Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Is moving Mike Matheson up to the second pairing the right decision?

Episode Date: January 11, 2021

It's game week! the Penguins make their season debut on Wednesday against the Philadelphia Flyers and there's a whole lot to discuss on this episode. The Penguins unveiled their 23-man roster today and Hunter touches on that to see if there are any surprises. They also released their first taxi squad as PO Joseph and Drew O'Conner will be on there. How many games could they get this season? After that, Hunter goes into some line changes, including if it makes sense to have Brandon Tanev on the third line. Also: is Mike Matheson fine in a top-four role? Is the reward worth the high defensive risk of it? All that, plus comments about NBC's moves, 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 “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to this Monday afternoon episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes.

Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. And it is officially game week, guys. The Penguins are back in action this week. Wednesday is their season opener at Philadelphia, 5.30 p.m. Eastern Time on NBC Sports Network. And you know what? Boys, does this city need it?

After watching the Steelers just barf all over themselves last night and just embarrassed the fans in the city in the process, I think Pittsburgh needs some good fortune with the Penguins coming back this week and hopefully the Penguins come out to a really good start. Because the Penguins don't go off to a good start. The fans are going after them too. Not as much as the Steelers, just because, you know, Pittsburgh is a football town first, then a hockey town.

but, you know, they just, hopefully the penguins are able to do their thing this week and just give Pittsburgh sports fans some reason for hope in 2021 for the sports. But, you know, this episode is brought to you by Bill Bar. You can go to Billbar.com. He's promo code locked on and you'll get 20% off your next order. For today's episode, the Penguins, they did release their 23-man roster, well, 22-man roster for now because Kappenden's going to be added for the 23-man whenever he returns. I think it'll be next weekend.

I'm going to go over that. I'm going to go over the Takti squad, who the six players that are on now. I'm going to go over some lines from this morning. They're doing a little bit of shuffling in the bottom six, shuffling the bottom two pairs on the defense. Obviously, they're not going to split up Duma and Tang, but there's a couple interesting tidbits in there, some surprises I would think that I just didn't see coming.

And then we're also going to talk about some NBC stuff. They announced their play-by-play guys, their color commentators, and they also added some new hires. I'm going to probably dump on a couple of those in case you guys didn't see. They did hire Mike Babcock, fired Mike Milberry, and added Ryan Calhahan, but we'll get to that later in the show. And then we'll also talk about the big scrimmage that the Penguins had last night and why I am going to start to eat a little bit of crow on Sam Lafferty.

It looks like he had a great scrimmage. We will also talk about that for this episode as well. So you look at the Penguins 22-man roster. I mean, there's not really any big decisions that they made. I mean, there's not really any big surprises, I guess, is the one way to put it. I mean, you all know what the forwards are. I mean, well, we'll talk about the lines later. They kept eight defensemen, you know, C.C. Dumill and Latang, Marino, Matheson, Pedersen, Ricola, Ruudel,

to Smith and Jari, the goalie. Of course, Kaplan's going to be complete the 23-man monster once he comes back. I think it'll be Saturday or Sunday. The Taxi Squad, though. So three to forwards, one defenseman, two goaltenders. Anthony Angelo, which I'm not always surprised to put him on there. Angelo was the big Mark Donk guy that everyone liked to call for the Penguins last year. Frederick Goodro, he's been on the Predators a few years. I think he had a goal. against the Penguins on the Stanley Cup final, if I'm not mistaken. That's not surprising. Drew O'Connor, again, that's not a big surprise either. People have been raving about him at training camp, I think, in the scrimmage last night. People said he had a really good game.

