Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 2/6-No, Kris Letang doesn't need to be benched

Episode Date: February 7, 2020

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter breaks down the setback for the Penguins as they lost 4-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning. He talks about Kris Letang's power play miscues, the bad power play as a whole, Sidney Crosby's bad game, plus 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 post-game locked-on Penguins edition. Of course, I am your host. Hunter Hodes, follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show's Twitter at L.O. Undersported Penguins, and it was a pretty interesting game, I would say. Penguins, of course, had a three-two setback loss against Tampa Bay Lightning, a game that people have been looking forward to for about the past week or so. I still can't believe that NBC Sports Network cannot flex a game like that onto national TV, even though they showed Buffalo and Detroit for an entire game.

And that game actually ended up going to a shootout. But still, no one wants to watch those two teams considering how bad they are. And then the second game of the doubleheader was the Kings, I think, against the, and that wasn't the Kings. It was the Oilers versus the Sharks, I think. So, ooh, yeah, Lottie Dog. Great job, NBC. Round of applause right there.

Said no one ever. Who cares about, you know, that's just stupid. But I thought overall, the Penguins, bad first period, but I think they carried the play in the second and the third. I thought they were the better team for at least 40 minutes of this game. They took it to the lightning in the second and the third period. I think the biggest, there's a couple of big differences. Andre Vasselovsky came up with some very big 10-bell saves.

That's not to say that Matt Murray didn't play well. I thought he was excellent the whole game. He gave the Penguins a really good chance to tie the game and potentially take the lead. All three of those goals were really not saveable, I don't think. I think the Surgachev goal came. off of a, I think it was Sam Lafferty that deflected it. The Stamcoast goal, that was just picture perfect passing, a wide open net, no chance. And then the Sorrelli goal came on a four-on-one, which you hardly ever see.

So, yeah, Surgich, I've opened the scoring for Tampa 1-0. Of course, 2-0.2. I think it was Stamcoast point. They were just passing back and forward. Penguins looked lost. Malkin was able to make it 2-1. and then just what 30 seconds later that that breakdown was unacceptable that cannot happen especially it leads to a four on one i don't think i've ever seen a team give up a four on run

just 30 seconds after scoring a goal to cut it to a one goal game john merino is able to score to make it three to two um and i should say the score was not three to two it was four to two of course with the empty netter shows how that i am sometimes but um marino but thankfully folks John Marino is okay. It looked a little scary. He took a puck. It looked like off the helmet, the cheek area. Mike Sullivan said it looks like he's going to be okay.

It's not a broken jaw, which would be really, really, really bad if that were the case. All the beat reporters are saying, you know, Josh E. He had been told that Marino's okay. He's getting stitches. It looks like he's going to make a full recovery. So great news. The Penguins cannot lose John Marino. He scored a goal tonight.

He played outstanding. But I think the biggest issue right now, for the penguins. And there really are not a lot of issues with this team. This team is really, really good. They're placed fine in the standings. They're going to be a playoff team. They're going to make a trade sooner or later.

The biggest issue is the power play. Yeah, big hot take by Hunter. But no, yeah, 0 for 11, the past, what, two games now, 0 for 6 against the capitals and then what? O for 5 tonight. They were down 3 to 2 in that third period. They got a power play. They didn't score.

Then they get another power play with 9 minutes left. Then just a couple, like 20 seconds later, Tampa takes a delay a game penalty. Oh my God, five on three for what, a minute 35? And you can't even get a shot on net during that. Like any good scoring chances? That's unacceptable. That is not acceptable for how much talent that there is on the Penguins PowerPlay.

I think Mark Recky runs it. You know, he should be on the hot seat if the power play continues to act like that. Because that was Bullcrap to watch. That was just completely awful. the power play needs fixed in the worst way. You know, we saw firsthand on Sunday. How about the Capitol's power play has turned this year? And we all know how Capps fans have complained about that.

