Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 3/4- Dave Holcomb joins the show!

Episode Date: March 5, 2020

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter welcomes Dave Holcomb to the show for the first time as they talk about the Penguins win from last night and Dave gives his thoughts on the team and where they're going as well as how Dumoulin and Marino played. He also gives his thought on 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 a Wednesday edition 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, with a couple things to go over before I get to a little bit of a surprise for today's episode. It came up earlier this week. I actually kind of forgot about it. In all any case, Penguins had some practice updates today. It looks like Big Nick Bukstad is going to be coming back tomorrow for the Penguins.

He clarified himself basically as a game time decision. He said he has to go through the doctor and whatnot to make sure he can get cleared. Mike Sullivan echoed the same sentiment. Looks like he's going to be centering the third line with Jared McCann and Patrick Hornquist. Brandon Tanna will be traveling with the team. He's still saying they held him off the ice day because he hasn't had a lot of food. So please no coronavirus, Brandon Tanna, we don't need to add that outbreak on the team here. But he could be playing.

Jack Johnson is making the traveling with the team after the birth. His wife had a baby last night. So we're not going to diss Jack Johnson. congratulations to him and his family. And Zach Gaston Reese has begun skating again. So a lot of really, really good injury news for the Penguins. Though Antigliangelo, I think, is week to week now, and he's probably being sent down anyway,

because Nick Bukstad is on his way to coming back. With that said, we have a special guest coming on for this episode of Locked-on Penguins. Someone I actually used to write with for Fanbrug Sports today's Slapshop before that went south with stuff like that. He does stuff for Falcon. He did stuff for Falcon Maven. Yeah, he does stuff with Briard. Bard Barker.

Dave Holcomb joins the podcast. Dave, how are you doing today? I'm good. I'm doing really good. Dave, the Penguins were able to break their losing streak of six last night, thankfully, by crushing the Ottawa Senator 7 to 3. What were your thoughts? Your overall thoughts, I'm out of that game, Dave.

Yeah, that's what I was going to bring up next, but thankfully you brought it up. It's just, Dave, the team just plays so much better when they're both in. the lineup and you could they can act they can actually deploy their defense as what it was when before doom one and marino got hurt and you know that allows them to you know play justin shult's sheltered minutes which he has not been getting you know they play someone like jack johnson who has really struggled for a lot of the season you know getting top 40 pairing minutes with uh with dumlin hurt you can play him on the third pairing won't hurt you as much i know um usaericula has probably been better um but you know for some reason mike sol he mike sullivan

has him in his doghouse, but it's just the way they skated last night, it looks like they didn't miss any time it looked like. And Dave, it's just like, I said, like the team just, they play offensively and defensively in their own zone just so much better when they're on the ice. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I don't think a single player missed Brian Dumlin

more than Chris LaTang. He gets his defensive partner back who can cover up for sometimes Letang's mistakes, which he sometimes makes. I mean, sometimes it's a bit maddening, even though he's just truly awesome. And, you know, he's just, he's that staple defensive player back there, and he's just, he's so awesome. Dave, the Penguins, thankfully, they are getting very healthy now. I said before, I had a little, just a little second before you got on where Nick Buxtad is making his return looks like tomorrow.

Brandon Tanev is getting closer. Dave, what would your ideal lineup be, you know, when this team is healthy with the fords because you know they saw dominic simone and zach aston ryshears heard those jack asin ruse has been starting to skate um these decisions are not going to be um easy i think for mike solvin i mean i think we know laffertie's going to come out for someone like tanev it's just you know i think evan rodriguez could be a scratch for someone like zach asan reese but then when simone comes back you know i just i don't know what they're going to do what what do you what is your take on it yeah yeah i absolutely agree because i know i know i know

they're going to want to leave that Ashton-Rees Blugertan-Ev line alone because it's been really, really good when all three of those players have been healthy. They kind of use that as that shutdown line in the defensive zone, considering how good Aston Reese has been defensively this season. I've even seen people talk about him as a

Selkie candidate somehow, which is like, whoa. But yeah, the thing with McCann and Bukstad, that is a good point, because I don't know what they're going to do with that. I thought McCann looked really, really good at center earlier in the season when the penguins were battling, you know, the Crosby injury,

the Malkin injury for a little bit. He's putting up good numbers. It's unfortunate that he's hit the 17, what is the 18 game low note where he hasn't hit a goal. And I talked about it yesterday. It's not for his lack of trying. He actually is firing the puck quite a bit at the net. You know, a lot of these chances just aren't going in.

