Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Jesse Marshall joins the show to help fix this putrid power play & much more!

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's a mini dying alive reunion here on the Locked On Penguins podcast as the athletics Jesse Marshall joins us. We're going to talk about the power play, the future, and more right after this. You're locked on penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. Welcome back, Penguins fans, to the Thursday edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp.

Starting point is 00:00:40 You can follow me on Twitter at Synonym 4 Wet. Join as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can follow the show's account at L0 underscore Penguins. And today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. Make every moment more. Right now, new customers get $200 in bonus bets if your best bet of $5 or more wins. Visit fandle.com slash locked on to get started.

Starting point is 00:01:03 And as I said in the intro, it's going to be a fun one today because my old pal, my old co-host, from the Dying Alive podcast is joining us from the athletic Jesse Marshall. Jesse, buddy, it is so fun to get to do this again. How are you doing? Doing well. It's a shame we couldn't peel Mike Darnay's corpse off of a luxury, exotic golf course for 20 minutes to get a full trio here. Love you, Mike.

Starting point is 00:01:27 But no, it's going to be back. Yeah. It's like riding a bike, right? Yeah, it's just like we were doing way back in the before times when we had our little podcast dying alive. So no use in delaying it or doing any niceties here. We all know what everybody wants to talk about with this Penguins team. And that is the power play,

Starting point is 00:01:46 which at last check is 31st in the National Hockey League by percentage. So, Jesse, you have always been one of my go-to X's and O's guys, even when we were doing shows together. So what in the hell is wrong with this power play? I think they need to junk the system, man. I think the mainframe's got to go. Yeah, I think, As time has gone on and like from the time, we'll think about it from the time Mike Sullivan's taking his job, right?

Starting point is 00:02:13 So December 2015 to present day, almost over that entire decade, the penalty kills in the NHL have only gotten significantly more aggressive. Not only in how they forecheck at your breakout, but how less time they afford you to sort of establish yourself once you've crossed the blue line with possession. And Pat, you know, like there's generally a timer. right, from a coaching perspective where you'll say to the guys like, hey, you have X number of seconds after the puck's in to stay aggressive and then you're going to peel back and go box, right, or whatever the case may be, a number of passes. I mean, there can be any number, any, any, the marker that you want to give it. I just, I just think noting how aggressive these penalty kills play and how they fan out and they get on the puck, running this style of

Starting point is 00:02:58 umbrella with no middle threat, like no threat, like I'm going to use the James Neal example, no James Neal threat in the center of that umbrella. It makes the system kind of stinky, right? I mean, that's just at the end of the day. If you're an aggressive penalty kill and you've got a two, three man pressure, you can bump all the penguins exterior four of their umbrella up above the circles. And you can keep them there for like 10, 20, 30 seconds and allow them to just sort of like patty cake amongst themselves.

Starting point is 00:03:29 There's just no, you know, you have to create below the circles, odd man situation. on the puck. You have a numbers advantage. So in every situation, if you're in the corner half wall, you should have at least a three on two against a penalty kill in a numbers battle, right? They just, there's no connection between the top and the bottom on this power play, right? There's no working it in the middle. Like I said, that middle threat is non-existent. Nobody has to babysit there from the penalty killer's perspective. So like they don't even waste time with that space. They just fan out. And that pressure just pushes and pushes and pushes. and then you've got four players at or above the top of the circle with no threat.

Starting point is 00:04:11 There's no cross-size threat in that situation, right? You know, no lane. So, you know, when they get their best chances on the power play this season have come off shots that have created rebounds or off of like three on two zone entries because they gave up a shorthanded chance and came back the other way and got like a really good luck. Like really, that amalgamates where they're at. And they're sixth in shot rate. They're sixth in expected goal rate with the main.

