Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Is it time to panic on these Penguins?

Episode Date: November 16, 2021

Well, that weekend STUNK. The Penguins got embarrassed this weekend against the Capitals and Senators and Hunter is here to break it all down? What's wrong with the power play? Is there a double standard with the Capitals when it comes to this Crosby situation? Does the team need to go out and get another goaltender soon? Is it panic time for the team? What's plaguing Brian Dumoulin this season? All that, plus much more on this episode of Locked On Penguins.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.ShopifyGo to Shopify.com/lockedonnhl for a FREE fourteen-day trial and get full access to Shopify’s entire suite of features. 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. Hello, everyone and welcome to this Monday evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Honour Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Follow this show's Twitter at ElinSport Penguins. And thank you all so much for making this episode your first listen of the day. My first episode of being 24. now it's pretty crazy that I think I started this podcast when I was wow I'm actually trying to think you I believe I was 21 when I started this podcast now I'm 24 so it's definitely been pretty crazy that I turned 22 before I started it and then you know 23 last year course so I've been doing this for over two years now I'm going to say two months and it's pretty crazy thank you all so much for

coming along for the ride and you know I would love to go back and listen to those early episodes, I might do that just because I want to see how different I sound. But, you know, a lot to get to on this episode, the Penguins had. Probably the worst weekend they could have. I sat on my Friday episode. This was going to be a big weekend for the Penguins. Back to Matt Games, the first one of the season, they have a chance to really climb up at the standings, and they did anything but that. I got zero out of four points. Look really bad the entire time doing it. I think we'll start with the fact that, I'll say this, my biggest takeaway from this weekend. It's not time to panic yet. I think if they are still playing like this crap that you saw this past weekend in the next couple of weeks, say

early December, then I think I'm going to push the panic by a little bit. They still only played 13 to 14 games. It's early in the season. All that jazz. Yes, I understand you want to start banking points or towards the bottom of the division because the Metro is a lot better than I thought it would be this year. I'll eat crow on that right now. I did not think the Metro was going to be very competitive just because I thought there was a lot

of middling teams. I thought the Penguins were going to be better than a lot of. lot of these teams. So far a month in, I have been dead wrong. I will fully admit that. Let's see where we are at the end of the season. But, you know, there's definitely have been some trends that I'm not liking right now. One of them has been Ryan Dumlin just has not been good in the games that he has played. I understand that he has also not played a lot this season, you know, partly due to COVID. But, you know, I think this could potentially be a slow start, though. The last few years, Danny Showery of D.E.K. Pittsburgh Sports put this, you know,

shot up from evolving hockey. His goals 4 per 60 is close to minus 1, expected goals 4 and the minuses. And then his shot attempts 4 per 60 is full on minus 1. It has just not been himself, to say the least. I believe he was also close to dead last in terms of game score this season. And, you know, the eye test also backs that up because he's always making the wrong read in the defensive zone. I know he got caught flat-footed on one of the capitals goals last night where he was just had no chance on it. I think there's another one where he had a really bad turnover.

Again, he's just not himself right now, and I don't think a lot of people are talking about it enough. He needs to play a lot better and get back to the level that we know that he can play. You know, obviously he's at his best when he's on the top pair with Chris LaTang. I know he's 30 years old right now, which is when some defensemen start to decline a little bit in the NHL, but it's just not been good enough from him this season. and he need to start turning that around because if he's playing bad, then your best defenseman,

obviously Chris Lange is going to bring it every night. John Marino's been playing mostly fine. Marcus Pedersen's been really good, but you need more than three defensemen of your six that are starting to be good. Obviously, having three are good is huge, but you need more than that. I'm of the opinion.

You want all six of your defensemen to be at least, I guess, average to above average definitely want probably two of them to be in the elite tier, if not more, but you want every defenseman to be at least average. Dumlin has not even been that this season. So it's something that I'm going to continue to watch closely as a season goes on just because, you know, I just haven't seen the same Brian Dumlin that we saw this past season. Again, I think some of the fan base does need to take a little bit of a chill pill. I know I tweeted out that there are some concerns that it was embarrassing weekend. I still feel that way today. I did not think the Penguins

played well at all. two games on the Saturday game. It just, the goaltending was really bad. Casey to Smith has been a big problem this season. And honestly, going back to last season as well, here's a stat for you all. In seven of his last nine starts, he has given up four or more goals. That's unacceptable. I don't care what backup you are in the NHL.

