Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - It feels like the first time

Episode Date: July 14, 2020

We're back doing daily shows on Locked On Penguins and Hunter recaps a busy day for the Penguins, starting off with the team holding nine players out of training camp as a precaution. Hunter gives his thoughts on that and why the Penguins 100% made the right decision before going into line combinations! Jake Guentzel is back with Sidney Crosby while Jason Zucker slides down to play with Evgeni Malkin and Hunter explains why that's the right call. All that, plus much more on this episode of Locked On Penguins! 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.

Welcome back to another 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. As always, today's episode is brought to you by rockado.com. Amazing selection, reliably low prices. All the parts of your car will ever need. Welcome back, everyone.

We are back to daily episodes for the NHL channel. That includes this podcast. If you guys were somehow unaware, but, you know, have to have to point it out for especially, people are listening for this for the new first time for those that have not listened to this podcast since march welcome back um it feels really great to be back doing the weekly episodes as we ramp up to the season restart um you know waking up this morning i almost kind of blasted feels like the first time by foreigner it's a great song and you know what you know what i think i'm going to make that the

title for this today's episode i think that's a great idea but still um you know the fact that we've gotten here and that you know that this sport is coming back you know i'm i'm I'm still excited, though I'm cautiously optimistic about it for the Penguins' first training camp practice was today. But before that they had the practice, the Penguins did send out a massive announcement saying that they were holding out nine of the players for precautionary reasons. Well, because all the nine of those players were in contact with someone, while they were around someone who tested positive for the coronavirus. Of those nine players, one of them is a regular, you know, after looking at the lines that they had this morning, It looks like all of them are AHL players, but still hope all the AHL players, the eight of the nine players are safe, or quarantining, and that they can return to practice very, very soon. The one player that it looks like is sitting out that, for precautionary reasons, and his quarantining, is the right winger on the third line.

Patrick Hornquist, he was not at the Penguins' first training camp practice today. Some people thought that it was potentially because he got back from Sweden just about a week ago and he was still quarantining. I think he got back more than a couple weeks ago, because I know the law that says, Not a lot, but it's basically a rule that if a player comes back from a European country or just anywhere around the world, they have to quarantine in the U.S. for 14 days before being allowed to go back and practice. But I think he was back more than two weeks ago. So I don't think that's it. I think that he is one of the nine players who was being held out for precautionary reasons. And actually, I should correct it.

Apparently it was due to a potential secondary exposure to an individual who had contact with a person that tested positive for the coronavirus. So they were basically with someone who was with someone else who tested positive. So my apologies on that. But still, you know, I really do like that the Penguins went ahead and did this. I'm going to say this right now. These next two weeks are just so crucial for the NHLs we start. You know, I was reading through a bit of what they have planned for, you know, the teams inside the bubble. You know, the players there.

It looks like, you know, they're going to be much more safer there than they are right now. That's the thing. But you have to get there. These two weeks are so big. you know there's probably going to be positive tests that are going in these next couple weeks. I think if people think that there's not going to be any positive tests these next couple weeks, I think you'd probably be foolish

in saying that they're 100% or I think they released another statement today in the NHL, their public relations saying that there's more players that did test positive over the last week of tests. You know, they'll probably release another statement next week. It'll be more players who have tested positive. You know, you just had over the weekend a few Montreal Canadiens players who looks like how tested positive for their coronavirus. I also think, was it this last weekend, too?

I think a couple people from the St. Louis Blues tested positive. You're going to keep seeing this over these next couple weeks as the teams get closer to going to the level. So like I said, this is so crucial for the league. You have to make sure the players social distancing. You know, they're getting tested every day. They're not going out and being idiots, not going to bars and, you know, partying your asses off like some of the bunch of other idiots down in some other states. So it's going to be very curious to watch over these next couple weeks,

to see what happens because, you know, if they can get to the bubble and it looks satisfactory, I think they can have a really, really big shot here at actually finishing the season. I know a lot of people really don't think they're going to be able to finish the season. I think that's a perfectly fine take to have. I think that they're going to find a way to finish it, even though it might not be in the best interest of lots of people. But I still think they will, and like I'll say it just one more time, these next two weeks are absolutely crucial for the NHL. the Penguins finish the same by saying the nine players,

they will not participate in the practices until they are deemed safe in accordance with the NHL protocol and for their test results. So I'm sure they're going to keep getting tested every day. They're going to be social distancing, self-quarantining at home, but still very great on the Pittsburgh Penguins organization to isolate this group of players. Just in a main abundance of caution. Just really great job by the Penguins in doing that.

