Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Jordan Binnington's antics were the cherry on top for another amazing performance by the Pittsburgh Penguins...

Episode Date: December 6, 2022

Well, Saturday night was fun, right? Hunter starts out Monday's episode by going over the biggest storyline of the Penguins' 6-2 win over the St. Louis Blues and of course, it was Jordan Binnington making an idiot out of himself. He goes into why this isn't close to the first time that this has happened and why this could lead to a lot of players losing respect for him. He looks at how even Craig Berube told him to stop doing this garbage following the game and how the Penguins' strategy of getting into his kitchen worked to perfection. He then discusses how the Penguins again looked like the much faster team against a heavier team in the Blues and how that favors them with some of the other opponents they have yet to play against this season. After that, Hunter dives into what's driving Kasperi Kapanen's hot streak and how this one could be different if he keeps these habits up. He then continues his strong praise for PO Joseph and how he continues to impress in all three zones before previewing Tuesday night's matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets. All that, plus much more on this Monday edition of the Locked On Penguins podcast.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 “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!SimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnNHL to learn more.Athletic GreensTo make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORK 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.

What's up, Penguins fans? Happy Monday, December 5th. Another big week for this hockey team coming up. Three games this week, where your Pittsburgh Penguins starts on Tuesday against the Columbus Woo Jackets, and then they go to Buffalo on Friday, and then they will come home and to play the Sabres for the final time this season on Saturday. So a lot to get into for this week's episode, starting for today. Of course, we're going to recap the game against St. Louis-Lewis' Touch on the biggest things that happened. Obviously, the first segment will be about the Jordan Bennington thing

with Jason Zucker and just with overall thoughts about the game. And then later on in the show, we will be previewing the game against the Columbus Blue Jackets as the Penguins look to continue to tear up the jackets as they just beat them almost every time they play each other at this point. So that will take up the meat of today's episode. And it's all coming up right after this drop. You're locked on penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honorhodes, want to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the shows, Twitter at L.O.S.

Penguins, and of course, thank you so much for making this your first listen of the day. I apologize if I'm sounding a little under the weather. On Sunday of all days, I'm feeling great over the weekend, just moved to Pittsburgh. And of course, on Sunday I start feeling like a little, like an itch in my throat. It's kind of continued into today. So I think I'm battling a small cold right now. I don't think I have COVID again for the second time in three months. I think that's just a little, just a little too soon to get it,

especially after I managed to not get it for about two and a half years. That time of year. So, you know, it's a nice little welcome to the Steel City here. But, you know, I'm hoping to feel a bit better by tomorrow. So I'm kind of at, I don't know, 75, 80% right now. but, you know, of course, I have to get episodes in for you all. I'm not, like, having a fever or anything. It's just a tickle in my throat.

But let's get into the meat for today's episode. And the biggest talking point from that game against St. Louis, remember a 62 Penguins win. They have now won nine of their last 13 games, seven out of nine overall. They are now also in the first wild card spot, just a couple points by the islanders, three points by an arcane for second.

And that was the whole Jordan Bennington situation with Jason Zucker. So for those that missed it, I think, you know, it's been over 48 hours at this point. I don't know how you would have missed it. Jason Zucker skating around the net. Bennington comes out to play the puck and just gives him a nice big face wash. He puts his hand to his head, his face, excuse me. Zulker goes down in a heartbeat. Maybe he sold it just a little bit.

Bennington gets a four-minute double minor eventually gets reduced. And then, you know, just a few months. minutes later, Penguins make it 3-1, and then Zulker makes it 4-1, and Bennington gets pulled. He comes out of the net, basically just talks a bunch of crap to the Penguins Bench. Jason Zucker had his famous, like, what do you want me to do, man? And Penguins Bench just barking at him, telling him to go off the ice. He gets a 10-minute game as kind of he's kicked out of the game. You know, I understand that's a frustrated blues team, but that just goes to show how Jordan

Bennington is probably the biggest crybaby in hockey. I mean, and this is this is who he is. I tweeted this out and I had some weird blues fans coming my mentions to defend him. I don't know why. You know, he, Jordan Bington is who Flyers fans, Capitals fans, Rangers fans, every fan base that hates the Penguins, he is who those people think Sidney Crosby is at this point. Literally. Literally. And Sidney Crosby hasn't done anything close to that throughout his career. So I don't even know why people think that he's still a crime. Maybe I think that joke died in 2012, to be honest with you.