That is not merely good enough to win. I know Tristan Jari has been pretty good this season, but when he is not able to start, you mean to have your backup come in at least to give them average goaltending to Smith has not even done that this season. That is how bad it has been. And again, going back to last season as well, he has really struggled. You know, as of right now with the seven of these last nine starts, I don't know if he's an NHL caliber goaltender, but we also did see him play well at the NHL level for a decent part of last season.

So I don't really know what to believe. He's just a lot smaller and shorter than a lot of other NHL goaltenders. If it weren't for Philip Lindbergh being hurt, I would love for him to come up right now and see what he can do in the backup spot. I don't think there's been really any update with regards to his status. I believe he's still day-to-day with, I think it was a lower body injury, according to Taylor Haas. I'll have to double-check that, but he was pulled from one of his recent start due to an injury. But he's definitely been, I think, one of the bigger weaklings for the team this season.

I had people in my mentions on both my regular Twitter account and the shows Twitter account saying they need to go out and get a backup. Hey, you know, I said this going into the season. I was not sold on this tandem. I guess I was willing to give it a shot just because of the new goalie coach. Right now, the backup position is not working. And if this continues to go the way that it's going, you best believe I think that Ron Hextall is going to go out and get a veteran backup goaltender

because I'm sure there will be some available sooner or rather than later. They were already a month into the season. I think some GMs are starting to look at their teams, seeing what they have for this season. You know, maybe it's still a bit early for some. But I'm sure you can go out and get a veteran backup for, what, a mid, do a late round pick, something like that. I don't think it's going to cost a whole lot. But, yeah, DeSmith, terrible start. He never really gave the team a chance.

Some of the goals that he gave up, just, you know, I thought some of them were pretty savable. I know the defense was not that good. The team came out pretty flat. And I know they played hard for that third period on Saturday where they actually cut the lead from, I believe it was what, five, nothing down to five to three. But you got to play 60 minutes. I mean, that's just unacceptable. That's a really bad Senator's team that was ravaged by COVID. They had to postpone their next three games, actually, because of this COVID outbreak.

Hopefully it does not go into the penguins just because Pittsburgh just got everyone back. But I did not like that performance overall. It's telling when you're leading goal score this season is Evan Frickin Roder. You guess he has six goals right now. He has been that good. He deserves to be in the top 12 for as long as he's here. even when I'm getting Malkin comes back, I would take out Brian Boyle. I still am kind of confused as to why Brian Boyle is getting ice time right now with all the forwards healthy except Gino.

I would personally put in someone such as like Dominic Simone or even Drew O'Connor. I know they sent O'Connor down, but that was mainly just because he's waivers exempt. So they had no fear of him losing or, excuse me, going to another team just because he is waivers exempt. But I find it pretty curious that Boyle is still in the lineup. And I think when Gino comes back, if this team is fully healthy when he does come back, You know, is Boyle going to stay in the lineup? I would think no. Why would you take out Evan Rodriguez and keep Ryan Boyle?

And that would just be ridiculously stupid. But that's a topic, I think, for another day. But it is pretty crazy that he is, Rodriguez, that is, leading the team in goals this season. But, you know, Ottawa was just really banged up in that game. And Pittsburgh had nothing for him. You know, I thought they did the score with Carter to open it. Then, you know, after that, just the rails went off all in Ottawa's favor. Just a really embarrassing performance, I thought, from the Penn.

Penguins. And again, you know, this also goes back to my original point. People need to take a chill pill. I don't know how some of the people in the Penguins fan base go through a two game season every year. Even during the cup years, it is just like, what are you people talking about? I've seen some takes that they're not physical enough. And I just think that's a load of baloney. I mean, I think, you know, if you're not being physical enough, I mean, that that's just so low on the totem pole for me. It's not even funny. That is not going to win you a hockey game. What wins you a hockey games, you know, is scoring more goals in the other. team and you know just you know out shooting your opponent you know outchancing your opponent

getting to the front of the nend the high dangerous scoring chances getting the saves that you need physicality and hitting has really nothing to do with it so i just i hate those kind of takes from the people i've seen and the penguins fan base i think those need to go um straight to a place where the sun doesn't shine and i think that's that on that i really don't i have nothing else to say about that tech i just think it's completely ludicrous i also will say this overall another big takeaway before we go to commercial and talk about some stuff that happened in the Capitals game. The power play is a mess.

