver comes to town later this week. That's a team that could be making a lot of changes pretty soon. So let's see what happens here with the Penguins this next week or two. We still have a lot more to get to when it comes to that game against Toronto. But before we do that, today, I want to tell you about a simple way to get all the entertainment

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I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. I'm not to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hode. follow this shows Twitter at LO underscore Penguins. A couple other takeaways that I had from that game against Toronto. Brock McGinn continues to play at a much higher level. I thought this was his second really good game of this past week. You know, the expected goals overall at all situations, he was at point four. That was second on the team to Jake Gensel, who is always around the net.

So that's never surprising. But Brock was creating a lot offensively. Had a couple of really nice moves in the offensive zone as well. You can tell that he's starting to find his stride a little bit. I know that he has been the victim of some fans coming at him during the season just because of the four-year $2.75 million contract that he signed over the offseason. And yes, I understand he doesn't have that dazzling speed that Brandon Taneff has. He's not going to throw his body around and, you know, flow his hair around or whatever like that,

like Brandon Tanev used to do. But this is still a player that can contribute offensively, can play on the penalty kill, is good in his own zone, and you have seen all three of those things this year at a pretty good level. I mean, he already has four goals and seven points in 17 games. I mean, he's on pace for what? Over 10 goals, close to 15 goals, I think, for the season. If he can hit that, that would be pretty freaking awesome. And he just seems like a really good fit on that line with Aston Reese in Bluger.

I'm still not ready to say if it's as good as a fourth line compared to when Tannib was on there. but they're definitely not missing too much of a beat with Tana of not there, if that makes sense. But the jury is still out there to see if it's better than what we saw last year at that fourth line. Zach Aspenrys, I thought he had another really strong game as well. I know some people might nitpick him just because he hasn't scored this year. Some people could be like, well, where's his offense at? He had his best offensive season since he came into the league last year, what's been giving. I think part of it is just that, well, A, the puck is not going in the net, and B, he's playing more defensively responsible this year, which is kind of crazy to say because he's one of the most defensively responsible players in the league.

But, you know, I haven't really seen him take a lot of shots in the offensive zone or just get a lot of good looks in the offensive zone. I just don't think he's wired like that this year. That can definitely change as a season goes on, but I just haven't seen it from him yet. But again, that's not to say that he's playing bad because he's not. I mean, he's one of the team's best players and expected goals against, high danger chances against and all that. I didn't like the penalty that he took late in the third period to put the Leafs on a 5 on 3, considering you're playing well to lead at 2-0.

There's only a few minutes left. You can't put them right back in the game. I love the effort from the penalty kill. I think, you know, in terms of the biggest differences from last year compared to this year, that's easily the biggest one. I also think Tristan Jory is making a lot more saves on the PK compared to last year, but still, not to give him handy for Zard to take there, but overall, I really enjoyed watching him throughout that game.

You know, he was a back-checking menace for the team, and I think sooner rather than later, you are going to see him put the puck in the back of the net a bit more. Some other takeaways that I was looking at for this one, I just, I want them to continue to play Tristan Jari a lot more. I don't want Casey to sniff to play unless it's a, back-to-back situation. I know that may sound weird because Jari is going to get a lot more starts than, you know, some people anticipated. But with how he is rolling right now, you can't take him off the ice. He even said to the media after this game, you know, he loves playing a lot. And for a

goalie that embarrassed himself in the playoffs last year in that six-game sample size, he wants every chance available to prove his doubters and his haters wrong. You know, I think he's He spoke after this game as well that, you know, he had plenty of conversations with Ron Hextall during the offseason, basically saying that, you know, we believe in you. We're going to give you another chance. We're not going to go out and get a replacement goalie for you or trade you or anything like that. And he wanted to prove to them that they were making the right call. And so far, he has done that. And then some, I'm going to mention this because I'm sure it's going to be broken at some point.

Jari is not allowed a goal in 150. minutes in six seconds dating back to the second period against the Buffalo Sabres last Tuesday. So he hasn't even allowed a goal in six days. I mean, usually Jari. I made this comparison last week. He's pretty shy with the media. It's kind of like with Matt Murray that they both really don't say a lot. You know, I know Murray would blame himself a lot of times.

But even when he would do that, he still wouldn't say much. But it looks like from what I read this past week, and he was pretty giddy talking in the media because he's really excited with how he's playing right now. And, you know, how can you not be? He's getting better game after game. His goal saved above expected right now is now 5.1. That's just below James Reimer, who's at 7. His save percentage on unblocked shots is 9.59.

His state percentage overall for this season, 927 expected goals against 2.5.3 and an even better stat, his actual goals against average is 2.17. So he is outperforming that. He's outperforming a lot of stats this season. above replacement, 0.85. So that's got to be, I think, the highest mark for his career in terms of that category. And again, the Penguins would not be here right now without the play of their starting goal tender for this season.

And one more thing, I got to say, his technique looks really good right now. You can really see the work that Andy Kyoto has put in with Tristan over the course of this season. And, you know, during the offseason coming into this season as well, I've touched on this numerous times on this podcast. He's playing not as deep in his net anymore, well, except for shootouts, but, you know, shootouts, I think is a different story. There's no shootouts in the playoffs people.

