Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 2/28- A little bit of everything!

Episode Date: February 29, 2020

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter goes around the horn for aa bunch of different Penguins content! He starts off by discussing the injury situation going into tonight and even getting a live update of Mike Sullivan's presser to the media confirming if they will play or not. He also discusses Jack Johnson a bit more, plus much, 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 Friday evening episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. Penguins are finally back in action tonight. They play the Anaheim Ducks at 10 o'clock. You know, there's no excuse for you guys not to stay up for this game. It's a Friday night.

Everyone goes to bed a lot later on a Friday night because it's the weekend. And, of course, the Penguins will play Saturday night at 10.30 p.m. Eastern Time against the San Jose Sharks. But very big back-to-back for the Penguins this weekend. They need to win both of these games to keep pace with capitals. The Capitol's lost. Yesterday against Winnipegics, they're actually shut out by the Winnipeg Jets, believe it or not. That's pretty just a little bit embarrassing to be shut out by them. I'm not going to help on them too much.

But also the Penguins just need wins, you know, losing four in a row. You know, knock on wood, as I'm doing right now, knock on wood, the Penguins have never lost five in a row under Mike Sullivan. Hopefully that is not certain tonight. That would be really, really unfortunate. I believe Matt Murray is going to be starting a net. The Penguins, when they put out their game day teaser this morning, it had Matt Murray coming out with the little short video.

So I think he's going to get the start tonight tonight, and then they'll go to Tristan Jari tomorrow. I also could be dead wrong about that. They could flip the problem. They won't be the first time that I'm wrong about such a thing. We should know probably more about that in the next 15 minutes. I should say probably while I'm recording this podcast. We should know.

I think Sullivan speaks a couple hours before the game if they don't have a morning skate. We also should get some injury news. We all know that Jerry McCann is a game time decision for tonight. Usually, as I've said, it's about a 99 to 5% chance of playing. He went through a full contact practice yesterday. He should be good to go if nothing bad comes up for his injury. So also there's a chance.

I don't know if it's a good chance that, you know, Brian Dumwin and John Marino will be playing tonight. They both went through a full contact practice yesterday as me and Chad were talking about. So it's really good news. and that's getting even really much closer now to playing. I'm hoping they can play tonight. Do I think that they're going to play? Me lean towards no.

Again, though, I could be very well be wrong. I think Marino would probably play before Doomlin, since I think they want to get Dumlin maybe one more full contact practice. He's also been out for basically three months at this point. I think what you may likely see is I think they may not play these next two games in the back-to-back, but they'll play on Tuesday when they come home against the Ottawa Senators because they play Buffalo on Thursday. And then, of course, the back-to-back next weekend with the Washington Capitals and the Carolina Hurricanes,

because next week, weekend, starts their very brutal March schedule with all those metro teams coming up, and, yeah, they're going to need everyone lock and loaded because it gets pretty brutal. But, yeah, like I said, if I were a betting man, I think they may sit out tonight and tomorrow night's game, and I think they may play next week. But if not, it would be really, really great to have them back tonight if they do somehow play. two big, awesome top four defensemen that gets the pairings back to normal with Brian Dumlin, playing a pairing with Chris Littay, it gets Jack Johnson down to the third pairing with Justin Schultz, and it gets Marcus Pedersen back to playing with John Marino, which was a very, very good pairing before Marino, of course, got hurt.

But yeah, Marino very much ahead of schedule already taking a full contact practice, not even three weeks after surgery, goes with Rob Rossi of the Athletics Report, where he said on the penultimate podcast that apparently he was told that it was going to be closer to it. three weeks. Looks like he nailed that one. So, you know, kudos to Rob. It's really good news that the Penguins are going to be getting back. All three of these injured players. And like I said yesterday, guys, Nick Buxtad is alive.

Breaking news. I cannot believe that Nick Buxtad returned to practice. I had to believe it until I see it. And he's back in practice, no contact. But I think he's going to be clear for contact pretty soon. Probably when they get back on the road trip. I think if everything goes well, you can maybe see him back in game action in a week. But, you know, that's a way to believe when you see it as well.

It's still really great news on the four injured players. If all the four of those guys come back, it'll be just down to Zach Aston-Rice, who's week-to-week, and then it'll just be Jake Gensel, folks. So we're almost down to just two penguin injuries this season. Wow. I cannot believe the team is almost fully healthy. I mean, they're never going to be fully healthy. Of course, thanks to Jake Gensel being out for perhaps the remainder of the season,

though they can get, they'll get Zach Ashton Reese back at one point. And if they somehow don't get any more injuries, they can be down only one player. So yeah, yippee, everyone. The penguins are not getting that much closer to getting back their reinforcements. It's just a really, really exciting time. But, yeah, other than that, you know, I've just been trying to decide, you know, what to talk about today for the podcast since I already kind of previewed the game, the road trip as a whole, honestly, against the ducks and the sharks.