But, you know, I mean, I just have no respect for him just in this game. I think a lot of players are also losing respect for him as well. I mean, heck, even Craig Barube, after the game, and I don't know who the reporter was that was asking Baroube about the situation with Bennington. He had some really nice questions. And, you know, he was growing Barouba, Ben, and he even said, he's like, yeah, well, he has to be better, too. and the reporter asked, do you think that's just him losing his cool?

And Barube said, yeah, you know, it is. He goes, you know, we don't, he basically said that we don't have time for this. He needs to focus on stopping the puck, and it's gotten old. And when your head coach is saying something like that and someone who played a bit rough back in his day, you know, he was a pretty physical player, you know, lived on the edge. You know, he's no stranger this sort of things. Even when he is saying stuff like that, you know, you know you've screwed up. But, you know, Bennington, it's just, there's just no use for, there's just no need for something like that.

And especially after just two nights prior, he tries to go out there and check Jordan Stahl to the boards. And you all know this. Stall's a big dude. Like, he towers over most players in this league. And Saul, you know, he actually checked him back and Bennington got the worst of it. It's just, he's a man child. He doesn't know, no, to not lose his cool.

That's who he's been throughout his career. And honestly, I don't know if it's going to change at this point. The penguins, they blitzed him in that game. They blitzed him in basically every start that he's made against them throughout his career. And I touched on this on my Friday episode. I said this to you guys. I said, you know, get under his skin, get in his crease, make him mad. Sure enough, the penguins did all that.

And what do you know? He gets kicked out of the game. Thomas Greggs goes in, follows right. He's when he's getting his water bottle. Things did not get that much better for the blues after Bennington got pulled. So that was the biggest storyline I think of the game. And I think it also overshadowed a really impressive performance for the Penguins. Again, this is another big team, a heavier team.

It's not like a Carolina team. It's not like, I don't know, maybe Tampa Bay, something like that. Toronto, if I had to make another, you know, contrast for another team. The Penguins, they do well against these kind of teams, a team like St. Louis, team like Vegas, you know, those heavier teams. that can't skate as well as the penguins do. The penguins, they struggle a bit more when they do have to go up and face a team like Carolina who can only skate with the penguins.

They can probably skate faster than the penguins. So this will be the type of team that I would like to see the penguins draw in the playoffs if they do make it just because they know how to play against those teams. And, you know, at 5B5, this game was not close to Penguins. Well, just drop my phone. Excuse me. 57.7% of the shot attempts for per 60 at 55. Scoring chance-wise, the Penguins said 63% of those.

high danger, 68% of those, and then 63% of the expected goals. So a very strong performance at even strength. If you go to special teams, it gets even better. Penguins have 58% of the attempts. Actually, excuse me, at all situations. 58% of the shot attempts there,

60% of the scoring chances, 60% of the high danger chances, and 57% of the expected goals. So a very ho-hum performance like there from the Penguins. But, you know, this was a game, you know, right off writ, where you knew the penguins were going to get the result. The vibe check was there.

They were skating the blues into oblivion. Bennington was not looking sharp. Tristan was making some strong save as well. And when you get the top six rolling in Casbury, Kampman, gets this hatcherick, and I'm going to lead off the second segment talking about that. And you continue to defend well, and Tristan Jari makes the saves.

That leads to a win 99.999% of the time. So overall, I thought team-wise a very good performance. from this team and you know it's always always something funny happens it feels like when the penguins play the blues this is i believe the second time in row now where bennington has started in pitts and he's had a his e-fit not as bad um as this latest one the one last year but it was still one that was definitely up there to say the least you know people and i'm sure there are people that maybe listen to the show that were there when hendropunk was flipped the net over its mornings when you know when everyone was calling him a piss baby and all that stuff

