Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 2/17- The wins just keep on stacking

Episode Date: February 17, 2020

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter recaps the weekend for the Penguins as they beat both the Montreal Canadiens and the Detroit Red Wings. He also touches on how Jason Zucker has looked, Kris Letang's great season, both goaltenders, and much more! 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 latest edition of a locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm, of course, your host, Hunter Hodes, follow me on Twitter at. Hunter Hodes follow the shows, Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-U-Swar Penguins. Happy Monday, everybody. Happy President's Day to those who live in the United States, of course. And, you know, we have a lot to get to today in Penguin Land. A lot of stuff transpired this weekend, of course, right as I muted it, the thing got it and get the whole sound of the text message.

I had to mute it just in time. But a lot of stuff happened in Penguin Land this weekend. Two big wins against the Montreal Canadiens and the Detroit Red Wing, so we can just get right into it. The Montreal Canadiens game was basically the Jason Zucker game. Wow. You can definitely feel his impact right away. The chemistry with Cindy Crosby is unbelievable.

Got his first two goals in a penguin uniform. He's probably on Paceoutout score Alex Gau Chenuck in about a week of being a penguin. So the penguins have that going for them right now. You could just really just tell how fast. fast he is on the ice. He flies out there. He's playingmaking ability is great. I love his shot. Him and Crosby looks like they work like magic

together and it's just going to be a lot of fun to watch them together for the next couple years as of course he's under contract for the next three seasons after this one. Putting Dominic Simone on that line has helped tremendously. Simone is just such a great playmaker. He does all those little things.

So, so well. I've said that so many times on this podcast. Also apologies for my voice lately. I think I think it was because I probably drank too much on Saturday night as I was up in D.C. So apologies to if I sounded a little sick. It's not my intention, of course. I've not been sick. But anyways, back to the Penguins at hand and just have to get that out.

Yeah, just a really great game from Zucker. He was fitting right in. You know, great to see that his family came for that game. And just for the weekend to visit Pittsburgh, you know, see how it's going to be going forward with them. But, of course, Chris LaTang was able to get another goal. He also got a goal against the Red Wings. I believe he is on. Penguins actually tweeted this out today.

He is on a six-game point streak. If I'm actually not mistaken. Oh, my apologies. It's five games. Yep, sorry about that. So three goals, six points in five games. Power play goal, of course, against the Red Wings. With that goal yesterday and the goal on Friday against the Indians.

He has four goals in his last seven games. And, of course, you know, a goal in his last two games. So Chris Lattang having another tremendous season, even though he's been stripped, well, paired with Jack Johnson for most of this season. Ever since Brian Newman got hurt in December, we still don't know when Brian Duman is going to start skating. So to have the season that Lattang is having to be on points, pace for almost 60 points, definitely way over 50. I think he's almost about to pass his career high in goals, which is, I believe, is 16. I think he's just about a couple shy from tying his career high. He's probably going to pass it by the season's end.

He's just another tremendous season. I think you talk about him more in the Norris Trophy race if he was paired to Brian Newman and not Jack Johnson because he's just really, really good this year. Of course, he missed a little bit of time with the injury, which always sucks. But just another marvelous season for Chris LaTang. I still, we all know, I don't know why people get so mad about him.

Yes, he makes mistakes. Sometimes he's responsible for a couple goals against, but the good far, far, far outweighs the bad. Even though he makes $7 million per year, it's kind of a bargain price. We're just how good he is and how much he brings to the team. He's just been absolutely outstanding, and it's just been so much fun to watch in this season.

Zach Ashton-Rees was able to get out of his goal scoring drought. I think it was around, I know it was over 15 games. I think it was like a 16-17 game goal drought that he was on or one goal in his last 16-17 games, something like that. So good for him to get that empty-knack goal. that was nice and then Tristan Jari nothing short as spectacular for him only allows the one goal I thought it was a pretty nice shot by Thomas Tatar of course so the penguins were actually interested in before the deadline before they got Jason Zucker so Tristan Jari 971 say percentage and you know I tweeted this during the game when I was watching it

it just it feels so great to have two number one goaltenders right now playing their asses off of them we're going to get to the game against Troy yesterday where Matt Murray was just expected But, I mean, but, you know, with Tristanjari, it's just, you know, he had a little bit of that rut about a couple weeks ago when he was allowing three or more goals in a lot of those games. Even though he was winning, he didn't look as sharp. Of course, he wasn't going to play like a 9, 50, 960 goaltender all season. Goleys have an up range of highs and lows. That was going to happen. But to see him rebound, to keep this pace up, this is no fluke.

