Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 4/14- Let's talk about that 2015-2016 team

Episode Date: April 15, 2020

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter starts off another week of talking about one of the best seasons in franchise history. This week, it's the 2015-2016 team and Hunter talks about the legend of Phil Kessel from that year, how the team got hot, and much more! He also touches on Kris Letang's comments to the media from earlier today. 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 a Tuesday 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 L0 underscore Penguins. We are back this week on, like I said, this lovely Tuesday evening, another day in Paradise with this quarantining and everything. First off, I do want to say thank you to everyone who listened to the last episode when Chad of Penguin's Twitter came on. And Penguins beatwriter Josh Yoey came on the podcast for his debut. Josh will definitely be out going at some point.

Same with Chad. I have something up my sleeve this week for what we're going to talk about. I'm going to have a couple more guests on. One who's already been on here before and another who has not been on. He'll be making his debut. That's all I'm going to say at this point. But yeah, just really, really appreciate you guys listening. Josh had a lot of great content that he brought to the table with the 92-93 penguins.

You know, Chad did too. But it was really great that Josh was able to come on. want to make his locked on penguins debut. But for this week, we're going to be continuing the series for the best season in franchise history will be another one. But for this week, I'm going to go with the 2015-16 season for the penguins. Just, I guess we'll just talk about this in the first seven. Well, should we do it in the first seven?

You know what now. We're going to do that in the next segment, actually, and the next, honestly, the next two segments. But I do want to start out by a. We'll just talk about, you know, Chris Latang did an interview with the, he had the video conference today with some of the Penguins media. And, you know, we're just going to go through some of his comments that I found pretty interesting because, you know, that's what we're doing at this point. But, you know, Chris Stang basically just said, you know, he hopes everyone is healthy and safe. Let's see here.

I'm honestly just going through all the tweets that there's someone put up from the video conference. He said, Lettang on the break. Everyone will be on the same level. What's hard is we don't have access to just. or skates, you're left with whatever is at your house or outdoors. That's a difficulty of getting back and doing it as quick as possible. Yeah, I mean, I do feel really bad for all the players in this situation. You know, they don't have access to a gym unless they have like a little, maybe a Mickey

mini gym at home, but like, of course, a bigger gym. And, you know, you really can't skate at home unless you somehow have a pond outside that's frozen. But in April, this time of year, really, really don't think there is a frozen pond for everyone to pick for people to skate on. But, Latang thinks it's going to take

around three weeks of playing and practicing to get back to speed. He said, you probably won't see a difference between teams because everyone's going to be in the same boat. He also talked about him being a stay-at-home dad now, apparently.

He has breakfast with his kids now, which is something he really has not had to do. He really doesn't, he doesn't get to do as often because, you know, he's always on the road. Apparently, he'll be, Letang will be working out and then Alex will jump in. He'll get him to play mini-hockey.

You know, we always stand Alexander Letang, especially on this podcast and how awesome he was at All-Star Weekend. Guy was just like, he was roasting Chris, telling him he's going to take his job, telling all the players I think he's going to take their jobs. Alex Latang is just a really, really, just a great little kid. He said, inside my back is taking a beating because I've always been over. We've been trying to keep our skill up. There's nothing, though, like the real.

thing. I did like this quote, though. He said, you have to treat this period as your rest, as your summer break. I'm trying to build up my body. Make sure when I come back, I'm fully rested. That's my approach right now and keep my cardio up with a bike and some running. I mean, I hope, I mean, I would also kind of guess that this is the mindset of a lot of players. You know, they're treating this as their offseason, as basically an early off season. Because who knows at this point if the season's going to come back. The NHL already has pushed back their self-cointining period. Again, I think this is the second or third time. It is now until April 30th.

So is it going to be pushed back again? Very, very most likely. I would be a little bit stunned if it was not pushed back again. But that's just where we are right now. And like I said, you know, I think a lot of players for this period, they're just going to treat this as an extended all season because for all we know, we really may not have hockey again until October. You know, maybe not even until next year.

He also said, you know, it's really tough for teams that were playing well to keep going because of the long break. It's going to be important that everyone gets going. There's no right answer. This is, of course, when everyone comes back. Let's see what else he talked about here. This was a really, really good one. Letang on which teammate he talks to the most. Sid, for sure, it's almost every two days or so.

You know, that keeps their little bromance going, I should say, because they both, when they were asked the questions of who, they would be self-quarantine with or who they stay with. If they had to pick a teammate to quarantine with, LaTang said Crosby, and Crosby said Latang because Latang is very much in the know, as evidence honestly by this interview. And then, you know, just talked about, you know, he's been watching the 2009 games back on 18T Sportsnet since he's been in Pittsburgh.

