Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - It's a hockey night in Pittsburgh!

Episode Date: September 27, 2021

It's the first game of the season! Well...kind of. Hunter shares his thoughts on the preseason lineup for the Penguins tonight and who he's most looking forward to seeing. Was it the right call for Mike Sullivan to put both Poulin and Legare in the Top 6? How much is Tristan Jarry going to play tonight? Is it a good idea to pair Joseph up with Marino? Those are just a few questions Hunter answers in this episode before pivoting towards some thoughts on camp scrimmages over the weekend. Is Brian Boyle even more of a lock to make the team? How has Poulin looked at camp? What is Jason Zucker promising to be better with? All that, plus a lot 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.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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 afternoon 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. underscore Penguins for the first time this year. Well, for first round, at least a few months, I can say, I can confirm. firm at least, it is a hockey night in Pittsburgh. Your Pittsburgh Penguins will be in action tonight for their preseason debut against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Believe it is full capacity. They recommend everyone to wear a mask regardless if you are vaccinated or not. If you are a listener and you will be at the game tonight, let me know. You can tweet me at Hunter Hodes, the show's square, L.O. underscore Penguins, your thoughts on what you're seeing, some pictures. You can send me something of the food that you got or something like that. Maybe they have some new concessions in PBJPJPANS arena or something like that.

But if you're at the game, definitely do let me know. In this episode, we're going to preview the game a little bit tonight, talk about some lines that you can expect to see, go over some thoughts on training camp practices this weekend, especially with the scrimmages and some articles that I've read with how some players keep looking and all that good stuff. But first, there are a few housekeeping items to go over. The key dates from the NHO calendar were just announced,

actually about 15 minutes before I started recording. The trade deadline mark your calendars for this. March 21st, so if I can actually get out my phone here real quickly, I'm so sorry, I did not have this prepared. If I go to my calendar here, March 21st is a, let's see here, that is a Monday. Usually it's around 3 or 4 o'clock, May 2nd, first day of the Stanley Cup playoffs, so it won't be in mid-May, like it was. This past year, it will be a couple weeks before. Usually in a non-Olympic year, they start in mid-April, but this year, May 2nd, June 30, is the last possible day of the Stanley Cup finals. So end of June is when the season will end.

July 1st will be the first buyout period. July 7th and the 8th will be the NHL draft. And then July 13th will be when free agency open. So I wanted to let you all know of the key dates from the calendar for this season. So you can all put that on your calendars to whether you know, take off work, take off school, whatever. Another thing that we did see this morning, the Penguins have their first COVID situation. This is their first positive result since the pandemic began. Zach Ashton-Rees has tested positive for COVID-19. He is fully vaccinated. I understand that people are going to say, well, you know, you can still get it if you're fully vaccinated.

Yeah, I mean, everyone's known that since this came out. But I guess the best I can say about this, I guess the more positive thing is that at least there's still two more weeks until the regular season starts. According to Mike DeFabo, Ashton-Rees, I think, has to be isolated. 10 days from when he first tested positive. I don't think that date was in his story. Vaccinated players who are deemed high-risk close contacts will also be subject to increased testing. So we'll have to see if any players that he was in close contact with will get some increased testing on a daily basis. But they won't be subject to quarantine provided that they remain asymptomatic and continue to test negative.

So at least 10 days that he'll be isolated. I think he should be good to go when the Penguins take on Tampa Bay. but I can't be certain right now. If he has to miss that game, it's really not the end of the world. I think he'll just be back for the game after that. But it's definitely not something that you want to see just a couple of weeks before the regular season starts. And I wish him a full and speedy recovery because he is one of the more underrated players on this team. I really hope that he doesn't have any effects weeks, months, even years down the line when it comes to this virus.

Now, some lines that you will see tonight, it looks like. The Penguins had the morning skate today. Sam Poulan is going to be on the top line with Evan Rodriguez and Kisbury Captain. That is really intriguing to me. Rodriguez centering them is, I think, interesting is the word. I like him as a playmaker. I don't like him as much as a finisher, I think, but I think he can dish the puck to Captain and Poulan, who are pure finishers. And again, this is something that I talked about last week on the podcast.

Put someone like Poo-Anne with your best players. in the preseason. You know, he's playing with Kisperi Kappan. You know, when you look up and down this lineup, Kaepernan is probably the best player. The fact that they're putting Poulin with him is a really good sign. Rodriguez, I think, is also one of the better players in this lineup. So the fact that Poulan is with both of them is a really good sign

and something that I've been wanting to see ever since training camp started. You're not going to learn a lot about your top prospects if they're just going to play with a bunch of bottom feeder players. Putting them with actual NHL players, now you can see what they're really made of. And yes, I understand it. preseason, but again, you can really see how good they are by pairing them with some of the better players in the lineup.