He's using his size well, you know, getting to the puck's, has a really nice shot, good playmaking ability. It won't be surprising if he does get in a few games to the Penguins this year because of injuries and potential positive tests. But the fact that he's at a good camp and that they're high on him coming out of Dartmouth, you know, it's good that they kept him on the test. taxi squad for the defense, P.R. Oliver Joseph. I've already seen some people

think that this could be the opportunity where the penguins are going to trade Marcus Pedersen for a third line forward or a top six winger. I could see it, but I don't know how high the organization is on P.O. Joseph, so we're just going to have to wait and see on that. From what I've read, he's at a decent camp too.

And he's their best defenseman in their assistant that's not on the major league roster yet. So it's not really a surprise that he was on the taxi squad. And then finally, Alex DeOrio and Maxine Lagasse are two goaltenders that are on the taxi squad list. I've been surprised that they kept two goaltenders. I mean, I guess you can never have enough. But, I mean, maybe I would have given it to another defenseman.

I mean, maybe Manascallo, but I think he's going to be sent down to Wilkesbury. He may be put Legase down there too. Otherwise, you know, there's really no complaints with that. Josh Curry, Radim Zohorner, they're going to go down to Wilkesman, Kam Lee. They're also going to also going to be down to Wilkesbury. Jordan Nolan has removed from his professional tryout. He's going down to Wilkesbury. A quick comment on the Jordan Nolan thing.

I never really understood why Mike Sullivan, not Mike Sullivan. I don't understand why general manager Jim Rutherford was so hell-bent on showing for Jordan Nolan when he brought him in for a PTO. Like, oh my God, he plays the way we want to play. Good team guy, good penalty killer. And then you just remove his PTO and then he goes down to Wilkesbury. There was never any room for him on the team.

There's really no need to talk him up like he. He's the second coming of Jesus. So, and he really didn't do anything in training camp that would have them stand out, not at least from what I've read or what I've watched in the scrimmages, at least. So again, really don't understand that from Jim Rutherford with that angle. I mean, he didn't really do anything in the scrimmages anyway and just in training camp. So, again, that was just stupid. And he probably won't even be called up for the Penguins of season unless there's just a rash of injuries.

And then finally, Nathan Legerry and Sam Poulin will both be returning to their junior teams. I know I had a bold prediction earlier in the offseason that Poulin was. going to make the team. But after I saw that he didn't even make the World Junior Team for Team Canada, I kind of went back on that a bit and figured that he was going to be sent down to Wilkes-Berry or just report to his junior team. He is reporting to his junior team as is Ligari. I thought Ligari did look good in training camp, but obviously he's not ready yet and the team does not think that Poulin is ready yet either. And then finally with the update, Zach Aspenish, John, Josh Manosk, Sam Maltek, and Zach Trotman will be assigned on

Tuesday when rosters are submitted to the NHL. I think both are her, all four of these players are hurt. We all know Aspernese is not going to be back until February of March. I really did not know that Miletech Trotman and Manascalo got hurt. That just goes to show how much I was paying attention with those three players. But in any case, they'll be put on IR for the Penguins and then

when they're ready to play, I mean, they'll just be sent down the Wilkesbury. They're not making the team at all. So that's basically it for the 22, 23 man roster. There was no one really placed on waivers for the Penguins, even though there's a ton of players placed on waivers league-wide. And of course, there were no big surprises for this 23-man.

man roster. I mean, there were, there were just no big training camp battles for the penguins. That's just, you're not going to have another player like John Marino come into your system last year and just surprise everyone in camp. I mean, some people maybe were expecting Drew O'Connor to do that. Yes, he did out of a good camp, but I mean, there's not really a lot of roster spots available in the bottom six. I mean, sure, the bottom six could be better and it needs to be better for this season, but I didn't really have him coming into training camp and stealing a a roster spot away from Brandon Tanniv or Colton Severe or Mark Jane Calske, they just signed Evan Rodriguez, Sam Lafferty, et cetera, et cetera.

