Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Locked On Penguins 4/9- Thoughts on Insider Training today, plus continuing the best season series!

Episode Date: April 10, 2020

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, Hunter starts off by talking about his thoughts on TSN's Insider Training that aired today as the big NHL Insiders talked about some potential solutions if the NHL is going to resume the season. He then continues the series with one of the best Penguins seasons of all-time with the 1992-1993 Penguins as he discusses how they mopped the floor with the Devils! 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 Thursday evening episode of the Lockdown 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 today. I have a few things to talk about for this episode. We'll continue our series with talking about the 92-93 Penguins as having one of the best seasons in franchise history. Today for one of the segments I'll discuss their first-on series against the New Jersey Devils and how they dispatch them in five games. lucky it wasn't a sweep. No, we will not get to what happens in the next round because that might be safe for tomorrow.

And I'm also going to potentially be having one to two guests on tomorrow, one who's already been on the show before, one who has not, but is one of the Penguin Beatwriters, I should say. He may be able to come on tomorrow. But you know what? We'll have our fingers crossed. But before we do getting to the 92-93 season with talking about the playoffs series and how well they did against the Devils, do you want to touch on. some things I saw today.

So insider training happened today with Darren Dregor, Pierre LeBron, and Bob McKenzie all from their homes. It still looks so weird that they're all from their homes. And basically, Pierre LeBron had an update with, he said, you know, the NHL had a Board of Governors call on Monday and Bergara and again

reiterated that, you know, their preferences to at least play some regular season games before they would have the playoffs if this were eventually happened. He said it would not likely be 82 games, maybe 74, 76, 78, I think 78 would be probably pushing it, in my opinion, but still 74 to 76 games, and then potentially going to the playoffs. You know, if that were to happen, I honestly wouldn't hate it. You know, you have at least five regular season games for each team, maybe four.

I know teams have obviously played more than some teams. I think of the Penguins have 69 games played, which is very nice. Some other teams, though, 70, 71. I think there's teams with like 72 games played. I can honestly just check the standings right now on the NHL. This is the first time I've actually not been on. I've been on the NHL app in quite a while. They don't even have this.

So yeah, 70 games. Montreal, it's 71, 71. Okay. No one has 72 games, but there's a lot of teams that have 71 games played over teams that have 69 and 70. Of course, like the Penguins would still, you know, I wouldn't hate that. You know, it gets each team to play three to five more regular season games. if you want to go to 76, at the minimum, the teams with 71 games, plays five more games, and then a team like the Penguins would play seven games.

So, you know, I really wouldn't hate that. And then the talk shifted over to Darren Dregor, and I found this pretty interesting. So apparently, I think he said that there was like 24 GMs that participated in this, it was like a study or something. And I think 20 of them basically said that they would support a playoff system where it would be at least the first round be a best of five. I think he actually said it was beat through. the conference final and then the Stanley

Con final would be a best of 7. Apparently he said some GM has a wild idea I still can't believe this is accurate that I'm even saying this he would more have a like how baseball does the wild card game for the wild card and the AL and NL he would have they would have that for the first round that for the second round and that for the conference

final and then the Stanley Cup final is like a best of three or whatever and it's like don't know if that general manager is actually high when he said that that is I cannot believe someone came up with that idea. Yeah, it's creative, but it's also bad. And it also, that's just, that's too random for me. You know, this sport is already random enough.

And having a wildcard game for the first three rounds, that's just stupid. What's the point? You can't even recover. I mean, sure, maybe for one round, you go a best of three and then maybe a best of five or whatever. But, I mean, come on, man. The Stanley Go final being a best of three. after a bunch of best of one series. That's kind of weird.

