Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Dump this one in the trash and move on!

Episode Date: December 28, 2022

That was the worst season performance for the Pittsburgh Penguins and it wasn't close. Hunter starts the show by looking at how Brian Dumoulin and Jeff Carter crush this team on a nightly basis. he breaks down the first goal and what went wrong, plus who was on the ice for it (Hint: it wasn't Carter) before touching on how it's time for Mike Sullivan to have some heart-to-heart conversations with Dumoulin. He looks at how Dumoulin is doing nothing to help the team right now and how it's getting close to Jack Johnson level bad with how his play continues to deteriorate. After that, he gets to Carter and how he was in no-man's-land for multiple goals against the Islanders. Is it time to move Carter to the wing? Would that even work? Hunter dissects that before moving to just how brutal of a game this was. He looks at NST and how this was a total clunker right from the opening faceoff but also urges fans to not read much into it. Every team has clunkers throughout each season. To wrap up the show, Hunter previews the game against the Detroit Red Wings and looks at if you will see any lineup changes for it.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 “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!NHTSADrive sober or get pulled over. Click HERE to learn 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.

Well, that was certainly a game for the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight, a blowout loss to a team that has just caused so much heartache, whatever word you want to call it, for over the last three decades. Well, before even I was born, heck, I wasn't even alive for what happened in 1993. But if I was, probably would still be haunted by it. Like, a lot of you listeners are that are a lot older than me and, you know, going way back as well as to the 70s. in the 80s when they still had their number. But, you know, big time blowout loss for the Penguins against the Allender's last night, tonight, excuse me, all along line. For this episode, we're going to fully recap this one, even though there's really not much

to recap, but, you know, we're going to get into the problems that this team has right now. Again, they're not that many, but there are still problems with this team. We're going to preview the game against the Detroit Red Wings. And, you know, we'll also get into other things that I noticed from this game, but, you know, We'll mainly get into some of the problems that I haven't noticed in the last few games, some other ones that have been season-long problems, and then again, we will preview the game against the Red Wings a little later on the show, and it all starts 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 back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes, remember to follow me on Twitter. At Hunter Hodes, follow the shows, Twitter, at LOWS for Penguins.

And, of course, thank you all so much for making this. Your first listen of the day. No episode on Monday was going to record one, but, you know, I realize that, you know, it's kind of still a national. The day after Christmas, we'll still consider a holiday for the country.

And I figured, you know, I've been doing, you know, a lot of good content for you all. I just want to take the day off and just, you know, just, you know, focus on what's coming and this is a big week for the Penguins. and it started off on a really bad note.

Funny enough, just because this game is so bad, I'm actually recording this episode with 10 minutes left in the third period. No, I'm not going to reverse jinks it here. They are down 5 to 1. They are probably going to lose 5 to 1. If not worse, I'll keep obviously checking to see you scored, and we'll break those goals down. But this has been a complete dud for your penguins.

I got bad vibes right from the opening face off. Well, yeah, opening a few seconds, I would say, then sure enough, the Islander score. a little over a minute into the game because the penguins have been allergic to starting games on time at times over the last week. Anders Lee, who has killed the penguins in the past. He got the goal scoring started. Penguins were able to tie it somehow later on in the first period, P.O. Joseph got the goal originally. I thought it was going to Brock McGinn, but it looked like it was just a weird balance past Sorokan. I put out a tweet that McGinn was on pace for 23 goals. I'm shooting 20%

with that goal. He still is on pace for, I believe, 23. 2022 at this point in the shooting 19.8% this season, which is absolutely ridiculous. But POJ gets his second goal in six games. That was nice. Everything after that, though, was a total and utter disgrace. I'm not allowed to say bad words on this show just because I don't want to get in trouble. But the penguins got their butts whooped tonight. If you want to use a worse word, you can say it there.

I'm not going to say it. They just got their butts whooped. you know you can rinse it wash it put in the garbage burn the tape you go on to wednesday everything about this performance stunk um i was looking at natural satrick heading into the third period and i wanted to uh just you know rent my face off really uh islanders were leading in high danger chances 13 to 3 they were doubling them up in shot attempts or other words coursey scoring chances they were doubling them up as well it's gotten worse in the third period.

Everyone on the Penguins no show tonight. Outside of maybe P.O. Joseph and Brock McGinnett, I think those two players have had pretty good games. Everyone else, top line, the second line, especially the third line, the fourth line, everyone defensively, outside of POJ, has been bad. No other way to say it. I mean, everyone has just been awful. And, you know, it all started out tonight with, oh, guess who is on the ice?

