Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 1/24- All-Star Weekend, plus Mailbag time!

Episode Date: January 24, 2020

In this episode of Locked On penguins, Hunter goes through the different skills competition for all-star weekend and gives his predictions as to who he thinks will win each one. He also goes through each division's roster for the actual game and gives his thoughts on who will win the all-star game. Finally, he answers a few listener mailbag questions to end the show! 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 Friday afternoon episode 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. In case you guys missed it yesterday, Chad, 412 on Penguins' Twitter, came on yesterday. We had a really outstanding episode, and he laid down the hammer on a lot of topics, including the Murray-Flurry Murray-Jari debate, Jason Zucker, Penguin's potential need for a defenseman. So go back maybe through my tweets or just go on Apple, Spotify, if you want to subscribe and listen to that. It's one of my longer episodes, but it's definitely worth the listen. It was a lot of fun to have chat on. And I'm definitely going to have him on at some point in the future, probably before the trade deadline or potentially for a playoff preview.

It was that good. But today, so there's not too much, well, going on in Penguin Land, I should say. But of course, tonight is the All-Star Skills Competition. The All-Star weekend for me, it's nothing that I take super serious. I'm not like too, too big on it, though. I do usually will watch the Skills Competition. I think the Skills Competition is actually fun to watch. It beats the All-Star game, which, you know, they've made them more fun with three-on-three.

I like that they're doing a women's tournament as well, getting some of the top women's players in, including them, and the All-Star format, which is awesome. That should have been, that should have happened, I think, a long time ago. It's quite great to see that the NHL is doing that. they're recognizing women's hockey. I know the boomers out there, or some boomers out there are probably a little upset by that. You know what?

They can just get bent for getting mad about that. There's a lot of outstanding women's hockey players out there that are going to be on the ice tonight that are just so good. But for the Skulls competition tonight, I figure I just go over, you know, what's going on. So, of course, you have the fastest skater. There's eight players that compete in it. So Jack Eichol, the Buffalo Sabres,

Nathan McKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche, McDavid of the Oilers, Matt Barzile of the Islanders, Chris Kreider of the Rangers, Anthony Duclair of the Senators, Travis Keneckney of the Flyers, and Quinn Hughes of Anacuver Canucks. It's going to come down to probably McKinnon or McDavid. Those two are, I think, the two fastest players in the league. I think, you know, you pick your poison. It's probably going to be one of those two that wins it.

I would not surprise me in the slightest if it's McDavid. Also wouldn't surprise me if it's McKinnon. They're both like lightning bolts. They have lightning speed. I don't know why I said it both times of lightning. but they're just, they're that good, and they're that fast. So if I had to pick a winner, I'm probably going to go with McDavid, though I think McHenon good give them a good push.

I think McDavid has won this event before. I think he may have won it actually last year. Excuse me. So that's always fun to watch. Apparently, there's the save streak. So goalies will be, this will be eight goalies. So a minute number four goalies, all 36 skaters, will participate in the Bud Blight NHL save streak,

which is a shootout group by division where goalies compete to make the most consecutive saves. So, yeah, they brought this back. This one's a lot of fun to watch, too. So of the goalies, David Ridditch of the Flames, Tristan Jari of the Penguins will be competing in this. I would love to see him win. Jordan Vittington of the St. Louis Blues,

Andre Basilewski of the Tampa Lightning. Frederick Anderson of the Maple Leafs, Jacob Markstrom of Vancouver, Braden Holpey of Washington, and Conra Hellebuck of the Winnipeg Judge. It's very surprising to me that. I forgot that Brayn Holpey has made it to All-Star Week, and considering that this season that he has had,

I really don't think he's really don't. deserving of being there, but you know what? He's a household name. He's been one of the best goalies in the league, but he just hasn't been at his normal level. But if I had to pick a winner here, I don't see him to go with Bennington or Vasilevsky, though. I'd be definitely rooting for Tristan Jari.

So, the boy with the longest consecutive shave streak during his time and net will be the winner of the Bud Light and HL save streak. So these two are definitely, I think, the most fun, the fastest skater and the save streak. That's really cool. Also, the other one is accuracy shooting. We see that all the time, you know. The shooters position 25 feet from the goal line.

