Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 3/3-The start of the March of the Penguins?

Episode Date: March 4, 2020

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter recaps the Penguins dominant 7-3 win over the Ottawa Senators. He touches on how Marino and Dumoulin made immediate impacts, how the top line was magnificent, and much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to another 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-U-U-U-U-Squins. Please keep liking, subscribing, you know, giving reviews on the show. I really do appreciate reading all over the reviews and everything and just seeing how much you guys like the podcast. As of right now, the recording, I'm recording this episode with five minutes left in regulation

for the Penguin Senators game, just a little over five minutes left, six to three game. Penguins, if you blow this game while I'm recording, this. There's going to be some problems. I just really would not like that. But the Penguins right now looks like they're going to coast to a six to three victory tonight over the Ottawa Senators, breaking their six game losing streak. And yeah, it's not a moment too soon for them. You know, bank a couple points. You know, this was as much of a must-win game for the Penguins as there was. I said yesterday that this is the biggest week of the season set to date. They're either starting off this week with a win. They have to go to Buffalo on Thursday where, you know, they've struggled to

beat the Sabres for some reason the season, even though the Sabres have been really, really bad, you know, win that game, and then you can go deal with the back-to-back. But Penguins welcome back to the services of John Reno and Brian Dumlin tonight. And, wow, you can just see how much they mean to the team. You know, of course, John Marino, not even a minute into the game gets a goal. Seeing I shot past Anderson, I think Anderson was basically screened on that. Marino later in the game broke up a three-on-one with his stick. he's just, the way he's able to just move the puck out of the zone and just a breakout pass toward the forwards.

Like I said, playing the three on one in his defensive O'Ginn and getting a stick on each puck, you know, blocking shots and just, you know, disrupting chances. He's, he's the total package. You know, you look at the underlying numbers. You watch him. He just, like I said, it's the full package with this player. It sucks that he was able, it sucks that he missed three weeks of this season or else you know that John Marino for calls. or trophy, I think finalist campaign would have really kept picking up steam. I still think that he should be in the consideration to be in the top three with Quinn Hughes and

Hale McCar. I don't know if he's going to get in the top three, but yeah, like I said, he should definitely, I think, you know, still be in that consideration. What a player he's become, you know, he's, like, I know getting back Ryan Duhlin is massive, but, you know, he's also one of the biggest keys for the Penguins if they want to make a really big run here and try to get their third Stanley Cup in five years. because they can pull him out on the second pairing. He eat a lot of minutes away from Crystal Teng.

Crystal Teng won't have to play 27 minutes a night like he used to in a couple Stanley Cup playoff runs, especially the 2016 run. You can give Marino basically any assignment, and he's just, he's outstanding. And, you know, the fact that they, like I said, the fact that they got a six-round pick for him, I've said that so many times. Nothing short of outstanding.

And, you know, shout out to Artie, Kevin Stevens, for getting that done. He was just an absolute, Marino was just an absolute menace tonight looked like he didn't even miss a beat. As for Brian Dumlin, he's looked outstanding. He also had a point tonight. His skating looked really, really good.

You can just see how much more comfortable Chris LaTang is next to Brian Dumlin. And that pairing with Jack Johnson just did not. It was bad. And, you know, like, obviously it really, really bad for the past week or two. You know, it's honestly been bad for the entire time that it's been going.

But, you know, Brian Duman, he's just such a, he's just such a calming presence with Latang. He's so good in his defensive zone. Plenty of times tonight where Duman was able to escape the puck out of trouble, you know, break up some schooling chances on Ottawa. And really, I think the biggest difference, you know, when the penguins are full, I tweeted this out during the game.

And, you know, it's really amazing just to see how much, you know, cleaner the Penguins game looks when the defense is fully healthy and deployed, like, how they're supposed to. I thought Justin Schultz looked fine tonight. There wasn't really many errors for him. These third-parry minutes are exactly what Justin Schultz needs, you know, to fine-tune his game. He doesn't need to play like he did in 2016-17, but, you know, if you can get somehow close to that, I honestly think it's going to happen.

He just hasn't been the same player. You know, it'll just go a long, long way for the Penguins. We all know it was going to be great to get Dumlin and Marino back, but the game just, it just, it looked so much clearer during this game against Ottawa. You know, they were limiting the scoring chances against it looked like. I know Ottawa did score a few goals. I mean, one of them kind of went off the post and then off Murray's back, and then it was banked in.

