Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - How good can this Penguins team be?

Episode Date: December 14, 2021

The Pittsburgh Penguins are back streaking. That's now four wins in a row as they're sitting comfortably in a playoff spot. Hunter recaps the game against the Anaheim Ducks as it wasn't the prettiest win, but it got the job done. He touches on Brock McGinn and how he continues to have a stellar season for Pittsburgh. Does he have more of an offensive pulse than Tanev? He also touches on Casey DeSmith and how he's turning his season around. Does the team not need to trade for a backup anymore? How will this help Jarry the rest of the way? Hunter then gives his thoughts on Jim Rutherford's comments on Monday before doing a small preview of the Habs game on Tuesday.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.StatHeroStatHero is the first of its kind Daily Fantasy Sports platform where it’s YOU vs. the HOUSE in head to head fantasy matchups - winner take all. Sign up for FREE - RIGHT NOW - at StatHero.com/HOCKEY and use promo code HOCKEY for a One Hundred Percent Deposit Match.Omaha SteaksThe holidays are around the corner and finding the perfect gift is tricky. Omaha Steaks makes it easy to send friends and family an unforgettable gift guaranteed to be loved. Go to Omaha Steaks dot com and enter “NHL” into the search bar to order The Perfect Gift Package 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.

You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, welcome to this Monday evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes, Murder. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, so you can also follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. And thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. first full episode, not in Capitals country anymore. I do not think there are many Capitals

fans down here in Richmond. It's just, you know, nice different thing. Of course, you know, I always think of this place as halfway to everything in Virginia. It's about two hours to the beach, two hours up north, two hours down south, two hours to my college in Blacksburg. So, and again, the best part, there's no Capitals fans here. So I'm probably, I'm very, very happy about that. But the penguins, they get their fourth straight win over the Anaheim Ducks this past Saturday. They are now, they've won nine of their last, what is it, 12 games now. Just a really dominant stretch here from the Penguins outside of those two games against Montreal and Calgary. And they're starting to show, I think, a lot of people that, you know, this team is really good.

And they're expected to be getting back some reinforcements sooner rather than later. We're going to get to that later on in the episode. But, you know, my first is a lot of the first. I'm going to get to that. But, you know, my first biggest takeaway, I think from that game against Anaheim, since, you know, we haven't spoken since Friday when Pittsburgh took down Washington. I thought Pittsburgh did what they needed to do. Shot attempts-wise at 5'5. Pittsburgh narrowly led the way at 51%. Scoring chances, though, the Ducks had 58% of those, 42% for Pittsburgh. Anaheim also had 66.6% of the high danger chances for 12 to 6 and then expected goals for.

it was pretty even in that regard 1.82 for the Penguins 1.76 for the Ducks. Obviously, the lone goal was Brock McGins. We'll get to them just a sec. But it's just sometimes you've got to grind out these kind of wins. I mean, you played the night before. It was a very emotional win for the Penguins. They didn't have their best stuff in this game. It's hard, too, especially because you did play the night before in that rivalry game.

I understand the Ducks are a lot better than people. people were expecting them to, myself included, I thought they would stink this year. But that's still a really impressive win for the penguins. You take those two points and you run with them. That's a kind of game that Pittsburgh was not winning a lot prior to this past Saturday, just because they haven't had a lot of luck go their way. You know, the ducks, I thought, missed on quite a few chances. But Casey DeSmith was also really good, which leads me now into my next biggest takeaway.

That's a really good start from DeSmith. perhaps his best since last season. I know he played well against Seattle a bit earlier in the week on that. I wasn't on a back-to-back, excuse me. It was a couple days after the game against Vancouver. Sullivan, excuse me, wanted to give Jari off and rightfully so. He had been basically starting every game for the last three weeks to almost a month. Gives Jari another day off for this one on the back-to-back, rightfully so as well.

And he shut the door and then some made a lot of really high-tend, Dale saves. I mean, again, he faced 12 high danger chances for he didn't give up any. This is the version of Casey to Smith that Pittsburgh is going to need here down the stretch. The team needs to give Jari as many days off as possible so he can continue to tear up the rest of the league and be hopefully a Vezna Trophy candidate throughout the regular season, not just the first two months of this one. Obviously, he's been playing the best hockey of his career this year. but he needs these rest days because if Sullivan continues to play him as much as he's been playing in these last three and a half weeks, he will be gassed by the time the playoffs come around.

