Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 3/2- Time to nut up or shut up

Episode Date: March 2, 2020

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter breaks down what some of the biggest issues the Penguins have right now and how that they'll likely be fixed by tomorrow night with the impending returns of Brian Dumoulin and John Marino. He also goes into how bad the Jack Johnson-Kris Letang pairing has killed the Sidney Crosby line and how thankfully that's over, plus details the schedule outlook for the Penguins this month. 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, welcome to this Monday afternoon evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes follow the show's Twitter at L-O- underscore Penguins. All right. So, yeah, this is a very trying time for the Penguins. Six losses in a row. I didn't think I'd see that under the Mike Sullivan tenure. Penguins have never had a losing streak like this. Under him, they haven't had a six-game losing streak. losing streak since the 2011, 2012 season, and then I think after that they went on a 10-game winning streak,

so we're going to hope for that. But that was the year, so they had that awful series against Philadelphia Flyers, which will not be brought up on this podcast because that will be given all of us PTSD. So, yeah, it's not, we're not hitting the panic button yet,

but they lose tomorrow night. There's going to be people hitting the panic button. I will very much assure you that, but we do have some good news to start off the podcast before we get into the games. John Marine and Brian, Duman look like they are coming back tomorrow. Just, wow, thank, you know, thank God.

I think, and I did my two tweets that I put up to a on my Twitter. Oh, yes, part one. Oh, yes, part two, because Duman was finally back in his place, skating with Crystal Tang, which is one of the most underrated defensive pairings in the league. And John Marino was back in his spot on the right side, second pairing, with Marcus Pedersen, and then they were able to move down Jack Johnson to pair with Justin Schultz. Also, please scratch Jack Johnson, you cowards, and put you so regal. and but you know what i don't think they're they're going to do that because even though

rickola has been really good for the penguins this year and we will get into more of the rickola stuff from the games at a california trip uh later in this episode but yes practice fully today took line rushes top power play units pk units everything went through another full contact practice solvin said they're game time decisions tomorrow look for them to play they will be playing tomorrow nick beekstad had his first full contact practice took line rushes took play on the second Power play, Tekken PK. Sullivan said he's not quite ready to play, but he is getting close, so he's not going to play tomorrow, but I would wager him going on Thursday or definitely this weekend.

It's going to be Thursday against Buffalo or this weekend. We will finally see the return of Nick Bukestead. Yes, indeed, he is alive. He will be playing soon. In other injury news, Dominic Simone is out week to week, so, you know, a soul for a soul as from Avengers endgame in Infinity War, as we all like to say, because the Penguins just can never get fully healthy. But with these injuries coming back,

these three players will be coming off the injured list this week. We are now down to Jake Gensel, who is, of course, out for the rest of the regular season, perhaps almost all the playoff run if they do D to get in, and I can't believe if I just said that, yes, I think they'll get in. Zach Aston-Rees, who's week-to-week, and Dominic Simone, who's week-to-week. Patrick Marl was not a practice did because him and his family

were coming across the country from San Jose, so it looks like that's great news. So, yeah, Bukstad was, I think, just taking Malkins' play, Malgan, Marlowe's place in the lineup. Yeah, Nick Bukstad's going to take Evgeny Malkins' place, and the Vigney Malkin is going to be a healthy scratch. What a world that would be.

But, yeah, just good news all around, the penguins badly need Duman and Marino back, and they're going to get them back tomorrow. It can't be just overstated how much Drian Duelan means to this team. And, you know, I think the penguins, they were banking

on the Jack Johnson, Crystal Tang, pairing, not biting them in the ass. as much as it's been this past week in the California. They were hoping, like, okay, can we extend this one more weeks? We don't have to go out and get a defenseman at the deadline. We know Jimlin and Marino are close. We know they're probably going to be back after the deadline, which they are going to be back tomorrow.

Can we extend this another week? Because we're playing three California teams. You know, it bit them in the ass. Now you've got to suffer the consequences. Now the Flyers have leapfrog due, and now you face the biggest week of your season. There's no excuse to lose these two games. this week. You're back home against the senators. You lose that game. There's going to be

there's already people panicking in the fan base. And I understand that a little bit with the six game losing streak. But, you know, you lose seven in a row. Like I said, it's going to get ugly. And, you know, these two games this week against Buffalo and Ottawa, you got to bank these points. You can't keep losing the bad teams that you should be beating. I know there's been a lot of PDO regression, especially on this road trip where, you know, after the Kings game with the hit three posts, Of course, they go out against the ducks. Give up a goal, 1-0-0. It was a really, very fluky goal.

