Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 12/11-Just one bad loss, plus Tristan Jarry talk, Kris Letang, & head coach firings

Episode Date: December 12, 2019

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter talks about how it's just one bad game for the Penguins as they lost to Montreal, Tristan Jarry's performance, a message to Kris Letang's haters, plus thoughts on the recent coach firings. 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 a very, very late night edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm, of course, your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show on Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. And apologize for not having an episode up last night. I had a couple of busy things to deal with for schools since finals are starting this week. Thank God I only have one semester left after this. It's always a stressful time with exams and all that.

But, of course, the Penguins had a game last night. I think that was probably one of their overall they're one of their worst performances of the season it's probably not as bad as the Buffalo game but there was not a lot that went right in the game but what did we go right I think just a couple minutes in the game was basically almost a three on O and Jake Gensel gets his seventh

this way was his 17th goal the season for Brian Rust yeah I think you know a lot of people have not noticed just how good of a season Jake Gensel is having he's playing I think at not at an MVP level I would say but it's getting close to it and that's without his center and Sydney Rosby, but

I mean, it's almost not really much of a downgrade when you go to play playing with the Evagany Malkin. But he's having a hell of a season. Jake, just steal at, what is it, $6 million per year on his contract. That's looking like a massive steel right now. But yeah, but folks, yeah, that's basically

the only, I think, good that came out of this game. Trish and Jari, I had a couple, few goals. I didn't really, a lot of the goals that he gave up really weren't like bad goals to give up. The thing was just playing really porous defensively. Chris LaTang, I guess we'll get into that a little bit now.

He obviously, he did not have a good game. Let's just get that out of the way now. And, I mean, there's a lot of talk on Twitter about Chris Lattang right now. You know, I really think some of you guys really need to pump the brakes on this Chris Lang talk is, you know, he's going to have these games where, you know, he has a couple bad defensive laps. is. He doesn't make the right plays. But you know what? You take the good with the bad. You take all the good that he has. Like there was a tweet today from Andrew Berkshire that says, this sweet shout out to Andrew Berkshire, by the way.

Since the beginning of November, November 1st, with Crystal Tang on the ice, the penguins are controlling 75% of the high danger chances, 62% of the shot attempts, 68% of the slot passes. For those of you who are unfamiliar with high danger chances, those are like right in front of the net, 5, 10 feet away. You know, 62% of the shot attempts, obviously, shot temps for both teams. Penguins are controlling 62% of him when he's on the ice. And then overall shots that get on net, 68% of the shots. I mean, like I said,

you take all that good with a few games of bad where he's like not that good defensively. There's some people on Twitter, like that Penguins Chronicles account, I'm sorry, but that's got to be one of the worst accounts on this website. I do not understand at all why.

It's like he has this Chris LaTang hate agenda. And if those are the, most useless stats or most useless information like Chris was saying I think I've ever seen. Shout to all you guys on PennSwater who like actually go at that guy because it truly is funny seeing him come up with a bunch of random garbage. Like I said, he had a bad game. It happens. He's one of the best defensemen in the league.

He's one of their best players on the team. He's easily the best defenseman on the team. You cannot say to me with a straight face that Brian Jewelan is the best defenseman on the team. I know Brian Dewan is very good, but he does not bring nearly. and I mean nearly even close to the offense that Crystal Tang brings. It's really just not even close at this point. I just, I've always wished that Brian Dumlin could bring more offense to the table since he's so good defensive in his own zone, he's so good at moving the puck.

But like I said, you know, that's going to happen. But overall, I think the game last night, it was just a stinker. You know, you're going to have games where the team looks flat. The team looks like they, you know, drank maybe a little too much the night before. they were partying or something. That's basically what it looked like last night. And Rob Rossi of the Athletic, what a really good piece today. It sounds like he heard Mario Lemieux and Cindy Crosby having a conversation in the press box.