Starting point is 00:04:36 advantage, but they're shooting at 8%. And I just think it's because, and you could go on Micah's website and look this up, right? HockeyViz has a shot map. Look at the glut of shots that are coming from the right hand side of the ice above the circle. It's arguably darker and larger than the one that's coming from the front of the net. And that's, I mean, that just says it to me. So I've said this all year. I've seen a lot of people on Twitter waste, in my opinion, waste their time arguing about personnel. I don't care about personnel. You know, you could put Pat's sister on power play and it wouldn't make a difference in the structure because I think at the end of the day, they don't, that's, that's what's preventing the scoring chances from, I don't want to say

Starting point is 00:05:14 scoring, from the puck's from going in the net and from the quality being there to drive that shooting percentage up. This isn't bad luck, right? You watch this power play, you know it's not bad luck, right? There's like a, there's a failure happening here. And it's not even that they can't gain the zone. They do that fine for the most part, right? Like that's, some days are better than others, But you don't point at that and say, like, well, they're not getting zone time. They're getting zone time. There's not fruitful with it. So that's my thing.

Starting point is 00:05:41 I think you've got to scrap it. I've said this a thousand times. I love a two one-two, right? Because if you can get two forwards at the net posts, divide the offensive zone and the half, let each one take a half, right? Then you got your, and in my opinion, this is very clearly Jake Gensel. You put Jake Gensel right smack to the middle. Now you, is there a more elusive forward right now? now, like in the national, like he is doing it as better or maybe as good as anyone else is,

Starting point is 00:06:08 plop him right down and there. And then I don't care who you put at the point. I literally, it doesn't even matter at that point. I don't care. Malkin, Lattang Carlson, pick one. Doesn't make a difference. That you've already changed the focal point from being up to low. That is that is the goal of this is to shift everything down and to get more around that net front area.

Starting point is 00:06:26 And I'm sorry, but Sidney Crosby on the corner is a threat that I want every single time we have a man advantage. If I was a coach, I would want that every single time we have a management. I want 87 walking it out. Let him make the decision. I mean, is there a better passer in the league right now? Probably not. So anyway, that's my diatribe on the power play. Thanks for subscribing.

Starting point is 00:06:45 Don't forget to tip your waitress, all that. It just feels like they don't ever want to change systems, no matter just how bad this unit has been this year. And I feel like that's only going to happen unless they fire Todd Reardon. And I don't think they have any. inkling of doing that, which, you know, Pat and I've discussed that on the show a lot this year. We think he should be fired. We think he should have been fired quite a long time ago earlier this season. But I feel like as long as he continues to have this gig of running the power play, and especially

Starting point is 00:07:16 being an assistant coach on Mike Sullivan's staff, I just don't think you're going to see some of these systematic changes. So, I mean, if you don't, for example, throw this in the trash, is there another potential solution to getting this unit back to even being just average this season? you could load them up with shooters you know put a young guy like a Pustin and out there and a couple other guys that just I was working a little bit let them rip yeah I mean

Starting point is 00:07:40 and I've said this another thing I've said a thousand times when you shoot and this I'm not suggesting that the penguin's problem comes from a lack of shots because statistically that's not the issue at all right the volume and the attempted volume especially is there and I think by test even you could say it doesn't seem like they're necessarily deferring when they have shooting up but they just get trapped

Starting point is 00:08:00 up ice. So, uh, that being said, when you shoot, you force a reaction, right? People have to leave their assigned position to retrieve that puck or to at least push you to not have an easy retrieval. You're drawing the defense out of position. And the penguins aren't doing enough of that. So I don't, frankly, I don't care what means they use to do it. I mean, you want to change the system or you want to shoot more. Like, you just got to start drawing the D out of where they're supposed to be in allowing them to dictate tempo and the pace and the way that the power play is going to be executed. You have to be in control of that. And, you know, again, one way to do that is to keep them on their heels and, you know, keep whipping pucks at the net. And you and I kind of briefly discussed

Starting point is 00:08:41 this a little bit during the Florida game, Jesse, about you, you played the clip on Twitter of Malkin and Carlson at the point, just as you said, playing paddy cake. And I said, like, to me, what bothered me most about that wasn't so much them playing Patti Cake. It was that after Malkin gave the puck back to Carlson. Carlson was kind of moving to find a lane to find something. And then the other four guys on the ice were damn near standing still. And even if you're not going to completely change this system, if you're Todd Reardon and you're saying, this is the system we're playing, this is the power play we have in place, we're sticking with it. Eventually, these guys have to find a way to create something because

Starting point is 00:09:21 it feels almost like before they made their first unit changes at the end of the Florida game, that a lot of these guys are just going to the place they're supposed to be in staying there. They're not trying to force any mismatches. They're not trying to force any odd man situations. They're going to where they're supposed to go and stay there. And do you at least see that as like a possible quick fix of like, hey, little more urgency, little more movement and maybe we can turn this into something? Yeah, I'll give you like the perfect example, Pat, is Dallas.

