Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 1/7- Weekend Recap, Kris Letang's Struggles, Plus BIG Road Trip

Episode Date: January 7, 2020

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter goes through a quick recap of what happened this weekend for the Penguins. He then shares his thoughts on Kris Letang's struggles and why it's fine to criticize his play without going overboard. Also included is Sidney Crosby's close return, plus this massive road trip for the Penguins. 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, everyone, and welcome to this Tuesday afternoon edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm, of course, your host, Hunter Hodes, fresh off taking an exam for my winter class. Communication Law is about a three-hour. Probably spent three hours on it. That was absolutely brutal, so I definitely thought I could just do this podcast right after it because I need something to talk about it and be in a better mood as I got a seal on that exam. Oh, my God. That exam was probably one of the heartaches exams

I've ever taken in my life, but you know what? We got through it. I still have a good grade in the class, and I'm almost done with it because there is no way I was going to take this exam. I was going to take this class in the spring because I've just heard so many horror stories about it.

But anyway, follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show on Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. We have a lot to get to. We have a lot to get to today. We're going to go over a couple of some key stuff that happened this weekend in the Penguins games with Montreal and Florida. Florida. Started with the Montreal game. I mean, just awesome play by Brandon Tanneth, again,

overtime. I wanted to start out there with the goal because some Canadians fans thought it was goaltender interference, but Kerry Price kind of flopped a little bit. He had every opportunity to kind of make that saving, though, was almost a semi-wide open net. But then right after, as he raised his arms, some Montreal fan flipped him off, and then he saw it and went right back and basically he said, let's go right in her face. And that was, I think. thought that was really, really funny because I remember when, this was a few years, I think this was about several years ago. I think Chris Kelly of the Bruins, I think someone like flipped him off and then he scored and then he went right out to the person and he just gave this person

like over the crowd the middle finger. I think he actually got fine for that. I had to go go back and check. So I remember that was really funny, but still, it's always funny when these fans flip players off and then the players just come right over them and J.J. basically just say, you know what, take that. And I thought that was great. It was really good win for the Penguins to get because it looked like Kerry Price was channeling his inner god mode that night. Making save after save after save, the Penguins,

I thought were out playing Montreal the whole night. I thought Matt Murray, will take me out the other goaltender. I thought this was Matt Murray's best start. In about a month, this is now two consecutive starts in a row. Really good starts for him, two consecutive wins in row for Murray.

And he had almost a 9-30 Sabres engine this game. I mean, despite the second goal, which was a little weak, but that was way more on Chris LaTang, and we'll get to Chris LaTang later in the podcast. I thought he was sharp. He was squared to shooters. He was playing big, and, you know, when he's doing those stuff, he's playing his game. And the other goal, the other goal, you know, really wasn't his fault.

It was just a nice shot. I tell you, Lek, and then had two goals. He almost had a hat-trick. I think it was a shorthanded breakaway in the game, and he made a beautiful save as he tried to split Murray wide, split the puck five hole on Murray, but Murray said no, no, dice on that. And yeah, just a really good start for Murray. He looks like he's building something

a little bit right now. I know it's only two starts, but still just about 920 in both of these starts. You know, maybe New Year, new Matt Murray. And, you know, this would be a very big development for the Penguins. That this could be one of the best goalie tammons in the league for Pittsburgh. But, you know, they were trailing for a bunch of the game. I know they striked quickly after being down one, Zach Aston-Ree's with a beautiful goal. Beak, Kerry Price, I think that was fifth of the season. And then Brian Rust, folks, I don't really know what else to say. I keep, you know, he ties it up in third period two, too, too. And I wasn't really watching the end of the game because I was at a bar with my lovingly girlfriend, Nicole, watching

her Patriots lose. I'm trying to be careful here because I know she listens to this podcast. But, you know, sometimes you hate to see the Patriots lose. You know what? I'm just going to show up before she gets mad. probably because she'll probably get a little upset. But yeah, I was just following it. But, you know, great to get that win. That was a win the penguins deserved to get. Like I said, even though Kerry Price was channeling his inner god-in.