So, I mean, it's good that he's on the taxi squad, though. Speaking of Sam Lafferty, it is time to eat a little bit of Crow. So as I was, I was paying attention to the scrimmage a little bit last night, getting ready before the Seward game. Lafferty had a gorgeous goal in that scrimmage, just coming down Main Street, firing a puck. I think it was Blocker's side of Casey to Smith. He just had a nice burst of speed, beautiful,

wicked shot. It sounds like he's had a good camp. And, you know, if he does have the nice weather season, I will continue to eat crow on this player. I've never been that high on him. Like I said, man, I've been wrong about many things before with this team. If I'm wrong about this one, you know what, so be in. I'll eat a lot of crow. It looks like he, like I said, he had a great training camp, nice scrimmage last night. He probably will be on the opening night lineup and why not at this point. It's the first game of regular season. Zach Ashton Reese has hurt. I mean, if he struggles, you take him out when Ashton Reese comes back. But if he plays well, the Penguins are going to have a big discussion here

about who's going to come out of the lineup when Aston Rees comes back. It's going to be Colton Severe. Is it going to be of Norriguez? I mean, for all we know, it could be Mark Janakowski. I don't really know. So that's going to be interesting to see what happens there. And I am really happy that Lafferty had a great camp. I'm excited to see what he can do in the bottom six for this team.

The biggest thing I want from him is more consistency. He scored in like bunches last year. I remember when he came up the first time, scored us some goals in the first few games but then went really cold, was sent back down, came back up, had that big goal against the Capitals. I think it was Super Bowl weekend or something like that. And then just went really cold for a while.

So just wants some more consistency from Laford if he's going to stay in a lineup. But that'll basically do it for this segment. When we come back, though, we're going to talk up some new line combinations for the penguins. It looks like they're still doing some interchanging with the bottom six. And Mike Matheson now has a top four role for the penguins going into the regular season Oprah against Philadelphia. So we're going to touch on that coming up in the next segment. Before we do get to that point, though, it is time to talk about that online.

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Don't forget to use that promo code locked on to receive a 50% off welcome bonus with your first deposit. Bet online, your online sports book experts. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hody. So, you know, as it's tradition, Mike Sullivan's going to tinker with the line combinations and the defensive pairings. I mean, he just does this every season.

At practice today, their first really official practice outside of training camp, because camp is basically over. Gensel, Crosby, Rodriguez, Zokermalk, and Russ. The top six is unchanged. It's going to be unchanged probably until Casperi Captain comes back this weekend. The third line, though, is where they did a little bit of a change. So Jared McCann at left wing, Marchankowski at center, you know, you've had those for a while, but they moved up Brandon Tanev to the third line.

I'm not really that high on Tannov being on the third line. He needs to have more offense, I think, to be on that line. I just don't think he's ever scored at a third line rate for his career. So that one is kind of puzzling to me, but it is the start of the regular season, so it's whatever. And then the fourth line, Teddy Bluger centering Colton Severe and Sam Lappertie. I'd honestly just prefer maybe Sam Lafferty on the third. third line. I think Brandon Tannennes needs to be on the fourth line no matter what. I mean, you all saw how good he was on the fourth line last year. He's elite suppression metrics

and he would chip in the occasional goal, draw a lot of penalties. I just don't think he can do it to that degree on the third line with McCann and Jankowski. I just, I don't really see it there. And then for the defense, Dumlin-Latang, Matheson with Marino, Patterson with Cici. So my thoughts on that, I mean, I understand the Penguins want to try new things. It the beginning of the regular season. You know, if it works, it works, if it doesn't work, and just go back to what works. I was actually having a conversation this morning

with Jeff from the Penns blog, Danny from the Penns blog, about this move and just, you know, if it's a good move or not. And I think my biggest concern with moving Matheson up to the top floor, I just don't want to have Marino covering for him defensively every time he makes a mistake. I mean, we all know how good Matheson is at carrying the puck up the ice, going into the offensive zone, his own injuries per 60 or decent, his own exits per 60 aren't bad as well. But I'm just, I'm a bit scared from last year because what Marino had to do with Jack Johnson

