Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 11/7- Crazy Comeback Win Against Islanders & Who Stood Out

Episode Date: November 8, 2019

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter recaps the crazy Penguins comeback against the Islanders as they snapped their 10 game winning-streak and gives his thoughts on how the team was finally rewarded for their play. He touches on Evgeni Malkin, Matt Murray, Bryan Rust, plus much more! Finally, he touches on the need for some of the fanbase to relax a little bit and trust the process. 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 another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host Hunter Hodes, and we are fresh off a thrilling, amazing, outstanding, whatever word you want to call win for the Penguins as they come from behind three goals down in the third period to tie the game to send it to overtime and then win it in overtime and snap the little 10-game winning streak that the New York Islanders had. You simply hate to see it if you're an Islander's fan, and you simply love to see it if you are a penguin fan. Remember, follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show on Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins.

And, yeah, for a while there, it was not looking good. Basically, going in the third period, everyone was just like, you know what? Go to the next game. But Penguins had other ideas. We'll just start out recapping the game, I guess, from this opening few seconds. The penguins came out sleeping like they did in the playoff series. Casey Zazikis gets a goal 1-0, 19 seconds in. Pretty garbage way to start.

But the penguins woke up after that. They dominated play in the first period, out shooting them. They outshot them all game. Honestly, going into the third period, the Anders, I think, only had 16 shots on net. The penguins had close to 30, if I'm not mistaken. So the penguins were all playing them. And the theme of this game, folks, was that the penguins, they had another really, really good game.

They dominated play. I think they had a 65% goal share for this game. And you know what? The only difference, they were finally rewarded for their play. And the goals and the pucks started going in the net. And that's how they won. They stuck with the process. You trust the process, as everyone of the Philadelphia 76 years say,

and you know what? It's exactly what happened, though. It wasn't pretty a lot of the times, though, a couple of the goals they gave up. The shorthanded goal was a mess. Calcutterbuck got the goal. It was a bad pinch by Gino, and then Schultz took a really bad angle to get to Cudderbub. Murray, I think he maybe want to have that back. I think he definitely want the first goal back, but the second goal, he would definitely

maybe want back a little bit. Then the third goal, he had no chance on it. It was a beautiful screen by Jack Johnson, just screening Matt Murray, and the puck went in off of the Pelick, so it made it 3-0. And then, the third period is where it all began, and where should we see? start. Jared McCann, he gets another goal. But I think where we should really start for this game is Brian Rust. What a start to the season that he's having. I'm really not sure that he's here if he honestly does not get hurt at the end of the preseason, considering the Penguins, we're looking to make a cap move anyway. He was one of the fours that I believe was being

dangled in trade talks, according to some reports. But ever since he's come back, this is a level of Brian Rust that we have not seen in a couple seasons. You know, we always know he's a streaky score. He'll go on some long runs of scoring, and then he'll be a ghost for like 20 games. But it looks like to start the season, he's on a really, really nice hot streak, had two goals tonight. That second goal that he had passed Farlamov, just a few minutes after the Penguins made a 3-1 off of McCann. What a laser that was. A bar down, a glove side, just a beautiful, beautiful shot coming down the right side of the ice.

Like I said, barred out. No chance for Arlama. And I knew right then I was like, okay, they may actually do this. And then, what do you know, again, Malkin ties the game. It looks like that the point shot at first, I thought, tied the game. But it went off the crossbar. It came from Rikala, who he had a really good game. We'll get to that later.

But Malkin ended up tying the game. And then, of course, getting back to Brian Rust, a beautiful play in overtime. Really all started with Malkin forcing the turnover in the office. Offensive zone and then Rust with the wrap around. He went, the funny thing about it is he didn't go short side for the round around. He went far side and it trickled past Barlamov even and the Islander's street came to an end. But just a remarkable game from Brian Ross. Like I said, we're seeing what the level that he's playing at we have not seen in a couple seasons.

He's up to, he's up to four goals in five games now since coming back from injury. And that's the kind of play that you need from a top nine winger. who you can just rely on. That's the kind of depth scoring. He's got also a lot of looks that have not gone in the net because goaltenders have stood on their head. And you know what? That's going to happen at times, but it's great to seeing him get rewarded. It's great to see him at the level.