This is that times 1,000. Bennington just lost his cool and, you know, just turn. I always love seeing that guy get punked. You know, he's, honestly, I feel like he's going to get what's coming to him one day. I think there's going to be a player that just comes after him and just punches him with his helmet off. Obviously, I don't think you want to punch someone with their helmet on, because you're just going to break your finger or something like that. But I think if he comes out to play the puck one time and a player,

players coming in and they see what he did to jordan sol and what happened jason zucker would not surprise me if a player just takes a run at him and just tries to deck him i i just i think that's going to be coming sooner rather than later but you know it stinks that that overshadowed a really good performance but we have to talk about it and just how bennington continues to school the blues and well that's a team that really needs to get a lot right right now to say to least but that wraps up this first segment for today's episode coming up in the next segment we're going to get into his very captain and what the heck has gotten into him. What has really been just driving this hot streak from him and just overall other player

performances that I really enjoyed in that game against St. Louis. But before we get to that, our next partner has a product I use literally every day. I start taking athletic means because sometimes I didn't have time in the morning to really fully work out. I wanted more energy when I would wake up, hate taking pills and vitamins. Those are the main three reasons, I think. So you all are wondering, what is this stuff? Well, with one delicious scoop of FFLAIC creams, you're absorbing 75 high-quality vitamins, minerals,

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And of course, thank you so much for making this your first listen of the day. So obviously the big storyline from this game, I guess another big storyline from this game for the Penguins, Kispera Kappan, four goals in his last two games, gets a hat trick against the blues, you're probably wondering, what's going on? Why is he all of sudden starting to turn this around? And, you know, right now I kind of see this as a mirage. I don't think this is going to last. Would love for him to prove me wrong. But, you know, I feel like I've seen this story before where he's just going to go into another big rut, and then he'll have another

couple of good games and we'll all be praising about it. And then the same thing will happen. So right now, I'm just going to keep my expectations low. But, you know, That said, I think one of the main reasons why he's playing well right now, he's going to the net a lot more. And I think that's probably what he's just been being told to do in practice just because, you know, when you've seen him struggle a lot this season, where is he at? Point towards the boards, not near the circles, not near the slot,

not near the net front area. He's not getting to the dangerous areas of the ice. And now that he is, he's starting to get rewarded. Has he had a couple of good luck. goals, sure, that also plays a role, but, you know, he's parking himself right in the blue paint and he's cleaning up garbage and, you know, that's sometimes what you need to do to get yourself back going. You know, the game against Vegas, for example, that goal, where is he at? Directly to the side of the net 10 feet out. The goals he scored against St. Louis. Where was he

right in front of the net? Right near the net, right near the net. He's not even 15 to 20 feet out using his release or anything like that. No, he is right in that Patra Fornquist type area where he is cleaning up garbage. And that's why you're seeing him have a lot of success right now is because he's getting to those good areas where you can score goals in the NHL. And I hope that he does keep this up. I want him to prove me wrong. It's just we've seen this story before where he doesn't, you know, follow up these performances with more consistent games. And you just see him go out to being inconsistent. And then that leads to healthy scratch and all that. But, you know, I am. I'm glad that he is more confident right now.

The Penguins have badly needed some other depth scoring this season just because Jeff Carter is not playing well. Denton Hinen is a healthy scourge. Brock McGinn has been playing of a decent. Josh Archibald's been fine. Ryan Palings, okay, you know, Teddy Bluger, he's been all right. But, you know, they haven't had that player yet. Outside, I guess, of McGain and maybe Archibald to a smaller degree where, you know,

you're really feeling that oomph from the bottom six where you feel like you can definitely count on this player to score for you on. nightly basis. And I mean, no disrespect to Archibald or Palin or Bluger and all those guys. They can score for this team. But, you know, could you really count on them to score, you know, like once a week or something in that bottom six? No, I feel like, you know, for a team that wants to be deep and wants to run four lines, you need to rely on someone, at least one player just from that bottom six to score, you know, once a week when you have three to four games, and doing that. And, you know, maybe that's going to be happening. Who knows? I'm not going to

get my hopes up for it. But, you know, I think that's what they want him to be. right now. And I think that's the main reason, again, why he is scoring. He's going to those dirty areas. And, you know, I think it's all-around game right now is really good. His underlines are awesome. He's a really good fit on that third line down there with Carter. Funny enough, you know, Carter's not really dragging him down. You know, McGinn, I think, is playing really well with him. And, you know, he's being rewarded. And I'm glad, you know, four goals in two games. He gets off the snod a little bit. And, you know, I think he was one of the big reasons why this team won on Saturday.

