Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Casey DeSmith stones the Sens, is he on his way back for the Penguins?

Episode Date: February 11, 2022

The Penguins win again! Hunter recaps the 2-0 shutout win over the Ottawa Senators and he makes sure to shout out Matt Murray during the opening of the show. Hunter praises him for being the main reason this game was close, while also appreciating what he's done for this franchise in their history. He then breaks down the Jeff Carter game-winner and how that came to be, plus touches on Casey DeSmith. He had a second straight stellar start for the Penguins, this one resulting in a shut-out. How is he climbing out of this hole? Could the Penguins stand pat goalie-wise if he keeps this up? He also brings up John Marino and how this was his best game in some time, while also breaking down how this was a defensive clinic. All that, plus much more on this episode of Locked On Penguins!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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.Primal Origin OilsStop the itch and make your beard look healthy & groomed. Check out PRIMALORIGINSOILS.COM to learn more about their full line of beard care products. Use the code “LOCKEDON” for a 20% discount at checkout.  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.

Well, it wasn't the most exciting game with Penguins. They continue with their winning ways. A 2-0 shutout of the Ottawa Senators, they take the season series against them. They will not be playing the Ottawa Senators until next season. I have a full game recap coming up for you all right after this drop. There's still a whole lot to get to for this episode. You're Locked-on Penguins.

Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello, welcome to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Murdoes, learn to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Also follow the show's Twitter at L.O.N.S.4 Penguins. Yes, I am back on my old setup for now.

Definitely after I posted last night, I tried to do as much editing as I could. And I was like, yeah, the audio is just, it's not it. But trust me, that setup will be back on my order day USB mic. So it's going to look at least, I shouldn't say, definitely more professional, but it's going to look just a lot better. I think it's going to sound better than. how it is right now. The mic that I use is my built-in for my Mac. Apple definitely knows what they're doing. But that camera angle I really liked as well. I'm just going to get a new mic,

and then I'll test a few things out, and then I should be good to go. There should be no other audio problem. So apologize about that. I had a couple people. Damn me saying it was, you know, not so good. Again, thank you all so much for doing that. I know I said to do that last episode. But anyways, Penguins, as I said in my intro, two nothing shut out of the senators tonight. The only reason I think this game was close was because Matt Murray was awesome. And, you know, good for him, man. You know, excuse me, this is a player that, you know, I always will root for. He's definitely, I think, one of the best goaltenders in this franchise's history, brought them two Stanley Cups, just was a brick wall during those runs as well. You know, I know he fell off a

little bit towards the end and he didn't have, you know, his play back there. But, you know, I also felt like he was kind of treated like crap by some of the fan base on the way out. You know, There is a weird segment of Penguins fans that do not like him still because he took Mark or Andre Fleury's job. I don't have time for people like that. You know, they root for the players, not the team. That's just, you know, I understand people can get attached to certain players. But if you're putting one above, you know, the success and greatness of the team,

over the success and greatness of the team, excuse me, you got to recheck your priorities. But he was awesome tonight, you know, had basically 40 out of 40. 40 saves on 41, 42 shots. The only one he didn't really save was just the empty netter because, of course, he was not in the net. But, you know, he made a lot of 10-bell saves. And it was like, wow, you know, this is the Matt Murray that I've watched a lot throughout his career. Just, you know, playing a little more aggressive. You know, his glove hand was looking great.

His movement was awesome. He stoned. I believe it was Carter on a breakaway. He was looking for his 14th goal the season after he got his 13th. and just seeing him go side to side right to left there was just chef's kiss. I've seen that so many times. So shout out to you, Matt. You know, if you ever somehow listening to this podcast, great start.

And I know most people in this fan base love you and they wish you the best. So he's now five and one and two in his last eight starts. He came into this and wanting five of his last seven starts. Now, of course, I just said five of his last eight. But it was five out of the last seven before this loss. And he was saving six goals above expected. So just a really nice balance back after, you know, being demoted to the American Hockey League. So I just wanted to start out the show, just praising him and shouting him out because, you know, he definitely means a lot, at least to me, just because of, you know, how great he was during those cup runs.