This power play is a joke right now. You don't really see it struggle like this. I think this is the most that it struggled. Probably since what, the Mike Johnston era of Penguins hockey? It seems like a forever, a decade ago. But, you know, it was only about, you know, five years ago, which was when it was. And it's just I don't understand what's going on. I think they're kind of taking Crosby off his normal spot.

Also, I thought Chris LaTang was mostly fine tonight, but on the power play, he made some very questionable decisions. And, oh, you know, the Penguins fan base is going to be, oh, yeah, man, Chris LaTang sucks. Chris Lentang is bad. He cost him the game. It's just, I saw a great tweet after the game about Chris LaTang. And it was someone that tweeted Jesse Marshall, of course, you know, shout out to him. great writer and everything.

Someone tweeted to him, he's like, Chris La Tang is basically like modern politics to Penguins fans. You either think he's a top five defenseman and a Norris candidate kind of player, or you think he sucks in that he costs the team the game every single game. Which is, yeah, that basically is the nail on the head for this fan base with Chris La Tang.

You either love him, like you probably should, considering how good he is, or for some divine reasons, you hate him. And you know what? He does drive you crazy sometimes. Hell, he was driving me a little bit crazy tonight with some of the plays on the power play, and I'm open to criticism on him.

You can criticize any player if they make a mistake. It's not hard, but what you don't really need to do is just troll about it. Oh, this guy sucks. This guy's bad. Take him off the power play. Trade him, yada, yada, yada, piss off with that.

Just stop. No, that's not happening. He definitely needs more room for improvement on the top power play. He made some very questionable decisions. Passes, I would say. I think it was one of the plays he kind of went towards the net

and then lost the puck when he should have had a couple wide open players on a pass it's like Tanger man just pass it or all they really need to do is just set him up for a one-timer you know he can one-time the puck or Evgeny Malkin. Evgeny Malkin has

a Gino bomb as we all call it for a reason. Go ahead and do it. I mean, you know, the power play is just lost right now and you know I may have to write about it sooner and I don't really know what else to say about it. You know, I'm going to have to try to find solutions for it.

It's just, it's a joke. It's costing the team games. Well, I shouldn't say it's costing the team games since they've been playing really, really well lately, but it probably cost the team the game tonight. I think if you were to play that kind of game that the Penguins did, nine more times, I think you probably win seven of them, you know, as long as the power play is better. You know, I mean, I think the Penguins, for the most part, were pretty good. you know, Hengland's fans really haven't had a lot to complain about these past couple months.

So tonight, of course, this was going to be a game they overreact to because the power play was awful. You know, Chrysletang made a mistake on the power play. Cindy Crosby had a really, really bad game, which we'll get to coming up in the next segment. But, you know, the fans, they were due for a game to just backmouth the team. And I knew this was going to come at some point. But, I mean, there's really no need to just overreact, I think. I just, this team is, they're really, really good. Tampa is also one of the best teams in the league.

Anyone can see them getting to the Stanley Cup final. They're a team that will make you pay when you make a mistake. And, oh, boy, did they ever tonight? You know, I mean, I also tweet about the Penguins Power Play during the game. You know, the Penguins are the main advantage. It's like me with math. That's just awful in every single way. Yep, I am not a math person.

I never have been. I was good at it in an elementary school. I sucked at it once I got to the late, middle school, early high school, and I feel a bunch of my, as well as those standards of learned jazz. But you know what? That's just a fun fact about me. But yeah, that's just, that's the biggest thing moving forward is the power play. I don't really know what else to say. Maybe they probably need to shoot more. They need to stop trying to be cute on it. We don't need to be the Harlem Globetrotters here of the NHL. Just, you know, just get the puck on net. Get it to the dirty areas, as everyone

says. Score goal. Get shots on net. You don't need to be too cute passing it. Just get some good looks. get some good shots, you know, maybe change around the personnel on the power play. I mean, not like obviously takes players off of it, but, you know, just change around maybe where some of the players are. I think they're lacking that right shot on the power play. I mean, the thing was, like, it's fine fleeting Phil Kessel because, like, he also has not been that good this year, but they miss his right shot on the power play on the left half wall.