Chuck had a nice goal. I know the kind of round goal is kind of more on Matt Murray. I thought Matt Murray should have honestly had that. I think he should have made the glove save on that. I saw some arguments where, you know, stick on puck. You know, it was right there. Those are hard to track. I still think Murray should have had that.

That's just my opinion, at least. But it's just, it's so great to watch the penguins in the defensive zone when the defense is deployed as it should be. You know, you put Duman with Latang. You can put Pedersimuth with Marino. And then, yes, we all know Jack Johnson is really, really bad. But if he's playing third pairing minutes, I guess he's not as bad. Well, I guess, I guess.

Yeah, I mean, it should be Yuseligla, but you know what? That's not going to happen for some reason. You know, we kind of know the reasons because Mike Sullivan really doesn't like him and that he's in his doghouse. But, yeah, I just really wanted to get that off my chest. Just an outstanding game defensively for the Penguins. and please, please, I hope to God the defense stays healthy for the rest of the regular season and throughout the entire playoffs of the Penguins.

It badly needs to happen. They cannot lose any one of these defensemen, maybe minus Jack Johnson, and have their play just deteriorate. I think obviously if they lost Jack Johnson, I don't think their play would deteriorate that quickly. Though, of course, I'm not rooting for any injuries to Jack Johnson or anything. That would be kind of, that would be really, really bad. But yeah, just hopefully none of these defensemen get hurt, you know, because they're being deployed in a very, very nice way right now. And, you know, just, you know, some people were honestly questioning, uh, Dumlin's conditioning and all that. How would he look?

I thought he looked fantastic. Look, he didn't miss the beat at all. Like I said, there are people wondering if, if Brian Dumon was going to be the same for the rest of the season. He's definitely looked the same so far. I know it's the Ottawa senators. The senators are very, very bad. but I mean, you know, you take what you can get. They're still an NHL team.

They still needed this win really, really badly. And right as we're recording, Brian Rust gets a hat trick, 7 to 3, lead with 250 left in the first period. What a gorgeous goal. That is 27 goals this season for Brian Rust. Yeah, he's apparently Rob Rossi just feet. He's going to win in. He's going to need four goals over his final 17 games.

Well, actually, no, three goals. Yeah, he kind of screwed up. Three goals over his final 17 games to become just the fifth winger of the Crossby, Malkan Air to score 30 in a single season. Obviously, Jake Gensel is one of them. Oh, my God, I got it like James Neal. Oh, man, I got a really, Chris Kunitz, that's three. Oh, my God, I got to really go back here to think about these other two because it's pretty,

it's pretty, it's pretty back that I can't remember this. I'm going to get the other two at some point during this podcast, but yeah. Brian Russ, 27 goals. That's not something I thought I would type, but he's just, he's, he's been outstanding this season. He's been really heating up these past big games. That's now four goals in his what, his past three games going back to the Kings game. Yeah, it should be four goals

in his last three games. Starting to heat up again, you know, he was gone a little bit of a rut, but remember when people were saying that potentially Brian Musil was going to get traded this season? Yeah, no, that's not what's not going to happen because he's just been so good. So yeah, seven goals for the

Penguins tonight. The dam finally broke. That's one way. to put it. We'll have more going in more in depth about the goals in the next segment, but yeah, the PEDAO regression was real. It looks like it's getting back to normal. Keep Brian Rust on the Gettie Malkins wing for the rest of eternity.

And yeah, just a great overall, you know, just a great overall win. All right, so yeah, overall, you know, with the Penguins' goals, I thought, you know, just a lot of, besides the Brian Russ Hatchrick, we had a lot of different goal scores tonight. Cindy Crosby finally gets on the board. I think it was his first goal in six games.

Jason Zucker finally score. I think he has points in nine of his first 11 games now for the penguins. I think he has seven goals in, I want to say, 11 games now as a penguin, too. You know, he's already outscored Alex Gow Ciennuk for this season, and it hasn't even been 15 games yet. That's just, I find that really, really funny. And, you know, remember when people were freaking out about trading Kail and Addison for him. Yeah, Jason Zucker just looks like such a great fit on the Cronopy line. He just gets to puck so quickly.

