Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 3/25-Elite 8 time!

Episode Date: March 26, 2020

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter recaps the sweet 16 for his Penguins March Madness bracket and previews what is sure to be an outstanding elite 8! He then goes over Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford's comments to the media today with a big update on Jake Guentzel. 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 Wednesday evening episode of the Locked-on 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. Looks like the poll results are coming in. About half of them, it looks like, are already in. The first half, we're going to have some very unexpected results, but it looks like for the second half, it's basically, you know, status quo, you know,

what I thought was going to happen. But for the first half, first for Pittsburgh, Minnesota. 91 Stanley Cup final as the number one seed eight they beat out Pittsburgh Boston of 91 they will be moving on to the elite eight and they will be playing the 12th seed Pittsburgh Washington 2016 as they beat out Pittsburgh Washington 2017 of course the two Washington series went at each other so the first elite eight matchup of Pittsburgh Washington 2016 second round series will go up against the number one seed Pittsburgh Minnesota Stanley Cup final so um I wasn't too surprised that Pittsburgh Washington came out, that much more for the Capitals fans.

And also, I just, you know, there's a really interesting matchup. I think I know who I would pick to go to the final four, but we'll see what you guys do. Now it is more for the elite A now that we're really, really getting into it. Next two matchups, a big upset for one of them. Pittsburgh, Washington, 2009 series, the number two seed loses to Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay of 2016. Definitely was very surprised by that. But, you know, I'm always team chaos. So you guys think that Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay is better than the Pittsburgh-Washington series.

I mean, personally, I disagree that Pittsburgh Washington series with Alex O'Betchkin and Cindy Crosby going at it for the first time is perhaps easily one of the, I think, easily one of the top four best playoff series in Penguin history. That's just my take, though. So Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay will moving on to the Elite 8, and they will be going up against the 14th seed Pittsburgh Columbus of 2014 gets to the lead eight.

They beat out the Pittsburgh Rangers series from the 2008 when Marion Hosa and that in five games. Definitely did not see a run of Pittsburgh Columbus of 2014 making it to the elite eight. But, you know, they honestly potentially have a real shot at going to the final four if you guys really liked that series.

Tampa should be able to edge it out, but you know what? It's always, of course, up to you all. The polls of the next section are officially in as well. Pittsburgh, Detroit, 2009. They're moving on to the Elite 8. That's easily one of the best series, of course, in France. That's usually one of the best series, of course, in France.

Pittsburgh, Ottawa, the 2017 Eastern Conference Final, which, of course, went to double overtime, and Chris Kunitz had his heroic. So the other elite eight matchup, Pittsburgh, Detroit, 2009 versus Pittsburgh, San Jose, 2016. So a Stanley Cup final match. the elite eight that's going to be um quite quite interesting and then of course for our final matchup um pittsburgh new jersey of nineteen ninety nine beats out pittsburgh boston of 92 they will be moving on to the lead eight and they will be in that series will be going up against the pittsburgh chicago 92

stand like up final as you know our first this is i believe folks this is our only yeah this is the only two three matchup so down here is the second section we have the 1-4 and the 2 versus 3. So will it be some chaos sound in the second section? That's, who knows? But the first section, there is for sure to be chaos, you know, with a 1 versus 12 and a 14 versus 7. You know, will the number one seed make it out

of the Pittsburgh, Minnesota 91 Stanley Cup final? I guess we're going to have to see. You know, there's probably going to be a lot of chaos for that one as well. So overall, we do have the Elite 8. So for you guys, so just sum it all up. First a matchup with the Elite 8, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, the number 1C-901 Stanley Cup final going up against the 12th C, Pittsburgh, Washington second round series of 2016. The 14th C, Pittsburgh, Columbus, 2014. First round series making a Cinderella run will go up against the Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay Eastern Conference final of 2016.

So one of those matchups will be one of those series will go into the, the final four and then for the bottom section, Pittsburgh, Detroit, 2009, Stanley Cup final. We'll be going up against Pittsburgh, San Jose, 2016 in the bottom section. And then, of course, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, 1999. We'll be going up against the Pittsburgh, Chicago, 1992 Stanley Cup final. So a lot of really interesting matchups for the elite aid of this bracket. Definitely didn't see a couple series making it this far.