And you know what? They actually, they changed the lines during the third period. Sullivan had had enough. They put Gauch-up with Crosby, which looked good in that third period. And then they actually moved, I believe, it was it was McCann up to Malkins line and then of course they kept Russ but yeah I mean you keep Russ with Malkin and I think that's um a line that you're going to those that duo like Crosby and Gensel you're going to have to keep them there full time because the way that Russ has started this

season he's man besides scoring goals he's so tenacious he's so he causes so much havoc around the net and just in it he just gives the other teams fits and it's just it's remarkable on Also, wanted to come across the stat. Shout out to Jesse Marshall, who tweeted this a couple minutes ago, actually. So the Penguins tonight, via Natural Strategy, they controlled 62% of the shot attempts and expected goals in tonight's win over the Islanders. And that's actually the third game in a row that their possession numbers have been over 60%. And it's actually also the fifth game in row that their goals for percentage has been over 60%.

I know some of you guys may not know what that means. Basically, well, in short terms, they're playing really weird. well. They're controlling a lot of the shot attempts, which means they're getting the puck on net way, oh, they're getting the puck towards the net way more than the New York Islanders were and way more than their opponents were for that matter. And for their goals for a percentage, that just means that their expected goals, like they're still, they're getting so many chances. But tonight, like I said, they finally came through and they're playing, this is, like I said, trust the process. You're playing good hockey. This is, now, now it's finally nice to be rewarded.

It takes that sour taste out of your mouth from that Bruins game where you're up for three in the third period. You give up a time goal. And then, of course, you lose with 157 remaining in the third period. You don't even get a point out of that game, even though you dominated play against the Bruins too. And also for the Edmonton Oilers with Mike Smith, of course, still on his head. So just want to throw it out there. That is just how good the Penguins have been playing tonight. I mean, I've been playing tonight, just playing lately.

What a win. I can definitely say, I think this is probably the first time this season that I was actually standing up probably a few inches away from my computer, just, you know, hand wringling, you know, just put your hands on your head. You know, it felt like a little bit of a late season,

a regular season game or a playoff game a little bit. That's kind of how it felt towards me because, I don't know, I guess it's just because the playoff series was so recent, but the way the game was going, and also just because how tight the games get late third period in overtime, three on three. I do want to say, though, before we get to the next segment,

my God, man, why do the Islanders make the three-on-three overtime so boring? They had the puck, I think, yeah, they had the puck for the first minute and a half to two minutes of overtime, and they fired about, I think, one shot on net. They were just sitting there at the puck the entire time barely firing the puck. I think their only shot came off of Anders Lee, which was shrugged away by Matt Moray. I know they don't play the most exciting brand of puck. That's kind of Barry Trots for you. But I mean, damn, man, like you make three on three overtime boring.

I was just standing there like, I just want to go like, I don't know why I'm stuttering, of course, but I'm just standing there like, man, I'd rather just go watch my pasta boil in the water. Like, that's how bad it was. But I just wanted to throw out of that there. But, I mean, what a win. Four three. You get two points, even though it looked like you were going to get none. I would have been happy with one point, but I am ecstatic that they got. Two points tonight.

And of course, folks, if you're still feeling hungry like I am right now after this game, I don't know, a lot of these games I just get really hungry after. Always remember, guys, you can get $5 off on your DoorDash delivery. You can get $5 off your first order of $15 a more when you download the app and you enter the promo code locked on. Just trust that, I had more roommates do it. It had gotten $5 off. Definitely do it if you're hungry and looking to eat some more food.

All right. So what else to come out of this game? Cindy Crosby, it looked like he was going to end the game in overtime, Jake Gensel. I thought they had better games than they did against the Bruins. Like I said, I know I'm not really big on plus minus, though they were a minus four in that Bruins game, but they played much better. I thought tonight Crosby was getting some looks. He almost ended in in the overtime. It was a really nice save by Barwamov off the right end boards.

I think Gensel was the one that got the pucked him up the ice. It was a semi-breakway. Nick Bukes had another really, really strong game for him. He almost also ended it in overtime as well. He tried to go forehand back in. Puck went just wide of our mama. It looked like he had him beat, though. The puck also could have hit him if it was a little bit of a slow-moving puck.

But another really strong game from him. Yuseliko was inserted in the lineup because, of course, Chris Lattang missed the game with a lower body injury. He has not been ruled out for Saturday's game, though. He has not practiced or anything. so I doubt that he's going to play against the Chicago Blackhawks. But I thought he looked really good. He was crisp defensively. He was moving the puck well up the ice.

Really didn't make any mistakes defensively. He wasn't really being hemmed in his own zone a lot, which is really good. I also really like the play of John Marino tonight. He's looking better and better each and every game. He got to play on the top here with Brian Dumlin. It looked like he did not miss a beat up there. I feel like I'm actually going to becoming a John Marino stand. Or I'm going to, my Twitter account is going to be renamed from Humterio, which I'm very hesitant to change to John Marino fan account because what a season that he's had so far.

