Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 12/12- Most Boring Win Ever

Episode Date: December 13, 2019

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter recaps one of the most boring games ever in this Penguins 1-0 overtime win against the Columbus Blue Jackets. He talks about Bryan Rust continuing to roll, Tristan Jarry's third shutout in four games, Kris Letang, and plenty more. He also talks about the Penguins-Jackets rivalry at the end and why it reminds him of Bengals-Steelers a little bit. 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. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show on Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. And so the Penguins just concluded their game, just as fresh off their win against the Columbus Blue Jackets. I won nothing overtime win thanks to Brian Russ. Another goal for him, I believe he's now into double digits. And we're already barely even in mid-December.

You know, last year for Brian Rust, he was not even close to double digit at this time. I think he had only four goals around this time. I think it was one year ago today that he had that Hattrick game that broke out of his long slump. I think he had one goal in 30 games start the season. A lot of it was bad luck, I would say. Another stuff, of course. But, yeah, this was a game, folks, that I tweeted this during the game. If you wanted to show someone hockey for the first time,

and like maybe you have a girlfriend or something. Say if you have a girlfriend or family member and you know, you're like, you know what? Let's put the hockey game on. I want to show you with one of my favorite sports and you showed them this game. I think you'd be probably giving them an apology after watching this game.

This is probably one of the most boring games I've watched in a long time. There's just nothing going on basically this entire time. The third period, it opened up maybe a little bit, but those first two periods, it was like, it was just a bunch of freaking, oh, it was just, it was a snooze test.

That's what it really was. And the penguins early on, they did get a three-on-one. I think it was like Gensil with Rust and Bluger, but there's a save there. Teddy Bluger had a couple other chances in the period that Corpusalo saved. Ted and Bluhr probably honestly could have had a hat-trick in this game. In the third period, he had a breakaway when the game was opening up just a little bit, but he shot wide of the net.

He was all over the ice, just flying around. round. I felt pretty bad that he didn't get a goal because he definitely deserved at least one, but maybe even two. I mean, like I said, he could have had a hat trick in this game if Corpusala wasn't standing on his head. But, yeah, let's just start with, I guess, with the overtime winner. So the Penguins got a power play in overtime, thanks to Crystal Tenging being all over the

ice. Hey, Penguins Chronicles, that was an awesome game from Crystal Taney because, oh, yeah, he has an awesome game almost every game he plays. And it's almost as if, yeah, he's allowed to have an off game sometimes, and that's how a lot of elite defensemen go. Just an absolutely outstanding game from Chris Letang. A big bounce back from last game where he was, you know, just turning the puck over just a little bit, a little bit too much,

and just out of sorts a little bit. But tonight, all over the ice good and in the defensive zone. He did get beat on a breakaway, but I thought Bjork-Den had to do a nice job shielding the puck from him. And then, of course, Trish and Jardman, outstanding Le-Tang, flying on the ice in overtime had a really good chance that was saved by Corpusallo and then as he was driving to the neck he kind of got slashed and that drew the power play so the penguins got the power play it was looking pretty bad at the start the first half of it

but then on a kind of a broken play this is why this sport is just so funny to me the tent kind of whiffs on the shop but it like goes towards the net and then right as as jones is about to clear it Russ lifts his stick and then pokes the puck backhand back hands of the puck short block or side five hole on

corpusolo and to win the game with about two two minutes left in the overtime just a little less than two minutes left and the Penguins

got to go home happy on ugly sweater night also if you guys didn't see Bob Aries outstanding ugly sweater

of Jake Gensel's face please go do so I think it's on the 18T Sports Nets page really it was just it was absolutely

hysterical just to watch I mean, just to see it, and then the interview was funny. But, yeah, Brian Russ is another, you know, ho-hum for him. You know, he's been absolutely great this year. He's been one of their best players. He does everything you ask him to, basically. And, you know, for a team that was short-handed, even more tonight,

I don't know why I didn't mention that Evgeny Malkin was sick for this game. He was out with his game for Niles. That's why Joseph Plain D.C. was recalled on an emergency basis this morning. look like there may be potential trade. But nope, it was just because Malkin was sick that Mike Sullivan announced. But, yeah, I mean, Brian Russ, I mean, he's just, is Jesse Marshall basically explained it on Twitter?

