Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 2/7-Can the injuries stop? Plus your mailbag questions!

Episode Date: February 8, 2020

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter talks about the John Marino reported injury and how it's a massive blow to the Penguins defense if it turns out to be true, plus he answers your mailbag questions and previews Saturday's game against the Florida Panthers. 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 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-U- underscore Penguins. Today we have some news to get to, some unfortunate bad news it looks like coming out of Sunrise, Florida with John Marino. We're going to have some mailbag questions coming today. We have a lot more than last week, that's for sure. And I'm going to preview the game against the Florida Panthers. also talk about us awesome potential trade scenarios out there that ESPN was floating around with Jason Zucker and a few others. Eric Engels talked about Tomas-Tatar today.

He writes for the Canadians in Montreal. We'll get to that. So yeah, let's just get on into it. So really, it looked like this morning, it was still good news on John Marino. All the beater writers are saying, yep, he's probably going to play tomorrow. They're just holding him out as a precaution. Mike's on the sad to practice. We held him out just for precautionary reasons to get more testing.

Oh, yeah, la-di-da. perfectly fine. Well, until Dejohn Kavachevich of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports tweeted out that he's been told bad news that apparently John Marino has broken three bones in his cheek. So it sounds like three fractures in his cheek. Not sure if it's the right or left. And he's going to have to have surgery on it and potentially miss some time. So that's not good.

And then Matt Vensel, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, he confirmed it that he is going to have to have surgery. Yeah, like I just said, that's not good, folks. That is not good at all. He's probably been their best defensive defenseman this season when Brian Dumlin is not on the lineup, of course. I mean, when they're both in the lineup, I think Dumlin does, he does better shots of pressure, better possession and all that better in his own zone. But John Marino is not far behind.

He's been carrying the load lately playing all these top four minutes. This is going to be a major loss with the penguins. He drives possession Like I said, he's so great in his own zone And the thing is like when people talk about John Marino Like I tweeted yesterday Someone was telling me like the other day

Like oh yeah I wouldn't have John Marino In my top 10 for my Calder trophy vote I'm like are you on drugs Are like what? This is going to be a monster loss If this turns out to be true And when Mike Sullivan Confirms it tomorrow

Which is when the Penguins play in Sunrise May he even he scored a goal last night for the penguins. He just, he moves the puck so flawlessly up the ice. He defends odd man rushes like he's been doing it for basically his whole career. He never misses a beat. You can probably put him on the top pairing with Chris LaTang and I'm sure he would be fine. It's just this cannot be understated how just how much of a loss this would be for the Penguins. Now that's their best two defensive defensemen.

to their overall best defensemen. We still don't know when Brian Dumlin is coming back. I don't even know if he's being on skating. Josh Yo, we had a mailbox on the athletic today. He said probably by the end of February, we're probably going to see Brian Dumond back in the lineup. But he still hasn't really begun skating yet, which is kind of scary to think about.

But there could be maybe some good news. Obviously, I'm no medical expert here. But, I mean, depending on maybe the severity of the injury, Could he maybe just play a week or two after with a full cage mask on? I'm not really sure how that would go. Maybe someone could like ask Mike Sullivan about that. Because, I mean, I know a completely different situation, but Zendano Chara of all people played with a full mask of a broken jaw, I think, in the playoffs or towards the end of the regular season.

I still can't believe he did that. That's a worse injury, I think, than a broken cheekbone. I think a broken jaw is, I don't really think you can really move your mouth with that. But I don't really know if you can move your mouth with my injury. said. I'm no medical expert, but I'm ever interested to see if someone could ask Sullivan about that to see if he could potentially do that. But if he can't do that, you know, we might be looking at something. I looked at all. We might be looking at something at around six weeks. So I think that might put maybe a defenseman on Jim Rutherford's list now for the trade deadline.

