Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - How about that win for the Pittsburgh Penguins?

Episode Date: May 4, 2022

So uh, that was one ridiculous hockey game, huh? The Pittsburgh Penguins took Game 1 against the New York Rangers in triple overtime as Hunter welcomes back Nick Zararis to the show. They first touch on how the Penguins were able to do this with Casey DeSmith and Louis Domingue in net as DeSmith had to leave the game due to an injury. They get into how they both were making some solid saves, but also how the Penguins started to play even tighter around Domingue. After that, they touch on how the Penguins dominated for most of the game after the first period and what they were able to do to frustrate the Rangers. Nick gets into some adjustments that he would make for Game 2 since that is almost a must-win for the Rangers going back to Pittsburgh. Hunter gives some updates on the injured players before getting to the Geno goal and how great he looked for most of the game. He also shouts out Brock McGinn, Kasperi Kapanen, and John Marino for their outstanding efforts in this game as they were absolutely flying with the puck. All of that, plus thoughts on the Lindgren hit, officiating in general, the disallowed goal, Sid's line dominating, and much more on this episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast.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.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Shady RaysEXCLUSIVELY FOR OUR LISTENERS, HEAD TO SHADYRAYS.COM AND USE CODE LOCKEDON TO GET FIFTY PERCENT OFF TWO OR MORE PAIRS OF POLARIZED SUNGLASSES. 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.

Hi, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. What the heck just happened? And yes, this is only for people 21 in order. I'm drinking a Corona while recording this podcast. The Pittsburgh Penguins triple overtime game one win against New York Rangers. I have no idea how I'm even alive right now. I don't know how the entire fan base that listens to this show is live. But I have a full recap episode coming up right after this drop.

we're going to have Nick Zararis on the show from a Rangers perspective to talk about, you know, what what wrong there, what observations he saw, what, you know, could be, you know, obviously going into game two. So much to get to. I don't know how we're going to cram this all into 30 to 35 minutes, maybe even a little bit less. But, you know, this is why, you know, I was supposed to have an episode at 930 for you all. But it turns out that was not, the hockey gods did not want it that way. But full Penguins Rangers recap coming up right after this drop. Your 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 a Wednesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember, follow me on Twitter. Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter.

Hello. Onshore Penguins. Again, I hope you all. are very alive and well right now after what just happened on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Joining me now from the Upper Bowl GM podcast and from Gotham Sports Network is Rangers writer and podcaster Nick Zararis. He also writes about the Mets and a whole bunch of other things. Nick, what a game between these two teams first triple overtime game winner for the Penguins since Peter Socorra in 2008 when, you know, as Doc said, he called his shot, you know,

coming into the third overtime. He said he was going to win the game. Sure enough, he did against the Detroit Red Wings. They ended up losing that series, obviously, in the Stanley Cup final. But let's just get right into it. My biggest takeaway, obviously, is the goaltending situation for the Penguins. A few weeks ago, it looked like Tristan Jard was going to start this series. Casey Dispint comes in.

He plays his tail off. Then it looks like he cramps up probably because he has not played a lot of minutes or he needed bananas or did not. have enough water. I don't know. Journeyman Louis Doming comes in, basically channels like a Patrick Waugh with some of these saves. But then on the other side, Igor Shisterkin just broke the Y axis on evolving hockey for

those that follow them on social media. What was your biggest takeaway from this game? This is the worst thing we do to ourselves. Playoff hockey is the devil. We probably should find something more constructive and healthy to do. I could have gone to bed like three hours ago, woken up at 8 o'clock tomorrow, went to the gym, been a productive person.

But here I am talking to you about a hockey game that lasted the better part of five hours. For no real reason, other than neither of these teams, really wanted to win. Very ugly game. The Penguins controlled play for a good, I would say, three-fourths of the six periods of hockey. Rangers had a really good 20 minutes. They were pretty good in the first overtime.

But other than that, Pittsburgh controlled play for a lot of it, but Shasturk it and did his damnedest to prolong that game as long as possible. And the Rangers just couldn't find that fourth goal. I wasn't particularly bent out of shape about the disallowed goal because the goaltender interference rule is so inconsistent when it is or is it interference. So I know a lot of Ranger fans are very upset about that right now, but because the rule is enforced the way it is, I'm not particularly bent out of shape about it. I am concerned, though, what losing Game 1 does the rest of the series,

even if it is Louis Domingue for game two, just morale-wise. I mean, the Rangers lost Ryan Lingren. He wasn't out there for the third overtime. Teandre Miller wasn't available for the third overtime either. I mean, if Justin Braun and Zach Jones are drawing in, the perceived advantage the Rangers had on defense isn't what it was coming into this series. And it feels like we've already played three games in this series based on how much hockey we had tonight.

