Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Keys for the Penguins to bounce back in Raleigh tonight!

Episode Date: November 7, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins are back in action on Thursday with a game against the Carolina Hurricanes and Pat and Hunter are here to help preview it. They discuss keys for the Penguins to come away with a victory and how to slow down Carolina's offensive attack with how hot it has been. They also dive into how Crosby will be motivated to bounce back against the Canes after how poorly he played against them a couple of weeks ago. After that, they look at some comments that were made by Kyle Dubas during the GM Show, including what he said about the goaltending situation. Is Tristan Jarry going to be coming up soon? Will Blomqvist be going down? They also look at his comments about Erik Karlsson and blowing leads before ending the show. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!PrizePicksDownload the app or go to https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNHL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Penguins will look to get back into the wind column tonight when they visit the Carolina Hurricanes. Hunter and I are going to get you ready for that and more on this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Your 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 edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on all social media at Synonym 4Wet. Joined as always by my co-host, the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him at Hunter Hodes.

You can give our show's Twitter account a follow at L.O. underscore Penguins. And of course, we appreciate you making this part of your daily routine because we're your team every day. And don't forget that this show is free and available wherever you get your podcast as well as YouTube. And if you're following us on YouTube, don't forget to hit that notification. button so you can be alerted when we drop all of our Monday through Friday episodes as well as any special episodes we may throw out there throughout the week. And before we get started today, today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. You can start the season with a big return on Fandul and new customers can place a $5 bet and get started with $150 in bonus bets if

you win your first $5 bet. Visit Fandle.com to get started. So Hunter, the penguins are back in action tonight, the first of a back-to-back on the road where they will take on the Carolina Hurricanes before they take on the Washington Capitals on Friday. So let's focus on the first of this back-to-back, and that's against the hurricanes. And it's been mixed results to an extent with the Carolina Hurricanes. We obviously know earlier this year they got smacked around by the Carolina Hurricanes in a loss at home. They'll look to avenge that tonight.

but when you dig into how closely these two teams have matched up, they are 14, 9, and 5 in their last 28 games dating back to 2016 against the Carolina hurricanes. They have points in three of their last four against Carolina to one and one. However, they have not had a lot of success when they head down to Carolina going 0.3 and 3 in their last six games. But five of those six in that. stretch have been one goal games. So there is not a lot of room between these teams. You may look at it

on the surface, compare the rosters, especially this year and think, holy crap, this might be a mismatch. And it likely is. But when these two teams get together, they play some very even hockey. So Hunter, to you going into tonight's game against the hurricanes, what do the penguins have to do to get back into the wind column. I feel like I have the same keys every time we talk about Carolina and Pittsburgh for the penguins defending in their own zone. Again, you have to box out their forwards in front of the net. The hurricanes fire a lot of shots from the point.

That is their game in the offensive zone. They work at low to high. They forecheck down low. They get it to their defense. At the point and they fire a lot of shots and they look for a lot of deflections from, you know, five, 10, 15 feet out. If you're able to box out those forwards, you'll have a better shot of winning this game. Carolina, they don't call them the Carolina

Corseys for no reason. I know I say that every time they play the Hurricanes, but it's true. You look at their underlying numbers this year. They're 9 and 2 through 11 games, but look at this. They have 63.5% of the shot attempts at 5 on 5. That is a crazy number, but that is Rod Rindamor's system. It is very much all gas, no breaks. Normally these two teams play a very 50, 50 game, except the last game where the hurricanes kind of just toyed with the penguins in Pittsburgh. Even when the penguins were up in that game for a very brief time, it never felt like that was ever sustainable because the penguins were not playing well in that game. They weren't defending well, and Carolina was clogging up a neutral zone in the defensive

zone very easily. You know what you're going to get when you play Carolina offensively again. They fire a lot of points shots. They look for those deflections. they also fire a lot of shots from the outside, I would say, you know, 20 feet out from the slot area, all that good stuff. But defensively, they love turning these games into a slog, slow it down. They like those, you know, 2-1, 3-2 games. There's a reason why a lot of people find them very boring to watch because of the way they play defense. I said that last time, they're the more fun version of the Barry Trontz, New York Islanders teams.

Remember those teams. they were very boring to watch. Heck, the Islanders still now are still pretty boring to watch. The hurricanes, they're boring. They just make it a little bit more fired. But you also have to be prepared for every shift for the hurricanes. It's like game seven in the Stanley Cup final. And that's how Rod Brindamore was as a player.

