Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 4/6- Starting the new "best seasons in franchise history" series!

Episode Date: April 7, 2020

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter is back after a few days off and discusses the new plan for the episodes moving forward, Kris Letang's Q & A on instagram last night, plus starts the new series where he talks about one of the best seasons in Penguins history! 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 back to a Monday evening 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. First of foremost, I do want to say, I apologize for not getting any more episodes in after last Tuesday for the rest of the week. Some school stuff came up that I had to finish, some other couple stuff that came up as well. That's why I did not record.

But for the show going forward, like I said last week, there are going to be a couple changes. starting this week until the NHL season returns, since basically we're in the offseason right now, until this ever comes back. Locked on NHL, you know, locked on NBA, MLB, all the channels that are not the NFL, like I say, including this show, it's going to mean to be three episodes a week. My schedule right now, I think I'm going to do for you guys Monday,

a show Wednesday, and then a show Friday. Friday will be kind of like a fan Friday, mailbag kind of episode day with a little couple other segments in between, including our new series that we're starting network-wide, well, NHL-wide, which I'm going to get into just here in a couple of minutes. But yeah, that's basically going to be the new schedule moving forward. It's when I'm, it actually works out really, really good for the three shows a week because those three days are actually when I'm free the most.

I have a lot more school work usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It's hard to believe that after, you know, these next five weeks, that I'm going to be graduating. So, you know, I'll be able to put shows on any day, basically, after these next five weeks. But, yeah, I just wanted to communicate with you guys with that. That there's going to be a show, like I said, on Mondays, on Wednesdays, and on Fridays. You know, maybe I'll try to get a fourth show in during the week, but, you know, we're not going to be having five shows a week for the foreseeable future hell. We may not be having five shows a week maybe until October, because there's no guarantee that the NHL even comes back.

this season with the way this is going. But yeah, I just wanted to share that with you guys. Just take the first couple minutes of this episode to let you guys know, just some housekeeping stuff. But, you know, just keep following the Twitter page. You know, keep following me. You know, I know I haven't put up a lot of hockey content lately as well as on the Locked on Penguins page, but you know there'll be more coming in these next few days

as we start, you know, this new series. And, you know, we actually talked about this on a call. You know, all the hosts got together and thought this will be a really, really cool idea for you guys. So for this week and next week, we're going to be doing the best seasons in franchise history for each NHL team. I think, so what I'm going to do, I'm sure there's other hosts that are going to be doing this too. I'm going to do one team for the three days, you know, take maybe one, two segments out of each episode that I do and talk about the team, you know, different players, you know, maybe I'll have some guests on who actually were able to watch the team

because for one of the teams, you know, one of the seasons that I'm going to be doing, I should say, Jesus, it was, if I say it, I'm just going to spoil it, but, you know, I was not alive for the season that I'm going to be talking about for this week. So, you know, it would be good to have people on that, you know, we're alive and, you know, it could tell the tale about, you know, how, you know, it was so much fun to watch it. You know, like I say, I'm going to be getting into that in a few minutes. But, you know, the only hit I will give you guys right now is that the Penguins did not win the Stanley Cup, the season that. I'm going to be talking about this week. So, you know, think about that way you will. You know, you can also probably fast forward in the next couple of minutes when I get into it.

Yeah. So then the next week, you know, we'll do another season. It'll probably be a season that they won the Stanley Cup. But, yeah, it's a great really idea. And then for other stuff that we're going to be doing the week of April 20th, we'll be going through the greatest moments of this season before, of course, it was shut down or put on hiatus, whatever word you want to use. We'll talk about a bunch of cool moments.

Like, of course, the big comeback at Barclays Center, again, the Islanders. I'm a couple of big game, big win against the Capitals. The week of April 27th, we're going to be doing greatest moments in franchise history. I know I can come up with a lot of those moments. I know you guys can too. And then May, the week of May 4th, franchise what-ifs, that's going to be a lot of fun to do. You know, talk about some franchise what-ifs, especially during the Crosby era and the Mario era. I can actually tie that into the team that I'm going to be talking about today because the year where this team was just so,

this team was just so good, you know, they didn't win, even though they honestly very well should have. But the week of May 11th, basically what year is it? There's some thoughts on that. We'll get to that. It's a month away.

And then the week of May 18th, fans favorite moment. So we're going to get your guys' thoughts on that as we get further into the month of May. But yeah, I definitely want to get you guys involved in the conversation. Like I said, this week, I'm going to try to bring on some guests

that are alive to see, this version of the Penguins that I'm going to be talking about here in the next segment. But first, we're going to do a little segment on Chris Latang's Q&A that he did from fans on Instagram last night. It was actually really, really cool to see the answers that he was given. So we'll start out top five players in league. We'll just go through something.