He hasn't really done that a lot this season. His numbers have been down a bit, but also the habs of numbers overall have been down. They're not a playoff team right now. I don't think they're going to get in the playoffs. I think at some point, maybe they'll let Claude Julian go. But we'll see. The Canadians are also out without, you know, I think, four of their top-nine-wingers. But still, a great, great job for the Penguins to get that win.

And, yeah, you should, like, you know, Brandon, Brandon Tanna just keeps getting better and better. You know, I'll admit I was wrong. You know, Jeff, one of my best friends, if you're listening to this today or whenever, you were worried about Brandon Tanev. You were definitely right about him. I was wrong. I'll eat that crow until the day I did die. You can chalk that up as a win for you with your opinion that Brandon Tanna was going to be a really good signing

and that he was going to fit in here great. I didn't see it, but you know what? Kudos to you, man. Just what a player he's shown out to be. He can basically do just, you know, almost everything imaginable. But, yeah, and then the game against Florida, guys, I mean, I don't really think the Penguins were going to win that game at all. That was almost just like a scheduled loss.

It's like the NHL just puts these, like, scheduled losses on the schedule for teams, and, like, it happens every season. And I'm going to tell you why this was basically a scheduled loss. So you go into overtime against the Canadians A hard fought win That game doesn't end to what Almost 10 o'clock at night And then you have to pack up everything

You gotta go through customs to get on your plane You probably don't get home until 2.30 2.30, 2.30, maybe we'll fall asleep at 3 a.m. Then you probably get like 6, 7 hours asleep until 9 a.m., 9.30, 10 o'clock And then you have a game in 7 hours And you have to arrive at the arena, what, 3 hours early? So, I mean, you really don't have much time

to do anything and your legs are basically dead tired and that's basically what it was against the Panthers. They were cast, and, you know, three games and four nights will do that to you, especially when two of those three games go to the extra session. But still, I mean, three out of six points, you know, that's fine. You know, like, you weren't really going to beat the Panthers. I thought for a while they were playing okay against the Panthers, but, I mean, you can't expect the Penguins to win that game,

especially, you know, when they play less than 24 hours later. And especially when they get home probably, like I said, between two, in 3 a.m. Eastern time. It's just, it's not going to happen. And I even tweeted after the game, guys. It's not really a big deal. You know, they lost one.

They've still won 11 of their last 15 games. They're tied for a second in the Metropolitan Division with the Islanders. Who got there to win last night? I think it was over Colorado. I think Bard Lama, started against his former team. You're not going to win every game. So people need to not, you know, have all the hot takes. You know, I know we're going to get into Crystal Tane coming out of the break here.

and you know what's going on with him. But, yeah, it's fine, guys. You know, this is coming up this week, you know, tonight especially, big, big road trip. One of my favorites, you know, you get to play Vegas, old pal Mark Andre Fleury. And speaking of Mark Andre Fleury, I thought Josh Owey of The Athletic,

wrote a great piece about Fleury today for the Athletic Pittsburgh in detailing about Fleury coping with his father unexpectedly passing away, very similar to what happened with Matt Murray about a year and a half ago. And just, you know, him talking about. talking about, you know, what Marie's going through with everything, and then also the emergence of Trishanjari, of course, and how good he's been. Like I said, please go read that if you haven't,

if you have the subscription to the athletic. And if you don't have the subscription of athletic, I would definitely suggest that you guys get it, since it is definitely, I think, worth the price to get it. But, yeah, guys, you know, they're just, you know, fine road, fine weekend for the Penguins. They got two out of four points, and, you know, they're still sitting pretty right now

in the metropolitan, in the metropolitan, in the metropolitan division. I don't know why I keep stuttering, even though the sharks had a massive collapse against the capitals in the final minute. Oh my God. Allowing two goals in 45 seconds to tie it. You know, that's the Martin Jones experiment, guys.

Should the sharks are unwatchable at this point, I think is a good way to put it. All right, so, I mean, of course, folks, you know, the past couple of days, you know, we've seen a lot of talk about Crystal Tang on Twitter throughout the games, you know, his mistakes. And, you know, I think Jesse Marshall probably summarized

it best and I'll try to put it in my own words of course but you know we can have a discussion you know it must have been my dog barking up there I hope you guys didn't hear that but my dog is just a giant nut one year old black lab but anyways you know we can have a discussion about Chris LaTang

struggles with not you know shitting on him and you know saying oh my god he's such a liability he sucks like he needs to be traded like you know you want to go talk like that go to the Penn's Penguins Chronicles page which is probably like I said one of the worst accounts on Penguin's Twitter and just be one of those, you know, people.