and basically just carrying a corpse around all the time. Obviously, Matheson is not the level of Jack Johnson. He actually has some puck carrying ability. But I just don't want Marino to always have to cover for Matheson every time he makes a defensive mistake because I just, I don't trust Matheson's decision-making in the offensive zone, and especially in the defensive zone. You know, I want some good gap control from him. I want him to make sure that he's not having a bunch of dumb pinches that Jack Johnson would do,

which would lead to a bunch of two-on-ones going the other way. Hell, I remember there's times where Jack Johnson would give up like a two-on-o at times, which you don't even really see that much. But, you know, every time Jack Johnson was on the ice, he was doing something bad for the penguins. So that's just the big thing that I'm concerned about. But, you know, Jeff did make a good point. You know, Marino's not going to be stuck on an island.

He's actually going to be able to get back into the play because he's a fact. skater. I 100% agree with that. Matheson skating is one of the best parts about his game. Very quick up the ice. Like I said, can move the puck well out of the zone, into the zone, his own entries per 60 are good. I just don't want him to keep making mistakes that he made down in Florida where he was just out of position. His partner had to be covering him for all that that and just ends up turning into a mess. And as for, you know, Peders and Cici, I actually don't mind that third pairing. I mean, Cici's defensive metrics and Toronto. Rano were not terrible.

And yes, they actually were not terrible. That's the funny part. We all know how bad he is offensively. But defensively, you know, even Kyle Dubas alluded to this after the season, he said, you know, the data that we track in-house, it painted him in a positive light, which is interesting considering how bad he was in Ottawa. But, you know, if he's your number six and he's playing sheltered minutes, I don't think it's going to be too terrible. I know I know we try to use that argument with Jack Johnson. but, you know, the funny thing is Cody C.C. is a better player than Jack Johnson. It's not by much. It really is not by much. But he is a better player than Jack Johnson and does

everything better than him. I know it's nothing major, but, you know, it still works. And I do like that Pedersen will be his partner. Peders, he's very defensively responsible in his own zone. But he can also move the puck up the ice pretty well and can get it into the zone where the Penguins Fort trackers and the forwards can just go get it. And he's also a good enough skater where I think he can cover if CC makes a mistake with the puck. So I actually prefer that third pairing over the Matheson-C-C-1 because I just think that's like, that's a disaster waiting to happen. I mean, it's not as, it would be as bad as Johnson-Sholtz, of course, but, you know,

I just think it's kind of like a mini-disaster waiting to happen for the penguin. So I'm glad that they changed up that third pairing so that it's maybe more of like a shutdown role. I mean, Jeff also said in their tweet to me, you know, Mathisic can really contribute to the transition game with his speeding alone and playing him behind and jumping in with speed ahead of them with Rost and Zarker adds another element to gaining the offensive zone that could really overwhelm teams. I 100% agree with that.

He does that a lot better than Pedersen does, that's for sure. I mean, if you're talking about offensive defensemen, I'm pretty sure I would take Matheson 10 out of 10 times over Patterson with just his puck handling abilities and that's just his transition game, his skating, all that. So I don't hate it for the Penguins. I understand that they want to try new things. I am all for that. It's the first game of the regular season.

I am not going to get mad about it. And you know what? If it stinks, you go back to Pedersen-Morino and you put Matheson on the bottom pairing with Cody C.C. They're obviously not going to promote Cody C-C in the defense unless, you know, John Marino gets hurt or Chris La Tateen gets hurt. God forbid that happens because I don't think any of us want to see Cody C-C-playing top four minutes for this team.

That would just be a total disaster. We all have seen how he can do playing top-herring minutes in Ottawa. I think he played with Eric Carlson for a bunch of minutes while he was there. It did not go over well at all. But I'm willing to give it a chance. If that pairing proves to be good, I'll eat crow. And, you know, I'm just really excited for Marino to have someone on his pairing like Matheson that can actually carry the puck into the zone.