I'm not going to go through all of them because there's probably like 100. He actually was forced to name the top five players in the league at the moment. Of course, at the top, we're Sid and Gino. That's nothing out of the ordinary for Chris. but then he also had Nathan McKinnon, Connor McDavid, David, and Patrick Kane. You can't really argue about those five. Maybe you can put Alexovych in there,

but still that's a pretty good top five. Who is the loudest on the team? That goes to Brandon Tanev. I'm honestly just going through these to see. Here's a good one. If you can be stuck with one teammate for quarantine, who would it be and why? He said Crosby because we get along really well,

but from my experience, he has the best sense of survival of all the people that I know. And this also goes off the fact that Cindy Crosby in the Zoom call just last week, he actually said if there were one person he would be from the Penguins in quarantine, he would say Chris LaTang. So I'm sure Chris LaTang saw that and loved that. Let's see, going through these. It's also here.

He had a cool, I think, who's your favorite Steelers player? Ryan Shazier, great answer, of course. Let's see. Best flow in the league goes to Eric Carlson. You really can't argue that. Eric Carlson's hair. is truly, you know, it's just, it's beautiful. This one actually was really interesting.

Hardest player to play against in the league for all this career was Pablo Datsuk. They don't call him the Magic Man for no reason, especially, you know, whenever I think of Pablo Daxuk and people calling him the Magic Man, I think of that song by heart. The Magic Man, I'm not going to sing that song because I'm not going to try and show my embarrassing and singing skills. But, yes, the song by heart is, you know, that's what I'm. That's really good. What's just what I think about?

Let's see here. Apparently, his favorite penguin jersey to wear is the stadium series jerseys from last year, but those are basically cursed at the moment considering they did really, really bad in those. So I've got to disagree with him on that. Best hockey player of all time, Mario Lemieux, can't go wrong with that. I also think Mario Lemieux is the best player of all time. There is an interesting poll today. I think it was from the NHEL's Twitter account on NBC.

Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, someone, one of them has a breakaway, well, I'm trying to rephrase it. If one of these, okay, I finally got you know, who do you trust more on a breakaway to score a goal Mario or Wayne Graskey? And, yeah, I'd go Mario because of all the success that he had.

Among those with all the moves, especially in the Stanley Cup final against the North Stars, that goal is just legendary. His favorite memory, good Lord, I cannot speak today. Of the Igloo, Game 4, 2009 against Detroit. That's a great choice. considering the way they played.

Apparently, oh, this was a cool one. Favorite game you ever played in? Apparently, Game 6 versus Washington, 2016. Honestly, I'd not expect that answer. I thought it would be one of the Stanley Cup final games, but, you know, he did say crazy finish. So, interesting answer from Clitang, well, you all know, that game was just crazy in so many ways.

Someone asked who is funny, or Ryan Whitney, or Ryan Malone. It goes to Ryan Whitney, because, of course, you know, I mean, if you see his Twitter, he's just absolutely, hysterical. Apparently for the best player, for golf-wise, on the team, goes to Justin Schultz. That honestly does not surprise me,

considering the pictures that I think I've seen on Twitter of him golfing. Who talks French on the team, Sid and Matt Murray, who has the hardest shot on the Penguins of Genni Malkin, but an honorable mention goes to Yuso Ricola. I did honestly not expect to see

Yuso Ricola up there, so that's pretty interesting. And then, which teammate passed for president? Would you just to babysit your kids? Patrick Hornquist, he said he has got experience. I think with all the energy he has, he will keep them entertained. That was really funny. I'm trying to find the one where I think he said that,

I think Brandon Tanna was the funniest on the team, but the one that I actually tweeted out on my Twitter account today, if you could bring back any jersey and Penguin's history to wear, which would it be? And it would be the diagonal Pittsburgh jerseys, and he put a picture up of Yarmir Yager and Mario Lemieux wearing them. So, yeah, you know, Chris Tat is a speaker for the people with that. Yeah, just wanted to go through that. Some really cool answers from Chris Latang.

I honestly thought for the funniest player on the team, he would go to, it would go to Gino, but it looks like Brandon Tanev has been getting a lot of love from Chris Latang lately that he's had from speaking, I guess, but yeah, really, really cool stuff. Some cool information. I'm glad I got to share that with you guys. If you guys are not following Crystal Tang on Instagram, I very much suggest that you do. K.K. Latang underscore 58. He posts a lot of really good content on there.