You know, that's just, that's not true. He's not a liability. He makes the team so much better. He's just having a rough go right now. And, you know, I've seen the takes, oh, well, you know, it's all related to Jack Johnson. It's like, well, part of it is, you know, Jack Johnson does not belong on the top pair. He belongs in the bottom pair at this point in his career. But, you know, a lot of Chris Latang's errors lately have because become of Crystal Tang.

it. I think part of that, they do need to split up the Jack Johnson pairing and put someone else up there. I know that maybe would mean putting Latang on his offside, but, you know, he also doesn't have Brian Dumlin to help out with his mistakes, you know? He's been, you know, there's a couple, there's the play in the Canadians game where, like, he basically just passed it right to letting and Murray allows a little bit of a soft goal, but that was such an egregious error, you know, by Latang. And then the game against Florida, I know the penguins were a bit gasped that game, but, you know, allowing Frank Vitrono, of all people to just walk you and then Jari gets one say but not the other which is a little bit

of a soft goal itself. I mean, like that's not the Chris Latang that we're accustomed to seeing. And, you know, even the game against the sharks, you know, took that awful penalty against Kuchur. I know you could probably argue that it was embellishment, which it probably was. Kuture sold it pretty well. But you know what? You don't put yourself in the situation.

You don't need to be right behind him hounding him even though they weren't even in any position or threatening to score. He was just chasing a puck. There was no one in the front of the net wide open. Everyone else was getting their man. And he just has to put his stick there for absolutely no reason. You know, he just, you know, he needs to work his way out of this rut. And, you know, he is going to.

Like, he's too good of a player not to. I know he's 33 years old right now. He's not 29 like he was in 2016. I know he's been logging a lot more minutes. You know, I've seen the numbers where, you know, the team, you know, maybe plays a little bit better. If he doesn't log 28 minutes, 27 minutes in night, maybe when he logs 22, 23 it's better but you know what that just it sucks that he doesn't have his partner brian duman for a while and he's probably not gonna have brian dumlin for

probably another month to a month and a half at this point considering that dumlin is i was i think officially out for the two months considering he had ankle surgery so um you know i'm all for putting up someone else up there in spite of jack johnson you know maybe marcus peterson deserves to get back up there i know john merino could go up there but you know that's two Ritey's, but still Pedersen, I think, would be interesting. I'd be curious to try that. But, you know, he needs to work his way out of this rut. You know, he needs to play better defense.

He needs to stop making costly mistakes and errors and taking penalties. And, you know, it just, it all comes down to, like, the fundamentals for all Tang. And, you know, he goes through these ruts, you know, a couple times a season. But even though he's had a marvelous season despite that, and, you know, people need to realize just how good overall that he's been despite this rut that he's in. And also people I think need to realize how good of a player he is. Like that's the thing. There's a lot of the people just have weird takes on Crystal Tang and expect him to, you know, always, you know, make the right play.

And, you know, we don't need to go on a shift by shift basis for a player like Chris LaTang or a player in general. Like, I feel like that's stupid. You don't need to go shift by shift. Just go game by game. Like, it's easier that way. You don't need to analyze, oh my God, you know, he had a terrible error on that shift. Oh, then look at this. an amazing play the next shift.

And then, oh my God, an awful play on the shift after. It's like people, it's enough already. You're going to drive yourselves crazy if you keep thinking about that. But, you know, as well, I was probably one that I wanted to say about Chris LaTang. He's going to work his way out of it, like I said. He's going to be the Chris the Tang that we all know. He just has to work through this out of this rut. And, you know, he ultimately will.

You know, I'll be curious to see how he plays against Vegas tonight. It sounds like he stayed on the ice after practice to work a little bit on his own game. which is good. You know, he's taking matters in his own hands. It sounds like, I mean, he definitely is a private person, a player. He knows that he's playing bad. He definitely cares a lot. You know, I know I'm not, you know, they're reporting in Pittsburgh and the locker room.

