Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Let's talk playoff superstitions and playoff beards!

Episode Date: July 16, 2020

The playoffs are coming fast and that means it's time to talk about...playoff beards and superstitions! Hunter starts off the show by talking about how he has started his beard this past week and what other superstitions he's done in the past (and still does). The show then goes into some practice updates from yesterday and how forward Jared McCann was on the top power play unit. Hunter explains why he's going to be one of the biggest keys for the Penguins if they want to win another Stanley Cup, plus gives his thoughts on some of the NHL Award finalists that have been announced! All that and more, on this episode of Locked On Penguins. 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.

Hello, welcome to this Thursday afternoon edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow this show is Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-Square Penguins. I apologize for not doing the five shows a week this week, Tuesday. I just had a bunch of stuff come up. And then Wednesday, my dad decided to take me and my sister to Shenandoah National Park for the day because he has off this week as part of his job.

He basically has been, like, rotating, working one week and then having off the next week is just what his company's been doing. So this week, he had off. excited to take us to Shandah and I fortunately could not do an episode yesterday but we are back today. We'll have another episode tomorrow. I have a lot of cool things planned coming up for as we continue the season revamp. We have a lot to get to today. Some practice stuff from yesterday. Really cool interview from Elliot Freeman did with Jim Rutherford on the 31 Thoughts podcast where there's also some Montreal Canadian stuff that we're going to get to because it does. There is some stuff on the 31 thoughts podcast that Elliot said that was pretty interesting. And of course,

you know, we'll talk about the NHL Awards and slam the PHWA or the Pro Hockey Writers Association. We're basically just embarrassing the cells with the Lady Bang Trophy. But before we get to all of that, we'll get to the news and a couple other segments. I do want to start out kind of with a little bit of a fun segment. Matt's, you know, talking about playoff beard, you know, playoff shirts, all that good stuff. So I've actually kind of started my playoff beard. Well, three days in, so, I mean, there's not really anything there yet. But this one, it has honestly,

has the potential to be the best one I've had yet, and anyone that knows me knows that, you know, I used to kind of be like Cindy Crosby. I really couldn't grow facial hair. You know, that's definitely changed a lot the last couple years. I remember for the 2016 Stanley Cup run. I grew it

out, but it was just, there was nothing there. It was literally like a Sydney Crosby mustache from like 2010 or something like that. 2017, got a little bit better. I actually got some stuff on my sideburns. 2018, I mean, really, we really couldn't do Well, I kind of went there again, but it started to get more and more than last year.

I really, really want to see it through because, I mean, I've gone, like, a month before, like, over the last year of, like, actually not shaving. And it actually, like, I actually can grow something, like, a full-on beard now. And it actually feels pretty, pretty good to do that. I mean, I'm not trying to be like Elliot Friedman over here. It looks like he can fit a bird's nest into his beard. I mean, James Hardens the same way in the NBA. I've seen a couple people from Penguins, Twigranton. that I've had for some pretty big playoff beards.

I don't think I'm going to be able to get to that level, but still, I definitely would like to really test it to see if it could go to the Penguins, of course, go to the Stanley Final. That would be like September, October. And I mean, like, I honestly think that would probably be the best beard I've ever grown. I mean, my mom would not be happy about it. She's honestly not happy that I told her that I'm starting it, but you know what, uh, who gives a shit, you know?

You know, it's always one of the best times is the playoffs, strong near, you know, because that's what, you know, a lot of stuff happens. You know, you get superstitious. I've said on this podcast. before one of the biggest superstitions that my mom and I have is right before, you know, game time. Or honestly, well, during game time too. You know, we have our assigned seats. You know, you picture like a table in your family room, and then a couch behind it.

And then the right side of that couch, that's her seat. And then right in front of her, so to the right of the table is where I usually sit. And we just, they usually win every time when we sit there, they win. Or if they lose, we'll kind of switch it up. I'll sit on the other couch kind of to the left of the table, or I'll sit on the other side of the couch where she's sitting, or she'll go to the other couch. We're very, very superstitious with it.