So there's definitely a lot more we're going to talk about. But real snapshot-wise, I'll be honest. I'm a little bit concerned. The Rangers did not play well tonight. Just flat out, they didn't. Yeah, I mean, you know, speaking of, you know, the Rangers, you know, playing well. You said it best, those were opening 20 minutes. They, they buzzsaw the penguins right off the ice.

I will 100% say that. They were the better team. They fed off the Madison Square Garden crowd. That was their first playoff game at MSG in five years, if I recall correctly. So, you know, you knew the crowd was going to be really into it. You know, MSG is usually one of the louder buildings in the Lagan and the Penguins. You know, they go down to nothing. Didn't start out the second period too well.

but they come back tie it Cindy Crosby, Jake Gensel, Magic. They're one of the best duos, well, winger center duos in the league. And then, you know, it's just, and I honestly thought you said it best, the third period. And then for most of the overtime sessions, I would say the penguins had the better chances, but I did think the first overtime for sure until about the five minutes left, six minutes left. I thought the penguins started to find their legs a little bit again.

And, you know, speaking of that goal to interference called Nick, obviously that was a big moment in this game. From my perspective, it didn't look like Dumlin pushed him too much. Maybe I need my eyes check. Maybe I need a new pair of glasses here or something. I was just, I guess, how I saw it. But I think the overall consensus here, man, is I don't think the NHL knows what gold tender interferences.

These calls, it's a coin flip. They can go either way. No one should be really surprised by that call being overturned because so many of those plays in like, you know, even this year, you know, last year, years back, that happens. And, you know, there's a good chunk of other plays where that same thing happens. And they call it a good goal. So there's no consistency. In my view, I thought it was more of a no goal than an actual goal.

But, I mean, I think overall, man, it's, no one knows what goaltender interface is. They don't. The thing I was just texting about before we started recording with one of my friends who does hockey content. I didn't think the Rangers deserve to win, to be honest with you. They didn't play well enough to win. I know we thought maybe we steal one there, we score that goal, get this allowed. They didn't play well enough to win. They made their goalie make 79 saves in a hockey game.

Anytime your goalie has to do that, granted, three overtimes is a long game. But when you're giving up, you know, one scoring chance every 45 seconds, that's probably not going to be a good strategy for the long term. And as the game went on, the penguins were able to slowly start to wear away at the Rangers, they really, what really swung the game to me was in that second period when Pittsburgh actually got their forecheck engaged and the Rangers weren't able to get out of the zone with speed. Once the Rangers stopped being able to get transition play going, they couldn't create any offense because they're not good at dump and chase, which is something you and I have

talked about on your show, on my show, multiple times throughout the course of the season when these teams have met head to head. But the Rangers could not get anything going offensively. I mean, And their one good scoring chance, the one that got disallowed, was a rush scoring opportunity that happened because they were able to get the puck out of the zone quickly. And yes, part of that is because Ryan Lindgren missed a lot of the third period and you're having to juggle your pairs. Patrick Nemeth is not good at clearing the zone. They don't really have Truba do it all too much.

So you're asking a lot of Adam Fox of Kandre Miller, who ended up getting hurt and having to lead the game as well. So Rangers really had a hard time going from defense to offense. And that's what let Pittsburgh kind of turn up the heat to the point where it was just a matter of when. I mean, we were talking about before we started recording. I felt like the penguins were going to win in overtime. It was just a matter of how long Chesterkin was going to be able to prolong the game. And that's what ended up happening.

I mean, he was terrific tonight. But after that third goal, the Rangers scored, there was no real threat other than the one that got disallowed. They had, they didn't hit any posts. They had one really good opportunity that Ryan Strom just flubbed because he, wasn't the pass was a little bit in front of him and he didn't have enough time to react. Those are the two best chances the Rangers had after that third goal they scored. So I can't be too mad. The Rangers can't play well tonight.

Yeah, I mean, and you hit on a lot of great points in it, especially that that transition offense. That was something I mean, going into this, even when you were on the show, that was one of the big keys for the Penguins to win this series for me. Can they shut down the Rangers and transition off the rush? That's where they get a lot of their offense. They're not one of the best teams in the league. get really generating offense from a sustained forecheck in the zone. And I think you wrote an article about a month ago or something like looking at how the Rangers stack up to other teams in the league with, you know,

recovering their dumpins per 60 minutes. And it wasn't that good of a rate. Obviously, if I remember correctly. And, you know, in the numbers back up, you know, especially in the overtime, Penguins in the final two overtime sessions, Nick, 12 to 3 high danger chances. late. I mean, that basically, I think, sums it up right there. You know, I think when Louis DeMing came in, the penguins didn't really allow a lot of, you know, quality chances. I kind of noticed a difference in play around him.