Like I said, with Pittsburgh, Columbus. I thought that was for sure going to be a first round exit. And also the other map job, I did not see that Pittsburgh, Washington of 2009, would actually bow out in the Sweet 16. That was just something I really, really did not see. But I'm actually about to put up the polls right now. All right, so I actually just paused recording,

and I actually just put them out now. so just a little just a little bit of early numbers to say the least well this Pittsburgh Columbus Pittsburgh Tampa Bay matchup is going pretty interesting so far only about five to six votes in

100% for Pittsburgh Tampa Bay so we'll see if it can keep up that pace not really sure just a few votes in for Pittsburgh Minnesota 91 Pittsburgh Washington 2016 the 1 versus 12 very very early four votes but Pittsburgh Washington has now jumped out

to a little bit of an early lead. Then, of course, down in the bottom section, we have Pittsburgh, Detroit, up early with just five, six votes in over Pittsburgh, San Jose, 2016. And then Pittsburgh, New Jersey is also out to a little bit of a start, a good start over Pittsburgh, Chicago of 1992. So some interesting results so far coming in from these polls. I'm curious to see if Pittsburgh, Minnesota can make a comeback. It's always cool just giving you guys, honestly, like.

live results as these are coming in. Like I said, I hope there's more votes for this one. There was a lot of votes for the first one, I think, about almost 40 to 50 of you guys voted. But for the last one, it was only about 15, 16, maybe 18 to 20. I said so far, we only about four to five votes in for each one. So, you know, hopefully we can get back up to, you know, 35, 40 to 50 like we had for the first round.

I feel like it represents a much, like, bigger following of you Penguins fans. and, of course, of you listeners. You know, I'm going to try to have Cam on here. Maybe if his schedule allows tomorrow to talk about the final four, and then maybe Or Friday to talk about the national championship for the best Penguin series of all times. So I think that might do it for this first section of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. If it were up to me, I guess I'll just give you guys my prediction of what I would do

for these eight matchups. I would put Pittsburgh, Minnesota in the final four. Pittsburgh, Tampa in the final four, and then Pittsburgh, Detroit, and then Pittsburgh, Chicago, 92. But, you know, maybe some of you guys are listening to this. You know what? I'm going to do the exact opposite of what Hunter does because Hunter's an idiot. Well, you know, you wouldn't be the first person to say the Hunter's an idiot because I basically am idiot almost all the time. So, yeah, I'm just, will I get all four of these results right?

No. I'm wrong about most of the time. I think I would say I'm not really right. Not often about a lot of things, but I guess I am right about some things when it comes to hockey. But yeah, it makes me wonder why I sometimes have this podcast. But yeah, just go out, vote, elite eight time. Let's just, let's do it. All right.

So for this section, you know, whatever of this segment, oh, gee, I'm like messing out my words right now. I apologize everyone. So Jim Ruther did break his two-week silence today. I mean, that had to have probably been killing Jim Rutherford, everyone. Oh, my God, I can't talk to the media? Can I please call Josh Yowie's phone to talk to him? I can't do that. I can't call Rob Rossi's phone to talk to him either.

It's just, I kind of probably felt bad for him because he's honestly the most candid general manager in hockey. I really do not think there is a more candid GM out there than Jim Rutherford. I just really don't. He probably talks to the media once every few weeks. It's got to be at least twice a month. honestly, you'll see an article coming out about Jim Repel for talking, you know, to Josh O'ie of the Athletic. You know, you have Matt Venselvin the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

He had Seth Rorbaugh from the Tribune Review, but I do want to shout out, Seth. I did see the news of what happened to him from the Tribune View. Seth is probably one of my favorite writers that covers the Penguins. Probably one of the best hockey writers in America, if you ask me, and what happened with him in the Tribune Review was very unfortunate, of course, what's going on with the coronavirus with a lot of layouts going on. Seth, if you ever somehow stumble upon this podcast, you'll be back on your feet in no time. I really hope you continue writing hockey somewhere because I live for your empty netters and your coverage after every game.