Like, this is what this come down for Penguins hockey at the moment. Goals going or against them are going off players' asses, off the skates, the legs. But yet, the Penguins can't get any of those balances. And oh, yeah, they hit six posts in two games before the debacle in San Jose. That is what's basically going on. Their PDO has regressed so badly that they are just not, they're just not cashing on their chances. And for the latter part, the most part of this losing streak, they've outplayed these teams. The Toronto game, forget that.

We all know they sucked in that game. The Washington game, I thought they played very well. They just had an ugly third-third in the defensive zone when they barfed all over themselves. Buffalo game, I thought they played hard, but like they just weren't smart with the puck. And then, you know, of course, you have the Kings game where they did everything but score. Jack Johnson, of course, was absolutely terrible in that game. We talked about that on this podcast last week. And then you get to the Ducks game.

Of course, we're discussing now. First goal goes off, Zach Trotman's leg and end past goalie, and of course, whatever. Jason Zucker gets another goal. He's playing outstanding. And then the officiating started to come in and kind of started to tilt this game with some stupid penalties. Ryan Getsloff, of course, took a four-minute penalty, which we gave the Penguins Power Play goal. And then went back in the pen, it went against the duck's favor, when Evgeny Malkin took four minutes from unsports from my conduct and another penalty.

That kind of changed the game. The officiating was just absolutely trash in that game, you know. I've said this so many times on Twitter. No one comes to the game to watch the officials officiate games like that. You do not need to call on sports from my conduct penalties just because someone is arguing a call. I mean, for God's sakes, man. I mean, I hate to pull this card out on people, but I'm sure, like, lot of you guys could relate if you guys played sports as a kid, you know, how many of you

have people have argued with refs over calls and they may just like walk away? You know, it's just between that and, you know, refusing to drop a puck on face-offs. The officiating in this game is just disgusting, it's disturbing. A lot of words, that game was just officiated very, very bad. It's on a long, long list of really bad officiated games. It definitely was not in the Penguins' favor. It hardly goes. That's the way it goes. times, you know. That's just the way it is. But, you know, the Ducks were able to score to make it two one and they have the other goal to make a three one. And of course, oh yeah, that goes off Zach Trotman's legging in because that was going to be saved by Matt Murray. Hell, the second

goal was even a flute bounce too because it goes off the post, goes right. And usually like sometimes the puck will take a weird bounce off the post to go to the corner. No, hits the post, goes right to Brian gets off sick, he has an open net. I'm like, you can't even make this off at this point. And then Jason Zucker was able to make it a bit of a game, you know, 3-2. It also doesn't help in that game that John Gibson decides to play like John Gibson for the first time this season because, oh yeah, he's, he's, uh, what is he, 905 for this season? He's been really, really bad, but I know the ducks have been really, really bad this

season, but he's been really bad too, but yeah, of course he decides to play like God, and, of course, it comes against the penguins. It was the biggest example that I can remember, of course, was with Patrick Marlow. A beautiful cross-outies passed to Brian Ross. I think it's a short-handed. Brian Brous elevates it a little bit. It's a goal, but still, just a beautiful toe save on Ross. And it's like, John Gibson, come on, man.

I mean, you really got to play like that. He's just, he's so good when he decides to be. But, yeah, that was very frustrating. The Penguins had a little bit of the surge towards the end of that game. But, yeah, it just wasn't enough. And then, yeah, the Sharks game. on. That was, that was, I wasn't watching that game because we were having a little bit of a house party at our house with my roommates and I were just having some people over. But yeah, I did go up and I actually turned it on and right when I turn it on, I see Cindy Crosby missing open net.

And I'm like, yep, that's time to turn it off because when the puck is not going in for Cindy Crosby and he has a wide open net on Martin Jones and he's missing those. You just, you know things are really, really bad. And that was just, that was, that game was the cherry on top for those. road trip. I saw people saying, oh yeah, the Penguins gonna win five, two tonight, they're gonna win three two tonight. Oh yeah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, I don't know, man, like you guys predicting this. No, this was the cherry on top for the road trip, and it ended very, very poorly. And you know what?

