Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Jake Guentzel came oh so close...plus more Penguins All-Star Weekend thoughts

Episode Date: February 5, 2022

The All-Star weekend is here and that means Jake Guentzel and Tristan Jarry got to participate in the Skills Competition. Hunter gets into Guentzel doing the accuracy shooting and how close he was to winning it. Would he have beaten Aho if he had made that last one on the first try? He also touches on how the world got to see just good Guentzel is at those close-range shots and how far he's come. He also talks about Tristan Jarry and how he didn't come close to winning the saves competition before giving his thoughts on the event as a whole. Should a couple of the new events come back? Was one of them rigged? He then speaks about Gary Bettman's press conference and why his answer on the Blackhawks was so troubling, plus gives some BOLD predictions for the second half of the season.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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. 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.

Well, we've reached All-Star weekend. Tonight, Friday night, we just had the skills competition wrap up. I'm going to do a little bit of a recap on that. No touch on how both Tristan Jari and Jake Gensel did to give my full thoughts on a couple of the other things surrounding the NHL tonight. And then, you know, also go into, you know, the All-Star format for this weekend's game before. You know, the Penguins will be back in action in just a few days in Boston against the ruins. We're going to talk about all of that coming up for tonight's show.

You're locked on penguins. your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, happy Friday evening. Welcome to another episode of a Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Follow the shows, Twitter at L.O. Arnold Squared Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. We're back on stream for this one. I apologize for doing that one through Zoom. I'm on Thursday with Jesse Marshall, though still a great conversation. I always love talking hockey with him if you haven't listened to that episode.

Please go check it out. We do a full analysis of the first 41, 44, 46 games. Yeah, it's 46 at this point. Going to a whole bunch of topics surrounding the Penguins. But for today's episode, as I said in the intro, going to touch on the skills competition, give my thoughts on some of the new formats that they use. Also going to go into what's the All-Star game, which, you know, it's basically the same

three-on-three tournament. But start things off, Jake Gensel. Honestly, I thought he had it. Hits the first two bottom ones. I'm like, okay, he's doing record pace here. Gets the first top shelf one on the left side. I'm like, okay, if he can get this one, he'll win it because he had plenty of time going into that fourth one,

just misses it above the pipe. I believe he hit the crossbar goes over, and then the next one he hits it, those top cheese, and he finishes with 12 seconds. Sebastian Aahou won it with 10.9. So Jake got second place, but man, I mean, I hope this shows more people around the league, just how great of a shooter Jake is.

I know it's just a fun competition, but I mean, just watch how he was able to pick those corners with ease. And, you know, I think, again, people around the league should see, like, you know, what we're all seeing as Penguins fans, and, you know, especially even when I do this podcast, it's like, yeah, I mean, this is one of the top five pure shooters in the league. And, you know, he doesn't just do this when there's an empty net. I mean, he does this basically on a nightly basis.

at this point. So just awesome to see him shine in that competition. I wish he won it, because it would have been a cool interview, I think, on Sportsnet. You know, shout out to, Sebastianahu. He'd have a better time. But, you know, if Jake would have hit that last shot, before he hit it the second time, Jake 100% would have won that competition. As for Tristan Jari, so he participated in the Save competition. I know, I think in the past, Mark Andre Fleury has been there, and he's done pretty good with that. I believe he won actually one of those years. already only saved, I think, two of the six breakaways, two or three of the six breakaways that he faced. You know, obviously there's going to be some jokes about that on social media and all

that other stuff. But I mean, it's just cool seeing him there, you know, in all honesty. He just had a great regular season. And, you know, he's being rewarded for that, for, you know, just being at the All-Star game. And this is the second time that he has been there as well. So I see him there, you know, at the end of the day, it's a breakaway competition. You know, he's had his struggles in shootouts, even though he's improved along the way, but, you know, wasn't able to bring it home. I believe Andre Vasselowski got the shared title for that one. As for some of the other competitions, I'll give you my thoughts on that. Really do not understand how Trevor Ziegress did not win the breakaway competition.