He's basically a verifiable giant offensively. He's doing all this, you know, without playing on Crosby's line. He did all this without playing on Malkins line at times. He's just, he's the complete package if you look for just one of those players. And, you know, he's been that way. ever since he came out with the penguins, it just took a matter of putting it all together, not going on these long lulls of not scoring

after like 20 games, 30 games. You know, he's finally putting it all together this season. And it's just been great to watch. He's been red-hot. I know he won a few couple games around scoring a goal, but you know what? That's part of the regression as a goal score. But he may start to heat up again, folks.

But everything about that overtime winner, that was just peak hockey. You knew that this game was going to be decided by like a fluky bounce, a fluky play. And, you know, none other than, of course, Custitang, kind of whiffing on the puck. It just went towards the net. And then, of course, Brian Rush just lifting, Seth Jones' stick to backhand the puck five-hole past Corpusallo. And the one thing about Corpossalo, he had an outstanding game last night.

I mean, last night, tonight. He was standing on his head the entire time. The Penguins were getting some really good looks on him. And, but, you know, we also could be the same for Tristan Jari, who, I mean, wow. I don't really know what else to say about Trish and Jari at this point, folks. That is three shutouts in his last four starts. And as a sample gets bigger and bigger and bigger, you know, we could be potentially saying that this may not be a fluke and that, you know, this could, you know, be the norm that, hey, this guy is a pretty freaking good goaltender. You know, like I've said it so many times.

It's early. You never know what can happen with goalies. A lot of it is voodoo. You know, they could regress it any time. but I mean, you know, just keep riding that hot hand. You know, I mean, I wasn't really too surprised as that Sella went back to Jari after he struggled just a little bit against Montreal, though I really don't think a lot of those goals were his fault.

I think the Penguins' poorest defensive coverage. But tonight he was absolutely rock, rock solid. Seeing everything, had a couple monster saves. The one on workstrand. He got past Latang. Dubois had a break away. I think he stopped at least, I mean, I mean, I know it was at least two breakaways.

I think it was around three to four breakaways in this game. He was seeing the puck, even though there was a screen in front. A really underrated play from Jari. Actually, I think this may have actually won them the game in overtime. He came out, it was almost as close to the blue line, and he got the puck up lights, only allowed one Columbus penalty killer to change on the four-on-three power play. And the others had to stay on the ice because they were so gassed.

I think Seth Jones was absolutely gassed towards the end of that because he couldn't get off the ice and neither could be the other player. And I think, was it Ryan Murray was the only one that was able to get off, or was he still, it was on out-to-go-boat double-back and check? But still, his puck handling is top-notch. I think he's probably, of all the goalies have probably watched the league. He's probably up there as one of the better puck movers behind the net. I remember, of course, you guys know,

we were always have a stroke if Mark Andre Fleury would come out of the net and play the pot because he's had so many problems before with a, you know, with a puck hopping over his stake and him trying to be too cute. playing the puck. But yeah, just another outstanding game for him. I think he's going to get the start against Los Angeles, so you could go to Murray because the Kings are so bad. But yeah, Ho-Hum, basically, with Tristan Jari. And the Penguins were able to get to 18 and 10 and 4, and for the time being third place in the Metropolitan Division for this game. So another thing I guess I wanted to

discuss, I think, for this game. The officiating, you know, there's one thing I always hate in these tight games. You know, I know the people say, well, you know, let the play, man. You know, let the play. They don't need to call penalties. It's such a tight game. It can cost them the game. Well, I mean, if a penalty is happening, you call it.

I don't care if the score is 7-0. I don't care if the score is 5 to 3. I don't care if the score is 4-2. I don't care if the score is 1-0 and if there's no score tonight. You call a penalty no matter what. I don't care, like I said, I don't care what the score is. And there were so a lot of instances in that third period where the, it was, I think, both teams, too. There were a couple of the penguins were getting away with a little bit of interference.