This guy is the potential future. number one goal tender of the Penguins, especially when no one knows what's going to happen with Matt Murray this summer with the extension and, of course, the expansion draft coming up. But he's potentially playing his way into being a Star Wars going forward for the Penguins, though. If I had to make a guess right now, is who starts game one in the playoffs, like I said. I think it will be Matt Murray because of his recent play as of late.

But just a really, really great game from Jari. He made some really stellar stops on all the Montreal. skaters, some really great A chances were stopped by hand. And, you know, I think the penguins are just going to keep going with this 1A, 1B thing. You know, I start one, you start one. I scratch my back, you scratch yours, whatever,

whatever. That's why I think they're going to keep doing. And you know what? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. It's great to have this problem right now because one of these guys is going to play into starting game 1 in the playoffs. When the Penguins eventually make it

can probably get to come a lot earlier than a lot of teams in this league. I think the top four teams in the East are probably going to be the first teams to clinch a playoff spot as a whole. But, yeah, it's just a great problem to have. A really good win by the Penguins. They were able to win two out of three against Montreal. Montreal, you could tell we're missing Shea Weber.

That's not really a good hockey team. Poor Claude Julian out there. I know he's a really, really good coach. But that team needs to just get a lot better. I don't really. I don't see them. They're obviously not going to make the playoffs. this year. I'll be curious to see what Mark

Bergevin has up his sleeve for the deadline and potentially in the summer. You always know he sometimes likes to be an herb and do a bunch of stuff. But yeah, it was a great job to get the win and they move to within. So three points, even though they're at one point out of the Washington Capos

right now. But yeah, just a really really good team win. Cindy Crosby, you know, like I said, a really, really good game assisted on three of the four Penguins goals. He had both the primary assist, I believe, on Jason Zuckers. goals for his two, first two of the season. And then Teddy Bluger, of course,

had Nassizade, Patrick Hornquist. Dominic Simone had part of an assist. And we're going to talk a lot about all Hornquist coming up in this next segment because, wow, you know, he's really turned it up as a late and especially in the game against the Detroit Red Wings yesterday. I thought he was just marvelous. All right.

So, of course, the Penguins were able to get their win against the Red Wings on Sunday, 5 to 1. Unfortunately, I was not able to watch the game. I only got to see the highlights because I was driving back to Blacksburg from Washington, D.C., from Valentine's weekend we're spending up. I was just spending up there, the weekend up there, excuse me, with my girlfriend. But I remember what I was able to tell. Some people were tweeting me.

I was asking question how they were playing. It looks at the Penguins had a rough few minutes, which is, of course, to be expected, to be going up against an inferior opponent. But as the game goes on, you start to dominate a team like that. And it looks like that's exactly what the Penguins did in a 5-to-1 victory against. the Detroit Red Wings. The Red Wings were able to strike first. I'm watching the replay.

I have no idea what Jack Johnson was doing. It looked like he lost his man. It wasn't anywhere near the puck. Really, also, really pretty passing play. I think it was from Bertuzi to Valtarii Philippa. I always forget that Valtteri Filipula is back on the Red Wings, considering that he's been with so many teams these past couple seasons, with the Flyers and went to the Islanders.

I think he passed when he had like his 20-goal season. And then, of course, is now back with the Red Wings after signing with them in the off season. And, yeah, I don't know why I forget that all of a sudden. But whatever, I guess. But Matt Murray, yeah, I had really no chance on it. He was a little out of position, but still it was just a really, really nice passing play. It's really hard to be to play like that. But the Penguins were able to strike back and strike back quick.

The first goal was really given to Hornquist, but I think it was Sam Lafferty that got it. You know, that's another goal for him. You know, he's playing his way. And he's going to keep playing in the lineup until these forwards eventually. should get healthy. I know even with Newkstad and Cahoon coming back soon, hopefully, I think Lafferty is going to be on the outside looking in

with that, but he's going to make a case. I think he's definitely going to be the 13th forward on this team when this team is fully healthy. He deserves to be up here. He deserves to get games in. But when this team is fully healthy, I just don't see him in the top 12 forwards, even though he has

had a pretty decent year for his standards. He's actually approaching almost 10 goals. this season, which is pretty crazy considering I think that this is his first, um, excuse me, his first full season in the, uh,