We don't really have any superstitious meals, I should say. Though, I mean, I do do a couple things each morning that I will always do during the playoffs. I mean, get up, you know, check the social media, and then I honestly put on the TV and just watch a bunch of previews for about an hour. I do that all the time. I'm going to continue to keep doing it. It honestly is just a great start to the day, and I feel like whenever I do that, the penguins, they usually win most of their games, but if they don't win the game, I don't do it the next time. That's just, that's my logic with it.

I only really do it if they win that game, and then if they lose, I just don't do it anymore. Now, there used to be a superstitious shirt that I actually would wear for like an elimination game, you know, when Brian Russ eliminated the Capitals or during the Eastern Conference final when the Penguins took out Tampa and also the next year. So I don't know if you guys know this. There was a shirt at the strip district. I actually have it right here saying next to me. I remember thinking what store was. I believe it was Yenzers. My absolute favorite store at the strip.

Jinsers is just. peak storm the strip. I absolutely love it. And there is a, the shirt says Malkin in the middle. So, Eugenie Malkin was in the middle. Phil Kessel is on there. And then Sidney Crosby is on there. So basically, in order, it would go, you know, Phil Castle was on the right. You know, it would just say Phil.

And then 71, of course, is in the middle. And they spelled G-I-N-O, which, I mean, it should say G-E-N-O, because that's really what everyone says it. And then at the bottom, at first, Sydney, it says the kit, which of course everyone knows why Sid is called the kid. And I would just wear the shirt every elimination game. I did it for the Rangers series in 2016. I'm like, wow, like this worked.

And then so when game six came up for the capitals, I didn't wear it for game five. And then when game six came up for the capitals in 2016, I'm like, okay, let's wear it again. It works. We have game seven against Tampa Bay. It works. I didn't get to do it for the Stanley Cup final that year

because I had to come home from my high school graduation. I didn't even get a chance to put it on. I just had my suit. suit on there, but still, they won that. Then you fast forward to the next year, Columbus game five. I wore that. They absolutely crushed them in game five in Pittsburgh, and then let's go on to the Washington series.

Game 5 in 2017, I didn't wear a game 6. I don't think I wore it either. I think I just wore another shirt. So I'm like, okay, game 7, it's winner take all. We're going to go back to the roots. We're going to see if it works. Okay, it continued working. I'm like, okay, I think I probably need to do this a little bit more often.

So Ottawa, it actually did not work in Game 6. when they had the chance to eliminate the senators in 2016, 2017, excuse me, good God. So I was thinking of myself, like, okay, should I honestly really try to wear this again? I said, you know what? Fuck it. I wore it. And it ended up working, and then I did the same thing for Game Six of the Stanley Cup final against Nashville. The shirt, of course, didn't work as well in 2018 and 2019, but we're going to bring it back this year for elimination games. And it's only if the Penguins have a chance to eliminate the opponent. I mean, now that I think about it, I don't even think I wore the Malkin in the middle shirt during 2019 because the penguins got swept by the islanders.

And I wore it in 2018 against the Capitals, but that was game six and I was just hoping they could go back to Game 7. But still, we're going to bring it back, especially if the Penguins have a chance to eliminate the Canadians or whoever else they're going to play, if they beat the Canadians, and we'll get to the Canadians in the next segment in the podcast. I don't really think I have another superstitious shift. If there was a meal that my mom used to make way bad. I think it was actually her chicken in Marcell. I mean, she still makes it to this day. That was her big superstitious meal, though she kind of went away from it.

I'm going to try to see if she honestly wants to get back into that for this playoff run. But, you know, who knows. But that's some of the stuff I do on game day. Well, if we're wearing shirts and just, you know, getting up, checking Twitter, watching the preview shows. I'm excited to get back into it, you know, especially as we get closer to the playoffs. Also, you know, my playoff. Like I said, I don't mind growing one out.

I actually would really like to see how much this could grow in about two to three months if the Penguins get to the Stanley Cup final. Let's see if they do. If not, I mean, there's always next year where they could potentially do it and I could really see how this thing could grow out. But I figured I just wanted to start off this show with something cool, you know, talking about like some superstitions that I've had for Penguin playoff games, you know, also talking about the playoff beard that I've started.