You know, you just shoot pucks at the target images. So Jacob Slavin of the Hurricanes, Tyler Bertuzi of Detroit, Leon Drysidal of the Oilers, Jonathan Huberto of the Panthers, Nico Hesia of the Devils, Tomas Hurdle of the Sharks, Alex Petrangelo, LeBules, and Mark Shifley of the Jets. Man, I'm not really sure who may win this one. There's not a lot of big household names in here. I'm going to go with the winner, you know, I'm going to go with Drysidal.

I think Drysidal has the chance to win this. You know, I think this is probably one of the most of all the ones I've seen so far. This is probably the one that's the most open for anyone to win. Those three are always a lot of fun to watch. So this is the new one, of course, Elite Women's Three on Three, the two teams, the American All-Stars and the Canadian All-Stars, will go head-to-head in a three-on-three, two ten-minute periods with a running clock. So on the American team, you have Brianna Decker, Amanda Kessel, Best Kessel, Hillary Knight,

Kendall Coyne, Alex Carpenter, Lee's Decline, and then just to name a few, and then on Canada, you have Sarah Nurse, Rebecca Johnson, Megan Augustus, Natalie Spooner, Renata Foss, Laura Fortino. So that's what I was talking about earlier. This is another one that I'm really, really looking forward to watching tonight. And I hope the crowd down in St. Louis is really looking forward to it as well. You know, I can't wait to see some stupid boomers tweet out about this when there's literally nothing wrong with this.

It's brand new. It gets women's hockey on a more national stage, which is just awesome, and I'm really just excited to watch this. The hardest shot, so this year it'll be Mark Giordano, Seth Jones, Shea Weber, Victor Headman, Elias Peterson, and John Carlson. This is probably Shay Weber's one to lose. He's a three-time winner. So they attempt two shots measured in, you know, Miles per hour at the highest speed of their two shots recorded.

Like I said, I'm probably going to go with Shea Weber on this one, though Seth Jones can make a case because he booms it as well. But, you know, also last year, John Carlson is the reigning champion, so he's going to try to defend his crown. But I'm going to go with Shea Weber this year. I think he's going to be able to do it. And also there's a shooting stars. So this is a new one this year. So 10 players will compete in the shooting stars.

Players will be positioned on an elevated platform behind the goal, 30 feet above the ice surface, where they will shoot puck at a variety of targets. Each target possessing different point values. I'm literally just reading this off NHL and NBC's website. So please don't be mad at me. So they'll basically attempt seven shots and earn points for each target hit. Today will be David Posternock, Matthew Kuch, Patrick Kane, Tyler Sagan, Brady Kuch, Ryan O'Reilly, David Perron, Mitch Marmer, and a woman's elite all-star and a woman's lead all-star from Canada in the U.S. So there'll be a women's elite all-star from both of those teams.

So if I had to pick a winner here, I'm not really sure. I may go with, I don't say I may go with Tyler's. Sagan here. I think he has the opportunity to win this, but it looks like that is all for the skills competition tonight. A lot of really cool new ones that they're adding in, especially the women's three-on-three. Like I said, I can't wait to do that, but the accuracy shooting is awesome. The same streak is always fun with the shootout. You always get to see people dress up in funny costumes. Remember with Brett Berg dressing up as Chewbacca. Some of the people will bring their kids on the ice. The fastest skater is also a lot of fun. You get to see how these players fly.

a shot. You could see who booms a slap shot. Then the shooting stars, I'm looking forward to seeing that. So, like I said, of all the, of all the skills competitions, I think I like the, I just, of all the skill, of all like the all star weekend festivities, I don't know why I keep messing up. Of all the all star weekend festivities, the skills competition is, I think, much better than the game. I just, the all star game is just, it's never just been really that much fun to watch. Even with that they've switched to a three on three format, it's just kind of because afterwards it's like okay the season's back on like it's just it's just an unnecessary pause I think in the season I hope that um someday we don't have an all-star game and maybe we

have then she'll go back to the Olympics but you know what we'll see I don't really know if Gary Batman and then will ever do agree to go back but you know that's just the NHL for you the best sport and the worst league that's that's just for damn sure so then of course we have the all-star game tomorrow this will be an eight o'clock star sometimes it's been on a Sunday, but the alt-star fish days will conclude tomorrow night. They will be, of course, the Alstery game is in St. Louis. So we'll have the Central Division. So therefore, the roster for the Central Division, Patrick Kane, Nathan McKinnon, Ryan, O'Reilly, David Perron, Mark Schifley, Tyler Sagan, Eric Stahl.