But towards the end of that period, it was basically like prison rules out there that Bacombolema was getting away with, you know, interference. There were some tripping minors that were going on called. And it's like, I mean, if you're not going to call those, like, why'd you call the one in overtime when that stakes are basically even higher where it's sudden death, except if it goes to a shootout almost. I mean, I just, that doesn't really make any sense to me, I guess. But, you know, the NFL's officiating has always just been so inconsistent. And, you know, everyone says, oh, Wes McColley, he's the best ref in the NHL, you know, especially with his penalty calls in the All-Star game where he's so, he gets really miced up about it.

He gets really, like, amped. But, you know, you know what? Newsflash, everyone, they all stink. It's not as bad as NFL refs with some of their calls, especially with Packers. interference. I could literally do a whole locked on Penguins podcast episode about pass interference. Maybe I will do that sometime and just roast the NFL for

their awful officiating. But yeah, the NHLs is not too much better. And that's just something that really grinds my gears every time I see it. I don't care which team it is. There's no favoritism or anything. It's just the NHEL's officials of refusal to just like

not call penalties. He goes, oh, the game is so tight. I don't know what it is. You know what? I just want to get that off my chest. That just really pisses me off when I see it for both teams. It's not just for the Penguins. It's for any game, like I said. For another thing to come out of this game,

I thought the Penguins were absolutely outstanding defensively. I think Columbus only had 17 shots on net for the entire game. It's not often when you hold a team under 20 shots for over 60 minutes. Really, it's not often. But the Penguins were able to do it. They were very stopped defensively. I know Columbus had a few breakaways, especially early in the third period. I know with DuBah, with Bork, Bjork Strand, and Jari stopped those.

But other than that, those few breakaways, the Penguins were absolutely outstanding defensively. They were limiting Columbus to the outside. They were limiting their chances even getting into their own zone. They were blocking shots. Those first two periods, it was like Columbus barely had any scoring chances. I think going into the third period, the high danger chances, I think I read it. at going in were about 5 to 1 Pittsburgh, but then it was 7.5 because a lot of the Columbus' high danger chances

came in the third period when the game started to open up just a little bit. But, yeah, I mean, just give credit to the Penguins defense. They were short-handed again with another Ford being out with Evgeny Malkin. But they did quite their job. You got to give a lot of credit to this defensive crew, who, of course, are still missing Brian Dumlin, who will be out for still about another, still two months now with that injury. to his ankle.

Yeah, just a lot of credit to the Penguins defense. And, of course, Trishon Jari for bailing them out a couple times with those saves on the breakaways. Let's see here. What else came in this game? Another strong game, I think, for Brandon Tanef. He was all over the ice again. You know, Sopi, if you guys have heard this before, but Tanev drew another penalty in this game.

You know, he still looks like he's on the record to, like, break the Penguins record for drawing the most penalties in a season or something. something like that. I don't have to go look up the stat for the most penalties drawn by a penguin. But, man, that pace early on in the season. Look, he was about to break it. But, you know, he's still doing those things. He's still being fast, tenacious with the puck.

He's still playing good on the PK. You know, just another, you know, like, you know, another ho-hum for Brandon Tanez. Another thing I wanted to talk about as well, actually, was it was an underrated play. I think it was about five minutes left, less than five minutes left in the third period. Columbus looked like they were breaking out on a two-on-one, potentially very, very dangerous situation. They tried to pass, and John Marino was defending the two-on-one, went right off his stick and into the corner,

just an outstanding play defensively by him to get his stick in there, prevent the pass because it would have been a little mini-breakaway for Columbus on Jari, and who knows, if you would have stopped it, though I would have liked his chances considering how he's been playing lately, but stale. This kid has just come a long way this season. Just another, it's just, like I said, it's just another ho-hum for him because he just keeps getting better and better out. Greg Wajinsky of ESPN actually wrote a great feature piece on John Marino,

I believe it came out yesterday morning. They just talked about, you know, like his playing career, like how he's just come up to Pittsburgh and been like that steady defenseman, you know, from Harvard and Edmonton and all that where he was traded. If you guys have not read that, please go check it out. It's a really good piece by Greg Wajinski. I retweeted it on my Twitter. I'm sure I think other people on Penguins Twitter have as well.