Apparently, he also said that there were some GMs that support Best of 5 through a couple rounds, and then Best of 7 for the conference final and the Stanley Cup final. Hell, that is actually my preferred method if the NFL were to come back. I don't really think you would have time to play four rounds with seven game series, though he also did say that a couple GMs are hell-bent on not changing that because they want the four rounds with the seven-game series. You know, there's just not going to be enough time. that because at that point, you know, with the going rate with this is going with the coronavirus,

you'll probably be here until, what, September, you know, you'll probably have to start the season around, what, Thanksgiving? And, I mean, that would be interesting if you can get an 82 game season from Thanksgiving all the way till, what, April, because the NHL wants basically to have an 82 game season next season, though, if it were to start at Thanksgiving, not really, not really sure that would happen, but, you know, people can dream. But yeah, then there was a couple ideas. I think there was another idea where it would be maybe a best of five through the first three rounds.

And then the Stanley Cup final is the best of seven. I think the Stanley Cup final would have to be a best of seven. You know, that's the biggest series. You know, we all know baseball does this for their first division series when they have the best of five. And then it goes to the best of seven for their pennant series, which is, of course, the championship series. And then the World Series, which really needs no introduction. So, you know, I already said on this episode, and I've said it in probably. episodes. I would be perfectly fine with that. You know, of course, this is all, um, what's the word

that I'm looking for? Fluid. Yeah. Okay. Finally. Yeah. It's, it's just, it's a fluid situation. You know, it's still been three, has it been almost four weeks now since they can't, they, uh, put the season on pause. It's been pretty close, you know, it has been, uh, pretty, pretty close. I think about three to four, at least three weeks, um, since they put the season on pause. Yes, I know we would be in a perfect world right now in a regular world in another Earth world we would be having the Stanley Cup playoffs right now. They were supposed to start last night

definitely things that we're not getting that though. I do like I said what NH on NBCSN is doing. They played the they did the happy hour yesterday and I guess I'll get into that before we're going to our commercial break and this is my first time watching the 2017

game seven between the Penguins and Senators back. And And it was in the overtime. It was a few minutes left in the first overtime. Kessel walks in. I think it was a few minutes left. Because he had two big chances where, yeah, yeah, yeah. This was the one with a few minutes left.

Because I always forget that he had the other one where he shot at Y, which I think came five minutes into the first overtime. So, yeah, I mixed them up. But yeah, this was about three to five minutes left in the overtime. Anyways, I keep rambling. And he puts the puck on net. It goes over the next. and goes out, and for about five minutes, the fan just kept booing and booing and booing, and it's

like, what is going on here? I even had a tweet yesterday. Thank God that Adam Greta's a pro hockey talk in at Pensburg responded to me because I had no idea that this to be the ace. And honestly, you know, I've been wondering about this ever since that night. And I tweeted, I so, you know, NBCSN is showing the hockey happily hour, the Penguin Center's Game 7. Why in the hell did this fan base boo the officiating in the first overtime for five minutes after that Kessel Chan's late in overtime?

It wasn't even close to going in. And Adam, which was very nice enough, he said the only replay angle they showed in the building was the overhead shot that made it look like it went in. So, of course, you know, I made to look like an idiot because I did not know that they only showed one angle of that. And they did not show the angle that we all saw on NBCSN for those of us that were not at the game. Yeah, I've just been very confused about that because I remember, you know, people in the fan base at the time were like, oh my God, stop booing. Just be quiet. And it was just, you know, that's just one of my big questions I had about that game.

Then, of course, you know, Chris Cunitz was able to go do his thing. And I also tweeted about that after the fact. That's Chris Cunits' goal at worst at the top three goal in Penguin's history. You can easily make the case for number one. And I had a couple of Penguins fans of my mention saying that yesterday, you know, that's not a hot take at all. You know, not even close. I can easily see the case for that.

The Patrick Hornquist goal in game six of that same year against Nashville, I think that's in the top three as well. Saw someone saying, you know, the goal in the 92 against Chicago, I think Mario or Yager's to basically win the cup that year. You know, that's a really good one too. I also have the Yager goal against the Devils in 1999, but I've always just talked about that. But, yeah, just wanted to touch on a couple things for this first segment.