On defense, he of Roman Yosey and Alex Patrangelo, goaltender, Jordan Bennington, Conra, Hellabuck, and the coach will be Craig Buruby, so the Central Division, of course, very, very sack, Pacific. Tomas Hurrell, Leon Drysidal, Connor McDavid, Anj, Copetzer, Ler, Lerl, Lerner, Lias Pedersen, Pax-Batteretti, Matthew Kachuk, Marks, Jacob Markstrom, and Dave Ridditch, and then the coach is Rick Tockett. I don't really think the Pacific Division is going to win. For the Atlantic, Tyler Pertuzzi,

Anthony Duclair, Jack Eichle, Jonathan Huberdow, Mitch Marner, Austin Matthews, David Poston, and Brady Kachachuk on defense from Victor Hedeman and Shea Weber, goalies, Frederick Anderson, Andre Vasselovsky, and Coach Bruce Cassidy and Net. And then, but of course, Austin Matthews will not play, in the All-Star game as he's sitting out. But from the Metropolitan Division forward,

see Matthew Barzell, Nico Heeshire, Chris Kreider, Travis Kenecki, T.J. O'Shee. On defense, John Carlson, Seth Jones, Chris Laeang, who's the captain, Jacob Slavin, and then the goalie's Tristan Jari and Braden Holpey, and the coach will be Todd Rear. And so if I had to pick who is going to win the All-Star game and, you know, which lineup will win.

I'll probably have to go with the Central. I think they have the most talent. The Metro this year is a lot. weaker than in recent years. Usually the Metro will have Alex Ovechkin, but of course he's skipping this year. Sidney Crosby did not play enough games. For some reason, of course he was hurt. For some reason, um, Evgeny Malkin was not included, um, to come to the All-Star game,

which I don't know why he wasn't selected in considering the season he's had. Brian Russ did not, uh, did not come in. I ever someone, especially like, I don't know why he didn't go over someone like Travis Kinnakeney. Um, pretty, pretty weird. But, you know, I know they have bars out. Nico Heeshier, though. Uh, Chris Kreider, you know, he's having a really, really good. year but their defense is awesome but I just really like the central division you know with

cane mcannon shy fleets to say again I think they have um the most talent I know the Pacific has you know McDavid and dry sidle but I think um overall I think I'm gonna take the central to uh win this they also have Jordan mid internet but you know what with three on three you never know I mean it's basically kind of a joke at this point um with the all-star game everyone just kind of screws around out there you know there's more goals score on the all-star game in a single game, you know, then probably two games combined between two NHL teams throughout a season. So, I mean, you know, it's just, it'll still be, a lot of people will still tune in. You know, I can't wait for, I think, if Mike Milberry calls the game, you know, can't wait for

that. I think that's going to be really funny. I don't know why he's still, I'm an NHL and NBC analyst, considering the way that he talks about stuff, but you know what? I could spend a whole week, I mean, I could probably spend a whole week, a whole few episodes talking about why Mike Milbury is so bad at his job. But, you know, hopefully the coverage for tonight on NBC is better than in years past. I've waited a while for someone to help take the rights away from NBC,

considering that it's just been, you know, it's just been not as good as it normally has been for NBC, some of the analysts. You know, I don't know if Jeremy Rodick will be there tonight, considering what happened earlier with his suspension. He's a very, very weird, interesting guy. You know, he gives good interviews sometimes, but otherwise he's just, you know, he just, he asks a lot of, like, weird questions. But, you know, I'm just, you know, like I said, I'm excited for the skills competition. You know, I'm not really excited for the game. You know, I'll definitely put on the skills competition.

Maybe I'll go out to a bar, have a drink, watch it or something. But I'm not really, really sure at this point. There's really not much else I could really say about it other than that. You know, I just, I think the central is, I just, I think I think it's going to win. I think they have the best roster of all the teams. It's kind of, you know, there's a lot of, there's obviously a lot of the best players there, but it seems like it's a lot weaker than in years past,

considering some other high-end talent is not there. Like Matthews, you know, Crosby, Ovechkin, Malkin, just, you know, of course, I don't really think who else is not there. You know, Aaron Carlson's not there. You know, Brent Burns, it doesn't look like, is on the team this year. So, you know, there's just a lot of, you know, some of the usuals.

that are missing from this year's rosters. But don't forget for the advertisers, you know if you've been a listener to this podcast, I'm sure you've heard all the great advertisers working with Lockdown to reach sports fans, but you may not know that Locked on Penguins is a great way for your local business to be passionate Penguin fans, just like you.