But I really like that play. Also tonight, it looks like guys, Zach Aston Reese is also continuing his very good defensively. According to Jesse Marshall on Twitter, he controlled 90% of the expected goals in this game. For those who you don't know, that is very, very good. Controlling 90% of the expected goals that, I mean, I know they didn't happen, but they could have happened. That's absolutely outstanding. That just goes to show that he's playing. at a very, very high level right now.

And, you know, he's also playing good defensively. You know, they can put him in any spot. And, you know, he's got to keep playing like this. He's going to keep getting roster time. Alex Gowchenyuk, I actually thought tonight that he actually had his best game of the year. I mean, it was one of them, you know, he was actually looking pretty good out there. He wasn't really making too many boneheaded mistakes. Getting a lot of scoring chances.

Like, the poor guy, man. I know he only has two goals, but, man, Corpusalo was just stoning him on all. these chances. He had chances on the power play. He had chances even strength. It was just almost like every time he came on the ice, he was getting chances tonight. And I just, I felt bad because he wasn't really capitalizing on these chances at all. And like I said, I thought this was one of his better, better games for the Penguins. I know he's really struggling a lot lately. And of course, his name has come up in trade talks. And rightly so, considering his performance this year has been subpar.

at best. I think that's a nice way to put it. But yeah, who else am I forgetting for this performance? Jake Gensel, he was promoted to first line center tonight with Evgeny Malkin. How they moved him to center since he usually plays winning. I thought

Gensel really didn't look out of place there. I think it's one of his, I think his center is his natural position he's played before he came to the Penguin. So like I said, he didn't really look out of sorts at all. He was good scoring chances. He was getting close, potentially bearing his 18th goal the season, which would still be a team high.

He's on pace for 43 goals right now. You know, another ho-hum. I'm just going to keep saying that, you know, this episode. You know, another ho-hum game from Jake Gensel, just very good. I thought Jared McCann was getting some chances. A lot of them he had blocked. But Comas was doing a good job getting into lanes and blocking some shots. And also, I want to say about blocking shots.

I think about Penguins did a really good job of blocking some shots. You know, even though when Columbus would get a little bit of his own time, the Penguins were always had a body in front to block it before it got to Jari. So props to that. And I thought this was just a really good performance by the Penguins, all things considered. You know, just, you know, I don't really think a lot of people expected them to get the win, especially without both Sidney Crosby and of Getty Malkin out of the lineup.

But there was an interesting stat before the game, according to Bob Grove, apparently without Crosby and Malkin in the lineup I'm trying to find this stat right now I love how I can just scroll his Twitter so when playing at home without Crosby and Malkin they're 14 and 6 and 2

they were 6 and 1 in the last day now so now make it 7 and 1 in the last 9 home games without Crosby and Malkin I don't know how that's possible so and so here's the overall staff. In 50 old time regular season games played without Sid and Gino, they're 29 and 15 and 6, and in their last 20 games, now it'll be 21, they're 15 and 4 and 2. How is this possible? How is this possible? I don't understand how the team is that good without their two superstars and their

two superstars sounders out, but it's pretty crazy. I would expect if any mall can be ready to play on Saturday, I might hope his sickness would be away by then. But, you know, just a really good performance on all things considered. Thank God lastly for this last segment. I want to talk a little bit about just about like the all-time series with the jackets and the penguins. Whenever these two teams play,

it's basically like, you know, it's like the, I've always compared it to like the Steelers and the Bengals, and of course it's a Pittsburgh and an Ohio team, but it's Big Brother basically versus Little Brother. And like the Bengals, you know, they consider the Steelers their top rival. Nothing ever tops that. The Steelers really don't consider the Bengals their

rival. Obviously, that's the Ravens. But the Blue Jackets consider the Penguins, you know, their big rival, you know, everything involves being in the Penguins. And of course, the Penguins, they have about maybe three or four other teams that are bigger rivals than them. And, you know, this game is just another case of, you know, Big Brother beats Little Brother. And going into this game, actually, in Pittsburgh, the jackets were 0 in 5 and 3 in their last 8 games in Pittsburgh. So now it is 0 in 5 and 4 in their last 9 games. So in all time in this city, according to Aaron Portsline, the jackets were four and 13 and three going into this game. So now they are four and 13 and four.

