Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 3/30- Penguins-Red Wings 2009 wins! Plus much more!

Episode Date: March 31, 2020

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter recaps the final four and the national championship of the Locked On Penguins bracket and finally puts out who his choice was to win the title from the beginning. He also takes a listener question and also talks about how awesome it is that the Penguins are replaying the 2009 Stanley Cup Final this week. 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 late, well, Monday 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. So for today's episode, I apologize again for not getting to an episode on Friday. I just had some stuff to do. We'll recap, I guess, the final four of the championship of the Locked on Penguins March Madness Brackett. As March and now is somehow already over, I can't believe that we're already basically into April now.

it's just pretty nuts and then we will um a couple there's a couple of may have bad questions that came in I guess we'll answer those and then um may talk about what the penguins have been doing with the um the reruns of the 2009 seem like a final back um but so

for overall uh for the bracket the 2009 red wings penguins the number one C that series ended up winning the bracket I mean I even tweeted out I wasn't really too surprised that it won that series was just so memorable in so many ways. The fact that they got blown out in the first two games

basically in Detroit. They come back. They win two games by a score of four to two. Game five, they get blown out again in Detroit, game three. You know, they have that epic win, especially in the final few seconds

when Rob Skidari saved, not one, I think, but two, maybe three pucks from going in the net. That was just a massive mad scramble. And the Penguins, of course, made history with that big, massive two, one victory in game seven against Detroit.

But I do want to be a lot of, want to say, I was surprised a little bit that the Pittsburgh, Washington, number 12C, that series ended up getting to the national championship. I guess watching that series back, you know, they had the game six on this past week on NBC and Sports Network to celebrate hockey week. You know, I love that NBCSN was doing that. I'm sure they're going to have plenty more of those. As the weeks go on with the coronavirus, I know this week they were doing some NFL games, if I'm not mistaken. But yeah, I just,

watching that bag, I just thought in that game six, the Penguins were just so dominant. And I know that series was so big because it had a lot of really, just outstanding moments, you know, I was seeing some people talk about

on Penguins Twitter this past weekend that, you know, if Patrick Hornquist has not scored that goal in game four of overtime after, I think wasn't Chris LaTang suspended for that game? I think that's right.

I believe so. But yeah, if the Penguins don't win that game, the Caps win that game, tied 2-2 going back to D.C., people were saying, you know, I'd have a hard time believing that the Penguins would win that series. I'm not really too sure about that, considering the way the Penguins were playing them throughout that whole series. That team was just, you know, the word I would use would just be a steamroller just because of how good that team was.

But I guess a lot of people just ranked it so high just because of the caliber of the team the Penguins beat and just because a lot, it was just such a great series, but, you know, I was surprised that it beat out, like I said, a number one seeing the Pittsburgh, Minnesota, but I guess when I, some people were explaining to me why they voted for it, you know, just basically because, you know, that's, that number one seed had the, the Mario moment,

and, you know, the Stanley Cup being rewarded and, you know, what else? And I guess the other series, of course, you have the Patrick Warrenquist overtime game winning goal. You have the Nick Benino game winning overtime goal. Absolutely stealing game three. against the capitals when the capitals put up almost, what, 50 shots in that game. So, yeah, I guess I understand it. Though, I mean, we did kind of need overtime to decide for the final four, the Pittsburgh,

Detroit, 2009, or the Pittsburgh, Chicago, 1992. I figured that one would be really close because, of course, you know, it's the top two seats in the Pittsburgh, Chicago 92 series was great, though it was a sweep, of course. but I figured the Pittsburgh, Detroit one would wipe the floor in overtime. It absolutely did. And the Pittsburgh Washington series in the final four, it was close, but it was still a good-sized victory, I would say. Then I mean in the championship, it was not close for a while. Then Pittsburgh, Washington was able to gain up some steam, but then Pittsburgh, Detroit was able to pull away.

So again, thank you guys so much for voting in those polls. That was just a lot of fun to do. It was a nice idea. I guess that me and Cam thought of. I think maybe tomorrow I'm going to have Cam on to discuss who he voted for to see if he can, I guess, talk about it because now that it's over, he wasn't going to tell me or any of you guys who he voted for. So maybe he'll finally get to come clean now.