Yeah, it was really, really good to just listen to insider training and, you know, just get a little bit of hockey coverage. We'll also be talking more about what the Penguins plan to do with their coverage on AT&T Sportsnet towards the end of this episode is they did an outstanding job last night ending the 2009 series. And Flyerscans did get mad. We'll have more about that later in the show because it is really, really funny to talk about. All right. So for this segment, we'll be continuing our 1992-193 season as one of the best seasons in franchise history.

We'll be discussing the series against the Devils in particular today. first game in that series, just a massive penguins win. I mean, good God, you know, 6 to 3. No, Rick, I've actually, this is the first time I will admit that I've gone through all these games in this series and look to see how all these players performed. I do, of course, know that Mario Lemieux led the team and points that playoff run because, well, it's Mario Lemieux and he's the greatest player of all time. But in this game, you know, Rick Tocke was actually able to open the scoring, you know, former penguin assistant coach Rick Tocke. and now Arizona Coyote's head coach Rick Docket,

who was gaining a lot of steam as to potentially being the Jack Adams Award winner. Early on in this season, though, that fills it off quickly as, I don't even think the coyotes are making the playoffs, if this ever does resume. I'm trying to remember where the coyotes are now in the standings. I can actually look now. So at the time of the pause, there are four points out. Nashville still has a game in hand on them.

And, yeah, well, a couple of – Vancouver, Minnesota, and Nashville all have games in hand on the coyotes. who are a mess. But you know what? I'm getting off track. But, you know, the Devils with Dave Barr were able to tie it. You know, Bill, wow, Billy Garan had the primary assist.

Yeah, I actually did not know that Billy Garin was on this team. I know, big, big idiot here because I'm a Gen Z kind of person. I just did not realize that they played Billy. I just don't realize that Billy Garin was on this team. But, yeah, bad moment there for me. But Mary Lemieux was able to make it two to one.

Yarmory Yager and Mollah. Mike Ramsey with the assist, Mary Lou Amu again was able to score Kevin Stevens and Larry Murphy. Kevin Stevens had two assists this game. He was just, already was just a monster. And then Ron Francis was able to score for the Penguins. Ramsey had another assist with Joe Mullen and then Dave Tippett with Yarmory Yager and Sean McItran. Oh my God, I can't even pronounce his last name. If I mispronounce his last name, I'm going to just cry. And then the third period, Yarmory Yager was able to score. Mary Lemieux on the assist.

And then Scott Stevens getting two New Jersey goals late in the third period, you know, with Scott Neidermeyer assisting 1-1. Well, both of them, actually. Scott Neander-Murner had two assists. But, yeah, the Penguins just a massive win in that game. You know, Mary Lemieux and Yard are making their presence out as well as Kevin Stevens. And, of course, in the next game, a 7-0 blowout for the Penguins. It just came in waves, especially in the second period.

they had a four goal. Second period, you know, Sean McEachran had the first goal for the penguins. Ron Francis was able on the assist. Mary Lemieux scores again. Old Samuelson. Tom Barrasso gets an assist. He actually had two assists in this game.

It's not too often that you see really a goaltender get two secondary assists in one game, especially in this day of age. Rick Tocke was able to score his second in the playoffs. Kevin Stevens and Ulf Samuelson. Yarmier Yager just went off. Kevin Stevens. Sean McEachrin had another one, and then Joe Moll. had one.

So, I mean, yeah, the penguins just absolutely blew the devils out both of these games. And then finally, we were able to actually get a close game for the penguins and the devils in this series. But you know, old friend Billy Garon was actually able to open up the scoring in New Jersey about a minute in. And then, you know, Sean McEachran, again, his third goal. Marty Strachau with the assist, Bobby Holik, 2-1 Devils, Scott Stevens. Scott, he was just... Scott Stevens was just a menace. You know, of course, a lot of

all the Devils fans absolutely loved him, though, I can't really say the same for a lot of other fan bases around the league at that time. Mary Lou Amieu, of course, got his fourth goal, was able to tie it. And the third period, you know, it was all Penguins that period. Larry Murphy was actually able to score on the power play,