The pass that he made on Crosby's goal, he was on his knees, which is great. That line with Connor Sherry tonight, they were buzzing all around. It looked like it was like an 8.9 point night for them. Just awesome. You know, that line is really cooking. Connor Sherry, of course,

did get his first goal back as a penguin, his 10th goal of the season. You know, a little bit of a lucky goal, but, you know, that's kind of the goal that has gone against the penguins in recent games. You know, you had the Zach Trotman goal going off his ass almost. against the ducks, another goal going off his leg. There's just been so many own goals that have been going against the Penguins lately.

The Petterson play against the Capitals, honestly two of them, because he had another turnover that went right to Tom Wilson. But, yeah, that was a play that Penguins have desperately needed, you know, to turn the PDO regression back into their PDO luck, excuse me, back into their favor. And yeah, it was great to see him score, you know. I thought Ross on the power play, the patience that he had on that was just brilliant, you know, Waited, waited, waited, waited, waited, boom, just snaps it right over Craig Anderson. Poor Craig Anderson, you know, giving up seven goals.

Yeah, he's definitely not what he used to be. You know, he was a pain in the neck for some games in that 2017 series, especially game six and game seven. But, you know, the Penguins were obviously able to overcome that in the series win. But, you know, still, I thought, you know, another goal scores, I think I already got all the goal scores. for this game. Brian Ross with three, Jason Zucker with one, Cindy Crosby with Watt, Carter, Sherry with one, and of course, yeah, John Marino. So, yeah, yeah, that Crosby goal, you know, that was just a vintage Crosby goal, just

almost from an impossible angle he loves to do that. Also, congratulations to Cindy Crosby, 800 assists. I think I saw the stat. He was the sixth fastest player to 800 assists in H.L history. Obviously, someone on there, you know, Mario Lemieux is on that list I saw, I think. Yeah, just great company to be. be in. Yeah, we are, we are, I tweeted, you know, spoiled we are, the nice little Master Yoda quote, you know, spoil we are. But, yeah, I'm not going to probably do that again on

the podcast, but whatever. But, yeah, just, we're so spoiled to watch Sidney Crosby and everything that he's accomplished. He's probably, I don't know if he'll maybe get to a thousand assists by the time his career's over. That might be asking a little bit, you know, though, what I would love it. No, absolutely, I would. I think he's obviously, I think he's definitely going to get to at least over 900. That would be awesome. But, yeah, just another. a milestone for Sidney Crosby, just outstanding stuff. One thing I did see tonight, that has to do with the game, obviously, but Patrick Marlowe took his spot in coming out for the game.

Usually it's Cindy Crosby second to last and of Gennie Malkin last, but Crosby, it looks like, has given Marlowe to go ahead to go second to last over him. And that's usually something that Cindy Crosby does not do since he's definitely one of the most superstitious players in the league. But, you know, you're not going to get that over of Gennie Malkin. You know, the three-year Super League, bro, as he once said. over Cindy Crosby. I think Crosby went on the podcast of the summer.

And when he was trying to go out last, Malkin, of course, said, you know, three years Super League. You know, basically, you know, I go last. And that's probably one of the funniest stories that I can remember about it. But it is now confirmed, you know, 7-3 final. The Penguins finally get back on the windboard bank points 81 and 82. You know, not a moment too soon. The Islanders got wax tonight again.

And, you know, the Islanders, you know, that's big for the Penguins. They're now four points clear of them. They're now tiding. games played with the Flyers. They're one point behind them, four points behind the Capitals. And the Capitals and the Flyers have a massive showdown tomorrow. I'm not really sure if to do root for that. I'm just going to root for one of those teams to win in regulation, I guess. But yeah, I think the Penguins can definitely make a run to at least get home ice for the first round. I don't really think Philadelphia is going to keep up this pace for the rest of the season.

But, you know, who knows. But, you know, overall, just a really complete game from the Penguins I thought tonight, you know, in all three phases. There were times where it looked like Ottawa was getting some momentum back. But then the Penguins would just score another goal. You know, it was 2-0-0. very, very early in the game. Then Ottawa made a 2-1, and then the Penguins got that very massive goal towards the late end of the third period for 3-1. Brian Russ on the Power Play. Speaking of the power play, you know, I was kind of roasting it a little bit during the game. Penguins got a four-minute penalty.