Starting point is 00:09:54 Watch the Dallas stars one day and just watch their power. plays that's the same umbrella as the penguins but it is infinitely more successful and it's again i'm going to go back i'm beating a dead horse here but they have that presence in the middle of the ice you have jason roberts in one side you have rupe hens on the other but then there's a man in the middle that they're not it's not a dummy right they're going to look at him but they want that cross-ice play that's what they want slot to you know from from half wall to half wall going across one timer make the goalie move end to end that's what they're looking for but you got to pick and choose is the penalty kill what you're going to do in that situation because you can't cover both the

Starting point is 00:10:32 one-time options and the man in the middle really all at the same time without lanes getting created so it's like you zone up against it almost and they still pick it apart right they pick it apart and all of it is all of it is is off puck movement right rope a hints himself isn't really when he's distributing it he's not really doing a lot right like he's taking a very slow stroll you know we used to talk about this pat the kessel walk i used to call it right where you come from the high zone and you'll walk the puck in. Hints will do that, but he's either going to rifle it because no one's covering him, go slot and get a quick one-timer or go east-west and get a quick one-timer. And the reason those options work is because everyone who's not Rope Hintz is moving.

Starting point is 00:11:14 They're all moving. There's a guy driving the net to take somebody with them. The guy on the off side is coming up ice to drift away from the play. Somebody's moving around the front of the net and looping there to draw a defender with them. You look at it. It looks like a watch ticking. right all these different parts are moving and working so uh it's but structurally it's exactly the same the only difference is like we said the penguins have taken that guy out of the middle and moved them

Starting point is 00:11:37 along the wall and don't have that presence there anymore yeah and that's that's really the biggest thing to me because you know the talent is there you know these guys have the ability but they're just kind of standing still the way i put it to to go into almost boomerish language is they're playing like they're entitled to goals like they're going to come out and say we're a unit with four Hall of Famers on it. You're just going to lay down and score or let us score. And that's going to be that. And then they're surprised. But that's going to do it for the first segment. When we come back, we're going to talk to Jesse more about this team at five on five and what this team's potential is in the long run. But first, we have to tell you about our sponsor.

Starting point is 00:12:16 And that is Fandul. Happy Super Bowl to all of those who celebrate from Fandul, America's number one sports book. If you're like me, Super Bowl Sunday is all about scoring the best seat on the couch grabbing your favorite football snacks and placing some super bets. I love Super Bowl Sunday, the food, the company, the game itself, all of it. And when you have a team like the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl, you know there's going to be a ton of bets, especially when it comes to offense. Fandul has so many ways for you to end the season with a W or two or three. Not only can you bet on who will win Super Bowl 58, but Fandle also has bets for which

Starting point is 00:12:49 players will score a touchdown, how many points will be scored, and so much more. New customers, joins us. today and you'll get $200 in bonus bets if your first bet of $5 or more wins. Just visit fandul.com slash locked on to sign up. That's fandle.com slash locked on. Make every moment more with Fandle an official sportsbook partner of the National Football League. We're back here on the Thursday edition of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Patrick Damp, joined as always by the illustrious Hunter Hodes,

Starting point is 00:13:19 and we are still joined by the one and only Jesse Marshall of the athletic. So first thing I want to get into Hunter with Jesse. because I know that he has been raving about it. And so has, so have we, so is all of Pittsburgh. But at age 36, Sydney Crosby, still in the discussion for one of the best players in the world. Jesse, what have you seen from Cid this year that just has him still operating at this pace? Yeah, I have a little something, something coming out next Wednesday for the athletic. It's going to have a very video rich dive into this exact question that you've just asked.