I think, yeah, you'll probably see old friend John Gibson tonight. We'll just rehash it a little bit. John Gibbs, who will probably be in net. Just, I feel really bad for him. His numbers are definitely not good this season, but also the Ducks are one of the worst teams in the West. And, yeah, they're just really, really bad, especially in their defensive zone.

I don't think Campus Linholm is playing tonight. I can actually check Eric Stevens. Twitter, he covers the Ducks for the Athletic. If he's going to post it, he did not post anything, because, of course, he did not. But, you know, you could also go to the Ducks. Ducks Twitter as well, so I can check that real quick. And of course, the Ducks, I've not officially confirmed it, but, you know, I think John Gibson

will probably be a nut tonight. If I'm wrong, you know what, whatever. But the Ducks, they had their last game on Wednesday night. They beat Edmonton 4 to 3 in overtime. Two goals came from Sonny Milano, who was dealt from the Blue Jackets to the Ducks right as the trade deadline happens. So, you know, good for Sonny Milano. He just never seemed to fit in with the blue jackets.

And, you know, I mean, I'm honestly a little surprised that they dealt him because well, otherwise, other than he didn't fit because their jackets are just so banged up this season. I actually really feel bad for Jackets fans, just a little bit. I know the Penguins, we're not supposed to like the Blue Jackets, but, you know, I kind of think there's the Blue Jackets as like the Big Brother, Little Brother theme with the Penguins. The Penguins always just like to beat up on them.

The jackets, they sometimes get a couple wins against them, but when it really matters, you know Big Brother is going to rise up to vacation and win. But anyways, I'm getting a little off track here, but talking about the Blue Jackets. But, yeah, good to see Sunday Milano get the two goals. and the 4-3 win. In the last 12 games, the Ducks, you know, they've lost seven of their last 12. Three of them are overtime losses.

In their last 17 games, they've actually lost nine of them. They're actually eight and nine. If you count the overtime losses, the regular losses, they're eight and nine, their last 17 games. So they're playing a little below 500. The Penguins, they beat the Ducks early in the season, two to one. Man, that was really, really early season. That was, I think, when the Penguins were just playing all those Western Conference teams. You guys remember, I mean, it's kind of weird that these are the last few games against the Western Conference for the Penguins for the rest of the season.

Besides, of course, the Chicago Blackhawks. They have the Blackhawks one more time in the United Center, who they finally did beat. But the Penguins have struggled a little bit against the Ducks. The past couple of seasons, the Ducks have won three of the last five meetings. I was actually just reading the Ducks' preview page against them. Ryan Getzlough, he's played 19 games against the Penguins, 22.7. of those goals. He also, he's actually been really, really good as of late.

He has points in seven of his last eight games and ten of the last twelve games. So in ten of the last twelve games, four goals, twelve assists. That's against the penguins. All this was actually against the penguins. Seven of his last eight games, ten of the last twelve games against the penguins. And also Adam Henrique has been really good. So like I said, in the preview episode, a couple episodes back, definitely want to watch out for Henrik and Gatslov.

Getzlov. Even though he's a bit old, you know, who cares if he's a little bald, he can still bring it against the penguin, so just watch out for that. And then, of course, you know, Adam Henrique has been really, really good for the Ducks this season. I think he's top three in the team lead for scoring. He's been that good.

But, yeah, still, this is a game that penguins should win. I really don't see. I said this about the Kings too. I don't really want to jinx the team again. But yeah, this is a game the Penguins should win. And they should win tomorrow at night. These teams are really, really bad. You have four games remaining now against really crappy teams.

go get eight out of eight points. I mean, come on. Like, I mean, they played well enough to beat the Kings, but, you know, Cal Peterson, a third-string goal decided to stand on his head, and then, of course, we all know what happened with Jack Johnson. And I will get to Jack Johnson even more after this commercial break. Adam Gretz actually had a really good thread that we'll get to for this podcast. All right, so, yeah, Adam Gretz, you know, the rights for pro hockey talk, does some stuff for Pennsburg. He had a really, really good thread about Jack Johnson and the Crystal Tank pairing. And, you know, it's just, it's been, of course, it's been really, really bad.