He didn't go back to his Montreal home. He watched the 2016 game one. If he asked him about this was also really, really good question, before we hit a really, really funny one. Let's hang on who is the bigger rival, the Flyers, or the Caps. I think it's the Capitals. I think the Flyers were more when we came into the league. We had the taste of the Flyers Penguins.

But knowing Sid and OV came into the league at the same time to take over, long run, Caps, Penns is the biggest. You know, my take on that, I can't disagree with him. I think ever since 2012, you know, when the Penguins and Flyers, of course, had that just a monstrosity, almost basically an atrocity. the series when the penguins just, of course, flat out embarrass themselves. I have thought that the penguins and capitals have been the better rivalry, you know. It's just, you know, there's more, there's more fights, there's more pushing and shoving, you know.

Fires and the penguins, it's almost like Stewards Ravens where, you know, the teams, like, they're, they're more respectable with each other. And fires, I mean, and Capitals, Penguins, that's just, it's almost kind of like Steelers Bengals or it's, it's nothing like that. Yeah, I made a Steers, Penguins, uh, comparison, you know, and. know, I thought that would be a great one to a way to look at it. But that's just my take on it. You know, every time the Capitals of Penguins play, you have Tom Wilson running around looking like an idiot. Same with T.J. Oshy, sometimes being a bit of a dummy.

You know, Chris LaTang has had his moments where he's been a little bit dumb against the Capitals of Genie Malkin has had a couple moments here and there. But yeah, it's just the games are just more heated. And if you're asking me if I would take a Penguins Capitals or a Penguins Flyers series, if I had to pick one, I'd go Penguins Capitals just because the games are just, they're just so much better. I mean, it's really just not even close at this point. Yeah, I'm glad Chris Tang said the same thing.

Like I said, you know, if I was like I said, you know, the fanbys, it's just, it's not the same as it once was. You know, the fan bases, yeah, I mean, they hate each other. You know, you all know, Flyers fans hate Sidney Crosby still. You know, 15 years later, it's 20, Fliers fans still hate Sidney Crosby, and we'll boo him and do Crosby's such chance. But anyways, you know, it's just, the games just aren't like, you know, They're not heated anymore. It's just mostly, you know, business as usual.

While Penguins Capitals, it's anything usually but that with those two teams with a genuine hatred with each other. I would take Penguins Capitals and over Penguins' Fires and Dave the Week right now. And lastly, Chris Stang said, you know, he enjoys homeschooling his son, Alex, because I'm learning more things and I can practice my English. So never changed. You never change, Chris LaTang, you know, be able to practice your English. I know, of course, it's not its first language, though. He does speak some pretty damn good English. but I wanted to give you guys some very good Chris LaTang content because what better to talk about during this period than Chris LaTang because he's awesome in so many ways.

But yeah, I figured we would spend this segment talking about how Chris LaTang was great with the media today and had some really, really cool answers to a lot of cool questions from the video conference. All right. So to continue our series today with our best season of franchise history, like I said very early in the podcast. We are going to do the 2015-16 penguins. That is my favorite penguin team for as long as I've been a fan. I think it will probably be my favorite penguin team as long as I will be a fan for the rest of my life. That team was just unbelievable in so many ways. You know, I remember it was that December, mid-December night against the Kings that shootout.

And the Kings were just atrocious. They were bad. And the Penguins, they lost that game in the shootout. I remember, excuse me, you know, just going upstairs, and I'm just like, there's, this, this team is stale. There's nothing going on. Like, what the hell is going on? And as soon as I, next day, you know, I'm driving back from my dad's. And I get, I get the text, I get the text alert on my phone.

Well, the alert from the, it was like the team stream or some bleach report saying, yeah, penguins have fired Mike Johnston, Mike Sullivan as I code. I basically had to pull over because I almost started screaming because I was just done. with Mike Johnston. He was just absolutely terrible. And then, you know, the results, of course, were a mixed bag. You had to start with Mike Sullivan, but you could just tell right away they were playing so, like they were just, they were playing better, even though they were trading wins and losses back and forth.

You win one. You win, when you lose one. It was just going back and forth and back and forth. And then, of course, you had the Rob Skidari trade for Trevor Daly, which is, to this day, one of the top three best trades Jim Rutherford is ever pulled off. I still cannot believe he actually got Trevor. Daily in return for Rob Skidari. I'm trying to think here.