Danton Hinen will make his Penguins debut tonight on a line with Brian Boyle and Nathan Ligary. Again, that's a fine line as well. Nathan Ligary can play with Dantan, who I think is probably the second best player of this group. Brian Boyle will be the second line center. That's going to be an intriguing line as well. I mean, you're not going to probably see these kind of lines in the regular season, but, you know, in preseason, I'm going to over-analyze the hell out of it because I can't.

On the third line, Dominic Simone with Jonathan Gruden and Sam Lafferty. On the fourth line, Justin Almeida with Jordi Belervie and John Drozg. And then for the defense, P.O. Joseph with John Marino. That's a pairing you might see at times during regular season. I'm not really sure, though, that that pairing would work. And it's the same thing with Matheson and Marino. You know, both P.O. and John really like when they have the puck on their sticks. It's when they're at their best.

So I'm just curious to see how they feed off each other in an actual game. It's definitely an intriguing pairing and one that we may see during the regular season, but when the team is fully healthy, you probably only see it for one or two games, if that. Yuseligula will be with Mark Friedman. This is a good opportunity to see what the Penguins have. And Rikala, I've seen Joshio and Rod Rossi of the Athletic report numerous times over the weekend that Rikula has looked really good in camp, but for some reason, you know, I've talked about this on my podcast many times.

Shire Irving, Danny of the Penn's blog has as well. I don't really understand why Mike Sullivan always has him in his doghouse. He's good with the puck on his stick. He's good defensively. There's a lot to like with him, but for some reason he just doesn't get enough minutes. So that's going to be a player that I'm really curious to watch tonight. And then Cam Lee with Chad Ruudel slash Mike Riley. I think it's probably going to be Lee and Ruweedle tonight.

I think Riley is going to be healthy scratch from that group. So Lee and Ruehdle, that's also a cool defensive pairing. I think Lee is. Again, someone that I really think could make an impact at some point this season, but definitely next season. And this is a really good opportunity to see what they have in him in pairing with someone who is likely to be the Penguins number six defense win this season, at least in my opinion. As for the goalies, Philip Lindberg and Tristan Jari will be splitting the net.

I think Jari is going to go in first. Then Philip Lindberg will get the second half of the game. As for your special teams units, P.O. Joseph, John Marino, Kasperi Kaffman, and Nathan Lig Gary and Sam Poulin on the first powerplay unit, something that we all love to see. Throw your top two prospects out on your top powerplay unit and see what they can do with the best player on that unit and Kasperi Captain and your best two defensemen in this game, P.O. Joseph and John Marino. I love that Mike Sullivan did that, and I'm really excited to see what Ligari and Poulin can do if the team gets a powerplay tonight. I'm sure they will.

Second powerplay, Camley, Yuseligula, Dominic Simone, Evan Rodriguez, and Justin Almeda. I'm surprised that Danton Hinen is not on that unit just because he's one of the better pure scores in this lineup. But I guess they just want to see more of Almeda and they like Simone's playmaking. And again, that's another player that Josh Yowie has really liked in camp thus far. He's probably going to be in the lineup in some capacity this season. I know a lot of people don't like him just because he has a knack for not finishing his chances. I mean, you don't have to look too far to see that. Even if you don't watch the games, you can look at a shooting percentage and it's just so low because he hits so much.

many posts and either the puck flubs off his stick or he just shoots wire or whatever, but he's still a good playmaker. That's the main reason why you're seeing him on the second proclay unit, as is Evan Rodriguez. As for the penalty killing unit, Brian Boyle, Danton, John Gruden, and Felix Robert are on the first PK. But I also don't think Felix Robert is playing tonight, so that's a little bit interesting. I guess he was just there skating with the team. Second PK, Chabarweedle, Mark Freeman, Sam Lafferty, and Jordy Belarvie. So those are what your special teams units and your line combinations look like going into tonight's game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Am I going to watch this game? I'm so freaking looly.

I don't give a crap of this preseason hockey. Am I also going to overanalyze it thinking it's a regular season game? Oh, you bet your ass I will. I've been waiting far too long to watch anything Penguins related. So I will have that game on tonight. It is not on TV, but they will have a stream on the Penguins official website. So that is where you can find the game if you're looking to tune in tonight. And pardon me, I did totally screw up that Felix Robert will be in the lineup tonight.

