Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 12/5-Blues Game Recap, Alex Galchenyuk talk, plus more Taylor Hall talk

Episode Date: December 6, 2019

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter recaps the game against the Blues and how it was one of the top five wins of the season for the Penguins. He also discusses Josh Yohe's recent article about Alex Galchenyuk, plus give's his thoughts about what GMJR had to say about his performance so well. He then goes into more Taylor Hall trade talk since he's going to be a hot commodity on the trade market. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to this Thursday, December 5th edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow my Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. Good thing I didn't butcher that. Like the last time I had this episode, would have been a disaster. And we have a lot to get into today. So the Penguins obviously did not have an episode yesterday.

But the Penguins had a really nice win against the St. Louis Blues, shutting them out, 3-0. The defending champions came in. It was a home-and-home for the Penguins, but it was not a whole-home. home and home for the St. Louis Blues as they did a game on Monday that they won. The Penguins, they were able to shut them out, and they got the 3-0 win to get it. And, you know, they badly needed that after getting no points over the weekend against the Blue Jackets, and, of course, the Blues, who they played on Saturday night.

So the Penguins get the revenge after losing their version of the home and home. And this was, I think, the win of the season, or one of the probably the top five, top three wins of the season. Trishin Jari, let's just start there. another miraculous performance. He was seeing the puck well. The whole game, there was a flurry of chances in the second period where he just, he was kicking them away like it was nothing. He was just absolutely outstanding.

28 saves on 28 shots, another performance where he's above, well above, I mean, well above 920, 930, and that's just another starting. You know, the more that this talk gets talked about, you know, he's going to have to keep getting more starts. And, you know, I've been on a, it's probably been a broken record, I'd say, for just talking about it. But, I mean, the way that he's playing right now, I mean, you're getting a little closer to potentially a goalie controversy here. I still don't think it's there yet. I still think this is Matt Murray's net when he's fully on his game.

He's fully healthy. But when your starting goaltender is not playing well and he's not giving you the best chance to win, you ride with a backup until his numbers regress. Because at some point they will regress, I think. I don't think he's going to be able to keep this high-level play up. But, you know, he's definitely given the Penguins a little bit to think about right now. And definitely Mike Solomon as to who he should start on a nightly basis. Obviously, they're going to split this weekend. I guess Murray will go against Detroit.

That's where I would do. I mean, this next start for Murray is big. It's against a Red Wings team that, excuse me, has, I think it's the worst goal differential in the league. even one of the worst teams in the league all season. They just don't have a lot of talent on there. And you would just go Tristan Jari against Arizona on Friday night as Arizona has been a really good team this season. They're in a playoffs right now in the Pacific Division in the top three

in their division. And yeah, that's what I would keep doing. I mean, I would keep giving Jari starts. Of course, you don't need them go back to back. I mean, you have two really good, capable number one goaltenders. But, you know, that was just, what a performance off from Trish and Jari. I'm running out of things to say about just how good he's been. It's awesome.

And, you know, like I said, keep giving him more starts. If he turns out, if he starts regressing back a little bit, then you know what? You just give his starts back to Moran and hope he bounces out of this song. But he should hopefully bounce out of this funk regardless. I thought defensively, this was one of the Penguins' best games of the season, limiting chances. The Penguins just, they bullied, they just bullied the Blues all night long.

It was a pretty interesting sight to behold. The Penguins overall, they finished with 58% possession-wise, 58% of the shot attempts. Penguins in the first period alone in that game, 64% of course he found with possession-wise. Second period, it was evenly played, I think. The Blues, that's when they, of course, had their pushback. And then in the third period, 60% of the Penguins, 40% to lose.

They held the Blues to barely over 40% possession-wise. And that's one of the best. they're usually one of the better possession teams in hockey. So just a really great defense performance. Jack Johnson missed the game with an illness. Saw really some really funny tweets during the game. Oh, he missed the game with diarrhea. It's like, you guys are just...