So, yeah, really, you know, pulling for you, man. And like I said, I'm pulling for everyone who has had a bit, a lot of very tough time through these circumstances. But with that being said, I just wanted to go over to you guys with what Jim Rutherford talked about today. A lot of very interesting stuff, including, excuse me, folks, an update on Jake Gensel, of course. But let me scroll down my Twitter here. I didn't even have this ready. But basically, you know, when he was asked about Jake Gensel,

Jim Rutherford said about it. He's like, if you look at when he was injured and what the projection was on the timeline for him to return, it was four to six months. So if you take the shortest period, that will be the end of April. And obviously, you can do the rest if it's six months. For those are a better math, like me.

That will be the end of June. And will the NHL be playing by the end of June? Who knows? I'm not really sure at this point, but they're definitely not going to be playing by the end of April. That's probably about 99.9% chance that they won't be. Hell, they may not be playing in the air. To finish off this quote,

he said, I would expect that knowing Jake Gensel that he's going to be ready. He's at the point now where he's one of the head. There have not been any setbacks at this point. So great, great, great news on Jake Gensel. That's just so good. And, you know, that's going to make the Penguins, Is that more dangerous if the penguins, if the NHL decides to resume their season at the end of June, July, August? You know, it's probably going to be July or August.

I did see the report. You know, Elia Freeman had me his 33 thoughts today. It's usually unlike, usually he only does 31, of course. And then Pierre LeBron also talked about it too for the athletic that the NHL has asked for potential arena availability in the month of August. So, yeah, I mean, like I said, we're probably not playing hockey. in May. We're not even playing in June with the way this is going.

So look for July or August to see when this season resumes. But yeah, that's just a great update on Jake Gensel. Jim actually also had this to say at the beginning of his press comments at the beginning of his media availability. I'm sure you know, let me load it up here.

All right. Here it is. Good afternoon, everybody. It's good to be able to talk. It's been a little while, and I hope everyone's doing well and taking care of themselves and their loved ones during this time. It's, I'll say the obvious, it's been a immunity, and I just had a fun morning for me.

It's not something I was planning on doing it this time of the year, but I watched it when they won it this morning. It was a lot of fun watching those guys. So, yep, there it is from Jim Rutherford, this worry. If you guys heard that little bit of background music, that is actually from the Penguin's official Twitter account, which, of course, tweeted out that quote from Jim Rutherford. But, yep, very well said from Jim Rutherford.

Like I say, it was probably killing him that he could not talk to the media for two weeks straight. Because I think they were actually instructed by the NHL. The GMs were not to talk for at least, I think, over a week. I was surprised that he was allowed to talk today, as, of course, the NHL is still in the self-quarantine period. And I think it was self-quarantining period. And I believe it was actually extended than that for the next 10 days, if I read it correctly from Pierre LeBron and Elliot Friedman. I'll have to go back and check that. But I believe it was the next 10 days, two weeks, something like that.

But there was also other updates today from Jim Rutherford. Apparently, no penguin player has tested positive to coronavirus, so that's also very, very good news. He also said it best in that quote. He loves how the city of Pittsburgh has come together during this time. You know, that's nothing out of the ordinary for the city of Pittsburgh during tough times. I could spend 20 minutes talking about how many, so many times when the city of Pittsburgh is, Pittsburgh has come together during so many big events, you know, including this pandemic.

And, you know, like he said, you know, I'm also not surprised considering just how amazing Pittsburgh is and how the people are just, you know, they're just blue collar people. And they're just, it's a great, it's a great, not just a great sports town, but just a great town in general with so many just outstanding people, including you all that listen to this podcast every day. But going back to what he said, though, about watching the 91 Stanley Cup final, for those that were not aware, for those that listen to this, podcast late at night tonight. God bless you, by the way. The Henguins were doing basically a massive, well, not, I shouldn't say the Penguins, NHL Network was doing a massive Penguin Marathon throughout the whole day today, just playing a bunch of Penguins content. I think they played the game six against the Sharks. They played the 91 final. They played the 92 final. Heck, I think the Penguins official Twitter account is actually live tweeting

this as we speak. And so is the, I believe the Penn's Inside Scoop. Twitter account. I believe there's a documentary on an show network right now as we speak. They were just playing a bunch of Penguins content throughout the day. On the National Network, the inside the room, that's honestly one of my favorite series. It's just, you know, just get you that inside access. They were also on NBC Sports Network today. They were doing the outdoor games for their hockey.