I know I had questions about it coming into this episode. I wanted to say, everything is wrong with it. I've touched on this last week. I'll say it again. These zone entries are so bad. They are still doing that dumb drop pass

where they're letting the PK just wait for them and then there's really no passing lanes and then they just get free clears. And the other one, there's just way too much perimeter passing. I feel like. You're not getting to the high danger or even the medium danger scoring chances, not getting nearly enough pucks on net than you need to. And it's just been a total train wreck.

I just, I really have nothing more, I think, I guess, to say on it, just because I touched on it so much last week. I mean, even Sid last night was fanning on some bad passes. La Teng was making some ill-advised decisions. And again, they're just, they're taking these low percentage shots, playing the perimeter too much. They've got to get back to the basics. And that's just, you know, putting a lot of pucks on net from, you know,

the medium high danger scoring chances, you know, getting to those high danger chances or areas, excuse me, as well. And you know, just getting some deflections on net, making it hell for the other goalie. And they're just, they're not doing that right now. And it's really frustrating to watch because whenever they get a power play, you know, everyone's just saying they should decline it because whenever they get momentum, that's what happens. And then all the momentum goes towards the other team. So, I mean, I don't think it's going to be at 9% the entire season, especially with the beginning of mocking coming back probably in the next few weeks.

I think that would be kind of ridiculous. I think that it would be 9% for the entire season. I know the PGA continues to chug along really well, but just really nothing to like when it comes to the power play this season. I really want to drive that home as we end this first segment of the podcast. Coming up in the next segment, we're going to go over a couple of things that happened in the Capitals game last night, including a message to some Capitals, media, and some of the fans that I have just seen some ridiculous takes about the Sydney Crosby situation.

That's going to be the first thing I touch on for this next segment. but does this sound familiar? You've got one device that lets 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 neighbor's 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

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Lockedon Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow this show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. So obviously, you know, there's a lot that happens when the capitals excuse me and the penguins play each other i cannot speak right now for whatever reason it's always something crazy that goes on and last night's one uh cindy crosbie was at the forefront of it so basically he's trying to get around um martin was what's his last name february something like that and he basically just grabs him ragdalls him and throws him into the boards basically a wwe style move that you see in hockey um i would be the first to say this my take on that I think it was a dumb play by Sid.

That definitely should have been penalized. I think he should have gotten a fine for that. But for the people that think he should legitimately be suspended for that, I think they're just a bunch of sheep. That's just not going to be suspended in the modern-day NHL, especially with where the player safety is at this point. I'm glad that February is okay. You know, nothing seriously happened to him there.

I don't wish for injuries on anyone. That's just, you know, I've never been that way as a person. Still, that is a dangerous play. It's something that cannot. happen and I wish he was penalized and fine for that. That is just my opinion on it. I think that's a perfectly objective opinion, though, you know, you saw this kind of stuff. So I will gladly call out his name on this podcast. If he listens to this, you know, that would be great. Grant Paulson of the DC media. One, you are a phony. And two, I don't think you know anything about this sport, point

blank. Because, you know, if you go back earlier today, and I was tweeting about this, he had take here, let me go find this here. If Tom Wilson does this, Penguins fans would still be crying about it on Christmas morning. I don't understand why it always comes back to Tom Wilson with these weirdos in the DC media and the DC fans. It's just, you know, I've also been living here for 18 years, so I guess I expect it. Their combined IQ, I want to say, is around 10. I understand I'm kind of bringing the heat right now, but it just aggravates me when they continually say stupid stuff for the sake of saying stupid stuff. And again, I'm not surprised by it because I've lived in this area for three quarters of my life, and I know how many casual fans and media are in this

area. They don't know what they're talking about when it comes to the sport, and they never will. That is just how they are. And the funny thing is, say someone like Lars Eller does that or, you know, some other bottom six player in the capitals or the penguins, you know, people People on Twitter will be like, you know, that was weird and kind of laugh, you know, and there wouldn't be thousands of people saying that, like, he threw, like, a tempered tranchom and should be suspended 50 games, like I've been seeing with Sidney Crosby. Like, I've been seeing people say he should be suspended five to ten games for that. I mean, that is just ridiculous to me.

I don't know where that take is coming from, but it's just not. And I understand Sid is, you know, the face of the league or one of the faces of the league. I know he's owned the capitals for most of his career. He's knocked them out of the playoffs multiple times. But, you know, this is also something that Sid hardly ever does. And again, I'm not defending the action. I think that what he did was wrong. It should have been penalized, and he should have gotten at least a fine for it.