But let's get back to some practice stuff. It was really good to see almost a full thing of attendance today. So we had some line rushes that the Penguins have. get right into that. So a lot of people have been wondering, oh, who's Jake Gensel going to play with? He's Jason Zucker going to play with. Are they going to be with Hageni,

or one of them is going to be with Sidney Crosby? Which one? Well, it looks like we finally have our answer. Jake Gensel is back, folks. The Penguins released their training camp roster. Yesterday, Gensel is back. He is going to be playing on the first line with Cindy Crosby. My thoughts on this, not really a surprise.

You know how good Jake Gensel and Cindy Crosby are together. They're just the duke, they're just the perfect duo for each other. and on the right wing, of course, Connor Sherry. So Sid and the Kids is back to being reunited. Sherry works really well with Gensel and Crosby. I'm going to be curious to see how Connor Sherry plays in his second go-round with the Penguins when this tournament starts back up.

On the second line, so they move Jason Zucker down to play with Hvgeny Malkin, and then, of course, Brian Russ. You all know, Evgeny Malkin and Brian Russ. That is a remarkable duo as well. Brian Russ was on pace to be a 30 goal score this season. Him and Gino just worked so well together. Jason Zucker actually had a pretty interesting. comment today if I can actually find it on the

Penguin's Twitter account. They just released a whole bunch of interviews with the players and just Mike Sullivan finally talked. Zucker basically said, I'm practicing with Havgeny Malkin today. It's a work in progress for sure. He's an amazing player so everyone knows he's a little bit of a different style than playing with Sid. It's definitely a positive thing. He's not hard to play with. I'm very excited for the opportunity. So just, you know, typical answer by a player when it asks about playing with a Gany Malkin.

But yeah, I mean, they are really two different players. You know, Gino likes to have the puck on his stick. I think a lot more than Sid does. So, you know, that might be a little bit of adjustment for Zucker. But still, I think Jason Zucker and I'm getting Malkin are going to work pretty good together. We all know how good Malkin is with Russ. That top six is nasty, you know. There's really just no other way to say it other than it's just it's a nasty looking top six.

That's going to give a lot of teams, a lot of problems. I mean, of course, you know, it starts with the Montreal Canadiens. They got to get past them first. But, you know, whoever you play next, you know, if it's Philadelphia, if it's Washington, maybe it's Boston if they go 0 and 3 in the round Robin or if it's Tampa. That top six is going to give any team in the east or in the west if the penguins get all the way to the Stanley Go Final, whether that's, even though that's probably back in October,

late September or early October, they're going to give opposing defenses and opposing teams just absolute fits. And it's going to be just awesome. So rounding out the four group, so the third line, Patrick Marlowe and Jared McCann, we all know that they were going to be on the third line. and then the right wing was rotated, of course, because Patrick Hornquist is being quarantined.

Evan Rodriguez and Sam Lafferty were taking line rushes. When Patrick Hornquist is back, that is going to be his spot. That's just how it was before the season paused. That's going to be in the playoffs. And then we all know the fourth line, Zach Asthmaugh-Germanentive. That's the Penguins Blue Line. I saw a lot of people saying,

you know, they're going to stack them out against the Max Domey line. And it is going to be interesting to see. So apparently the Canadians are holding Macsendant. Max Domi out of practices for about a week to week and a half, just to see if he's going to be comfortable enough to play him. For those that don't know, Max Domi was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 12. So, yeah, there is a very potential chance that Max Domi is going to set out the NHR restart due to this. And I really, really hope fans of, I don't care what team you root for. People do not get mad at someone like Max Domi who has a case of diabetes if he were to sit out and just wait

until the next season. I've seen a lot of takes just on Twitter and just a bunch of idiots saying, oh my God, like just suck it up, just play. It's like, shut the hell up.

That's all I can say to them. Those are the four words I will just say to any of those people. Those are like the cairns of the social media, as everyone likes to call them. It's just like, shut the hell up. You're not in their situation. You're not in their shoes.