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who you are. We'll get our team to help your team achieve Lockedon Advertising success. Once again, text the word advertising to 33777 or visit Lockdownpodcast.com slash advertising, and we really look forward to hearing from you about that. All right, so for this last segment, I figured, you know, we could do, you know, a few mailbag questions. I tweeted out earlier. I got a few questions for today, just only really three. Of course, we'll start King Clarkie.

You know, Clark, one of my favorite follows on Penguins, he's a riot. He DMs me a lot of funny shit. So let's assume the Penguins get beat to Zucker like Vegas, which winger should be the next priority target. Really, really good question, Clark. You know, I think we maybe have to go after Tyler To Foley. And I know he's a rental. I know his contract expires over the season. You may have to give up a pick for him or who cares maybe a little more.

But, you know, Tyler To Foley, he's a good player. You know, you can probably put him on the wing just so far this year in 49 games. 12 goals, 27 points, but, you know, a lot of that is on one of the worst teams in the Western Conference. The Kings are just absolutely terrible. They've been bad for the last handful of seasons now. Last year, he had 13 goals, 34 points in a full way to same season. this season before that he had a 24 goal season with 47 points. So he's had double-digit goals ever since 2014.

His highest came in 2016 when he had 31 goals and 58 points. Ever since then, his highest-scoring season was his 2017-18 season. His age-25 season has 47 points. But I think you can stick him next to Crosby. I think he could do really, really well. He already has 12 goals with the King's team that is just terrible offensively. I think that would be a really, really good addition. And other names, you know, maybe Chris Kreider, but, you know, would the Rangers want to trade him, especially to a Metropolitan Division rival?

I'm a little skeptical on that, but I think for one winger, I would go after Tyler DeFoli. I think Rob Blake could be had. I really don't think they would get as good of a return as they normally could. And besides, the trade market this year for players looks like it's probably one of the worst that's been in a long time. It just, you know, I was looking at the trade bait board yesterday the other day, of course. Mark Martinez was like the second best player on the board according to Frank Zerebelly. That's absolutely pathetic.

That he's number two. That's just sad at this point. Coach T, I coach hockey, one of my favorite follows on Penguins' Twitter. Who's more likely to start in net for game one of the Stanley Cup playoffs? Of course, yes, depending on zero going to make the playoffs. They're not just going to collapse. They have almost everyone healthy at this point. Coach D is a really, really good question.

I'm going to go with Matt Murray. I really do think that he will get the nod in game one. he's really starting to rebound. Now going into the all-star break, he's at 5 to 6 straight. Really, really good games for the Penguins. His same percentage is rebounding. I think in those 5 to 6 games,

his say percentage has been over 920. And, you know, his numbers are trying to come around. He's been really, really good in the third period lately. He won them that game against the Bruins. He deserves to get more starts going forward. Though I think coming out of the break, they're probably going to still keep doing this 1A, 1B stuff. So, you know, maybe a starter boomer.

You know, who knows. But, you know, if I had to make a bet right now and make a wager on it, I think Matt Murray is more likely to start. And that's not to take away anything from Drishinjari. I think if you started him in game one, I think it would be fine considering the way the season that he's having and the way that he's just burst onto the scene so unexpectedly and given the Penguins really, really good goaltending. But I think that he should, I think that he's, you know, his numbers have gone down a little bit lately. But I think that, and with that, Matt Murray has been playing really, really, really, well lately, I'd give him the starting game one. If game one, if

the playoffs started around Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday next week, he would be my starter, and I think he will be the starter come April. And last but not least, Alan T. Yoder. So, he asked if the penguins can play like they did before the Boston loss, which was, of course, last week,

and then, of course, after they won, do they really need a trade to replace against? So I personally wouldn't want to risk it for another Brissard Lake trade. Would you consider, and then he asked another question, would you consider Gow Chenya to be another Bresard. So for your first question, yes, I do think they still need a trade to replace Jake.