Alex Petrangelo had two attempts, so in case anyone is listening to not watch, he basically, this was a Helm Cookin win, by the way, but comes in, misses the net, and then brings out the Vegas Golden Knights Band. He taps the drums on a few of them. And then comes in again for a second breakaway, misses the net, and then he still gets 64 points to win. But no,

we're not going to give it to Trevor Zegris, who put a blindfold over his eyes, comes and doesn't even know where he is, does a spinorama, fires the puck-bast the goalie, and somehow that doesn't get more points in Alexertrangelo. I mean, it's just, that is honestly the most NHL thing in the world. And I'm honestly like not even joking about that because, you know, I know it doesn't mean

anything and, you know, it's silly. But how are you not going to reward one of the best younger players in the league for something so cool and skillful like that? But you're just going to give it to Alex Patangel because the event is in Vegas. It's just, you know, I saw so many tweets on social media. You know, even Pete Blackburn, you know, you know, He wins the, Petrangelo wins the breakway challenge without scoring a goal when Trevor Zegra scored one of the coolest showman goals I've ever seen in my life.

Yep, cool of that. I mean, it just, you know, like I said, it goes to show how, I guess, they, the time of other players even said, it's rigged, you know, it basically was. I think one of the judges had a little Muppet next to him and they had a combined score of 19. There you go. There's your winner right there. Jack Hughes, his was pretty cool too. I honestly, if it weren't for Petrangelo, you know, I wouldn't have maybe have minded if Jack Hughes won because, you know, he kind of did like an Abra-A-A-Bra-Cadabra kind of thing where he tapped his stick on like this huge, you know, thing that was on the ice.

Little mini Jack Hughes comes out just kind of like a magician and then does a beautiful deke tosses his stick into the crowd just like the real Jack Hughes does. I mean, they both did it actually at the same time. and, you know, that actually vaulted Hughes ahead of Zegris for a short amount of time. That breakaway challenge was probably the best one I've ever seen. And, you know, I've been watching these skills competitions for, you know, as long as I can remember. They're always a lot of fun. You know, I think it's probably the best thing the NHL does at the skills competition. But this one, again, you know, I think this took the kick, even if Alex were Transelho, for some reason, won.

Really did not understand that. But, you know, it was cool to see all the judges. and that kind of stuff. It kind of reminded me of the NBA dunk contest in a way that they always do where, you know, you have the celebrity guests with the tens and the nines and all that. And, you know, there were some, you know, Paul Coffey was one of the judges. He was hard to sway, I think, in a few of those. I think even the Trevor Zegrois one, for some reason he gave him a nine.

I was like, what are we doing here, Paul? If that doesn't get a 10, you should probably not be allowed to vote ever again on one of those, at least in my opinion. So I didn't really know what the hell Paul was doing there. I'm going to say the least. But, you know, that was a lot of fun. Some of the other competitions, though, the 21 and 22 outside with, what was it, Matthew, Stamcoast, Joe Pavellos, Joe Pavelloske, Nassam Khadry, Brady Kachuk. That's their event.

I don't think they need to bring back. That's the first time they're doing it. And I applaud the NHL for trying new things, you know, keeps it going and all that. It was just kind of weird. I mean, I think it dragged on for. too long, at least in my opinion, while I was watching it. And I mean, you know, sure, it's a cool competition, but, you know, I think that should be a one-time thing just because, well, they're in Vegas, for God's sake.

So if they were to not bring back that back, I'd be totally fine with that. Hardest shot, you know, I know some people are kind of over that. I love the hardest shot competition. You know, I remember, you know, being a kid or being a teenager, really, and just, you know, watching Shea Weber blast a 120-mile-hour slap shot every freaking time. he was in it and just flat out owning people you know same with zendano chara he would blast one around that speed too if not more um you know that that's just that was always the highlight of my you know younger teenage years when i would tune in um so i've always had just you know that that one's

always just meant a lot to me and you know tonight victor had been one i'm not really surprised just because he has a canon of a shot and i mean put it that on my social media so you know good for him fastest skater i always love that one too um you know it's i i wish that you know a couple one of the other players would have i i wish honestly still mac david would have won it um had he done it but you know at the end of the day um you got to change it up a few times um it was really cool to see jordan kair for the first time he was just flying all over the ice there um this was the first time as well that ESPN did the skills competition so it was pretty good honestly you know i like the coverage that they had, I think it blew away NBC's

from the previous, you know, decade, decade and a half that they had the rights. So, um, all in all I thought it was success, you know, maybe a little bit rigged in one of the competitions, but, you know,

all the other competitions, you know, the fan favorites that were back, um, it was, it was a lot of fun. And of course, you know,

there was the one, um, if I can find this here, um, real quick. Um, yeah, Jocelyn Lemero,

Davidson, um, just the fountain face off. She absolutely, owned everyone there. Shout out to her. She was just incredible with that one. I loved watching that one.