Just shut the hell up and just root for your team. And, you know, you'll see what happens. So I really, really hope no one would bat and I if Max Domey decided to sit out. But so we're going to be seen. and like I said in about a week to a week and a half

if Max Domey is going to set out the NHL restart. Now if he did, that would be a pretty big loss for the Canadians. Max Domi is one of their best players. I honestly think he is their best forward. They have Brendan Gallagher, you know, they have Paul Byron, Jonathan Duran, who I think is just absolutely outstanding a member of that playoff series with the lightning

when he just looked like he was going to be the next superstar in the NHL as he was just lighting up a Penguins that series. He was just absolutely unbelievable. I still think Jonathan Drewan is a hell of a talent. But, you know, they also have Tomas Tatar. I actually think he's a very, very underrated player in the league as well. So, you know, they will still have very good forwards who can score it well,

but, you know, a Montreal team without the services of Max Domey, who, like I said, is one of their best players, you know, that would be very unfortunate for them. But, you know, like I'll say it one more time. No one should bat an eye if he decides to not play. And just to round out the line combinations here for the penguins, well, the defense ones, Brian Duman with Chris LaTang, everyone knows that's going to be the top pairing. Marcus Pedersen with John Marino, the third pairing,

Jack Johnson with Justin Schultz. And yes, everyone, in case you thought that Jack Johnson was not going to be playing for the Penguins in the playoffs, think again, he will be on the third pairing with Justin Schultz. That pairing is going to be very interesting for me, especially in the playoffs. You know Mike Sullivan wants to shelter them? They were getting very, very sheltered minutes when Johnson and Schultz were healthy this season, back when, of course, Brian Dumlin was also with Chris Lerner. Tang and Marcus Pedersen was in a Chobarino.

Their underlying numbers together were actually, I think, above 50%. Hey, guys, that's actual progress for Jack Johnson because he's usually at 43, 44%. He is just absolutely awful. His underlying numbers are just absolutely disgusting. So if they can somehow get up to that level, I'm not going to get all my hopes up, but still, you know, that's going to be the pairing that I'm really interested to see how much Sullivan plays them. I think maybe you're looking at 11 to 12 minutes.

I think that's all I would play Jack Johnson in game. Mike Sullivan, 10 to 11 minutes. Play Chris LaTang, 25, 26 minutes with Brian Dumlin, play John Marino upwards of like 20, 21 minutes, and then just play the bottom pairing like 10 to 11 minutes per game. I think you'll be pretty, pretty set. Just hope that Montreal doesn't put out one of their top lines against the Johnson freaking Schultz pairing.

But I think Mike Sullivan will put them out against, you know, the third and fourth line of Montreal. And then, of course, you know, the two goaltenders, Matt Murray and Tristan Jarrett. So that'll take us into our first commercial break here. And we get to talk about rockado.com. They're a family business. They serve auto part customers online for 20 years.

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All right, so we're back on this episode for Locked On Penguins. And I was finally able to pull up the list of the nine missing players. This comes courtesy of Dejon Kovicev. Apparently with Patrick Hortez, it's Uso Ricola, Sam Poulin, Sam Melletik, Anthony Angelo, Johnson, Philip Barone, Pierre Oliver, Joseph, and then one of the depth goaltenders. But let's get to some pretty cool quotes that we saw from Cindy Crosby today. Cindy Crosby finally spoke to the media. I also saw the video that the Penguins put up.

You know, Cindy Crosby, rightfully wearing a mask. We absolutely love to see it, Sid, keep being you. He basically talked about the return to play. It's a matter of everyone working together and doing our best to be safe. Whether you are a player or a friend, you miss the game. You also have to understand the seriousness of what's around you. We're trying to find a balance for that. I'm optimistic. Cindy Crosby, just great statement there.