For everything I've read about Chris LaTang, I just, I've read that, you know, he's very prideful. And now he plays. He knows when he makes his mistakes. He hates playing really bad for the fans and everyone, especially himself. So, you know, I know he's probably taking this all to heart right now, which is, of course. all you can do. All you have to do is just look forward to the next game and try to minimize your mistakes.

And I think he's definitely going to do that. But also, folks, some really, really good news for this road trip. Sidney Crosby has accompanied the team on this three-game road trip. He practiced today with a team. Mornings skate took full contact, it looks like. Did not take line rushes. Mike Sullivan said he is out for the game in Vegas, which is, of course, folks, a 10 o'clock start.

So if you maybe have a snow day this week on the East Coast, tomorrow if you're at school, whatever, you know, maybe don't have to go to work. Definitely try and stay up to watch the game. I know I will be. I love, you know, I've off work tomorrow, so, I mean, of course, I'm probably going to. I love staying up and watching these West Coast games because, you know, not only to keep going to bed late, you just get to watch your team like. You get to do stuff beforehand that you don't really normally get to do.

So, you know, it's going to be fun. No, Mark Andre Flores is going to get the start. It looks like it will not be Matt Murray. Tristan Jari was off the ice first for the Penguins. so Trish and Jari will be in net for Pittsburgh in this game. But Sunni Crosby, you know, like I said, did not take line rushes, but, you know, I think he's going to play towards the end of this road trip.

It would not surprise me if he targets his comeback for Friday night against Nathan McKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche. I'd be a great game for him to come back, so especially considering how him and McKinnon are great friends. They also have two practice days sandwiched in between that game. Before, I think their Sunday game is against Arizona before, I think they have the game They have the back-to-back

Next week against Boston and Detroit Then I think they have the flyers coming up The All-Star weekend folks I think they have five more games left Until the All-Star break Which is pretty, pretty crazy to think about I think it's If I'm not mistaken

The All-Star break is Two weeks away I think it is Yeah, I'm not to double check But still, you know He's going to be coming back I think towards Colorado Arizona Again would not surprise me in the slightest

So folks Get ready for Sidney Crosby Also Nick Bukstad is to get it today I want to up you guys on that. He's getting closer. And also, Justin Schultz has just started skiing in. He has made the road trip with the Penguins. He started skating yesterday, according to Mike Sullivan.

And he skated today with Crosby and Bukestad before Crosby. He ended up joining his teammates for the morning skate. So wouldn't be surprised to potentially see all three of them at some point on this road trip. So the Penguins, you know, going in the All-Star break, and there'll be any ending some reinforcements back, which is, of course, much needed. I know they're not going to have Jake Gensel and Brian Duhlin for a while, but still much, much, much needed reinforcements at this point. especially it starts with the captain, Sydney Crosby, coming back, I think, after this game.

So the road ahead, like I just said, for the Penguins. You know, this is one of my favorite road trips of the season. You know, just another Western trip. The Penguins will have their Western California road trip, I want to say, in February, March. I think it's February. I don't have to double-check the schedule. But still, a lot of fun, you know, he gets to go up against Vegas, you know, the Sin City. There's going to be a lot of Penguins fans, I'd think, there always is.

I think the past couple of years. always been a lot of Penguins fans there. Penguins are not beaten Vegas in Vegas yet. They're 0-1. I think they lost the first game 2-1. And that crazy game last year, the Penguins, I think they scored 4-5. I think it was a 6-4 final. I'll have to double check, but I know the Penguins lost that. But still, Penguins never beaten Vegas in Vegas, but still they'll face former friend Mark Andre Fleury at 10 o'clock tonight. Always fun to watch Flurry in action against the Penguins, especially watching Penguins

and noticing some takes about Flurry, and it's always a good time. And then, of course, Nathan McKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche. It's going to be a great game. Like I said, it could be the game that Sidney Crosby decides to come back for, which is just awesome, just to see those two go at it. They already went at it earlier in the season, and that was that crazy game in overtime where Brandon Tannen have got a short-handed wraparound goal of all goals, and it was on a four-on-three power play.

