Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 1/16- The Get Over it loss, plus a look ahead to tomorrow's game

Episode Date: January 17, 2020

I this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter does a brief recap of the Penguins 4-1 setback against the Bruins on Thursday night as it snapped their four-game winning streak. He then previews tomorrow night's game against the Detroit Red Wings and has news and scores from around the league as well. 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 and welcome to this, I guess, recap episode for Thursday, late-night episode for Locked-on Penguins. I'm, of course, your host, Hunter Hodes, before we get into tonight's game against the Boston Bruins. I do want to say, I didn't post the episode yesterday, but I did have a crossover episode with Nicole Giudana of Lockdown Capitals, where we just, you know, talked about from news and notes around the league. If you guys want to go check it out, it's at on Lockdown Capitals. If you look it up on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or just, you know, go to go. her Twitter. I think it's Nikki Giordano with an underscore, I think. The fact that I don't know her Twitter in my head is still pretty embarrassing, considering I was with her for it last night. We

were together. And then, of course, we just answered some questions about Penguins caps, you know, stuff like that since the Penguins and Capitals are going to be playing very, very shortly. I think we'll be in just about a couple of weeks now. Two Sundays away, I believe, is when the Penguins were the Capitals. So go check up that out, watch that. You know, if it's too cringy, you know, please. Please let me know. Please let me know in my DMs or comment. I thought it was really fun.

But now, folks, of course, follow my Twitter at Hunter Hoodies. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. But, of course, tonight, the Penguins had their four-game winning streak, snapped a four-to-one setback against the Boston Bruins. You know, there just wasn't a lot to like about for this game. The Penguins, they did not look good in all three phases of the game. Power Play had a really, really bad game tonight. They weren't crisp under their passes.

Their zone entries were poor. Weren't getting shots on net. I mean, I know the Penguins did open the scoring Cindy Crosby with a rocket less than 30 seconds into the game. Also, this is the annual dad's trip for the Penguins in case you guys do not know that. All the dads, the Penguins, I think I heard on the broadcast that this is the 11th annual Dads trip for the Penguins and the Dads. So it's great that. Maybe one day they'll do a Mom's trick. I think that would be really cool to see.

Speaking of that, before we, of course, get back to the game. Troy Crosby, Cindy Crosby's dad, I do not think, has aged one bit in the 11 years that I remember him. He just looks, going back to like 2008-2009. He looks the exact same as he did that. So I find that really, really funny. But getting back to the game, of course, like I said, Crosby opened the game, a blistering slap shot, 1-0. Just what a pass also from Dominic Simone. But after that, it was just all Bruins.

The Penguins were very poor defensively, I thought, tonight. which is usually a big outlier. Offensive, they really couldn't generate much at even strength. I think the power play was bad. What else? I think a couple of the goals, you know, Jari didn't really have a chance on. I think the first goal, you know, it was just a nice shot.

The second goal, beautiful redirect, passed him for 2-1, and then 3-1. I think he could have had that back. That shot was a little further out that I would like for him to give up, and it went glove-side. It was really nice to glove-side shot by Bergeron. And then, of course, the fourth one was the empty net, so, you know, not going to really do too much there. But also, you know, speaking of Trishinjari, you know, there's been a little bit of an alarming trend with him.

He's obviously had an outstanding season. He's been a very great story for the Penguins since taking over for Matt Murray, who has had his struggles, but is starting to play better. You know, I think this is the fifth game in a row now that he's allowed three goals or more. You know, obviously we know he was not going to play at 940, 950 forever. But, you know, his level of play has reduced. Shout out to Chad Fratchy tweeting out his numbers after the game about Tristan Jari here. Yeah, I mean, going back, yeah, his last five starts to January 2nd. Yep, three goals, three goals each game.

You know, it's just, it's not, you know, it's kind of meh. You know, you hope that it rebounds. But, you know, I mean, I think it will. But still, like I said, a little bit. bit of alarming trend. Matt Murray is obviously going to go tomorrow night against the Red Wings, and this is what I'm going to be curious to see. If Matt Murray has another really, really good game tomorrow night, he's had pretty, some three games in a row where he's been good. I definitely could see Mike Sullivan going to Murray this time at home against the Bruins on Sunday,

instead of going back to Jari, because I think it's just, you know, it's just a little bit, like I said, an alarming trend for, um, for Jari. But you know what? You got to be objective about it, you got to crawl out how it is. And because, you know, if the roles were reversed and this was Matt Murray giving up three goals a game for his past five to six starts, you know, like, I mean, like he was kind of earlier in the season, you know, people were calling for his head. But you know what, as usual, some Penguins fans are now not calling for his head because, you know, some people like have an agenda against Matt Murray, I think, which is kind of