Heck, he'd probably be gassed by March, to be honest. So having to Smith play, well, very big for Pittsburgh because there was a time, and I was saying it on the podcast as well. I had a couple people on who were saying the same thing, that Pittsburgh could be looking for a veteran backup. You know, Anton Kudobin of the Dallas Stars just went on waivers to that would have been someone if DeSmith kept struggling these last few starts that I would love to look at if I were on Hextal. Obviously, that's not going to happen now because DeSmith has turned his game around a little bit.

But, you know, that was one of the biggest issues I thought with the Penguins is here is that, you know, they weren't getting even average goaltending from their backup. It's something that is very important with this team just because the starter is playing well. But on the nights that he's off, you need to get at least decent goaltending. hopefully these last two starts paved the way for to Smith to really turn his season around. So he was sensational in that game. And then, you know, obviously Brock McGinn noted Locked on Penguins, yes, the only player from the Penguins so far that has ever come on to the show.

But, you know, he notches his seventh of the year. And I said this when he signed. I honestly, if you compare McGinn and Tanniv, there's really no big difference between the players. They both are really good defensively. Their underlying numbers stack up basically like this. Offensively, it's basically like this. I personally think, this is my opinion, that McGinn has more of an offensive punch than TANV,

but you can certainly argue Tanev. But, you know, just McGinn has really turned it on these last C games. And honestly, I'll also say this. I think the fourth line with McGinn instead of TANV is better for the Penguins with Aston Ries. Bluebird than it was with Tanev the last couple years, just because I think McGinn brings more offense to the table than Tanneth. But, you know, it's just, it's great to see that line continue to play really good.

I like that Brock is finishing his chances a bit more. When he's playing like this, he is living up to that contract that he signed over the all-season. I know there were some naysayers that didn't like it. I know there's all, there's been a lot of naysayers this season as well up until I think last weekend. I've seen this everywhere, you know, message boards, Pittsburgh. Sports Talk Radio, Twitter, wherever you see Penguins fans talking about the team. Just really kind of dumping on TANF saying they wish they could have,

dumping on McGinn, excuse me, wishing that they would have kept TANF. I don't know. I uttered the wrong thing by accident. But I don't really know where that's coming from. He's been fine this year. 2.75 million is not a lot of money. He probably got an extra year on that contract and he probably should have. But at the end of the day, he's playing good.

His underlying numbers are really good, and he's been a great fit for the Aston-Rise-Bluger line. So he notched that game winner on John Gibson, and I felt bad for Gibson because he wasn't able to finish the game. He got taken out at the end of the second period with a lower body injury. I'm not sure what the updated status is for him with that one. But still, you know, that's a big goal. Otherwise, Pittsburgh did have quite a few chances of the rest of the game. There were a couple really strong shifts, one of them, by the first.

fourth line where they were in the duck zone for about 60 to 90 seconds, peppering shots on Stolars when he came into the third period, you know, Gibson before that in the second. And, you know, credit to the Ducks, goaltenders, you know, they were strong, you know, both Stolars and Gibson. Overall, though, just watching the Ducks, this is another big takeaway. It's not really Penguin related. But, man, that team has some serious high-end talent. I definitely was not a believer in Troy Terry coming into this year.

He definitely has made me look like a complete and utter fool. He had that 16-game point streak this year. He embarrassed Brian Dumlin and Chris Latang on multiple occasions on Saturday night, the last of which with Latang completely deeped around him, got a beautiful chance on to Smith. It just goes wide. It's like that would have been probably one of the five best goals of the year had Troy Terry scored on that. So he is going to be ridiculous in the next couple of years.

Trevor Zegris, he's awesome. I think if people are hating on that goal for some reason with Sonny Malano and that it's not good for the game, as John Torrella says, hockey might not be the sport for you or, you know, the time of the 90s and 2000s has just passed you by. But that's a really fun team to watch. If they play, I think, around 500 hockey the rest of the way, they should make the playoffs.