They started to be a little more, I guess, passive, but by, I guess, taking away, like, the high danger areas or even the medium danger areas to all. Everything I thought was kept to the outside, all the saves he made, I think were pretty routine. for an NHL gold tender. Still have a lot more to get to for this episode just because of everything that happened. But before we get to that, you can save time and money when using Rock Auto. Why she chooses spend 30%, 50%, or even 100% more from the same parts of a chain store or car dealership. Rock Auto is failing business to renew yourself for over 20 years. The prices are reliable for every customer that everything can need from break parts,

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Amazing selection, reliable low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. That is rock auto.com. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. In order to follow me on Twitter, Hunter Hodes, follow the shows Twitter, L.O. H undersore Penguins.

So, you know, another thing, obviously, was a big, you know, just a big deal in deciding this outcome, Nick. The Crosby, Gensel, Russ line just absolutely shredded the Rangers. And it honestly didn't really matter which defensive pair was on the ice. I believe I was on Statrick, right? It was 27th, 20 chances for, two against something crazy like that. You know, I also saw you were tweeting about it. I saw I was watching it.

For some reason, Gerard Galant was icing the russing. Ryan Reeves line against Sid on a lot of shifts, and that doesn't really make any sense to me. Going forward, you know, what do you think needs to happen to neutralize that line? Because it seemed like whatever Golan was trying to adjust to it line, it wasn't working because Sid was just taking their lunch money and just spending it.

I mean, the ideal solution is you have a defensive oriented line. And that is the closest thing the Rangers have to a defense first forward line. But obviously, I mean, we're not talking about somebody like Like what the Kings were doing the other night against the Oilers, where you're able to send Dano or Copa tar out there against McDavid or Drysidal pretty much every time. The Rangers don't have a center who's like that. Zabinajad is probably their best two-way center, but they want to get him away from Sid. So there's opportunities for him to create offensively as opposed to being worried about defense.

So in a vacuum, you can understand why Galant is doing what he's doing. It's just not logical. I mean, I understand what the Rangers think Ryan Reeves, Berkeley, Gujarow, and Kevin Rooney are. They're not what they think they are, which has been the problem with that fourth line. It's really why the Tyler Mott injury sucks, because the few games they played with that fourth line of Guadro,

Kevin Rooney, and Tyler Mott was really good because all four of those guys are able to take away space really quickly, pretty good at closing down gaps, and just playing an effective forecheck. And Reeves had a great first period. He was annoying. The broadcast wouldn't stop talking about him. He was making his presence felt in the game.

And then after that, he was a non-factor. The fourth line was more or less a non-factor. They had one good shift in overtime where they held the penguins in the offensive zone for a solid 30, 40 seconds, just the game a little bit. But other than that, nothing to right home out there. There is no ideal match to play against the grouping, which is why the defensive pairs have been so important. I looked it up yesterday when I was right.

writing that preview that went up. They did, in the regular season, in the four games, the Fox Lingran pair, 19 minutes against the Crosby group, and then Miller-Truba, 15 minutes, and then the third pair of Nemet and Schneider was about 12 minutes. So in the regular season, they did a lot of Fox Lingran against them. I don't know. I probably would opt for more Miller-Truva, even though they didn't have a great game tonight purely because they need to take away that net front area and for as good as Lingran

and Fox are with the. puck on their stick and using the stick to create space and take away the puck. Neither of them is great at clearing the net front, which is where those two goals came from tonight. granted, the one came where they just got caught sleeping. They were a little bit too far up and Gensel leaked behind them. Crosby sent them on a through ball like you would send in FIFA. Really easy cap-in.

Other than that, I mean, there's no clear-cut answer here. The Rangers don't have a Deneau, a Kopitar, a Bergeron. I would say he's a Vinijad and then roll the dice that the Panarin. group can score all the goals, which is probably the calculus the Rangers are going to have to try and make at some point here. Because just I thought the third line was tonight, the Lacko line, they still didn't score. They're the duties of creating offense. They're really good at creating offense.

None of them puts the puck in the net, which is a problem. So that's the thing I always talk about when we comes to the playoffs is your calculus. Where are your goals coming from? And it's why you can't just be a two-line team, a three-line. team why you really need something in the neighborhood of 10 total contributors to score goals at points during a long run. So there is no real answer to your question, unfortunately. The Rangers don't have the personnel to a hard match up against it. Yeah, and it's going to be, it's going to be a very interesting storyline to watch.

You know, the final number of snag, I have them right in front of me here. 90% of the scoring chances of 5B5, 71% of the shot attempts, two goals for, no goals against high danger wise, if I can get to that here real quick. 89% of the high danger chances, 16 to 2, and then expected goals, 79% of those. That line has been together all season. They have never had a game like that. Obviously, it's one game.

It's probably not going to be like that the rest of the series. But I still think obviously it's a big enough problem where the Rangers, they're going to have to figure something out there. And, you know, tonight, Nick, as well, we'll get to Igor Shastirk. and I guess now, you know, what a performance from him. You know, obviously a lot of Penguins fans listen to show. You know, I do the show and, you know, we've seen Henrik Lungquist stand on his head against this team time after time before 2016. That was.