Man, even tonight, some of the defensive plays that he made when the Anders were coming in the own zone and into their zone. And boy, do they still come hard as ever, man. I was having flashbacks in that playoff series. He would just be very calmly, just get the puck out, get it to Dumlin, get it to the forwards. he was just, he was outstanding again. And I've really liked the progress that he's made. I think it was, I'm probably sounding like a broken record from how many times people have said it. But I think, I think it was what, Kevin Stevens that had a big scouting report on John Marino?

Or was it someone else? But whoever they did when he was out in Edmondson, kudos because he looks the part of a really good, reliable bottom pairing defenseman. And you can honestly right now put him in the middle pairing because he looks really good on the top pair. tonight too. So, I thought he looked really, really good. I thought, Dumlin, you know, considering how much he's flown back and forth with the baby, playing in Boston, then flew back to Pittsburgh, then flew back to Brooklyn. He looked really, really sharp tonight. I think Justin Schultz continue with the defenseman, I think Schultz, you know, had a really bad read on that Calcutterbuckle. I think that was a really bad angle that he took, but also that goal, like I said, was really

a lot on Malkins' pinch that he had there. I don't really agree with that. And I believe, was that the Penguins' first short-handed goal that they've allowed this season? I think I'm going to have to go double back and check, but I think that might be their first shorthanded goal that they allowed this season. I know they last season they were one of the league leaders in allowing short-handed goals. So it looks like they're not really doing anything different this season than the power play. I know though they did have four forwards and one defensemen up for this one and they

usually go three-for-s-s-two defensemen, but still usually they don't change. too much what they do. It was just last season. Teams were converting on their short-handed chances in this season. So far, they haven't well, except up until this game. But let's see. What else here? Evgeny Malkin, let's just continue with him. Like I said, he was having a really poor game, I would say, by his standards. He was not shooting the puck when he definitely should have.

Like I said, had that really bad pinch. But he definitely made up for it in the third period. He also had one play where he should have shot it, but I think he tried to pass it to Ricola in the third period for some reason. Just take the shot there, man. You got one of the best shots in the world. One of the best players in the world. Trust your shot there.

But he did score the goal. He was at the right place, right time with the puck bounced off the crossbar. And as he was falling, just back hands and in Varlamov no chance. He got another goal for him. So that was really big. And then, of course, the biggest play of the night helps draw up the goal, basically, as he forced a turnover in the Islander zone, and then, of course, Rust wraps it around to end the game with less than two minutes to go.

That was just a really good play by Bev Gennie Malkin, just to draw that turnover up. He just flew off the bench, and then he had that beautiful, just that stick lift. And, I mean, wow, that was such a great play by Gino. Like I said, really, really made up for it at the end of this game to help get the Penguins the second point. And now with this game, the Penguins are now third in the Metropolitan Division, despite an entry to Chris LaTang and Patrick Cornquist, and also a 0 for 21 power play. That is now 10 games in a row, excuse me, when the Penguins have not scored a power play goal.

I've been a fan of this team for a very, very long time, over a decade. I don't think I've ever seen a penguin's power play with Sydney Cronald's being of Guinea-Malkanato go 10 games in a row without scoring a power play goal. That's just unheard of. I don't think, I have to go double back and check and try to find out some research with that. But that is something that does not happen very often. So, hopefully they can get the power play working again. I'm sure it will. I mean, it's Cindy Crosby of getting mock, and it's Jake Gansel.

It'll be Chris LaTang when they come back. Justin Schultz. They'll get it going. It's the Penguins Power Play. But I mean, wow, guys. Yeah, just what a, what a win. And this was for the penguins. All right, folks.

So I wanted to dedicate this last segment to, I saw a lot of overreactions on Twitter. I mean, you know, I mean, I definitely was a little mad online during some of the plays. But, man, this just reminds me how some people really take it overboard. Guys, relax. Just relax, everyone. I mean, I saw all people planning Matt Murray for all three goals. And yeah, did he probably want that first one back? Yes, the second one.

Like I said, I've said so many times throughout this episode. It's probably more on the pinch and on the bad read by Schultz. And then the third goal he had no chance on. But you know what? He more than made up for it with that sexy Scorpion save in the third period to actually keep the comeback going since they scored right after that. I think that was, yeah, it was the Scorpion save.

Then Rust went down and scored to cut up to 3-2, which allowed the comeback to keep going. If Murray doesn't make that save, that game's over. They're not going to score three more in that period, I don't think. At least I don't think they would have that in them. But he was fine, guys. I know he had a really off game against the Bruins, but he responded well.