Drum roll, please. Oh, Ryan Dumlin, again on the ice for another goal. And you all know me that you've listened to this podcast, or if you haven't listened to this podcast, I'll tell you right now, I'm not a big plus minus guy. I've just never been into the stat. I think it's a very flawed stat just because, oh, you know, you're on the ice for some goals against versus some goals for.

But when it comes to Dumlin, it seems like he's just on the ice for every big goal against. And, you know, it's not hard to see. He's washed right now. It was bad at the end of the last season. They took a gamble coming into this season. They thought it was going to get better. And you know what? Okay.

You took that chance. You've seen him help you win two Stanley Cups? That's fine. I would have traded him during the off season. That's just me personally. They decided not to. They said, okay, we're going to give us another go. He has a year left on his contract.

But it's gone bad. It doesn't matter if he's played with Chrysleten. It doesn't matter if he's played with Jan Rood. It doesn't matter if he's played with Jan Rude. It doesn't matter if he's played with Jeff Petrie or anyone like that. He has stung. He looks to be in no man's land every single time he is on the ice. I'm not going to sit here and say it's Jack Johnson level bad because I think, you know,

some people have some, you know, reverendous history when it comes to that. And trust me, there's no bigger critic than me when I came to the Jack Johnson deal. he was awful. But I don't think Doomlin has approached that territory yet, but it is getting close. Penguins are lucky

that his contract is up after the season, but in terms of right now with how good the team has been playing, don't forget, Yens. Team was 8 and 1 in one and coming into this game.

Two losses to Carolina. They had, you know, 17 points out of, 17 out of 20 points in the last 10 games, they're fine, you know? Again, this is a game, you burn the tape,

you don't watch it again. You just say, hey, not our night. You have a game. tomorrow against the Red Wings, I'll get to that a little bit later, you move on. You're still in a playoff spot. Yes, I understand the Eastern Conference is a bit tougher this season, but, you know, every game, every team gets blown out a few times each season.

That's just, that's just how the NHL works. But, you know, in terms of Duman, this isn't just a tonight problem either. And again, I know the whole team's not. But in terms of this player, he has been brutal for the last several weeks to the last several months. Remember on Thursday, Penguins get that massive lead against the Hurricanes Brian Russ, goal of the year for Penguins.

Less than eight minutes to go on the third. You're trying to protect that lead. It was on the ice when Jordan Stoll has the wrap-round goal. Who allows him to score that wraparound goal? Sure, you can blame Tristan for being a little overly aggressive. But doing way out of position. Top goes off, he's sticking in because he's not able to get across in time.

Boom, he got roasted. tonight he was roasted for not one but two at least two goals um from what i got from my notes it just hasn't been good enough at all and i think serious questions need to be asked to mike solvin about why he continues to play him i get it the only other defenseman you have is an extra right now is mark freeman but is he really going to hurt you the way dumlin has for the last several weeks to the last several months, I just, I don't understand the logic in it. Okay, sure.

Oh, he's helped us win cups. He's a veteran, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, sure, that conversation's going to be tough, but he's not doing anything good on a nightly basis anymore. He's sure as heck not scoring. He's not producing any points at all, even when it comes to assist. He's not defending well.

he's not seeing the ice up at well at all his first pass has gone you know to complete crap too what is he doing well right now that warrants him a spot in the lineup every single night if someone can come answer that question for me i would i will love you forever truly and you know i just i wish someone that's in that locker room right now or after this game or going into the game against Detroit would ask Sullivan why he continues to play him. If I have press credentials for most games during the season, and I'm hopeful at some point during the season that the show will get granted that because I would love to be up there with some of the immediate people that have come on

the show. You know, I would hopefully at some point get to ask that question, but I don't. That's not the reality we live in right now. So I would love if, you know, someone that's covering the games in person and would just would love to ask that, you know, just because I don't know what Mike is seeing. And, you know, he knows a hell of a lot more about hockey than I do. And a hell of a lot more about hockey than I ever will. It's no secret.