And also that Rangers team, I guess, couldn't really stack up to the Penguins. But, you know, tonight that just felt like Hank on steroids with the saves he was making. You know, it just felt like they were getting goalied. And, you know, I think we were talking about this before the show, too. you know, he, again, he broke the Y axis. He saved almost 10 goals above expected, and he only gave up four goals. Is he going to really have to be the key moving forward for the Rangers to win this? Because, you know, you wrote about it.

I know a lot of Rangers fans have talked about this, how, you know, he was basically their biggest reason for success this season was because he stood on his head in a lot of these games. Do you think that's going to have to continue based off this game? and after the Rangers didn't really generate much after the first period? It's a complicated question because this was in the preview that I wrote yesterday. They played two very different teams pre-deadline and post-deadline. And adding Toronto and adding Andrew Kopp kind of enabled them to play a little bit more

of a smoother transition game, able to get the puck from D to O, game the zone quickly, generate a scoring chance within two to three seconds of entering the zone, look for that rebound, redirect, whatever. Tonight, that wasn't there. We always talk about this. Rush-based offenses have a harder time in the playoffs because there's less space. The teams you're playing are better. Typically, the better teams have good defensemen. And everybody thinks a good defenseman is somebody who throws checks and disrupts and block shots. A good defenseman is somebody who's always in the right spot. That's the thing that really jumped out to me tonight about the penguins is when the

Rangers are trying to get through the neutral zone, there just wasn't a ton of room to do it. And when the Rangers can do that, there is no clear-cut way. And if this is going to resemble the Rangers team pre-trade deadline, yes, Scho-Sherkin is going to have to play like this every single night, and they're going to have to win on the power play, which, you know, if you're only getting one power play opportunity in a hundred-ish minutes of ice time, you can't expect to win more than one game with this kind of game. And to be fair, I didn't think, I thought the officials were pretty bad in terms of game management. I didn't think they missed anything to egregious i mean you and i were texting the lingering penalty is probably a major that got downgraded

to a minor if you wanted to argue that i'd be if you wanted to argue that i'd be fine with you but i didn't think they missed anything too egregious on either team other than that i felt like the power plays even though it was i think three for pittsburgh one for the rangers i didn't feel like they missed anything egregious so if it's going to be this kind of game at five on five yeah shastirkin's going to have to be the guy because that's what it was the first 50 games of the season And up until that game against the stars in mid-March, where Dallas scored like five goals, Shesirkin was something in the neighborhood of, I think, 41, 42 goals saved above expected. I think he finished the season at 36 saved above expected.

That's what the recipe is going to have to be. And the thing that was good about those 20 games post-deadline was the Rangers were generating a ton of offense, but they were doing better defensively. They were limiting the chances the other teams were creating, so their metrics are a lot better. not asking to be at 50-50. If the Rangers are, you know, sniffing, 50, 48% in most of these metrics and Shisterkin's playing like that, you feel pretty good about it, but you can't be playing like they did tonight. And Grant, I understand. I understand Lingren misses a lot of time that hurts you. I understand Miller misses a lot of that. He missed the entire third overtime. I understand

all of these extenuating circumstances. That's part of the playoffs. Everybody's hurt this time of year. Nobody is 100%. Everybody is going to be dealing with injuries. And the penguins are down to their third string goal. You don't get to make excuses that we're down to the Rangers are down to defensemen. Yeah, the penguins have a guy who was eating Chinese food in between periods in that. You think we could have scored a goal maybe? Come on, you can't make excuses about where we're hurt. Yeah, so is Pittsburgh.

So is everybody this time of year. You don't get to make excuses about injuries. That's not a fair argument to me. Yeah, no, I completely agree with you. And, you know, going, you made a great point, honestly, Nick, about the officials. And those overtimes, I don't really think they missed anything to. I mean, you know, normally, I, you know, people can complain about officials all they want. You know, you and I both know what playoff officiating is.

They let stuff go. You know, they're not going to call anything. Even if it looks like minor, they want the game 5B5. They don't want the game decided on Powerplace. That's just, that is how it's been. That's how it's going to be. And honestly, you know, with how safe I thought both teams were playing in the overtimes, there wasn't really too many, you know, like bad hits, like tripping minors, interference,

maybe like some minor stuff. But again, like that's going uncalled, I would say, every time, at least in my opinion. Obviously, more to get to for our last segment. We're going to get into maybe some adjustments going into game two, which is set for Thursday at Madison Square Garden. But before we get to that, summer is coming. And with summer, you're going to need some food on the go. Built bars are the perfect snack to take with you on family vacations.

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All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. You know to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the shows, Twitter at L.N.S. one's quick update on Casey to Smith. Mike Sullivan said he's being evaluated for a lower body injury. So it seems like it's not really a cramp, as it was indicated. But hopefully he'll be good to go. If I have to see my team start Louis Deming on Thursday, I will paint my face with Joker colors.

