Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 2/13- Come home, Jaromir Jagr

Episode Date: February 14, 2020

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter opens the show about the Jaromir Jagr article from today and why it's time to finally have him come back to Pittsburgh for an amazing ceremony. He also previews the game against the Montreal Canadiens on Friday, plus has a little bit of trade talk as well as some practice updates! 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 Thursday evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm, of course, your host, Hunter Hodes, follow the me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the shows Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-U-Swar Penguins. And for those that missed it, I was on the Locked on Wilds episode that came out today. Please go check that out. Locked on Wild on Twitter where I talked about the Jason Zucker trade, how Kailan Addison and Alex El-Chynyuk will fit into the Wild's plans. Really great to get on with those guys at Lockdown Wild. They do a tremendous job, as does everyone who hosts for the NHL team across the network. But it's a lot of fun to do it.

So please go check it out. Hear what I have to say about the trade and all that. I just wanted to shout that out in the opening a couple seconds on the podcast. Before we get into today's Penguins Talk, I wanted to spend this segment talking about some Yarm Red Ogger stuff. So Rob Rossi of The Athletic wrote an outstanding, and I mean a very outstanding piece. on Yarmir Yager for the athletic this morning. It was a feature piece about basically Phil Bork's trip to the Chuck Republic to watch Yager play as he's, of course, playing in the league over there.

He hasn't been in the NHL in a couple seasons now. And if you believe it or not, he's 48 years old. I cannot believe Yer Mier Yager is 48 years old. It sounds like he's going to keep playing until he's 50. But basically, his trip was trying to convince Yager to come back, have his journey. Jersey retired someday because apparently in the article, I'm not going to spoil it all, but, you know, it sounds like Mario Lemieux, the owner, you know, Tom McMillan, who's, I think, the vice president of communications for the team, they're really trying

to get him to come back at some point to retire the jersey. And you know what? It's long overdue. This has been very long overdue for a long time now. Yarr-Miragre, if you were to have a Mount Rushmore of players for the top four, he's easily in there, you know, it's four players. It's Crosby. Malkin, it's Porte.

it's Mario and it's Yager. And, you know, those are the four guys easily on the Mount Rushmore. And, you know, the penguins are probably not here today if it wasn't for the magic of Yarmur Yager in the 1999 series against the devils. Of course, I was only a baby at that point. I was two years old, believe it or not, for those that listen to this podcast, I'm 22 years old, so I did not get to see Yager in his prime, obviously, in a penguin uniform. And I'm still sad that I wish I was born a little bit beforehand, so I could have. watched him as and my toddler years but I remember when I was getting into hockey and I this was around

2002-2003 so kindergarten first grade this was after I moved out of Philadelphia where I was born yes I was born in Philadelphia I thank God I'm not a Flyers fan and my mom I think she put this in front of me I read that was like one of the first memories of hockey that I have she put this in front of me and she said hunter watch this play and this was before YouTube was on I think that she put it on a computer. She's found a video of it. And it was Yager's Game 6, both the time goal and the game winning goal, and then the game 7 against the Devils. And right for them, I was hooked. You know, I remember I would watch sometimes the Rico Fada years in 2003. That's just when I became really, really hooked with hockey and especially the Penguins. And she just told me all the stories about what she was doing when

she was watching in the 99 series because my mom basically, you know, she knew that there was a chance that the Penguins, if they lost that series, they may not, like I said, they may not be here today. They were facing a lot of financial trouble when I was eventually old enough. I got to look up into it where I looked it up. It was some bad financial troubles. And, you know, we can trace that back to, I think it was the owner at the time. Howard Baldwin. Someone apparently tweeted about the booze should be for Howard Baldwin today.

If Yarmie Yard, if someone would ever get booed at their ceremony, and yes, I would agree. I totally forgot about how, Harold Baldwin. Howard Baldwin. God damn. I'm like, screwing up. with his name for whatever reason. Yes, Howard Baldwin. Those, if anyone wants to boo someone at the Yarger

ceremony, which will come down the line, boo him. But I will send a message, though, to Penguin fans for this ceremony. I really would like, I tried in my heart as not to sound like a complete ass here, but there's no place for booing Yarmir Yarder still.

