Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 2/18-Absolute Domination, plus a special guest comes back to the show!

Episode Date: February 19, 2020

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter starts off the show by talking about the Penguins shellacking of the Maple Leafs before a mysterious sound shows up from an unknown guest. They then discuss the game against Toronto, where the Leafs should go from here, Crosby's magnificence, plus so 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 a Tuesday evening edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm, of course, your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show's Twitter at L-O- underscore Penguins. And the Penguins are fresh off a five-to-two absolute shalacking of the Toronto Maple Leafs. And with that win, everyone, the Penguins are now first place in the Metropolitan Division. We absolutely love to see it. Hey, what's that? Looking for

Oh, that was That was very cool. Hunter, you know I had to join the podcast for the first place in the division. That's right. Yeah, there's Cameron Easton. He joins the podcast yet again for another episode. Had to play that little clip. Cam, how you doing tonight, my man?

Hey, first place. Couldn't feel better. It was a little interesting seeing Malkin come out of the lineup. That was a little scary. Yeah, I tweeted before the game. I thought, you know, you never know if it's a little bit of, if it's just a pregame dump that you need to take. I got a slip of people left to that.

But it sounds like he actually was sick. It looked like he was, you know, holding his stomach. So I'm pretty sure he probably went to the bathroom and threw up a bunch as he was probably taking off his equipment gear. So hopefully it's nothing too serious with his sickness. Good thing it's not an injury of some sort. So I guess that's the good news. But, Piacam, first place in the Metro.

This is probably the first time the Penguins have been in first place in Metropolitan Division. I can't even remember the last time they were. first place in this division. They were 13 points behind the capitals at one point this season. They have erased that deficit. They still have a game in hand on them. And if the penguins can hold on to this and win the Metro, get home ice for at least the first two rounds,

that actually might, I think, put them over the top. Because, you know, you never really see the penguins have home ice in the playoffs for the first two rounds as long as this divisional format has been. They've only done it once was the 2013-14 season. And of course, we want to forget that when they blew the lead to the Rangers. But, I mean, what a run this team is on right now. It's absolutely outstanding with the level that they're playing at. And, you know, they have the opportunity to make a really big run here with the schedule they have coming up to.

Yeah, and traditionally with their March performances in the past, it's traditionally called the March of the Penguins. That's right. And you would hope that tradition continues. because they've just been on a tear right now and give credit to players like Tristan Jari and Matt Murray, they are some of the league's best right now and definitely helping the penguins out in that category. Yeah, the goaltending was absolutely superb again.

I know Tristan Jari gave up two late goals in the second period, but other than that, just an absolutely spectacular game again. He was making some absolute rock-solid saves on all the Toronto's best skaters. He was really square to each shot. I think it was late in the second or in the third period when Marner had a chance to make it. I think a two-goal game. Jari shut the door there.

You know, I tweeted it on Sunday. This is such a great problem to have when both of your goaltenders are playing at this level. I've said it a lot over this last week with Murray's rejuvenation that I would start him in game one. But, you know, I also wouldn't be mad if they went to Jari right now because, you know, they're just going to keep flip-flopping back and forth. And I think that's the best thing you can do at this point. with how both of them are playing really, really well. It was just great to see him dominate beliefs tonight,

and the poor Toronto make beliefs in their fans. You know, they're really feeling it right now up in Toronto. Yeah, and just going back to the Jari and Murray thing, what's great about that is they're both can be fresh for the playoffs, considering the workload they've both had, considering like a franchise goalie and just a backup. These are two franchise goleys. without a doubt in my mind, I mean, with their play right now.

And personally, I would start Murray game one. But I guess, like you said, I wouldn't be surprised if Jarre against that start. But the Leafs just, they just, you know. They stink. Yeah, I feel bad for the Leafs fans out there. You know, yeah, I mean, Travis Yost had a really. good tweet earlier today is basically like, you know, what do you

do you do you actually try to buy considering you're easily going to have to go up against a Tampa team who has just crushed the league these last month and a half? Or a team like Boston who has destroyed the Leafs in the playoffs each of the last few seasons. You know, that's not good. They're still trying to win their first

playoff round in the Austin Matthews-Jon-Tavris era, especially the Austin Matthews era. And with how inconsistent that they've been lately. Of course, they got crushed by Buffalo this past weekend. I feel for Kyle Dubus going into the trade deadline, because I'm not really sure if he's going to make a big move. You know, there's an actual argument you made that they could sell,

even though they're still in a playoff spot, though. The Florida Panthers are still a little bit on their tail. I don't know. Excuse me, what they're going to be doing at the deadline. But, yeah, I mean, that was, you know, they started taking it to the penguins, I thought, a little bit tonight. When the penguins were turtling, of course, every team, I think kind of turtles. When you go up 5-0, the game started to tilt in their favor a little bit.