If they could do that in every city that they host it, sign me up. I would love if the NHL would keep doing something like that. And just hopefully next time, you know, they bring another woman out there, you know, maybe Amanda Kessel, Brianna Decker, if she gets healthy. And, you know, they both can kick everyone's asses as well. So that'll wrap up this first segment of the Skills Competition. Again, huge fan of it.

I'm sure they'll probably add some new stuff for the next cities ones. But, you know, I still really like it. Coming up in the next segment, we're going to go into more of what to expect for the All-Star game tomorrow. You know, some of the format, you know, the teams, of course. And, you know, some of the news that came out from the NHL today as well from Commissioner Gary Bettman. A lot of it was kind of, you know, I guess really bad. I think, I'm going to touch on that coming up later on in the show. we do that. This is the time of year that I've pretty much given up on all my New Year's resolutions,

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You can also follow all the shows Twitter at LO underscore Penguins. So, you know, remember, so the NHL All Store game format. So this will be 3 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, you know, a little earlier in the afternoon in Vegas. So remember since 2016, the All-Stra game, it's been a 14 tournament. You know, three games being played to usually decide the winner. It's always split between the Metro, Atlantic, Pacific, and the Central. It's been three-on-three, 20 minutes for each contest.

It's going to be the same for this one. So I'm excited to see what Jake Gensel can do there. It's unfortunate that Sidney Crosby is not going to be in this. It honestly just feels weird because I know he had a little bit of a slow start, but I still think Sid should have gone just because, I mean, how are you promoting the game of hockey if one of the five best players in the league is not there? Alex Ovechkin was going to be there, but if he got COVID, you know, best wishes to him, hopefully. He is all right and recovers just fine.

It's just kind of frustrating that neither of those two players are there. Again, I know one of them was going to be there, but, you know, why couldn't you have invited both, I think, as well? You know, Brian Ross, I think he was snubbed as well. He's over, point per game right now. Chris Letang for the Penguins too. Definitely a little frustrating. And, you know, Letangas always played well in the three-on-three games. You know, I think a few years ago, he had quite a few goals during that competition.

You know, he would always feed Sid and, you know, Sid would always feed Ovechkin. So I always loved seeing their bromance at multiple All-Star games just because you even know how good of friends I think they are this day and age. So it is unfortunately that both of them are not there. So remember 3 p.m. Eastern tomorrow, you will be able to watch the All-Star game. three games, 20 minute games, and then, you know, the two winners,

the first two games, you know, they will square off in the championship, and then they will decide the wins, and then, you know, the winner always comes home

with the crap ton of cash and everything like that. And then, you know, all-star weekend is over Sunday. You know, teams are probably back at practice, and then, you know, Monday as well,

and then, you know, of course, the Penguins are back in action on Tuesday against the Bruins. So that just goes in, I just wanted to go into the all-star format, you know, let,

if people that are new to this podcast are new to hockey, somehow just how it works and all that. You know, I honestly am a decent fan of it. I never used to watch the All-Star game because it wasn't fun. I mean, you had five on five for a little bit, four on four, but like they just, they didn't make it like skillful, I think is the one thing I'm trying to say. When they changed it to three on three, six years ago, it became more skillful, it became more fun.

Now I actually set time out of my day to watch it because, you know, it's decently fun. and, you know, it hooks more casual fans into it. I'm glad that the NHL decided to make that change for the All-Star game. You know, I think that all-star festivities are fine. I think it's still annoying, of course, that they had to have it this weekend when, you know, players should have been, you're not basing for the Olympics, but, you know, that's the discussion from their day. You know, speaking of the Olympics, though, players are still expected to go in 2026, and it sounds like, according to Pierre LeBron, that there is going to be a World Cup of hockey

potentially in 2024, so we could see our first real real. international competition since 2016 with NHL players. That's just and that's and that's it's crazy to think about too because remember they didn't go in 2018 and there wasn't even a pandemic there was just because the NHL was just being stupid this year they were supposed to go of course COVID-19 got in the way but you know I'm not usually that high on a World Cup of hockey but you know I remember the last one team North America was so much fun but you know it just it actually showed shielded me from hating the U.S. team because they were so bad at building that team. They had frickin Jack Johnson and Brandon Dubinsky on it, for God's sake,

when there was so much elite talent in the league or in this country at the time. So if that happens in a couple years, definitely excited for that, just because that's probably going to be one of the best international competitions on the NHL I've seen in some time. And as well, you know, it's going to grow the game as well. There are some other notes from Gary Bettman today during the state of the league address. So Carolina, the hurricanes are going to get a. stadium series game next year down at NC State's football stadium.