And I hope they do because, again, they have a lot of serious young talent. I love watching Cam Fowler play. Lynn Holm. John Gibson has been really good this year, Pittsburgh native, of course. But that's a team that's definitely surprised me and a lot of people. And they gave Pittsburgh a pretty good fight,

especially in that last 60 to 90 seconds of the game when they had the goalie pulled. Pittsburgh was not able to clear the zone hardly during that time. And DeSmith had to come up, excuse me, with a couple monster saves, one of which was on Ryan Getslov, with 15 to 20 seconds, stuck the right pad out. Anaheim didn't get a good look after that because the Penguins played some pretty good defense,

but the Ducks were really pushing those last 60 to 90 seconds, and DeSmith and the Penguins defense was able to shut the door there and get to Smith. That's shot out. But again, just a really big win. That's now four in a row. They're firmly in a playoff spot. They're five points up from the ninth place team. And, you know, as I was saying on social media, you know, I've been saying to myself as well,

it's almost like you didn't need to panic about the team when they were going through a little bit of a tough stretch. They've gotten mostly healthy, but now they're still without three of their top six wingers. They're playing good, committed team defense. They've gotten good goaltending. Crosby's starting to wake up. The fourth line has been really good. Jeff Carter is playing well. All of these are just a recipe for success overall with,

the team. They're back in action. Tuesday night against the Montreal, Canadians. They've split the first two meetings with them. This will be the last time they play them until next season in Montreal. It's just not going to make the playoffs at this point. But, you know, Pittsburgh, they're just, they're doing what they need to do, you know, to clinch a playoffs spot at the end of the year by playing well above 500 hockey. This is a really good team. There was no need to panic on them. And you're seeing that right now with how they're finally starting to get the results. that the process has basically lined up to be because at the start, the process was good, but they weren't getting the results.

Now they're starting to finish their chances a bit more, and the results are coming, which, you know, as the Philadelphia 76 should say, he chose the process. So coming up in the next segment, we're going to touch on some Jim Rutherberg talk that came out today. He had some interesting comments about the Penguins when he was speaking with the Canucks, and a couple other things as well, including some practice notes with that, again, Malkin and as his return looks to be close as well but before we do that does this sound familiar you've got one device that let you catch the game live another that lets you stream your favorite shows you're watching sports highlights on your phone and you've got your

neighbors best friends logging for the good stuff well I want to tell you about a simple way to get all the entertainment you love without the hassle and a great way to finally get your TV together it is called direct TV stream and it brings your live TV and on-demand favorites together like never before so you can watch favorite sports movies and shows in one place. That means no more talking than remotes and no need to buy another device ever again. And the best part, there is no annual contract. So get rid of the clutter and the confusion to get your TV together with DirecTV stream. You can learn more at directtiv.com. That is directtv.com. Capadable device required content varies by package.

All right, welcome back here to this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show's Twitter at L0 underscore Penguins. So today, the second topic, definitely something I was not expecting to discuss on the show today, but due to Jim Rutherford's interesting comments, we have to discuss them. So he spoke for the first time today while as the team president of the Vancouver Canucks, I think he's the president of hockey operations, he's going to be hiring a general manager. He is the interim general manager until he hires the replacement for Jim Benning. So I actually, I tuned in right at the perfect time because one of the Vancouver media members

basically asked a question about two of his moves in Pittsburgh and one involved Chuck Johnson and one involved Erica Branson. And the question also asked, you know, do you use analytics and stuff? So Rutherford said, you know, he likes analytics. He loves using them, but he doesn't incorporate them into all of, well, I shouldn't say that. He says he sometimes makes hockey decisions not based. solely on analytics.

He then said that Jack Johnson, he doesn't regret the signing. He was a big part of the dressing room and did good things for Pittsburgh while he was there and he wasn't ever given a chance on day one when he was signed. Okay. So, I'm doing this for both YouTube and audio.

I've had some time to get my thoughts together. I think, you know, there's two ways to look at this. Obviously, one, he hasn't. really learned his lesson to good luck canucks fans because you're in for a wild ride with jim rutherford as your general manager i think overall with jim he did a lot of good things for the penguins um i saw a couple takes out there today uh multiple places that you know he kind of backed into those back to mac stanley cups i don't necessarily agree with that i understand i understand both sides of the argument I'm personally on the side that, yes, he had the core,

but he needed to make the necessary moves to surround the core with good players so they can get back over that hump that they hadn't been over since 2009 because he had that 18th month span right where he was striking goal, A plus trades. Patrick Hornquist was beautiful. It looked like 50-50 at the time. Turned out to be a 100% beautiful trade. Phil Kessel, that's amazing.

Trevor Daly, great offensively, bad defensively, but you got rid of Rob Skidari, Carl Hagwin, really big piece, Nick Benino for Brandon Sutter, those are all huge traits. Ian Cole, of course, as well, you know, for Robert Bortuzzo, just, you know, a lot of really big savvy moves. Hell, Eric Fair in free agency, he was also pretty important, I thought for Pittsburgh. But overall, you know, after that, that's when it went south, right? after that 2017 run when Rutherford decided to go all in on toughness and just throw stuff at the wall for the sake of throwing stuff at the wall. You know, Matt Hunwick, Jack Johnson, Eric Good Branson, the Bressard trade, which it was fine. In theory, I would do it again.