That's the thing. And they haven't properly replaced that yet. It sucks that Jake Gensel, of course, got hurt because he, was probably producing really, really good on the power play. This was a game where I think they definitely could have used him because I think he would have potted one on the power play or at even strength. But, yeah, it's just a really, really big problem right now.

Also for this game, yeah, guys, Sidney Crosby, that was probably his worst game of the season. And, you know, that's actually saying what, considering that Cindy Crosby is usually on his game about almost every game during the season, you know, maybe a couple other games. but, you know, there are not many games where you see Sidney Crosby play at the level that he played at tonight. And boy, was it bad. It was inconceivable.

It was unacceptable in every single way. And you know what? He gets a pass, you know. It's not, it's whatever, you know. You can criticize a good player on your team for having a bad game. He sucked. Like, that's what's, put it plain and simple. He sucked.

He thought his defensive play in the neutral zone and in the defensive zone was atrocious. I think he missed some of his assignments, which led to do the four-on-one goal, I think. The pinch by Latang was poor. I think Crosby got... And I didn't really think he came back and got his man. I think on... I was at the Stamco's school. I don't think that was on...

That might have been more on Schultz, if I'm not mistaken, and Ruehedo, but, you know, asking Rueu-Woodle to keep playing on his offside is just asking for death at this point. I thought in the offensive zone he was in his normal self. He wasn't getting a lot of... grade A chances like normal. He did have one really big one in the third period, but, man, Andre Vasilevsky was just a brick wall tonight, man. I mean, when he's on like that,

there are not many goaltenders in this league who are better than Andre Vera Vasilevsky. He's just so damn good in so many ways. I just, he's so good. But, yeah, I thought just he'll be better next game, and he knows he probably sucked tonight. There's no probably harsher critic on Crosby than himself. I know I'm sure he expects more out of that.

He'd probably lie to himself if he didn't. But, yeah, I just wanted to get that off my chest. I already talked about Chris LaTang. I think we also needed to have a discussion about Justin Chultz. This is concerning. It's been concerning ever since he came back from the injury. It was concerning before he came back. Before he got injured, it was concerning last year, and it was concerning the year before that.

This is probably the second year now that his play has really dropped on. And, you know, we all know some team is probably going to give him a lot of money this off season. You know, it works in the NHL GMs. It only takes one GM. I say this every single time when a UFA defenseman or UFA Ford, who's like a middle pairing guy hits the market, they will get overpaid and he is probably going to get overpaid. I think some Penguins fans at this point are at the point where if the right deal column comes along to get a top six forward, you can move Justin Schultz.

I'm getting closer to being there. He's just, his play tonight was unacceptable. He was not playing good on that pairing with, I think it was, yeah, Ru-Reedle. But also it doesn't help, like I said, that tribe Ru-Reedle is on his off-pairing. I don't know why they're not playing Yusolecala. I would love a beat reporter to ask why he's not, if that were my full-time position and I hope that, you know, someday once I graduate after this semester, I can be a Penguin's Beat reporter in the locker room.

I would be hopefully the one to ask Mike Sullivan, you know, why is Uso-Ricola not playing on his regular side since you usually preach the left, the lefty righty on your parents? Because also that's what Jim Rutherford preached during last, going into this season. He's saying, yeah, we just want our defense to be lefty-righty. Well, okay, why are you putting Chad Ruehito on his off side when it's obvious that he's not nearly as good on that side as he is on his regular side? It just doesn't make any sense. It looks like a little bit of malpractice. And usually Mike Sullivan is really, really good at setting the lineup.

it just kind of just confuses me a little bit as to why they're doing that. But yeah, Justin Schultz has been a big problem in even strength. His power play time is kind of eh. I thought, I mean, his first game back from entry, he actually looked pretty good. But, I mean, it's just most of his games this year are just, eh, his underlying numbers are bad. It's just, you know, I don't think that Jim Rutherford is going to trade him. He did say that he likes his defense as is. I mean, you know, can you blame him with Brian Duhlin, hopefully coming back soon, you know, putting Jack Johnson back on the third pairing, so help me God, that nearly needs to happen.