Jake, you can't just replace a 40-goal score in the blink of a nine, you know, just by plugging in, you know, a guy who played in the top nine. You need to go out and get someone established, in my opinion. You know, a Jason Zucker kind of player does that. He also has term left on his contract. I think, like I said, he has two to three years left on his contract. You can probably pry him out of Minnesota for not so high of a price. I think wild fans would be very underwhelmed by the return that he would get, considering that trades have happened nowadays, and especially deadline trades.

You know, trades for these kind of players, the prices go down. You know, not a lot of teams are wanting to pay such high prices. And with that, the prices go down. So I still think they need a winger to replace Jake. You know, I know if they go far in the playoffs, Jake could potentially come back. It's very, very likely that if they get to the third round, he may be there waiting for them. And that makes the team that much scarier. You know, you just, he's just, he's such a great player, and it sucks that they lost him.

And, you know, you need all the help that you can get to help replace his contribution, because it's not just the power play that he affects. A lot of what he produces all of his goals, a lot of them come in even strength. He's, you know, he's, some people used to say, oh, yeah, he's a product of Cindy Crosby. He's never been a product of Cindy Crosby. He produces anywhere on the lineup you can put him in, and he will produce goals. He's just, he's that good. So, yes, I still think they need to trade a tour play Scouts.

So I know people wouldn't want to risk it because of something like Derek Brassard. Though, you know, I would make that kind of trade for Brassard again. It's just the thing with Derek Brassard is it just didn't work out. Like something just that was lost within his game because before that he was actually playing really, really well with the senators. And then with the Rangers before that. And then he got here and he just fell off with Gleft for whatever reason. So I don't really know what it is. I think if you get someone like Jason Zucker, he's proven to play in the top six.

He can play in the top six every night. So, you know, that's perfectly fine. And then, so what I consider Alex Galenio to be another bizarre? Yeah, I would. Kind of, yeah. I mean, Alskow Cheny, the return for Phil Kessel was already bad enough as it was when it was first announced. I thought that Al-Chergian could actually contribute in this lineup and get 15 to 20 goals. I'll take the L on that.

I'm eating all the crow on that right now. That was just a terrible, it was just, the trade was just even worse. You know, they're probably going to have to dump them, you know, before the deadline. It looks like, you know, I was beating. Pierre Lerun's article on the athletic this morning. You know, it sounds like that the penguins are going to shop him. They're going to keep shopping in to try to maybe get a bottom six forward or potentially a draft back, you know, just really just try to get anything in return for Alasko Cheney.

He's just not benefited. And also, you know, that clears almost $5 million in salary to, you know, go out and make more moves. You know, the penguins are really flexible with the cap right now, which is not usually the case. But, you know, coming out of the break, the penguins are also going to get a chance to see a lot of what their fully healthy lineup looks like. is Jake Gensel. Justin Schultz is going to be ready next weekend. I think Brian Dumlin is going to be getting really close to being ready, which the defense will be healthy.

I think Nate Bukstad is getting closer. So that's three more injured players. Kudomeney back from a concussion. So that's four injured players potentially coming back, hopefully pretty soon. And then your only player out is just Jake Gensel. So Jim will get to see what a fully healthy Penguins team looks like without, of course, the loss of Jake Gensel, without Jake.

So thank you guys for the questions. I really appreciate you guys. you know, contributing to helping the podcast and just asking some really, really good questions about trades. You know, who would want to start in the playoffs? I really appreciate that. Enjoy the skills competition tonight, everyone. It's a lot, like I said, so many times, it's a lot of fun to watch. And then enjoy the All-Star game tomorrow. If you guys tune into it. I like that. It's at night now sometimes. They've started in the afternoon on a Sunday for some reason, which is dumb. But the good thing is, you know, they're not going up against the – and she'll not going up against the NFL this weekend.

the playoffs. The Super Bowl will be next weekend. So thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Blockdown Penguins. We'll have more content coming next week. I'm going to try to get some more guests on. I'm working on a couple right now. And I'm just a little bit of surprise when they do come on. So thank you guys so much for listening again. Have a marvelous weekend.

Go have fun watching the skills competition. And we will talk to you guys again starting on Monday. All right. Take care, everyone.