the NHL. So, um, yeah, just great for Sam Lafferty, uh, for that. Yeah,

he was getting a little close, but he still playing 42 games, six goals, 12 points. It's really, actually not bad for a fourth liner. Um, he's probably,

if he keeps playing, I can definitely see him getting in that 10 goal mark. That would be really nice for him to get in his first, uh, uh, full season in the league. So really nice to see that. Of course,

we already talked about, Chris Lattang, another really strong game for him. Beautiful shot from the point to beat Jimmy Howard. And poor Jimmy Howard yesterday fell as. Poor guy was just under siege all the game. He was eventually pulled in the game. He was just really, really bad. I allowed four goals on 16 shots, 7.50 percentage.

He's eventually relieved by Jonathan Bernier, who finished with 947, had 18 saves on 19 shots. Only gave up the one goal. I think it was the fifth goal to Patrick. Hornquest, if I'm not mistaken, though. And of course, let's get to Hornquist now. Just an outstanding game from him. Wow. I mean, he's just, it's kind of been a little bit, I think, of a weird season for

Hornquist. Like some games, you're like, oh, I don't really notice him a lot. But other games like yesterday, you know, some people are like, wow, how does he have 14 goals this year? Well, I'll tell you why, you know, he's still really good in front of the net. He's getting shots on net. He's just, he's doing his thing. That's what he's best at.

And when you go to the front of the net, you get rewarded. A lot of, most of all of his goals, and I'm just trying to correct my thoughts here. I'm probably speaking a little bit too fast. So my apologies. I did say yesterday that 12 of his 14 goals this season have come at even strength. And that's really, really good because some of the times during his tangoom tenure, a lot of his points have come via the power play because he's been on the top powerplay getting his says, getting goals from the net.

But the fact that he's able to get goals now to even strength, and like I said, 12 of his 14 this year have. That's amazing. And he's just, he's been really, really good for the Penguins this season. Like I said, 14 goals now. He's approaching 20. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets there. I really, really root for that.

The guys also do not read Josh Yo. He always pieced in the athletic on Patrick Hornquist today. I had very much advised you to go do that. Just a really, really good piece on, you know, just his confidence last year and putting last year behind him considering his injuries and how he just went into this year with everything going forward, even also playing on the fourth line, which is pretty new performance, because he hasn't really done that basically at all throughout his career. And, you know, just with how deep the penguins are, it's just, it's basically a necessity of this point.

So, like I said, really good to see him get rewarded yesterday, a three-point effort for him. Cindy Crosby was able to get a goal on what a shot that was to beat Howard. Very pretty passing play. Simone gave it to Pedersen. Simone is just, like I said, so good in the offensive zone. got to Pedersen who just fired it cross-ice to Sidney Crosby and he let that slop shot rip over Jimmy Howard. That is a vintage Sydney Crosby top shelf goal.

You don't really see him rip it too often anymore, but that was a really, really nice goal for him to get a two-point effort for him. We already talked about, of course, Lafferty, Chris LaTang, and then it feels like I'm missing someone who scored. I guess I really do not think of that. am. So, yeah, I guess I was, I was actually because I thought Patrick was, of course, had his hat track, but it was taken away, and that first goal was given to San Lafferty, because it was hard to tell who it went in off. I think they gave it to Hornquist first,

but then, like I said, they changed it to Lappery. So too bad the fans can't get their tickets, uh, their tickets, their hats back because they threw them all on the ice because they thought it was a, uh, hat trick Hornquist as the Penguins official Twitter account likes to tweet out. But yeah, there's a really, really good win. That win now puts them into One point back now of the Washington Capitals, everyone, believe it or not, they are almost in first place in the Metropolitan Division. And I tweeted out yesterday, this would be their first division title, I should say, the Metropolitan or not since the 2013-14. And their first time having home ice in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first, at least the first two rounds since 2013-14. It's something that has not happened very often.

It would be really, really, really nice for the Penguins to hopefully get that. In the playoffs, I just like, the Penguins just are, I think, are a much different team at home than they are on the road. They're one of the best teams at home this season. I think they're in the top three among all teams or wins at home. I have to double-checked their record, but I think it's somewhere around the lines of 21 in 5 and 4, something like that. They have not lost very many games at home in regulation. It's a very rare occurrence. And, you know, just look at, you know, outside of opening night against the Sabres, they've only lost a, just a very,

handful of time on a very couple times at home it's not very often um in regulation i should say you know they've lost a few games in overtime there and yeah yeah after officially just checking it yeah basically i was right um yeah like i said outside of that buffalo game only four regulation home losses from opening night uh that's nothing short of outstanding that's one of the best records um at home um in the nchel so like i said it'd be really really nice to get that home ice but overall dominant performance that's how you dominate an inferior team that these last two games Much needed wins. That's how you need to bank points against teams that are not on the playoff rights.