made it 4-2. But before that, though, to make it 3-2, Peter Taglionetti. Wow, that. That is a name I have not heard in a long time. Troy Loney, Dave Tippett, put the assist there. Then, of course, Tegli Netta made it 3-2 in that game. Larry Murphy was going to make it 4-2,

even though Alexander Simack from The Devils made it 4-3, but, you know, that just was not enough. Yeah, I mean, game 4, of course, happened April 25th in the Patrick Division semifinal between these two teams. The Devils were actually able to win this game 4-1 with Claude Lemieux actually having two goals in this game. He finally broke out. Scott Niedermeyer had an assist.

Bruce Driver. Bruce Driver actually had two assists. If I'm looking at this way, Peter Stasney had an assist on this, Stefan Richards' goal. The only penguin, Kevin Stevens, was able to get his second goal of the series assisted by Lemieux and Tocke.

That came in the third period of 328 to cut up to 3 to 1, and then the Devils ended up getting an empty net goal. But, yeah, says Shiri shifted back to Pittsburgh. You know, the Devils, they were not going to kind of back from 3 O' down against this Penguins team, considering how stacked they were. The Penguins were able to basically blow them out of the building in game five, especially in the third period. They were actually down three to two going into the third period, but after that, you know,

the Penguins, they made sure that this series was not going back to New Jersey. Mary Lemieux got his fifth goal of the series. He was just a menace against the Devils. Kevin Stevens got the assist. Ron Francis, Rick Tokke, was able to get his third of the series. Kevin Stevens. The Devils then were actually able to score. three in the second period, like I said, you know, we have Bruce Stryphor, Stefan Richer, Tommy

Albine, John McLean out in the assist, Scott Stevens, Peter Stasney. So yeah, yeah, going into third period, you know, I wasn't known if the Penguins were going to win this game, but the Penguins struck early in the third with Ron Francis on the power play, then Jeff Daniels was able to get, they scored two goals in 21 seconds to get back in the lead, and then Jeff Daniels was able to put the icing on the cake with about a minute left in the game to send the Penguins to the second round of the playoffs that season. Yeah, they just, you know, they just combivated the devils that season. I was actually finally, I finally was able to get a clip of one of the big goals of this series.

There is just not a lot of stuff on YouTube from this. Everyone just likes to talk about the Islanders Penguins series, which, you know, we'll get to when we talk about this season. So I'm going to play this clip here from Mary Lemusical Ringing Game 2 of this series. Just a outstanding short-handed goal here. So here is for you guys. to do nothing with it. They dropped from the six best of the series right there.

That, I can't get over, Gary Thorne with that call. You know, I miss Gary Thorne. I wish he could come back to hockey. But, yeah, when Harry Thorne basically says, that might be the end of the series right here in game two when Mario was able to score the shorthanded goal, when the penguin just absolutely blew out the devils. Yeah, I mean, that's just, that was the 7-0 game.

You know, you know it's getting pretty bad. But, yeah, the way. Mary was just able to walk in. It was just a semi-breakaway, but still able to fool the goaltender as he's basically going down. He's basically being, like, hooked the whole way. Just a textbook Mary Lemieux goal, man. He's just, well, he's absolutely one of the kind. You know, I will recommend for you guys if you go out and read more about Mary Lemieux,

go check out Jesse Marshall's article on The Athletic right now. You know, he was able to take a trip down memory lane. You know, he revisited Lemieux versus. Gretzky, you know, because a lot of people like to do that argument. You know, I think personally, Gretzky is the more accomplished player, though I don't think anyone could live up to Maryoleon school. I think Marylemy's skill level. I think Marylema is the best player of all time.

But, you know, I hope you liked this segment for the Lockdown Penguins podcast for this. If I talk too much, I do apologize. I was, I honestly, I just, I wish there were more clips on YouTube of this series that, you know, I could bring you guys. I was at least I was able to bring you guys that goal. If you were, if you were, some of you guys were alive watching that because, Yeah, watching that goal, Mario just toyed with the devil's goaltender there, especially being hooked the whole way and he was still able to put so much wood on it.