Starting point is 00:13:53 he I think look across the entire like people be clip this to make fun of if you want I don't really care look across the entirety of the national hockey league and look at the tape from this season and find me a player better in the boards and in the battle areas of the ice than city Crosby. It's like it's like his old it's like our old buddy Colby Armstrong always says he's the most elite fourth line grinder that's ever played he's making mincemeat of people in these areas and he's coming away with almost every single puck. And I think that, like, when you look at the data and you say, oh, wow, like, here's a guy

Starting point is 00:14:28 controlling 50 plus percent of every single shot and scoring chance that comes on the ice while he's on the ice. That's insane, first of all. That's nuts. That's really crazy. And I think that's one of the reasons why he's, you know, raw scoring aside, you know, he's like, what, 23rd, I think, in raw scoring or something like that. And he won't win this.

Starting point is 00:14:47 Probably he's not going to win the scoring table, right? That's off the table. but at his age and at the rate he's controlling the game, like that deserves, I think, some recognition for me. The stats behind this run are insane. I also think that as time has gone on, and I've got some examples of this that I'm going to show in the video, but we never really talk about similarities between Mariel Lemieux and Sidney Crosby

Starting point is 00:15:12 because they're so stylistically different and have always been, right? And there's never really been a time where you could sit down and compare and contrast them, But where I think they're aging the same, and I think what they really supremely have in common as they grow older, is this ability to have this sort of, what's name of that movie, Almighty, the guy with the, you know what I'm talking about? Bruce Almighty? Bruce Almighty. Yeah. It's like it's just Bruce Almighty ability to like manipulate the tempo and the flow of the game, right?

Starting point is 00:15:43 Get lost. And you know what I was up? We burst into the zone and 100 miles an hour, put the brakes on, come back and, and, and, and, you know, and. redraw the defender to you. These slight changes he makes on zone entry to tempo, to speed, have a tendency to draw all five defensive players to him. And he can sort of magnetize people. And I have like this series of freeze frames where Crosby's in the middle of doing

Starting point is 00:16:11 something. And every single player on the other team, including the guys on the bench, are staring in him. So like you've got like Ricard Raquel or like Brian Ruster, Jake Gensel just out there having a time, you know, like operating as if somebody's pressed pause in the game and no one else is on the ice. And I just, that's such a stark memory for me to like post-Lamew come back, you know, when he was, you know, towards the end of his career, even some of that time with Crosby were the two intermeshed. That was what his entire game was about. It was almost

Starting point is 00:16:40 like hypnotizing the other team and doing things from a timing and spacing and tempo perspective that put all eyes on him and sort of commanded the game at even strength. So it's been fun to watch that, that old man transition happen again, right? And I think vision and distribution have always been two of his biggest strengths, but those senses have only gotten better, right? They have not, they've not plateaued, right? Where, like, his speed might have here, like, other elements to his game,

Starting point is 00:17:11 have leveled out. Like, his hockey sense and vision and puck distribution abilities, of, you know, they continue to grow stronger by the day. So it's, it's, it's, it's, I this, I don't care what happens with this team, like necessarily or whatever. I just think from a fun perspective, like the from perspective of me having fun, I'm having so much fun watching this. Like, I think it's been a blast. Like, you know, I think all of us told people this is probably going to happen, but I think it's happening at a level that I didn't even probably expect all that much. but like you know him crack in 90 points at 36 would be probably one of my favorite hockey memories

Starting point is 00:17:47 but when it's all said and done I mean he's making plays with the puck on his stick that he was making I mean when it was 24 25 and the fact that he's still doing it now at age 36 I mean that's been a ramma pass in the Montreal game was probably I think the best play he's made all year and he's had probably 15 insane plays all year already and even the deflection goal against Arizona about a week and a half ago that was tremendous and this all goes back to just overall heading into the trade deadline, how I think overall upset I think he would be if this team were to trade Jake Gensel because of the season that Citt is having right now. And just based on what the return we saw from Elias Linholm on Wednesday night, where, in my opinion,

Starting point is 00:18:31 I think that's just magic beans from Jack's Beanstalk beans for the most part, outside of Andre Guzmanco. That trade alone just tells me that they probably should hold off on trading Gensel. because that's probably the type of your return you're going to get from him. And while it's okay for a team like Calgary, who I do think needs to rebuild a little bit and I guess move some players out, I don't think it's necessarily okay for the penguins who are fully in it to win it, and the core is playing at a higher level than their core is.