That's exactly what they did. And now going forward, they're going to have a big home-and-home this week against the Toronto Maple Leafs, a team that is also fighting to get into the playoffs. They just got embarrassed by the Buffalo Sabres of all teams yesterday, who have had a just disastrous here. I just feel so bad for Jack Eichol. And then, of course, they will play the Sabres. They actually play Jack Eichael Sabres at home this Saturday before a matinee Sunday afternoon matchup against the Washington Capitals.

for the second time out of four games in the season. It's actually crazy to believe that the Penguins and the Capitals play all four of their games this season in afternoon time. None of them are evening. They're either 12, 30, or 1 o'clock start times. Even the two games in Pittsburgh will be, I believe, at 1 o'clock. So that's just pretty crazy to think about. But yeah, the Penguins are now very well positioned

to make a serious front of the Metropolitan Division. And they have games in hand on all these teams. All these teams in the division, even though the ones that are chasing them, they have games in hand. And if they use them to their advantage, They can create even more space between, you know, the islanders, the flyers, the jackets, and potentially even create space getting into the top spot in the metro. Very exciting times right now for the black and gold, Pittsburgh Penguins.

Just, you know, really, really great stuff. All right, so I wanted to close the show a couple of mailbag questions, and then, of course, some trade talk. There were some, of course, there were the two big trades yesterday around the Metropolitan Division. The Islanders acquiring Andy Green for a second. round pick and a prospect, and then, of course, the devil setting Blake Holman to the Tampa Bay Lightning for one of their top prospects and their first round pick that they got, I think it was Vancouver's first round pick that they got for dealing J.T. Miller. These deadline prices are very expensive. This is a lot more expensive than I thought they would be. I can kind of see why now

that teams are a little reluctant to trade, especially with these prices. I'll start with the Blake Coleman deal, you know, I know Blake Coleman is underrated. You know, he makes less than $2 million per year, has two consecutive 20 goal seasons. I think Jason Zucker is a better player than him. He's under more term than Coleman is. I think he's

a better playmaker, better goal score. But, you know, to see that the lightning gave up, basically the same asking price that the penguins did to get Zucker and for them with Coleman, it just goes to show that I much prefer this deal for the penguins with

Zucker than I did for Blake Coleman because like I said, Zucker's the better player. He's eyes on a more term. And, you know, the Lightning are going to also be facing some serious cap crunches this summer. We all know the Lightning are going forward again. This is the third consecutive year that they're doing this. They have one of the best teams in the league. There is no excuses to not make a run to the Cup final with that team, especially after getting embarrassed by the Blue Jackets in the playoffs last off season.

I don't think that will happen again. But, you know, crazier things have happened. But still, that's a very high price to play for a player like Blake Coleman, who I don't think a lot of people, like, know how good he is. And like I said, it's not that he's not a bad player. He's a good player. It's just that asking price for him is very, very high.

And I would not have paid that if I were a contending team. But you know what? If Tampa's going for their cup, so it's not going to handcuff them too too much, even though they will have salary cap concerns over the summer. DK. Play Coleman and all that probably can have to clear more salary. But, you know, it just goes to show that these prices for these bottom six forward, like Blake Coleman or someone you can put it on the third line. They're expensive.

And, you know, Jason Zucker, like I said, was the exact same. But he's a top six-winger. So I understand that more. Blake Coleman, I don't think is anything more than maybe a fringe top-six winger, a third-liner. You can put them on anywhere, basically, on those two lines, and you'd probably be fine. But it's just, yeah, it's just a big one.

And, of course, the rental defensive market, which the penguins are probably thinking about dipping their toes into a little bit, Andy Green that was acquired for a second round pick. I'm sorry. That's nuts. For someone like Andy Green, he's 37 years old, he's not very good. He does one thing good. And that's probably good of shock blocking.