But it's weird that he wasn't taking line rushes. So I don't really understand that. Unless I missed something in the tweets from the media, yeah, it does not look like that Felix Robert was taking line rushes. But we'll have to see what the official line rushes are right around, like, 630, 645 women. announce the official lineup, but he will be in the lineup in some capacity. Maybe he's taking the place of one of the forwards in the bottom six. But all the other players that I did mention will be in the lineup. And I'm excited to see who could potentially break through with this team.

And I'm really looking forward to see Sam Poulay, maybe if he could score a goal or two. Nathan Legerre, of course, really looking forward to see Cam Lee play top six minutes with someone who is probably going to be in the top six this year. And then, you know, P.O. Joseph and John Marino, how will those two mesh together? not too big of that pairing right now. I know there's been a lot of rumblings about P.O. Joseph with Crystal Tang. I'm going to touch on that a little bit coming up in the next segment where I go over some training camp thoughts from this weekend.

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That is DirectTV.com. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hoddies. In order to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow this show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. So let's get to some training camp thoughts from over the weekend. Josh Yowie and Rob Rossi wrote this article from the 26th, so yesterday, basically. and Josh has a thought that, you know, I've been thinking about a lot lately as well.

You know, it sounds like that P.O. Joseph is having another really good training camp. All the best players seem to love him. You know, Chris LaTang has been just talking very highly about him. I think it's the best way to say it for the last few days. Apparently, they've been training together a lot during the off season, and they've been skating on some pairings together. That is a pairing that did not have the best results last season. I think their underlying numbers for possession were well below 50% and Joseph was just getting way too many minutes out of the year.

I think the best way to ease him into that pairing would be to just play him on a second or third pairing, see how he's doing results-wise, you know, if the process is lining up with what's going on. And then if that's going well, then you can elevate him up to Chris Littang. I got a mention from one of my good buddies. That is a huge hangman's fan. actually Doug was just on the show and he goes, you know, what's more likely to come out of this? Dumo slash Marino-Peterson or Matheson or Pedersen Marino Dumo Matheson. I think a Dumlin-Matheson would just be a dumpster fire. I mean, we all know how good Brian Dumlin is at covering up for people's mistakes, but pairing him with Mike Matheson would just be a total chaos kind of pairing.

I would prefer to see Pedersen Marino overall. Pedersen Matheson doesn't really make any sense. Dumlin Marino, I think, could work, though both of those players are very strong defensively but can't drive offense. So where's the offense coming from in that pairing? You know, with the pairings that you're likely to see when the top six is healthy, you know your offense is coming from Crystal Tang when he's paired with Brian Dumwin. You know your offense is coming from John Marino when he's paired with Marcus Pedersen. And you probably know that your offense is coming from Mike Matheson when he's paired with Chabrewood.

So if you look at some of these other pairings and say you want P.O. Joseph with Krista Tang, your offense is likely coming from Chris LaTang but can PO cover up for him when he somehow makes a bad pinch or just makes a bad play or a read or something like that? I'm not sure that he can so that's why I'm a little hesitant at this point to elevate PO up to the top pairing

if that makes sense. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want the pairings on the defense balanced as much as possible and I think you'd be doing a little disservice to yourself if you'd be putting P.O. Joseph with Crystal Tang, you know, going back to that article a little bit, you know, Josh writes, the Penguins have Dumlin, Matheson, and Pedersen on the left side of the blue line, and so long as they're healthy, those three will likely be in the lineup. Sullivan said over the weekend that while Joseph probably has the skill set to play on the right side,

they hate putting young players in a position to fail so that it would be unlikely to see him on the off side. It's just a very crowded blue line, though it feels like it's time for him to play. So this is where it gets interesting, right? it's time for him to play so could this be like a situation where John Marino kind of forced your motherford's hand and traded out Eric Abramson when he was seen as the favorite

to be on that second pairing just a couple of seasons ago? Could Ron Hextall do something very similar with that and then say dump Mike Matheson to a team that could use defense and that also opens up some caps face with the penguins and then you can roll out Dumlin Latang, Pedersen-Marino

Joseph and Ruudel there your defense is really balanced again. Crystal Tang is going to give you your offense on that top pairing. John Marino is going to give you your offense on the second pairing and P.O. Joseph is going to give you your offense if it's with Chabarulito. Even if Mark Friedman is there, I still think Joseph is going to be the one that give you offense. I don't think Mark Freeman is that good in the offense in the offensive zone. I would take P.O. at this point, 100 times over 100 when it comes to that. But that is where I think it makes the most sense for P.O. to play coming into this season. I definitely think he is ready. It's

awesome that he is already having a great training camp. It just stinks that, you know, the last management regime decided to screw them over with some of these bad contracts, especially with Matheson with that trade for Patrick Hornquist, and now he is blocking a very blossoming young defenseman who is ready to get out. I mean, I thought when he played last year in that very short stint that he was ready even after he got top pairing minutes, I thought he showed enough on the second and third pairing that he can contribute on a nightly basis. I mean, Mike Sullivan and trusted enough to play him meaningful minutes in a few overtimes, especially against New York Rangers.