And I also saw, I've seen some stats somewhere where, you know, he's not scoring at that, you know, he's had a bunch earlier in the season last year. He had a bunch of short-handed goals. Empty net goals, which contributed to some of his success, which is, you know, that's going to, that's going to regress a little bit. But still, with that, he still needs to break out of this funk that he's in, you know, 17, 18 games without a goal. As a third-line center, you know, top six winger just isn't going to cut it. I think they're probably going to try Bukstad at third-line center to start, given that opportunity. But even though I think that McCann is their long-term answer for third-line center, I've always seen that in articles and whatnot, which is,

interesting. Another thing, Dave, Brian Russ, I've talked about him so much, 27 goals on the season. He would be, you know, the fact that I messed this up on the podcast last night, I totally, completely forgot that off the top of my head that Phil Kessel was a 30-goal score for the Penguins. I know he had his 190-point season. He would be, I think, just the fourth winger, I believe, in the Crosby-Malkan era to have 3rd. 30 or more goals. I think he's going to hit that with about, less than 20 games remaining. What a season he's had, Dave.

He didn't have a little. Yeah, and they need to leave him alone up there with that game all. And I imagine they will be. That's his winger for probably the rest of the regular season and into the playoffs. One thing before I let you go, Dave. Jason Zucker, just another great game from him. I think he has six goals since coming over from the wild. almost a point in almost, I think, every game now,

if I had to go back and check it, there's not been, I think it's only been a game or two where he hasn't registered a point for the penguins. He's been quite the fit since coming over, man. Either he's just, he's been quite a fit. You know, I can't wait to when this team gets Jake Gensel back because adding him to the top six that already has Rustin Zucker is going to be quite the sight to see.

But in any case, Dave, thank you so much for coming on for this segment, the episode for Locked on Penguins. I'm definitely going to have you on many more times. Hopefully, if the Penguins make a deep playoff run, you know, I'm counting on it, hopefully. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. All right. So that was Dave Holcomb. You know, just really, really great friend. You know, we're not going to harp on that he pronounced Doug Connor. Sherry's name wrong. He still thinks it's Sherry. Sherry. You know what? I still love you, Dave. You're going to listen to the rest of this episode. Still love you, buddy. But yeah, he's one of my really, really good buddies. I'm really,

great that I got to have Monna used to do a radio show with him and Tom Paul and child to him. They were two of the main reasons why I wanted to do this podcast because, you know, they really got me into this business. And, yeah, shout out to both of them, you know, gave Dave brought a lot of really good content. You know, maybe at some point I can get Tom on as well. But with that being said, you know, Dave brought up a lot of stuff that I was probably going to talk about today, most notably the lines.

Yeah, so I tweeted out this morning, you know, the penguins, they're almost fully healthy. Brandon Tanniff could be coming back tomorrow night, as I said. Nick Bukstad will likely be coming back tomorrow. We all know Sam Lafferty's out of the lineup tomorrow. That's probably going to be a given. I think if both of them come back, I think you're going to see Evan Rodriguez be scratched as well. So, well, actually, no, my mistake, actually.

So with Angelo and Lafferty out now, so Bukestat and Tanna will be better. Okay, so that's fine. So when Aston Reese comes back, I think Rodriguez is going to be scratched. Then you have a major, major decision. I apologize. I probably got people confused on that. What do you do about Dominic Simone?

If you bring him in, who do you scratch? That's just going to be a very tough decision. Obviously, you're not going to scratch Jason, Zalk, Sidney, Grosby, Connor Sherry. You know, if Connor Sherry's play, maybe drops off. You know, I think at some point in the 2017 run, I think did Mike Sullivan scratch Connor Sherry for a game, or he put him on the fourth line? It's been like three years. I need to go back and realize if he got scratched him or not.

You know, you know you're not going to scratch Patrick Marlowe. I don't think so. Kenny Malkin, obvious reasons. Brian Rust, obvious reasons. Jared McCann, I think he's going to play, of course. Patrick Hornquish, you're not going to scratch him. Nick Bukstad is an interesting case. This is going to be very interesting now with his return.