And I hope you all feel the same as well. In terms of actual goal scores, you know, Jeff Carter gets his 13th of the season. No goaltender was going to stop that, though. Great pass from Latang for Carter to shoot. It was almost a one-timer, but he was able to corral it and then a split. second later hit the one-timer. Blocker side on Murray. I mean, just couldn't get over there quick enough.

But again, you know, I just said, I don't think really any goalie is going to get over there quick enough. And, you know, Carter was definitely struggling. I think these last five to six games, you know, I've seen some takes saying that, you know, he's maybe not worth the contract and all that. I've already given my thoughts on it. I think it's fine unless he really starts to dip.

And again, I understand he was struggling. But, you know, you can only keep him off the score sheet so much, you know, gets his 13th of the year. he's been good. You know, he's going to go back to his usual spot on Sunday when, again, he Malkin returns. You know, he's going to have a couple more practices. He's off COVID protocol.

He'll be back in his second line spot. You know, that I'll have Carter playing his usual minutes. And not that I don't think he can play top six minutes. He's done that really well this year when Malkin was out with his knee injury. But, you know, it's still better for him, you know, to get those minutes that, you know, that are just better suited for him, I guess is my way to say it. So really nice goal there. Overall, though, I guess my first.

other, my biggest takeaway outside of that. This was just a defensive clinic by the penguins. You know, I checked out an actual stat trick throughout, you know, not the best first period. You know, the senators had 59% of the shot attempts. 63% of the scoring chances they led in high danger 5 to 3. After that, though, it was all penguins. 15, 14 shot attempts in the second period for the penguins, 12 to 4 in the third period. I mean, Pittsburgh just took it to Ottawa.

in that third period. That's when they just, again, it really started, I think, tilt the ice. Overall, the Penguins finished above even in shot attempts for 50.5% of those. Scoring chances-wise, it was almost 15. And again, it was just that bad first period, you know, where the Penguins, you know, they only had 37% of the scoring chances. In the last two periods, it was 9 to 6 for scoring chances wise. But overall, 18 to 16 favor of Ottawa. High danger, though.

9 for Ottawa, 5 for Pittsburgh, but only 4. four of those high danger chances came in the last 40 minutes. One of those four was in the third period. I mean, just locked down defense there from Pittsburgh. That was honestly, I think, their best defensive performance in at least two to three weeks. I don't think I can name a performance that comes even close to how good this one is. I know the Seattle one wasn't bad until I think the last few minutes when, you know, the Cracken did tie it courtesy of Jared McCann, and then they were kind of on their heels.

but, you know, the Red Wings won, Boston in that first period, they were really dreadful. Washington, I didn't really think the defensive play was that good, even though offensively, they were dominating them quite a bit. But tonight, you know, this was the, this is the blueprint for the Penguins playing defensive hockey. You know, you saw that one-two neutral zone trap, you know, just, you know, doing its thing. And when Mike, when Mike Sullivan's system, you know, is on one, this is how it's supposed to look like. I mean, at least defensively, you know, offensively, they were doing it. their job. Not bad tonight. Definitely, I think, could have been a little bit better, but

it's also the dog days of the season, but you're playing a bad team. I'll get to that in a second. But this is the kind of blueprint that I think a lot of people in the fan base should want to see. And you should give you pause about this team going on a deep run or something. They are capable of doing this to any team in the league. I know Otto is not that good. I know they played three games in the last four nights. but I still think, you know, this was just a really strong performance defense. So, you know, no one was really losing their assignments. Mike Matheson, I'll take you back to about two minutes left in the third period. Derek Foremanton is coming in.