Now they have to live with the consequences that you have no points in your last six games, and oh, by the way, you're only a couple points from being out of the playoff spot. Yes, believe it or not, they are only a couple points away from being out of a playoff spot. Now, do I think that the Penguins will miss the playoffs? No. T. T.O. said this in the past. It's like, okay, if you want to bet against any Gany Malkin and Cindy Crosby and the Penguins, do as you wish. You know, we all know what the problem is.

And, you know, we're going to get into that in this next segment or one of the biggest problems, at least. But, yeah, they're still going to get in the playoffs. But, yeah, you better freaking win tomorrow night because, like I said, the panic button is going to, it's going to be pressed on if they lose tomorrow night. So, yeah, the biggest, obviously we know what the biggest problem is for the penguins right now. one, yes, they cannot score, but two, you know, this Jack Johnson, Chris Latine Perry needs to be fired in the sun. It looks like it's going to be fired into the sun tomorrow night when Brian Dewan comes back. Jack Johnson's just been abysmal, you know.

I tweeted this during the weekend. I'm trying to be nice about this as, you know, I'm not, you know, I don't criticize. I criticize Jack Johnson, but I like to be, you know, like at least okay with it. Like I said, I tweeted this over the weekend. And there's just been, I don't think I've ever seen a more hated penguin that has worn the penguin uniform in the Cindy Crosby era, but he came back to 2005, then I have a Jack Johnson. I don't even think it's close. Yes, everyone, I know we have been through the Rob Skadari days. Hell, you are listening to this podcast and the host who, yes, actually liked the Rob Skadari signing.

I really did. I was only about 16, 15, 16 at the time. So yeah, very young. Very much loved him, and I thought it was going to be a good fit. Did not turn out the beat, and I'll just leave it at that. But yes, he just does nothing well. Jack Johnson absolutely, he just embarrasses himself on the ice. Time and time and time and time again.

I mean, just look at the Kings game where, I mean, where he was just undressed by Trevor Lewis, of all people. Trevor Lewis, a bottom six-fooler who does not have a lot of scoring touch. in this league absolutely undresses him for a goal and then Jackson Johnson can't even get back for the rebound. Jack Johnson also can't even make a simple breakout pass. He can't even keep the puck into the zone. Whenever he shoots the puck, it goes in right to a defenseman body

and then it kills the cycling. And I think the biggest thing of this Jack Johnson stuff with Crystal Tang is that he is killing and I mean killing the Sidney Crosby line. And when the Sydney Crosby line is playing as bad as it has been for the past week and perhaps even longer, the Penguins are not going to win many games. Cindy Crosby has not looked himself for this past week because, oh yeah, he's playing with Jack

Jackson who kills his numbers. Hell, he kills every person's numbers that he plays with. He has killed Chris La Tang's numbers. I have felt so bad for Chris LaTang that I wish he just honestly goes up to Mike Sullivan and says, I don't want to play with him anymore. But we all know how nice of a person. Chris Lattang is. It's his teammate.

He's not going to want to go up to his coach and be like, yeah, screw this dude. I don't want to play with him. He's going to, you know, play with him because they like Jack Johnson. And, you know, I wish more people would ask Mike Sullivan about the problem with Jack Johnson instead of just, okay, I'm going to try to be, try to be good here, try to be good, you know, and just trying to, you know, be a little bit of a shell kind of. And, you know, I don't know that sounds kind of rude and whatnot. But, you know, it's just, it comes a point in time. You just, you got to be always, always be objective about it as I am trying to be right now. And I know a lot of other writers in Pittsburgh are.

It's just there's a select few that just are not objective about it. It's like they see what they want to see. They don't want, you know, their credentials taken away. I don't know. That's my opinion. I know Chad came on the podcast last week and said the exact same thing. I agree with them. I just, it's weird to me.

But, you know, Brian Duman cannot come back fast enough. it's going to very, very much help the Sydney Crosby line because he can finally get a breakout pass from someone other than Crystal Tang. Brian Dumont is so good in the defensive zone. He's so good at limiting chances against per 60 minutes at even strength, schooling chance, high danger, whatever underlying numbers you want to look at. It's just going to be a massive help. Yeah, I think that's just the biggest problem.