which was expected. But, I mean, before that, I mean, they were just making the Maple Leafs look like a pee-wee hockey team. And especially on that fifth goal with the passing of Prosby and Russ to Teddy Bluber. And that was absolutely disgusting. Yeah. Just a well-rounded game for the Penguins tonight. Definitely a great win, gets them in first place. But going back to Toronto, and, you know, they made their moves prior to this season back in the –

past this prior offseason, getting players like Jake Muzzin and trying to improve that defense. And I just, I think they made their moves then. And I think seeing the way Tampa's been playing, which is unreal, turning it on right at the right time of the year and the way Boston's playing. It's just, I would just play it safe if I were Toronto and just reevaluate for the offseason, play with what you got. And, yep.

Absolutely. Yeah. completely agree. Yeah, they're just, I think their biggest problem is they don't have defense. I know Morgan Riley is hurt, you know, Jake Muzin is good.

I mean, Travis Dermott is, eh, I guess, but I mean, other than that, is they're just, a lot of their defensive unit is a tire fire.

They definitely need to go out and get more defense, I would say. Their forwards are a little lacking a little bit outside of their big guns. Of course, you know, Marner,

Nielander Tavaris, Matthews Hyman, et cetera with those guys are just kind of lacking a little bit. But, Yeah, I mean, like I said, I don't envy Kyle Dubus. He's going to have a big decision. Of course, this text thing is going to annoy me the hell out of this tonight.

Can't mute my notifications, but whatever. But, yeah, I don't, like I said, I don't envy him going into the deadline. I think mostly, I think he's probably going to play it safe and mostly not do anything. But it also wouldn't surprise me if he, like, kind of just, like, sells a little bit. I tweeted it out during the game. you know, they should sell, don't at me. And, you know, I can definitely see that happening with them. They're just, that's not a, they're just so inconsistent.

The penguins obviously are going to get another crack at them on Thursday. And, you know, I'll be curious to see how the Maple Leafs respond to that game. Yeah, and I just, I don't know, this whole deadline just doesn't seem as flashy and as prominent as past deadlines. Penguins acted early getting Zucker, which me and the past podcast were on Zucker a lot. so I'm glad they finally got him, and he performed well tonight and in his past couple games here, and that's just a great addition to the team. You know, you saw Tyler Tofully go into the Canucks, which that was a little left out of left field for me. But honestly, I think that's a great fit, you know, with a young Canucks team.

Yeah, that's a classic Jim Benning move where he's just trying to save his ass to make the playoffs. Yep. You know, the ownership, I think, pressures them to do it because they haven't made the playoffs in a few years. Well, and they're overachieving this year, too. That's also true, yeah. I think they like what they're seeing right now, and they're just, you know, they thought Tofoli would be great to the roster. But, yeah, and going back to the Penguins, you know, I don't really see them making another move unless it's just for a depth player. Yeah, that's why I think they're most likely.

we're going to do too. But even then, this roster right now is really good. I'm very happy with it. Maybe, you know, just one depth player. And I think that's your step for the playoffs. But bearing any injuries. They might be forced to, you know, because of Zach Aston-Reece, of course. I think he's, what is he?

Is he week to week now, I believe? Yes, week to week. Yeah. So that might force Jim Rutherford's hand a little bit to make a depth forward move. I still, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. if you did that. Well, and going back to the, like, Angelo tonight, I mean, getting the call right before the game, hey, Malkin's sick, we need you to play tonight, and he got his first initial goal.

So it just shows the power that Wilkes-Berry has had to those players in the system are coming up and just answering the call and really stepping it up. and it kind of gives you a little flashback to 2015-16 when players like Cherry and Russ came up and they went on a little bit of a run there. Yeah, that was quite a big run, if I'm not mistaken, of course. But yeah, no, I completely agree with you. Yeah, it was really great to see him score his first goal.

Yeah, we'll probably talk more about that, you know, coming up after this break. And, of course, it was basically the Sydney Crosby show as well. So yeah, let's just look forward to that. We have a lot more coming up on this episode. So, of course, we're back here. And Cam, it was basically, you know, we welcomed everyone to the Sydney Crosby show tonight

because I think that was his best game since coming back from the sports hernia injury. He's been on quite a tear. These past few games, four point night, had a goal, three assists. He set up the, of course, the Jason Zucker goal. He got his third goal, I believe that's now four games. So I think,

I saw someone tweeted this during the game, actually, I found this was funny. Alex Kalkeniocherni had five goals in 45 games. Jason Zucker already has three goals in his first four games. So he's probably going to outscore him in his first two weeks as a penguin. So I found that really funny. But otherwise, yeah, Cindy Crosby, Hoam, just absolutely ridiculous play from him tonight. He was making plays all over his – I thought his defensive play. In his own zone was spectacular.