You know, just Mike Matheson, if you ever listen to this podcast, just try not to be a tirefire in your own and enforce Marino to cover for you all the time, though. I don't think that's going to happen because it's not going to be at the level of Jack Johnson. But we all know what his limitations are and what his issues were in Florida. You just have to hope that Reardon can coach him up so that those issues don't follow him here for Pittsburgh and that the change of scenery will help him because he did say he was losing confidence while playing with the Panthers and that this was a fresh start that he thinks he

needed for his career. But before we do get to the next episode, we're going to talk about NBC and all that stuff. It's time to talk about Bill Bar. There's 18 amazing flavors, six new flavors, cookies and cream, caramel brownie, lemon, almond, cheesecake are a few of the 12 originals. A few of them are mint brownie, banana bread, peanut butter, German, chocolate, orange, etc. The bars are covered in 100% chocolate. They are soft and easy to chew. You can lose or maintain weight while indulging in a delicious treat. One of my favorite flavors is still the cherry barquea, 17 grams of protein, 130 calories,

4 grams of sugar, 4 grams of net carbs. You can go to billbar.com and use promo code locked on, and we get 20% off your next order. That has promo code locked on for 20% off at buildbar.com. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the shows Twitter at L.O underscore Penguins. So NBC made some big moves today.

Well, you know, it was kind of, I did like a meme thing on my Twitter page. You know, so they ended up firing Mike Milberry. Again, this is great. Mike Milberry should have been fired a decade ago. I have no idea why it took NBC this long to get rid of them after all of the garbage comments that he's made while on air, you know, just not even about the sport. I mean, you know, you have a pathetic comment, I think, from the return to play where he said, like, you know, I'm glad that the woman are not there because they would serve as a distraction to the players for the Stanley could playoff. And he's like, dude, like, do you hear yourself when you talk or you just like say whatever comes into your circuits? I mean, guy threw a shoe at a fan behind the bench.

He's just said a lot of useless crap like that on the air. And honestly, like, when he was talking about the game of hockey, it's just, the game has passed him by so much that anything you hear come out of his mouth. It's literally like going on YouTube and just listening to people fart. Like, there's nothing intelligent comes out of his mouth when he talks about hockey. He is a huge boomer, a dinosaur, if you will. He cares all about the physicality of the game and the fighting and all that and the retaliation. He'll never admit when something's a dirty play. Just never talked about the speed aspect of the game, how fast-paced it is, the best offensive players, etc., etc.

He would always just talk about, oh, the physicality, oh, the retaliation, oh, this is what I would do. You know, if one of my players has gotten into no fight or whatever, it would be like, oh, my God, just take away his mic. It's just, you know, this was a long time coming. I'm glad he's out of NBC and I hope you never see him on TV again. But then afterwards, you know, NBC announced that they hired Mike Babcock to replace him. And, you know, say what you will about Mike Babcock as an actual coach, but, you know, he's had some off-the-ice drama come out this past year. I think it was the, there was a lot of accusations about psychological abuse by some of his former players. His reputation took a hit.

He has not been hired by a coach since then. He probably won't be. Greg Wajinsky of ESPN actually asked a great question on the NBC Zoom call about this. you know, was this something that you discussed with Mike before hiring him? The NBC Sam Flood says, yeah, we've had a full process of conversations as we do with anyone would bring in on the team. And that's just such of a garbage answer. It just shows that they weren't even really paying attention at all.

I mean, how are you going to fire a guy in Mike Milbury who said whatever came into his circuits on the broadcast, just a lot of useless crap? And then you're going to hire a guy like Mike Babcock who had a lot of accusations during this past season just because of psychological abuse. and it's just like, you know, you're not paying attention at all. Nobody asks for this. Like, hire people that actually know what the hell they're talking about when it comes to this sport. That is one of my biggest gripes with NBC in this TV deal is that they just don't have a lot of modern day good NHL analysts on their TV platforms to talk about this sport.