And, you know, we all know Marcus Patterson has really struggled as of late. Justin Schultz will finally be able to go down to the third pairing and have his minute's shelter because he has just been a mess. Hell, I thought he had his best game in the season against the Los Angeles games where he made that beautiful pass, but of course the goal, almost for a goal, but of course the goal did not count because, yeah, the puck luck is just on the penguin side. You love when the puck hits the crossbar, goes down,

looks like it's going into the net, and then just skates across the red line and out. Just, you know, that is my favorite thing about hockey. Like I said, the PEO regression is, It's very, very, very real right now. And, yeah, that's really all I can say about that. And, you know, I really do wish moving forward that the penguins, they would give Yuselika a more of a chance. My thoughts on this, you know, this thing, I don't know what his problem is.

I don't know what Mike Sullivan sees him that he doesn't like because the underlying numbers are very strong towards him. he should not be a healthy scratch for Zach freaking Trotman, who I'm sorry, is not an H.L. defenseman. You know, Jim Rutherford likes to tell the fan base in the media that he is. You know, you watch him for a few games like you did this past weekend. You can see that he's not an NHL defenseman. I don't know where he got that from, everybody. He is not an NHL defenseman. That's not an, yeah, especially with how bad he was in his defensive zone.

It does not bring any offense. He can stay in Wilkes-Berry. But I'm getting off track. Riegelah brings offense. He's good in his defensive zone. Hell, a friend of the podcast, of course, who's been on this podcast before. Jesse Marshall, tweeted this morning, you know, about 10, 15 a.m. Uso Rikula's February wrap-up. So this is how Rikala has been this season. So time on ice, 99 minutes. So his course, his Coress, his possession relative, plus 11.9%. His goal's 4 percentage relative plus 23%. His high dangerous possession numbers, plus 28%. All of those were tops for the penguins over the course of the month. You want to look at Jack Johnson's? You know, you can go on natural statuary. Great side for underlying numbers. Jack Johnson's are much lower than that. They are in the minuses. It does not

take a fool to realize that. I don't understand. Like I said, I don't know why Zach Tramon was playing on his off-freaking side compared to Yuseligula, who has a lot. been good. I also don't know why Yuselriglo was not getting a try on the top pairing with Chris LaTangpe. Because, you know, why not? Just throw at it before Byndo and come back. You know what? Why not? Just why freaking

not? I think, is it stubbornness by Mike Sullivan? I think so. You know, Mike Sullivan has done a lot right as the Penguins head coach. He's a top five coach in hockey. I think he's the best coach in hockey. But, you know, when you make bad errors like that, people will, people will notice. And it's one of the, I think, the select few

things that he's done. That is, Pissed off a lot of you in this fan base, you know, myself included, I thought that was unacceptable to do. But, yeah, I would love to see Riekella get more time on the ice this month. Do I think that's going to happen with Duman and Marino coming back tomorrow night? No, because they're going to want to play Justin Jolts on the other... No, Justin Jules, they're going to want to play Jack Johnson on the third pairing and see how he rebounds, because, you know, that's how this team operates, you know? And all the top will be, oh, my God, you know, Jack Johnson's been so good on the third pairing.

he's been so good he's actually not hurting the team and it's like well you know he's getting eight he's getting like 10 minutes a night so you know you just you just better hope he doesn't you never hope he doesn't play like that but um yeah i'd still play rickola sholts because i think rickla is a much better player than jack johnson could it be could it be maybe that solvin and jim rutherford disagree on the player i think that's possible i think that's very very possible you know i I also think that could maybe be the same about Jim Rutherford and Jack Johnson, where maybe Jim Rutherford is pushing Mike Sullivan to do it, and Mike Sullivan is agreeing. But you know what? Maybe not.

It's a new point at this point with both the top four defensemen coming back tomorrow. So, yeah, I touched on this, you know, earlier in the episode a bunch of times. But, yeah, folks, the schedule really, really kicks in now. And the Penguins do not have a lot of margin room for error. There are now three points behind the Philadelphia Flyers and Oval Flyers. They won. Yesterday they had the home and home sweep against the New York Rangers.

We all know a lot of the teams in the Metro have been really struggling lately. The Capitals are not playing good hockey, the Islanders. The Blue Jackets are not been playing well, the hurricanes. But you know what? That goes all out the window

when you start to actually play these teams in the month of March. The Penguins are probably going to hope that the March of the Penguins comes back again because we all know how good the Penguins played in March under Mike Sullivan in years past

and Hill home was under a lot of their coaches in years past. Remember, they had that 15-game winning streak in March where they went, I think it was they basically went undefeated that in the month. But yeah, you play Ottawa at home. You better win that game, like I said. The fan base needs to rally behind this team. You know, they need to be loud. This is playoff time almost.