That was a complete Sydney Crosby game. and you just can't take this for granted anymore considering just how good he is. He was just all over the place. Yeah, I mean, it was just, every time he was on the ice, it seemed like he was doing something spectacular, and he was just playing very well defensively

and offensively, and give credit to Simone and Zucker on that line. That line looks amazing. I just can't imagine what it's going to be like when, you know, Gensel comes back. I'm looking ahead next season when I shouldn't be. It should be looking now, but, I mean, you got that term on Zucker with his contract, and it's just, it's great. Great time to be a Pittsburgh Penguins fan.

Crosby is back and playing like Crosby, and yeah, great night by Crosby. And, you know, yeah. Powerplay looked great, too. Powerplay went a little quiet there, a couple games, but they finally broke out tonight and really showed there. Yeah, yeah. Penguin Power Play has been, I think, inconsistent a lot of times the season, though. Thankfully, it's turned up a lot this past week.

Use that tonight. Three power play goals for the Penguins on their first. I think it was their first three chances, if I'm not mistaken. They were just taking it to the Leafs penalty kill. The Penguins almost look like the Harlem Globetrotters out there with some of the passing that they were doing on the Power Play. So it was just really, really nice goals. Of course, it was just awesome.

And I just, I loved, um, just seeing the power play working because this is how good the penguin power play can be, um, when it's working. Even that's even without a beginning Malkin too, and J. Kensel, which is pretty, uh, yeah, scary to think about, but I'm not mistaken. But, um, yeah, yeah, imagine that second unit if Kensel and Malkin are in there. I mean, it's just, I mean, yeah. Talent among talent. Yeah. I mean, that, that second unit could be easily a, a first unit, anyone. in the National Hockey League.

Yeah, it could definitely be on at least some teams, Detroit especially. I hate to pile on the Red Wings. Though, the Red Wings, they did just sweep the season series against the Montreal Canadiens. So that is really funny. The fact that someone was able to do that. But I also just saw that apparently

hashtag Fire Dubus is trending in Toronto tonight. So Leafs fans are taking this loss. Very well, I would think. you know, that's typical for Toronto, I would say. But going back to the Penguins, I also thought tonight, also, you know, just going back to how they're also in first place, we'll get to their play in a second. Since December 4th, they're 23 and 6 and 2. They're also 22 and 5 and 4 at home this season.

That's the best home record in the NHL. Yeah, I mean, if they, like I said, if this team gets the first two rounds of home ice at home, it's going to be a major problem for a lot of teams. The Penguins just do not lose. a lot at home. But, I mean, and also, of course, Brian Ross got his 23rd goal tonight. I tweeted that. He's probably going to pot 30 by the end of the season's end.

What a player he's turned out to be. I thought he had a really, really good game. Also, I talked about in my last episode, Patrick Hornquist. Another really good game. Got a couple more points, I think, especially on his primary sister, Cindy Crosby's goal. You know, he's been a lot better when he's been in the lineup, and they were able to promote him in the lineup, of course, with Maloney. and coming out.

And, you know, he's looked good the past few games. Yeah, I saw on Twitter. There was a couple of knocks on Hornquist a couple games ago with how he was towards the bottom of the lineup in his cap hit. But when he comes down to this time of the year and you're heading towards playoffs, cap numbers really don't matter. It's your play that matters. And Hornquist is finally stepping up and playing well.

And, you know, I always thought it was a great playoff performance. or two. Just getting those gritty goals. I mean, throughout his career, too, just getting gritty goals. And that's what you need. And he made that beautiful pass to Crosby tonight, too. That's when he used to, I think, kind of shot. I mean, this whole lineup is just, TANF looked like a bullet out of the chamber.

I'll pay him even more money than he already makes. Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, it's just you look throughout this whole lineup, and there's players that, you know, at one time, I mean, like, I had criticisms and criticisms of the TANF signing, and I was a little shaky on the Hornquist contract extension. But right now, they're playing well.

And, yeah, first place, and that's where they need to be. and that's the expectation right now. And the Cup is the ultimate expectation. And that's, they're really going for it. And it's great to see. Yeah, no, I absolutely agree. You know, with all that, you know, like I said, I would pay Tanna even more money with the way he's playing right now.