I'm sure he voted for Pittsburgh, Detroit, and the national championship at least. I'd be pretty surprised if he didn't, though. I also have a hunch that he was potentially voting for Pittsburgh, Washington the whole time since he was telling me how big he thought that series was. But, yeah, I guess, like I said, I guess I understand why the Pitts were Detroit, 2009 in Series 1. I mean, in my opinion, I also think it's the best playoff series of all time for the Penguins, like I said, for the reasons that I gave earlier in the episode. It was just the way they played at home against them and then the effort that they put up in Game 7, though.

Like I said, watching Game 7 back for the first time in full, it's still remarkable how the Penguins were able to win that game, especially in the third. period where they had what one to two shots basically the entire period uh for being up to nothing um it was basically just a turtle fest for the penguins uh to put it that's and that's honestly that's putting it lightly um at this point uh they were just they were barely putting the puck past the red line it was just it was it was great that uh chris osgood was so off his angle on that second goal looked like a 1980s goalie to the honest with you guys that was just absolutely um terrible and you know in in every way but um yeah and just the way i just i can't say enough good things about the penguins in that series i remember you know just watching that game six i was just so nervous

going into it because you know is it going to be a repeat of last year you always have that in your mind then you know you get you know the first goal you know it's like okay this is good and then you get the second goal and it's like oh my god like with tyler kennedy then of course you know the red rings were able to get a goal but then um especially with our final push in that game six with Rob Skidari doing what he did and Mark, even though Mark Andre Fleury was just so far out of his net. Rob Skidari, like I said, made what, two to three saves with his leg on the Red Wings there? Just absolutely brilliant.

You know, if that puck somehow crosses the line. Baskidary, you know, we were potentially looking at something completely different today because that game probably goes, I mean, it definitely goes to overtime. But yeah, I was really pleased with the results. You know, I would have been pleased either way with. any results. Hell, I was kind of rooting for a little bit of chaos. I mean, we got a little bit of with the 12th seed getting to the final. I was going to be even more shocked if it actually beat Pittsburgh, Detroit. But, you know, it did not. So we didn't really have to deal with that.

And that was that. I was considering maybe making the final, maybe longer than 24 hours in the final four because it was just, it's just much bigger than the other rounds. But I thought about it. I just kept the 24 hours. You know, I didn't want to be fair to any of the, um, The other rounds, I guess, so to speak, is I just, I didn't want to make it unfair because, you know, a conclusion rigged. But, yeah, I thought that would be the perfect way to go for it. I think we're going to have another one of these brackets, I think, coming out in April. Yes, I know there's no April kind of madness, but there is still, March Madness usually does continue in April with the lead eight, the final four in the national championship. I'm thinking about potentially making a 30 round of 32 bracket with the worst trades in Penguin's history.

I have an idea of who with some of the top seeds will be, like Marcus Naslin, the Army Arger Trade, but me and Cam will probably have to work on that potentially this week. But yeah, so look forward to that openly coming soon. It might come next week, maybe later this week, who knows. Also, just a little bit of housekeeping. So with the virus, you know, just, you know, keep spreading and it just keeps getting worse. I do want to say for what this means for this podcast, throughout the hiatus, we're going to have at least three episodes a week for you guys.

I may not be able to do all five because I'm not really sure how much content I can fit for five days a week with there's just really not much to talk about right now. But I am going to give you guys at least three episodes per week. I want to connect with you guys

and just see if you guys some good Penguins content. So at least look for that. I'm going to try to shoot for more than three, but three will definitely be the minimum. I just want to let you guys know that in case I don't have any episodes throughout some days moving forward. All right, so I asked for a little bit of a mailbag for last week.

I was supposed to be on last Friday, but of course, like I said, I had stuff pop up. But King Clarkie was able to ask me a good question. You know, he asked, is there anything new and exciting you're doing to kill time? And in all honesty, not really. I've basically been doing the same thing. I go to sleep at around 1 or 2 a.m. I get up at around 10 to 11 a.m. I do some schoolwork.

I get on a Fortnite, whatever video game that I want to play. and I basically do that all day. I really don't leave my house unless I have to go walk my dad's dog when he goes to work. Yes, he qualifies as essential for what he does. Sometimes I have to go over there

and walk the big mastiff that I had. I'm sure you guys have all seen the dog that I tweeted out many times. But, you know, my mom has been doing some puzzles, which is interesting. Maybe I'll try that out. I'm trying to see if I can maybe get into reading some more books.