My ex-girlfriend at the time, who I would not speak of on this podcast for many reasons. I think the text that I got, it was like, you got Trevor fucking, you got Trevor fucking daily. I'm like, yeah, I know we did. But, and anyways, to not talk about that, it was just, that trade just, it was. It's just, it's at the Penguins going. You know, the Carl Hagelin trade made them that much more faster. You know, David Perron was a good player. You know, he's had some really, really good seasons ever since he was traded from the Penguins,

of course, with Vegas and then going back to the Blues, where he's, he's just been really, really good with both those franchises. It just wasn't working out with Pittsburgh. And the Penguins got Carl Agling, you know, they put him with Nick Benino. They put Phil Kessel on that line for the HBK line, and that's all she wrote. The Penguins just, they hit their stride January. I think February was a lot of, you know, end of January, early February was when they just started to hit their stride. Torch teams in March left and Ryan, I remember, I remember that game, it was against the Capitals. It was their third game, it was in Pittsburgh, and the Penguins jumped out to that 2-0 lead.

The Caps were able to come back and tied. This was when the Capitals were running away with the Metropolitan Division. Ooh, almost stuttered there pretty bad. But, yeah, like I said, this was when they were running away with the Metro. You know, the penguins were basically almost locked into the number two seed here. It was the Rangers, who of course, they crushed in the first down, which we'll get to that coming up. But, and then Koonaka was able to make it 3-2, and then it was 4-2, and then 5-2, and then when it was 6 to, I'm like, okay, we actually might have something to work in here, folks, because that game, that was the game from the Penguins. I think it was in mid-March.

It was during their massive run. I was like, okay, you know, this is a team that is dangerous. This is a team I think that I can beat the capitals in the playoffs. This is a team that I think can go for a Stanley Cup. You know, like I said, they torch teams the rest of March. They torch teams in April. They were able to get second in the Metro. And then, of course, you know, they draw the New York Rangers.

The Rangers were honestly lucky that series wasn't as sweep. I know they lost Jeff Sackoff in game one, but after that when Matt Murray came back after the Penguins' Lever, lost game two. The Penguins just picked the Rangers apart like they were. It was like they were a pee-wee team. Game three was a little closer than I think the score indicated game four. They crushed them and then game five, they absolutely crushed them too.

That was when they finally got all that payback on Henrik Lundquist because, yeah, he deserved it. He did do the Penguins in all those prior playoff runs. It was very annoying and the Penguins were able to get some classic payback. him but um just just the way you know after that rain and even it just it magnified after the ranger series i'm like this this is a stanley cup team i just you put the lines together you could put you know sherry with with cros with crosbie and hornquist you can put kunitz with malkin and with with and ross and you have the haglin benino and kessaline and oh my god was that line just you know i just i want for shits and giggles honestly to have that line have like a banner like

HBK line up in the PPG Paints Arena. It'll probably never happen. And, you know, I don't want my team to have a bunch of banners for no reason. You know, we don't want to look like the capitals over here who have 2018 Metropolitan Division Champions or the Predators. 2018, Central Division Champions, I think the Predators did have a weird banner for basically no reason. I'm not to remember which one I was. I think it was something like that. But so what that line did, you know, the legend of Phil Kessel, you know, only just intense.

as the playoffs came around. He was a giant that playoff run. And to be honest, I was, I would have given him the consmite that year. He was, he was that good. I know people still don't agree that Sidney Crosby got it. You know, I'm one of them, you know. I just like seeing people still get mad to this day that Cindy Crosby was able to get the Konsmite trophy because, um, it just,

anything Cindy Crosby does just pisses people off, you know? It just, that's the way it. goes. And just to like basically say how good he was or just, I'm trying to find the word, just to look how good he was, I guess. Ten goals, 22 points in 24 playoff games. That is basically a point for game for those who are bad at math, including me, but still it does not take a genius to see that he was a point per game in the playoffs for the Penguins that run. Sidney Crosby, in comparison, that run, as I look this up right now, I do not have this memorized.

For this run, Cindy Crosby was, if I can find that, oh my God, where is this at on the Hockerbans? Okay, finally. Okay, six goals, 19 points, 24 games. Again, that's close to a point per game, but, you know, Castle was 22 points, 10 goals in 24 playoff games. I'm sorry, I got to give that to him. You know, I know Cindy Crosby's two-way game has been really, really good ever since that season, you know, where he's just really came into his own as a Selke trophy candidate, where he's going to be, I think, a finalist at some point in this career

in these latter seasons. But Phil Kesselman, you know, we can actually play a goal from that run. Let's see which one I'm going to play here for you all. Let's see. All right, so here's the one from Game 5 against the Rangers where the penguins basically just blew them out. What was that, 6-2, 6-3 at the end? Here is Kessel's goal that tied the game.

and then which paved the way for the penguins to just blow the doors off the Rangers. Here it is. 45 seconds out for the penguin's score. Now Kessel, tries the game in two on the power play. On the football. There's power play. Beautiful pass. Crosby underneath the stick of Foss to Phil Kessel, who's got as good a wrist shot as

anybody in the National Hockey League. Here it comes again. LaTang had led the rush, found Crosby. Beautiful pass. And then how about that shot? So that shot is just, wow. Yeah, as Joe McElady said, Phil Kessel's wrist shot, snapshot,

any kind of brush shot or Snapchat, is just absolutely lethal. That shot, it actually was almost going wide, and then it goes off Lungquist, his knob of the stick and goes top shelf. But still, you know, Lunguist almost had no shot on that anyway, because that puck just had an eye for the net.