So, basically for this thread, he looked into stuff. I think he probably went on natural stat trick. I don't think he went on Corsica. Rest in peace of Corsica a little bit. I feel bad that Mani has not run the site anymore. But anyways, getting a little off track. So he looked up a couple things. So there's 36 defensive pairings in this league that have played at least 500 minutes of even strength 5V-5 hockey.

You know, Doc Johnson, Chrysletang, is off as in one of them, because Ryan Dumeonell has also been out for three months. So he ranked, he found up where they ranked in four pretty basic categories and goals for 60 minutes, goals against per 60 minutes, goal differential, and shot attempt differential. You know, simple goals and shots, like Adam says in the tweet, you know, there's nothing, you know, too, like, advanced stats about this. I know some people don't like advanced stats, but here is this. So of the 36 defensive pairings in a league that have played at least 500 minutes,

they rank 25th in goals four per 60 minutes and evens. strength. That is awful. Goals against per 60 minutes. So, you know, preventing 32nd out of 36. Their goal differential, 34th out of 36. And their shot attempt differential, 34th out of 36. I'm sorry, that is truly awful. And for some reason, I do not know why Mike Sullivan has not gone away from that pairing. It does not make any sense to me. Like Chad was telling me yesterday, I think Rutherford has some a little bit to do with it, but I also feel like, you know, they don't want to admit that they were wrong about this.

You can literally just, I just, it just does not make any sense to me. But guys, it gets better because Adam even dug even more to the stats. So now 300 minutes, you know, this has been 86 pairings, 5 on 5, you know, same thing. So for goals 4 per 60 minutes, they rank 52nd out of 86, goals against per 60 minutes, again, you know, preventing and all that. 82nd out of 86 defensive

pairings. Goal differential. Sevent differential. 74th. Yeah. So to echo Adam's findings from Natural Stratrick and all the numbers-based,

is that good? No, that's not good. That's bad. That's very, very bad. He's, Jack Johnson has killed Chris LaTang for as long as he's been won the pairing.

He's also killed Sidney Crosby. And it's pretty hard to Tang Cindy Crosby's numbers, considering how amazing Sydney Crosby's numbers are every season. I don't care if you look at goals and assists. If you look at the underlying numbers, too, his possession is absolutely through the roof. He's five on five points for 60 goals per 60 minutes, you know, shot attempts right for 60 minutes. Everything, everything for Cindy Crosby is usually great.

Jack Johnson has helped tank that because, oh yeah, who is the most common line that him and Lantang are out for against? Oh, yeah, the Sydney Crosby line with Jason Zucker. Yeah, well, he's getting top pairing minutes, so of course he's going to be out there. I don't know. I would love for them to try Yuso Ricola on the top pairing. I would love for them to try Marcus Pedersen on the top pairing. And yeah, I know. I'm kind of rehashing what me and Chad talked about yesterday.

But, you know, I wouldn't be doing this if Adam wouldn't have had an outstanding Twitter thread just now. I regrets, you know, shout out to you, man. You do really, really good with these findings. I think natural statrick is honestly one of the best sites out there for looking at underlying numbers. You know, the good part is, like I've said, that Dumlin and Marino are getting closer to returning. That's outstanding news. The penguins badly, and I mean badly, need that so that the pairings go back to normal. You can shelter Jack Johnson with his third pairing minutes because, oh yeah, he was a bit passable during that

because, oh yeah, he's going out against third and fourth line players. It's almost as if if you do that, he looks semi, you know, semi-okay. We'll put it at that. That's a nice way, I guess, for me to say it. Against top pairing competition, when you're playing 25, 26 minutes a night, it goes way down the hill. I know, like I said, I know I sound like a broken record for it. But, you know, I just, I had to get that out. Like I said, out of retz.

Shout out to you for that. I was a really, really good threat about Jack Johnson. You know, if they don't play tonight, which they very mona may not, you know, I would love for them. Like I said, to go to Rico Lord Pedersen with Letang, you know, move Johnson down with Schultz. And I know the Johnson-Schultz pairing blows. It sucked for the most of the time. But you know what? It's better than him with Chris Letang.

You know, that's for damn sure. But, yeah, I just wanted to share that with you guys. In other news, you know, I was trying to get a little bit of a mailbag segment. You know what? No one wanted to send me questions because you all stand. No, I'm kidding. I love you all of you guys that listen to this podcast. I did get one question from one of our regular listeners here.