Just a nice little fun talk before, you know, we get into some practice stuff, some 31 thoughts podcast staff and a whole bunch of other stuff that we will cover on this episode of Locked on Penguins. All right, so we're back on this episode of Locked on Penguins. So, I know I didn't talk about this on the Monday episode because it wasn't an announcement, but still, in case you were living under a rock,

the Penguins are going to have the 8 o'clock game for their entire series. This was always expected. Pittsburgh and Montreal are two of the biggest markets for hockey. Pittsburgh drives ratings. Montreal drives ratings. this is not a surprise. I know some people are a little mad that, you know,

it's not the 12 o'clock game, it's not the 4 o'clock game. Hell, I'm actually excited to see 8 o'clock game. I work during the day for my part-time job. I know some other people still have to go to work and probably would not be able to watch the games during the day. But, you know, I also know that people, you know, they work at night with, especially my age, you know, with restaurants and, you know, takeout stuff,

so they may not be able to watch either. But so I think 8 o'clock, that was always going to happen for the Penguins. It's prime time. Let's go. Let's freaking go. let's do it. I'm really excited that it's going to be the 8 o'clock game. And then I think that the game after that's going to be a 1030 game out in Edmonton, whether it's like Calgary or another one of the West Coast teams.

We also had some other practice updates yesterday. The Penguins are finally starting to work on the power play. We all know Sidney Crosby of Gennie Malkin, Chris Letang and Jake Genssel are on there, so, you know, the fantastic four. But the one name that I saw was interesting yesterday was Jared McCann was on that top unit. Of course, we know Patrick Hornquist is going to be back on that top unit when he comes back from quarantining and hopefully he does not test positive for the virus. I hope he's doing okay.

He's staying in good health. But when he hopefully does come back to practice, he will likely be on this topic unit. But still, I found it interesting that McCann was on there, not Brian Rust, who was going to be a 30 goal score if the season had not been paused. McCann was in a really big funk towards that late stages before the pause. I think it was honestly, from January to March, I think it was, what, two goals in his last 25 games, something like that. he was hardly scoring it all.

That was after a really, really hot start to the season where McCann was just scoring it well. And I will say this about Jared McCann. We all know how much the core means to the penguins. You know, the penguins are not going to go anywhere in this Stanley Cup run if their core players like Cindy Crosse, Ganymalk, and Chris LaTang, Jake Gensel, are not playing really well. Same goes for also their goaltending.

The goaltending is, of course, a big question mark. We need to make sure Matt Murray brings his A game or if he doesn't. Trish and Jari steps up and plays his ass off. But other than that, I will say the biggest key besides the core players and the goaltending for this Penguins team, I think, is Jared McCann. He is centering a line with Patrick Marlowe and Patrick Hornquist. When he comes back, McCann needs to snap out of his funk, but also it's way in the past now. That was from January to March.

This is a fresh start as you're going to be starting at the beginning of August. Maybe he'll have a start to the playoffs like he did in the regular season where, like I said, he was just scoring it well. But they got him to be the third line center. This is a contract year for him. He is a restricted free agent after this season. This is a very, very big playoff run. This is a very big moment for Jared McCann. Because if he wants to get paid and wants to make maybe 3.5 to $4 million per,

maybe even more of that, more than that. Especially because, you know, Nick Benino, remember when Nick Benino was the third line center for the Penguins, he went off and got paid by the Predators. I think they gave them 40 years, $4 million, something like that. The Penguins just didn't want to pay him that. And also they're a cap team. But, I mean, I think McCann is going to potentially look at that comparable and be like, if I play my ass off, I want at least what Nick Benino got when he went to the Predators. But, you know, also it's a different situation because Benino was a UFA and McCann is an RFA.