Starting point is 00:18:59 So just based on with the level that Crosby is playing at, and where this team is in the playoff race, I just, most of me just can't really see this team moving on from Gensel at the deadline. I know a lot of fans out there are, like, oh, you don't want to lose them for nothing. Well, I understand that. This team is probably still going to be in the race at that point. And I'd rather just go for it and try to get a playoff spot and then see what you can do with a contract after the season,

Starting point is 00:19:22 rather than just punt on the season at the deadline where you're probably still in the race and just give up. So that's where I think I'm at at this point. Let me ask you to a question. Has Braden Yeager changed your perception of what life post-Crosby, Malkin, Lattang will look like? not a ton i i think i think it shows hold on hold on hold on is one more braden yeager going to do it no probably not so that's what you're going to you know you're probably getting that for the first rounder right like let's let's just be frank like you're you're probably going to be picking somewhere between 15 and 20 right in that range maybe like you know i don't know maybe 13 to 20 at the worst

Starting point is 00:20:04 and you're going to get another player just like that probably maybe you hope you hope that's the best case scenario maybe, right? Like, you get a similar player. My point being is like, I hate this phraseology soft to rebuild. Right. I cannot stand it because like, don't tell me that a first round and second round pick from this season change your fortunes in the apocalypse era of the Penguins, which is coming down the road, right? We know it's all coming home to Roost. There's no denying it. You can't get away from it. It's going to happen. No, it does not. Does keeping Jake Gensel improve your ability to double down on what you said you wanted to do when you brought out these people back. Yes. It absolutely does. Unequivocally, he's one of the

Starting point is 00:20:47 best forwards in the game. So for me, there's just like nothing I'm going to get from like a, that's going to appease me to think that the post-Crosby-Malkin and Lutthangera is going to be anything but a disaster. You need more than two picks to really, like I don't think people appreciate or unappreciate how bare the cupboard is organizationally. for this team. You guys know Owen Pickering is my boy. Not looking so hot this year. I'm going to think about that one a little bit. And like I like Braden Yeager, but you have to understand also he's not the same player.

Starting point is 00:21:23 He was like he's completely reinvented himself. And we don't even know if this is going to work. We don't even know what position he's going to play yet. Is he a senator as it wing? We don't know that. He's probably not going to be ready next year anyway. Well, no, three years, dude. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:21:34 But my point being is like there's not a whole lot going on here, right, organizationally. So you can't just say one or two pieces is going to write the ship or make the flooding stop. It's just it's it's it's it's it's. We're beyond that that point, right? Like we're not salvaging this in the middle of like, you know, just getting rid of you've made your current situation worse and you haven't changed your future situation. That's the result of that trade would be. And I know people say, well, you don't want to let them walk in the summer for nothing. Where it's not nothing?

Starting point is 00:22:03 You're getting cap space. Yep. And that's that's right. That's the most valuable. really at this point in this era of NHL hockey. But that will do it for this segment. When we come back, we're going to do a quick last segment with Jesse talking about this team's ceiling and where we think they can go the rest of this season coming out of the All-Star break.

Starting point is 00:22:23 And we will talk about that right after this. Welcome back to the Thursday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. joined as always by Hunter Hodes. And joining us today is Jesse Marshall of the athletic. So as I said right before we ended the second segment there. We all know where the penguins sit right now. They're about five points out of the playoff spot.

Starting point is 00:22:45 They're fighting to get in after missing last year. They've been consistently inconsistent is how I can put it for this season. So Jesse, what do you think this team's realistic ceiling is this year? And how far can they go post all-star break? I'm trying to like live in the fact that they are so good metrically, right? What really stinks this team up is how bad they are at finishing. And that's not a top six problem, really, right? Like second line, it is a little bit.