This is the best time of the year. You go to Buffalo on Thursday night. That's a team that, you know, I don't know if you all over the weekend, but, you know, Jack Eichel was basically saying that it was over. you know, that team is almost called it quits. That's a bad Buffalo team. They've lost badly to them twice this season. They're going to want to try to get them back.

And then you have the biggest back-to-back of the season this weekend. Play Washington at home. There's a chance to make up a little more ground on them. There's six points behind them now. And then they play the Carolina Hurricanes for the first time this season. It's hard to believe that they play Hurricanes four times in the last quarter of the season. But you know what? I'm not the NHL schedule maker.

They probably do this on a complete. computer and whatnot. But yeah, three out of four next games are at home. You, they better start to bank some points now. They cannot let this losing streak get even further. And they need to, they need a nice big winning streak here. And they need a fast because, you know, after that, you know, that starts off a stretch of, you know, after the Carolina game, they go to New Jersey, they go to Columbus, they go to Carolina. They come home to play the Islanders one more time. They have a home and home with the Rangers in mid-March. Then they come home to play the capitals again. Then they have kids.

Carolina, then they have Chicago, then it's Carolina, then it's Philly, then it's New Jersey, then it's New York, and then it's Ottawa. So if we're counting this schedule, I'm going to count this live right now. Starting this weekend, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, starting this weekend in the month of March, 10 out of their necks, actually no, 11, 13, 13, okay, so 13 of their next 14 games are against Metropolitan Division teams. Yeah, that is how insane this stretch is coming up. And the only game that's not against Metropolitan Team, oh yeah, the Chicago Blackhawks,

where they have it won in Chicago in the United States, since probably not. I don't remember the last time they actually beat Chicago in the United Center. But yeah, you banked these four points this week, then the real fun against, like I said, with Washington, Carolina four times. You get the devils a couple more times. You get the blue jackets one more time next week.

You get the Rangers in two weeks in a home and home. You get the hurricanes a few more times. You get the capitals. You get the flyers on a matinee game. They have a lot of matinee afternoon games coming up. I mean, this is, you know, I'm going to quote this from Zambuland. It is nut up or shut up time. You know, 13 in your next 14 games starting this weekend.

Like I said, Metro games. the ball is in the Penguins court. They control their own destiny. The only thing that they can't have them to do is allow these teams to get loser points on them. I'm sure some of them will go to overtime because that's what happens to the HL. But in a perfect world, you want to bank those points against metropolitan teams. Of course, you're not going to win all the games and it gets into Metro teams. You know, that's possible.

But you want to win, of course, as many as you possibly can. You want to beat a team like Carolina as many times as you can in regulation to create some distance and a team like Columbus and a team like Philadelphia, who you've been twice this season, but it sucks at third long winning streak and the Penguins' long losing streak coincided at the exact same time. If Penguins would have went just 500 on this six-game stretch,

you know, they probably would be... Yeah, they'd be in first place right now. They'd be tied for first place. If they went three and three in these past six games, even two and four, they would be two points out of first place, and they would be one point ahead of the front. But nope, we had to get the six-game industry at the worst time.

So, yeah. We're having another episode coming tomorrow. We're going to break down the game against the senators. Like I said, I really don't want to see a nuclear world penguins' Twitter. You know, I hope the penguins start to speedbag some teams as our good friend. Jeff from Pennsball, I'd like to say on Twitter this past weekend. You know, the penguins are going to hopefully go ultimately get back some teams when they get home. They're going to be probably very fired up to try to put this stretch behind them.

And, you know, let's see if they start scoring. That's the biggest thing. And, of course, getting Jumlin and Marino back, this cannot come at a better time. They need to get rank out of the spunk, and they need to go on a nice big streak here where they're getting points. But, yeah, biggest week of the season, we're going to have it all covered here for you on Locked-on Penguins. I'll just stick with it. We'll see what happens. This is the best time of the year, and, you know, let's do it.

The push for the playoffs really, really begins now. So, yeah, we'll be back tomorrow night. We're breaking down the Senators game. And until then, keep it right here on Locked on Penguins. Thank you.