But also, every time the Penguins have won a Stanley Cup in the Sydney Crosby of Ganymalkin era, you have 2009. Jordan Saul was an absolute monster. He was coming into his own. You saw what he did against Brian Rolfsky with that goal. you saw what he did to the Red Wings, you honestly saw what he did to every team that cup run. He was just a menace. He only continued to get better,

and that's why he got paid the big bucks by Carolina. He wanted to go pay with his brother, wherever that. Then you have 2016, you had the Hagelin Benino-Kesson-Winno. Benino wasn't really that impressive during the regular season, but then, you know, kind of, honestly, kind of towards the late stages, but then, of course, we very much in the playoffs, plays his ass off, shows up in the big moments, as does Carl Hagelin and Phil Kessel.

that goes on to be the best line of the 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs not just the best line for the Penguins that run. Then you have the next year. So Benino playing on the third line again. They kind of do Hagelin Benino Kessel again. It's not working so he has different line rates. But still, Nick Benino, he plays well again in the Stanley Cup playoffs. That's two years in a row.

He gets another cup. And then boom, he gets paid by the predators. Like I said, four years gets about $4 million per. And he's set for a bit. This could be another, potentially. potentially that kind of situation for Jared McCann and why I'm going to be watching this very, very closely. He is one of the biggest keys to the Stanley Cup run for the Penguins outside the court players and the goaltending. I know that second pairing on the defense is a very big too.

We all know how good John Marino is. I've seen Josh Yowie in his article just the other day in Phil Boar talking about just how good Marino has looked at this camp. And it's going to be very fascinating to see, you know, how his play is once the playoff start. But, you know, going back to what I just said, Jared McCann, massive key. If he can get back to scoring like he did during the start of the regular season for the first couple of months, the penguins are going to be in really, really good shape when they can roll all four lines. We all know what you're going to get from that Zach Aston-Rees, Teddy Bluger, Brandon Tanna line. Jesse Marshall was talking about it yesterday on Twitter. I'm actually going to

have him on here pretty soon to preview the series, talk about some keys. That I'm that, I'm sure is one he's going to bring up. If Max Domi plays, I'm sure they're going to draw that assignment, and I think they're honestly going to put the clamps on them. I think that basically does it for some practice updates. I do not believe the penguins are practicing on the ice today. I think it was a day off. They'll probably be back tomorrow for another practice. But before we get into our next segment real quickly,

Josh Joey did a poll on Twitter just a couple days ago. And it was if the question asked, if the penguins beat Montreal, which team would you feel best about them playing in the next round? Between the Flyers, Bruins, Lightning, and Capitals, who of course are going to do a round Robin to determine who gets seated one through four. Not surprisingly, the Flyers won that was 75%.

I'm honestly going to take this a step further and rank them 1 to 4 of who I would rather face or not. I think everyone of the 5,000, almost 5,200 votes, I think the majority were right with the Flyers, as they would be the team that I would want to face first. And, you know, I know the Flyers are better this year than they have been in the past. I think this is honestly the best Flyers team that I've seen since 2010 when they lost in six games to the Chicago Blackhawks. But when you look down that roster, they're just not as deep as the penguins still. The penguins can roll four lines.

I know Kevin Hayes has been really good for the fires this season, and the questions on that contract are going to be their long term. We all know how good Sean Ketri is. Claude Drew, Jacob Voracek, their reputations need no introduction. I absolutely love Ivan Prove Rob. I think he's a son. I think he's going to be one of the best defensemen in the league in the next couple of years. And I will die on that hill.

I will 100% die on that hill. But, you know, the rest of the defensive core is honestly just kind of man. Their bottom six is okay. And Carter Hart, I know some people are sold on him. I'm not there yet with him. I still want to see more of Carter Hart. And I think the Penguins in a seven-game series against the Flyers would be able to expose him a bit more than some Flyers fans would like to think. I think the Penguins match up very well with Philadelphia.

Like I said, they're deeper forward. I think their defense is better. goal tending might be a wash. This also is which Matt Murray shows up. If the Matt Marie of 2016 and 2017 shows up, I don't think Carter Hart is able to get to that level. But it will be the Flyers. Number two is the Capitals.