Unlike a statement made from a fellow Canadian hockey player, Jonathan Taves, today, basically, he said, part of me says being away from people isolating ourselves is not really the answer. That is just tone deaf, that's frustrating, that's a stupid response. I could go into a full brain about that, but my overall thoughts on that, that is just wrong on so many levels. No, Jonathan Taves, not my captain, everyone, that's for sure. He is definitely not my captain, especially after, especially after, saying something so stupid like that. Josh Yoey of the Athletic also wrote

a incredible piece today basically talking about you wrote about Sidney Crosby with Jake Gensel back. I love these pieces from Josh because you can just really see when he talks to Sid wants this fourth cup. Winning is just basically everything to Cindy Crosby. He said, you have a

short window in your career to be able to do that, which of course, you know, wins another cup. Anytime you get a chance to play for the cup, you want to take advantage. It's not easy. We've done it before when we know what it takes. We know that feeling that's your goal every year. We're in the position to compete for it. But he also said this at the end, we have to find a way to get it done. And with that answer, I definitely want to run through a wall for Cindy Crosby right now. He's the perfect example, you know, of Brad Pitt from Moneyball

with Billoughby. He hates losing more than he loves to win. He just, he wants this fourth one so damn bad. He's going to do whatever it takes to get it. Some of the videos of the Penguins social media put up today, you know, Sid was looking damn good. The Penguins also put out some scrimmage. They did a three-on-three scrimmage. I absolutely loved this. It seemed really, really competitive. Matt Murray was making some absolutely outstanding saves,

some really nice pad saves. It almost did the splits, I think, in one of them. And then on the three-on-three, John Marino got a pass, goes bar under on Murray. The whole team just starts celebrating by him. Matt Murray slams a stick against both the posts. I love the competitive spirit that this team has.

Even though it's just on the first day of training camp, but I absolutely love seeing that video. And hopefully we see more of John Marino, top shelf snipes as we start the tournament. Maybe he can do that to carry price once or twice. I'm just really, really excited to see John Marino in the Stanley Cup playoffs. You know, this is going to be the biggest hockey he's ever played. We all know how good he was during the season.

We all know how good the underlying numbers are. I'm just really, really excited to see him next to Marcus Pedersen in a top four pairing rule, seeing how he can shut down the opposition. You know he can do it in the regular season. The Stanley Cup playoffs is a big step up from that. Of course, there's going to be nerves for him, but I'm just, I cannot wait to see how he does in the Stanley Cup playoffs. I think this is only just going to further his cases, potentially being one of the penguins,

if not the next franchise defenseman for the Pittsburgh Penguins. I will go as far to say that right now as he will potentially supplant Chris LaTang whenever Chris LaTang wants to hang him up. Please do not ever trade Chris LaTang. He is absolutely outstanding. But that also leads us to the goaltending situation. For those that I've not been listening in the past few months, that are just getting back today. I've said it a couple times to the listeners that have stayed on.

This is Matt Murray's net going into game one. That is my take on it. I think it's the right decision because he's the veteran. He's won you two Stanley Cups. You know what he can do in the Stanley Cup playoffs with his 937. Same percentage, I believe, is what it was in 2017. 2016, I think it was really, really close to 9.30. I have to double check the number.

But, you know, in both years, he was absolutely outstanding. In 2018, I still think he was fine, but you know what? The team was absolutely good. gas. We all know how last season went with the sleep to the Islanders. The whole team just didn't even show up. But this is the guy who you want in game one for the Penguins. I know some people are going to come out of me like, oh, well, you know, Tristan Jari had a better season. He has all the better stats. He had it was just much more consistent. Okay, cool. Tristan Jari did have a better save percentage. I also believe he had a better goals against average. Sure, he was better for maybe

one long stretch, but you know what? He's inexperienced in the Stanley Cup playoffs. He still has a very, very short sample size. Do I think that Tristan Jari is going to be the goaltender of the future for the Penguins? Yes, I don't think Matt Murray is going to be signed with the Penguins after the season. Even if he wins a third Stanley Cup for them, I think he's going to price himself out of Pittsburgh. He's probably going to be asking for maybe $6 to $7 million, which is a little ridiculous if you ask me. But you'll deal with that in the off season. But right now, Matt Murray is the guy for game one.

I think Mike Sullivan is going to agree, but he is on a short leash. If he has a shit-ass game one where he just gets lit up like a cross-year-old. Christmas tree, you go to Trishinjari in game two. Or you know what? Maybe you say, eh, Matt Murray, out a shitty game one, maybe we'll go back to you in game two. If he gets lit up in game two, then you know what? You basically have no choice.

