Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Good news on Tristan Jarry & Sid returns to practice!

Episode Date: October 22, 2021

The team is almost done from being off but the Penguins got some much-needed updates on Friday! First, Sidney Crosby practiced with the team and provided an update on his injury. When is he expected back? How long has he been dealing with the injury? Hunter also goes over Malkin back onto the ice in full equipment and thinks about when he could be back. Tristan Jarry is also back as he had a false positive test. After that, Hunter does a full preview into the matchup against Toronto as he looks into what's made them so tough this year & also shouts out Jason Spezza as well. Finally, he ends the show with thoughts on the Blueger line and how it has the potential to be one of the best bottom 6 lines in hockey.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.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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. Hey, everyone and welcome to this Friday afternoon episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes and follow the show's Twitter at L.O. So Penguins, and of course, thank you all so much for making the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

Your first listen of the day. Just want to again thank Doug Glacky for coming on the podcast last night. I believe we'll do a crossover with Jess Belmosto late next week when the Penguins play Calgary. Obviously it would be the first of two meetings. This one in Pittsburgh and then they'll travel for the Western Canada trip. I believe it's, I think at the end of December, I think it's like right around New Year's or something like that. I have to double check the schedule, but it's right around the end of the year, you know, early 2022. But the first thing I want to touch on for today's episode, lots of Sydney Cross.

News today. He was back at practice, participating in a full capacity. He will not be playing against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. We will have a full preview of that game coming up in one of the next segments and just, you know, go over the lines for the Leafs and see how the Penguins match up and all that. But he also skated beforehand with Evgeny Malkin. This was the first time that I think it's been recorded that Gino has been out there in full gear and he looked pretty good.

His skating was crisp. He was firing some good shots on net. I don't know when he's officially going to be back. I think at this point it sounds like potentially late December, but the fact that he's already skating like that and shooting on ice, at least me to believe that it could be sooner than the two months that has been reported by multiple outlets. But this is another good step for Afghani Malkin and his comeback.

As for Cindy Crosby, he also spoke to the media today. And it sounds like, so that wrist injury started in 2014. He said it was injured by Ryan Reeves. right after the Olympics. He says he's managing it through various means, included a scope last season before ultimately opting for surgery. Just over six weeks ago, he said it was, it just would not come back over the summer, which basically means like this thing was really bugging him. He also says, we all felt like it was something that I wouldn't have gone through the season if I didn't take care of it. So he's basically saying with that quote, if he had not gone through

the surgery, he would have had to miss even more time than he is right now. So it's absolutely insane that he played through that through seven seasons. And again, it makes sense. For something that I touched on, I think about a month ago, when this surgery was announced with this wrist injury, I remember watching the Rangers series in 2014, and you could tell he didn't look right because he was hardly shooting the puck, taking draws, seemed like a chore for him, and just nothing about his overall game looked right, at least to me. And I think he even came out after that game and said that he was dealing with a wrist injury. I don't know. he said it was broken, but he did say that it was something that had been bothering him.

And he's been able to manage through that pain every year since, which just goes to show how tough this player is. You know, you always used to hear people from rival fan bases. Are people, you know, even in the media that, you know, Sidney Crosby is a baby, he can't play through pain, yada, yada, yada, I think the news today should shut all those people up because he has played through a very nagging injury for so long now. He also was asked how much this has impacted his performance. Of course, you know, Sid's not going to say much. That's just who he is as a player.

He's kind of a robot with these kind of things. He says, you play long enough and things add up. This is something I was able to manage. There were points that have bugged me more than others. It was just mainly a nagging type of injury. He says he hopes his wrist improves a lot. And just with a scope after last season, it became more of an issue. And he's hoping that this can be put behind him when he does come back.