We all know how good those series have been over the last few years. Now that the Capitals have finally beat the Penguins, there's no getting their monkey off their back. There's no really big pressure for the Capitals going in, but still the Capitals and the Penguins. They honestly just matched up really well against each other. The Capitals can roll four lines against the Penguins. The Penguins can do the same.

I like the Capitol's defensive core. I think John Carlson is a stud. I think Michael Kepney is pretty underrated. In goal, I think they're probably still going to go to Brayden Holpe. He's the proven playoff guy. I know they have Simsonov there who is going to be taking over for Holpe when Holpe is going to ask for the world after this season. But, I mean, I think the Capitals would be number two.

And then number three, it's Tampa. Now, that's not to say, I don't think the Penguins can beat the Lightning. I certainly think they can. you know that would be just a whole series of speed and skill which i absolutely love but i just wouldn't want to play them first if i were the penguins and then number four that's boston there's just something about the bruin's that just still kind of irks the penguins to this day we all of course we all saw it in 2013 when the penguins got embarrassed but still you know i would much rather see that series in a conference final you know that's still the big rival team that the penguins and the cindic

Prosby, Benny Malkaneerer have not beaten in a Best of Seven series. That's like the one, that's like the last little thing I kind of want to see Sid and Gino check off before they retire. They have the cups. They've beaten all their other rivals. And especially as Matt Geica said, I think, in a Patreon post a while back, you know, he also wrote that too. And I 100% agreed with him.

It would be really, really cool to see the Penguins beat the Bruins as that's the last big rival team that they just have not beaten the playoffs. So in order, Flyers, Caps, Lightning Bruins. some other people will have different orders. You know, you're all open to your opinions, but that's just my opinion on that. All right. So for this last segment of Locked on Penguins, we're just kind of talk about the 31 Thoughts podcast from today. Also talk about some NHO Award finalists that have been coming out the past couple days.

We'll start with the Masterton. They finally got a right for the Masterton with the three finalists. You know, Stephen Johns, Oscar Lindblom, Bobby Ryan. I mean, this award can go to any of them. They're all so deserving. We all know, of course, what Oscar Lindblum has been through with his cancer treatment. You know, then you have Bobby Ryan, who, of course, came through alcoholism, which is nothing short of extraordinary as well. Then you have Stephen Johns, you know, it was a great piece on the athletic that I read about, I think it was a week and a half, two weeks ago with, you know, just battling his suicidal thoughts, you know, coming back from the concussion, you know, his depression.

And he was able to come back during the season and he was able to kick ass. And, I mean, like I said, any one of these players can win the award, and I don't think anyone would be that bat in eye. You know, there's no dumb player that's in there, like Devin Dubinick, you know, remember when he won because he figured out how to play hockey again. Yarmier Yager won because, oh my God, he's still playing at age 44. I guess old people can play hockey too, and there are a bunch of other deserving players as the other two finalists, but still, they got it right for this one. But I cannot say the same about the Lady Bing Trophy. So Nathan McKinnon was a finalist for her. I 100% understand that.

I think of this finalist group, he should easily win this in the landslide. then did they put Ryan O'Reilly on there? And it's like, what the hell is the pro hockey writers association doing here by putting him on there? I mean, it was not like just two, three years ago where he literally drunkenly drove into a Tim Horton's. And as this award says, it goes to the player with the best type of sportsmanship and gentle manly conduct. Really? So you're going to put Ryan O'Reilly on there for reasons? And then the kicker here, the better one, is they put Austin Matthews on there.

I think everyone knows what Austin Matthews was accused of during the season with, I think it was a disorderly conduct case. He basically mooned a security guard, but still, I mean, you can't make him a finalist for that, and especially Ryan O'Reilly. It's just like, the pro hockey writers association has got to be better than that. That's honestly absolutely embarrassing. I don't know. I actually don't think they should vote on this. I mean, you honestly just ought to have the fans vote on this if you're just going to put a ballot out like that. And I'm dead serious.

