Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Is there cause for concern with these last 3 games?

Episode Date: March 22, 2021

The Pittsburgh Penguins dropped two of three to New Jersey over the last few days and of course, the fanbase is a bit worried. Is Hunter concerned with the team's level of play dropping a bit? Or do they need to just keep treading water until the team gets healthier? He has his answer during this episode, plus praises Sidney Crosby for these last three games as he was the team's best player. He also gets into the Penguins goaltending and some numbers that show elite the tandem of DeSmith and Jarry have been as of late. Finally, he touches on the play of Kris Letang as he continues to excel and as always, some Brian Dumoulin praise.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.IndeedWant your QUALITY short-list FAST? You need Indeed. RIGHT NOW, our listeners get a FREE SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT to upgrade your job post at Indeed.com/LockedOn 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 to this Monday, late afternoon, early evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Honohotio Hode's. Follow the show's Twitter at L-O-Arsore Penguins. Today's episode is brought to you by Bill Pard.com and use promo code Locked15.

and you'll get 15% off your next order. So I was supposed to have an episode on Friday. A couple things came up. Excuse me. Apologize for that this week. We are back to five episodes a week. So it's been, depending on the play what now,

three games, I think, since I last spoke to you all. That's pretty crazy. So we have three games to talk about. I'm mainly going to talk about these last two. I'm not really going to spend a lot of time talking about the one on Thursday. I'm going to mute Discord,

so that does not get in the way for this episode. But yeah, I'll just mainly talk about the back-to-back because I thought the Penguins played better in those two games than they did on Thursday. Well, you know, they didn't play bad on Thursday, but like I said, I thought they played a lot better on Saturday than Sunday. There's a bit of a dull game, but I thought they deserved to still win the game. But the Penguins in their three-game series against the Devils go one in one, well, one-and-two, if you want to be precise, they get three points out of a possible six points against the Devils. I guess we'll just start there.

Is that good enough? No, it's not. You know, that's a bottom two team and the standings. But if you take away the results against the Islanders, I think the devils are 1 in 4 and 1 against them. I saw this tweet the other day. Actually, yesterday, I think the devils are 10 and 10 and 3, 10, 9, and 4, something around those lines against the rest of the division. I mean, this is not a push-over team as I thought they were. They're 3 in 0 and 1 against Boston this year.

So, you know, one of the biggest reasons why the Bruins are behind the Penguins right now, they've lost three out of four of the devil. So it can always be worse, everyone. I think that's my main takeaway with that. But, you know, just watching the devils, they're not that same boring team from the 90s, the early 2000s. Obviously, yes, they played the trap then, and it was pretty pathetic to watch.

Are they still a bit boring now? Yeah, sure, the games are a little bit dull. Lindy Rough style is not that good. But, you know, I saw a couple of tweets from Matt Geica yesterday, who does the stuff for the Pittsburgh Hockey now, and I go on their post game at times, basically said, I think they're like, seventh and shot attempts per 60 at 5V5.

They're average at scoring this year. They're not trapping it down like they normally have been. And just watching them for the first few times, Jack Hughes is one hell of a player. The transition from his rookie year to this year has been flawless. He looks so much more confident with the puck. His speed is just through the roof. Even his defensive play looks miles better than it was his rookie season.

I think I saw someone tweet over the weekend. It wouldn't surprise them if, He basically went for like 100 points in his fourth or fifth season, basically, aka Nathan McKinnon. I'm not ready to go there just yet. I don't think Jack Hughes is going to be a 100-point player. But I do think of all these recent number one picks in the last few years, he has the opportunity to be the best of those. You know, that includes Rosman-Stalin, Alexei LaFranier, etc, et cetera. But, you know, just going back to the Penguins, this is a one-line team right now.

Some of these results should not be too surprising. as long as they continue to, you know, tread water, continue to be a positive with points, just getting points and getting a few wins along the way is so huge. The Penguins, they play Buffalo this week and a back-to-back. Yes, a back-to-back is not the best thing, but they're also playing Buffalo, who they're two-and-o against, and I understand that they did make a coaching change, but they should be able to win those two games. But with that being said, none of these wins are free right now for the Penguins.