They were doing this hockey kind of days each week where they're playing different kinds of games. there's been days for rivalry games, there's been days for big clincher games. Well, the big clincher games is going to be tomorrow, but they've had like big game seven clincher games, but I think a day ago or something, tomorrow is going to be actually the Thursday is going to be the Stanley Cup final clinching games.

So will the Penguins be on there? Most likely I think they'll probably show 2016 and 2017. They would be very wise, I think, to show the 2009 game, but it's also in the last, it's not even in the last decade. I'm not really sure if they would do that. I wish they would because I would love to watch that game back as a whole. As I don't think I've done it ever since I was, what was I? 11 at the time.

Jesus, I was freaking 11 years old. But yeah, they were playing the live wired of the stadium series last year on NBC Sports Network. I am mixing up these terms and stuttering so bad. I apologize. They play the Flyers, Penguins 1 of 2019. We're not going to watch that one back because that one was really, really bad. But they also did play the 2008 one, of course, the very first winter classic when Sidney Crosby scored the shootout, the shootout winning clinching goal in Buffalo. I believe that was the Buffalo Bill Stadium.

What is it called New Era Field now or something like that. That was just what a moment that was, man. That was just unbelievable. I can't believe I was only 10, basically 10 years old at the time, which is just nuts. But, yeah. So if guys have nothing to do tomorrow, I'm sure you guys, if you guys are at home, only have really much to do if you don't have a lot of schoolwork or whatever, not a lot of work. Put on NBC Sports Network because they will be showing some Stanley Cup final clinching games,

and I'm sure some of the Penguins games will be on there. All right, so I actually forgot about some other stuff that actually Jim Rutherford did say today, if I can actually get to it. I mean, good grief. Apparently, Jim Rutherford did say, you know, he's been in constant contact with Mike Sullivan and David Morehouse, you know, with Shayito, just catching them up on what's going on. What else?

Yeah, like I said, he's just no pens have tested for the virus. Apparently, he said some guys have decided to stay in Pittsburgh. Some guys have decided to go back home. Like we've seen with Evgeny Malkin. He went down to Miami, which I believe is his office. He's home to be with his wife and his 4-to-5-year-old son, Nikita. I saw Jason Zucker went home to Minnesota.

That's nothing out of the ordinary. I'm sure Patrick Marlowe, went back to California. I might believe he did. I keep seeing his wife, Christina, put all these tweets on Twitter, which is just, you know, those tweets are so much fun to look at because the thing is just have an all-star cast now of Hockey Wives, and boy, are they awesome on social media, especially, you know, with Carly Zucker.

I'm sure Sandy Crosby probably went back to Cole Harbor, but I'm not really sure what Penguins decided today in Pittsburgh, you know, potentially someone like Conor Sherry, especially after he packed up his bags and got an apartment. I think, remember when I was reading it, he got an apartment outside of Cranberry, which apparently he said at the time when he was in Pittsburgh, there really was not a apartment complex development out there, which I find pretty interesting. So he potentially stayed out there. But, yeah, Chris Letang, I believe, I wonder if he went back up to Montreal for his offseason. He had a really, really cool video this past week of, you know, him doing push-ups with Alexander Letang on his back. And that was just, you know, Alex Lenthal.