And that's how it will be. Well, overall, I did see Jeff Zakov start two games against the Rangers last time. He was their third-string goalie. Maybe one of the other two will be ready to go for game three on Saturday. in Pittsburgh, Tristan Jari was seen walking just fine. No, boot on his foot. We just has to get back on the ice at this point. But Nick, so game two Thursday.

Let's talk some adjustments going into that. You know, if you were Gerard Galant, you know, what would you do to, you know, get the Rangers back into this series, tie it up, heading back to PBG-Bains Arena? So the most important thing is to stop cheating in the neutral zone. That really became the problem as they kind of realized that, okay, we're going to have to get this. we're going to have to get this goal to break this tie. The forwards kept cheating a little bit

closer and closer to the neutral zone every single time their defenseman had the puck. Nobody was really coming back to make themselves available for a pass to start transition play going the other direction. And that's the most direct way. When you can't get anything going through the neutral zone, most of the time that problem for the Rangers jumped out when their forwards were already in the neutral zone as opposed to coming back in the D zone and making themselves available. They're going to need to simplify things a little bit. You talked about this the last time I was on your podcast that the penguins are trying to pass the puck into the back of the net that's what the rangers are doing tonight and granted they made some decent chances

at that they didn't make enough chances that just flat out they did not create enough offense at five on five and you realize that when offense isn't coming each to you are going to have to simplify for the sake of i mean lucky they got to a third overtime playing the way they did tonight and They're not going to be able to do that. You cannot realistically expect just Sarkin's who make 94, 95% of saves every single. You just can't do it. And this is the thing. I was arguing about this with some dude on Twitter today.

You cannot convince me the Rangers plan to be a playoff team this year was to have a goaltender make 93.5% of their saves during the course of the regular season. You'll never convince me that was the Rangers plan to be a playoff team this year. That is what happened. and I'm not going to complain about it, but you don't get to tell me this was the plan. They got lucky, okay? Goaltending is a lot of luck, no matter how good you are,

somebody as good as Andre Vastolevsky, it requires a little bit of luck to be as good as that. That's fine. That's part of goaltending. That's just the way the position is. The Rangers cannot expect Shusirkin to do this every single game. He very well might, but it is not a realistic strategy here. And we've seen the Rangers play Pittsburgh well at five on five,

where they've been able to dictate the game, be wide open in transition. And I wrote it down here in my notes. In the first period, the Rangers were doing a great job in the neutral zone of using the width of the ice, crisscrossing in the neutral zone, putting pressure on the defense. And once they gained the offensive zone, they'd have that cross-scene pass that was open, and it was going to the net as soon as it went across the seam. And they got away from that because the space tightened up, and they didn't have another way to try and create offense.

The way I explain this to people who aren't as familiar with hockey tactics is, Think about it like football. When one team is really good at just running or passing, and then the defense starts to say, okay, it's first down, they have this running back in, we know a running place coming. That was the Rangers tonight. They gained the zone. They were looking for that cross team pass, and it wasn't there.

The Penguins would put their stick out. They gained possession. They win the puck battle. They turn it the other way and start up. It's like running into a heavy box in football. That would be the analogy I would make for somebody who's not as familiar with hockey tactics. Running the ball into eight people isn't going to work when you only have six blockers. That's basically what the Rangers were doing tonight for a majority

of the second, third periods and then most of overtime. They got to simplify things. They got to get the fucking deep and they got to go get it. I know that's not this team's game, but there's just not the space you're used to. And yes, they had a nice stretch here after the deadline. They got to beat up on bad teams. I know that was part of the discussion. A lot of Ranger fans were getting mad at, you know, a lot of hockey people about for pushing that agenda. But I mean, they played the Devils twice. They played Ottawa. They played Detroit. They played the Islanders. They played Pittsburgh depleted twice. Nothing to really write home about. Yeah, you got to beat who's on your schedule. You can't help who you play. But at the same time, I mean, Pittsburgh's pretty much healthy aside

from Innet. And their goalie was fine tonight. Until Casey DeSmith lost, I thought he was fine. Domingue was fine. They tightened up in front of him like you mentioned. But I thought Pittsburgh played I think Pittsburgh playing a simple game really messed with the Rangers because when the Rangers beat the Penguins in the regular season this year, it was because they were absorbing pressure immediately going on the counterattack, finding that open space, going the other direction, putting pressure on the Pittsburgh defense, forcing somebody to make a play. And they weren't able to do that tonight. And they just didn't know what to do.

They just did not know what to do. I don't want to say deer in headlights because they still were pushing, they were still gaining the zone, they just weren't doing anything where they got there, which was a real problem, the first half of the season, that they would gain the offensive zone and not really have a plan once they got there. They're going to have to figure something out because you can't do, like I was saying, he can't expect this from Shasturkin. As for Pittsburgh, I mean, you guys just got to figure out what's going on in that, but I thought you guys played a good game tonight. I thought Kaepen was noticeable for the first time in a while. Yeah, very, very much so.