I just said this is a one-line team. The Gensel-Crosby-Rust line is not. only the best line on the team, it's probably a top five line league-wide. They were smothering the devils each and every shift, hemming them in their own zone. Sid was a force these three games. That was,

I think, the best hockey we have seen Sidney Crosby play this season. The goal, I think that was scored on Saturday's game, the way that Sid was able to dive to keep the puck in. I think it was Brian Ruskell on the power play, and the power play looked like pretty dog shit for the first 80 seconds. He's able

to dive to keep that puck in. Russ is able to win a puck battle along the boards and then come in on a little mini breakaway and roof it past Scott Wedgwood who I also totally forgot he was in the league up until Thursday night's game. But those are just the little plays that Sidney Crosby loves to make and you saw him do it in that game. It was a game that Penguins had to have. It got them that 2-1 league which they did not extinguish. And then of course Gensel was able to make it 3 to 1 late in the third period.

And speaking of that goal, what a goal that was. You know, Sid made that out another out. outstanding play, was able to just casually deflect the puck as it was going out of the zone, deflects it at the blue line and just fires a harmless puck on net, and Gensel's able to redirect it Gloveside on Wedgwood. He had no chance with that. And that just goes to show you how elite Jake Gensel is at scoring goals in this league. He can do it in a variety of ways. He has a filthy slap shot. He has a great snapshot, hell of a wrist shot, and he is a great player in front of the night. Like I said, this is the reason why he is a top five to top 10, in my opinion, a top five goal score in the league.

Because he can beat you in so many ways. He's so crafty. He's able to find these small holes around the net when the goalies in there that not a lot of other players can find. And he's just that good. And oh, yeah, his contract is also a steal for the value that he provides. As well, I believe right now he leads the team in goals with 13, if that sounds correct. I think Sid is at 12. But what a goal that was and what a win that was for the Penguins on Saturday to get those two points back.

And then, you know, going to the Sunday game, we're going to touch on all these, so many things about these games throughout the episode. But Sunday's game overall, I thought it was a good performance by the Penguins, but the game was also really dull. I guess it was a good performance considering the circumstances. They were gassed in that game. You can tell about halfway through regulation time. Penguins, they did not have their legs like they normally do. They were kind of just skating randomly. The Devils were the same thing.

This was two tired teams going at. And sometimes you get those one-to-one dull games. Yes, I understand. People are going to be quick to say, oh, my God, it's the Devils. Oh, my God, you know, 1990s, 2000s. This wasn't that. Both teams, I think, had over 30 shots in this game. There were a lot of high-quality looks.

But McKenzie Blackwood made some really nice saves on some of the Penguins shooters. I think Chris Lettang had a really big chance. chance with about two minutes remaining in the third period to get the Penguins down with those two points, but he made a great glove save. There was a point in the game that I guess I'll get to right now, two on one in the third period. I look up for a straight second because I was just talking to my girlfriend and I see, oh, Mark Jenkowski has the puck.

Oh, great. Let's see how this goes. Comes in 10 feet away from the net, fires it wide. It's just like, is this all we're going to get from him the rest of the way? He is utterly terrible in every facet. He's unwatchable, I think, is the way. way to describe it. And you know it's bad when someone like Frederick Goodrow, who I don't think has been in the NHL in a couple years now, I don't even think he played in a game last year.

He's come in for the last two games because the team has been so banged up, and he's outplayed Jankowski, who has been in the lineup every single game this season except like one or two. It boggles my mind how a player can come in like that. And you can already see the more value he provides in just two games in that short sample than Mark Jenkowski or Sam Lafferty for that matter provides and they've been playing virtually every night. And you know, just speaking on Sam Lafferty, you obviously see the speed is there. He's such a quick player. But then there's nothing else that you saw so many times last night. He passed up shots in scoring areas to make that extra pass. He was just mindlessly dumping the puck in and the devils would just retrieve it and get

out of the own zone. He's just not a smart hockey player. And he needs, I think, a lot more time down in Wilkesbury to fine-tune his game. He is just, it is not where in his. needs to be right now. I know a lot of people, well, I shouldn't say a lot of people. I know some people in the fan base and some of the media have always hyped on Sam Lafferry saying, you know, you got to give him a chance. He was that training camp hero, but I have not seen anything through these first 32 games to have to warrant him being on the roster and having a roster spot when this team is wholly healthy. Obviously, the circumstances are different right now. But him and Anne Jenkowski have been brutal over these last few weeks. And yeah, yeah, I mean, I know. I know,

the second line right now, it's okay. Kaepernan is playing still at a high level. Evan Rodriguez is on there. You obviously don't want him on there. You probably want him on a fourth line. Jared McCann has come back and he's playing at a high level. I know he has not scored in his first couple games back, but he's gotten really close a handful of times.