Looks like he's going to get around Mike for, you know, just using his strength on his back end. But Matheson's able to push under the boards, play the man and the puck, almost basically at the same time. Puck gets loose. The Penguins are going the other way. Sidney Crosby dive in to get a shot block. with 20 seconds left. That was incredible. Jake Gensel, just a couple seconds later,

he's putting his body on the line for a shot lock. You know, it's just everyone was doing their thing tonight in the defensive zone. No one was having a lack of effort or anything like that. So I really loved that part of the game for the Penguins. And yes, you know, I am kind of glad that Sidney Crosby did not score his 500th goal tonight. It would have just been so anti-clamatic

because they're playing in an arena with 500 people and don't, don't get me wrong. It was weird to see that because, you know, I know, I know, I know, I would say for the last, like half a year, a little over half a year, you know, we've gotten back to full capacity because, you know, the pandemic, you know, while more people getting vaccinated and boostered and everything, which is, of course, awesome. But, you know, it just, it feels weird to be back here, especially like up in Ottawa, just barely seeing any fans there. It just takes me back to, you know, 20, 20 in the bubble and stuff. So I'm glad that, you know, he has a chance to do it maybe, you know, close to a full arena in New Jersey,

even though the devils are bad, but hopefully next Tuesday they play Philadelphia. If there's any time to do it, Sid, that's the one. Get the win in that game against the team that you have just owned your entire career. That will do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, I'm going to Casey DeSmith's performance. Just look at what stood out to me with that. And what could that mean moving forward for the Penguins and a couple other things as well. Before I get to that, though, Ben-in-Lon has you covered this season with more prompts

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All right. Welcome back to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter, L.O. underscore Penguins. So as I tease going into this segment, Casey DeSmith, just sensational tonight.

This was his second consecutive really good start. And, you know, he's playing for his job right now. That's the bottom line I have for you all. I mean, you know, he was really bad going into that last start against the Red Wings about a week and a half. I believe it was two weeks ago almost now. But, you know, since then, he's had two strong starts. And he needs to keep this up if he is going to keep his job.

You know, they need to give Tristan a rest because he has played a lot this year. You know, only Andre Vasselowski at this point has played more than Tristan, which is, I mean, that's crazy to think about. So, you know, I'm, I know I tweeted this morning, for those that follow me on social media that, you know, for the first time, we're going to get Murray versus Jari. Well, you know, that lasted about 10 minutes when Mike said to Smith was going to start. And then, you know, I basically just said, well, there is no God until Casey just proved me to be an idiot. You know, he was really standing tall in net. I thought throughout that contest. I mean, he was playing a

a little deep in there at times, which was scaring me. But, you know, when he was called upon, you know, he had a couple of big saves on breakaways. I think one of them was on Nick Paul. The other one was on, I had a, I had it. I had it. written down here somewhere. It'll come to me, I think, throughout. I don't think it was Kachuk, but I know one of them was on Nick Paul. He was just really cool, calm and collected in the net moving well as he saw those breakaways happen, and he was able to come up with some huge saves.

And, you know, he wasn't making those kind of saves earlier on in the season. Remember, their first time they played in Ottawa, he got walked. I'm pretty sure he allowed four or five goals in a span of 25, 30 minutes. I mean, the Penguins, I know, tried to crawl back the best they could, they made it 5-3 for a little bit before Ottawa 1-6-3, but he got lit up by that team in Otto last time. So I think that might have been part of Mike Sullivan's strategy. He wanted to go back to him again just because he got lit up the last time he played this team.

He's able to come back, you know, not give them karma, I guess, but, you know, to show them that, you know, I'm not that goalie, you know, at least right now. But, you know, that's 120 plus minutes of really great hockey from Ms. Smith. And again, if he keeps this up, that's, you know, one less thing the penguins will have to do at the trade down there. Pittsburgh can now maybe go to getting a forward. You know, what's going to happen with Jason Zucker, right? I mean, Teddy Bluger, he's still out for a few more weeks.

I know the deadline is not for, I think, another month now anyway. But, you know, all of a sudden, the penguins will have options. You know, they'll have a little bit of money to play with. I know they're up against the cap. But if your backup goaltending situation sorts itself out, and if Casey can continue this hot streak, you know, and it's very small sample size, two games, you know, two shotouts also in his last six starts.