You know, I like that Kenny Albert is the number one guy. John Foresland does a great job. I don't mind Eddie Olcheck that much. I mean, he says some weird shit sometimes, but he does contribute some. some decent stuff to the broadcast. You all know my thoughts on Pierre McGuire. He stinks, and his movement on anti-analytic's movement. It's just a load of crap.

But, you know, you can't hire Mike Babcock, man. I mean, that's just not good. I mean, the other one, they hire Ryan Callahan. Yeah, because I want to hear what Ryan Callahan has to say. He's one of the most sneakyest, dirtiest players that I think I've ever seen in the league. Always hated that guy playing against the Penguins when I was a kid. He would just, like I said, man, it was just a lot of sneaky dirty players. I remember the play in 2016.

I think it was game one I get with the lightning and the penguins Callahan hit Latang in the numbers could have concussed Latang pretty badly barely gets a penalty on the play and it's just like shit like that throughout his career and it's like that's one of the last

people that I want to hear commenting on the sport of hockey so again I just don't think they know what the fans want for commentary on their networks it's just like you're just going to keep hiring dinosaurs to replace a dinosaur obviously Milbury is the biggest boomer dinosaur of them all but you're still hiring Mike Babcock who lives back in the 90s in the early 2000s

and then Ryan Callahan who was just a sneaky dirty player throughout his entire career. Dominic Moore won. I don't mind that. I think Moore was a decent player, but played in the bottom six for many years for just almost every team of the league. So I just had to share my thoughts on that. NBC just continues to, I don't know, man. I'm waiting for the next TV deal. Hopefully ESPN takes a part of it. There's rumors that Fox may take a part of it. I would love that as well. they just make some really odd decisions

and then when they're asked to explain them they just really don't say anything about it at all especially when it came to Babcock so it's like you know nice job NBC that's really the product that everyone wants to see for your games anyways that's basically all the thoughts that I wanted to say on the NBC situation

it's great they that are also bringing back Mike Tariko AJ she does a great job with her commentary I mean I think Kendall Coin is going to be doing it as well for some times she's really great too I wish they would just showcase them a lot more too because I think they bring a lot to the broadcast. And yeah, that will basically wrap up today's episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

Tomorrow, we will be just previewing the week ahead for the Penguins. We'll preview the game on Wednesday against the Flyers, preview it on Friday against them as well. Then go over what to expect for the games during the weekend. I think they play Washington and their home opener followed by games against the Rangers. I'm going to have to double check on that. I've already forgotten the opening parts of the schedule, but I know their home opener is against Washington for those two games. So, and hopefully we'll have Casbury Cappan back for that. And then Wednesday for episode, I'll probably do one after the game.

Remember, guys, it is a 5.30 p.m. start on NBC Sports Network. So if you guys have to get out of work early or, you know, just not have to do some schoolwork or something, just prepare accordingly. As this will be a 530 start on a weekday, and that's one of the earliest weekday starts that I can recall as long as I've watched this team. But also, guys, remember, go check out Chris Carter on Locked-on Stewards. You know, he's going to have a big, big off season because who knows what the Steelers are going to be like next year. is Ben Rathos Lerger going to retire? Is Mike Tomlin going to get fired? They're going to get a chance coordinators and all that.

He has you covered over there as well on DK. Pittsburgh Sports. And then please, guys, go check out the people at Locked-on Pirates. I know the pirates are not very good, but, you know, as the saying goes, when you play Pittsburgh, you play the whole city. And Ethan Smith does a great job with the Locked-on Pirates podcast. So please go check him out over there. In any case, guys, I'll talk to you guys tomorrow. We'll preview the week ahead for the Penguins and talk about a whole bunch more.

I'll talk to you guys then.