And all those jokes just get to be pretty good. But John Marino took Dumlin's place after, of course, Dumlin got hurt, and he did not look out of place again. This kid just keeps getting better and better. He played all the minutes with Crystal Tang, who had a really, really nice game. No big errors from Crystal Tang. really good offensively.

But yeah, I thought, you know, great game from Chris LaTang. Chad Rueudu was inserted in the lineup, of course, for Jack Johnson. I thought he looked fine. That penalty that he took, it kind of looked like it should have been a four-on-four. I thought it was a little, maybe a bit of a slewfoot. I could be wrong, though. But Zach Trotman, I've never just really been impressed with him, but I thought he was okay. Marcus Pedersen, status quo with him.

Penguins did open the scoring thanks to a Marcus Pedersion shot, but it was deflected by Teddy Bluger, less than a. minute into the game, thought, you know, the hanglings were going low to high. If you guys missed it, Mike Sullivan had a really good explanation about that during the first period when he was talking to Brian Boucher, who thankfully has taken over for P.M. McGuire. I can't stress enough how much better Brian Boucher is at that job than Pierre McGuire, because Pierre will just spit out these, like, he is an encyclopedia, but like all the times the facts are just like, dude, who cares? And like Brian Boucher, like, he actually brings a lot more

the broadcast because like more X's and O's talk and just like better it's just the broadcast just flows better when he's like inside the glass and like the question that he asked about like you know because glowed high and Sullivan just had a great answer with it

with like with the defensive structure that I think St. Louis was having and I mean I just I can't speak wonders as to how good Mike Sullivan has been this season especially with the circumstances but I really thought that was cool but yeah like the Penguins they were literally limiting St. Louis to the perimeter a lot

They only gave up, like I said, 28 shots on net. They did. The Penguins were giving up a little bit too many chances in the second period. But thankfully, you know, that's what your goaltender is there to do when at times when your defense is not playing as tight as they want to do. Jari's right there making save after save after save. Just, I can't say enough about how good he has been. But that's what you need sometimes when your defense, like I said, is not playing as tight as they should be. The Penguins, they had tightened up after that.

And then at the third period, it was basically no contest. This Blues had almost no chance of going back. But I did really like Teddy Bluger's goal to make it 1-0. Alex Gowchenyuk also had a goal, folks. I was on a little mini breakaway. It's good to see him get his second goal of the season. That's another goal for him in his – I think he went on now. There's only about a few games after he scored his first.

And we're going to get to more Gauchengiou talking a little bit because it looks like, though, even though he scored that second goal, Jim Rutherford is not too pleased, I don't think, with, excuse me, with Alaskal Chenyuk. And then, of course, the newcomer. Stefan Nason gets his first goal. His celebration was pretty awesome. He looked like he was, like, streaming for about a minute straight at him. But great play by Kahun is like that nice touch pass to McCann.

McCann just fires an on net, and Mason is just standing right in front of the net to put it pastbendington, no chance for the three goals. But, yeah, I was just really impressed with how the Penguins. Playback game. They really needed it. Now we're going to get some more stats in a little bit about this win and about like the Penguins overall. But, you know, this was the way

like I said, they badly needed it and it couldn't have come at a better time considering they lost two games in a row going into this game. So some more talk about the Penguins, I guess. So an article came out just a few couple hours ago, actually, about Alex Gowice Chelyuk and Josh Yoey of the athletic.