Starting point is 00:23:17 Yeah. Like Riley Smith's not necessarily been great on that second line role when he was there. Malkins had some cold streaks. I think overall been fine, but the scoring's come and gone. And his line mates have changed a lot. So I don't think he's, you know, that into his defense. The point that I'm trying to make is they need more scoring in the bottom six. I feel like we're beating the same drum we were beating 12 months ago, right?

Starting point is 00:23:37 It's exact same drum. But to Kyle Dubus's credit, things were so bad, right, that it would have been really hard for him to have us not beating that drum again right now, right? Like, maybe we're beating it harder than we think we should. Like, you know, I think I think that's fair. And I think like, you know, for instance, like a Noel, no char hasn't done anything, right? Like, has provided almost nothing of value at all to this team and even strength. There's a lot of characters like that, right? And I think like as the season's gone on and the Pustinans have come up and you've, you've, Drew O'Connor has sort of. of like settled in a little bit and has been more, I think, effective off puck. That's helped immensely. Lars Eller has been great, I think, for the most part, you know, especially defensively, more so than anything. But there's just not enough punch down there. And I think the Penguins finishing sucks for two reasons.

Starting point is 00:24:27 Their power play and their bottom six. So if you could just address one of those, right? And, you know, you don't need to go out and swing for the fences. Like we're beyond the days of the Marion Hosa trades, right? Like those have come and gone. You need to now tinker and try to find a way to get more effective play out of some of those guys that are playing contributing roles. And if you can get a – think about how different this team is with the, you know, the extra occasional chipping goal from the bottom six, you know, once every other game. That changes the whole fortune of this group.

Starting point is 00:24:58 And going off that, Jesse, do you think one of the answers to the bottom six would be down in Wilkes-Barre with Sam Poulan or Jesse Poo-Yarvie? or do you think they would have to go out of the deadline and get a forward? I mean, I've said on this show, someone like Anthony Duclair from San Jose makes a lot of sense. I mean, he's been a really good goal score, or at least a decent goal score throughout his career. Pat has been beating the Sean Monagandrum out of Montreal, even though he's probably going to cost quite a bit of a deadline, though I will also laugh if someone trades the first for him, actually. So do you think someone like that would have to come in and give this team more of an umph rather than a couple guys down on Wilkesbury, who I know a lot of fans have been begging to get a call up

Starting point is 00:25:36 and Pat and I have said on the show that we think they would maybe deserve it. But I think also at the same time, I'm not sure how much I would expect because we've seen players come up from Wilkesbury this year. They've looked good to start like is a horn out like Pustin, but then they've kind of fallen back off. So that's what I would be scared of if Poolean came up or Poo Yardby was signed no contract because of course he's on a PTO down there. Yeah, adrenaline generally does wonders for people on their debuts for like a couple

Starting point is 00:26:00 games. You can ride that way. Right. and then like kind of comes crashing down after a while. But I don't think so, man. I just don't. And I just don't make it sound like I'm disrespecting Sam Poland, but like I just don't know how much better he is than some of the guys that we've seen this year.

Starting point is 00:26:17 You know, Frank, I'm being honest. You know, I think credit to him, like, how do I word this? His economy of motion looks better, right? Like, I think he gets, especially laterally from point A to point B a lot better than he used to. And I don't think, like, you know, I used to, the hill I used to die on with him is I don't think he had the skating. And I think, like, the, the blooms off that take a little bit, I think he probably could hang. But I just, you know, I think that's a big bet, Hunter, right, to say, like, ah, this is the guy that'll fix it.