And he also did say he has one more hurdle too clear before coming back into the game. He says, I want to be comfortable taking draws because he takes about 20 to 25 a game. So as soon as he can do that, it sounds like Sid will be back in the lineup. He was taking some line rushes today. I believe it was with Danton Heinen and Jason Zucker. So that could potentially be a line once Sid comes back. But for the most part, you know, this is good news. I think once he's able to do some draws and practice and continue practicing with the team,

hopefully maybe next week you'll see him back you know before Halloween Sunday but we'll see you know there's I'm not going to make any promises to any of you all I've been wrong on a lot of Sydney Crosby's timeline because it looked like he was going to be back after the first week of the season with how he was practicing before the season obviously it was scaled back a little bit but it's great to see him in good spirits and you know it sounds like his wrist is feeling better we just got to have him do a full practice have him take 20 to 25 draws a practice just because that's what he does in games and then said once that is good, he will be able to return. So it looks like it's sooner rather than later with him and not a moment too soon just because

this team is so sick and so banged up. Did get some good news on the COVID front today, at least, you know, halfwise. Tristan Jari had a false positive, so he was removed from the COVID protocol. That is why you saw him at practice today. I expect him to get the start against the Maple Leafs tomorrow night at BPG Paine's Arena. As for Jeff Carter, he remains in COVID protocol. His test was an actual positive. At this point, he remains asymptomatic.

He will be out for that game, and I imagine he will be out for at least a game or two next week as well. So only one other player has tested positive since the Jake Gensel and Zach Hasson-Ree situations. Hopefully, COVID does not continue to ravage this team with, you know, how everyone is vaccinated at this point. But, you know, at least Jeff Carter is asymptomatic to it and is not showing any symptoms as of right now. And again, you know, touched on this a couple minutes ago, I mean, Malkin was skating before practice.

in full gear doing a lot of drills with the puck, firing a lot of puck's on net. And again, you know, he just, he looked like his normal self with the videos that I saw via Dave Molinarie of DK. Pittsburgh Sports. So hopefully sooner rather than later, you'll see him at practice, but, you know, I think this is the first step in a very long process to getting Gino back onto the ice and playing meaningful, meaningful games, excuse me, for this team.

And, you know, the fact that both Sid and Gino were out there was awesome. You know, they're getting closer to returning. And again, it just, it can't be a moment too soon. Penguins, lines, and pairings at practice today. Gensel, Rodriguez, and Captain. That will be your top line tomorrow night. It looks like. Ashton Reese with Bluger and McGinn.

Jason Zucker with Drew O'Connor and Dan Hinen. Dominic Simone, Brian Boyle, and Stan Lafferty. So Lafferty will fill in for Jeff Carter, who is out with COVID. Drummond, Latang, Pedersen, and then Matheson. Rewito. Mark Friedman has returned to practice. So whatever injury that he had, it looks like it is done. And, you know, with Matheson back, he's going to continue to stay and, lineup unless he has a few bad games in row and then Jari Dismith.

So it definitely looks like that Jari will be starting tomorrow, you know, especially with the way his season is started. I would be stunned if he did not get that start. You know, maybe DeSmith will get one of the couple games next week, but, you know, with this one against the Maple Leafs, who will have one of the most high-flying offenses in the league, it would be a pretty big surprise if Jari did not start this one. There's also some news today, you know, before we get to the next segment about a preview for the Maple Leafs game from French.

Frank Zarelli, he says, the NHL is debating that merits of testing requirements for asymptomatic individuals ahead of the next COVID-19 protocol review with the PA starting November 1st. So what this means, basically, I think the league doesn't want to be testing a lot of players who are asymptomatic for a positive COVID-19 tests, which is interesting because I still think those people can transmit the disease to other players on the team. At least if I know enough, about this virus and you know I'm no doctor or anything like that but I'm pretty sure that's the case so the fact that the league is considering this is interesting to say the least I think it's bold I understand that a lot of players in front offices are probably upset that they have to miss games because they are they are asymptomatic but I still think those players can transmit symptoms to other people even though they are fully vaccinated and those people can have symptoms so and even Sarvelli says in the story the NHL wants to modify the protocol to only test players and team personnel for positive COVID-19 tests with people who present symptoms. So this is going to be interesting to say the least.

I mean, Seraveli does note that the NBA does not test fully vaccinated players with rare exceptions according to their published protocol. The NFL players, you know, they're all tested once a week, and then for the NHL, they could be tested three times in the same span. Interesting how all of the leagues go about it differently. I think the NHL has done a really good job up until this point. If they were to make this change, I think it would rub a lot of people the wrong way.