He's playing a lot further out, challenging more shooters, which, you know, he wasn't doing a lot of last season. And when he's doing that, there's not a lot of room to shoot on him. He's not, you know, flopping around in the net a lot, which is, again, something that we saw a lot of last season. But overall, just everything is going right with Jari's game right now. It's something that, you know, again, we all. love to see. My last takeaway, I got to touch on him again, Kisbury Kappan. I mean, I think it was

an interesting night for him. I mean, I did see a couple of big hits that I saw from him that usually don't see from Kappin, and I'm not really someone who, you know, looks at the hit sheet or whatever, but I thought it would be interesting to mention because he doesn't usually throw his body around like that. He also blocked a couple of shots, which you usually are not accustomed to seeing him doing. But I think he was trying to put on a bit of a show for his form. former team and just be like, hey, you know, this is what you traded. I thought he had a couple decent scoring chances, but the puck is still bouncing off his stick, like it's a freaking grenade.

So a little bit more of the same from Kappi, but also some different stuff that we saw in that game. Overall, I thought his line, though, was pretty good, Jason Zucker. Of course, I already touched on, had a fantastic performance, and then Jeff Carter was able to get his fourth goal of the season. I know he was into a bit of a yawning cage, but, you know, Zucker with that amazing pass there to make it to nothing. But overall, though, great performance from the Penguin.

that's now four out of four points on this road trip, and they will have, again, that opportunity to make it six out of six when they travel to Winnipeg tonight, 8.30 p.m. start time. And that will be the final topic for today's episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'll go into why playing in Winnipeg is very hard for the opposition and touch on just what is making Winnipeg click this year, because I think that's a team that I don't think a lot of people expected to be good, but they've definitely been one of the better teams around the NHL this season.

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I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at LNswear Penguins. So, as I've said, probably 5,000 times this episode, the Penguins will conclude this three-game Canadian road trip tonight against those jets from Winnipeg. I'm looking forward to watching this game just because Winnipeg has been pretty good this year, especially when it comes to the underlying numbers. They have nearly 52% of the expected goals at 5B5, but 60.3% of the actual goals.

So they are finishing their chances to a pretty elite degree this year. There are shot attempts at 5B, they're controlling 52.8% of those. Usually a Paul Maurice team doesn't have the best underlying numbers, but this year they are through the roof. Again, Kyle Conner, who is going to be on Team USA if the league hopefully does go to the Olympics and they don't cancel. 22 points in 17 games, 12 of those are goals.

Pierre Loque Dubois has had a really nice balance back after struggling badly in both Columbus and Winnipeg last year. 10 goals, 16 points in 17 games. Andrew Kopp has been pretty good. He's averaging a point per game. Nikolai Eilers is one of the more underrated goal scores in this league, already six goals, 13 points, and 17. games to open the year.

Nate Schmidt has not missed a beat. I will always say he is one of the more underrated defensemen in hockey. It's ridiculous that he's been traded so many times throughout his career. He has 11 points. He has 17 games. 10 of those are assists. Paul Stassney's still there chugging along. Neil Pionk has been a revelation ever since going to them from the New York Rangers.

Josh Morrissey is there still. Blake Wheeler has still not scored this year, but I'm sure now that I said that, I'm sure he is going to score. at some point this year. And, you know, in goal. You know, Connor Hella Buck, he's saving 7.3 goals above expected. And I know how good Tristan Jari has been this year, but Hella Buck has been just that much better.

His save percentage on unblocked shots, 95 is expected save percentage on the unblock shots. 945. His actual safe percentage, 918, 2.62 goals against average. So he is killing it as he always does. He's going to be starting for Team USA in February. The Jets overall have a plus 12 goal differential. They also have 2.4 or 5 actual goals for per 60.

Their goals against per 60, 1.6.1. So not only are they scoring at a pretty decent clip this year, they are not giving up crap the other way. That just goes to show how well they are playing defensively and how well Connor Hellebuck has been in net too. So this is not going to be an easy game for the Penguins. They hardly ever are in Winnipeg. This is a place where Pittsburgh hardly ever wins.

Though I will say the last time they beat them there, October 13th, 2019, a 7 to 2 drubbing of the Jets. I'm actually going to look to see here. Zach Ashton Reese, that was a 3.9 for him, two of those were goals. Jake Ensel had two goals. Sam freaking Lafferty had two goals as well. Then Dominic Simone also scored two. So, I mean, the fact that Sam Lafferty scored two goals, the last time the Penguins won in Winnipeg is nothing short of insane. Obviously, he will be out for this matchup.

as the team is fully healthy. I am glad that they haven't really put Brian Boyle back in the lineup just because of a PK ability. I think if you're doing that, you're basically wasting your time because he really wasn't doing a lot at even strength. We all wanted him to be better than Jankowski. He was,

but they just have too many better forwards than him at this point. And, you know, he's collecting a paycheck to basically sit in the press box now that the team is fully healthy. Outside of the Gini Malkin, that is. And for those that are, wanting an update from me on Gino. Nothing really yet. I mean, he's continuing to skate.

I think the next step now is waiting for him to rejoin the team at practice. I don't know when that's going to happen. With December, less than two weeks away, you have to think that this is coming soon with regards to a return to a practice session and then a return to games. I mean, I've seen rumors floated around that it could be Christmas when he starts playing. I'm not really sure. But that's the latest update I have for you all right now with Afghani Malkin.

have not heard any definitive date as for when he's going to come back. But that will do it for this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. As always, I appreciate all of you listening to this one. We will have a full game recap episode for you all on Tuesday, and we will see if the Penguins will come home with a 3-0 sweep of this Canadian trip. So thank you all so much for listening, and I'll talk to you all on Tuesday.