And of course, the Iron Waders would be the team to acquire them because Lou Lamaro loves that stuff. And that's exactly how the Islanders play. It's no shock that they did that, even though they desperately need way more offense. And that's just a non-defensively star of team. You know, that's just if that's the price for the defensive market, market for the deadline. Jim, just go ahead and pass, man. I'm not giving up a second in a prospect to get a defenseman like Andy Green. I mean, you know, if he gets that, what does Marco Scandella or Brendan Dillon get? What does that like Martinez get from the Los Angeles Kings? I just find a lot

of that very, very weird that a team would trade those assets to get someone like Andy Green, but the Devils did really, really good yesterday in those two deals. Tom Fitzgerald, of course, former Penguin Assistant General Manager, off to a good start as the interim general manager in New Jersey. He's going to probably make his case to potentially do this full time, but we'll see what the devil's also have in store for the deadline is. I think that Sam McVottenham is also going to go, there's probably going to be more trade. Maybe they may trade Kyle Palmerica as well. I've seen him in rumors. But to get to the mailback questions, we only have a couple for today's show. Nicholas Malsam and Malsem 18. He basically asked, where would you put Zucker in the lineup when

Schenzel comes back to being Crosby's left wing, switch him to right wing in Crosby's line, or move him down to Malkins. That's actually a really, really good question, so thank you for asking that, Nick. If J. Gensel comes back this season, I think what they probably will do, this is just my speculation, just my guess, but I think it's a good chance of it happening.

I think they're going to keep the Zarker-Crosby-Simone line, and they're going to go Gensel Malkin-Russ. That top six is absolutely disgusting if they were to do that. I know Kuhn Malkin-Russ has been really, really good when all three of those guys are healthy. Of course, they're going to put Kuhn back in that spot once he is cleared to play, which could most likely be coming this week. He even said this weekend he just needs to be cleared for contact and then have a contact practice,

and then he's good to go. So that should be coming out hopefully any day now. But that's what I think I would do, especially I think that's what they may do next season. Gensel works with Crosby or Malkin. He's had really good success with both of those guys. I mean, of course, more success with Cindy Crosby, but he still had good goals for. scoring success without getting Malkin as well. You could put him on the right wing with Zarker,

but I feel like he's best suited to be on the left wing since that's his shooting side and everything. So like I said, thank you for that question. That's really I'm excited to think about, especially if the Penguins do make a deep playoff run this season with Zucker and then, of course, Gensel coming back. Their top six would be absolutely loaded. That's just not fair to a lot of teams in this league.

I was from last week, Alan Teyodor from Tuesday game versus Tampa from IC in the arena, the few power play chances the Penguins had. It looked like Latang had decent chances to shoot it instead pass. Is this coaching or just personnel choice or just personal choice? Wouldn't they want to get pucks to net, especially with Cornquist, on that unit? Okay, so that's a really, really good question. Chris Letang, he's sometimes he's a little maddening on the power play. You know, he'll pass up prime shooting opportunities for a pass.

That's really not necessarily, doesn't necessarily need to happen. and then of course it sometimes leads to it turn over or just a clear by the opposing team. So, you know, but like he did against Detroit, it looks like, you know, when he shoots like that, it pays off. I think he does sometimes need to shoot a little bit more. But when he does shoot them, you know, it goes on net like the one against Detroit or it's there for a juicy rebound. I think sometimes it's more personal choice for him. I know Mark Racki has come under heat the past couple weeks when the power play was not doing good because some of these players were passing up prime scoring opportunities and, you know, they're

lugging into the zone and all in that. You know what? That's fair, but I think it's more personal choice than coaching. They just, you know, when you see an opportunity to shoot the puck, you know, just fire it on that. You know, sometimes, you know, you don't need to make that extra pass to look like the Harlem Globetrotters or anything. You know, I just, you know, just get the puck on net. You know, like you said, Hornquist is right there ready to jam it in. you know, he's just, he's had a really good season for the most part.

And, yeah, I think that's mostly what I have for that question. So thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Locked on Penguins. We'll have another episode coming probably after tomorrow night's game. We'll talk about the game against the Maple Leafs, as this is a home-and-home, of course. I'm really excited to watch this game against the Leaves. They haven't played the Leafs in, I think, a few months now. You know, I always love watching these two teams who are at, especially with all the scale on each team. And for those that are not in Pittsburgh, the game will be on NBC Sports Network.

So just always make sure you guys tune in. You guys won't have to stream it tomorrow on SportsRug or Reddit and shell streams or anything like that. So like I said, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Lockdown Penguins, and we will talk to you soon.