You know, I know what happened with the Flyers and, oh, well, yeah, you know, he's spurred the Penguins, go the Flyers, he got a little more money on it. He needed the power play time. Yada yada yada. You know, was I a little bit upset at the time? Yeah, but you know what? I got over it and so should you. Yarmierger is one of the best penguins to ever play. He's a top five, top 10 NHL player of all time and his moment deserves to come very soon. It's probably going to be after he retires. I think Phil Bork was trying to convince

him to do it within a year if he retires. And this quote really, really struck out to me from the piece. I'm not going to spoil the whole piece. But he basically said, I said, yeah, he said, he He said, Yogs, the penguins want it, the fans want it, Mario wants it. That's a special night everyone wants for you. They're not going to boo. They're going to cheer, maybe louder, longer than they ever have in our building, and it's going to be awesome. And when I saw that, it looked like, you know, when Yager's, you could hear that, it

looks like his face appeared to melt, it looked like. And, you know, I'm not going to lie, that almost made me tear up a little bit because he was just so important to this team, so much, he did so much for this team, he loves the city. And I know he loves the fans too, but you know what? It's time to let bygones be bygones. Just get out with the anti-Yagra stuff. I know he did something with the Flyers. It's whatever at this point.

Just bring him home for one night, sign him to a one-day contract, let him retire a penguin, give him a massive video celebration of a lot of his highlights, bring him to tears, give him a hell of an ovation. I know that that ovation is going to be big. I know all these little fake people on Twitter like to be like, oh yeah man i hate yarmier yager whether he did blah blah blah blah blah blah blah and it's like i know you wouldn't do at that ceremony i just i know you would not have the balls to boo yarmier fricking yager at his ceremony but um i really really hope that comes um i just i'm gonna hopefully

i would try to get tickets to go to that but um you just the penguins like i said the penguins would not be where they are today without yarmier yager and um i know the organization of course was a little shaken up at a time when yager did that to spur in the flyers i know they were on on good terms. But, you know, time heals all wounds. The past couple years before he left to go overseas, Penguins are doing some stuff to honor him. I think they gave him something from the old civic arena.

I think they honored him with a video tribute for some sort of big game that I think he had. Crowd gave him a salute. And, you know, just to see him on the ice with Mario again, just with the celebration, that would be awesome. I was actually daydreaming today about Yager, maybe, like, surprising Pittsburgh coming back for a playoff game. during the spring, just when his like seasons over and maybe just sitting up in the box with Mario and them just having a beer and just watching the game together because I feel like that would be awesome.

But yeah, his jersey is going to be in the rafters. His number will be retired. And, you know, this is, like I said, this is long overdue. You know, some of these anti-yager people need to get over it because, you know, when that day comes and it's going to come in the next couple years, that is going to be a raucous standing ovation. and I can't wait for it to happen. I probably say that people are going to be crying at that ceremony, considering everything he did for the franchise. I'm sure he will be in tears with the video tribute

for what he has to say to the penguins and their fans. He had most, you know, his best success, of course, came with the penguins, even though he played for so many teams that I'm not going to name them right now on the podcast. He even had the traveling joggers during the later part of portions. Portions, geez, I can't speak today, of his NHL career. So, yeah, I just want to get that out of the way.

Please, if you haven't read that article on Philbork, going to see Yard &Rourgher for the first time in a while by Rob Rossi, please go read it. It is worth your time. This gives you about a 10, maybe 10-minute read. It's just, it's really, really well-written. Rob does those feature pieces really, really well. And I just, I can't wait for the day that Yager retires a penguin

because I'm definitely going to get, getting a little emotional right now. I'm going to be really, really emotional when that day comes because he's just, he's one of a kind, man. And Pittsburgh needs to recognize that, the people, like I said, that are anti-Yager, you got to get over it because a lot of people in this city that are Penguins fans, absolutely adore you or Meryaggar. And I just can't wait just to see all the faces in the crowd and just to see his face when he gets honored in when that jersey goes up. It's going to be, I think, in the next few years when he finally finishes playing. All right. So back to regularly scheduled Penguins content.

I just really wanted to get that off my chest and apologize if I started him and all that. I just had to get my thoughts together about Yarni Yager because he really has impacted me as a Penguins fan, me growing up as Penguins fan, my mom, my family, and just a lot of people that I know were all obviously big Yarmier Yager fans, and of course, so I just want to get that off my chest.