But I'm just, I'm confused as to why he continues to play him. Top four minutes, even with Petrieal and in just high-leverage situations. He is not the same anymore. And the same honestly goes for. Jeff Carter. He was a corpse on numerous goals tonight as well, just being stuck in no man's lane. And it's like, okay, okay, maybe you can try moving him to wing. I've seen a couple takes about that saying you could get some value out of him there. Okay, sure. I'm not personally optimistic, but that's your opinion if you think he can be more valuable there. But, you know,

what is he also doing to warrant a roster spot on an every night basis? Those two contracts and just For those two players, they are killing this team right now. And I don't think enough people, I don't think enough people who are around the team every day are talking about it enough. That is how I think I wanted to frame it. I know what everyone is saying on social media. The fan base, everyone wants them gone. You know, someone who does a podcast on this team every day and someone who covers the team, yes, I would prefer if they were not in the lineup every night

because they are not really bringing anything of value. Jeff Carter has four goals in 30 plus games this year, one of which is an empty-knitters. So if you take that away, he has three goals. Brian Dewan has barely produced it all this season. It's not good defensively. Both these things have to change, and they have to really consider making some lineup changes with that.

Now, I don't know if Sullivan will. I talked about it on Thursday that he just doesn't seem like the coach right now who's going to make those decisions. but you know I feel like he kind of owes it to the team with how they've been playing to do it I just you know they continue to make mistake after mistake and they're not being punished for it yet if someone was up here from Wilkesbury Squanton like for example Drew O'Connor he played four minutes on Thursday night he's a Wilkesbury kid and he played fine he actually I thought the Penguins had a couple good scoring chances on the four um when he was on the ice for the fourth line

but he's only playing fourth minutes for reasons, but yet you're playing Carter and Dumont higher up on the lineup because they're veterans, because they've won cups, even though they're making way more mistakes. I don't know. I just don't really see, I just don't think that's fair. At least that's me. But those were the two,

just the two main players who I think really stunk tonight. And I even tweeted this out on my Twitter for those that don't follow me. You know, it's a shame that both Carter and Dumont have tanked this badly because they have been great at times while they've been here. You know, Carter was fantastic for this team when he came over during the COVID short season. For first time of the last season, he was awesome. After he signed that contract, tanked it.

Brian Newark was fine during the COVID season. Last season started off five. Tanked it. They took a chance on him. Even worse. So, you know, it would be who then if they could. could figure something out with those two players is, I think, how I want to wrap up this segment. Coming up, in the second segment, we're going to get into why this loss should not really be a

big deal for you inns and why, you know, again, every team has this kind of loss. But I'll dive deeper into that here. But before we get to that, Benonline.com is your number one source for sports, spending info, stats, and analysis. You need the latest odds and trends for every professional and amateur league out there. From pro football to college season to basketball and World Cup, we've got it all at Benonline. If you love sports podcasts, you can even find those to put online as well. We're always the fastest, easiest way to get your vending info.

You can head to the website today or to use more device to learn more. That is better online where the game starts. I'm back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host. Hunter Hodes. Want to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the shows Twitter at Elinor Shepinglings. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day.

I am just making sure to hear that no one else has scored. And sure enough, nobody has scored. would not be surprised if this does end up being a 5-1 final. But again, you know, let's go into just this game as a whole. They stunk, you know, the vibe check was not there at the start of the game. And this is, this is an, you know, there are not many teams that really have the Penguins number. They've usually done well against the Rangers, especially in the playoffs. I know they lost this past year, but they play well against them.

The Capitals, they usually play well against them, though they lost the season zero. last year, but that's the first time they've lost the season series in the last decade, I'm pretty sure. They usually play well against the Flyers, at least in the Sid Gino era. Before that, the whole Philadelphia spectrum was just awful. Play well, obviously, against the Blue Jackets. All right, maybe they struggle a little bit against the Devils, but it's always been the Islanders, for whatever reason, whether it's the 70s or they've got 3-0 series lead,

the 80s, when the Islanders won their four cups, or the 9th. when in 1993 you all know what happened and I'm not going to bring it up but I kind of just didn't or you know you got the playoff series from these last couple of years doesn't matter the year the decade the team they always give the penguins fits don't know what it is it's their kryptonite I think that franchise curses the penguins I'm pretty sure the penguins have been, it's just, it literally is a curse. I think that's all I really have with that. But man, just a total dud tonight. And I am going to check natural stat trick

right now to show you all these stats. Again, I looked at it at the end of the second period. Not much has changed right now with a few minutes remaining in the game. I underst have 62% of the shot attempts at 5E5. They have 68% of the scoring chances. 72% of the high danger. chances and 66% of the expected goals. High danger-wise. 16 for the Islanders, 6 for the Penguins. 34 scoring chances for the Islanders, 16 for the Penguins. 66 shot attempts for the Islanders, 40 for the Penguins.