This has been a completely different Jared McCann from coming back. Not this injury, but the injury before that. He has just been sensational at both ends of the ice. And I wouldn't be surprised if he goes on a heater here. at some point. But to finish off this segment, I will say this to everyone. I know Penguins' Twitter was kind of up in flames yesterday,

and I understand, you know, losing two out of three of the Devils, even with two AHL lines, is nothing to be happy about. That's one of the worst two teams in the division. You have to keep banking these points. But I will say this. Penguins just got three out of a possible four points

on a back-to-back with two AHL fourth lines. The goal-tending has continued to be sensational. I am going to touch on that in the next segment quite a bit, starting with Casey to Smith. But the Penguins are now also 8 and 2 and 1 versus the bottom 3 teams in the division. That's 11 games they played. They have 24 total that they'll play.

So there's 13 left. They're almost halfway through. They get two more against Buffalo and PPG Painsterman. After that, they'll have 11 more games left. If they can get through that and be 10 and 2 and 1 halfway through those 24 games against those bottom 3 teams, you've got to like their chances to place top three in this division, especially with the Flyers playing their worst hockey of this season.

This team is going to get healthy. I know it sounds weird to say that, considering how injured and banged up they are, but eventually this team is going to get healthy. Jason Zooker has already started skating. He's skated with a taxi squad before Sunday's game. It would not surprise me if he is at practice tomorrow for the Penguin Sullivan. He said he is not ahead of schedule, but it's great that he's skating. And yeah, I mean, I think Zulker only got really.

heard what two three weeks ago or something like that and the fact that he's already skating and skating with the taxi squad is great news and i think brayden tannib is probably not going to be out too much longer he was a game time decision yesterday and he didn't play i'm guessing he practices tomorrow and he hopefully he plays in one of the games on wednesday thursday so you get those two players back you get take a couple hl players out the lineup suddenly it looks a bit better obviously there's no having any malkin in there he is week to week with that injury i've been reading i think it's a knee injury. It looks like they avoid an ACL, which, you know, thank God. And then Teddy Bougar is, of course, longer term as well. But this team is eventually going to get healthy.

And as long as they continue to tread water and bank some of these games, they don't even need to win five or six in a row. But if you're just staying positive, you're going four and two in six games stretches, even three and three, you know, five and one, obviously would be awesome six and no. But if you're going like, I can set four and two in six games stretches or in five game stretches, you're going three and two each time, six and four over a ten game stretch, that's good enough. I really do think it is, especially with a couple teams in the district division, struggling really badly right now. But I'm still high on this team. And if they do want to make a trade with three weeks to go before the trade deadline and get another impact forward, obviously I'd be

all for that because this lineup right now is just, it's hard to watch, especially with two lines that are AHL level lines. But, okay, coming up in the next segment, we are going to touch on the goaltending for this team and how it is otherworldly right now. So stick around for that. All right, welcome back 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 L.O. Underst for Penguins, but before I do get to the goalie talk,

I want to say to the couple people that stopped by on the locker room app after Sunday's game yesterday. Thank you so much. I know Alan, who's been a longtime listener of the podcast, stopped by and got his thoughts on the game. I really do appreciate that. I'm going to make an effort to announce it a couple days in advance for when I do my next one. I'm going to be doing this once a week. And basically it's going to be after games for about 40 minutes to an hour. I'm just going to be talking about the games with you all.

And you all can chat with me. You can come on and request to speak to me about the games. And we can just talk about whatever with pertaining to the penguins and the games and all that. So I had a lot of fun with that. And I can't wait to do this moving forward once a week. But okay, let's get to some goaltending talk because the goalies for the penguins lately have been absolutely awesome. Casey DeSmith this season in particular. 9-19 save percentage in 11 a game start in 11 games played excuse me he's 10 and 7 and 3 his goals against average is 2.1-1 I think he's top 5 in goals save above expected for the last month I mean he is turning into not just a great backup gotender for this team but one of the five best backup goaltenders in the NHL if you go to his splits this year in his last five games and even longer than that against the islanders on February 20.

28 he was 933, only allowed two goals. March 7th in his next start against the Rangers, 9.58, had a shout-out, of course, against the Sabres. Boston, only allowed two goals was 939. And then this latest game against the Devils, 24 saves on 25 shots, 960. So his lowest save percentage since in the last month, fellas, is 933. I mean, this is as good as you can get from your backup goaltender. He's honestly out playing Tristan Jari right now. And that's hard to do, considering how great Jari has been as well.