Well, Ottawa took a four-minute penalty. The Penguins got a four-minute power play. And I do not believe the Penguins got a shot on that man-abange. That's unacceptable in my opinion, especially a team against a team like Desenders, who I did not know have 14 short-handed goals on the season. And I did not realize that, you know, when Steve Mears said that, I was like, wow, really? I did not realize they were that good shorthanded.

But it didn't really have a shot. The puck movement I thought was very laflargic outside of the Brian Russ Powerplay goal, you know, that segment. But, you know, it has to be fixed because it's not really like a feared power play, I think, at the moment. I don't know what it is. Oh, yeah, it just needs to be fixed because the zone entries were kind of embarrassing to watch.

movement was embarrassing to watch on most of the power plays. You know, I don't think it's, you know, all on, you know, not having Phil Kessel, because Phil Kessel has really, really declined this season. I don't really know if he would make a big difference on that powerplay unit on the, on his side. But still, just been a weird, weird unit these past few weeks. It's just mostly even an average power play, I think. And, yeah, I don't really know what else to say about that.

It just has to improve. I thought Patrick Marlow played an outstanding game. He's getting so, so. So, so close to just banking a goal. And, you know, he's had so many good chances. I think Malkin gave him some really, really good chances. I thought he was going to have a chance on a two-on-one with Evan Rodriguez short-handed, though, of course, Evan Rodriguez was tripped,

and then which led to four-on-four, then the Penguins getting a little bit of a power play. I think Rodriguez maybe would have passed there, though he kind of curled it up, and then he looked at he was potentially going to shoot, so I'm not really sure. I don't really know if there was a pass. to me there, you know, I'd have to go really, honestly, you have to really go back and watch it. And, you know, just want to say, you know, with that goal tonight by Zucker, you know, he's on a 45 goal pace with the Penguins over in 82 game season. So, yeah, he's going to fit in just fine. I also want to shout out.

Carly Zucker, Jason Zucker's wife for another incredible tweet. She's really taking the reins here for having probably one of the best Twitter accounts in 2020 and potentially even all time. You know, he made the joke here. He never quits if there's a chance to score while quote cheating Jesse Marshall of the athletic. Of course, you know, I'm not going to explain that joke because it should be obvious. But, yeah, she never misses a chance to joke about her husband. And, yeah, that, you know, the whole Zucker family just seems to be absolutely hilarious. Jason just a hell of wire and his wife is just absolutely hilarious.

You know, he's just going to fit in just perfect here for the next few seasons. And I can't wait to see when Jake Gensel comes back because that line could be very, very lethal. It was after you're bored tonight from Dave Molinari that Gensel was out of his sling. He was in the press box. That's about now two months after surgery. I said it would be four to six months. So, yeah, maybe Gensel's ahead of schedule. Maybe it's nothing.

You know, but still great news on Jake Gensel that he's potentially out of his sling for good now, that he can, you know, do some more other activities. Also, I did not see this during the game. Apparently, Josh Joey tweeted out of Pengland Swartz has told him that Jack Johnson was not on the bench to end the game because his wife is in labor. Okay, okay, you know, real talk here, you know,

not going to shit on Jack Johnson from the game. this. Congratulations to Jack and his family, especially his wife. With the birth of the baby boy, baby girl, I haven't really tweeted out what it is. But, you know, yeah, congratulations. You know, there's some jokes that can he take a fraternity leave for about a week or something? You guys are so ruthless. But, yeah, still, congratulations. You know, the Hengans had to play with five defenses for the rest of the game.

But, you know, I'm sure that's not a problem, especially with Jack Johnson being out of the wild. I'm sure he'll be playing in Buffalo on Thursday. If not, they'll probably just put him use. Rico and, but yeah, you know, fraternity leave jokes, really, really, I can't. You guys are, you people, I'm just reading the reply to Josh's tweet right now, and you guys are really, really, really, really just too much sometimes.

But yeah, congratulations. That's all I'm going to say about that. This was also a very, very good night for the Penguins in terms of the Metropolitan Division. The Rangers lost in regulation. The Islanders absolutely got blitzed by Montreal, 6-2. I think they're now on a four-game losing streak. The Islanders actually saw a,

from a tweet from Arthur Staples 19 and 19 and 6 since their 17-game point streak ended. That's painfully averaged to below average. There may not even a lot to make the playoffs right now. Penguins, like I said, four points behind the caps, two, one point behind the flyers. A little bit more of a cushion now with the islanders, four points above them. Still have two more games in hand on the Blue Jacket, too, have a massive road trip coming up and Western. Canada, there are seven points up on the hurricanes for that final spot. Eight points up on the Rangers, and they still have a game in hand on them.