And Mario, because apparently Mario Lemieux was back from his vacation, his house down in Florida. And he's like, yep, that's the way Montreal plays. Boring hockey. And you know what? It was a pretty boring game to watch. Not going to lie. The Penguins, they had a really good first period. They actually were generating.

They got that goal. They were putting some pressure on price, putting some good shots. But, you know, the second period, and then, of course, comes, the penguins look like they fell asleep that whole entire period. And they just, they were getting out tempted. They were getting out shot. The Penguins were not getting any attempts on Carrie Price. It's just, it was a complete disaster of a period for the Penguins.

I was honestly, I think the worst period that the Penguins have played all season. Usually they've been a really, really good for a second period team. And of course, the penguin, they're up one nothing up until the first half of that period. Of course, the Canadian title of the power play event, they scored the other goal to make a two-one. And then just with less than a minute left in the period, that backbreaking goal,

Shea Weber, wraparound goal. I have no idea what everyone on the team was doing. They were just basically puck watching Weber. And I think Jari, he could have played that a lot better. He went out too far out of his net, and then Weber just had an easy wrap-around attempt to get the goal. make a 3-1.

I think if they didn't give up that goal, they could have had maybe a bit of a better chance in the third period to come back, but when they went down 3-1, it was basically over at that point. I know the Penguins have had a lot of crazy comebacks of this season with 10-0-3 goals, but it's just the way they were playing that period,

going into their period, I didn't really think they could get their first period magic back against Montreal. And you know what? You know, like I said, you're going to have some of those games. It's an 82-game season. The Penguins have been playing really well.

I think lately they had that, three-game winning street. You have Columbus coming to town tomorrow night, or it will be maybe tonight, if you guys listening to this, tomorrow night. And then you have Los Angeles coming to town. So still, the schedule, it's lightened up. You're playing teams that are not playoff teams right now. And you have the Western Canada boat trip coming up, which is always a fun one with all those

late night games. Edmonton is in the playoff picture of Calgary, Vancouver kind of. But still, the schedule is lightened up a bit, which is good. You can forget about this. that this is the game, you just throw it in the trash. You know, you say, put your arms up, you say, you know what? We lost. It's whatever.

And, you know, you get right back to basically, you know, just get right back to work. You know what I mean? There's really not much else to say. But like I said, Penguins will be back in action tomorrow night against the blue jackets. They'll try to take the second of third meetings against the jackets. So we'll be talking about that game in a little bit coming up in this podcast and how the jackets have been doing. And, yeah, basically, you know, there's really not much else to say about this game. It's just, you know, it's a sinker.

It happens, folks. All right, so I think another topic maybe to come out of this game is potentially, you know, the goaltending situation. You know, Jari finally had a little bit of a hiccup, you know, but shout out to Trish and Jari, though, he did break the penguin's all-time shutout record from Tomas Vocoon. And just a couple quick words about Thomas Vocoon. His career was sadly cut short due to a couple blood cuts. but man, he was so fun to watch back in 2013, 2012, 2013, when he was kind of like the 1B during the season, but then when he took over the playoffs, man, was he good.

He was just absolutely outstanding. He was always been one of my favorite goaltenders to watch even before coming to Pittsburgh. I was so happy when the Penguin signed him to come to Pittsburgh because they really needed it at the time, considering that Flurry was just a complete mess from the postseason before. Then, of course, here it was a complete mess in the first part of the postseason there. But congratulations to Justin Jari. I think it's now.

I think it's about 177 minutes is the shutout streak, which is obviously outstanding. But I'm really curious to see what the goal-tending situation is going to be moving forward. I think on Thursday, I think they may go back to Murray, considering I think this was maybe a little bit of the hiccup for Jari. This was, I think, his first full start this season. And if I'm not mistaken, I can look this up right now on hockey reference, where he didn't have over a 900% percentage in his first in a start, which is, you know, that's not been the norm virgin.