Apparently, Don Waddle of the Hurricane said he's going to find out his opponent in the next 60 days. If I recall correctly, I believe the penguins were supposed to have an outdoor game against the penguins. But I think it got postponed or canceled. I'm pretty positive at least. So I would be curious to see if Pittsburgh plays them in this one. Though they did say, Carolina, that is, they said it was probably going to be against a rival.

If I had to guess, it's probably going to be Washington just because those two teams have not liked each other since they played in the playoffs a few years ago. Though I would like to see a Penguins for a game's outdoor game. It's been a little bit since the Penguins played an outdoor game. I mean, I guess 40 years. though I also kind of think I would never really go to an outdoor game even though the penguins have played in so many of them it just it looks like a miserable time

at least in my opinion because A you're so far away from the actual rank and B it's just so freaking cold outside during that time of year in Pittsburgh why would you want to freeze your tail off watching a game from so far away when I can watch it from the comfort of my house drinking a nice beer having some nice snacks

I mean, that's just me speaking. I understand why people want to go as an experience of a lifetime. But, I mean, I just don't think what you're paying for is worth it just because you really can't see anything. You probably have to wait like five or ten seconds before you actually see the puck go into the net. So definitely, I guess, a little bit interesting. There, the Boston Ruins will be hosting the Winter Classic next year. I don't really know who that's going to be against. If I had to make a guess, though, it's probably the Rangers.

And then, you know, Gary Batman just has. had to be a complete moron when it comes to the Chicago Blackhawk situation. He said he's not going to punish Rocky Wirts or saying the other night that they're not going to talk about 2010 in the most disdained way possible. I think Taylor Haas of B.K. Pittsburgh's boards had an even more jarring plea from Batman during his Brett's comments. And if I can find this here real quick. I had this pulled up.

I can just get this here. real quickly. Yeah, so all right. This is, I'm going to thought, yeah, here it is.

So Batman characterized it as an outburst due to the frustration that the organization has after what happened to that franchise because of Kyle Beach and with Kyle Beach.

That is how he worded it. He said, he said it was an outburst due to what has happened to that franchise because of Kyle Beach and with Kyle Beach. And it just goes to

show, he doesn't give a flying crap about any of this. He's a mouthpiece to the owners. And, you know, if he wanted to instill change in the NHL, he would. But you know what? He doesn't care. He never has cared. It's an embarrassment to the league. I will always say this about the Antichel.

It is the best sport in the worst league. And the fact that, you know, even the commissioner in the Anshel is not saying the right thing, you know, when it comes to just sexual assault and all this stuff, it's just, it's disheartening if you're a hockey fan. You know, I just, I don't really know why the NHL just has to be so toned up about this, you know, time and time again. And, you know, hockey is never going to change as long as someone like this is in position of power. And, you know, Kyle Beach did nothing wrong. And, you know, I just, I don't understand why Batman and the Rocky work just has to be an idiot you know he had he had made that little apology the other night and it was just like okay man

yeah you obviously wrote that up in about three minutes and didn't really give a flying crap about it so um i'm just i'm just kind of numb to it at this point um you know it's just it makes me sick um i i think to say it at least um but still a little more to get to for this episode of the locked on penguin's going to go into a look ahead for pittsburg coming up as the all-star break You know, it'll be up after tomorrow. You know, just going to maybe do some second half full predictions as well. But before you get to that, Beneline has you covered this season with more props, odds, and lines than ever before,

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I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. We're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow those shows, Twitter at L.O. Ernst for Penguins. So time for bold predictions, part two. A couple of mine have not been good this year, especially with Jason Zalker, my Crystal Tang one, though. Matt's been hitting.