He's just a great, great follow for, honestly, he's probably the best social media follow of the penguins, but also of Gennie Malk, I don't know if you guys saw this morning. I think it was his wife, and I'm actually trying to find the tweet right now. It was basically a little bit of role reversal where his wife, Anna, dressed up in the penguin uniform with his stick and the helmet and the shorts,

and the Vigdi Malkin just basically has his leg crossed, with his glasses on just looking into the camera. And, yeah, Peepsburg, a really good follow. He said, basically, it's safe to say that Mr. and Mrs. Gino have officially lost their minds in quarantine. I mean, the way Gino is honestly looking at the camera. I'll go ahead and retweet this picture actually for you guys right now. If you guys want to go check it out, it's on my Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

But, yeah, just absolutely hysterical. You know, Gino's pants also in that picture are those white jeans are just awesome. So, yeah. Yep, we are talking about Gior. White jeans during a locked on penguins episode. I do not expect that to be happening at this point during the month of April. All right. So, I remember it this morning.

I also tweeted out, guys. You know, in a perfect world and in another world, we would be having the Stanley Cup playoff starting tomorrow. Yeah, believe it or not, guys, it's been three weeks since the league is basically shut down, the penguins, of course, had 13 more games to play. and yeah, they would have played them all by now, and they would, more likely than not, very, very likely that they would be in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Dom of the Athletic, I will never be able to pronounce his last name,

so I'm just going to call him Dom. He actually simulated the season on what he calls Earth 2. And according to his model and his projections, if the playoffs were to begin today, the penguins in his projections, they would have home ice against the Philadelphia Flyers. And the other matchup in the Metro, it would be the Capitals versus the Blue Jackets,

Tampa versus Toronto and Boston versus Carolina in the east. I think in the West, I was actually just able to pull it up right now. In the West, it would be St. Louis versus Nashville, which would be a really cool series. Colorado, Dallas, I would pay a lot of money, honestly, to go see that series. Vancouver versus Minnesota. I did not expect that to be a series going into this season, and Calgary versus Vegas.

So no Edmonton in the playoffs, if this were going to. plan according to Dom so just wanted to let you guys know but of course you know for this segment and potentially the next segment we're going to be starting the new series for one of the best seasons in franchise history and what I'm going to do for this

season to this week we're going to be discussing the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguin season just oh what a season that was especially for the regular season 56 and 21 and 7 that was the season where they had the 17 game

winning streak the longest winning streak in hockey. I know the Blue Jackets made a really good play for it a couple of years back, but no dice. That was not going to happen. And just to fill you in, for those obviously, they weren't alive, including myself, you know, I honestly am coming back and I've watched some highlights from this team. Mary Lou Amu only played in 60 games that season.

60 games. He had 69 goals, nice, and 160 points. So 160 points. in 60 freaking games. That is just, I can't even put into words how disgustingly good that is. And it just, it sucks that we were never able to get just a full career out of area where he just wasn't hurt because he was just so hurt all the time with his, just with his back.

And then of course, you have the unfortunate, the Hodgkins lymphoma. I will, I don't think I've said this on the podcast. I've said it on Twitter, though. I will keep repeating this. If Mary Lemieux had the health that Wayne Gretzky did, I think he shatters his records. Like I said, I still think he's the best player of all time. What he was able to do that season is just nothing short of incredible.

This was actually also the season where Mary Lemieux made his incredible comeback. So actually, like, in January of that 93 that year, you know, the pagan was they announced that, you know, he did have his cancer. But he was able to return two months later. the best that I've seen this story told so many times I've so many people he trailed pat la Fontaine of buffalo sabres by 12 points for the scoring lead in 20 games 20 games left 30 goals 26 assists for 56 points in 20 games with that is a two i honestly just did the math right here 229 point projection over the course of a full season he passed le fontaine pat la fontaine and he captured the art rosh trove by 12 points. He was trailing him by 12. He beat him out by 12.

Mary Lou Amet, man, I just, I, I, I, uh, that there's just, nothing can be put into words by just how amazing that truly is. That's just, it's just gotta be one of the best, um, comeback stories in the, in sports, you know, to do what he did, you know, and just come back from that,

just for that disease. I'm just honestly, almost choking up about it. and to do what he did in that few games, that's just nothing short about extraordinary. And, you know, I wish I was alive to see it. Like I said, I'm going to have people on, you know, this week that were alive to see it to tell me, like, you know, what they were thinking at the time

when Mario Lemieux came back from the Hutchkins lymphoma. But, yeah, that was, of course, that was the biggest thing to happen that year. You know, Kevin Stevens, he played in 72 games. 111 points, 55 goals, 111 points. Scoring was just insane that season. Rick Tuckett was right behind him, 109 points, 48 goals. Ron Francis also had 100 points for the Penguins.