But, you know, let's see if he can build it off this momentum. You know, do they go after a defenseman? John Marino thought he was, I'll actually get to my thoughts on him in a second. You know, you want to make an update on your D-Corps? Do you want to go get a forward? They're going to have their options. So, you know, I think their best course of action right now is to just hope and continue to pray that DeSmith works out these kings and continues to put together these strong

start so they don't have to give up assets to go get a backup in case Tristan falters in the playoffs. But, you know, they also need a backup just because Tristan can't start every game as well. So, you know, they can go out and, you know, move an asset for immediate forward. How much? I know I probably said the same thing 14,000 times during this. But, you know, it's something to keep an eye on. That's for sure. You know, speaking defensively, I honestly thought John Marino tonight had his best game that I've

seen in at least almost. most a month. Just really moving the puck well up the ice, was actually activating in the offensive zone. That was really pretty to see. He had a couple really strong moments with the puck where he was kind of dangling a couple defenders. I was like, wow, don't know where this came from, but if they can stay throughout the entire rest of the season, I would absolutely love that, man. Defensively, I thought he was playing great too. This is the level that I want to see consistently from drama. I know it's been a big struggle for him this season,

but he was setting up a lot of golden chances. He's moving the puck well and the power play. I already talked about his defensive ability tonight when he was shutting down some sentence players on the rush and just in front of the net as well. This is the player that we all saw a couple of years ago that took the Penguins by storm and it was like, wow, you know, this could be the next pretty good Penguins defenseman here.

Moving forward. So I was really impressed with him. I mean, if he keeps us up, you know, maybe the team doesn't have to go out and gets it to defensive help. I have seen some people in the fan base on social media and stuff say, you know, for those that are not on social media, you know, they've said that, you know, maybe they can go out and get Jeff Petrie, John Klingberg. But the problem with those players are, you know, all the, I know they're really good,

but they make a lot of money and you'd probably have to give out quite a haul to get them. And it's probably, it will probably not just be Sam Poulan, a first round pick and something else. It's probably going to be a much better player of it. I know the Penguins are in win now, I'm not sure Hextall and Burke want to give up that package, especially for a player like Klingberg, because I believe his contract is up after this year, he would just be a pure rental. I think they would probably want players that have term.

I think that's their preference. Because remember, they traded for Jeff Carter last from L.A. He still had a year left on his contract before he became a UFA. I mean, that, that's that. I don't really think they're too interested in getting rentals too much. So, you know, that's, and it's an area to keep an eye on, you know, I wouldn't rule out them maybe getting a depth defenseman. But, you know, as it right now, you know, John definitely had a really good game tonight as well. The top line was just, whew, they were all over the ice.

I mean, you know, and I don't think a lot of people nationally, you know, cover the league, are talking about that top line as much. You know, I'm not going to sit here and say that it has as much value as the Bergeron-Posternak-Marshand line, because that's probably the best top line in hockey. You know, the Ransanan and Landisog, McKenna, I'm going to screw that up. The Ransan and Landisog, McKinnon line, is also one of the best of hockey. But right after those two,

it's probably Gensel-Krosby Rust. They have the underlying numbers to prove it this year. If I can go on to Mummy Puck and check this out here real quick, I love that they have the lines feature. You scroll down a little bit. Well, they had the Gensel-Crosby-Rodriguez, But here it is, Gensel Crosby, Russ, 55.1% of the expected goals. That is one of the best marks in hockey.

I scroll past the Matheson or Riedel one. They have almost 60% of the expected goals this year. That's how good that pairing has been. And, you know, they're just, you know, they're kicking ass. I think that's my best way of saying. I think, you know, they're expected goals for actually, you know, 3.02. per 60 minutes. Just, it's insane.

Sid was a one-man wrecking crew again tonight. And again, you know, I'm glad he didn't score his 500th. I would prefer to see him score that in an actual building with, you know, a lot of fans there. Ross, glad that he was able to get the empty netter. He's continuing his strong season. Gansel had quite a bit of chances. A few of them, I think, were on deflections. But Murray came up with some really nice saves.

I still have more thoughts on this game coming up in the third segment. I'm going to go into the fourth line a little bit. Talk about what I noticed with those players. You know, we might also do a small preview of the game on Sunday, as the Penguins will be taking on the New Jersey Devils for the third time this season. I don't think this was a post-prone one. So that'll be the third out of four beatings against the Devils. But before we do that, though, you can save time and money when using Rock Auto.