Actually interviewed Jim Rutherford to get his comments. about it, you know, just, you know, to see basically like, you know, like, how do you assess his play? And apparently, Jim, he's just not that happy with his play. You know, apparently he's not a lineup locked when the penguins get healthy, which I think I would agree with him at this point. If the penguins ever do get fully healthy and it looks like there's two players that are going to play tomorrow night against the Arizona Coyotes, I think he's going to have

to really work hard to get in the lineup because right now, I mean, Sam Lafferty is working hard to be an everyday player. He's looked really, really good. and yeah I mean he's gonna have to this can be a dog fight apparently according to Josh Yewe and Rutherford as quote Not necessarily I'm not totally convinced that there's a right chemistry with With Hufgeny Malk and Gauchiniqueu have to have players that have to expect chemistry to right fit I never thought that was going to be the place for him

And basically what else he said in fact of the matter is when we're totally healthy He's going to have to work very hard just again the top 12 that's just the way it is Because we have a lot of players playing veils So that's the good news and the bad news Yeah, you can definitely see that Rutherford is not happy with the return of the Phil Kessel Trey because he thought I think that Gao Chenyuk was going to be producing a lot more. And I mean, I think we all thought that he would be producing more than two goals at the third at 33.33% of the way through the season that we would have all thought he would have had more than two goals by now.

I mean, this is player last year who was almost a 20 goal score. He's been a 20 goal score in the league before. and it's just not been the right fit and a couple of people on Penns where you know like this is basically an article where you know the GM says he's not playing and you know there could be a trade coming maybe at some point I don't think it's imminent or anything

but I like I said on the podcast with Cam the other day one of my best friends I really really do think that we could potentially see Alexiao Chen not be here after the trade deadline hell even potentially by January because

like Jim Rutherford like I said he's He's not happy with it. You know, even though he admits he's a hard work, he's always out late after practice. But, you know, that only does so much because, I mean, like, it just only does so much because, like, sooner or later, you're going to have to, like, start putting points up and start putting goals and what you were expected to do when you came over from Arizona in the Phil Kessel trade. But that's not been the case so far. It's just been, it's just, it's not been good for him. And, like, I mean, hopefully, you know, you hope that.

goals start coming in bunches. You hope that he starts scoring more because you've seen it at times throughout his career where he can put it together and be the player that we all people know he can be. But, you know, if he just keeps playing like this and, you know, he's not scoring, only two goals, like I said, even though he's barely putting up what? Not even a half a point in game. Penguins should have might as well just cut their losses at this point because, I mean, that's, I think, would be the best course of action. And, you know, when you have your general manager already not happy, a third of the way through the season after you know after

his biggest move of the off season was trading away Phil Kessel for Alexo Trenick and a couple other pieces you know that's not a good sign that's just not a good sign at all but yeah I wanted to bring that up a little bit also Dom wrote a really good piece for the athletic today his 16 stats if you don't if you don't have not read that article

I really do I really you guys should really really check it out he talks a lot of good stuff about the penguins he basically says like yeah guys, I mean, excuse me, that the penguins, when they ever get fully healthy, you guys probably need to watch out. Dom writes, you know, they're 15 to 9 and 4, 100 point pace, which is really good. And, you know, he also is a really big fan of Mike Sullivan, which I've said so many times on this podcast, I've said it on Twitter.

I don't think you can name five coaches in hockey that have done a better job over the last few years. Even right now, there are not five coaches in hockey that are better than Mike Sullivan. I would really like to see if you guys could really name five coaches better than him. I think he's one of the best in the league. He basically said they've averaged 3.5 regulars out of the lineup. And they're basically, of all the players that are out right now, they have 10.8 wins of value out of the lineup, which is the most out of any team in the league.

And they're still just in the playoff in, which is absolutely insane. But he also said, you know, they've been earning the shot. They've been earning the shot share. They've been, or they expected goals average, basically every game, when they've been hurt, which is, I mean,

you've got to admit, I mean, that's pretty hard to do with all these injuries, but that just goes to show out. Mike Sullivan has everyone on this team stepping up. I know they're playing in roles.

Some players are playing in roles. You know, they shouldn't be playing in, but everyone is buying into him. Everyone is buying into this team, the system. And it's just, it's been great to watch. I know they're not getting the results

that a lot of people want to see, but, I mean, they're passing right now without their captain, without Brian Dumont, without Justin Schultz, without Brian Russ, Patrick Hornclosed the list goes on and on and on. And apparently, when the Penguins had their first fully healthy game, which, of course, came against the Edmonton Oilers, they earned, they had a 69% nice, by the way, 69% expected gold share. And like we said on the podcast, the only reason why they lost that game was because the Oilers, goaltender stood on his head.