weird, considering he's won back-to-back Stanley Cup, but also I think these people are very hard flurry stands. But still, Jari, he was not really the culprit of this loss. And really, I mean, just a little bit of an alarming trend, I would say. What else here? I thought Jack Johnson kind of, yeah, the first goal I thought on Jari, Jack Johnson was kind of screening the goalie, it bounced off him and in. Of course, you know, Jack Johnson is always contributing to the game in some way or another,

usually when it's negative. I thought the officiating in this game was absolute trash. I did not like the officiating at all one bit. The Bruins were kind of living on the edge a lot of the times with these ridiculously close to predatory hits. Charlie McAvoy, I don't know how he wasn't penalized, but I think Zach Aston-Rice was on a play in the first period. That should have been at least four-on-four,

potentially a power play for Pittsburgh. That made no sense. I think Wagner had a call that he wasn't penalized on. There was just a lot of these back-and-forth calls that just were not penalized. I thought the officiating was trash. When you let these kind of calls go, I mean, that's just signaling

that you want the game to almost break open in some way. I just, I don't really get it for, I'm sure, excuse me, the officiating, but, you know, whatever. You know, it was Ashton Reese for that ruffing call, but, you know, the Bruins came up to, a Bruins came up and had the response,

and it was just, they didn't call a penalty on them. So, you know, that's, That's NHL officiating. That's Paul DeVoski. That's just, that's just NHL officiating for you in a nutshell. I thought all night long, it was just absolute trash. But, you know, they'll do that sometimes. Of course, the big story, Yarslav Halak.

I just, I cannot stand this guy, man. I've hated him for 10 years. I will probably hate him for the rest of my life, considering what he did to the Penguins in 2010. I know Capitals fans probably have a bigger reason to hate Yaroslav He basically beat the Capitals by himself in seven games, though he kind of did against the Penguins as well in the next round when they beat them in seven games, but also I kind of blame Mark Andre Fleury in game six and seven for completely shitting the bad.

But you know what? We're not going to go into that all that one bit right now, but still, Halak was just a menace this game. Of course, you know, we all know Chikorazis out with a concussion. I doubt he's going to play on Sunday against the Penguins, so they're probably going to go back to Yaroslav Halak again. It's just, you know, he's had a really good career, but man, every time he just has one of these good, good ass games, they always come against the penguins, man. It's just, it's been doing this for 10 damn years already.

It's just, it's enough. The Penguins said, this is where they lost the game, I thought, you know, 2.1, times running down the second period, short-handed, 2-0 coming in, Brian Russ with this, you know, who's been awesome all year, just a weak shot, like 20 feet out. Come on, man, you got to come in a little bit more and shoot the puck. Or maybe pass it over again. I'd have to check the replay. But, you know, that was a shot from 20 feet out. Halak is going to make that save usually 10 times out of 10. And then he had that beautiful pass over.

So I think it was Blugher. And, of course, Halak makes, I think, not one save, but two saves on that. And it was just, it was like that all night with Halak, man. You know, it's just typical Yaroslav Halak against the penguins. And it's just, it's annoying at this point. But you know what? Whatever. Hopefully the penguins will get another crack at them

You know This is going to be a Boston Bruins team That is You're going to probably see them in the conference final Though I think Tampa will give them a hell of a series I think It's one of the... Your penguins are going to see Boston or Tampa in the conference final

I think it's going to be Boston I think Boston will be Tampa Bay Though I know Tampa Bay It's been really, really hot so far For these last 11, 12 games I know they lost in Minnesota tonight But I don't think this is a team That the Penguins would want to potentially see

in the playoffs. I think this is the team that has the best chance of beating them. I think the Penguins can definitely beat the Islanders. I know they can beat the Capitals. He said in the Penguins' history against the Cavs, but you know, the way the Penguins just play up in Boston, man, it's just bad. I'd have to check

the stats, but I think going back to the Eastern Conference Final in 2013, I think they've only won, I think, just less than five times since then, maybe less, maybe three times. I need to go double-check the numbers, but it's low. I mean, they do not win up there very often. The only times they ever beat Boston,

that PPG Paints Arena, twice last season under three games, they beat the Bruins because, you know, they beat them at PPP's Arena. So, you know, of course, the home-and-home switches this season, so we lost two games in Boston, so we'll see if the Penguins can get them back in Pittsburgh on Sunday with the 1230 game, the Matinee game. So, yeah, that's really