And if you go to Tristan Jari's last five games, they've been awesome too. You know, going back to March 9th when he started, 943 in a win against the Rangers, 913 and a win against the Sabres. They won a game against Boston. He had 42 saves on 43 shots, 977, 914 and 943 in that loss against the devil. So his lowest save percentage in his last five starts, 914. for DeSmith 933. So the Penguins are getting elite, and I mean elite, level goal tendering right now. The last time Jari was below 900 was March 6th.

He had a couple bad games, well, bad per se. They won against the Flyers and won out three goals. And then the game before that was 886 against the Flyers. But before that, there's a lot of save percentages over 920. And then, you go back to Casey DeSmith. Honestly, during his 11 games this season, his lowest save percentage is 846. He only has, if I'm counting this correctly, four starts out of the 11 when his save percentage is below 900. Even going back further past these last five games, he had a 9-13 and a loss on February 1st against the Rangers.

His first start of the season was a 9-23 against the Flyers. I think he came in for relief against Tristan Jari. Then, of course, he had those three straight wins against Washington and two of them, and then the Rangers. But both of these goys have given the Penguins elite-level goal-tending. for the last month. And it is a huge, and I mean a huge reason why this team has made a giant run up in the standings and why they are four points clear of the Bruins right now. Yes, and of the Bruins have four games in hand.

But the Penguins are not where they are at right now without elite level goaltending from both Casey to Smith and Tristanjari. It is a far cry from this last month, six weeks from where they were at the beginning of the season for the first two to three weeks where it looked very unlikely that the penguins are going to make the playoffs. So kudos to DeSmith and Jari for both of them turning their games around. Honestly, I might argue that Casey DeSmith could deserve more starts here moving forward. I don't think I was going to say that early on in the season or even going into this season,

but DeSmith has played like he deserves more, especially in these last five starts. I assume he's going to start on Thursday against the Sabres. And then if he plays well there, I could definitely see him getting one of the two starts against the Islanders this weekend. I know Mike Selberg doesn't really like going back. fourth between goalies, but with how well both of them are playing right now, he may have to just because both of them are giving the Penguins a great chance to win night in and night out.

It really doesn't even matter what goalie is in net right now for the Penguins as they are just getting awesome goaltending from the two. I know I sound like a broken record. I probably just said that five times in the last minute, but it just can't be stressed enough how great the goaltending has been. And I guess going back to the game yesterday, originally I thought that with that, that overtime goal by Yesper Brat was on Tristan Jari, watched it a couple times back. It looks like to me that Mike Matheson's stick came over there at the last second and deflected it in.

If Matheson doesn't do that, I don't think that puck goes in and the Penguins potentially have an odd man rush coming. The other way, that's just Matheson's lack of defensive awareness. He's never been really good at the defensive aspect of his game. But still, with that said, I still think that needs to be a save. I hate when goalies give up wraparounds. I also noticed that Jari came out of his net a little too far to challenge Brad originally, and then he was just a little late getting to the other side. He just, he needs to not be as aggressive there in future situations.

I remember going back when Matt Murray was in net, when he was on top of his game, you never really saw him get beat on a lot of wraparounds like that. He never was really overly aggressive coming out of his net like that. I know Jari is a bit different. and you saw it in the return to play a little bit. I think Jeff from Penn's blog had a tweet yesterday showing that Jari has been a little overly aggressive in some other instances as well, you know, the return to play being one of them. So hopefully he can get that area of his game a bit cleaned up because, you know, like I said,

I don't think goalie should ever be beaten on wraparounds unless it's like just flat out awesome. He was a little too aggressive there, I think. And, you know, just to finish off this segment, I guess a little bit of thoughts on the Thursday game. I know I tweeted that. I think the Penguins had a high danger. advantage of 13 and 9, they let in the scoring chances for versus scoring chances against. Sometimes that stuff happens. Scott Wedgwood had the game of his life.

It's a make-a-name goalie playing well against the penguins. There's nothing you can really do about it. But overall, for this three-game stretch, I didn't have a problem with how the penguins played. They're doing all they can with this depleted lineup. The effort is there. I can see it on a nightly basis. They actually are giving it the role. There's no whack of passion.

There's the loyalties. There's the heart. There's the sphere. there's all that effort that I like to see when I watch these games. It's just it's hard to get results, even against a team like the Devils, who I don't think are also as bad as the record indicates, you know, when two of your lines are AHL first lines. But, okay, enough of that.