But Penguins return to practice today. I'm in good news. A little bit of good news is that Dominic Cahoon returned to practice, no contact jersey, but with that concussion, that's still really, really good. good news his next step is obviously to get full contact and he can come back to play he spoke to the media today basically said yeah you know i'm getting close you know i still got to get clear for contact but i'm getting really close to being able to play that's really good news is he's been out

i think for almost a full month now yeah you can just you never know with concussions you know sometimes it's like um the lat the latest cindy crosby one which i think was in the 2017 run where he missed one one one day and he literally only had a concussion for less than a week and you know so other times it can go for sending one of the other sending crossby concussion which went for over a year and now you know it can vary now to a month but dominant cahoon so you just you never know but it's going to be good to get cahoon back you know he was on a really big tear um before unfortunately coming out of the lineup he uh he just makes the team a lot better i they definitely miss him with his tenacity is forecheck um his goal scoring ability on the malkin line with rossed um that line was

just really working it before he went out but so it's going to be really really good to get him back Obviously, he probably won't play tomorrow against the Montreal Canadiens, but if maybe all goes well after that, maybe he gets a full practice on Saturday with contact, maybe a morning seat on Sunday, maybe he's good to go on Sunday afternoon against the Detroit Red Wings, which is on Hockey Day in America. But it looks like in the next, maybe a couple games, maybe next week, if not on Sunday, maybe next week probably when he'll come back. So that'll be good news to get Gahoon back.

Nothing really else to come out of practice. I loved how the penguins had their, annual night of assists, promoted by the Penguins Foundation. They've been doing that for, I think, as long as I can remember. It's been a while now. I think Penn's Foundation does like a different theme, I think, every season. And it's always, of course, you always see the Chris LaTang selfie, which circles through Twitter, then the Penguins' Twitter account is promoting it.

They always look a riot on the team social media. You know, Chris LaTang was wearing the glasses last night, Gino, was smiling. It was like his evil little smile, Brian Dewan looks like he was posing for a mugshot. It looks like, you know, I saw it funny tweet today. You know, Jason's article gets traded to a team and in three days he's wearing 70s closed for the night of assist. So I thought that was really, really funny. But still, I like how the Penguins organization does that. You know, I think it all goes to charity, which is just outstanding.

The Penguins Foundation. There's a lot of really, really good things in the Pittsburgh area and all that. And I always like to see what happens with the night of assists. But anyways, of course, the Penguins will be back in action tomorrow against the Montreal Canadians. We'll just preview the game here a little bit. Yeah, the Canadians are kind of free-falling right now. They just lost Shea Webb for the next four to six weeks. Nick Caprios, I don't know who gave him the info that he got, but he said his season was in doubt, and then he said his career might have been in doubt, but then Montreal just comes out like an hour later, an hour and a half later,

and says, oh, no, he just out for four to six weeks. And, you know, I kind of feel like, yeah, Nick Caprius, poor him, because people were talking about a potential cap penalty for the Nashville perters if Shea Weber were to eventually retire if that was the case because, you know, sometimes you fear the worst, hope for the best. And I did see this somewhere. I think my friend Nick sent me this. He writes about stuff on the Rangers for Twitter. He's a really great follow. But apparently Nashville could have faced, if he retires early, they could face a $24 million cap penalty because that contract was signed in the last CBA. And it was like this massive. Of course, that massive deal that the Flyers offer sheeted Weber to.

And then which, of course, screwed up the Predator's salary cap. And then, or obviously they traded them, but still, they're not out of it just yet. So they better hope that Weber can play out that contract or else they're going to be in some serious crap with their cap. That would have been my friend that someone on Twitter yesterday was saying that could end their franchise. Well, I wouldn't say it would go that far, but it would do a pretty significant damage to their salary cap situation. But I believe they also just got back Jonathan Duran. He's always been underrated for his career. They saw of Max Domey.