Alan T. Yoder, he asked, if I'm going to a game by myself at PBG Paints Arena, should I spend more money to sit in the 100 level or go for the cheapest option? Okay, that's actually a pretty good question. My question, Alan, would be, first off, have you sat in the 100 section before? I know that may sound like a very stupid question, but, you know, some people don't like buying seats seats in the 100 level because, you know, some of them are too expensive, you know, some people like to buy the cheapest one available. So if you're, if you haven't sat, like, here's my answer. If you haven't sat in the 100 level before and I would very much suggest that you should, I would get the 100 level seat. It's a really, really good seat. I, you know, I actually might be person. I know, I'm not trying to brag here. I got somehow got free tickets from sheets because I retweeted a tweet and they mail me the tickets for the game.

I sat in the 100 section for the first time at PPG Paints Arena. This was around right before, right during Thanksgiving break, right as I got out for it. Beautiful seats. Diagonal right behind the glass. Just gorgeous. I absolutely loved it. PPPain's arena. It's just such a beautiful arena.

And sitting in the 100 level, it's really good. You know, if you can get past some weird people being, you know, weird, I guess, it's actually perfectly fine. But if you have sat in the 100 level before and you don't want to spend a lot of, lot of money because of course penguins tickets are not cheap that's by any means uh just get the cheapest option you know there really is not a bad seat in pbg paints arena uh you see if you just look around while you're inside it i mean i think obviously i think you've been there um i'm guessing i think at this point though but if you've been there you know you look around the arena you can go online and look at the different you know sections in the seats um there's just there's not really a bad

seat in that house it's just a really really well built arena you can basically see the play from anywhere. I remember my grandpa took me. 2017, I saw the Penguins come back, 3-0-0 down against the Sabres. They ended up winning the game. I think with less than 3 minutes remaining in the third period, the Sabres will lead in the Penguins. They won the game.

4353. They either had an empty netter or they didn't. I can't remember, but I know they got the fourth goal at least. But I remember sitting pretty high up diagonal to behind the glass, and I could see everything. It was just that good of a seat. I didn't have to use binoculars or anything like that. But yeah, like I said, there's really not a bad seat in PBJ Paints Arena.

You can basically see from anywhere. Like if you're just trying to save money, just get the cheapest one. But if you have not sat in the 100 level seating before, I definitely suggested. Just get one ticket. Hopefully it's not too too bad. Maybe you can go up against a team like the senators who are really, really bad. And maybe the tickets won't be as expensive. So just don't go to a game solo, maybe against the caps,

because I think those tickets are going to be really, really expensive. And also, as the schedule gets tougher now than that, we're getting into March with the Metro teams, the prices are only going to go up because, oh, yeah, it's basically almost playoff time. If you guys forget, the Stanley Cup playoffs start in almost a month. It's getting, we're getting to the last quarter of the season now. So it's pretty crazy that I'm saying that we're almost,

we're over three quarters of the way through this season. But, yeah, that's basically my long answer for that. Yeah, it's either option. is good, but yeah, just, yeah, that's, that's, uh, I'm probably rambling and stuttering a little bit, but those, that's, that's my thoughts on that. And all right, like I said, fresh news coming out of the break now for the penguins as Mike Sullivan spoke to the media. Matt Murray is in gold tonight.

Woo-hoo! Chalk that up for a hunter. He got that one. Uh, so no Brian Dumlin, John Marino or Nick Bukstad. We knew Nick Bukstad wasn't going to play it because he wasn't clear for contact yet, but, um, yeah, no Dumlin or Marina tonight, and I probably would not expect them to play tomorrow night either. Um, like I said, they probably want to get both of them.

more contact practice. I also remember Marino saying earlier in the week that I don't think he was going to play before the three-week minimum. I think the doctors were telling them that. So, yeah, so like I said, next week, guys, probably next Tuesday is the date that they have in mind. The Penguins will be back home. They'll get a raucous ovation when they return.

Also, and it's like people, you should be expected to beat these two teams even without them. But so we're probably two games away at this point, everyone from the defense being back to normal. Obviously the Penguins will not practice tomorrow. Probably won't even have a morning skate tomorrow. I'm if we're being fully honest with ourselves. So yeah, don't expect them tomorrow, but, you know, still good news. It's okay that they're not playing tonight. And also, Jared McCann is still a game time decision. We all know Mike Sullivan is never going to tip his hand on that. But the side segment, we'll go around, check the scores a little bit.

I just like to, I like to do that sometimes as it's a Friday, and there's really not much else to talk about. The Flyers and the Rangers, they have a massive home-in-home this weekend. This is actually pretty big for the penguins as regards to the standings. It's tied 1-1 now in the second period. Yes, for Fosz, got the goal for the Rangers. Sean Couturee for the Flyers. Yeah, I mean, that's a big home and home series, especially for the Rangers.