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That is rock auto. All right, we're back here in this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow those shows, Twitter, at L.O. underscore Penguins. The fourth line tonight, you know, there was an extended shift in the third period where, you know, they were just swamping the Sends. Boyle was really for checking down low, just great behind the net.

You know, I actually think that's an underrated attribute of his game. You know, just watch him down there. Obviously, I'm not. saying it's Cindy Crossby level or you run an Evgeny Malkin level or anything like that. But, you know, the way he's able to just shrug off defenders is really good. And, you know, especially for doing someone who is a lot older, I think, at this point, he plays pretty good down low. And, you know, they have basically close, I think, to a two-minute shift with, you know,

Boyle Simone and Zahorna just forechecking very immensely. Simone had a couple really strong chances from the slot area, you know, in the high-danger area that Murray, was able to come up with. They were able to work it from low to high multiple times, which is a really strong shift in that fourth line. And I know they didn't have a shift that was similar to that throughout, you know, the rest of the game, but they were still playing well enough that, you know,

that Mike Sullivan was trusting them in a late game situation when you're only up one goal. I just, I just thought, you know, sometimes it's the little things that I like to notice with this team. And I wanted to shout out the fourth line to start this third segment because, you know, They've been pretty freaking, they had a really strong game, I thought, tonight. And, you know, obviously, I think, you know, one of these players is probably going to be stratched coming on Sunday. You know, again, he Malton is going to be back.

He's going to practice with the team over these next couple of days. But, you know, I really liked what I saw tonight, you know, from those players. I would guess it's a hornah, but I'm not sure. We'll have to see what Mike Sullivan decides to do. A small little preview, though, for New Jersey moving forward. They have 50.5% of the expected goals right now, 43.2% of the actual goals, 41% of the shot attempts, minus 29 goal differential.

Their goal-tending has definitely not been good this year. They only have an 896 overall, say, percentage. That's one of the worst marks in the league. McKenzie Blackwood's been in and out of the lineup. You know, Bernier's been banged up a lot this year as well. They've also been going through a lot of injuries. You know, he sure was banged up for a time. But, you know, this is always a team that loves to give the penguins fits.

That's the thing here. I mean, they've been doing that these last, you know, few seasons. And for whatever reason, you know, even though the devils have stunk, they play the penguins like it's their Stanley Cup final. I don't know what it is. That brings out the best in them when they play Pittsburgh. But those games are always tough. You know, especially in New York, you know,

I wouldn't call that place the Penguins House of Horrors. I think that's mainly been Boston throughout the last. last decade, though, I know they've won two in a row up at TD Garden. But, you know, very rarely do they play well in Newark. You know, a lot of more times they come out with wins, but they're not super good wins, I guess is what I'm trying to say. You know, that's going to be an afternoon start on Super Bowl Sunday at 1.30 p.m. Eastern time. You know, so excited to watch that. You know, we're in the dog days of the season right now. You know, I was thinking about this. I was going to tweet it. I figured I would just share this with you all here.

this game tonight against Ottawa was the perfect summary of, you know, the dog days of the season, playing a bad team on the road, and, you know, you're barely up a goal or two. Because the game was, I mean, the game was boring. I mean, let's just say that. I mean, you know, I know a lot of times, you know, you're not going to get a team's best effort when you play a bad team in mid-February when you basically have a playoff spot locked up. I mean, the way they're going right now, it would have to be a monroe. monumental collapse or just, you know, 15,000 injuries.

Well, you know, I'm not going to wood because Penguins, we all know their history with injuries. But it would just have to be a monumental collapse, I think, for this team to miss the playoffs. But I think that we'll do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I always appreciate all of you listening to this one. I think the audio for this is going to be much better. And again, you know, probably another episode or two, you know, maybe three before I have the brand new setup. moving forward on my PCM and have the brand new professional mic as well.

So the audio is not going to be muffled, echo-y like it was on Wednesday. So again, thank you all so much for listening to this one. And I'll be back on Friday for another episode covering this team. I'll talk to you all then.