It just wasn't a good fit. But, you know, it's just there was a comedy of errors time after time where it looked like every time he was making a trade, it was to correct a mistake that he made with the previous one. And it was just something. He just would never learn his lesson. And I think that's the same thing here with Jack Johnson. Obviously with that take today, he hasn't learned a damn thing, which is, it's definitely disappointing because you'd think after he freaking bought him out just a little over a year ago, you know, I think he would have said, yeah, that was probably in hindsight, probably not the best idea to sign it.

I mean, I guess he's not going to throw the player under the bus a little bit. But the one part of that quote that was really weird was that he's like, well, you know, he was never given a chance on day one. It's like, well, no duh, Jim. I mean, everyone that has access to, you know, analytic sites like, you know, hockey viz, money puck, natural stat trick, evolving hockey. Any website can look and see how Jack Johnson plays. You don't even have to look at the film to see how bad he was because. that eye test from almost everyone that probably launched him, you know, that backed up his underlying numbers from the seasons prior, which went to show how bad he truly was.

There was a stat today from someone that quote, tweet tweeted my tweet, excuse me, on Penguin's Twitter here, if I can find this real quickly here. So Jack Johnson, this comes courtesy of Bird for Life. Jack Johnson at 5E5 in his Penguins playoff career. He played in seven playoff games. He was on the ice for one goal for, eight goals against, 38% of the shots, 38% of schooling chances, and only 37% of the high danger chances.

That is horrifically bad and goes to show what a disaster of a signing. That was for Pittsburgh. It just was not working out at all. Now, another part of this that I wanted to touch on. how I say this, I think, the best. I think there are some people, this goes for some media members, some people in the fan base

that need to get over how Jim Rutherford left the team. And trust me, I think it was not that professional how he did it. You know, did he walk out? Sure. You know, did he rage quit? I don't know, but I think,

and I've seen some people talk about it way too much every time it comes up on Twitter. You know, Jim Rutherford doesn't need to live rent-free in your head. 24-7-365. I see some of the same people. I'm not going to call him out here on my podcast. Just, you know, calling him a baby and calling him other stuff and all that stuff.

And it's just like, okay, we get it. He left probably on not the best terms. It was definitely very questionable what happened. We still don't know the real reason why he left. Let's just leave it at that. He wasn't good his final few years. We don't have to deal with it anymore. And that's that.

I mean, I think that's probably the best way to end this segment and transition into the next segment. But I wanted to bring up some of those quotes to just really question why Jim Rutherford was making those comments. And to just give my overall thoughts on just, you know, where his head, I shouldn't say where his headspace had. Just, you know, maybe why he decided to make those comments. It's mainly just because of Jack Johnson, you know, he's not going to admit that he's wrong. he doesn't want to be accountable for it. You know, whatever. There's nothing we can do.

Ron Hextall is general manager now. Brian Birch of the team president. Let's see what they can do for the season if they want to go out and get someone on the trade market or whatnot. Because, again, I feel much more comfortable with Ron Hextall at the helm than I do, Jim Rutherford. That's for sure. But that'll wrap up this second segment of the show.

Coming up to the next day, but we're going to go into some practice notes today, including some stuff on a Gennie Malkin, while also previewing the game against Montreal all on Tuesday night. But before we do that, this holiday season, grab the protein bar that tastes like a candy bar or even better than a candy bar, Bill Bar. They are filled with so much holiday goodness, rich with decadent flavor, covered in chocolate, it had been amazingly low in calories, sugar, net carbs, and fat. And they're very high in protein. You get the best of both worlds that are delicious and they are healthy. Billap bar gives you that extra fuel. You need to bust down those mall doors and battle all the holiday shoppers. Or if you're a lot of you.

you're just standing in the shopping lines, Bill Bar can give you that extra something to keep you going. So throw one in your jacket or purse. You've never know when you're going to need it. Because it's a season of peace and love, do not bring up your favorite bill bar flavors at family parties. People are so passionate about their favorite flavor. They will fight for it, and things could get out of hand.