Phil Kessel did what Phil Kessel did. He had a good reputation in the playoffs before coming to Pittsburgh. You all forget for Kessel. He was really, really good with the Bruins a couple years. You know, four points in four playoff games in 2007-08, then 08, 08, 09, 6 goals, 11 points, 11 playoffs, 1,000 playoff games, a point per game player. 2012, 13 with the Leif. The only year he made the playoffs for the least.

Four goals, six points in seven playoff games. I mean, that's just as good as it can get. his overall career numbers for seven years in playoffs, even after the 2015-16 season where he just lit it up, 33 playoff goals, 77 playoff points, and 87 playoff games. That is very, very close to a point per game player. And, you know, without Phil Kessel's services, yeah, the Penguins don't do shit that year.

That was the perfect trade at a perfect time for Jim Rutherford. There was just so much smoke surrounding, you know, what's he going to do, going to happen and they were to get Kessel for a pretty cheap price. Their best player going back was what Kaspian. And he's not been bad. You know, Casperi Kappen has not been bad with Toronto, but, you know, getting Phil Kessel and what he did last season, especially on that Hagelin Benino line, the HBK line was just

out of this world. We will probably never see a line like that with the Penguins for a while, I would think, just how they dominated the opposition. You had to account for Krosby on his own line. Then you had to account for Malkin, who was also really, really good that run when he came back from his elbow injury. And then you had to account for Kessel getting hot with Nick Benino who was getting hot at the right time and Carl Haglin, whose speed just gives everyone fits. That's just not fair. And then on the fourth line, you can put out Eric Fair and Matt Cullen, this is when Matt Cullen had a lot left in the tank.

This wasn't the corpse of Matt Cullen from last season or this year's and before that. This was when Matt Cullen was still doing his thing. and doing his thing, a pretty damn good job of doing this thing. I'm not going to lie. But, I mean, they gave the capitals of fits the next round. The Tampa Bay, they gave Tampa a thing. You know, we're going to have more on more of the playoff series are coming tomorrow for Locked on Penguins and how they dominant in them.

But just the way Kessel was just able to do his thing, I just keep repeating it, just out of this world, man. I still miss Phil Kessel to this day. I understand why they traded him. You know, even this season, he was not having a good season, everyone. You know, 14 goals, 38 points, I think. If I can actually find this book, like, yeah, in 70 games, 14 goals, 38 points. Yeah, that's just, that's a far cry from last season.

You know, we had 82 points in 82 games, 92 points in 82 games before that, 70 points in 82 games, and then 59 and 82. Yeah, he's just, he hit a wall and, you know, it looks like the penguins were able to get out of that contract at the right time, but still. Phil Kestl did his job. He was a key piece to why that team was so dominant. And I think we might leave off for that for this episode of Locked-on Penguins. I know it's a bit short.

But like I said, we're going to have more about this 2015-16 season coming tomorrow. We'll talk a lot more about that Capitol series. I wanted to discuss a little bit of the Rangers one. Yeah, that Rangers one was utter domination. I remember, you know, people, Rangers writers were just like, yeah, this is a shellackling of the Rangers just because the penguins just got hot the month before, and it carried over in the playoffs, and then, of course, it carried over for the whole two months of the playoffs.

But I want to thank you guys for listening to this episode of Locked-on Penguins. Like I said, we'll have another episode coming tomorrow, and then on Thursday, Friday, I think it's Thursday. We're going to have an episode coming in the evening with a couple of guests to talk about this season and why it's just one of the best seasons in franchise history. But, yeah, until then, stay safe for everyone, keep quarantining. I hope you all are staying safe at home doing the same things.

I'm sure each day as we're into day 30-something, 40-something of this. You know, it's just, you know, we are going to get through this. I promise you guys. And we're going to be that much better when we do get the out of this. And, you know, we'll just be much better off for it. But thank you guys so much again. Like I said, for listening. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. Also keep on the lookout for the lockdown NHL show. They do it coming during the week. You know, they have some guests on from the different Locked-on NHL podcast. The teams is on from the national show. Keep listening to that. And also, go listen to some Steelers stuff on Locked-on Steelers with Chris Carter.

The draft is very close now. So if you guys are Steelers fans that listen to this, please go listen to that as well. So, like I said, we will talk to you all tomorrow.