I'm not really sure. If he has much of a choice, we're going to get to that with the mailbag coming up in the next segment. And in the segment after that, we're going to preview the game against the Panthers. But yeah, folks, that was just unfortunate. You know, Brian Russ was also not on the ice today for practice, but that's no big deal. It's a maintenance day. I mean, usually when players have maintenance days, I think, they're kind of going

through like something small. So I'm sure Rust is a little dinged up, but, you know, nothing too severe where it's going to keep him out of the lineup or anything. But, yeah, with that now, so definitely Yuselika is going to draw back into the lineup. I mean, he should have been in the lineup anyway, even with John. Reno one in because it keeps the lefty-righty thing, which Mike Sullivan and Jim Rutherford have preached from the end of last regularers, the end of the last year's playoff sweep to the Islanders to this year's season. It was literally at the end of the year press conference

where Jim Rutherford said he loves having a lefty-righty, like just combination on each pairing. But, you know, it's good to see Rikula. He's getting back in, though, obviously not at the expense of having John Marino out long-term. Because honestly, Riegelah's possession, I think, this year has not been that bad, I don't think. I can actually look it up right now on hockey reference. Just real quick, his possession this year. Yeah, I mean, last year it was at 45%. This year it's at 52.

And that's in only 28 games playing. So he's not been a possession drag like he was last year. And for most of his games this year, he's played pretty well, I thought. You know, he's been able to move the puck up the ice very effectively. He's been pretty decent in his own zone. I think he deserves the nod on that side over Chad Ruido when everyone is fully healthy because it doesn't make any sense to play Chad Ruudel on his offside, especially with Justin Schultz, who, well, we talked about very much in-depth last night,

how Schultz is also not just having a really good season. He also has not really been good for probably the last two to three seasons now, going back to the 2016-17-season season, which was his best season. Not only for the Penguins, but for his career. I think he had, like, what, 50 points that year and was playing as a number one defenseman. Since then, it's been a straight nose dive. Is that what that is? But, yeah, everyone just not really good injury news for the Penguins.

They just can't seem to catch a break. It's just ridiculous, it's the boy. It's sickening. It's whatever you really want to call it. And I'm sure, like I said, and Jim Rutherford can't be pleased with this news. Now these may be going to have to go out and get a defenseman. Like I said, we're going to talk about that coming up. But, yeah, just I've run out of words to say about the penguin's injury situation.

Hopefully Dominic Cahoon comes back when they come home from the Florida trip. Looks like he's been skating a lot on his own, so he's probably going to be joining practice, I'd say soon, hopefully from a concussion. Still no word on Bukstad and Dumlin. They're doing stuff off the ice, but hopefully they can get back on the ice. soon with the team because boy the penguins are dearly missing Brian Duman right now. They miss him yeah they just they miss

him and they're going to miss Sean Marino too if that if those reports are true because the penguins usually the penguins Twitter account will announce when a player has had surgery and they'll say oh he'll miss this amount time so it hasn't been announced yet I'm sure we'll get an announcement though for Mike Sullivan tomorrow either after the morning skate

if they have one or right before the game usually he talks if it's a 7 p.m. star usually he talks around 5 p.m. if I'm not mistaken. So yeah, she'll be around there. So either after the morning skate or around 5 p.m. is when we will get the official update from Mike Sullivan on John Marino. So, you know, keep your fingers crossed right now, but it does not look good to say the least. All right. So for this segment, of course, we're going to do the mailbag questions. I tweeted out on both the Twitter accounts on my official Twitter and the Lockdown Penguins' Twitter. So thank you guys so

much for asking you some questions. So Clark, King Clark, he always, really. He always likes to ask questions for the podcast. Maybe I'll have them on here at some point. So, of course, ESPN had the report today. Not really the report. They had trade scenarios of, you know, what they would want to see at the deadline.

And Emily Kaplan had basically the Penguins getting Jason Zucker for Philip Hollander, one of the Penguins' blue-chip prospects in a second-round pick in next year's draft. Remember, folks, the Penguins do not have their second-round pick in this year's draft. They traded it along. Well, they actually, yeah, they gave their second-round pick to, to get Vegas to take Mark Andre Fleury in the expansion drought. They did us to favor, and we just sent a pick for it. So we do not have this year's pick.

And in reference to that question, Clark, I think, yes, I think I would make that call if I were Jim Rutherford. I know Hollander is pretty good. I think a lot of people would want to keep him. I mean, but the thing is, you would be keeping Poulin, Ligary, and Kailan Addison, who I think, I don't think that Penguin should touch Kailna. I think he should be an untouchable penguin prospect. He's probably the only one that should be untouchable.