He played every shift like it was his last. You have to be prepared for every player going zero to 180, zero to 60 basically, but we honestly could say 180 because they go so quick right when the opening puck drop. So Penguins have to be prepared for that. And also, Caroline has a lot of their top players humming this year. Marty Nages, seven goals, 20 points in 11 games. He has been by far their best player.

And again, that's one of the reasons why I wanted Penguins or someone else to trade for him because it was only a matter of time before I felt like he was going to break out and be a really great player in this league. Svettyakov has 12 points in 11 games. Aho is a point per game player. Seth Jarvis is giving them really good production. They're getting depth scoring from a lot of people in their lineup. You know, top prospect, Jackson Blake made the team this year.

He already has four goals, six points in 11 games. He was rumored to potentially be in the Gensel trade. But again, you can see why Carolina really didn't want to include him and why I really wanted him considering that he was basically NH already heading into this season. So they're getting a lot of depth scoring. They're doing normal things you see from the regular season, version of hurricanes. It's just what type of team shows up in the playoffs. But for this game, the keys again, you want to docks out their shooters, you want to not have the hurricanes

turn it into a slog, and you ought to really make the most of your chances when you get them. And honestly, I also want to see the Penguins show a much better effort in this one than the last game against the hurricanes. The Penguins got utterly embarrassed in that game by the hurricanes. They look like they didn't even belong on the same ice as the hurricanes. That needs to change in this one. For sure. That last game was an absolute whoop and I do want to push back a little bit on what you said about them making it a slog. Yeah, overall, that's what their system does. It does make it a slog, but they are in the midst of a serious heater right now. They have one seven straight. And in that process, they've won those games by a combined score of 33 to 16. And in that

winning streak, they have been filling the net. They have won by. scores of six to four, four to two, eight to two, four to three, four to one, four to two, and three to two. So they're finding ways to get goals. And with that in mind, melding it with what you said, their defensive zone structure is going to have to change tonight. If they try to play that puck side overload that they do, at the very least, it's got to adapt for tonight's game.

Because if they can't stay in position with that system, as we've seen they struggle to do, they are going to get caved in because the Carolina Hurricanes will reverse the play. They'll look for that point shot, low percentage shot, and leave the middle of the ice wide open, which will lead to a lot of pain for this team. Along with that, they're also looking like they're going to start Peter Kachecov in net, and he has won four straight. And while his numbers this year are not that great, it doesn't look like he's played all that well. I would offer some caution on that because this will be his fourth straight start.

And while you look at his save percentages, they're not very good. But the most amount of shots he has faced in the three games prior is 21. So the Carolina Hurricanes are doing a really good job of not only scoring goals, but keeping other teams from getting chances. So for the Penguins tonight, it's got to be. very similar to what we said about the Islanders game where they have to take advantage of the opportunities that they get because instead of going up against an elite goaltender, they're going up against a team that plays really efficient defense and is not going to

give them a whole heck of a lot. So you have to take advantage of the chances you get. As for the Penguins couple of up. And that's in their numbers too. Didn't mean to interrupt you there, but they've only given up 91. high danger chances at five on five this year Carolina that is which is one of the better marks in the NHL if you compare that to the penguins for example they've given up a hundred sixty two high danger chances against at five on five Carolina they really don't give you that much in the offensive

zone which is why the penguins are going to have to really make the most of their shifts when they do get the puck in the offensive zone if they're able to cycle get their forecheck going just because especially when the slave impairing is out there who he does not give you much. And Crosby might have played one of the worst games I've seen him play against Carolina. Last time I played to me, his coursey percentage was not even 30% enslaved and just absolutely shut him down. So with the way Sid is cooking right now, though, expect that to bounce back a bit tonight. But you still really got to make the most of your chances against this team.

Yeah, you absolutely do. As for the Penguins, Kevin Hayes is currently day to day with an upper body injury. He will not play tonight. Matt Nietto, Brian Rust, neither of them will return to the lineup tonight. And once again, Alex Nadelcovic will be between the pipes. So that is Carolina versus the penguins tonight at 7 o'clock at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh. You can catch that game on SportsNet, Pittsburgh. But that is going to do it for our first segment.

When we come back, Kyle Dubus did all of a 25-minute interview for the weekly GM show, but it was 25 minutes of a lot of conversation. Hunter and I are going to break down that and some other things when we come back. But first, we have to tell you about our first sponsor, and that is game time. It is the best time of the sports calendar. There is all kinds of sports going on. The NHL is back. The NFL is in full swing.