I am going to, guys, I am going to start, I think, watching Tiger King. I've been seeing a lot of reviews about this. I still need to figure out what the hell this is about. I need to go on my Netflix and just read a summary or just read some reviews about it and just see what it is because I keep seeing people raving about it, which means, you know, it's probably time for me to get on the train and watch it. I saw it's only about six to seven episodes.

They're all about, what, 45 minutes long. Probably will do that. I've also, you know, and no one's home. I put my headphones on. I go and bang on the drums. I just play rock songs because I like to. It's a good way to pass the time. and I like to get better with my drumming skills,

even though I'm probably pretty bad. I can drum to some songs really, really good. I like to learn new songs on the drums, though I do drum to some songs on the drums that are honestly pretty pissed for. But also, you know, I've been going through NHL videos and been watching some. There's this YouTube account

that has, like, all the first round goals from, like, some of the playoff years. They're all this series. So, you know, I've been doing that. I did the 2018 first round the other day, I may go do last years, even though I honestly will probably skip the part where the Penguins play the Islander since, you know, they hardly scored at all. And I just really don't want to watch that series back. So I think I'll probably try to do that.

I'm trying to think of other things I can honestly do. You know, maybe I'll go for walks. You know, I try to get out of the house at least once or twice a day to, you know, walk my dog, my black lab, or just go on to exercise and do something. And, you know, like I said, I walk my dad's mastiff, you know, when I have to, you know, he's at work. But, yeah, I guess that's really all that I've been doing. You know, like I said, I record for you guys, school stuff, you know, I watch a lot of Twitch streams. If you guys like video games, there's a lot of really good Twitch streamers. But, you know, if you want to avoid the 14-year-old TTV little people, you know, go ahead and do that.

Watch some really good Twitch streamers that play video games. Those are a lot of fun to do to pass the time. Also, you know, I've been kind of getting back into cooking a little bit. I haven't really cooked a lot since I've come back from school, but I have been wanting to do more since I've been at home since I really, really do enjoy it. It's one of my very favorite things to do even when I'm at school or when I'm at home. It's a great way, like I said, to also pass the time and make good food, try new recipes

and all that good stuff. But, you know, King Clark, if you listen to this, you know, tell me what you've been doing. You know, I'm sure you'll DM me more guitar stuff as you have been tonight. actually, but yeah, that's basically all I've been doing. But so after this, you know, after I tweeted out the winner of the bracket of all time, apparently, you know, Adam Rickert, who I'm trying to figure out what to say about him because he honestly is one of the, just a really, really good person. I wouldn't be, you know, where I am today with this podcast business without his help,

especially how I went on top shop hockey with him. And Rob Kirk and Brian Bobo a bunch of times was. like 2012 to 2014, 2015, something like that, when I actually had probably the worst voice in the world. If I did this podcast back in 2014, everyone, and you listen to my voice, you probably would not last another episode. My voice was way too squeaky. It was really bad. If you want to go check out this episodes, I'm sure they're on blog, talk radio. Just have to search up Top Shelf Hockey.

Listen to them, make fun of my voice. Tweet out of me telling me you hate my voice, please do it because I hate it as well. But yeah, Adam Record, you know, just a great person all around. He tweeted, you know, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay would have been my pick of all time or Pittsburgh, Ottawa, 2017. That's interesting to me. I know the Pittsburgh-Washington series blew out the Pittsburgh-Tampa Bay series of 2016. The Pittsburgh-Tampa Bay series, I was tweeting about this the other day with a couple of Penguin fans from Penguins Twitter. I feel like that Pittsburgh Tampa Bay series was not going to be close if it weren't for Andre Vasselowski.

Yes, I know they took the Penguins to seven games. How they took them to the brink of elimination in game six after winning in game five and overtime when Mark Andre Fleury started, but still, that series could have been a lot different if Andre Vasselowski was not gone for those seven games. He was just absolutely magnificent. I remember when, this is a funny story, I remember when Ben Bishop went out and I remember I tweeted like, who in the hell is their backup? and I think my mentions, some people, some people flooded my mentions.