Like I said, I had one bad goal, but I saw some really hot takes, and you know what? Mark D'O'Day Flurry's gone, folks. Stop trying to make that a thing. Matt Murray is a very good goaltender. Stop trying to think that he isn't because he's played like a top 10 goaltender in this league this season. Man, there was just so

many hot takes throughout the game and it was just, it was so embarrassing to read what some of the people were saying. It's like, like I said, everyone, relax. Like, no, they're not going to trade Evgeny Malkin because he's having a bad game even though he played really, really well to end the game. No,

Matt Murray's not going to get benched because he did not have, again, his A game. They're not going to put Tristan Jari in. No, they're not going to make desperate changes to the power play oh well you know like this good play can only go for so much you know they've got to try something different well you know you stick with it good results come you keep playing like that and like i said things are going to even out they always always always do like that's just that's a fact guys everything will even out stuff will regress to the mean and the penguins will

start winning a lot more of their games than they otherwise have lost because they've lost games where they easily should have won. Though that's not to say that they've also won games that they should have lost because that is true because Matt Murray did steal a couple of games earlier in the season when they were not playing like this. Shout out to Jesse Marshall again for another stat here that he just tweeted while I was recording. So Jesse says, according to Natural Stratrick, which it's free to go on.

You guys can look at it, the Penguins underwalling numbers. They're the second best team in the league, according to goals four percentage, and they're right behind their current Haynes. They're at 55.54% right now. That's really good. And what is that, guys, if you don't know what that means? It's expected goals four percentage, basically. In simpler terms, you're just looking at scoring chances and just like shot quality.

It's a really good stat. If some of you guys are listening, that aren't really big into fancy stats, It's a really good staff to look at to see if a team is playing well. Even though, even, it's more, like I said, as a tool to help, like, navigate, like, the I test and just to see how well they're playing it. And just support, like, how well they're playing is. I mean, you didn't really, you don't even really need that. You didn't really need that stat tonight.

Of course, I keep repeating myself since I'm so excited over this win. You didn't really need to see that stat tonight just to see how well the penguins are playing. But like I said, it's a good tool to have to help reinforce the eye test and show. show that, yeah, the penguins are playing some really, really, really good hockey right now. And, yeah, next up for Pittsburgh, they will be playing the Chicago Blackhawks. We'll have a preview episode of that coming tomorrow. If I'm not mistaken, folks, that Penguins have lost eight to eight games in a row to Chicago. I don't think they've beaten them since 2014.

It's got to be something like that. I think it's been almost five. I think it's been five years since they beat them. I know it's been a long, long time. They've come close. They've lost a number of times shootouts, but it is, it is. That is like the one team that I think the Penguins have not been able to beat.

But to wrap this up, just what a hell of a win for the Penguins to get four three over the islanders, break their little 10-game losing street, get to third place in the Metropolitan Division at 9 in 6-1. If it were the other way around 6-9-1, that would be a little more nicer. That was probably a bit of a bad joke there, but you know what? Whatever will work with it.

Really, guys, I hope you guys liked a couple of the memes that I posted, a couple of the tweets that I were posted during the game. I did, I will admit, I turned it off for a little bit to try to see if I would force my love. But I was like, you know what? I'll turn the third period back on. And you know what? They did not disappointant. They were rewarded for their outstanding play. You know, even though the Islanders were making the three-on-three overtime.

so boring oh i do want to point out i did have a tweet uh there was a little um interference fight by usa rikala uh towards the end of the third period i know he got away from that and uh the islanders fans they were definitely a little mad online about that um i think if you if it were the penguins though that happened to them um i think people would be a little more mad on line from this fan base but in other words guys this season is not over matt murray is still good and fgetty malkin is okay the penguins are in a playoff spot they're playing really really well and they were finally rewarded for their really, really good play to start this season, even though they have lost their last two games in a row and five out of seven going into

this game. So, like I said, we'll have a preview episode of the Chicago Blackhawks game tomorrow. The Hawks are just off to a terrible start this season. It's not good from them. Thank you guys so much for listening. I was really excited to do this episode. Honestly, if they were going to lose the way that they were about to lose, I was maybe going to hold off to do this episode tomorrow and just do a preview, but you know what? I couldn't contain my excitement because of how well the team played tonight. But we'll talk to you guys soon. Thank you guys so much for listening.

Like I said, feel free to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, the show on Twitter at LO underscore Penguins, and keep subscribing and everything like that. Keep up the reviews coming. All right, guys, talk to you soon.