Starting point is 00:26:47 You know, there's no, like, standard to compare it to, right? So I, I, you know, and with the JP thing, like, I, I'm, I've been excited to see what he's been doing. You know, that injury was such. that like I felt the very way I felt about Mark Pissick when he signed it like there's this is a really tough thing to come back like Achilles hip surgeries like these are really like brutal injuries but he's look I think he's like got a little bit of burst down there like you look at some of the goals he scored last weekend um he was moving so again big bet you know like how much better is he going to be than some of the guys you've seen um I'm not you know I think functionally um

Starting point is 00:27:31 you know, they both fit, I think, the system to some extent. I, you know, I question, you know, on the forechecking side, like, whether they'd be getting caught up ice a little bit or not, but I think, I think they've got to go make a, they've got to go make a hockey trade, right, where they can take some of the bad that they've, that hasn't, not bad, but the stuff that hasn't worked out for them and parlay it into something else and give it another go, right? Like, keep the door, like keep the revolving door spinning until you, until you can anymore, right? So I I think there's usable and getable parts out of their guys that you can get from somebody you already have on the roster. And do you think this team will run the table or run the gauntlet especially in March?

Starting point is 00:28:14 Do you have them making the playoffs at this point out for the All-Star break? I do. And let me tell you why. I think, well, number one, the top line's been so good. Like, let's start there. We've literally seen them drag this team across the finish line to at least a point or two. more times than we have fingers on one hand so far in the last like two months, right? So like I'm not discount.

Starting point is 00:28:39 I'm not ever discounting a team that's got Crosby operating at 60% possession and scoring chances. That's nuts. I do think they're going to make some kind of change. I don't think they're going to sell Jake Gensel. I think they're going to make some kind of functional change to the way that this team works, either on the defensive side or in the bottom six, that's going to give them a little bit of a bump.

Starting point is 00:29:00 the bump hopefully they need to cover up some of these holes and these warts that they've had. Their goal tending, albeit a bit inconsistent as of late, has by and large been good. And if that should continue, I don't even want to say it, if that should continue, that has been a big driver for a lot of the points that they have this year. And we've always said if they could just get average goaltending, right? they can make the most out of the rest and they've gotten it so for the most part so um i think they'll get in i don't know that's just my idea uh i feel like uh they've got the parts to do it i would be i would be literally beside myself if they if the power play didn't experience

Starting point is 00:29:48 a moderate improvement to some level just by happenstance just by like the butterfly fly effect, right? Like, I feel like they have not even had an ounce of PTO go their way on the manned advantage so far this year. And I just don't think that's an 82 game disease. You know, like, it's almost, again, I'd be flummoxed. I'd lay on the floor prostrate if it, if it went on all year. And there's, that's where, to me, guys, that's where the missing points are. Right. Like, it's, they're right there. Right. The old, uh, math. used to be, I don't know how this is updated much from a couple years ago, but one, three goals is good for a point in the NHL, statistically speaking, right?

Starting point is 00:30:35 How many power plays they go? At 12? Yeah. Really? You think 12 is, I think that's a good number to start at, four points? Where does it, we're now look at the standings with the games in hand they have and add four points to where they are right now. How different is that look, right? It'd be one point out and threatening to take, take over Philly at three. Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:30:56 Yeah, one point out with four games in hand. Yeah, that's a much different scenario. So it's a tall task where I think, though, I think ultimately they will. I just can't see us not enjoying like some, at least a slight taste of Sidney Crosby playoff hockey this year, right? Like, that is what I would really like to see is him at this level in the postseason. And what does that level look like? God, I tremble to think, like what other switch he's got lingering around that he could, he could flip

Starting point is 00:31:26 for that time. And so should the rest of the NHL should it happen. But Jesse, man, appreciate you taking the time out of your day to join us. And floor is yours here for a couple seconds. If you want to let people know where they can find you in your work and just let everybody know. Yeah. So general NHL commentary takes place at McKeene'shockey.com and Penguin's specific commentary taking place at The Athletic. And then occasionally you can catch me with my pal Demetri Filipovich over on the PDO cast doing some manner of video analysis there. And in between that, we'll watch a lot of Peppa Pig. Well, we appreciate it, man.

Starting point is 00:32:07 It's always fun to get a nice little dying and live reunion here on the show. But that is going to do it for this episode. Hunter and I will be back tomorrow. We're going to do a little All-Star preview to finish up the week. We thank you so much for listening for Hunter Hodes. I'm Patrick Damp. This has been the Locked on Penguins podcast. Thank you.

Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Jesse Marshall joins the show to help fix this putrid power play & much more!

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.