I think those are my main thoughts on that. Because, again, I'm pretty sure you can still transmit the virus to someone with a positive test, despite not showing any symptoms. Those are my thoughts on that. I just want to share that news for you all in case anyone didn't see that tweet from Sarah Valley. Coming up in the next segment, we are going to do a deep breakdown into the Toronto Maple Leafs. Look at some of their underlying numbers. Look at the lines that you'll see for tomorrow's game, most likely.

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So here we go. Big preview, big game tomorrow night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. This team is always fun when they come to town. The Leafs fans come to Pittsburgh. buses, you know, the last few times that they've played there, that's a fan base that can actually, I mean, no fan base is going to take over PPP'sade. I mean, Penguins fans are, there's too many of them, right? I mean, you go to an arena like Arizona, there's a ton of Penguins fans that go there. Usually the Panthers one, they're not that good, Penguins fans

can take over that. Even Tampa Bay, when they weren't as good as they were now, a lot of Penguins fans would go there. There's a lot that come down to Washington. But, you know, in terms of of road teams that come to Pittsburgh. There are a lot of Leafs fans that make the drive, and I don't really know how far it is. I'm guessing it's like a six, seven hour, maybe eight hour drive, something like that. But, you know, it's always fun,

especially when both teams are fully healthy. Obviously, the Leafs are going to be more healthy than the Penguins will be. Nick Ritchie on the first line with Austin Matthews and Mitch Marner. Richie has probably one of the most meme potential faces out there. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Please do a quick Google search. You will laugh your butt off.

Michael Bunting with John Tavaris and William Nealander, Alexander Cofitt with David Camp and Andre Casha. I'm really hoping a player like Casha stays healthy just because he's been so banged up throughout his career. You know, it was with Boston for the last couple of years. When he's in the lineup, he's a good player. It's just he hasn't been able to do that because he's made of glass. It's almost like a mini Bo Bennett situation,

except, you know, I mean, freaking Bo Bennett got hurt celebrating a goal. I mean, Kasha hasn't stooped down to that level, but it's still sad because there's so much potential there with that player. I love his game in the offensive zone. I would have loved if Pittsburgh could have gotten him, but, you know, it just stinks that he's always hurt. But it looks like he's playing decent to start the year. And then Pierre Engball, Jason Spetsa, and Wayne Simmons on the fourth line. So the Penguins will see William Simmons for the first time in a couple of years.

Spetsa, it's really interesting what has happened with Jason Spetsza since he went to the Maple Leafs. it's honestly just been a renaissance for him just because he wasn't that good before coming there, well, at least, you know, before he got to the Leafs after, you know, he left Dallas and everything. But, you know, ever since he signed there in 2019, 20, 9 goals, 25 points of 58 games, last year, 10 goals, 30 points in 54 games. Dude is 38 years old. And he's kind of discovered just a new touch with his game. I mean, when he was with Dallas, you know, eight goals, 26 points in 78 games, eight eight goals, 27 points, and 76.

But with these two short, little shortened seasons, his production has been much better. And honestly, he was on pace for both of these last seasons to be like a 40 to 45, almost a 50-point player. If it was a full 18-game season, he's already off to two points in four games this year. He has someone that the Penguins will always have to watch out for. I actually really do like the Leafs' fourth-line

a lot better than some of the other four-of-lines in the league. That's for sure. defensively Morgan Riley with T.J. Brody. I've always loved T.J. Brody's game. I think he's one of the more underrated defensemen in this league. I think when he was with Calgary, besides Mark Giordano, there was

no one better on that defense. And you could have made the argument that at least, I think, three to four years ago that he was a top -ton defenseman in this league. His metrics were really good, good defensively. Even if you use the eye test. He was always sound with Calgary, and I really liked the move that Kyle Dubas made

to get him. Jake Muzon with Justin Hall, Travis Dermott with Rasmus Sandin, and then goaltending-wise. Not really sure which one is going to start. I had to guess I think it will probably be Jack Campbell in that game versus Tristan Jari. As for how the Leafs overall have played this season, if I go to Moneypuck and look at the five-on-five metrics through four games, the Leafs have 55.5% of the expected goals, which is in the upper tier, they always drive possession. Actually, my fault.