And usually, you know, like I said, there's not a lot of power plays you would want to give a four-on-three-two, and the avalanches, one of them you would not want to, but still the Penguins are able to somehow get a short-handed goal. And I think it actually banked off of Landisod. Yeah, it banked off of Gabriel Landis God's stick and in the net, which was really, really funny. But still, that was great.

And then, of course, the Penguins will play Phil Kessel for the second and final time this regular season. And this will be another time, this will be the third time that the Penguins will see Taylor Hall this season, considering they saw him twice already with New Jersey. And it looks like Hall and Kessel are playing on the same line together for Pittsburgh. But still, a lot of fun road trip. A lot of these are, you know, 10, 9 o'clock

starts, but still, I know they're late games, but still, like I said, great to stay up and watching them. You know, I love the Western trips. They're so much fun. I don't know. I probably sound like a broken record when I say that, but you know what, whatever. But also another thing I wanted to get to today, you know, this is the part I think, you know, we're about halfway through the season.

I sometimes like the standings watch. I check it every now and then, but now I'm going to start to, you know, check it a little more often, considering, you know, we're halfway through, we're getting closer to the playoffs, and, you know, I mean, I've been checking the last couple weeks periodically, and, you know, it just keeps showing up, man, penguins and Islanders. And, you know, I think we could be heading folks. I know we're looking really far ahead right now.

A lot can change into the division. I know the division is really, really good. And, you know, I'm probably staying the obvious, but, you know, we could really be heading to another Penguins Islanders first-round playoff series. And, you know, when I think about that, I think of probably death. I just, I can't do another playoff series against that team and the way they play. You know, the way Barry Trots coaches them and, you know, just going on Long Island, you know, that's a series that I think Pittsburgh would want to open up at home at PPG Paints Arena.

You do not want to go to the first few games like you did last year and play on Long Island at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, which is a dump in itself. That place is a giant shit hole. I will die on that hill. I don't really think you can really argue anyways. It's not really a hockey arena. It's basically built for an HL team at this point, even with the renovations that has gone through. But good thing that they're moving to Belmont soon.

It looks like they're being a new arena in a few years, but still, you know, that's not a place that the Penguins would want to go to for the first two games. But is there anything else that Pengland Lane going on right now? I don't really think there's too, too much, folks. You know, have fun watching the game tonight. This road trip is going to be, I think, a big test for Pittsburgh, especially this game tonight with how good Vegas, a lot of talent that Vegas has. I know, you know, they don't jump out at you this year.

They've struggled a little bit of times, but still, I think they're definitely, I think, the favorite or one of the favorites in the Pacific Division. I would not be surprised, honestly, if they came out of the Western Conference, especially I know they did it in their first season and they have a better roster at this point so far. But, you know, it's a lot of fun to watch. You know, 10 o'clock start. I think it's 18T Sports 9 in Pittsburgh, and then I, I, forget what, I think it's, ATD Sports in Vegas, too.

I think they have the same channel, but I don't think it's televised financial network. I wish that NBCSN would show the game tonight, but maybe are not. And then I would assume Matt Murray would go against Arizona or Colorado. I think they may split it up. I think they may split that up, but I'm not really, really sure. But that's all I think I have for you guys today for

Walkdown Penguins. One more thing I think about Tristan Jari's performance against the Panthers. Don't really look into it. I know he struggled a little bit with a couple goals, but you know what. The whole team was gasped that night, so I looked for him to potentially rebound tonight against a very, very good Vegas team. He played very well against them. I think that Vegas game earlier in the season, I think it was only a two. Was it two?

Let me just double-checked that real quick. Penguins Golden Knights earlier in the season. I think it was like a two or three-nothing game, but I think Vegas had the Vegas had, what was it? It was three-nighting. They had two empty-net goals in the game, so Jari really only allowed one goal in the contest. He was very, very good against them.

But you know what? That's all, like I said, that's all I have for you guys for Locked on Penguins today. I hope you guys really enjoyed this episode. We'll be talking tomorrow. We'll dissect the game. Say who did well, how what this performance was, and we'll have it all tomorrow for Lockdown Penguins.

All right, guys. Talk to you all soon.