I would still do it because I think you would get, what, three years of Zucker? And I think Hollander has actually been hurt a lot. I think some of these prospect seasons. It's kind of getting a little bit of annoying, I think, for some of those teams. I think he's been missing, what, over 10 games or more of some of these last couple seasons. It's just getting a little too much, I think. But, yeah, I think that would be a trade I would do. You know, I mean, Bill, you're not obviously going to fleece Billy Gair,

and he knows the penguin system inside it out. But if that were the trade, if Billy Garon said, this is what you keep, I'm like fumbling my words. If Jim Rutherford offered this and Billy Garen said, yes, I would do it. Yeah. Or even if Billy Garen said, can we have this? I'm sure Jim Rutherford would say, yes, that's fine because, you know, I think that's a really, really good deal to make.

I think it's good value for Zucker. You're getting three years out of them, like you said. You're sure you're trading your second round pick, but is that guy even going to make the league? Who knows? And then Hollander, you know, we'll see. who knows if he'll even touch Minnesota's roster, especially with his injury concerns. There's a question on the official,

on the Locked on Penguins page. Locked on Ducks podcast actually sent in a question. Jason Hernandez of Locked on Ducks. Thank you for this question. And he asks, well, first he says, thank you for Eric Good Branson. Hey, man, no problem. Thank you for taking him off our cap

because that paved the way for John Reno. He asks, who would the be the person? penguins rather facing the first round of the playoffs the islanders the jackets the bunch of jerks anyone else it's a good question that actually is a very very good question i thank you for asking that um i hadn't really put a lot of thought into it but at this point man this is actually kind of tough carolina i still feel like would give the penguins a little bit of trouble considering that um they're just their their forwards are really underrated i like their defense the one thing that kind of concerns me as their goalie.

The Blue Jackets, I think I would probably, you know, the Islanders are just, there's such a scrappy team. I would rather play the Islanders this year compared to last year because the Outlanders are not nearly as good as they were last year, especially with who's out. Pelik, yeah, Pelik, I think is the one that's out, I think, for the season with the Achilles. I think the jackets, I think I would rather play just because of the Big Brother, Little brother thing. The Penguins have played them twice now in the playoffs. The Penguins have

only dropped. I think they've played in 11 playoff games against them. They've only lost three games against the Jackets. Of course, they beat them in six games in 2014. They beat them in five games in 2017. But you guys forget that game. That series was almost a sweep. But, you know, the jackets

also don't have Sergei Bavrovsky in the playoffs anymore. These two goaltenders that they've had this year are playing better than Bobrovsky has. And you know what? That's the reason. It's too, you don't pay, goaltenders, that type of money.

But I feel like the Penguins would be able to easily match up against the Blue Jackets forwards and defensemen. I know Seth Jones is really, really good. I know Zach Wrenski

is really, really good. I know they have David Savard. You know, further forwards, Gustav Nyquas, Cam Atkinson's probably arguably the most underrated player in hockey. I've fought that for a very long time.

But you know what? Now what they're lacking again is that elite player. They lost Artemi Paneran. They haven't really, you know, replaced his production. But you know what? Have they really needed to with the season that they're having?

They're driven by goal tending. Like I said, Gustav Nyk was having a really good year. Kay Mackinson, Pure Look Dubois. That's a strong team. But I think the Penguins would probably rather face them than them the other two teams. I still think the other penguins, if I had to go in order, I think the Islanders will be next up. I mean, it actually is pretty, pretty close. The Islanders will probably be next up.

I think the Penguins will be able to beat them and then Carolina. but I think the Penguins be able to actually beat all three. I think of all the teams I wouldn't want to see Carolina the most, just because it's the way they play. Nikki Giordano, Nicole, she asks, who also is the host of Locked on Capitals, if you could spend a day with one athlete, dead or alive, who would you spend it with and what would you both do?

Okay, this is probably the toughest question I've probably ever been asked for the mailbag, for this podcast because there's just so many answers honestly and you know it's probably between Sydney Crosby Kobe Bryant Mario Lemieux and that's honestly the list I would say man this is actually

really really really tough because there's just there's so many right answers here honestly you know I'd probably spend it with Mario I'd probably spend the day with Mario Lemieux and what would I do Um, maybe I'd go on the ice with him. He'd probably kick my ass in every possible facet of the game of hockey because, um, well, I haven't skating a while.