But some of these over-the-top reactions that I'm seeing are nothing short of ridiculous, and I felt like I really needed to call them out. And another funny thing about that tweet, you know, if Tom Wilson did do something like that, I mean, it definitely, as Dan Hopper was telling me in my mentions, it would get a lot of attention because he is a weird player who just keeps getting suspended, but if any other penguin or capital did that or like a Florida Panther, it would just be funny, give Twitter, and everyone just be laughing at it. But because it's Sidney Crosby, he's going to command a lot of attention just because,

again, he's one of the faces of the league. He's not used to doing this kind of stuff. This is probably the second, I guess, reckless play that he's had in the last, what, four to five years of his career. I mean, he's never been doing a lot of these things. So I just think it's a useless talking point after the penguins got their asses kicked. And, you know, they definitely did. You know, they did not deserve to win last night.

That looked like it was pencil to loss right from the puck drop just because the team played so bad. Tristan Jari was not good. No one was skating well. Jake Gensel had a really nifty move to be Vitech Fana check, but overall, the team was playing really poor last night. Just the odd man rushes, the breakdowns in the defensive zone. They were all really bad. So the Penguins had no chance to win that game. I will say that right out of the gate.

But I really wanted to just make a little bit of a stand and just, you know, try to be objective as I can. this kind of situation. You know, I know some people are going to come from me if they listen to this and call me, you know, a weirdo or a moron or whatever. You know, I try to be as objective as I can because that's the kind of analysis that I want to bring to the table. I understand I maybe got a little bit jam there, but overall, I'm really sick and tired of people that live in my area that just say things that casual fans would say, you know, these people cover the team as well. They sound like casual fans. And they just say whatever comes to their head, because, you they think they know what they're talking about, but in reality, they're not.

So, I think that's really all I have to say on this situation. I'm sorry I went into a bit of a rant. I'm just, I think I've gotten too used to people in this area, just, you know, saying whatever they want for the sake of saying it when they don't know what they're talking about. But, you know, I had to just say how I'm feeling on the matter to, and again, try to bring the best objective analysis that I can bring on that kind of situation. Overall, bad play from Sid. I don't want to see him doing that again.

I do think in a league with correct player safety and an actual written rulebook, he would probably be suspended for that. I mean, 1,000 percent, you know, probably in the NFL if that happened. I think he'd be suspended. I think in the NBA, if you saw that somehow, some way, I think he would be suspended. Heck, even I think in baseball, with how awful they are with player safety and stuff, I think he would get suspended there as well. But the NFL doesn't really care.

I think it's more of a league issue than anything else. There's no favoritism here or anything like that. But I want to share my thoughts with you all on that before we do get to our next segment. Just overall, really piss poor performance from the Penguins last night against arguably their biggest rival, getting lit up for six goals. Seeing of getting Kuznetsov, do the bird celebration on you. You know, Martin February and Garnett Hathaway scoring goals, the opening two goals, I should say, it is not your night when that kind of stuff happens.

So the Penguins need to regroup and regroup fast for their matchup against the the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday. Still have a little more to get to, though, for this episode of Lockdown Penguins, including a few listener questions that I asked for on Sunday evening. Before we do that, though, I love Thanksgiving. We're what, 10 days away. There's all the good food and treats, and there's plenty of them, but maybe you want a yummy dessert, but that isn't so full of calories and sugar.

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promo code locked 15 for 15% off your order. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockedon Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow this show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. Now, let's get to a few listener questions from last night. I'm Ethan from Lockdown Pirates. Great question here. Do you think the Penguins have to make a priority to ring in a goaltender at the deadline?

Okay. I knew this question was going to come up at some point. I think if Casey DeSmith continues to play like this, they are going to have to bring in a backup. I trust Tristan Jari a lot more than maybe some other people do right now. I've had conversations with some people in my DMs that say, you know, he's been okay this year. You know, look at the numbers.

It's just, you know, pedestrian level. I have seen the numbers. I kind of disagree a little bit just because he really has been bailing out the team on a number of occasions. That said, I do think they will need to bring in a backup at some point, especially if Casey DeSmith continues to play this way. It has not nearly been good enough. He is just giving them, he's not giving them a chance to win on an every night basis, and that's exactly what you want your goaltender to be doing, right?