They had four, like I said, they had four players with at least 100 points that year. You know, Yarmory Jager was not far behind. He had 34 goals, 94 points. Larry Murphy had 85 points. Joel Mullen was a monster. You know, like I said, they had seven players that season with at least 70 freaking points. That's just, man, you know, we're going to tell, like I said, when the franchise, what if in a few weeks,

we're going to get into this season and say, you know, what if, you know, that we all know what if, you know that? We all know what if I'm not going to discuss it. We know what if it was different. But, you know, just going down this lineup here and just seeing how stacked this team is after all, you know, you have old Samuelson, Troy Loney, Marty Strachuk,

Bob Ari's on the team, Tom Barrasso, Jay Caulfield. Yeah, it's just, I mean, like I said, you know, Lemieux, Stevens, Talkin, Francis, Yager, Murphy, Mullen, and all the other ones that I mentioned. That is just, that team isn't fair. That is a team that is not fair, especially when you have four players and hit 100 points.

They were able to wax the devils in the first round in five games. And then, of course, you know, like I said, we're not going to talk about what happened in the next round because, yeah, that was just, it's still a nightmare for, I think, a lot of people that were alive to see, you know, they've showed the highlights. I think when the Penguins and Islanders have played the past few seasons, they'll bring that up in NBCSN. And, you know, even I have to turn away because I've looked up those highlights, you know, when I became a Penguins fan.

I just, of course, I had to do my history on it. And, you know, now I just, I changed the channel. I just look away or muted because I just, I can't look at that, considering how stacked this team was. But yeah, the greatest accomplishment, of course, what Mario Lemieux did. Coming back from Hodgkin's lymphoma with so few games left, and not only passing LaFontaine, but passing him in style by beating him out by 12 points. And actually, I can play this video for you guys from the NHL's official YouTube channel. And here it is, you guys, for mine now.

I think this was the end of the NFL tweeted this out during their 100th season. Yeah, this was April 26th of 2016, so almost two years to the day. So we'll play this out right now for you guys. The big story is the return of center iceman, Mario Lemieux, of the penguin lineup. Mario has missed 23 games undergoing treatment for Hoska's disease. You should have seen the dress room. There's not too many moments in my life that I see just an electrifying room

where everybody just kind of like glowed. And there is the hand for Mario Lemieux, 66 of the Pittsburgh Penguins. I think that was probably the biggest surprise was the ovation, you know. especially being the Philly. But the fans here would meet to give him that type of ovation. And Mario went on and proved that he deserved it. Back to LeBue. The Mew comes in.

Shoots and scores it scores. Mario Lemieux. Trills it in his 40th of the year. But, yeah, just, you know, listening that back, you know, hearing what Rick Talk had to say, oh, yeah, you just get chills down your spine. But, yeah, that was the big topic that I wanted to discuss. For the first segment of this, it was just how Mario just was able to come back. just do his thing.

And, you know, for the next segment, actually, which will be on Wednesday, we'll talk about that winning streak for the Penguins, and who dominated during that, you know, we're going to go back, find the goal sheets and all about the games and just, you know, see just how awesome that winning streak truly was. It truly was, you know, just, you know, the march of the penguins. So for this last segment, the Penguins, they're actually playing Game 6 of the 2009 final against the Red Wings tonight on 18T Sports Network. I am still very mad.

Yes, very, very mad online that I cannot find a stream for, or they're not going to stream in anywhere. You know, I've been seeing a lot of tweets, though, from people that have been watching it, you know, how much they miss Jordan Stahl. Yeah, I mean, I remember, I think it was a few years back when Josh Yowie, I think, broke the news that, I'm trying to remember what year it was.

It was around 2014 or something like that. The Penguins were interested in bringing Jordan Stahl back. I remember, you know, jumping for joy, even though it was kind of a little unlikely, especially after the contract that he did sign. But, yeah, I miss him as well. He was just a force for the penguins offensively and defensively. You know, a three-headed monster you can roll out with Crosby, Malk, and Stahl. That's just not fair. Especially with that line in the playoffs, Cook, Matt Cook, when he was actually not being an idiot and drilling people in the head for no reason.