Yeah, I thought he was annoying tonight. I think your defense was more or less fine. I feel bad for John Marino. He got a shit rocked a couple times. Oh, yeah. The Rangers were making a... Decided to put him on basically his target list, like in war zone or something like that.

Okay, this is the last point I want to make before I throw it back to you. The Rangers, one of the adjustments I would make, don't be something you're not. And the Rangers have done this against the Penguins every single time they've played. They've tried to play the tough guy role. And yes, they have Ryan Reeves. They have Barclay Goodrow. have Trubo. They have these guys who are in a...

That's not your game. You are not that kind of team. You are not the flames. You are not the hurricanes. You are not the Bruins. You are not the capitals. You might have two or three guys who think they're tough guys. And they might be tough guys. That's not going to work this time of year. Yes, they might have rattled Pittsburgh in the regular season. They got to say it a little bit mad where he was yelling at Candre Miller. They got Malkin to take a stupid penalty in one of those regular season. The Penguins are built for this. The Penguins, 160 playoff games, something like that. that between Sid and Malkin.

They haven't missed the playoffs since George Bush was president. I mean, you're not going to be able to mess with them. You're just not going to be able to mess with them in the way you think you might. And that was a problem. They came out flying in that first period and thought, okay, we're the shit. We're going to kick the shit out of them tonight, and they're not going to stand the chance. And then that was the game. They came out for the second period in Pittsburgh.

That's not the game. We still got to play a whole other two periods. And that was it. That was the game. Yeah. No, I completely agree with. with all your points there. Nick, you know, I'm trying to, you know, obviously so many were said there.

I'm trying to think of the one that, well, whatever, you know, whatever. It's late at night. Maybe I'll just edit that out or something like that. But, you know, maybe I won't. We're just going to roll with it. But, I mean, yeah, it was interesting, you know, the Rangers did come out and they were, they were hitting like, they were hitting everything. And they were saying, you know, Mike Sullivan's mantra,

You know, he always says that, you know, just play. You know, whatever happens, happens. Maybe Brian Burke up in the press box wasn't too happy about that with all this truculence. But you know what? He's not the head coach and he's not trying to have everyone go hit people. But, you know, the Penguins, they withstood it. You know, they didn't like, they didn't go full Dan Bilesma mode and just lose their mind like they did what so many times during their situations. Now, when I'm getting Malkin would get into scrums, he would kind of skate away a little bit,

which is, you know, that's what I want to see. You know, I know he's easy to sometimes get off his game. you know, is easy to rattle him, get him angry. But, you know, I also agree with your point as well, Nick. You know, Capon, this was probably his best game in six to eight weeks. I was getting chance after chance with the Pock Shasturkin, had a windmill. That was a gorgeous save, a couple of other ones.

And I think there was the set play with less than a minute left in the double over time. You know, that's a goal probably 80 to 85% of the time on other goaltenders. That's a beautiful save. And then he was just a menace with the puck. I thought Brock McGinn, he really showed out tonight too. He hasn't really been noticeable that much since he came back from his injury. But tonight was great with the puck on his stick on a couple of nice chances. If the Penguins were, if they would have lost this game, Nick, it would have been the same old thing.

They're finishing. It's been in the lower part of the league, the entire year, four posts in those overtime sessions. Dan Hine, and he hits one, I believe that was in the third period. It was a double post. Jake Gensel, Crossbar, Brian Ross, has Shasturkin. Basically, half of the net open hits it off the left post. That somehow stays out. I was just really lining up for a peak Penguins loss there.

But, you know, I also agree with the situation that, you know, what's going to happen with Casey DeSmith? Is Tris and Jari going to get back on the ice here at some point? You know, it definitely, you know, it makes me a little nervous to potentially have Louis Demang start a game two of a playoff series when a few weeks ago, that was probably not going to happen. But, yeah, I mean, for the first time, just because I, go ahead. The Rangers will make Louis, Louis Domingue look good.

Don't worry. I'm not, if anything, the way they played in the second and the overtime once he came in the game, that to tell you all you need to know. They were shooting puck from 45 feet away that, you know, somebody who plays varsity hockey could make. I understand the idea is he's cold. He hasn't been in the game. If he has a clear sight line on it and you're shooting right at his chest,

I mean, this is a professional athlete. I mean, there's a reason Louis Dominguez hung around. as long as he has. I mean, he's not good, but he is in, he's an NHL tweener. In a pinch, he's fine. He did the job. Pittsburgh played well in front of him, like you mentioned before, limit where the chances were coming from.

That was the most important thing. Pittsburgh was able to adjust to the game. The Rangers were not able to adjust to the game. And that's a testament to Mike Sullivan. I always, you wrote about that, I think, in your preview. I think you said one of the biggest X factors is Mike Sullivan behind the bench, just because he's a top five coach in hockey. And he always has his players, you know, ready to play.