One of my buddies was actually texting me tonight saying, well, you know, I can see them going Duman Schultz and Jack Johnson and Chris Lentang. I'm like, man, that's not happening. I will truly bet my life savings in my account that they do not, and I repeat, do not have Jack Johnson with Crystal Teng when Brian Duhlin comes back. That is coaching malpractice 101. stupid. They're going to go to do him in the Tang. They're going to keep Pedersen with Marino and they're probably going to put Johnson with Schultz. But I also

think, yeah, they need to keep, they need to put Rikula back in and maybe try him with Schultz. You got to at least try it to see if it helps Justin Schultz at this point because this has just been a tire fire with him at this point. I don't know, understand what's going on, but you know

his play has dropped off. You know, Penn's Twitter has not been kind to him lately and, you know, can you blame them with the way that he's been playing? I certainly can't. I definitely can't with the way he's been playing. Also, shout out to Penn fans coming down to Tampa. It looked

like there are a lot of Penguin fans at that game tonight, and you know the Penguins fan base always travels well. It's also Florida. I think a bunch of people from Pittsburgh always reside in Florida or they come down for the games. You know, it's early February. Some people are, you know, probably

using up some vacation days since the Super Bowl, just Super Bowl is over. So, you know, that look like it almost sounded like a Penn's home game. It's definitely going to sound like a Penguin's home game when the Penns play on Saturday in Sunrise, which is, I always forget, is it right by Miami? Or is it Fort Lauderdale? I think it's Fort Lauderdale.

I have to double check. But yeah, there's that arena, there's not a lot of Panthers set out there, even though the Panthers have actually been pretty, pretty good this season. But, yeah, who else, I think, had a interesting game? There was a couple interesting incidents in the first period. I don't know why Cedric Paquette has to play the way he plays against the penguins. He's always been that kind of little sneaky, dirty little player sometimes when he plays the penguins.

You know, Eric Chernak was also being a little bit of a, just a baby for some reason. I don't understand why. Now, some of the lightning players tend to get really bad when they play the penguins. It's just, it's kind of, it's always been weird. But, you know, the lightning, I'm always kind of, they're kind of, they've been a little bit of a sneaky dirty team throughout the few years, but just outside of those two incidents. So there really wasn't too too much. But sometimes a lot of times, though, that usually will happen in Penguin Lightning games.

It's just a couple incidents like that where it's like those sneaky little dirty plays. Of course, I remember the Ryan Callahan incident with Chris LaTang in the 2016 run where he just boarded Chris LaTang from behind. I thought he was going to get a concussion. That hit scared the ever-living hell out of me. But you know what? I don't need a bash lightning. I thought they played a pretty good game. I thought watching Victor Hedman live is just a sight to behold.

A player that big and that tall can skate like that and move the puck like that, I mean, wow, he is, he's awesome. You can definitely see why he's always in the running for Norris trophies every year and why he can honestly probably make the argument that he could be a finalist this year, along with, of course, John Carlson, who may win it. Roman Yossi has been getting some traction. But yeah, Victor Hedman, you can definitely see it as well. He's just, he's that good.

And, you know, the Lightning are also that good, folks. The Lightning are, they're going to give Boston a hell of a run and probably the second round when they eventually meet. I think Tampa would wipe the floor with a team like Florida. That would be a fun rivalry series to see. I think they would wipe the floor with a team like Toronto. I think they would beat Carolina in the first round. That Boston series would be a really fun series to watch.