I think a lot of the fans could put together better balance than that. That's just absolutely embarrassing. There's other options you could have put on there. You know, Greg Wysinski had a really good thread on this. You know, Braden Point, Jacob Slavin. I mean, Greg, actually, this was a very interesting stat. Played close to 1,600 minutes in a shutdown role, had only 10 penalty minutes. Apparently since 1954, only one defenseman has captured the Lady Bing trophy, which was Brian Campbell.

But for some reason, you know, they don't want to put Jacob Slavin on there. They want to put Austin Matthews on there who literally, does not display any type of type of sportsmanship or gentlemanly conduct. Same goes for Ryan O'Reilly. And I know, some people say, well, you know, it's a nothing war, you know, you don't want to get too upset about it. But I mean, it's honestly just pretty embarrassing that a lot of writers had those three players on their ballot. Like, that's just, that's not right.

It doesn't sit well with me. I would hope that doesn't sit well with a lot of you that listen to this. And yeah, yeah, well, just, what a, that's just a mess. And then one more thing about awards, the fact that Mike Sullivan was not named a Jack Adam's finalist is ridiculously bad. It's actually pretty hilarious that he was not named a Jack Adams finalist for everything he did for the Penguins this year. But that's all I'll say about that and for the NHL Awards currently. We'll finish off, though, with this episode by talking about some 31 Thoughts podcast with Elliot Freeman and Jeff Merrick. There was one really interesting thing that came up while I was listening to it. And that was about, you know, the Montreal

call with the NHLPA, like the player wraps. And apparently, Elliot was basically saying, like, it sounds like it was a pretty raucous call. And I was looking at the thread today, even put it out of a tweet too, you know, basically he was talking about, yeah, like the Canadians were out, they traded Kovochuk, they basically waved the white flag,

and then all of a sudden they're back in. But this was the kicker here. Freedman said on the podcast, I don't know how much their hearts were into it on the call. I'll put it that way. So, I mean, are the players just not going to play as hard as normal? Me personally, I don't buy that.

I mean, one of my buddies was telling me today, you know, I mean, I'm sure management probably, potentially wants them to lose just to get the number one overall pick because I think of all the 24 teams that are in this playoff Montreal needs Alexis Lafranier more than any of them. So I think management could be secretly like, oh my God, like let's lose those lose. But, you know, that's just not how a player operates, especially when there's a chance to get to the round of 16 for the Stanley Cup playoffs.

They're going to play their asses off no matter what. You know, they're going to give it their go. But still, you know, I am going to be intrigued watching this series against Montreal to see, you know, just how hard are they playing under Claude Julian? Like, do they really, really want to advance in the Stanley Cup playoffs and potentially not get a shot at the number one overall pick and Alexis Lafrenier, who, like I just said, that is the best possible landing spot for him right now.

The Canadians need a franchise player, especially as Kerry Price is getting up there in age, especially as Shea Weber is getting up there. I know Max Domey is awesome, but still, who knows if Max Domey is going to play. Brendan Gallagher is good, but he's not a franchise player. Paul Byron's good, but he's not close to. to a franchise player. Tomas Tatar, he's good. He's not a franchise player. Philip to know, you know, Jonathan Duran, like I said, another good player, but he's not a franchise player either.

So, like I said, that's just going to be very, very interesting to me to see how this series played out and to see how much, you know, effort. It looks like the Canadians are giving on it during the first three games of this series. And for potentially game four, game five, if it goes there. We also had Jim Rutherford on during the podcast, but, you know, I want you guys to go listen to that. So I'm not really going to spoil too much of that. The interview with Jim was pretty, pretty funny, especially with the comment that he made when Elliot and Jeff asked him

if there's going to be, if there's going to be Evgeny Malkin trade rumors after the season. Just listen to that. You'll find out your answer. I absolutely loved what Jim said. But I think that will do it for this episode of Locked-on Penguins. I always appreciate you guys. Listening to me blabber about this team, honestly just blabber about nonsense in general.

But we'll have another episode coming tomorrow. I have a couple things up my sleeve for it. So, of course, I'm not going to tell you guys. You're going to have to see you for yourself. But still, thank you guys. so much for listening. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show is Twitter at L.O. underscore penguins, and

we'll talk to you guys tomorrow.