that's really, I think all I have to say about the game. You know, Sydney Crosby was awesome, so, I mean, you know, it's a setback, but, you know what, whatever. But yeah, folks, so coming out of this commercial break, I don't really know what else to say, honestly, about this game. I think I'm basically done talking about it. I know I said the last time when I was done talking about that,

but, you know, Cindy Crosby was... Cindy Crosby again, that's two games in a row now that he's scored. I think that's, you know, five points in two games since he's come back. You know, ho-hum for Cindy Crosby. He's going to keep playing like that. Penguins are in really good shape. But, you know, it's fine if the Penguins have one of these games every once in a while. the way they've been playing these last 15, 20 games,

you're not going to win every game. And the Penguins know that, you know, everyone knows that. But, you know, you're allowed to have a stinker kind of game. I think this was probably one of their five worst games that they've played this season, but they really haven't had a game like this in a long time. I really wouldn't even count the Florida loss before their four-game winning street because they were just gas that night. You just, that was basically kind of like a scheduled loss, you know.

I mean, coming off back-to-back playing in less than 24 hours after the fact, You know, you knew they were kind of cut weeks that game. But, you know, the Penguins don't have a chance to write the ship tomorrow night as they will travel to Detroit for the last trip of the DADD trip to face the Detroit Red Wings who are on another level of really, really bad this year, everyone. I think the Red Wings are, I think the record is 12 and 30 and 3. Off the top of my head, I'm going to look it up right now. NHL standings because I'm a fool.

Let's see. The Red Wings record. is in fact 12 and 32 and 3. So a couple losses off. Their goal differential is a minus 81. They've lost 7 or the last 10. They've lost two in a row. This team is just, they're going to probably go down as one of the worst teams than I've ever seen.

They will honestly have a very, very good shot of winning the NHL draft lottery. Poor Steve Iserman out there. He has a really big task ahead of them to rebuild that team. I think he's going to be able to do it, considering what the job that he did in Tampa. and I think he's a really, really good GM. So Red Wings' fans are going to just have to have a lot of patience. That's just, they're a really bad team, but, you know, this is just, this is always a trap game. You always have to watch out for these kind of games.

You know, these teams will catch you by surprise. They just, they always well. And the last time the Red Wings played was this Tuesday, actually. They got crushed by them. They gave up eight goals to the Islanders. They gave up five goals to the Sabres who have been brutal this year. They did beat the Senate. So even though the senators have almost lost 10 a row, they beat Montreal, they lost to Chicago,

beat Dallas, they lost to Dallas, beat Sadat San Jose, lost to Tampa, lost to Florida, lost to Arizona, lost to Toronto, lost to Columbus. Yeah, that's just going back into December now. But yeah, it's just not been a really good game-ass season for Detroit. And the Red Wings, though, at this point. You know, the Red Wings, though, they still have some good players. Dylan Larkin, of course, is one of their best players. He's awesome, I would think.

they have Terry Philpula out there He's been kind of at this point Justin Abulcator is getting older and older by the year Taylor Bertuzi I think is one of their young spots He's been pretty good so far

Throughout his career I think he had over a 20-goal season Last season Robbie Fabry of course Patrick Nemith I didn't even know The Adam Ernie is in their line Mike Green is still there

I feel bad for him And then their goal-tending has just been Oh, woof. It is it has been bad. Calvin Baccarat, I think, gave up five goals in that game against Islanders had a 737

same percentage in Jimmy Howard. Gave up three goals. He was 571. So, yeah, not a recipe for success for the D. Detroit Red Wings. They are also pretty, pretty banged up right now. I do not believe that Ethanisiu is in their lineup.

He was not in the lineup for the game, actually, against the Islander's. so I think he may be missing the game. I just haven't really been up to date with the Red Wigs because they're just been so bad this season. And then I think, is Philip Zedina in this?

I don't know if Philip Zedina. Oh, yeah, yeah, he's been playing. He's been obviously one of the Red Wings, best prospects. They have a lot to look forward to with him as well. But still, you know, Franz Nielsen, he's on an albatross of a contract. I still can't believe that kind of deal.

But honestly, I just don't know what teams are going to want from the Red Wings at the deadline. they really don't have a lot to sell. Maybe you can get someone to take Mike Green, Trevor Daly, Tyler Bertuzi. I don't think they're going to trade Larkin. I'm not going to trade Heronic.

Maybe you can get something for Fabri. Their goalies are really not going to go anywhere with, you know, Picard and Howard. This is just a bad hockey team. This is a team. The Penguins should just absolutely blow out. I think they're going to carry play against them. I know it's on a back-to-back.