And it was definitely interesting to see them flip that switch in the second period because, you know, we've said it probably five times on this episode. They had nothing through those first 20 minutes, nothing at all. And it looked like it was trending towards a situation where we saw so many times down the stretch with the penguins where, you know, when they give up a couple of goals, it just, it spirals. And they just keep playing like crap. But, you know, they had some of their best hockey. and honestly the last couple of weeks for the rest of that game.

And for once, you know, they got rewarded. You know, last year against the Islanders, they played like that for most of the series. But, you know, they got goaltending, didn't finish your chances. Ilya Seroquen was a god and they lost in six games. And, you know, usually against this kind of opponent, the Penguins, they don't really play that well.

But, you know, tonight for most of that game, I thought they really brought it. And I am curious to see if that can continue going into games, who I would imagine Jason Zucker might be ready to come. come back, don't know the status of Ricard, Raquel. We already touched on that hit. I mean, my opinion, it should have been a major. I don't like those kind of, you know, almost like an elbow.

The puck was gone. The puck was gone. That's my, that's the thing. Like, even if you want to argue about where the point of contact is, the puck is gone. He's not going to be able to make a play where he is. At that point, you need to do what you can to minimize your contact. You can still hit him.

You can still hit him with force, but you can't be leaping. You can't be turning in to hit them. The puck is gone. You need to be mindful of where the puck is in that situation. And that was the thing in that first period. The Rangers got a little bit out of control. And that was a prime opportunity right there when the penguins got that power play. The game could have swung right there if Pittsburgh scores on that power play.

It took Pittsburgh a while to get their team going. And they didn't score on that power play opportunity. But you got to be mindful. You can play with emotion. That's fine. But you can't get out of control. And the Rangers did a little bit there in that first period. Yeah, and yeah, to your point,

major, if you argue a major, I'm not going to argue against it. I understand why somebody would see that and think it's a major. They reviewed it. They went to the video room. They had a whole commercial break to talk about it. They went from a major to a two-minute minor. I would like to read the report. I know the NHL has that report somewhere.

I don't know why they don't publish this, these decisions. It would be very helpful. Make the referees available after the game for things like that. explaining decisions. What's the word I'm looking for? Transparency. That's all we want from our officials. We want to understand what they're thinking

and why they're thinking it, and the NHL refuses to give us that. Yeah, absolutely. And again, I would love if they could answer questions to the media and not, you know, just run away from this kind of stuff. I will always die on the hill for officials to do that. And again, you know, I'm not

calling for a big suspension or anything like that. I mean, we also would have with a DOPSA with the Jared's Virgin thing. there's no consistency at all with what they do so in all honestly nothing probably would have happened that's just that's how it is for the dops so i'm not i'm not arguing that and no other players what i thought played well for the penguins tonight obviously malcolm got the game winner i've been told that he's bad at five he's washed uh people just need their ice check and stuff like that guy was i will take i will take 36 year old of genie malkin if the penguins do not resign him i will

gladly take you up on that offer i i will sign him to a one year seven point five million dollar deal And I will kick Ryan Stroh and Andrew Kopp to the curve. Sign me up for that if the penguins don't want. Your Ryanstrom tweet was after he whiffed on that chance. I remember reading your tweet. You were just like, this is a running joke on Rangers Twitter. He does this all of the time where the goalie is on the other post and he just doesn't put the puck in the net. Like, I get it.

It's hard to do. There's a reason he's a professional athlete. But bro, it's a wide open net. I feel like I scored that goal at some point in my life. I feel like I could have scored that goal. That's the source of the frustration for all the range of fans out there. Strom is not a bad player, but he's so frustrating because he could be better. If he was just more consistent in his play, he would be a 70, 80 point guy every single season,

but instead because he's not, he's mid to low 60s. It's one of those things. That's the difference between the good and the great. The great players are consistent. The good players are sometimes consistent. Yeah, I absolutely agree there. And I also want to shout out John Marino tonight. he has been a whipping boy not only on penguin's social media but on this podcast because

I openly said that he has been really bad this year but tonight this is per natural satrick 28 minutes at even strength he was on the ice for 82% of expected goals 51 shot attempts for 17 against had the primary assist on abgeny malcons tip in triple overtime uh shout out to him a tremendous game and you know especially after he was just a target from ryan Reeves, you know, just looked like he was playing war zone out there with all those hits. I've probably made that joke already, and I'm going to make it again. It's whatever at this point. Chris Lettang, great game again.

They got played over 40 minutes tonight, Nick. He's 35 years old. I cannot think of a single mistake Lettang made. I went through, I was looking at my notes. I thought that was the one thing I didn't mention before. I don't think any Ranger defenseman had a good game tonight. Fox and Lingren had the really bad goal. Fox was really good.