They're going to give him a chance to play, you know, see how he does for their first few games coming back. He hasn't played, of course, since November 15th. Oh, my birthday. So, yeah, they got to see. see how he really plays. If he starts out playing poorly and they start to get even more healthier, I could definitely see, you know, potentially at Bukstad being scratched. And then putting mechanic center, you know, putting Simone wing into scratching Bukstad and Rodriguez. So that's what I think could personally see happening. I could see them scratching Simone that I think

Mike Sullivan really, really likes him. I personally wouldn't scratch Dominic Simone. He brings a lot of playmaking ability to the penguins. it's just this is a great problem to have you know as Dave said in that last segment it really really is a hell of a problem to have um I don't really yeah I don't envy Mike Sullivan but I trust him to figure it out

and yeah no who knows maybe Jay Gensel comes back for a deep playoff run then you have some really a really really really big problem on your hands with how deep this lineup is but uh yeah so it looks like yeah you have Tane Evan Bukesda will be coming back tomorrow I imagine tomorrow will we go to Tristan against Buffalo. Another one of these games, the Penguins have to win.

There's no excuse. I don't know why they played so bad against Buffalo twice this season. I mean, first one was opening night, so, you know, opening night jitters. But, you know, that last game, they played very, very poorly against the Sabres, gave up five goals. That's unacceptable to a team like the Sabres who are really, really bad. You know, I think they just have poor, I think I've talked about in this podcast a bunch. They just had poor Jack Eichel go to the media and basically say, you know, it's over.

I mean, if you look at the standings, right now as I load them up on my phone. Yeah, the Sabres are 12 points out of the playoffs, but they have a game in hand on the jackets, but still 29 and 29 and 8. Yeah, they have to leapfrog Montreal, Florida, the Rangers, and the Hurricanes just to get to Columbus, and they probably

have to leap front Columbus too. So, yeah, the season is over, the Sabres. They have the fourth, besides the Red Wings, they are the fourth, worst team in the East. Yeah, this is a team that Penguins have to beat. There's really no excuse to lose, to this team, especially getting swept in a regular season series by them. The Penguins should be able to carry the play.

They'll probably start, I think they'll probably start Carter Hutton tomorrow. You know, you always have to be out of wear for Jack Eichol, Sam Ryan Hart. Hell, even, you know, I think Jeff Skinner scored in the Penguins Sabres last meeting, and he's been really, really bad this season. But, you know, it'll be oncoming for a little bit for Connor Sherry. Of course, he's played with the Sabres for the last couple of seasons now. Yeah, this is a winnable game. You got to win this game because you have a massive.

And I mean a massive back-to-back this weekend against the hurricanes and the Capitals. I believe they play the Hurricanes four times in 20 days. Yeah, that is, that's quite a bit. That's a lot. But, yeah, it's just, and then, yeah, I don't know why I keep stuttering about this. But, yeah, I just, I cannot under say, you know, just how big this weekend is, for the penguins. All right, for this last segment,

we'll just kind of go a little bit about a bunch of stuff. Tonight, there's a big game around in the Metropolitan Division. I'm sure you guys are well aware. The Flyers playing the Capitals. Penguins, of course, four points behind the Capitals.

No games in hand on either of them. The Flyers, they're one point behind them. We need this. The Penguins for, running for the Penguins, you know, of course, if you listen to the podcast, obviously you're a Penguins fan,

most likely. You want this game to end in regulation. You know, we don't need any of these three-point games where, oh, both teams get a point and then a team gets an extra point. That does nothing to help the penguins. In a perfect world, you probably want the capitals to win. I know it stretches out there to lead to six points in the metropolitan division. But if the Flyers lose in regulation, the Penguins win tomorrow, they can leapfrog them.

And I believe the Flyers also play tomorrow as well they play Carolina. So yes. So with the Flyers lost regulation tonight and with the Flyers lost tomorrow to the Hurricanes, who badly need points, and the Penguins win tomorrow, they will be leapfrogging over the flyers, four points behind the capitals, and if the capitals lose tomorrow to the Rangers, the penguins will be in a very, very big spot on Saturday to potentially close the gap to within two points of the capitals if they beat the capitals in regulation on Saturday. That's a 1 o'clock start.

These afternoon games are just a killer. And the capitals also do not play on Sunday. So yes, this could be a very, very big week for the penguins. They could potentially even tie the capitals on Sunday if all goes well. that would be in a very, very perfect, perfect world. Do I expect all this to happen? Probably not. It's the Penguins and everything.