But I do have a couple in mind. I'm going to share with you all. I think by the end of this, by the trade deadline, Kispharek happening, we're going to go bold. He will not be a penguin after the deadline. You know, I just think, you know, as each passing day goes, and I could easily be wrong on this,

and, you know, if I am, I'll eat crow, and I'll probably get old takes exposed by some of you all. But I think as each passing day goes, I think Mike Sullivan just gets more tired with him because I don't think he knows what to do with this player. You know, I talked about with Jesse on Thursday's episode, he plays eight minutes on the fourth line, gets elevated to the Malkin line the next game, still doesn't do anything.

And, you know, it stinks that Teddy Bluger and Jason Zoker hurt right now because, excuse me, if both of them were healthy, is Kappenden even in the lineup? I mean, you could easily put, you know, Brian Boyle, you know, I wouldn't say in his spot on the second line, but you can play him in the lineup over Kapanen. I just, I think he needs a fresh start somewhere. And it pains me to say that just because of how much I like the player and I know how much he loves Pittsburgh and everything.

But for whatever reason, it is not working out right now with the Penguins. I mean, that's just the reality of it. And, you know, he costs him the game against Washington. And, you know, I just, I'm afraid of what's going to happen, you know, later on in the season if he continues to cost his team another game or two. So if he doesn't figure it out, I think he's gone by the deadline. That's my first full prediction. Excuse me for you all.

My other one, I think Jake Gensel scores 45 plus. I think he gets close to 50. That is my second bowl prediction for the second half. He's already close to 30 at this point. I mean, I know he has, you know, right, right, well, a little less than 40 games, but, you know, he's been one of the best goals scores in the NHL this season. He was lighting up the league before he got a little banged up. But before, you know, he also had, you know, a little bit of a regression.

But, you know, that's expected for any pure goal score in the league. But I think he's going to go 45 plus. for the end of the season. I just had one, but now it, I had totally lost it for whatever reason. Oh, I think by the end of the season, you're going to see Mike Matheson get top four minutes, and you're going to see John Marino start to get bottom-bearing minutes. I don't know if that's necessarily a bull prediction. Maybe it's on the lesser side of bold, but with how Matheson is playing this year,

this is the best season he's had. Underline numbers-wise, he's top three among all Penguins, defensemen, an expected goals for, shot of temis for, scoring chances for, high danger chances for, any metric you look at. He is right up there at the top, if not, you know, really close to the top. I've really enjoyed his game this year. And as for Marino, I think he is going to figure it out in some spots, but with how Matheson is playing, I think he deserves to get more ice time than John at this point,

at least in my opinion. I think for Evan Rodriguez, he is going to rediscover his scoring touch. I think he's going to get close to 25. He's going to end around 23 to 24 goals this season. He's just been too cold for too long. He's getting the chances. The fact of the matter is the puck is not getting in the back of the net for him. And we saw back to a very high degree early on in the season where everything he touched was turning to gold.

Now, you know, this is the highs and lows or the ebbs and flows, excuse me, of a regular season. There was always going to be a little bit of regression from him. He's already set his clear height in both points. and goals this season. So it was just a matter of, you know, how long is that going to continue? Obviously, you know, it's gone down a little bit, but I still think he's going to end with over 20 goals this season. I'm going to go 23 to 24.

As for where the Penguins will finish in the division, I think personally they'll get second. I think they will leapfrog the Rangers at the end. I'm not a too big believer in them. I think Carolina is going to finish first. Pittsburgh second, Rangers third, capitals fourth, and we'll get, I think we'll get probably an all-metro. first round and then an all Atlantic first round.

So that is my bold prediction for the team finishes. And then for how far the team goes, full prediction time, I think they win two rounds. They lose in the conference final. That's where I'm at today. I think they can beat any team in this division in a 70 game series. You know, if they're playing, you know, the style of hockey that we've seen them play for a large chunk of this season.

I am still really high on them. I know the team was on a four-game losing streak, but you know what? That's found to end here sooner rather than later. I thought they rediscovered their game on Tuesday against Washington. It was just unfortunate that they lost that game. But that would do it for this episode, the Lockdown Penguins podcast.

I appreciate all of you listening to this one. Penguins again are back in action next week, Tuesday against Boston, then they go to Ottawa and then they come home. For Monday's episode, I have a full game preview for that matchup against Boston, and then Tuesday have a full game recap for you all for that one. So hope you all enjoy the weekend.

Enjoy the All-Star game on Saturday. And I will talk to you all on. Monday.