55.5% of the actual goals. 55.1% of the expected goals. They also have 54% of the shot attempts, 55% of the unblocked shot attempts. This has been a team, again, they drive a lot of possession. You know they're always going to do that just because of the talent that they have in the lineup.

They're always their biggest question mark is, can they win when it matters? And so far, they have not done that. I mean, they're basically a meme at this point in the NHL. I mean, that's just really how it's been. Their goals against per 60 minutes is 1.21, so they have gotten really strong goal tending so far. They're expected goals for per 60 minutes, 3.34, expected goals against 2.7.3. So they have been scoring in waves this year.

They've also been giving up a little bit the other way, but with a defensive group that I just mentioned, it's going to be tough for the Penguins, I think, to score just because of how short-handed they are. But, I mean, this is also a Leafs team. This is the kind of match-up that they lose. They probably should have beaten Montreal last year. Well, this past year, excuse me, in the playoffs, but, you know, Carrie Price turned into Carrie Price. And, you know, with the injury to John Tavares, just a whole lot of things do not go the way. But I really think this is the last big year for Toronto to win something.

Because if they can't win around again, I think you will see some serious change there with that team. I mean, you know, they're basically a meme at this point in the NHL. They haven't won a series in, God, it's been a decade. and a half, almost two decades or something like that. I don't know the exact, it's maybe 2002 or something like that. I have to double check, but it's been one long freaking time before Toronto did any damage in the playoffs. But overall, at the end of the day, I do think this is a matchup that the Penguins can win despite being short-handed. I talked about this with Doug Galaki on Thursday night's episode. The last time they were so short-handed, you know, you had Stefan Nason score that

goal, and I'm pretty sure Anthony Angelo had his first NHL goal in that game against Toronto as well. I think even Don Lachuskin of the Athletic was saying, well, there's Mark Donk, always scoring and Buzz Flipit for the Penguins just because that's been the Penguins' M.O. For so many years when they're banged up, you know Sullivan will have this team ready to play. And even though it may not seem like Pittsburgh can win this game on paper, from what we have seen through four games, I would not put it past this team to come out of there with two points tomorrow.

The game is at home. Trishon Jari has been awesome. it's the Maple Leafs at the end of the day and they also have some great winger depth on the all four lines that can chip in whenever offensively so I'm curious to see how the team is going to look tomorrow night

remember that game will be on NHL Network pretty sure it's a 7 p.m. start from BPG Paints Arena if you are going to the game please let me know you can tweet at me at Hunter Hodes the show is where L.O.S.N.S.P. Show me where your seats are. Let me know what you're seeing as the game goes live but I'm just excited

to be playing you know all these teams again just because we didn't get to last season because of the realignment. And, you know, I always love watching the least play. I think Matthews is going to be the next great goal scorer in this league. It wouldn't surprise me if he did win the rocket this year from Ovecgan. And yes, he will be on Team USA and not on Team Canada as I cloned myself a few months ago on this podcast. And then I basically tripled down on it in King Clarki's DMs. And now he just clowns on me every time he hears it or just wants to send it to me

because, you know, I basically deserve it for being so stupid at that point. But again, going to be a great game. Let's see how the team does. You know both lines for each team. Now let's see if Pittsburgh can go out and get to 3 and 0 as the Metro's starting out pretty good. I mean, Columbus has had a good start. Washington has had a nice start. The Islanders are struggling a little bit.