Brian Russ gets his first goal in what feels like a month or two. This point had a four point night as well. He had been trending in that direction, probably the past week or two, was getting some quality looks, just wasn't putting the puck in the back in the net. You saw that happen this time on Saturday. Really nice release from him.

Hopefully that gets him going because, you know, we've seen this from Russ before. I believe was about three, four years ago. He had a really poor start to the season. few goals in like 20-something games comes out out of that, scores eight goals in his next six games, and then he's consistent in the rest of the way. Could we see that here?

Maybe, but it would not surprise me to say, to say the least, just because he's been on those kind of heaters before. He's always been kind of a streaky player, but when he's on, there are not many players on this team who, you know, can get as hot. As him said, doing said things, you know, gets one of the, gets another one of those goals. And then Jason Zucker, of course, you know, he gets the goal that really pissed off Bennington to be. Going back to said that a little bit, he continues to, you know, it's ho-hum for him as well.

Top five and five on five points this season. Definitely making his case to win the Hart Trophy so far. I think he's been one of the five best players in hockey so far. So, you know, all the forwards I thought mostly played. I think, yeah, I don't think any forward played bad defensively. I continue to be wowed by P.O. Joseph, his decision making is spectacular. I mean, he continues to join the rush a lot more, continuing to get quality, looks in the offensive zone, breaking up plays.

This was a 5-2, 6-2 game late in the third period. And he's putting his body on the line to break up two-on-ones, just playing great, also one-on-one defending in his own zone. He is feeling it right now. This is the ployer that I think a lot of people envision him to be myself included. I didn't think he was going to reach it this season just because I didn't know if he was going to play a lot of minutes. But I'm glad that he has so far because he has been awesome. Again, I'm almost just running out of things to say about him at this point.

Jeff Petrie, I think he's been playing a lot better as of late. Hasn't had the goal scoring yet, but, you know, he's still playing reliable, top pairing minutes for this team alongside Marcus Petters. I'm glad that Mike Selvin went back to that pairing because I really do enjoy that one. Dumlin, he continues to be sheltered a little bit, had a better balance. that game against the blues. And then Chad Rweedle, best number seven defensemen in the league. Tristan Jari, you know, I think that he wanted the... Which one was it?

Yeah, I believe it was the first goal. I think he probably wanted that one back. It wasn't the Teresenko goal. I was a really nice shot. I think the one by Buccnevich that made it two to one. I just, you know, I thought that was a little weak. But for his standards, it comes from the far right circle, far right circle, kind of close to, like, the red line towards the back,

on behind the net and just was a weird angle when he got a piece of it, not enough, but still no screen in front of them. I feel like he has to have that one, and I think he'll clean that up. But still, I'm outside that really strong performance and just a good, you know, game for the Penguins overall. So that's really all I have to say about the Blues game at this point. You know, we're going to move on to Columbus now. And we're going to be previewing that game here coming up in this final segment.

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I'm back on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host. Hunter Hoddes, you're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the shows, Twitter, Eleanorst for Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. So game two out of four against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Penguins won the first one, six to three in Columbus.

Remember, that was when they were down two nothing and three one. And the Penguins scored five on the end circles to beat the jackets. That was in late October, one of their first games of the season. That was when they were really hot. coming at that point. And the Penguins, you know, they play this Columbus team so well. It is crazy. In their last 20 games against the jacket, sitting back to February of 2017,

they are 16 and 3 and 1 against the jackets all time against them. They've won 33 of 47 meetings, 33 and 10 and 4. And all time at home against the jackets, the Penguins are 19 and 4 and 0. Those stats come courtesy of the Penguins' PR team. I love getting their emails and being on the media list for that. This game will also wrap up the five-game homestown where the Penguins have gone two and one-in-one. The Penguins are home this season. They are six in three and two.

So this is a big one. They have another home game coming up on the Saturday, but they still have to go on the road after that. Then they'll also play Dallas on that Monday. So they still have a ton of home games coming up. But this will wrap up their five-game homestand. The jackets this season, just not good enough. And I thought I may be, I mean, I don't want to say this.

I thought they could be maybe a small sleeper team, but I just didn't really see it out there as well. I just thought there were, I think if everything broke right, they could have been a team that could make a little bit of noise and push for a spot. But so far, their goaltending has stunk. They have no depth. Defensively, they've been hurt all year.