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All right, welcome back to the Thursday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp, joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. And boy, I usually just kind of wait for the recap or the web story about the Kyle Dubus weekly GM show that he does with Josh Gets off. That didn't come, but I tuned in this morning before we started recording. And like I said, for it being only a 25 minute discussion, Kyle Dubus had quite a lot to say about the Pittsburgh Penguins and where they stand right now. The first thing I want to bring up is he was kind of asked about this team blowing leads, where they are in the standings, and with everything else going on where this team is at right now. And he said something, and I'm going to kind of half quote paraphrase because he spoke a little bit long on this one. But about that, he basically said, yeah, the standings are tight right now.

And yes, it's still early. But you look at some of the points that we've squandered away and you mix that with us missing the playoffs the last. couple seasons by only a point or a handful of points, it really matters that we can't hold on to these leads. And now we've got Carolina, Washington, and Dallas coming up in the next few games. And that is going to be a really tough test. And we're going to learn a lot about our team. So he is well understanding. And this kind of pairs with what we've talked about where he's like, hey, I'm not just rigidly digging into this retail rebuild on the fly. If things look like they're going well, I'm going to help this team find a way to get back to the playoffs.

But if they don't look good, I'm going to continue with this plan and some of the selloffs are going to continue. So Hunter, I am pretty impressed by this on the whole because we have talked on this show and just in general about how coaches, general managers, you name it, especially in professional sports, are very stubborn and very dug in on what they're doing. Kyle Dubus is kind of going against the mold here and saying, I'll adapt to whatever's going on. And that pretty much sold it for me right there. You kind of see something similar going on with Nashville right now with the slow start.

They've had. Barry Trots actually went on in the radio. And he basically said, yeah, if they don't turn this around, I'm going to have to start my rebuild plan, which he didn't really want to do this year, considering all the money that he just threw out in, in free agency to March or so, Stamco's, Brady, Shea, etc.

So he kind of has another plan, a backup plan, you should say, if the predators continue, their slow start as well. And I think Dubus is willing to adapt if necessary. But I think so far, he hasn't really seen anything to the point where he's like, okay, I'm going to adapt and maybe help this team a little bit at the deadline. And I only really ever see them adding at this deadline if they are surely in a playoff spot at that time in early March. if they are a bubble team that's in by a point or tied for the final playoff spot or maybe they're

out by a couple points, three, four points. I still feel like he's going to sell off some assets. I don't think he's going to add for the sake of adding in that situation. I think he's going to keep with the plan that he's had since this past spring when he shipped off Gensel and then he kept with that plan over the summer by getting draft picks and taking on reclamation projects and all that good stuff. I really only think he moves on from this plan or just, I guess, adapts from it if this team can find a way to really turn around and get to, you know, top three in the metro or something like that. I just think the players right now are proving him right for what he did in the spring by trading Jake Ensel and doing everything he did after that and all that good stuff.

So I liked what he said about the blown leads. He obviously knows what happened last year with how many blown leads they had in the third. period, how many points they squandered in overtime. You're seeing that this year, not in overtime per se, but I guess shootout losses, but again, I'm not going to overreact to randomness of shootouts, but in both of those shootout losses, they had prime chances to win those games in regulation, and you piss those points away. That can't keep happening if you want to get back into the race.

So again, no really big surprises from Dubus with those quotes, but I really don't see him pivoting from his plan unless they really turn things around. And right now, I just really don't know that it's going to happen because they've yet to be the playoff team from last year, Pat, until they start doing that and on a more consistent basis, I think we're both can remain a bit skeptical. Oh, absolutely. I mean, I'm not sitting here saying that he's suddenly going to make a bunch of additions ahead of the deadline.

He's not going to look at this team and think, oh, we've got a chance here. But you can kind of tell in the way he verbalized that, that this is where he stands. He looks at it as I'm going to start and continue. to get younger talent, to get draft picks, to get prospects in an attempt to get those guys ready for the last year or two of every of the big names of Sidney Crosby, Fgeny, Malk, and Chris LaTang, Eric Carlson. But if this team shows some life, goes on a bit of a run here, starts climbing up the standings, beats some consistently good teams, then he's not going to roll out the idea of finding some help to help these guys push forward. But that's kind of where I stand on