Apparently, he also says in the 10 healthiest games the Penguins have played in. While their teams have outscored teams at even strength 30 to 19, and they're 6 and 3 and 1 in those games, and they have the expected goal share rate of 59.5%. If you guys don't know what that means, the expected goal share is basically like, it's just the expected goals of like when your team is on the ice 5, you 5. That is very, very, very good. Controlling 59 over half of that, 59.5% almost 60%.

that is insanely good for the penguins, especially, you know, and that's what, and that's, and even in their healthiest games, and when everyone's still not that healthy. So that just goes to show just how good this team is and how good that they're going to be when they get everyone healthy. There's also, there's also some stuff in there about, again, he Malkin and how he's playing since Indy Crosby has gone out. Hint, it's very good. I'm not going to, you know, spoil at all, but, you know, his 16 stats article is very good that comes out weekly and I just thought I would share with you guys on the penguins related content that was in there um you know I'll just reiterate it again this is a very very good team and when they eventually ever hopefully get healthy um they're going to be a scary team I think they're

going to be one of the teams to be in the eastern conference and especially if Matt Marie gets himself right which I think he eventually will this is going to be this is getting close to a cup contender we'll have to see what moves Jim Rutherford makes towards the trade deadline you know we'll talk about Taylor Hall coming up in the next segment. I'll show you wrote a really good piece about it at the Athletic a couple days ago. But, I mean, yeah, this team is very, very good, folks. So for the injury update,

we'll just have a couple more injury updates. Crystal Tang did not practice today, but before you all freak out, maintenance day on the Penguins' Twitter account, knows just how bad they are injured right now. Andy Apparelman who runs the Penguins' Twitter account, She runs all the social media. She put Exxail underneath it.

And that was great. If you guys also didn't she, she literally went around the arena yesterday with burning sage to try and like, basically like good karma, the whole arena and to like stop everyone from getting sick. And especially everyone from getting hurt because the penguins are just so banged up right now. I mean, we all know that. That's not even funny.

I just thought that would, if guys didn't see that, thought that would be really cool to share because, That video, it was not on the Penguins Twitter account. I mean, I just know she, of course, she runs the Penguins Twitter account. But if you guys haven't watched that video, you go check it out. But for injury updates, it looks like Justin Joltz. He said he's a game time decision tomorrow.

Matt, Maria, Mike, head coach Mike Sullivan confirmed that he is. I've said it before on this podcast. I'll say it again, about 90 to 95% of the time when a player is a game time decision. When Mike Sullivan says that, that the player plays. Brian Russell also practiced fully today. It looks like he's nearing his return. and he's also a game time decision tomorrow. So Penguins look like they're going to be getting two players back from injury tomorrow.

Woo-hoo! That's two down and about five to go. So that's really good news. Any player that comes back obviously is big. Also, I don't think I said this, but Patrick Hornquist, if you guys did not see it, if you guys have been living under a rock, he is out longer term with a lower body injury, apparently according to a couple reporters.

He's been seen in the press vlogs with, A very big knee brace. So it sounds like that it's a knee injury for practical request, but I'm no doctor and I haven't really seen him. I'm just going off what a couple of the Penguins Beat reporters have been saying about that. Cindy Crosby looks like he'll probably return around Christmas time. So that's it again. Another 12, 1926. Three, three and a half weeks away about him, probably with Nick Bukstad as well.

Yeah, so, you know, we're getting ever so close to it. Hopefully getting back some more players. Two more tomorrow night. against the Arizona, so that'll be nice. And so what else to cover today? All right, let's just go into the more Taylor Hall talk because let's not have enough Taylor Hall talk. Josh Yowie outlined this the other day

about the Penguins, like, should they trade for Taylor Hall? Like, what are the positives, negatives? And I think for the Penguins, I think it's, you should definitely inquire about it. I mean, every team should inquire on Taylor Hall. He's one of the best players in the league. But do I think it could work? I think it could, but the package would be interesting to me. Elie Freeman wrote his 31 thoughts.