Of course, the Aston Rees-Godher, considering that line was really good. But still, he was playing great with Bluger tonight. And, you know, Teddy Blugher, you know, it took him a little while to come up into the system and be on the team full time. But he's earned it. I think he was probably due for a spot last season in favor of Matt Cullen, who is unfortunately, you know, we love Matt Cullen on this podcast,

but he was kind of a bit of a corpse for almost all the last season. Team Dad. Yeah, Team Dad. You know, Team Dad. Shout out Tyler. Team Dad was great. 2015, 16, 2016, 17. Otherwise, you know, it went downhill pretty quick.

But, yeah, great for Teddy Blugher, too. We'll have more about this game coming up. And apparently, Sheldon Key, just spoke to the media and he had some pretty harsh words about his team and about a pretty interesting comments about the penguins. All right. So, um,

excuse me, but, uh, so like I said, Sheldon Keefe, like, just spoke to the media cam. He is,

uh, pretty not happy. He said, you know, you have a team over there in the penguins that's both a championship culture and what's acceptable and we're not there. That is something the inexperience, but we also have some very experienced players that should be more than capable of leading the way.

So, um, yeah, he basically, uh, he's telling it how it is and how the penguins are basically, you know, they know what it takes to win, obviously. But I found that quote very interesting.

You know, I mean, I'd be curious to see the response that they have in Thursday in Toronto when the penguins travel for the second game of the home and home. Yeah, I mean, when you look at the penguins and, I mean, traditionally in the past years, the first half of the season always isn't spectacular for the penguins. And that second half, usually towards the beginning or, you know, end of December, that's when the penguins just say, hey, look, this is, this is it. We need to start buckling up and making that run. And when the penguins do that, it's, they're forced to be reckoned with. And, you know, with the Leafs, they're hot and cold a lot.

And some nights they're looking like the best team in the league, and then some nights it's like tonight. And this weekend against Buffalo when Jack I can basically torch them. Yeah, no, I agree. That's probably the best assessment of the best. Yeah. And, you know, Toronto has the talent. And of course, they need some defensive help. But their offense is just, I mean, they got Marner, Tavares, and Matthews.

and, you know, they have the cornerstone pieces for a championship team. They just need to get over that step. You know what I mean? Yeah, the hump, you know, they got to beat Boston if that will ever happen. And for the Penguins, for the Penguins a couple of years, it was the Rangers. And, you know, maybe this year, for some odd reason, it's Toronto finally beats Boston or whoever that is in the first. round and it finally go on that run. But right now, they definitely need to take a look in the mirror.

Yeah, no, I absolutely agree. And, you know, with the Penguins being in first place, you know, their schedule coming up, it helps them, you know, before the big Metro stretch to end of the season with 14 or their last 16 games coming against Metro teams. Going forward here, you know, they have a chance to really put some distance potentially between them and the Caps, if the Caps keep struggling, play Toronto again on Thursday. Buffalo on Saturday who, you know, that's a big trap game, I would say, but they're really bad. And then, of course, the game against Washington is massive. But then after that, they go to California to play the three really bad California teams. It's always really weird to say that all three of them just absolutely stink this season.

And then they have Buffalo and Ottawa again. And then the real fun begins with all the Metro teams. So, yeah, just these next one, like I said, these next, you know, five, six games. You know, they have a chance to really keep stacking some points here and winning some games and further pushing themselves away from, you know, a team like the Flyers. Of course, that's in third, the Islanders. And also, like I said, a team like the Capitals who are one point behind them, but the Penguins still have a game in hand on them. Yeah, and I think it's important that Penguins don't necessarily look ahead and they just take it one game at a time. And I think that's where they're at that point right now in the season where Sullivan's like, he's in that playoff mode.

You know what I mean? Just play. You know what I mean? Just stuff like that. You know, his little quotes in the locker room. Just skate and all that. Yeah, we just play. We just play.

Yeah. I love the post game press conferences. He's like, well, we just played hard, you know, and got the win. We play the game the right way. We play the game the right way. That's like his favorite. That's his favorite. But if they just, but like, yeah, if they just play the game in the right way,

Each game, you know, they don't look at who the opponent is, you know, whether it's the Red Wings or the Capitals. You just play the game. And, yeah, I mean, they definitely have that chance to stack the points and get that whole nice advantage. Yeah, that'll be great. Yeah, you know, the Capitals, though, they'll look a little different on Sunday when they play them. Of course, they got Brendan Dillon today from the San Jose Sharks, the defenseman for a second and third round pick, basically just a good defensive player, nothing more. That's the annual trade. I think the capitals always make.