I think Philadelphia is starting to wake up a bit as well. I saw what Carolina did on Thursday night with the epic trolling of the Montreal Canadiens with Yisperi Kaki Memi and Sebastianahou. of did the habslose.com, $20 shirts for Aho and Coakeneemi, and with the promo code, Weewe. So just epic stuff there from Carolina, though. If the penguins do play them in the playoffs, I hope Andy Perlman, who runs the penguin's social media account, I hope she trolls Carolina's account so bad because they are due to get not only trolled on the ice,

but on social media as well, because that will be the opportunity of a lifetime for whoever takes down Carolina and the playoffs on the unless you know they go on to win the Stanley Cup but that'll do it for this segment of the locked on penguins podcast coming up in the next segment I'm going to go a little more in detail about how good that Ashton rees blueger McGinn line has been and if this can continue for the rest of the season just going to go over some underlying numbers from Moneypuck go over what I've seen all that jazz before we do that though we can't go an episode with this podcast by

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That has been online where the game starts. All right. Welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown. Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hoodies. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O underscore Penguins. So let's get into how great this line has been for the Penguins this season. It's only been together for two games, so very small sample size, 28, almost 34 minutes. They have 76.9% of the expected goals. The expected goals against 0.3, but the expected goals for 2.09. So that is just ridiculous, and their expected goals against

per 60 is 0.63. So they are not giving up anything in the defense zone, but they are also turning pretty well in the offensive zone. And I really do think this has the ability to be better than the Ashton Rees-Bueger Tann of line from last season. I know a lot of people seem to think that Brandon Tanev carried that line, but it is obvious or it should be obvious to everyone now that that was not the case. This line is run by Teddy Bluger.

Zach Ashton Reese more so, Ashton Reeks. He is the engine that makes that line go. When he is out of the lineup, you can see how much the rest of those players suffer. I like Brock. I think he's been an effective player the last couple of games. He's basically the Tannibor replacement, but he is not going to carry that line on his own, just like Brandon Tannen was not going to carry that line on his own last season. It was run by Zach Ashton Reese, and then, you know, in a 1B kind of fashion, Teddy Bluger as well.

And that duo just works so well together because they both know their strengths and their weaknesses. I mean, Ashton Reese, I guess his weakness is his finishing ability, even though that improved last year, but you know how good he is in the defensive zone. Could be a Selky Chokefy candidate by the end of the season if he stays healthy. Teddy Bluger, I think, has a better finishing ability than Ashton Reese. He's still good in the defense zone, but not nearly as good as czar than with Brock. He probably has better offense than both of those players, but defensively, you know, doesn't line up to both of them. And it's just why that line works so well,

because you have that offensive counter with Brock, you have that defensive player in Aspen Race, and then you have Teddy who can just be ridiculously good on the draws and is both good offensively and defensively, I think. So it's a line that works so well together. And, you know, Sullivan can deploy them any way he wants. He can put them, you know, in a late game situation. You're up by a goal, two minutes left,

and they will do that job. Heck, he'll also do it down by one to create more offense. He would do that plenty of times last season when Tanna was on that line, and it worked. I mean, you know, especially, you know, to start a game as well to get some momentum going, some juice within the rest of the team. You know, we saw plenty of times last season where Brandon Tanna would score a goal, you know, in the first period because that would be the line that Sullivan would go to to get the rest of the team into the game. And I think you're going to see Sully do that as well this season too.

So I think it's a line that has a lot of potential. of early returns have been very, very impressive, and I'm excited to see what comes next with this, what comes next, excuse me, with this line whenever the team gets fully healthy. Because even I think when the team is healthy, Sullivan is still going to stick with this line. It was a line that he liked in training camp in the preseason.

It's a line that he's like now. I don't see him going away from this unless, you know, one of those players gets hurt. But that'll do it for this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I appreciate all of you listening to this one. We'll be back on Monday. with another episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. We'll also have Josh Yoia on at some point next week.

We'll do a full recap of the Maple Leafs game. I will be tuning in to watch it tomorrow night. I'll be live tweeting on both. They've locked on Penguins' Twitter account and on my Twitter account. You can follow both of those at Hunter Hodeys at L.O. underscore Penguins. And again, thank you all so much for listening to this episode. And we will be back next week, five more episodes.

Keep it right here on Locked on Penguins. I appreciate all of the support. There have been a lot of episodes lately that have been some of the most downloaded episodes of all time. And I can't thank you all enough for continuing to listen to me. Blabber about this team for 23, you know, 24, 25 minutes each day. So, again, I really appreciate it. And I'll see you all on Monday.

Have a great weekend. We'll see what the team can do on Saturday.