Fox had moments, but I never felt comfortable with him and Lingren out there. That's the thing. In the playoffs, what defensive pair do I actually feel comfortable with in these tight situations? I didn't think anybody was particularly good tonight, especially at five on five. I know Fox scored the first goal on the power play. That was a nice shot from the point, but a lot of overpassing. The goal, the Gensel goal, the one that him and Lingra, you can't let him, you can't let Sid Saucer pass through the middle of the two of you.

That was the second one. I think Fox and Lingwin were on ice for that one. That's right. Yeah, no, they went right. Sid saucered right between the middle of them and Gensel leaked behind them. Yeah. You can't let that happen. That's just not good depth control.

One of them needs to realize that Gensel's behind them and drop. And that's part of what I was saying before about cheating up trying to create offense that way. But yeah, no, the penguin's defense I thought was great tonight, to be honest to see. The Rangers really weren't able to create a lot. And that's because they were so active, especially in the neutral zone. Yeah, I have 100% agree there. It was probably one of their better defensive performances, I should say, of the season.

You know, it's probably one of the overall win-wise playoff wins. I know this team has had so many playoff wins over the years going well back before the Crosby days. I mean, this is probably one of their more memorable, iconic playoff wins in the franchise of the history. Again, you know, this was their first triple overtime game since 2010. They lost that one in Ottawa. Their first triple overtime winner since Peter Socorra in 2008. that cut that series lead to three to two.

But Nick, I think that will probably do it for this one. Thank you so much for coming on and always giving your perspective. You know, for thoughts on the Rangers, you are always my number one guy to go to just because you know your team. And for those that do not follow you on social media and do not follow your work, tell them where they can find all that. And obviously, man, you're going to come back on at some point this series. So you can follow me on Twitter, just my name at Nick Zeraris.

Z A-R-A-R-I-S, about every sport on God's Green Earth and a lot of other things, too. You could read me on Gotham Sports Network. I wrote something about the playoffs in general. That should be up sometime on Wednesday, depending when on Andrew gets to it. There's like 3,500 words.

It took like two hours. I wrote it before. The game started on Tuesday. Just a lot of general thoughts. One of the segments in there was about Sidney Crosby. It's really good stuff. I love hockey. This is my favorite time of the year.

of a other bowl GM podcast was going to record an episode for Wednesday. But being that the game went to triple overtime and I already had committed to coming on the show with Hunter, I will do an episode at some point for the games I was going to do them for. We'll catch up. We got to talk about hockey playoffs. We got to talk about basketball playoffs. There's a lot of stuff going on in the sports world this time of year. It's always great to come on, Hunter.

Thank you for having me. Yeah, this is going to take years off of our lives. I remember that game. The Rangers won that game. Pittsburgh, three to two. They missed all those empty netters and it's just a hard attack after hard attack. This is how this series is going to go. I kept on people going into this.

I saw all these predictions of, you know, some people saying the Rangers are going to sweep them. I'm like, guys, this is going to be a very tight series. I mean, I still thought the Rangers, they were the favorite. And rightfully, so they were playing a lot better down the strips. The goaltending advantage, I still think they are the favorite. But the penguins are, they're not going to go down without a fight. And you saw that tonight.

So it's going to be quite the series. I refuse to doubt Mike Sullivan and Sidney Crosby. That's really what it comes down to at the end of the day. I picked the Rangers to win the series in six. Me too. And my hesitation was Sullivan is a significantly better coach than Galant. And if Sid decides to go super saying, there's not really anything the Rangers are going to be able to do about it

because they don't have a true shutdown defenseman. And Sid was on his game tonight. and there's not really anything you can do about that. I mean, at 35 years old, what is it, year 17, there's not really, there's like maybe five guys in the whole sport you take before him at this point, and that's kind of a debate depending on any given night. He was amazing.

The Rangers are in trouble if he's going to play like that every single night. There's really no getting around that. Yeah, 100%. And, you know, penguins, you know, I know they won tonight, but they are also in trouble if they don't have their goaltoning situations were out for Thursday. I will 100% stand by that. If it's Louis Deming for a game or two moving forward, that's going to probably take at least 50 more years off my life to be short there. But again, thank you all so much for listening.

Since it is now 1 a.m. in the morning on Wednesday, I will have another episode for you all on Thursday for a game recap. Hopefully that game does not go to triple overtime. I'm going to go to quadruple overtime, Hunter. If you're going to go to quadruple. I do not need that. I think the last quadruple overtime game for the Penguins, I'm pretty sure it was the Keith Primo game. And I don't want to talk about that because, I mean,

one, I was very young, but I've watched the replay many times. And it's gross, to say the least. But the plan right now is I believe is to have Rachel Noons from the hockey writers to recap that game. But we'll see. Usually when she comes on, the Rangers win. So maybe I might just take her off that, to be sure.

But again, thank you all so much for listening. Thank you to Nick for coming on, and I'll be back with another one on Thursday.