Do you want to cozy up with something warm? Here's a holiday secret. Dip your bill bar into a piping hot cup of cocoa. Let it melt a little bit and give your beverage a bit of that Billbar flavor. plus you'll have a nice, melty built bar to go with it. Be sure to have a couple of napkins on hand. You can go to buildbar.com,

excuse me, built.com. Use promo code lock 15 and you'll get 15% off your order. That's promo code locked 15 for 15% off at built.com. Now, that online has you covered for all the seasons for sports, and that means more props, odds, and lines that I before, especially with the NFL season. There's four weeks left until the NFL playoffs start. Ben-on-Line remains your number one spot for all the sports action this season.

From basketball, football, NHL boxing, and UFC, right to your favorite Vegas casino games. Don't wait to take advantage of all the amazing offers available for the 2021 season. Ben-on-Line is the fastest, easiest way to bet on all of your favorite sports. That has been online where the game starts. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Hangman's podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodesmurda. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodesfall.

show's Twitter at L.O. Arnold Schwar Penguins. So there's a big update today with Evgeny Malkin. He hasn't done full contact yet, but I'm getting the sense that it's really close now. This comes courtesy of Josh Ewing and a couple of other reporters. Malkin worked extensively with the second power play unit and looked really good. He also says, I can't imagine his return to the lineup is all that far away. Remember, a lot of the media members for the athletic, you know, Pittsburgh Tribune View,

Post-Gazette we're saying around Christmas time, if not a little bit before, that Gino should be coming back. Right now, 12 days till Christmas, I got to imagine it's in the next week or two. The only thing that he hasn't done yet is full contact at practice. This was the first time he's had extensive work on the second power play. So you've got to think that a couple full practices to ramp it up are coming for Gino. So his return is not far away. and Boyd is his team needed.

Even though they're playing well, it just allows everyone to slide down a little bit. Jeff Carter gets to resume his role as a third line center. It's just, it's so huge for Pittsburgh to have Gino back in the lineup. And they have certainly done well enough where they're in a playoff position when he'll be back. So the team should only be able to get better from here. The lines were the same from Saturday. Everyone was on the ice for practice.

Brian Russ and Jake Gensel stated before practice. so it looks like they're starting the recovery process. I'm not really sure when they're expected back. I haven't heard anything. All I know is that they're both week to week at this point. So no real update there other than that they skated before practice. Montreal comes to town. Pittsburgh has a really big opportunity here before the Christmas break to really bank more points.

They have New Jersey twice, one at home, one on the road, Philadelphia, Buffalo, and Montreal. all. Four out of those five games are at home. And the Penguins have traditionally been one of the best teams on home ice through these last few regular seasons. Last season, they were the best team at home. So this is a big opportunity here again for Pittsburgh to win these games. A lot of these teams are, well, a couple of them are bought on feeders. A couple others are not bottom feeders, but they're not good teams. I mean, New Jersey, they're kind of middling a little bit. They're kind of in striking distance for a playoff spot, but they've also regressed a bit. Philadelphia, they've won a couple in a row after losing 10 in a row, which resulted in Elin Vigno being fired. But that's a rivalry game. Anything can happen. And then Buffalo in Montreal, Pittsburgh has lost to both of those teams this year.

But these two games will be at home for Pittsburgh. But again, this is big here. If they want to really make a run at a top three spot in the Metro, these are games that Pittsburgh should hopefully win. If you go down to the underlying numbers from Montreal, not much has changed. They have 43.9% of the expected goals. They have 41.5% of the actual goals.

Only 48.2% of the shot attempts. It has just been a horrific year for the haves I'm on money puck right now. Their goals for per 60, 5,8, 1.76. Expected goals for 2.06, expected goals against per 60, 2.65. their actual goals against his 2.48. So, again, you know, their struggles are pretty bad. You know, right after they actually beat the Penguins, funny enough, they let Mark Bergen go,

and now Jeff Gordon is running their hockey ops, at least for a little bit. They have not fired Dom D'Du Charm yet. Scott Mellonby also resigned from Montreal right after that. So a lot of change with the HABs, even after just a few short months, they went to the Stanley Cup final and we're within three games of winning.

on that championship. But this should still be a game that Pittsburgh wins. They'll go for five in a row before they have a lot of home games coming up, which is huge. They've been on the road a lot lately. So to come home and play at the BG Payne's Arena, it's just big for Pittsburgh. And hopefully in one of those five games before the Christmas break, Evgen Lee Malkin will be able to make his return. But that'll do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast.

Our next episode, we will be back tomorrow night for a recap of the game against Montreal i can't wait to do that with you all so i'll talk to you all then hope you all then hope you all for a great rest of your day