But, yeah, that would just do it. That would be great within a perfect world. As well, you know, there's other things I saw today on Penguins Tour. I wanted to bring up on this podcast. Jeff from Penn's blog, really great follow for you guys. Shout out to him, you know, G underscore OFF 817. I'm just going to say it like that because that's what it is. You know, he put some stats together about Justin Schultz last night and about the Jack Johnson pairing.

You know, of course, you know, he even said it to. We all know that Jack Johnson did leave the game early, you know, to be with his wife who was having a baby. But apparently, he looked, he went on natural stat trick. Great, sorry for underlying numbers. Just outstanding. Just really, really good. It's taking the place, I think, of Corsico, which was my go-to when Manny was doing it. You know, shout-out to Manny.

He just did a really great thing before, I think, giving it up. The show Shultz saw the ice last night. So in most of the fours, he shawed the ice with McCann, Blugher, Hornquist, and then the Rodriguez and Lafrey line. And he played 14, almost 15 minutes at 5E5. His possession numbers, 55%, his Fenwick number is 63%. His goal's 4 percentage on the ice, 59% for scoring chances 4%. 53% 4.

And the high danger chance to score, 57% 4. that's that that's very very good um i can't tweet it to him yeah it's like our eyes were not leading for once those are the kind of numbers we want to see from justin shultz when playing sheltered minutes on the bottom pairing and seeing time with the mccan line and then the rodriguez line and pretty soon it's going to be the tan of and blugger line hopefully that no more the defenseman gets hurt so like i said you can play you can see time with the mccan bukestan hornquist line and then you can see time with the tannette vloger austin wreath line and i think there was no number might go up even more potentially.

But yeah, really, really good start for Justin Schultz last night on the third pairing. It looks like they're trying him out on the top power play at practice today. I'd rather see Crystal Tang up there. But, you know, the power play, you know, like, I mean, Dave said, they did break out of their little rut last night, scoring one power play goal. But on the four-minute power play that they did have, it was pretty unacceptable.

I don't even think they had a shot on that, which was pretty pathetic if you ask me. But yeah, like I said, great start for Justin Schultz. Hopefully he can keep those numbers up. Just a very, very good night for him. I think he's going to get more time with the bottom mistakes. You know, just got to keep sheltering his minutes. But I think that might do it for today's episode of Locked on Penguins. If I have anything else to talk about here.

Also want to shout out Johnny Boytruck again, though apparently Lou LaMerello said he needed 90 stitches near his eye. His eyes completely closed. No timeable for a return. Get better soon. Johnny, that is scary. Like I said, I will not watch that video again because it just, watching someone

take a scape blade to the face, that's not comforting. That's just truly awful. I was not even going to retweet it or quote tweeted because it just, it's that gross to look at. I just, I felt so bad when I saw it. So yeah, please get better. So yeah, guys,

definitely watch the game tonight. The Capitals. Flyers game, you know, root for the meteor. No, I'm just messing around. Just root for the. the regulation win probably for the capitals. We probably, Penguins fans would probably want the Flyers to lose to this in regulation.

And then the Penguins can hopefully win tomorrow against the Savers and have the Flyers lose to the Hurricanes. This is a big just a big stretch for the Flyers on this back to back. And then, you know, the fun begins on Saturday for the Penguins, everyone. Like I said yesterday, the Metro Slate

begins. Yeah, not up for shot up time. You know, the March of the Penguins has potentially started with a 1-and-0 effort. You know, let's keep it going. go 2-0 and then, you know, they'll go from there. But, you know, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Locked-on Penguins. Oh, well, wait, one more thing. One more thing.

It was tweeted out today that Crystal Tang cut his hair and shaved his beard. That's unfortunate because Crystal Tang looks great with long hair. And, okay, I'm just going to shut up now. Because if I say anything more about that, I'm going to look like a complete and utter weirdo. But, yeah, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. I really appreciate all the support. you know, find me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes following the show on Twitter at

L.O. underscore penguins. You know, keep liking and subscribing to the podcast, keep listening each day. The next episode will come tomorrow night after the Sabres game. I'll be at home for that episode actually watching with my mother which should be an interesting experience because she's a complete, she's just

interesting when we watch games together. She's been like that. Ever since I was a kid and when she got me into hockey, that will be, I could take up a whole podcast episode about talking about that. And I think I'm going to do that at some point during the season or during the all season. I still got to think about it. But yeah, we'll talk to you guys tomorrow night, break down the game against the Sabres, see how the Penguins did.

And, you know, we will talk to you all then.