They're like, oh, my God, you don't know who this is. Like, this is their goaltender of the future. I'm like, well, should I know? I knew very, very quick after he came in, especially with the way he was making saves and everything and just stealing some games, especially in game four, and the penguin scored those three straight goals to make it four, three in the third period. And they put on a charge like you'd never really seen before. And Andre Vatskelevski just stood on his head for those final, what, seven minutes of that game, just absolutely spectacular of him.

Yeah, I know Tampa was very, what's the word I'm looking for here? They're opportunistic. You know, they would always punish the Penguins mistakes. You know, they had a lot of high-end talent and hell. I know they did a lot of that without Stevens Damcos, who of course returned in game seven from the blood clots that he was dealing with. But still, I feel like that series would have been maybe a six-game series at the Penguins. Didn't flip goalies?

I think that was a mistake from Mike Sullivan. I know Matt Murray had his back. game in game four but i mean could you really blame him that was really his first um just bad game of the playoffs in general but still um you know i would have liked to see i it would be interesting to see if matt murray started that game for how that game four came four he did start game for that game five how that would have gone you know with the penguins have won that game we'll never know of course you know we're not going to go back in time but look at it but still um that series i guess i just i like it was it was an epic series don't get me wrong i wasn't surprised that it went

far, but I mean, I can see why a lot of people voted for the Pittsburgh Washington series just because it had a lot more. Just big moments, even though Pittsburgh Tampa had, of course, that's Cindy Crosby, O.T. winner in game two, and of course, Brian Russ' heroic performance in Game 7 with both his goals. And then, for the Pittsburgh-Otowa series, I really, I wouldn't put it above, you know, Pittsburgh, Detroit or the Pittsburgh-Washington series. I know the Pittsburgh-Ottawa series was really, really good.

I figured that some people would vote for it, you know, in the polls for the bracket. But besides that Chris Kuna's double overtime game winner, there wasn't enough, like, big, big moments. I know game two was massive with the Phil Kessel goal because you know who, what happens after that. Game four, of course, was great. You know, they blew them out in game five, game six is whatever. But the Chris Koonen's double overtime game winning goal, of course, you know, there's not a lot more moments, I guess, bigger than that. but I mean, like I said, other than that, it just wasn't, I would take the Pittsburgh Washington series over that just because it was a lot more epic.

You know, that Pittsburgh Ottawa series, I still to this day, can't believe that went seven games considering the way Ottawa played and Ottawa's roster at the time because there just wasn't a lot of high-end talent there. Yes, I know you had the best defenseman in the league in Eric Carlston. I know you have Mike Hoffman, Bobby Ryan was playing at a good level, you know, Kyle Turris, you know, Craig Anderson. was good some games bad some other ones he was exceptionally well in game six and game seven after getting bodied um in game five hell you know john jean gabrie l pajo there's there's plenty of

more better players that they had at that time that you know they just don't have to they hell like i said i think uh right now they probably only have you can probably count the number of players from that team on one hand because they just really do not have um a lot of players from there at all But yeah, I just wanted to give my thoughts about that from Adam Rooker. You know, thanks for the tweet there, Adam. Maybe at some point, Adam will have you on the podcast. We can talk about the 2009 Stanley Cup Final. I think that would be a lot of fun for him personally, though.

He would probably bring up the 2008 one, most likely. So for this last segment, I just want to touch on the thing that the Penguins are doing right now with 18T Sports and throughout the week. They're airing the 2009 Stanley Cup Final. I'm going to drink a shot every time I say that. Between the Penguins and the Red Wings, they aired game three tonight. Pet peeve, really, really annoying that there is no stream for this.

You cannot watch it out of market. AT&D Sportsnet Pittsburgh Penguins, please do better with that, because I really would have liked to watch that game, and I think a lot of people would as well. I know Karky, who asked the question earlier, was talking about how he wasn't able to watch the games on NBC Sports Network because he lives in Canada. So, yeah, their games are not on on Sportsnet.

So, yeah, that definitely sucks. for him. You hate to see that. But I do love what the Penguins official Twitter account was doing. Hell, they've changed their wallpaper and their cover photo to the 2009 logo. I absolutely love that. They're basically, they're live tweeting the games. Man, there's just a lot of really, really good content. And they have a lot of old archived interviews from the 2009 final with Max Talbot. They're doing the three stars. They have the infographics, which look just outstanding. the goal calls. They're basically doing the Mike Lang go cars. Go cars. Oh, my God. I can't believe if I just butcher that.