If you go to all situations, 74-shot attempts for the Islanders, 44 for the Penguins. 39 scoring chances, 18 for the Penguins. 19 high-danger chances for the Islanders, 6 for the Penguins, and the Islanders also had 66.3% of the expected goals. But kicking. you want to use another word, go ahead. I'm not going to say it.

But they got what they deserved in this matchup. It was a minor miracle. I should phrase that. It was a major miracle that this day of this game was tied up heading into the second period. They started to find their legs a little bit more at the end of the first, but then they got their teeth kicked in the second period. They never were able to recover in the third period, at least so far, well, there's four minutes left. So basically the entire third period. and you know this is the kind of result that you see 5-1 easily i think they're

worst performance of the season if anyone can find me a worse performance then this one please go ahead and tell me this team had a seven game losing streak a couple months ago i do not think they had a performance as bad as this one because they led in most of those games they just kept choking them away because their penalty killed into their goal-titting stung and i'm not really gaming in a blame Tristan Jari that much on this one because I thought his defense was really bad, you know, namely by him. But I think Cusha Teng would look a little rough. Marcus Pedersen had a root-rere off game. We don't really see that from him. Yon-Ruta fan on a couple easy shot attempts from the point. Wasn't that good defensively. Everyone in front of them stunk.

And it's a shame because Tristan had that 14-game point streak heading into this game, was one away from time, the all-time record that was still held. by Tom Rassau, but if Tristan had won this game or gotten a point, he would have tied the all-time record for the most consecutive games, at least with a point for our penguin's goal tender. So really unfortunate way to lose this. But again, this is a classic game where, you know, you crumble up a piece of paper, throw it.

Goodbye. You know, that's really it. I'm not really going to freak out too much about this one. They'll see that team three more times later on the season. I'm more concerned about the game on Wednesday and how the Penguins look in that one because the Red Wings will come into that game with about a week off between games because they have their Christmas break. The Penguins don't have that, you know, back-to-back fatigue excuse because they didn't really show up tonight. So I do expect a much better performance in that game on Wednesday. And we're going to preview that directly just a couple minutes.

But yeah, I understand there's a few problems I touched on in the first segment. I get it. I know the team no show tonight. I understand that they are in a very big playoff race right now, but I really don't think there are that many problems with this team. I was texting with a buddy of mine. Yes, the game did just go final five to one, so I'm glad that I was able to start recording with about 10 minutes left.

But my buddy was texting me saying, I will judge this team fully once they make some additions slash subscriptions, excuse me, towards the trade deadline. And I think that's fair to say. You know, the team right now, it's not going to be the team you see after February March. I think Ron Hextall, or he should, tinker with this team, whether it's moving, Brian Duh one out if you can find a taker, whether it's somehow moving Jeff Carter out if you can find

to take it. But I don't expect those things to happen. But if you can get upgrades over them at the trade deadline, that would certainly improve things. But, you know, this is not the wrong show you are going to see pass the trade. deadline. So I do think that's a very good statement to remember, no to that. This is not going to be the final version of the penguins. So just, you know, air on the side of, I guess, caution maybe is a decent word for it. But again, games like this happen. Every team gets blown out at times.

It's just everyone just knows that this team has been playing at an elite level for the last couple months where they have hardly been losing again they've been eight and one in the last 10 games and what 15 and 3 and 2 in their last 20 very rare to see them lose but they're fine i think they're going to be fine on Wednesday you're going to see a much better performance against the detroit red wings and we're going to preview that matchup i will say coming up right after these messages all right we're back here in this episode of the locked on penguins podcast i'm your host honer hodies want to follow me on twitter at hunter hodys follow the shows twitter ell or panglins And of course, thank you so much for making this your first listen of the day.

So Pagan's Red Wings coming to you all on Wednesday. I will have a full game recap for that one for my Wednesday episodes. So you can listen to the recap from this one during your day on Wednesday if you want to catch up. And then obviously, if you want to listen to the preview now, you can do that as well, if that makes sense. You know, I think it does. Anyways, getting right into it. The Red Wings coming to this game, pretty banged up. Philip Zadina is out.

Jacob Verona. is still out. He is not injured. He's out for personal reasons. Tyler Bertuzi, he has also been hurt. Rodley Fabry is hurt. Mar Pizek is out. But this is the Red Wings team that has improved this season. They made a lot of additions coming into the season.