He actually set up Sidney Crosby's game winner to give the Penguins that extra point in that game. I think I want to say that was February, if I'm not mistaken, of this year. I'm going to have to double check on that when I do some little research after this episode. But yeah, I mean, it's been time for him to play. And again, I can't blame Jim Rutherford enough for giving the Penguins the contract of Mike Matheson when P.O. was probably ready to go last. season and showed that when he did play in that shortston. So again, I'm really am excited that he's doing well in camp and I'm excited to see how he does in

tonight's game against the Blue Jackets while paired up with John Marino. After some of the scrimmages, Brian Boyle had two goals this weekend scored again in Sunday's scrimmage. I mean, if he keeps playing like this, he's making the team. I mean, he's centering the second line in the Penguins preseason game tonight. I know that's not much with some of the players that are playing in this game, but the fact that he's already the second line center in the first preseason game, I think should show a lot of people that he is going to make the team. And even when Sid and Gino come back,

I think he is going to definitely have a case to be the team's 12th forward. If not, he'll be the first player to come in once there's another injury. And yes, knowing the Penguins, they will be injury. Also mentioned in this article with Sam Poulan scoring for a second straight-tritch image, Brian Rust fed him that goal. So if we can, again, if we can see him score now in preseason games, It's going to make the Penguins decision with him that much tougher. I also really liked what I saw from Jason Zucker when he spoke to the media for the first time over the weekend.

He asked it he believed his production level was capable of coming back. He said, I hope so. When I first got here, it was really good. I can confirm that too. Had 12 points in 15 games in that regular season. Was their best player against Montra. I think he was right about at a point per game in that series. He said last year was awful, to be honest with you.

I didn't look like my game at all. good points, but some really bad points. It was a good summer to adjust my game. He also said, I thought my shot total was awful. I didn't shoot the puck nearly as much as in years past. I would be shocked if it was even 50% of my normal total. And again, that has been something that I have been talking a lot about these last couple of weeks when it comes to Jason Zucker. He was very tentative when he got the puck last year. There were multiple instances where he would come in on a 2-1 and force the pass where there wasn't there, or the shot that he would take would be so wide of the net, it wouldn't even be funny, and he just was not himself last year.

But again, one of my bold predictions, he will score 25 goals for this team this year, playing with one of the top two centers. And even when both of them are out, I think you're going to see him as one of the players that will step up in a big way. And I also think he takes too much flack from some fans. He has 15 goals in 53-year-season games. I mean, that's not the best, but he also has four goals and 10 playoff games with them. He was one of their best players in Game 6 against the Allenders,

and I thought before that was also pretty decent in that series as well in the other games, but he did vow to shoot the puck more, and it's something that I think all of us have been wanting to hear for a while when it comes to this player. Also sounds like Radeem Zohorna is playing well in camp. He's been centering Jason Zulker and Kasperi Kappan. He's not playing tonight, but by all indications, he's having a good camp, and there's definitely going to be a discussion when it comes to him making the opening night roster. Josh again also talks about Dominic Simone

if would anyone be surprised if he were to make the roster No I don't think anyone that listens to this podcast Anyone that is that doesn't that is in this fan base or whatever Would be surprised if Simone makes this roster He is a good playmaker you are seeing that in camp with some of the scrimmages He likes having the puck a lot and yes I understand that his shooting numbers are really piss poor He still is very crafty with the puck and something that Mike Sullivan likes a lot So I definitely think he will make the team in some capacity

That's for sure. Some other Penguins defensemen commented on P.O. Joseph, Dumlin said, I love what I see for him to be able to play. It would be huge for his confidence. He just needs to play this year. So there's basically the players telling the management that we want to see more of this player and that we really think he can help us win game. So it'll be interesting to see.