There are actually two points out of the playoffs spot. I cannot believe that I'm saying that with a quarter of the season left. Honestly, less than a quarter of the season left. The Rangers have been really, really good. I've been talking to one of my buddies who's a diehard Rangers fan, you know. It's probably the most fun that he's had as a Rangers fan, I could say, in probably a few years. The Rangers, of course, have missed the playoffs each of the last couple seasons.

So, you know, it's good for the league, I think, when the Rangers are playing pretty good. And also, oh, yeah, they're doing most of this without Henrik Blancl who is probably going to retire after this season, I would say. But, yeah, if the Flyers win this game at all, the leapfrog of the Penguins for the time being, that's if, of course, the Penguins win tonight, Penguins still have a game in hand on them. So if the Flyers were to actually lose this game in regulation, which the Penguins probably should be rooting for, even though the Rangers will get two points. the Penguins would have two games in hand going into the games tonight, and if they were to win,

they would still have a game in hand on the flyers, and there'll be three points up on them. And also the Penguins, like I said, they would be two points behind the Capitals with another game in hand if they do end up beating the Ducks tonight. Also, we're in the Metropolitan Division. The Wild are up 2-0 right now on the Blue Jackets.

Kind of feel bad for the Blue Jackets at this point, everyone. That team is just, they're free-fall right now. The injuries have really, really cut up to them. I know they're in the playoff spot, but I don't know for how much more longer. It's going down hill a lot. I think, of course, Seth Jones is going to be out for the rest of the regular season. He may be out for some of the playoffs.

They're just battling. They're just battling so many injuries right now. It's ridiculous. I'd list them all, but I'd probably be here for another five minutes. Let's see what else. The avalanche are beating the hurricanes tonight. I think, of course, Carolina's injuries with their goaltending especially are just really, really bad. That's all I can really say about that.

There are two points out of the playoffs as well. The Islanders do not play tonight. And also, it's funny how the Blue Jackets are in a playoff spot, considering, oh, well, I know why. They have 14 overtime losses. So they've gotten 14 free points for losing. So even with their record, they're 31 and 34. And oh, yeah, they have a playoff spot. So, yeah, that just goes to show.

Sometimes a loser point is stupid. Well, honestly, most of the time, a loser point is kind of stupid because a team that's 31 and 34, in my opinion, should not be a playoff team over a team like the Rangers who are up 35 and 20. 28, with those overtime losses and the hurricanes who are 35 and 27. Yeah, that's just, that's stupid to me. That's just, there's just a limit, I think. That's just, that's dumb.

But, yeah, it's the most basically what's going on in the Metropolitan Division Night. The other game today is the Sabres and the Golden Knights. It's basically useless for the Penguins, considering the Sabres, are 10 points out of the playoff picture. So, yeah, I feel bad for Wayne Simmons that he went to the Sabres and thinks he can lead them to a playoff spot, because that's not. not going to happen. But yeah, the Ducks overall, with those overtime losses, they're 25 and 38.

Hopefully the Penguins can get back on track tonight. They badly need to win to stay pace in the Metropolitan Division. Like I said, they need to, you know, this is one of the really, really bad teams in the West. They're tied for the second to worst record in the West with the San Jose sharks at both at 58 points. And, oh yeah, overall, overall, besides the Kings and the Red Wings, who are just a lot of the kings, the red wings, and the senators, they have the tied for the fourth least amount of points in the league. Especially with the sharks. So, you know, Penguins just got to take care of business.

And, you know, up until, like, this Buffalo game and the Kings game, the Penguins have been beating the bad team. So hopefully, you know, this little bug that it seems to be caught by the Penguins gets over with and the Penguins are able to take care of business tonight. But that'll be it for me today with Lockdown Penguins. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. I kind of rambled on about a bunch of stuff. but you know what, that's hard sometimes.

There's not a lot of content to bring up. I hope you guys like the Jack Johnson segment as well. We'll be back on Monday. We'll dissect the game against the ducks. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. We'll be live tweeting the game. Follow locked on penguins at L.O. underscore penguins. Maybe we leave live tweeting part of that as well.

Maybe on that account, you know, like I said, we'll dissect the games on Monday, talk about how the penguins played, see if they got a back-to-back sweep of wins or, you know, if they split them. or so I hope to God if they somehow lose both games which would be really, really bad. But yeah, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Locked on Penguins

and we will be talked to you guys on Monday.