And then Tyler Kennedy next to Jordan Stahl, that line just gave. That gave coaches and players nightmares. That's honestly probably one of the best third lines. And Penguin playoff history, you know, honestly in Penguin history, you know, I'll go ahead and say that on the record. It was just, it was truly amazing. You know, I did play it last week. I think I did play the, for the goal for a day. You know, I played the Tyler Kennedy goal.

That goal was just, oh, man, just so big, you know. Of course, you know, because it made it too nothing. And then, you know, I remember watching that back. And like I said last week, and I was just like, yeah, this just looks different. I don't think Detroit's coming back in this game. You know, there's still plenty of time left, so honestly, you never really know. But, yeah, that was, I think, the moment where I was like, yeah, they're going seven. And this looks like it's going to potentially be different because that goal by Tyler Kennedy was just so clutch.

And, you know, it's great to see Chris Osgood. He looked like a fool again, especially on that goal, because he literally had no idea where the puck was. So, yeah, it's really great to see that the penguins are doing this. Also, for you guys this week, I believe it was tweeted out. out by someone from Penguins Twitter. I'm going to have to actually confirm this myself by looking on my television. Apparently, NBCA is saying this Wednesday is going to be doing the, replaying the 2017 Eastern Eastern Conference Final Game 7 between the Penguins and the Senators.

I'm going to be re-watching that back because I can. And to see if I've, because, well, I can and I want to, but also because I want to see if I missed anything. and, you know, I'm also probably going to get nervous while doing that. I get nervous when I watch all these games back, even though I know they went, because that's just really how I am. This week, though, also NH on NBC announced they're actually going to be doing something really cool. I think they're starting this on the 11th.

I'm trying to find this link. Yeah, so starting this weekend on NBCA, they're going to bring you guys the 12 most recent Stanley Cup clinching games. It all starts on April 11th. April 11, 3 p.m. they'll show 2008 final between the Red Wings and Penguins. Yep, let's not tune into that because we all know how that ended. 2009, 430, they're going on the same day.

They're going to do the Penguins Red Wings Game 7. The next day they're going to do 1 p.m., Chicago, Philadelphia, if you guys want them to turn in to see the Flyers fans sad. That would be very much, that would be really cool because I'm probably going to do that. And then at 2.30, they're going to be doing, of that something they're going to be doing Boston versus Vancouver. So I'm not really sure. when they're going to be the other ones.

Actually, they have a link right here, so I'm honestly going to look at this. Well, actually, they do have a full link. I'm a complete moron. I'm actually doing, I'm looking at this link right now. So today, I did see today they were doing the Winnipeg-St. Louis game, the game six. Tomorrow they're going to do Carolina Washington game set, and you guys want to turn that on and see the Capitals lose not defend their stomach up anymore. That would be pretty cool.

Wednesday, like I said, April 8, 5 p.m. They're going to be doing Ottawa, Pittsburgh. Thursday, they're going to be doing New York, L.A. the game five when Alec Martinez scored. And then this Saturday and Sunday, they'll begin replaying these Stanley Cup final games from 2008, 2011. I'm pretty sure they're probably just going to be doing these weekend games for Stanley Cup final games.

Just on each weekends, I'd imagine that the next weekend they'll do more, and then they'll do more. They'll probably just during the week. They'll just keep replaying old games. But, yeah, like I said, if guys are bored during quarantine, you guys got nothing else better, to do. Turn on NBCS and during some of the days, watch some hockey, some old hockey.

It's awesome that NBC and NBC Sports Network are doing that and they're promoting that. So, you know, gives us something to watch and do until this potentially comes back. I did see that the NHL is potentially looking at playing games in North Dakota. I believe it is what I saw. But, you know, that's just, they're spitballing right now. You know, this is, at least in my state, it looks like this is supposed to peak in the next couple weeks. You know, we're being cautiously optimistic, I guess. So, you know, like I said,

hope you guys are staying quarantined, you're staying home, you know, you're washing your hands and all that. Hope you all are doing well. It's really good to have an episode for you guys today. But, you know, keep it right here on Locked on Penguins. We'll be back on Wednesday. I'll try to have a guest talk about the 92-93 season and just how it was truly one of the best seasons

in franchise history despite not winning the Stanley Cup. So, yeah, we'll have that. Then, you know, I'll talk to you guys on Wednesday. and yeah just keep following my Twitter at Hunter Hodes follow this show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins and I will talk to you all on Wednesday.