We just saw a trade a couple days ago with the Blues and the Senators with the Logan Brown versus Zach Sanford situation. I think that was mainly due to cap situations. But could the Penguins do something a little similar? but this time paved the way for P.O. to come up to the big leagues full time. We'll just have to see if he has a really good camp, that may have to force Ron Hextall's hand. And again, last minute on least, Cindy Crosby is continuing to skate, and his timeline has not changed.

He'll be out at least for the first week of the regular season, but probably not more than that if I had to guess right now. But we still have a little more to get to for this episode, including the Penguin's first wave of roster cuts. The training camp roster went from 61 down to 50, I think, it will be at least two more roster cuts throughout the rest of camp for the next weeks to get down to the full 23-man roster. Before we get to that dough, we do have to talk about Bilt Bar.

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You can go to built.com and use promo code Locked 15, and you'll get 15% off your order. Use promo code Locked 15 for 15% off at Built.com. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hoadies. Remember follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L-Oen and Squared Penguins. So let's get into these first. roster cuts that the Penguins did. So Sam Houd, Chris Bigress, Chris Mariusior, Ortiz,

Josh Minascalo, Alex DeOrio, Tommy Napier, Lucas Shevkovsky, Josh Williams, Isaac Belivu, Ryan McLeary. All four of those have been reassigned the last four of those. So that's Shavkosky, Josh Williams, Bellevue, and Ryan McClary. They will go back to their junior teams. The other seven will be assigned to Wilkesbury. So the Penguins roster, as in today, is down to 50 players. They still have to cut 27 more. to get down to the 23-man roster. But none of these should be surprising in the slightest. I mean, Minascallo, I guess, should be the one that it's maybe a little surprising,

but again, not really. He was always someone that it was probably going to be unlikely that he makes a team, but I did want to see more from him. Big Ross, definitely, that's not a surprise. Maria Sier-Ortiz, Tommy Napier, Alex DeOrio. He's going to be playing in Wilkesbury as either the starter or the backup to Philip Lindberg. Josh Williams, Isaac Belvoir, Ryan McLeary, Lucas Shevkovsky.

That one was a little interesting, but it's because it sounds like he's had a really good camp. And I'm definitely just a little confused as to why they didn't want to see him in any preseason action. But I guess they saw what they wanted to see from a few practices and reassigned him to his junior team. So as of right now, Penguins have cut 11 players. The big name prospects and everyone are still on the team. And yes, that includes Matt Barkowski. He was also on a professional tryout as well as well as Brian Boyle. my thoughts on that have not changed.

I have Boyle making this team. I do not think Matt Varkowski will make this team out of camp. I think he will be cut with some of the other players that get reassigned to Wilkesbury or to their junior teams. But I think that's all I might have for you all for this episode. For tomorrow's one, I'll have a full recap on the game and who I thought stood out versus who I thought did not stand out. I'm just glad that we have hockey back, man. I don't really give a crap if it's preseason. Sure, there's what, five or six of these games, but we still got two more.

weeks to the regular season. These couple weeks, everyone, they're going to fly by. I think that's what some people are missing here is that these games and these practices, the regular season will be here before you know it, and then it'll get even more serious. I did actually ask on the lockdown hang with the Twitter account who people were looking forward

to seeing in this first preseason game. True North Penn's fan says, as for the vets, seeing Capitan has become a favorite. He is going to be an important player this year. As for the newbies, more of PO is obvious in Poole and in Ligari are easy choices. I have more shifting my attention to Ligari, who seems to be getting more mentions. Yeah, I have noticed that as well. I think Ligari, in practice, has been definitely getting a bit more, what's the word,

fame, recognition than Poulan is, but, you know, that could all change in an instant tonight if Poulin goes out and has a really good game, though. I will say Sam Poulan has had a couple strong scrimmages where he did score. Nick Horwatt of the Tip of the Iceberg podcast, which they do, great work. The Nick and Nick show stops for no one. He says he wants to see Cam Lee. Again, that is also someone who I am looking forward

as seeing as well. Alan Teodor says, I'm bummed that we won't be seeing Gensel Carter Hinen, but I'm looking forward to seeing some of these borderline guys and seeing what they can do, even if they end up being first on the call-up list. 100% agree with that, man. Again, I'm just looking forward to just seeing what some of these young players

have and just watching hockey for the first time in a few months. So I will be probably live tweeting a little bit of this game. on both the Lockdown Penguins' Twitter account and on my Twitter account at Hunter Hodes. Go follow both of those accounts if you haven't already. Thank you all so much for listening to this one. And we will be back with another episode tomorrow

before Josh Getsoff comes on to Locked on Penguins on Wednesday in the afternoon. So I'll talk to you all that.