Brendan Gallagher. Gallagher got a cross-check the other night by Zendano Chara, who I still can't believe that was on a suspension for Chara. That was kind of weird that they did not suspend him for that. But whatever, the NHD, the Department of Player Safety or lack thereof, tends to do their own things. There was just a play tonight, actually, by Zach Cassian, basically kicking someone with his skate to the chest in the Tampa game,

again, the Tampa Ebbington game, so he should probably get 10 to 15. games for that. I think that's a garbage play. I don't really know what else to say about that. That's a shitty play. You can't do that. I guess I'll just get my thoughts on that. You know, I don't care if no damage was done. I don't care if there was a cut. You know, I don't care if there's a little bit of padding there. That's something you don't do, you know. I saw it was circulating on Twitter after the incident that, you know, the Chris Simon situation. Well, I was, I think, a decade ago. Chris Simon basically stepped on Yarko Root's skate ankle. I think he got, what,

30 games for that incident if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I'd go at least 10 to 15 for that, but, you know, with George Peros, you know, he'd probably only going to be like, oh, it's a slap on the wrist fine, or he'll give him like two games because the Department of Player's Safety is a absolute joke. But anyways, with Montreal, I would assume that I think Carrick Price would get the start tomorrow. Standing rise right now, they are out of the playoff picture, so, but still, I'm not really sure what Mark Bergevin is going to do with the deadline.

He has some options, though. I feel like if someone were to try to trade for someone like Max Domi, who apparently the Penguins have kicked the tires on, but he was said to be unavailable. I think they would want a big haul for him. Jonathan Duran, Brendan Gallagher. I don't really think they're going to trade any of those pieces. I think they may look to trade some of the outer pieces. I could definitely see a trade involving Ilya Kobochuk because he's basically had a renaissance since ever coming to Montreal from Los Angeles. I still don't understand why he signed that contract with the Kings.

That was just absolutely pathetic on his part, I think. but yeah I think he's definitely the biggest trade in last bit I've seen reports on Jeff Petrie he's been really really good for a long time I remember with the day that they traded for him I think it was about I'm trying to remember the exact date that they a year that they traded for him off the top of my head I believe it was like 2014 or something like that it's back when I was in high school I believe and he's been there basically ever since but yeah I just you know this is a winnable game for the penguins these next two games are definitely winnable games I've two more Atlantic teams before

they're honestly the Penguins just keep they're just playing the whole Atlantic division I think at this point they have Toronto twice next week Buffalo and then the Metro heat turns up with Washington then they have the California road trip and then March is just all Metro games basically yeah like I said the schedule has turned nasty for the Penguins but these two games here are very very winnable they need to take advantage of that they're still only at the time of this recording there are three points behind the Washington capitals there's still plenty of time to potentially

catch them for first place. I think they have the ability to. Capitals played tonight against the Colorado Avalanche in Denver. Last I checked, the Islanders were down to nothing to the Nashville Predators. I'm actually about to check that score right now. At least Buffalo

just tied the game against Columbus, so 2-2 we're going to hope maybe that Buffalo can win that game in regulation. But yeah, the Predators are up for nothing right now with about halfway through the second period. So, yeah, the Predators are going to beat the Islanders. So that will help the Penguins, because the Penguins win tomorrow in regulation or whatever kind of win will be four points up on the Islanders. The Flyers are winning.

Whatever. But yeah, I just wanted to update a little bit on the scores. So, you know, yeah, we're scoreboard watching. You know, it's that time of year, you know, when you get into mid-February, the playoffs are two months away. That's exactly what you do at this time of year. You know, I'm not ashamed to admit that I do indeed do it myself as well. Figured out in this today's episode with some more trade talk, you know, I told you all, man, we're all working to doing the trade talk until the debuts. on combs.

Tomorrow's episode, just speaking now, I know we're talking about tomorrow's episode. I just said I'll talk about trade talk about trade talk, you know what,

whatever. Probably do that after the game against the Canadians. I do have some Valentine's Day festivities to attend with a certain

someone that I've talked about on this podcast many times. She hosts the Locked on Capital's podcast. But to talk about some trade talk. SportsCent apparently

had an interview with Jim Ruther for today and Jim Rutherford basically said, you know, if we go with the group that we have, I'm fine with that. I like this group.

There might be a little bit of tinkering at the end, but I don't really see anything big like the Jason Zuckermere. So what that means, you know, he might be going after a death defenseman that we talked about on the other L.S.J.'s episode like, I mean, you know, a Brendan Dillon, Trevor Daly, if the cap was able to work,

Marco Scandella, you know, they have the opportunity, they have the flexibility where they can fit in another cap in with Al Jakes' LTIR space. And I don't even think they have Bukstad on a long-term IR. I don't even think that matters with Bukstad's injury as well. So, yeah, I think that's fine. You know, they'll look at that.