I don't really, like, obviously, guys, it's such a very small sample size. You know, this was, yeah, this is his lowest one, 880. You mean, he came in relief in the Vancouver game with $7.50, but it wasn't, oh. Oh, no, so actually, actually, my. apologies. So he had, it was the November 29th, I'm sorry, against the jackets, they gave up four goals. The Penguins also, that was a stinker of a game, so 862.

So that was just the second full start this season, that he was below 900. So, you know, there's not really been too much of them for Jari. But, you know, it's also a very small sample size. So you're going to have some of those sprinkle in at times. But as I think you may go back to Murray for this game. I just, I know Murray is Sullivan's guy. guy he always has been even even when Flurry would have like the

slightest hiccup in that 2017 run and when Matt Murray became healthy boom right back to Matt Murray and you know whenever I think a goalie like Jarre is going to have a slight hiccup I think Mike will go right back to Murray because that's been his guy for four seasons now ever since he's coming behind the bench and you know I think there's a very good shot

that we do see Matt Murray tomorrow night against Columbus if not then I think definitely potentially LA the Kings are not very good so It was one thing I wanted to say. And that's also, these are two games where I think you can get him back to the way that he should be playing. Their home starts.

I'd have to check the splits to see how good he is at home compared to how good he is on the road. But it's just, you know, he's coming off the win. I know they almost collapsed under him in the third period. But I think if the team, I think if he gets back to, if he plays gets a start at home, I think everything will start to get back in order for him. I mean, I really do believe that. but, you know, I've been rolling many times. So apologies also for me.

I'm saying, start-ering in a bunch of that. I don't know why I'm doing that right now. But let's go on to tomorrow night's game against Columbus. So the jackets come into this game, folks. 12 and 14 and 4. They've won. They did win their game, but they've lost six of their last 10 games. They've only, but, you know, they're still at the bottom of that Toronto Division.

They're only five points clear of the Devils. And the Devils have been putturally bad. They've lost six in a row. It's not as bad as the Red Wings who have lost 12 in a row. I think I saw a stat about the Red Wings. I think what is it? Four to five head coaches have been fired the last time the Red Wings won a game this season. That is, that's pathetic.

But the jackets, they have not really been that good this season. Their goal differential, minus 17. It's just, it's been a bit of a slippery slope for them. They did, though, whip the capitals up down in Washington on Monday on September 9th, 5-2. a lot before that, though, they lost to the Panthers, 4-1. They did lose to the Rangers. They lost to the coyotes, lost to the outender. So going into that game, they had actually lost,

actually, it was, but after they beat the Penguins, they actually, folks, they lost four, four games in a row. So the Penguins, so going into this game, they've still lost four of their last six games, so the Penguins, and the Penguins always usually play the jackets. Very, very tough each season, especially at home. I don't think the jackets have beat the Penguins, at PPG Paints Arena in nearly,

if I had to remember correctly, I think it's been almost three years since they've beaten the penguins in Pittsburgh. It's been quite a while. I think the penguins have a long home stand streak, a long point streak going up against them at home. The penguins almost never lose against the jackets at home. So like I said,

this will be the third of four meetings against the jackets this season. I think tomorrow, obviously, it'll be Corpusalo. And now they're not going to start that poor rookie that they started at it. beginning of the season that just got lit up by the penguins. The penguins put a touchdown up on him pretty, pretty, pretty badly. It was pretty funny to see it out of the penguin.

He just had no answer. But, you know, you always have to watch out for a lot of the Jacket Star players. You know, Cam Atkinson, I've always found him to be one of the most underrated players. I'm not just on his team because he is, but just around the league. He's always been one of those quiet 30, 35 goal scorers in the league. He's just, he's awesome to watch. You know, Seth Jones, Zach Werenczi, I think that's one of the more underrated top herrings in the league. I think it's one of the best top hearings in the league as well.