I mean, Tristanjari has done that on an every night basis, and the other one is not. You're going to need a goalie to step in for him because Jari cannot do it by himself this season. He has done his best to do it himself, but he cannot start every single game. You're seeing it season by season. Goys are playing less games

so that they can be more fresh in the playoffs, right? Take it last year. Kerry Price was pretty bad in the regular season, but Jake Allen was also able to take away a lot of starts for him. And look, you saw Price doing the playoffs, he was their best player and took them to the Stanley Cup final and was within three wins of winning that championship for Montreal. So again, I'm not comparing Tristan Jari to Kerry Price.

That would be ludicrous. But if they can get someone to play well while giving Jari off a little bit to keep him more fresh, that is what I think would be the best case scenario for this team. Because right now they are basically having to start Jari every game because to Smith has been very unreliable. So thank you for asking that. Aethan, I do think by the deadline, if Dismith does not turn around, they will have to get someone.

Alan Teodor asked why has everything except Jari and the P.K. been really sloppy lately with the penguins and how much of that is COVID-related. So, great question, Alan. Thank you for asking me that. I think just the power play overall, I think at first it was definitely because they weren't, you know, the normal big guns were not out there. You know, they can't run that same quintet. And, you know, they still can't with Hennie Malk and not being there. But I definitely think part of it, is COVID related. You saw him last night. A lot of those players were really rusty. Sid has only played in two games this season. Has no points. That is going to turn around. It is Sydney Frick and Crosby for a reason. Brian Dumlin, I'm holding out hope that he is going to turn it around as well. But even before he got COVID, I do not think that he started the season playing well at all. I think it's just they're not getting back to basics from what you saw in the early portions of the season. They're not forechecking nearly as hard. I'm not playing. I'm not

playing, you know, team defense or committing to team defense like you saw in those first few games where they were not giving the opposition anything. Heck, the penguins were just taking it from them in all honesty. So I think that's been a really big one. I think it's just been, you know, mainly, as you said, you know, it's been sloppy because they've gotten away from their blueprint slash game plan. Definitely part of it is COVID-related because you weren't going to continue to get really good results with all of these players out and that's just not going to happen. But now, with everyone back, there's not many excuses that you can have. The time is now to start getting results.

It is not panic time yet. But a month in the season, the division is a lot better than I expected it to be at least. You got to start banking points. Tuesday is a really big opportunity by playing the Buffalo Sabres. Alan also asked how long do you think it will take for them to run on all cylinders. I said this as well last night, Alan, I would say a week. Let's see how they play this week with everyone back. You know, God willing, knock on wood.

There's not really any injuries. Let's see what happens with that. But hopefully it'll take a week two at the most. I would say, Jackson, thank you for asking. Why does our power play suck? I kind of answered a little earlier on in the episode. Again, it's a combination of factors with poor shot choices from the point. They're not getting the good looks from the slide.

And they're just there. I think they're overpassing. Again, I already touched on it, low percentage shots. They're not getting the high danger scoring chances. The zone entries are flat out brutal. They're not even getting the puck into the zone, which is just awful at this point. It is a combination of factors that needs to be fixed very soon because I believe they are one of the worst teams, power play percentage-wise, in the league right now.

It's not going to remain that way, I don't think. I think Reardon is a much better power play coach than, you know, some people give him credit for. But as of right now, definitely not living up to the hype that we saw, you know, for a portion of last season. And again, you know, Gilbert the Goat, I kind of answered this question as well. said when do we start a panic with this team? Yeah, I mean, it's definitely, I think, by December, the automatic rush is definitely stank. I don't know if he's going to start the rebuild sooner rather than later. I think Hextall is going to give this as much time as he needs.

But, you know, let's see how they're playing, you know, after Thanksgiving, you know, mid. No, I shouldn't say mid. Early to close to mid-December, if they are still playing like complete garbage, then I think you can definitely press the panic button. At least that's just my opinion. I'm not going to let these two games just cloud my judgment and have me say that the season is over and all that other stuff. I just, I don't think that's true.

And, you know, we'll see how the team responds this week. But I appreciate all of you sending in some good questions. I really appreciate it. We'll have another episode for you all. Tuesday evening, it'll be a recap episode from the Buffalo Sabres. And then we will have, again, five episodes this week. I'm glad I have my schedule down and everything like that. So I appreciate all of you listening to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast.

And we will be back Tuesday evening to recap the Penguins game against the Buffalo Sabers from PBG Paints Arena. Talk to you all that.