that. The other thing I liked hearing him verbalize, and I know that we have defended him on this show is Eric Carlson. He basically said, and again, this is a little bit of a paraphrase because he went a little bit long, but he basically said that he's figure, Eric Carlson is starting to figure it out. He's starting to round into form, which I think we agree with. He also said out loud that, yeah, when they acquired him, they didn't expect him to put up a hundred, points. They weren't looking to him to be that 100 point score. He said, we were looking for exactly what his career averages have been, which is somewhere between 50 and 70 points, which for a defenseman is pretty good. And he also brought up that he missed training camp and was

ready for the start of the season. And that clearly led to a slow start. So I think with all of that in mind, he is kind of on the same page as our show where it's like, yeah, you don't need to have overly inflated expectations and expect a hundred point season, him to make a run at the Norris trophy. But you also have to keep in mind that if he puts up anywhere between 50 and 70 points, he does exactly what he was acquired to do as the defenseman that he is. Well, I mean, I'll still want over 50 plus points. I mean, I think in that 60 to 70, 75 plus point range, I think, is totally fair at this point. I mean, I even said when they acquired him, he's probably not going to put up 100 plus

points, but if he can get to, you know, that 70 point range, 75, maybe even 80, you know, I would gladly take that even though, again, he's still a bit older right now. But Carlson, yeah, this last week, week in change, he's played some of the finest hockey of his Penguins tenure. He's playing great in the offensive zone. He's not really making too many stakes defensively in his own zone. it's been a nice change after the prior four to five games where he was just really rotten, I think is the word to use.

The Rangers game, no one really played well. But after that, he had a really nice stretch of two to three to four pretty strong games. Then after that, his play dipped for about four to five. And now these last few, he's really coming to his own and looking like the player that we saw at the end of last season. The trick is now having him do this on a more consistent basis. I think it's just been a little sometimes too up and down. And I've defended him a lot from some of the critics of him,

just because I think some of the criticism is a bit too much. But I am of the belief that he can be more consistent. That will go a long way for this team. And I do think he will because you're starting to see it round into form these last three games here where, again, he's leading the team an average game score. The I test is very much matching now with his play in the offensive zone. He's shooting the puck a bit more, I think. in my opinion, I want him to keep that up and I'm hoping that he will.

Yeah, I think he will just because I think we've seen a lot of trends over the last week or so that show that he is figuring it out. He's rounding into form. So we'll see on that. But it would be very encouraging for this team to him for him to get back to that level. One last quick thing. We don't really have to discuss it. Just another thing that he brought up because there's a lot of things that he talked about when it came to goalies, which we'll discuss in our final segment, is Matt Nietto and. injuries and everything about that. It's been almost a year since Matt Nietto has played a game in the National Hockey League because of the various injuries. And Dubus basically said,

so even though he's on this trip with the team, he expects that there will be a conditioning stint in the minor leagues. There will probably be a handful of games where Matt Nietto goes down to Wilkes-Barre plays a few games and tries to get back to a level where he can compete at the National Hockey League level. So we'll see what happens with that. But when we come back, we have to talk about the goaltending stuff with Tristan Jari and everything else that Kyle Dubus did discuss and what that's going to mean for when Tristan Jari does return to the Pittsburgh Penguins. And we will do that when we come back right after this. And we got to tell you before that about our sponsor. And that is Indeed. We're driven for the search for better. But when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search match with Indeed. If you need to hire, you need Indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly

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Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your job, more visibility at Indeed.com slash locked on. Just go to Indeed.com slash locked on right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on on this very podcast. Indeed.com slash locked on terms and conditions apply need to hire. You need Indeed. All right, welcome back to the locked on penguins podcast. I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes. And we continue our conversation here about the Penguins GM show with Kyle Dubus, where for like I said, being only a 25 minute conversation, he had quite a lot to say.

And of course, there was discussion about the goalies. He basically had a lot to say about Tristan Jari and everything else with the goalies. And he basically said that, wow, I know that. that a lot of listeners of this show, including the two hosts of it, have said they might be losing some faith in Tristan Jari in their actions show that he still did speak pretty highly of Tristan Jari, basically saying he's very talented, but his first two starts, or two of his first three starts did not go very well. And he said his job as general manager, along with the hockey operation staff, is a plan to help him get back to his potential. It's not just throw the baby out with the

bathwater. It's done. It's over. We're going to quit on him. They know that they have to find a way to make this work, whether having him as the penguin's starting goaltender for the foreseeable future or at the very least inflating his value to the point where they can move him. And he said that he has been encouraged by what he's seen with him in Wilkes-Bare. And that's factually true. He played very well in his first game, had a rough start in the second, but bounced back. He has been very good in his last two and basically said he's going to start two more games with Wilkes Bear because the rules of the conditioning loan are two weeks and or six games and the next two will get him up to six games. And then at some point he will return. So Hunter, I think that this plan at least to start is going well because the whole point of him going down to Wilkes Bear on a conditioning loan was to go down there and be very.

good and he has been very good. Right. I mean, you look at just the raw stats. He's 4.0, 9, 46, 8 percentage. Very strong numbers there. Has he given up a couple of soft goals? Yes, there's a couple replays of goals where a couple bad angles that he's giving up goals from.