So, yeah, this was a big win. Like I said, this was just such a monster week for the Penguins. Getting it off to a really, really good start, beating a team you're supposed to beat. Keep doing that into Thursday. You have a very, very bad Buffalo team who, I said yesterday on the podcast, you know, poor Jack Eichael, he's going to request a trade at some point. And, yeah, it's not a moment too soon. I think the poor Sabres fans out there are just honestly waiting for it at this point. I don't know if he has the balls to do it, but you know, I also would not be surprised if he indeed did it.

Also, also want to say a, just, now that we were still on the islanders, I'm like messing up my words. Prayers up to Johnny Boychuk. I'm not going to watch that video again, if you guys have. It's very, very scary. Took a skate to the face from our Terry Lekanin. He was writhing in pain on the ice. Yeah, I just, I can't always. watch that video again because it looks so bad.

I think he had a similar incident last season or another season ago where took a skate blade to the face and he somehow did not miss, I don't think he missed that much time for it. Barely, need stitches from what I read. But yeah, very scary situation. Prayers up to Johnny Boychuk. I really hope for a speedy recovery because, yeah, a skate to the face is no joke. That can really, really mess up your face.

No, it's just, you know, the safety and well-being of him is up the utmost concern. And, you know, of course, he was not going to return to the game. Barry Trots, apparently there's an update. just recently no update he's being evaluated you know the typical stuff from the head coach after the game but yeah

I just really really hope that he is he's just doing all right I really really don't know if I have too much more about the Penguins after this game I thought Chris LaTang looked really good I think I already talked about that like I said he looked so good next to Brian Newman

it's just you know it's almost as if you take Jack Johnson away from the top pairing put it on the bottom pairing oh look you score seven goals and obviously that's not going to happen every game just you have to just land around a little bit, but still, you know, if that happens a bunch, it's great to see that it happened.

I thought the Marlow line was buzzing all night. He just, he looks so good as a penguin. He looks a lot better than advertised and he looks a lot better than I thought he was going to be. His speed is so evident. He's getting so many chances, like I already said. He's going to pot a couple very, very soon. The luck will turn into his favor.

Jared McCann, he's still shooting the puck a lot. You know, no goals in his last 17, 18 games. I think that is going to change. it has to, you know, if the penguins are going to want to go deep. I think, you know, I think Jeff from the Penns ball had a really interesting tweet the other day. You know, obviously he's not scoring a bunch of empty netters as he did, you know, earlier in the year and like last season because, oh, yeah, you know, that doesn't happen very often. And, you know, he's not scoring a bunch of short-handed goals as he was, you know, early on in his penguin's career. That does not, that doesn't just keep happening because there's not a lot of short-handed goals to go around to begin with.

So I hope his scoring comes back for him. There can be more reinforcements coming for the Penguins, I think, on Thursday. Nick Bukestead will probably have another full contact practice coming tomorrow. I would expect him to return on Thursday, not a moment too soon. Brandon Tanev, hopefully he was out sick today. Mike Sullivan said he was ill. That was why they had to recall Anthony Angelo on an emergency basis. So, you know, hopefully he's good enough to go on Thursday.

If not, I'm sure he'll be fine for the weekend back-to-back, which is when they really, really will need him. But on Thursday they get back Tannett and Bukstad. That'll push out Angelo and Lafferedy out of the lineup. And the forward group will just look that much better. And I'll be curious to see when Aston Reese and Rodriguez come back, what the decisions are going to be for that. Because they are going to be very, very deep.

And those are not going to be tough decisions. But, you know, all in all, like I said, great win by the Penguins tonight, break the six game losing streak, bang two points. They're back. The Penguins, the March of the Penguins is well underway, it looks like. We're going to hope for another win on Thursday. We're going to have a broken all broken down for you that night.

We'll have another episode coming tomorrow as well for Locked On Penguins. Not really sure what that's going to tell. You know, I'll make it up on the fly like I always do. You know, I'll just think of some ideas. But, you know, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Lockdown Penguins. And we will talk to you all soon.