It is trade for a defenseman almost every year. You know, a lot of times it's not really paid off for them, except for Michael Keppney, who's actually a legit stud on that team. But otherwise, you know, Nick Jensen, Michael, Mike Weber, Kevin Shatton Kirk didn't work out for them. Yeah, Shatton Kirk was the big one I remember. Yeah, yeah. I remember when that trade went down, I was like, oh, God, here we go. Yeah.

But, I mean, other than the year they won the Cup. Yeah. What was it? That was 2018 when they got Kepney. Like I said, he's an actual stunt. He's a stunt. Yeah. But the year that,

there was a couple games, I forgot. It was probably the 2017 year, where Chatton Kirk looked good a couple games. Yeah. But then there were some games where he just, like, he wasn't even noticed in the lineup. Yeah, well, yeah, we remember when Matt Kowlin, basically. I think the paying one's just, they look at,

you don't look at who the player is in the lineup. You're playing the game and you know what you have in your team and you have that belief in your team. And they have adversity too with all the injuries. And they're like, if we can beat these guys with the guys in our lineup, you know, we can we can be to anybody. Yeah, no, yeah. And I completely agree. And, you know, the reinforcements are going to come. You know, we got one back tonight, even though how we, you know, it's basically like, I saw some tweet today.

A soul for a soul from Avengers Endgame. A soul for a soul. Yeah, that was basically the one. You know, every time a penguins player comes back, I like those odds. What was that? I like those odds. Yeah, you know you have the, I know you have the clips somewhere buried in there, too, I think. What, Thanos?

No, I don't have the Mandalorian one. Oh, there's, there's, there's, there's odds. Yeah, there it is. I think the penguins like those odds of the rest of their schedule. Yeah. Perfect. And then, yeah, so Dominic Cahuna, of course, came back, thought he was, he looked really good. He started playing on the fourth line, and Sullivan quickly took him off that.

Like, it was nothing. I think it was like a minute in the game. He put him right up, I think, on the second line with McCann. And, yeah, he looked really good. He looked like him all himself. He was really close to scoring a couple times. The Penguins desperately missed him, and it showed through this past month. It's great to have him back.

Yeah, they look, especially with him in the lineup, they look faster. just compared to the let me put it this way they looked faster than the past seasons team that went on to pace the islanders with

horrible series um you know I personally think TANiv's like a like a Haglin that can score you know what I mean and um

but yeah Cahoon, Tanev, all of those guys, just those bottom-depth players are, you got that speed. That's really great to have. Yeah, great to have Cahoon back. And I look forward to seeing all the defensive players coming back here, too, in the next couple months with Duman and Marino. Yeah, that'll be definitely big to get them back. And, I mean, considering how the Penguins have played,

credit to Recola and Ru-Weedle for stepping up and playing well. Absolutely. Yeah, I saw you know, Chad Ru-Roodle is actually on his right side tonight and it's almost like, wow, like playing him on his right side and on his off-side, it works. And he actually looks like a serviceable

bottom-paring defenseman. I wonder why. I don't know why they were playing him on his off-side so many times earlier. It just made no sense. But I think that might do it for this episode of Locked on. Penguins. Cam, thank you so much for coming on. Some really good, obviously, some great clips at the beginning, of course, with the, hello, and all that. But yeah, man, thank you so much for coming on. We're definitely going to have you on more often as the season drags on. It's, you know, it's a great time to be a Penguins fan. This team is really, really good. They remind me so much of the 2016 team. This is probably the best team since then. And, yeah, like, you know, they're not even close to fully healthy, which is pretty scary to, I think. about. So yeah, thank you so much again, Cam. Yeah, no problem. Thank you for having me on. Thank you to all the listeners of Lock on Penguins. And yeah, the only thing I'll end on is Penguins are playing really good, but we can't let our hopes get extremely high yet. It's still,

there's still some season to, you know, some weeks to be played. So take a game at a time, like Mike Sullivan would say, I guess. Long way to go. We just play. We just play. We just play. Yeah, that's this perfect one. But yeah, thank you guys so much for listening.

We'll have another episode coming tomorrow. Still kind of thinking about what I'm going to talk about on tomorrow's episode. Hopefully there'll be more trades like there was today. There's a bunch of defensemen trades because NHLGMs absolutely love trading for 30 plus old defensemen and trading a second round pick for them. So maybe we'll get more of those tomorrow. So, yeah, thank you guys so much for listening. And we will talk to you guys tomorrow.

You know,