But the goal calls, if I can stop butchering words on this podcast. They're showing the versus feed, but like I said, they're doing the Mike Lang calls, which is, of course, the right thing to do. Mike Lang is a National Treasury. He's one of the best announcers of all time, if not the best hockey announcer of all time. I'm going to be biased saying that, but I truly think he is definitely the best. I know the Penn's inside scoop is doing that. I'll be interviews from Sergei Gonshar about the moment.

It's just, you know, looking at the igloo and seeing the white out, man, it just brings back a lot of great memories and just chills down your spine when you hear Mike Lane doing the goal calls of the Chris LaTang time goal. The Gonshire Blast, which made it 3 to 2 late in the third period. There is in broad. I know the Talbot goals in Game 7 were big, the Game 6 goal from Tyler Kennedy, was massive, but man, that goal is up there in that series is one of the most important goals. You know, you're down 02 to one of the best teams with Souta Kappaera, a team that, you know,

not a lot of people gave you a chance to be with just how stacked they are. You get that goal, and then you get the empty net goal. And, you know, it's a, it's a whole other series. And the Penguins made sure of that with the way they got the empty net goal after that. Especially with, you know, there's a little bit of surge, I remember late in the third period. But after that, you know, I think with like, what, six, five minutes remaining. But then after that, you know, it was all Penguins. And like I said, they're able to get the emptying that goal.

But I really like the Penguins are doing that. Wednesday, they're going to air game four, which, of course, was 4 or 2. I love how they're doing the GIFs of the crowd outside Mellon Arena. Just hats off to the Penguins Media Relations team for all of us content that they're throwing out for these classics. Love how Tyler Kennedy is live tweeting it. I love that's just outstanding. I'm trying to look for other things that they're going to. been doing.

Also another thing that's really, really cool is, you know, you can see the city and what it looked like in 2009. I mean, it's crazy to think that now we're, what, 11 years later in the city, it just looks completely different, you know. Like, you know, of course, you know, there's no PPG paints arena out there. There's the lawn. There's more buildings. It just, it looks, the city just looks so much different, you know, with the civic arena center

and just, you know, how they basically constructed it, you know, after the demol, you after it was demolished. It just looks so much different. And, you know, it just, it gives me chills just to look at it and just look at these highlights. I was only 11 at the time watching these games. It's pretty crazy that it's been 11 years since that Stanley Cup final. But hopefully, maybe I can try to find a way to watch Game 4 on Wednesday because I feel like that would be a lot of fun to do.

It's just awesome to hear how melon, how loud Melan Arena is and it just was. I was not an arena in the playoff time where you want, a lot of teams want to. to go in there and play, just considering how loud it got. You know, I wish for PBG Paints Arena to ever get that loud. I know it's gotten pretty loud at times, you know, especially with a couple of big cup runs. But, you know, it'll never touch how loud Melan Arena was. You know, those old school barns just, they get loud in ways that you just can't describe. And, yeah, I miss Mell Arena still so much to this day.

I still, I still hate how it went out in the playoffs with that 4-2 loss. So then the Canadians and how they were blown out. Mark Andre Fleury just completely crapped a bad those last three. games but you know what we're just going to get off topic but thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of locked on penguins um one of another episode coming tomorrow trying to figure out what to talk about on it you know i'm sure i will um i may do it from blacksburg since i actually have to go down to my college tomorrow and get some stuff and come back so um yeah wish me luck on that and hopefully try not to get the uh covid-19 um i know there's a statewide kind of lockdown for virginia like

you have to stay in your homes but um i believe it counts is essential if you're traveling to and from educational institutions just to get stuff and coming right back. So like I said, thank you guys so much for listening to this locked on Penguins episode. Before that, though, I want to shout out a couple things. Happy the birthday to a frequent guest of this podcast, Jeff, Latang Colt, one of my best friends. I love you, buddy. We'll have you on soon. Happy very birthday to you.

And then keep it locked on on the, Lodon NHL channel. They have shows each week, like I said, discussing various things around the NHL, even during the hiatus. So listen to that show. it's really, really good. And we will be back with you guys tomorrow for another episode. Take care, everyone.