They battled injuries up front as well. And, you know, Johnny Goodrow can't. it by himself and that's why you see them towards the bottom of the eastern conference right now right you look at their lines uh johnny gudrow boon-genre patrick line a on the top line i'm sorry you're not a serious amygote a contender with boom jenner as your top line center i mean that's just not you know he's maybe a good second third line center he's not our first line center i don't care if you have johnny goodro on your left wing uh second line gustav nicholas jack rossilitch and kenton Chikanov, Cole Sillinger, and then Kareil Marchenko on the third line.

Sillinger, he was one of their top young players who was expected to make a big jump this season. So far, that has not happened. He's just, you know, definitely, I think, feeling it so far this season, as I just make sure I see his stats here. Yeah, two goals, five points in 23 games. That comes after a 16-goal 31-point campaign in 79 games last season. I know he's 19, has a lot of room to grow, but I don't think the Blue Jackets. saw him play in, you know, like this, this season. And on the fourth line, Sean Corrali with Matthew Oliver and Eric Robinson defensively.

That is when they are really hurt. Adam Boquist, Zach Wrenski, and Jake Bean are all out. The Blue Jackets will also have Jacob Voracek out for this game. So that's forward-wise, of course. So defensively, on their top pairing Vladislav Gabrikov and Marcus Bjork, Jake Christianson, Eric Good Branson, and then Andrew Peek is on the. the bottom pairing with Gavin Bay Ruther. Just, you know, I probably don't even know half of those players' names.

That just goes how banged up. They are. In terms of keys for this matchup, you know, the Penguins just, I mean, Asada is showing up, you know, they just got to keep peppering the opposing goal tenor. I mean, they've played Merz-Likins pretty well throughout his career. I mean, he's giving up, you know, three, four plus goals in multiple starts against the Penguins. Jonas Corpusalo, not that much better. To be honest, and I was making sure the blue jackets do not play tonight and know that they do not.

This one, I'll be back to back for them. Honestly, outside of showing up, the Penguins, they should be able to win this game. But again, you know, it's any given night in the NHL. You know, Johnny Goodrow always be on the lookout for him. He is a superstar in this league. Patrick Launay. I don't think he was in the lineup the last time these two teams played. He is a sniper, one of their best goals scorers.

Boone Generous, you know, he's played decently well against the Penguins over the years. Gustav Nyquist has also had their number at times. So I know this team is at the bottom of the division, but the Penguins, they still got to show up. You know, you don't want to just, you know, drop two points for the sake of dropping two points. You know, they've won nine of their last 13 games. They're playing well.

You want to make sure that continues on Tuesday. Goss out their power play, they can put out a lot of talent on that unit, even though Rensky's on there, you know, Goodrow, Lane, you know, Rossovich can really fire the puck. you know, Marchenko, Marcus Bjork, it looks like his quarterbacking it. But as long as Gujarro is on there, you always have to be on high alert. So that will mainly do it for this preview of the game against the jackets. It's a game that the Penguins should be able to win.

They play this team very well over the years. The Penguins knock on wood have yet to suffer a regulation loss against Metropolitan opponents this season. I believe so are there 3.30 and 1.3.1. 4-0-1, if that sounds right yet, because they beat Washington, they beat Philadelphia, they beat Columbus, lost to Carolina, and overtime, 3-0-1. I don't think they've played any of the other metropolitan teams. I'm just double-checking that as of right now.

No, they're not played the Devils yet, haven't played the Islanders, have played the Rangers. Yeah, yeah. So that does line up, yeah. So the Penguins 3-0-1 against Metro teams this year. They'll put that on the last. line on Tuesday. Hopefully there will be a bigger crowd for this one.

I know the crowds have just not been there lately. I think it's just a multitude of reasons. It's getting cold. A lot of construction around the arena. I don't know. This is a rivalry game. So hopefully a lot more fans will show up for this one. But we'll see how the Penguins can do against the jackets.

They'll go for two more points in the standings as they look to stay in the top eight of the Eastern Conference as they've gotten back into playoff positioning. So again, that will do it for this one. Hope you all enjoyed listening to it. And I'll be back with another episode on Tuesday.