So in all time, both rings. So at PPG Paints Arena and Mellon Arena, the old Igloo, they've lost 17 of 21 games in Pittsburgh since coming back to the NHL. The last win actually in Pittsburgh, I remember this game, was 2-1, November 13th, 2015. Now, if I'm not mistaken, I think, at the end of the NFL. Sergei Barbarowski did not start that game. I think it was the backup that was on Toronto for a very, very long time. I'm trying to remember his name. I think it's going to come up at some point.

I had this name in the back of my head. I know who it is if someone just says it was not Corpusole or anything. But the Penguins there were down to 2-0 in that game. They scored a late goal to make it 2-1, and then they pushed at the end, but they couldn't get the win. But, yeah, so it's basically been four years. It's going to go into 2020 that the jackets have not beaten the penguins in Pittsburgh. It's pretty crazy to consider.

And, you know, they've lost 17 of 21 games in Pittsburgh, whether it's Mellon Arena or PG-Paints arena. And the jackets, you know, I mean, a lot of people saw this coming with them. A lot of people really didn't think they were going to be good this year, obviously, because, you know, you lose Panarin, you lose Bobovsky, you lose Dushin, you lose Dzingle. You know, of course, you know, Brandon Sod's not there. anymore. And their best player just came back and said there's just not a lot of high-end talent in Columbus.

I love Seth Jones. I think he's awesome. I love Zach Brinsky was on the ice, but he did not play tonight. I actually forgot that he was out of the lineup when I was previewing this game yesterday on the podcast, which is unfortunate. I should have done that. But yeah, it's just I'm not really sure what their plan is moving forward. I mean, I know they have Nick Polino, Josh Anderson, Brandon Dubinsky's hurt.

It's just they have a lot of young guys in there I don't really trust their goaltending And I mean, and I think they're still now I think there's still about 10 points out of the playoffs I'm 9 10 points out I mean we know they're not making it in this year But like I said I really don't know what their plan is I'm not really sure I don't think really think

John Torrella is going to get fired anything considering he just won the team's first Playoff Series this past year Against the Joggernaut that was in Tampa Bay Lightning He'll be there definitely going into next season and they're not going to can him. But, yeah, I'm not really sure what their plan is moving forward. But apparently tonight, there was a long time after the game,

their dressing room had not opened up. So it looks like they were having a team meeting after the game as they've now lost five out of six. And the jackets, they're just not playing good hockey right now. I know they've gotten some loser points. But overall, they just keep losing games. But, you know, even though after they crushed Washington 5 to 2 in D.C., you know, they lay another egg after laying a few eggs before the Washington game.

It's just, it's tough sledding going on right now in Columbus. There's just, you know, they need that, they need that Panarin type player back, a guy that, a superstar player that can, you know, win them a playoff series, get them back to the playoffs. Because right now, folks, they're not getting into the playoffs. But, yeah, I figure that would be a good way to wrap it up. You know, talk about the history of the Penguins Blue Jackets and, you know, why, you know, I mean, it's basically behind, you know, the Rangers, the Capitals, the Flyers.

Hell, I put the Bruins, I put the Islanders, I probably put at least five teams over the Blue Jackets as a main rival to the Penguins. Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Locked-on Penguins. We'll have another one coming tomorrow. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do for it yet.

I don't really think we need to preview a game against the Los Angeles Kings where we know too much about them. Though I may talk about Drew Dowdy a little bit and why he's such a baby towards Matthew Kachuk. I don't really know what his problem is with why he gets so mad over what Matthew Kichuk says.

It's like, he has like rent-free real estate. It's basically like Tom, it's like someone, it's like Tom Wilson living in Jim Ruther's head when he was trading for Eric Good Branson and all that crap, except like it's a player living inside this player's. I just, I find that really funny. But like I said, guys, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Locked on Penguins, and we'll talk to you guys soon.