And even with that, even if I had been skating, he'd probably still dig the shit out of me and kick my ass. So, um, and then, you know, after that, um, maybe, uh, I don't know, just, go out to, um, all the bars, get drunk and, uh, you know, in Pittsburgh, whatever. Um, that'd be, I, I would love to do that the day after the Penguins win the cup or on the parade day. that would be the day to do it. Just spend the whole day with Mario Lemieux

and just get shit-faced with a team. That would be absolutely hysterical. But just because he just seems like a lot of fun and he's just obviously, my opinion, I think the greatest hockey player to ever play the game. I don't really think that's up for a debate either. I think it's, yeah, it's Mario and everyone else.

So, Latang Cole, Mark Zuckerwatch, also aka Jeff, one of my very best friends, asked, what do you presume will be the impact of Yuso Riegel? arm a team's possession numbers in a Marino lifetime capacity. So that's actually a pretty good question. So obviously of course John Marino does play top pairing

minutes. So, I mean not top pairing. Top four minutes. So that's usually around what, 20 minutes a night, 21 minutes. I honestly, I think his numbers are going to be around 50%. I think overall, I think like

for the team wise, I think it'll you know, I don't think he's going to drag the team down. I know and last year he did, but this year he's been a lot better. But in terms of their overall possession numbers and how they rank, I think, seventh in possession, I don't really think it's going to take too big of a hit. I've been high on Yuselida this year. I like him when he's in the lineup.

He should be in the lineup. Even when, I mean, he should have been in the lineup before John Marino got hurt. I sound like a broken record with that. But I honestly don't think it's going to affect it too too much. But I'd be surprised if it did. you know, hopefully the numbers can go up for the team. But, yeah, I just, hopefully he can be a good shot suppressor. He can move the puck.

You know, he can just, he can help the penguins still be a good possession team. And I know he can be, he drives play. He doesn't get caught in his own zone. I'm very curious to watch him, and now that he's back in the lineup going forward, I'm really curious to watch him. So thank you for that, Jeff. I really do think that the team is going to be fine possession-wise. Of course, he's down with percentage-wise.

With him in the lineup, I don't think he's going to tank the team. team like a Jack Johnson who takes everyone on the team when he's on the ice. And then last been on league's Logan de Lorenzo. With Marino out longer term, who can we count on to log those minutes? Our defense and D's on assignments have been a struggle as a way. Who can come in and lock his minutes and contribute? So again, really, really good question. It's probably going to have to be Yus Oricola at this point.

It's probably your only bet. But also, I think what they may do, because Pedersen is going to stay on the second pairing. So for logging, replacing his total minutes, they're probably going to have to move Schultz up. And that's a bit of a risk because Justin Schultz has just not been good this season. And it also would not surprise me if they have to go out and get a right shot defenseman at the trade deadline. Now, I don't know if a lot of right shot defensemen are available at the trade deadline. I'm not sure if Mike Green is available from Detroit, though. His cap hit is a little, I think it's a little, I think it's high.

If I'm not mistaken, I think they paid him a bunch of money. If Martinez is out there, but he's a left shot. They're not going to put him on the right side. I don't think. I know they're doing it with Ruino, but I still think that's stupid. But I think they're probably going to count on Schultz logging those minutes. I would be surprised if he's not getting second pairing minutes now. When the defense is fully healthy, he's going to be on the third pairing with Jack Johnson,

and Marino is going to come back with Pedersen and the Duma Louvre with Lentang. But obviously that's not the case right now. But, yeah, I think it's going to have to be Justin Schultz at this. point. And yeah, I definitely agree, like the D-Zone assignments have really struggled as of late. They're not doing some of them are not doing well in the own zone. It might get worse before it gets better. I think it definitely will be, especially with Justin Schultz and the way that he's been playing. He's going to have to really, really step it up over these next, just, you know, really just over these next, however many weeks that John Marino will be out because it's going to

be needed very, very, very, very badly. All right. So thank you guys so much for all those questions for this last segment. We're just going to do a little quick segment before the break. We're just going to preview the game against the Panthers. This will be the final time the teams play this season. Probably for the rest of the season, they probably will not meet the Stanley Cup playoffs. I would be very surprised if Florida somehow made it through Tampa and Boston

to get to the conference final. That is not likely. Definitely, I don't think it will happen. I think the Panthers, yeah, they beat them in Pittsburgh last time, but I was also almost like a scheduled loss for the Penguins, considering they played the night before, and also played within 20 hours of that next game. So, yeah, that was never really going.

to happen. And then they played before that, I think, down in Florida, and they ended up losing that game. So the Penguins are going to have to try to establish one of these games. A salvage this game against Panthers to at least get one of three victories against the Panthers. Panthers are definitely much better this season, even though Sergey Barovsky has struggled what he's not at his usual. 920 say percentage. He's actually just, he's not been really good at all this season. Just looking at his numbers. Yeah, 898, say a percentage in 41 games, 20 and 14 and 5. Yeah, that's a yikes in the chat.