I also totally forgot that they signed Gustav Nyquist to a contract over the season. I remember when he scored in that last game, I was like, wow, yeah, I totally forgot that they signed him. And I think that signing went a little bit under the radar for a lot of teams. You know, Boon Jenner is still there. you know, he's always, you know, a bit of an annoying, you know, despite, you know, what some people think of his name. But, you know, he's always a bit of a menace, especially in front of the net. You know, Josh Anderson, he's always a bit of a menace.

You know, all their brooks, right. Pure look Dubois, looks like, you know, he's having, I think he's doing fine this season. You know, they still have Wendberg. You know, they're still trying to figure out, I think what more they have in him, considering he was just straight up awful on last season. There was a lot of bat that came with him. Riley Nash is there. you know, Sonny Milano, Dean Kukuin, you know.

But, you know, Corpus O' in that last game, when they beat the Penguins 5-2, he was 9.35, 31 shots allowed, 29 saves. I think that was also one of the Penguins' worst games of the season. And they actually tied after one period before the Penguins gave up three goals and the second period to – it was actually three goals. Gustav Nikes actually had a hat-trick in that game. It was his first hat-trick of the season. Then Nick Folino had the other two goals for Columbus.

but this is a game I think the Penguins can definitely win. The jackets have just not been that good this season. I don't really expect them to make the playoffs. I don't really think anyone expects them to make the playoffs this season or expected them to go into the season. Consider they lost, you know, Dushan, you know, they lost Paneran, you know, just a lot of their star talent. But I also didn't expect them to be, like, insanely bad as well.

I thought they would hang on a little bit like they are right now, but still, you know, they're only five points clear. The Devils for last place in the, you know, in the Metropolitan Division. It's just, it's been bad for them. I mean, with those four overtime losses, they're 12 and 18. Overall, in the Eastern Conference, they have the five for the second fewest points

in the conference with the Ottawa Senators. When you have as many points as you as the Ottawa Senators, I don't care if they play two more games than you. That's pretty bad, folks. That's pretty, pretty bad. So this is definitely, like I said, very one game for the Penguins. This would be a great time to get up back on.

track, you know, win four or five before a really bad team in the LA Kings comes to town on Saturday, and the Kings have also been dreadful. They have the least amount of points in the West, 12 and 18 and 2 through 32 games. They've lost 7 of 10 right now. They're minus 23 gold differential. Feel bad for Jonathan Quick being on a sinking ship. But, yeah, I'll be curious to watch the game tomorrow night, and we'll probably have an episode coming tomorrow night after the game.

That's the plan since I'll be done. with all my, I think I'll be done with all my exams. So for this last segment, and there's really not too much penguins-related content to talk about right now. There was some 31 thought stuff, I guess. I can go into a little bit. Elliot Freeman reported over the weekend on Hockey Nighting Canada,

the penguins apparently have been shopping Alex Gau Chen Yuck. Apparently, Freeman said today that before Josh Ely wrote the article with Jim Rutherford's comments about Gauteng, they have been snooping around shopping Gau Chen Yac a little bit, apparently. The Sabres have asked about him a lot. There was rumors about Ottawa. being asking about him, but apparently those were put to bed

quite quick. And then there's also some talk about Tristan Jari and Casey Disman. They're not really sure what they're going to do with their three goalies. Has she knew with Amory's contract extension looming since he's an RFA after the season. But anyway, for this last segment, there's been a lot of wild stuff going around the league lately, especially with this Jin Montgomery firing of the Dallas Stars. Casey's some of you guys missed it. And just the other day, Jim Montgomery, the Dallas Stars head coach, after a very, very bad start to the season, he got it turned around.