But, yeah, just, you know, it's a setback of a loss, but it's really also not the end of the world. So for this last segment, we're going to talk about maybe a little bit of a trade talk. Just a quick little segment before we sign off for the night. Josh Yewy, shout out to him, had a really good article come out today about who he's been told. It looks like the top six targets are, potentially for the Penguins and Trade Talk. Of course, the number one one was Jason Zucker.

He thinks that Zucker is going to be the player that the penguins get. Would really, really hope so considering how much Jim Rutherford likes it. I'm not going to reveal the whole list, but one name I will say that I found to be very, very interesting that was on the list was Craig Smith of the Nashville Predators. I did not even know that he's honestly been on the radar 30-year-old forward. He has 11 goals, 22 points of 52 games played this season. outstanding possession player. He's at 56% this season. 53% overall. Last season, he last two seasons, actually, he's been a 20 goal score.

Actually, in five of his last seven seasons coming into this season, he has been a 20 goal score. Craig Smith has definitely been overlooked by a lot of people. I would also be curious to see if Nashville would trade him. I could definitely see why the hanguons will be interested in him, though. You know, he's another center. He's a right-handed shot, which the Penguins could desperately need. You guys, a great possession player can put up to good depth numbers. I also wouldn't be shocked to see if Jim Rutherford potentially goes,

not after just Jason Zookering gets him, but then maybe circles back to get Craig Spitt as well. He did say, I think, in an interview, that it might not just be one-winger that he actually gets at the trade deadline. It might be two. So, you know, and that wouldn't surprise me, and that would make for some interesting roster decisions for the Penguins, you know, considering that the whole fourth line right now is, I'm an HL one, but all three of those guys right now on that line are not going to be in the lineup once the Penguins hopefully get fully healthy if they ever do. You know, we never know at this point.

You know, I think we reached the point again where Alex Gautchunga cannot be played again tonight. He was just absolutely awful. There was some talk he looked like on Twitter before the game that he was going to get scratched. That was quickly put to bed as the lineup was announced. Sullivan, of course, didn't announce anything before the game saying, of course, lineup is a game time decision. That's nothing out of the ordinary for Sullivan to do. He always likes to do that. But yeah, I mean, I really like Craig Smith. I mean, look at his cap, his cap, because I actually

do not know that off the top of my head. So right now, he actually, so Craig Smith would actually be a rental for the Penguins. His contract is up after this season. So if they were to get him, I doubt that he would be signed him. He is making $4.2 million. against the cap. So, you know, nothing, nothing too, too bad, I don't say. I think it's fine if you trade for him. It would be interesting to see if David Poyle would make a trade and trade one of his a good player like that,

considering that the Predators are still in playoff contention. But still, that's why the deadline is about 17 days away. We're two half weeks away. We did see a trade last night with Toronto kind of making a desperate trade by trading for Jack Campbell. And for some reason, they took on Kyle Clifford for more grit and toughness, which I can't believe. is a thing and still in 2020 in hockey, but you know what?

Some GMs, even a DMs like Kyle Dubus. That's kind of weird that he would not pick a trade for that. But that's all I think I have for you guys today. We'll have another episode tomorrow. Maybe the mailback part. You know, we'll probably preview the game against the Panthers. That should be a fun game. And the Penguins, of course, will return home next week.

I think four of their next five games, five of their next six, will be at home. So some much-needed-home games coming up for the Penguins who are almost unbeatable at home this season. They've been rock-solid. expect on Saturday. Well, you know what, we'll go into that tomorrow. Who I expect to start out.

I have a theory of who I think will and whatnot. I think, well, yeah, like I said, we'll talk about that tomorrow. So thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Lockdown Penguins. Be sure to subscribe and all that on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, whatnot. Also, send me some questions from the mailbox tomorrow. I'll also be tweeting that out on my official Twitter, locked on Penguins' Twitter. So thank you guys so much for listening. And I hope you guys have a great rest of your day.

rest of your evening whenever you guys I'm listening to this.