Tang is going to be the next initial star, and that's just, that is what it's going to happen. Anyways, you know, just I keep getting off track. You know, I did find this very interesting from what Jim Ruther did say today. It was actually in Joshi's piece on the athletic. And by the way, everyone, they're running a 90-day free trial on the athletic to start, you know, just reading for free for literally three months. So, yeah, it's basically, I think is it, what, three months? Yeah, three months, yeah, I'm just making sure I got the math right. Like I said, guys, math is my strong suit.

it's also late at night, so I'm kind of being an idiot. But, yeah, I definitely recommend you guys to do that. But Jim Rutherford said, you know, as soon as he got home from Columbus, filled his car up with gas, went home, and he has not stepped out of his house in two weeks. I wish I made that up. It is true. He said he has not stepped foot out of his house in two weeks. He is basically on house arrest.

And, you know, can you blame him? You know, he's 71 years old. You know, for those, the research, of course, for those viruses, I said, you know, it really affects elderly. people. So yeah, I mean, Jim Rutheran ain't going to take a chance going out. That's just not going to happen. He said he's just been doing stuff with his son. He's

his wife, of course. So, you know, I'm glad that, you know, he's safe and he's not really going out too, too much. He also talked about, you know, the hockey operations workflow. He said, we have a lot of time on our hands, so we continue to work. Each department head still plays the same role in their communication. I'm aware of what everyone is doing.

Like I said, he talks to Sullivan every day. He also talks to people every day. I also said he said he has communication with David Morehouse on a daily basis. He says they stay up to speed pretty good on things. Apparently the trainers have given each player a workout program at home. And he wants all the players quarantined at home and you know not to be going anywhere too big. So yeah, the players, you know, there will be self-quarantining. I think like I said, for the next 10 days still.

I'm supposed to be until this Friday and have the next stage, which is when they were going to have, I think, the practice facilities open to the players. to skate in small groups or something. But yeah, that was never going to happen. It was never going to happen this quick. You're not looking at having that happen for maybe a month. I could be dead wrong on this, but yeah, you're not looking at that happening for quite a while now. But to end this podcast, I do want to say, of course, that people that did not see it, the NHL officially postponed the scouting combine, the NHL Awards, and the NHL draft

for later in the year, or, you know, they may not even happen. I'd imagine the NHL awards probably will not even happen this year. They may just do them over the phone virtually or whatever. But I assume the draft will hopefully happen at some point this year when this hopefully goes away. I'm not sure when. It's probably going to be much, much later because the draft is usually at the end of June, which is, of course, free agency, which is about, what, a week after the draft, if I'm not mistaken. So the scouting combine is in...

I actually forget what month the scouting combine is in. but I know it's coming up. But yeah, that was also postponed. So hopefully we can still get some of these events later in the year when this hopefully, and yes, hopefully, dies down. But, you know, I'm going to keep reminding you guys. Keep washing your hands. Keep self-quarantining yourselves. Keep doing your best practices of social distancing.

That's basically all I've been doing. I love playing my video games and just watching YouTube videos and all that. So let's just do one more update before we end this podcast on. the polls here. Let's actually take a look here real quick. Pittsburgh, Washington, 2016, is still up on the number one C. Pittsburgh, Minnesota, 91 Stanley Cup final. Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, 2016 is still has built a substantial edge over Pittsburgh,

Columbus 2014. It looks like seven to eight votes, all for Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, the number seven seed. And then for the next section right now, about 9 to 10 votes in just about. Pittsburgh, Detroit's 2009 Stanley Cup final is wiping the floor with the 20th. 2016 stand-like-a-final between the Penguins and the Sharks. And then for the last matchup, so far, eight, nine votes in. Pittsburgh, Chicago-92, standing a final is edging out the Penguins Devil series of 1999. So I would say, you know, three of the series are going as I thought so far, but, you know,

there's still a lot of time to see if Pittsburgh, Minnesota can make that comeback and avoid a big upset with Pittsburgh, Washington, 2016. So we'll have another episode for Locked-on Penguins coming back tomorrow. we'll discuss what happened with the elite aid and you know we'll preview the final four and um you know we'll talk about other stuff too so thank you guys so much for listening um i know i probably started a lot tonight it's all it's very late i apologize for that and might be happening um too much more down the road but um like i said we will talk to you guys tomorrow have a great night um keep voting follow uh follow the polls on twitter at hunter hoodies cast your vote and like i say we will be with you tomorrow