The Stars got back in the playoff picture. He was uninspectedly fired from the Stars. And I know this raised some eyebrows, like, whoa, is this another racism thing with Bill Peters? It's another thing to come out, like similar with Mike Backoff. Though Mike Bagfock was fired for how the team was playing, it was later announcing, you know, he treated some players really, really poorly. Then Bill Peters came out with the racist comments from a few seasons ago. he was like a lot of all the insiders peer lebron ellie freeman confirmed to his in his 31 thoughts he said nope guys it's it's not any of that apparently sources have told him it's a personal behavior issue that it was

apparently he said the person that he was told about it said to not really say anything about it because people i think that stars want to keep it close to the best apparently jim nil didn't even announce it at the press conference yesterday so i mean it sounds serious but um if i had to guess what it is I think it's some sort of gambling incident. You know, maybe he was gambling on his team to win. Apparently, Freeman, though, he did say today that there's been some talk, apparently that Montgomery, there's been talk that he likes to, like, go, like, hard after the games, like party off the ice or something.

I don't really know about that, but, I mean, who knows at this point? There's just been a lot of unprecedented firings, you know, just a lot of, you know, I think this is overall, I think this is going to be good for the league going forward, you know, especially to get some of these coaches out that I've had a lot of, you know, bad race, racist, what's the word I'm looking for? Just a lot of, you know, it's just a bad look. You know, like a coach is basically being racist towards players saying a bunch of slurs to them, you know, like maybe just, you know, being just, I mean, I guess just being assholes to them in a bad way.

Like, I don't care if, you know, you yell at a player, but, you know, when you, you know, bring race into it and you're saying a bunch of crap. just because, like, they're black or whatever, you know, there's a problem. And, you know, I'm not really sure what's going to happen with, with, what's, I mean, I hope that Jim Montgomery, like, what happened with him comes out. I mean, I think it eventually will. Someone, I think, is going to leak it eventually, you know, we're not going to be in the dark with this for forever.

But, yeah, that was just a really strange firing, personal behavior. Like I said, I think it's gambling. I mean, for a time, I thought it was maybe going to be that, you have an affair with his wife, but with someone's wife. That gets you fired in 2019. I mean, it's just, you know, I don't think that's something that gets you fired, but I don't know. But what, do you go to a strip club or something?

He would go to some other kind of club? I don't know. I really don't know. But it's pretty serious that, you know, he was fired from the stars. So, also, Peter DeVore was fired tonight out of the San Jose Sharks. Apparently it was brought to my attention. I also looked it up. The Sharks, even straight bulltending this season, has been 870.

that's bad that is very bad that is very bad the Martin Jones Arindell just just complete garbage and they've had these guys

for the past couple seasons and they have not done anything about it they just they bring them back and they don't care and it's like what is the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again

and expecting different results that's what they did and ultimately got DeBoer fired out of San Jose. They'd just been so up and down all season. They started out bad. Then they had a winning streak. Then they had another losing streak. Then they had another winning snake.

And now with this latest loose streak on this road trip, they had decided to cut ties with DeBoer. I really wouldn't be surprised if he potentially ends up back in New Jersey. You know, Ray Sherro, I think he could definitely go after him, considering, you know, Debrough, of course, was fired out of New Jersey a few seasons ago and was brought to San Jose. But I really don't think it's too unfair. I mean, I don't think it's fair that DeBoer got.

fired. I mean, I mean, I guess to make a change, because you're bad bulletin, you just fire the coach, I think, at this point. But, you know, whatever. You know, but, um, so that's it, I think for this edition of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I don't know, like I said, I'm sorry for all these stutters and whatnot. I don't know why my brain has been acting up all night. But I hope you guys liked this episode. We have to do with something a little different with the Jim Montgomery firing and, you know, the Peter DeBoer firing. But, um, let me guys know what you think. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, and we'll be doing, like I said, a couple times in the early episode.

We'll be doing another episode coming in tomorrow night after the game against the jackets, to dissect the game, who stood out, what went wrong, one right, and all that good stuff. And so, this has been another edition of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Thank you guys so much for listening, and we'll talk to you soon.