They signed David Perron, former Pittsburgh Penguin. They signed a cop. They signed Dominic Kubol League. You know, C-Wisoran was given the green light to finally spend. and you know and to improve this rebuild and sure enough he has done just that now the red wings they're 14 11 and 7 so if you look at their record they are below 500 they are out of the playoff picture right now so this should be a game penguins should win but again there are no guarantees in the initial that you know for example your arm just came into this game struggling mightily

the last couple weeks and then they and they just blew them out along my one so you know again there are no guarantees but for the red wings this is a team they've lost seven of their last 10 games but they have won. Their last game coming into this one, they have a nice strong start, but things have gone down as of late. Looking at their lineup, Michael Rasmussen with Dylan Larkin and David Perron.

Larkin, obviously, the big one there. He's been a, basically a point per game player. At times throughout his career, especially the last couple of years, if I recall correctly, he is very good. I think he's their best player, bar none.

Adam Ernie with Andrew Copp and Lucas Raymond. Raymond had a really good season, last year but is in a sophomore slump right now where he is just not scoring like he was last year. Dominant Kubolique with Pius Souter-Suter and Osir. Sondingwist, former penguin on the third line. Soder Blum, Joe Villano on the fourth line with Jonathan Bergren, another one of their young players. Defensively, I do not understand why they're putting Mo Sider with Ben Chirot. That pairing has to have awful numbers this season.

In terms of course, they are well below 50%. Scoring chances in high danger are right there as well. it just kind of screams like Yin's remember when several years ago they tried putting Rob Skitter with Chris Tang to be like his security blanket that is what

the Red Wings are doing right now with Sherrod and Mo Sider because Sider, one of the best young defensemen in the league bar none. He is incredible but it's not hard to see why he has struggled this season. It's because they continue to put Ben Shard up there. So that could

favor the Penguins. Obviously sure, side or excuse me, is incredible with a puck on his stick. He can do things that not a lot of other defensemen can do. He reminds me of a very young Nick Lydstrom.

It kind of reminds me of like a mix of Lidstrom and Brian Rufalski. He is just on another level. He's incredible. Jake Wallman and Philo Pironic on their second pairing and that Olimata and Jordan former penguin Olimata

is on the third pairing there. So for the Red Wings, for this game, for the Penguins, just obviously play better than they did on Tuesday. That's the easy thing to say, but if they can get more traffic in front of the net, cut down on some of these defensive lapses that they've been having these last couple of games, I do think they can skate away

with the W, the Red Wings goaltenders this season. Dilly Huso and Alex Hedlkevich, I would expect Huso, I think, to go in this game. He's been pretty solid for the Red Wings as their 1A goaltender, especially. teams obviously matter a lot. Penguins come into that game, ranked tied for first and penalty kill percentage. I know the power play streak did come to an end in this game. It was 10 straight games heading into the game against Islanders that they can score a power play goal. That has ended.

The Penguins will try to start a new one on Wednesday against Redmond. So that will matter a lot. Cutting down on the defensive lapses, I would expect Casey to Smith to start in that game unless they feel like Tristan can go back to back. But with how Mike Sullivan is done back-to-backs throughout his time, I would expect a Smith to get the start in this one. But the Penguins really don't have the excuse of, oh, it's up back-to-back. They didn't really show up on Tuesday. I would expect Mike Sullivan to really give them an earful in the locker room right after this loss. And I'm curious to see what he also says in the media as well.

He is not going to be happy to say the least. But again, game that the Penguins should win. Again, there are no guarantees in the NHL, but I do like the Penguins' chances. in this one, they break this little two-game leasing and get back on track before they will play the New Jersey Devils on Friday, which is the day before New Year's Eve. So I think that will do it for this one for the Locked on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for listening to this one, the Penguins.

In the season series against the Red Wings last year, they absolutely blew them out in two of the games. One was in Detroit, one was in Pittsburgh. I believe they won two of the three against them. So they've had some good success against the Red Wings coming. into this game. We'll see if that can continue. But again, thank you so much for listening. I know a lot of this episode was kind of a Debbie Downer one because the Penguins played like absolute crap on Tuesday night, but, you know, those kind of games happen and we'll have to see

how they respond. I would expect a big response, especially with the game being at home, would they expect a good crowd at PGG. But again, thank you so much for listening. Hope you enjoyed listening to it. I'll be back with another episode for you all on Wednesday, where we will fully recap that game against the Red Wings. Talk to you all then. Thank you.