Coming up in the next segment, we're going to touch on Chris LaTang for a few minutes because his play has been awesome. Brian Dumlin a little bit as well. Before we do that, it is time to talk about bet online. It's the fastest and easiest way to build on all your sports action. Football might be over, but the NBA College Bass basketball and the NHO in full swing. It even covers awards, TV shows,

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All right, welcome back 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 L underscore Penguins. So I'm going to touch on a couple things before I called an episode and get back. to you guys on Tuesday for another one. The play of Chris LaTang right now as at a very,

and I mean a very elite level, you're not seeing any of those turnovers that you saw were plaguing him early on in the season. He's not making some of those ill-advised pinches that a lot of people will get on him for. Offensively, he is just been a menace in that zone generating scoring chances super well as 22 points in 30 games.

He's almost been a point per game player again. throughout the season. And obviously having Brian Dumlin back will help that so much. I mean, that makes one of the best top hearings in the league. And Brian Dumont allows Chris Lange to do what he does. So if Lattang messes up, Duman can be back and cover up some of his errors. But, you know, I'm not hearing a lot of Lattang's critics out here right now. I'm sure when he messes up at some point, maybe in the next game or maybe in the next week or two or something like that, they're going to be all out saying, oh, my God, trade Chris Lattang.

It's like, yeah, he hasn't even made a mistake in like two or three weeks now. This is the best hockey we've seen him play this season. And it's obvious that he has a lot more hockey left in him. It's so great to see the franchise's best defenseman ever playing this way. And especially shutting up a lot of his haters who just always have to come out of the woolwork every time he makes the simplest mistakes. And, you know, going back to Brian Duhn one now, again, I can't say enough of how great he's been since his return.

His gap control is so elite. He's so great at getting his stick on loose pucks in the defensive zone or just not allowing teams to get into the defensive zone just because of his long reach and his amazing gap control. And his play on the PK is also so huge as well, especially with the Penguins down Teddy Blueburn, Brandon Tanna, both of their best penalty killers. Having Dumlin on there helps it so much.

And I'll continue to say this is the best that I think I've seen Brian Dunlin play since 2018. He has just been everything this team has needed and more since coming back from that injury where he missed. like, what was it, 10 to 15 games earlier this season. I'm trying to think of other players that I thought played well through this three-game stretch. Always had touched on Jared McCann. Brian Russ, I loved that move that he put on Scott Wedge, but with that goal, just coming in beautifully.

That backhand was so sick. He's been great this season. You know what you're going to get for him. I think he's on a 36-goal pace in an 82-game season. Obviously, he led the team in goals last season with 27. He is a complete player, and the way that he's transformed himself into an all-around player, especially after the start that we saw during the 2015-16 season. It's definitely something I didn't see coming, that's for sure.

Defensively, I thought Cody Cici continues to play awesome. Mike Matheson hasn't been as bad as he was earlier in the season. Marcus Pedersen's been okay. John Marino, I think he's been good. There's an article that Adam Gretz wrote for Pensburg today that just looks at how good he's been this season, but also how bad he's been, basically just debunking some theories that he's been brutally terrible in summary.

versus not so terrible in other areas. I'm of the opinion that it's definitely been a step back for Marino this season, but I think his play definitely in the last couple of weeks has been improving because he's been next to Marcus Pedersen. He just doesn't work next to Mike Matheson. Both of them want the puck on their stick at all times. Pedersen is the defensive guy in the pairing. Marino is the one that can create more offense.

It works better. And then on the other pairing, you have Mike Matheson always wants the puck on his stick. And then Cody Cici, who can take care of the defensive assignments, no matter if it's the third, fourth line, or even some top pairing guys with how he's played this season. Our touch on the goal tending, and I'm not going to really spend more time talking about the bottom two lines. I would give Frederick Goodrow more of a look moving forward,

even if the team gets healthy. I really liked his two-game sample. He's come really close to scoring a couple of times. I would really want him in the lineup over Solon Chess is Anthony, Angelo, Jankalski, Lafferty, and everyone else that's been called up. And, you know, maybe they can get Zohorna up here at some point to see if he can get a look. I believe he leads the team in Wilkeshire right now in scoring.

I think he has 18 points last time I checked. Give him a look. I mean, he's probably a better option at this point than playing Jenkowski and Lafferty down there and a couple others. But now I'll do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I always appreciate all of you listening. We'll be back on Tuesday with another episode before a couple game recap once on Wednesday and Thursday.

So I will talk to you all on Tuesday. I hope you have a great rest of your day.