You go to Trish and Jari in game three in a must-win situation. But like I said, they're going to go to Matt Murray. I think it's the right call. He's won you two Stanley Cups. He knows what it takes to win in the playoffs. His game has hopefully improved over the off season. Remember with Elliot Freeman's 31 Thoughts article, I think it was about a month ago.

apparently Murray was seeing a new specialist to fine tune his game a little bit. We're going to see firsthand in about a couple of weeks to see what changed about his game. So I'm really, really excited to see that and just see Matt Murray. Hopefully he balls out. You know, I don't root for a player on this team to fail. There's a lot of weird people in the Penguins fan base that want to always root against Matt Murray because he took Mark Andre Fleury's job and haven't forgiven him since. You know what?

I say to those people, basically just leave, you know, go be a Vegas fan. There's just a lot of weird people in this fan base who like to hate on Matt Murray for no reason. That's not me. I will always root for him to succeed. I will always root for anyone on this team to succeed. Even Jack Johnson, who we all know just absolutely stinks. All right, so welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. We're just going to do a quick little couple minute segment to wrap up this episode.

I just want to talk about what the plans are going to be moving forward, you know, despite we're going back to the everyday episode. So we're going to have a big crossover pretty soon. I'm actually going to be getting on locked on Canadians pretty soon. I think it's probably going to be next week, maybe the week after, to preview this. This is going to be a monster preview of the series. I think it's honestly going to be about an hour worth of a preview if the email that I got is correct from my boss. So you guys will have that to look forward to in about a week or two. That's going to be absolutely outstanding.

I'm going to try to have more people come on this podcast, of course, to preview the series against Montreal. We're going to try to get Josh Joey to come on with Chad like we did over the whole quarantine. You know, we can maybe do like an hour worth of preview with that. I think that would be a lot of fun. Also, try to get Jesse Marshall back on here at some point. I also wanted to thank everyone that listened to this show while the league was paused. I cannot thank you all enough. You guys kept this going.

You guys are the reason why I continue to do this and why I just continue to embarrass myself, basically every day of the week. Well, it used to be three times a week for the last couple months. Now it's going to be back to four to five days a week, mostly five. I do it for you guys. I absolutely love talking about this team. I could do it all day, all night if I could. And it's just, it's really,

makes me really happy that we're going to have hockey back here really, really soon. And that, you know, I can continue to talk puck with you guys. But I just really wanted to thank you guys for sticking by me during this. I know it wasn't easy, you know, to pull a podcast about hockey when there's no hockey going on. And who knows when there was going to be a restart. But now that we know when the restart is going to be, now that we know when the games are going to be. I did forget to mention this. The Penguins are looks like you're going to be.

have the night game for all five games, well, game four and game five even as well, if necessary, for their series against Montreal, which means for everyone that is still working during this pandemic, you are in luck because the games will not start until 8 p.m. The Penguins, it does not look like we'll be getting the 12 o'clock game or the 4 o'clock game. So you guys can, people that worry, you can get home, you have a nice dinner, maybe have a nice little cup of coffee depending on who you are at 8 o'clock at night. I don't know why someone will drink a cup of coffee at 8 o'clock at night, but you know what? There's plenty of people that do, and you can just sit back and just watch the Penguins play the Habs.

So I definitely wanted to say that as well. But like I said, from the bottom of my heart to everyone who listened during the pause, thank you so much for everyone that has come back as well. Thank you so much. We're going to have a lot of fun previewing this series against Montreal. We're going to have a lot of fun. Just we're revving it back up, baby. Like I said at the beginning, it feels like the first time.

I get more and more excited every single day as it just gets closer and closer to happening. You know, it's time to bring this fourth cup. for Cindy Crosby and Ganymalkin home. I honestly think I'm going to have an episode coming up soon, just what it would mean to a lot of players on this team to get another Stanley Cup, especially Cindy Crosby to Getty Malkin, Mike Sullivan as well.

Hell, I may have one of my best friends Jeff on. You know, we were talking about this a couple weeks ago as well. You know, just what would it mean for a lot of players on this team to get this next Stanley Cup? Hell, some of the players that are on this team now, I've never won the Stanley Cup before. So I think we're going to do that as well. We can spend a full 20 minutes on that.

But, you know, the overall message, thank you to everyone. We're going to continue to rev it up. We're going to continue to produce Penguins' content. I cannot wait to bring you guys more content tomorrow. But you know what? We're back, baby. So we will talk to you all tomorrow.