I've also read from Josh Gilly, then they may be looking at a depth forward for the bottom six. There's plenty of names out there. I could probably list them for days, but I don't need to go on a website. You guys probably could figure some out for yourselves. Though, do I see him getting a depth forward? I just, I'm not really sure,

but because, like, when the team is healthy, and of course that's a big if, I don't really see another need for, I think, a depth forward, because I think his team is really, really deep with Dominic and who's coming back that's going to force, Agassino out of the lineup. And, of course, a Buxtad coming back, Dattle Force, I think,

Moffertie, out of the lineup. And then that lineup is going to look really, really, really good. So I don't really know if there's room for another forward in the lineup, though. For a defenseman, there could be. But Jim Ruther did say today, though, that, yeah, he's kind of going to, these decisions are going to be made within 48 hours of the deadline. So look for that. Not this coming Saturday.

Of course, the deadline is not next week, but the week after. So next Saturday is when it sounds like he's going to be finalizing his deadline plans and everything and getting all that in working order. So, yeah, don't expect a Penguins trade until probably next weekend of some kind. Because I also think they want updates on John Marino and Brian Dumlin. I'm not really sure when Brian Dumlin's going to return at this point. Hopefully there hasn't been a setback. John Marino, that'll be, I think, two weeks up until his rehab for the deadline. So they're probably going to know, like, is he going to be on the short end of recovery since they did say three to six weeks or is it going to be on a long term where he's going to need to know.

another potential like three to four more weeks. So we'll see, we'll see what the injuries. What that situation is. I thought that was very, very interesting that came out today. I don't really think there was anything else that came out of trade talk today. Well, some people were talking about on the Athletic or that one of the Rangers v. reporters said, you know, the Islanders, Penguins are among the lifts of most likely trade destinations for Rangers forwarded Chris Kreider. But then I think people fail to read the article because he basically said, you know, I can only imagine Crowder playing with Sidney Crosby given now he's turned to average players into good players and good players

terrific players. Alas, that won't happen now because of course they just traded for Jason Zucker. I really don't see them traded for Chris Ryder. You know, crazier things have happened. I would be pretty hyped if they did. But I just, I really don't see that happening at this point because I just don't think they have the tradable assets to get him. And he's also a rental. Jim Rutherford isn't really one to give up even more assets for a rental. I feel like he's going to go to somewhere like, you know, where

they mentioned, Boston is definitely a big one. Well, I don't really think the Islanders, well, I don't think the Islanders and the Rangers are going to make the trade, you know. I think I think I'd have a better probability of, I don't know, being the president of this country someday, then seeing the Islanders and Rangers make a trade. Those two franchises despise each other. The same for Penguins' Fires.

I don't think they would ever, ever make a trade. You know, you guys remember a couple years ago with the Mark Strite trade, the Flyers dealt him to Tampa, who dealt him to, Pittsburgh because Ron Hextall didn't want to trade with the Penguins directly. That just goes to show the animosity between the two franchis. And I think that would be the same with the Rangers and the Islanders. So thank you guys so much for listening to today's Walked on Penguins episode. Like I said, we'll have another episode coming tomorrow where we recap the game against Montreal.

See how the team does. I think they should be able to stop them, even though Montreal does have some high-end talent in Duran, Gallagher, Domey, you know, even without the Shayweber injury, they still have Petrie. Carey Price is still force and nets sometimes. They're out of the playoff picture, but like I said, the Penguins should be able to win this game. And then, of course, after that tomorrow's episode,

we'll be back on Monday recapping the game against the Red Wings. I don't know if I'll be able to watch that whole game as I'll be driving back home after coming home for the weekend for Valentine's and all that. But we'll still have another episode coming on Monday. And all throughout the rest of the season, and we're just going to keep going. I appreciate all of you tuning into this podcast.

I really appreciate it. I can't believe I've done over 60 episodes of these already. It's kind of hard to believe that this flies by. I have a lot of fun bringing you guys' content. I hope I don't bore you guys to death. I hope I can bring at least a little bit of fun into it. We're going to have some more guests on at some point. Like I said, you know, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Locked on Penguins.

Keep it right here. Keep subscribing, getting reviews and all that. And we'll have another episode coming tomorrow. All right, take care, everyone.