Going through his last five games, his best game, I mean, was against Columbus, 978, but other than that, 793, gave up six goals to Vegas. 912 against the Maple Leafs, 886 against the Canadians, and then 914 against Blockhawks. Two of those being wins where he was 912 and 914, but still, you know, those numbers are just up and down, up and down, he's not been good,

but still Panthers are very potent up front. You know what you're getting in Vincent Troche, I think Alexander Barkov is coming back tomorrow night. It looks like he's scheduled to play. You know how good he is. Jonathan Hubertoe. Evgeny Dadanon. You know, Dennis Mollga.

He's not like good per se, but whenever I think of Dennis Malkin, of course, it's like you're paired to Vagny Malkin. It's just really, really funny. Let's see. Mike Hoffman. The Panthers is going to have a decision to make of the deadline with Dadinoff and Hoffman being UFAs after the year.

I'll be curious to see if they trade one of them at the deadline or if they keep both, try to make a run, and then, you know what, it lets it settle after the season. That's, I think, going to be my big question with the Florida Panthers. I think a lot of teams have showed interest in Mike Hoffman. Really good shooter, but his skating has been kind of mad. I don't think the Penguins are going to have any interest in him at all. But, yeah, the Ayrneck blood, of course, you know, Pizzik, bow on the back end. Yeah, like, the Panthers, they're good. And they're very well coached by Joel Quenville, you know, three-time Stanley Cup champion coach.

I thought they made a great hire by getting him. You know, we all know Dale Tallinn is going to be very unpredictable for the Panthers at the deadline. I think that's going to be very interesting to see what he does to us to see if he wants to upgrade the team. They're battling for that second wild card spot. But yeah, this is going to be a very interesting game for the Penguins, especially now that more injuries have hit. Though I think this is a winnable game, look for Sidney Crosby to hopefully have a much better game. then he played against the lightning. That was just unacceptable for his standards.

He knows it. Apparently he was the first one out of practice today. That's nothing out of the ordinary for him. He knows he has to be better. We all know if Ganymalkin's going to show up. If I had a guest, folks, I think Tristan Jari is going to get this start, and then I think Trishandari is also going to get the start against Tampa. You've got to get him to start against some of these playoff teams.

You've got to have Tristan Jari see Tampa again in case that, you know, they play in the playoffs again. Though it also wouldn't surprise me if Murray goes tomorrow, but I think I would expect I'm going to go because they've been kind of 50-50ing it lately, which is, you know, that's fine. That's fine with me. But, you know, that's just what I would expect. He's been off for a little bit.

He didn't play, of course, against Sunday against the Capitals, and didn't play this past 30 against lightning. So that's basically, like, what, a week now? So, yeah, he actually will have not played in yet eight days. He played on that Friday against the last Friday against the Flyers that last Friday night. So yeah, it will have been eight days. So yeah, it's hopefully good to get him a start. If he goes to get a start, you don't want him out a lineup or two too long.

Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Locked on Penguins. Thank you for a great week. We'll be back here on Monday. We'll talk about the game against the Panthers. Our preview next week. It's a big week for the Penguins. Of course, they have Tampa. Then I think they have Toronto, a home-and-home with Ben coming up.

That's going to be two big games. Schedule's turning nasty, folks, but you know what? Keep it right here on Locked on Penguins. We're going to have a breakdown of each game. We're going to keep talking penguins. No matter how many injured players are, hopefully we may begin to trade next week from Jenroth the third. We're two and a half weeks away from the deadline, everyone.

We're getting that much more closer. All right, everyone. Have a wonderful night. Have a wonderful weekend. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. We'll live tweet the game tomorrow. Show me, 10 of your thoughts about everything. And we'll talk to you all on Monday.