And it's like, come on, you can't be giving him up. But still, 9468 percentage, that is very good. That's what you want to see from someone who has been in the NHL as long as Trisingeri has. going to get two more starts, then he's probably going to come back up. But if I had to guess right now, and I don't agree with it just because of the way Blumquist is played, if I had to guess, they might send Blumquist down to get more reps in the H. just because, you know, Nadelgitch has been getting the lion's share of the starts recently, even though I feel like it should have been more on a 50-50 basis with what Blumquist was showing

at the NHL-L-level. But I digress. That's my opinion. Nendell Goch is going tonight. Blum-Quis will go against the capitals on Friday. But there are at least the way Dubus is talking and the way the coaching staff is talking, I think they want to give Jari maybe another shot in the NHL to see what he can do after this big stint in Wilkesbury. But I still don't know if that's really going to do much,

considering the level that he's played at to start the season and going back to last season where he's really struggled at the NHL level. I'm honestly not sure he's going to finish this season with the Penguins with the way he has played in the contract that he has had. I understand Dubis wants to talk him up. He's not going to openly crap on any of his players. You don't really see many coaches, many general managers do that anyway when a player is struggling.

You always want to hype up that player, build his confidence. You know, it's more about what you do behind closed doors, what gets reported. That means, I think, more to me than, you know, someone hyping up a player that's struggling and all that good stuff. But at least for me right now, it seems like the plan is to get,

him up in the next week or two, give him a couple more starts. But I really feel like if that is their plan and he struggles, that is really going to be it, I think. Oh, absolutely. If he comes back up and doesn't return to at least passable form, that is not only a problem for Tristan Jari, it's a huge problem for the Pittsburgh Penguins. But he also brought up the fact that, you know, Yowell Blumquist has played very well in the opportunities he's been given. And, Yeah, it looks more. He really didn't commit to one way or the other if they're going to carry three goaltenders or if they're going to send Blumquist down.

The advantage there is that Blumquist is waivers exempt, so they wouldn't lose him if they send him down. And he also brought up the fact that Sergey Murshov is down and wheeling. And they want to see guys like Murshov, like Yow L. Blumquist, get playing time because that's the best thing for their development. you don't want them being a backup. You don't want them sitting on the bench or in the press box. And I really do think if for the development and all these plans to work,

Tristan Jari is one way or another going to have to be on the Penguins roster, whether it's seating the starting job once again to Alex Nadalcovich or taking it back. But at this point, you have to figure out how guys like Yoel Blumquist and Sergey Murashov get more playing time. because if they're sitting on the bench or in the press box, it's seriously going to hamper their development. But I agree with you on the whole. I think that there might, especially if he bounces back,

it would not shock me to see Tristan Jari moved at some point just because not only do they want to get out from under that cap hit, I think they saw a lot more than what they expected from Yowell Blumquist. It doesn't feel like, it felt like at first, excuse me, that they were like, okay, we're going to, you know, while Tristan Jari figures it out, we'll bring up Yowal Blumquist, even with, and because Nadelcovich was hurt out of camp, we'll see what he's made of. We'll see what he does, not a sink or swim, but just a hey, let's get a look at it. And I think they were pleasantly surprised with how far along he was.

So it kind of gave them a chance to think, okay, maybe we can figure out what to do with gold tending and give Blumquist more of a shot. So we'll see on that. But I think that is going to do it for the Thursday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Unfortunately, I will be absent for the next two episodes on Friday and Monday. I am headed out of the country to Mexico for a wedding for our friends, Logan and Liz. And I'm looking really forward to that because, oh, boy, I need a vacation from this friggin team when what they've been doing to me. But I will return on Tuesday. However, the show must go on. Hunter will be back tomorrow to give you a recap of the game as well as get you set for Penguins Capitals on Friday. and then he will be back Monday to give you a recap of those.

And then I, whether you like it or not, we'll be back on this show on Tuesday. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always, for tuning in. Hunter will be back on Friday. Let's go Penns. And until I see you again on Tuesday, have a great weekend and let's go Penns.