He did not put Pittsburgh as a team that's pursuing them, but, I mean, it's still very early with Taylor Hall. I think Ray Shiro is probably just going to do his due diligence at this point. He's not going to aggressively shop him until it gets closer to the deadline probably, which is, of course, late February, early March. But, I mean, the Penguins, I think they should definitely try to pursue this. You know, you only have so many chances to win, This will be a fourth one under Sidney Crosby and Evaginianne Malkin, which would, I mean, cement their legacy even more here in the city.

I know the price could be a bit steep. I mean, I would include the first round pick. I'd give up a roster player, maybe two. And then for prospects, I wouldn't give up Kalan Addison. I'd keep him. That's not, there are a lot of prospects I think I would give up in this organization. Kaila Addison is not one. And I don't know if I would give up Poulin either.

Those are the two ones I would keep very, very close by. Tristan Jari, if the Devils wanted him, I think I may maybe do it. But just another one of their big prospects. I would trade basically any prospect except Poulin and Addison, because I think those two kids are going to be really, really good once they get up to the NHL level and obviously play in the minor leagues and just see how they keep developing. Especially because Taylor-Rall,

like, he's a UFA after this year. like he's a rental. Like, I just, like, I just, I wouldn't give up that much for him, especially, like, our top two prospects just because, so you're getting a rental. Like, yeah, I know.

And the end, Cups matter anyway. I mean, I get that, like the future, like, who cares right now? But, I mean, I want at least one to two those prospects to stick around so that the penguins have, you know, they're not like, basement.

like Detroit level bad. I mean, that's just the goal, I think, at least. But I would, I would really. I mean, I love seeing Taylor Hall in Pittsburgh. I mean, ultimately, I don't really think they're going to get him. I think he's going to go to somewhere like Colorado, who actually has a lot of the cap space to do it. They have a ton of cap space.

Or someone like, maybe what, the stars or something? I don't know. Send him out west somewhere so that he can go back out west. Dowd Evanston would be in there because, I mean, That would be pretty funny, though, if Edmondson was in there, right, guys? I think that would be pretty funny. But, yeah, I just wanted to bring that up. There's been a lot of Taylor Hall talk this week.

We all know Ray Sherro. I mean, it does sound like going to Josh, but, you know, Shiro and Brotherford are very good friends. But, you know, I just, I know that Shiro would know the Penguins prospect pool, and, of course, the players very well, considering he was here for so long. You know, he drafted a lot of the players here that are, you know, up playing right now, I think, with the Penguins still. And just like sign some of them. So yeah, I mean, I would love it. I just don't think it's going to happen. But I would include a very nice holiday egg time.

I don't think I would do two first round picks. I think that is a little much. But I would definitely, I think, do one from this year or maybe the next year one. But I would not do two of them at the same time to go get Taylor Hall. But thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Lockdown Penguins. I'm going to try to have one tomorrow. I should have one potentially after the game. I have a friend coming down to visit me for the weekend.

I'm going to tease that a little bit now, since once something officially gets announced with it, I'll let you on. I'm not going to really let you know about it. It'll just probably pop up on Twitter at some point this weekend. But I have a friend coming down, so we'll see if I can record while she's here. Penguins, of course, play Arizona this weekend.

Phil Kessler's return. Everyone, please give him a standing ovation. If you go out of the game, like I said, he deserves it. He may be brought to tears, but, you know, considering everything he did for this city and for this team, please give him a nice ovation, and the Penguins go to play the Detroit Red Wendings on Saturday night, Saturday as they are one of the worst teams in the league

before playing more next week. Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Lockdown Penguins, and we'll talk to you all soon.