In the last time the Penguins played the Red Wings, it was 4-1 for a while, though Matt Murray made it a little close at the end, and they ended up being a 4-3 final for the Penguins. They ended up being in Red Wings. And yeah, so the Penguins will try to win the season series tomorrow night against the Red Wings. I really don't have too much more to add,

I think about the Red Wings, just because, you know, they're just, they're really bad. This is, I don't think they're going to break the NHL record for a minus goal differential. I think it was over a minus 100 something. I'd have to go double check. I know it's, I think, it might have been in the 110s,

one teens, one 20, something like that. But yeah, they're just, they're terrible. And the fact that I've talked about the Red Wings for this long is pretty, pretty funny at this point. And I even forgot that they had Darren Helm, I forgot this on this team yet.

And Luke Glenn Denning. I totally forgot that he is also someone on there. There's just a lot of players on here that I just have no idea who they are. And, yeah, that just goes to show how bad that Detroit is. and they only have 12 wins, I repeat, 12 wins in 47 games. That is on another, other worldly level of sucking, because they just suck so damn bad. This should be a win for the Penguins,

but you know, don't take any team like elites. A trap game for a reason, but just, you know, go out, get back on track, win the game, and then, Sunday, you have another rematch against Boston to potentially steal a win against. the season series, even though they've lost the season series to the Boston Bruins. I really don't have, I think,

folks, too much more to add for this episode, but considering what happened with the Penguins tonight, you know, there's really not too much to analyze about and not too really much to talk about, who had a good game, because we already know basically was one player that had a good game. I thought John Marino was also pretty decent

because, you know, that's ho-hum for John Marino at this point. But around the Metropolitan Division, on the Rangers, help the Penguins out by beating the Islanders tonight, so the Islanders remain three points behind back to Penguins. Penguins did have an opportunity to get over potentially five points ahead of them, but of course they lost. But tomorrow night, they'll have another opportunity,

but they'll also have... The Avengers will still have two games in hand on the Penguins if the Penguins win tomorrow night, but they would be five points ahead of them in the Islanders having two games in hand, but also the Washington Capitals. They won tonight. They ended up beating the New Jersey Devils.

I think it was fired to two. Alex can go on another hat-trick, so he's on pace. Still have a Rocket Richard, and the Capitals are now six points ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins. But if the Penguins win tomorrow night, they'll be tied with games played at 48, and the Penguins will be four games back of them again. So the Penguins missed two big opportunities tonight with the game. They would have been five points out of the Islanders,

but even though the Islanders would have two games in hand. And they would have been four games behind the gaps with potential to get within two points of them tomorrow night with a win against Detroit. But you know what? Still early a little bit. You know, the Penguins still have four games left against the Capitol. but also the game left against the Islanders. So we're really, really not too worried.

I'm at this point. I do think that also the Flyers lost tonight, which is good. Columbus was able to beat the hurricanes. Columbus has been, what a story that Columbus has been this year. I did not expect Columbus to be fighting for a playoff slot, especially considering they lost almost all their core players. But you know what? That's the magic of John Torrella, I guess.

And they also got Cam Atkinson back tonight. also want to give my best wishes to Dougie Hamilton. That injury looked disastrous. I think he even shouted or said, it looked like someone was, I looked like he said, excuse me, folks, that he, I think he said to the athletic trainer that I think I broke my leg. So, really, we really hope for the best for Dougie Hamilton.

He's such a treat to watch. He's a really, really good player, and that would be a devastating injury for the hurricanes if he is out for any time. Also around the league tonight. Vegas was able to beat the senators. I had my thoughts on Vegas yesterday about firing Gorong-Gurlant. Thought it made no sense.

I still think it makes no sense at all. The flames eat the maple leaves. The avalanche are crushing the sharks, ho-hom, the sabers. Actually, no, the lightning in the wild game is actually still going on, my mistake. But I'm the wilder-up 3-2 right now with four minutes left. In the third period. So that would be a big bounceback game for the wild after getting crushed. It's just absolutely crushed by...

the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night. But I think that's all I have for you guys for this week's episode. This is today's episode, this week's episode. Today's episode of Lockdown Penguins. We'll have another one coming tomorrow night. I'm trying to decide if I should do it after the game tomorrow night. Again, it's the Red Wings. I may just do it.

I don't know. I've already done a preview for the game. Or maybe I'll just do it and then maybe I'll do another mailbag question where people can just send in questions as it's a Friday kind of mailbag day. And we'll also break down with the Penguins. game against the Red Wings, see if they win, they see if they lost, see who did well and whatnot, and all that good stuff. So thank you guys so much for listening. Please check out the episode that me and Nicole Giordano did from Lockdown Capitals the other day where we asked each other

questions. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, and we'll be talking to you guys tomorrow night, hopefully after the game. All right, everyone, take care.