You know, as Gary Thorne said, you know, that might be the end of this series. But, you know, we'll have more on this season coming tomorrow when I bring a guest or two on to talk about, you know, just how good the penguins were that season. And, you know, what if could have happened with them? So like I said, you know, for the last segment, if you guys thought about me talking about the five games were boring, you know, just doing the scoring some reason, please let me know, you know, or, you know, just fast forward to now if you, if you, if you did

fast forward through it, you know, I understand. But that was honestly one of the best things that I could do, especially, you know, that I was able to bring you guys that clip. But, you know, for this last segment, I do want to talk about what the Penguins, their Twitter account has been doing, especially with their showcasing the games against, they, they showcased all the 2009 semi-cum final games that they eventually won. And, you know, it's really good what the Penguins are doing with 18T sports and I love that the penguins are almost kind of coming up with like new graphics that they're making it's almost as if you know I mean they've been they're live tweeting it basically and you know that's good content that's really good content um last night the penguins

official Twitter account was under attack I can actually look this up right now to um find the tweet they were fully under attack from Flyers fans um because you know they were mad that um the Penguins's official Twitter account used a quote from Fred Shiro. I actually did not know that he used this quote back in 1974. I'm still trying to find this tweet. I mean, good God. It is very, very far back.

Yeah, win today and we will walk together forever. Fred Shiro, of course. Apparently, I did not know that he said this in 1974 for the Flyers, and of course Flyers fans took offense to that, and it ended up getting pretty mad online about it. Well, it's like, you know, that quote also took place, you know, when the Romans were still alive, which was the last time of Penguins,

one of the last time the Flyers won the Stanley Cup, one of the funniest things. Some Flyers fans said, seriously, you are going to use that quote? Why don't you come up with your own? Now we know how much you look up to the Flyers. And then the Penguins clap back, you know, well, ratio was our GM, so it felt right.

So, you know, love seeing Flyers fans mad online for no reason. You know, I mean, okay, well, cool. He said it back in 1974. That's almost 50 years ago. So no one really cares at this point. But I just found that funny. But the Penguins are also going to be doing starting next week, I believe, yeah, next week,

that they're going to be showcasing the Stanley Cup final 2016 against the sharks. And what's going to come after that? Oh, the 2017 stealing cup final, you know? I'm trying to figure out what the hell the penguins are going to do on ATT Sportsnet when they don't have anything else to share from these Stanley Cup final games. Do you just showcase the big games of the crossing Molkin Air in the regular season? Maybe Sidney Crosby's comeback game. Maybe you showcase old games with Mary Lemieux basically torching the opposite.

I don't know. They're going to have to get even more creative. But, you know, I do like that the Penguins are doing this. I know I think some other sports teams that have been doing this tale. Heck, I saw on ESPN last night. They were showcasing the 2013 NBA finals on ESPN. So, yeah, they're trying to get a little creative, too, as we are still in a time where this is just still all very, very new to us.

But I think that's all I may have for you guys for today's episode of Locked-on Penguins. Like I said, tomorrow we're going to have a guest or two on to talk about the 92-19. 93 season and, you know, just what they, you know, their thoughts of it are with how Mary Lemieux played and Kevin Stevens and Marty Stalka and Yarmier-Yager and Al-Sangelson, just everyone that was just a menace on that team, even though, of course, their season was cut short by the hunters after going up three games to one. Okay, I've already said that enough. Also, you know, like I said, if you guys found that boy, then I was just doing the scoring summary of the Devils Penguins series for today, you know, I understand, you know, I'm trying to

navigate this as best as I can. as, you know, we're just in such uncertain times right now. And I'm trying to give you guys just really good penguins' contents, like I said. So I apologize if it was boring or anything. And if you guys just, like, skip forward to the end or whatever. But, you know, we'll be back tomorrow with another episode of Locked on Penguins, like I said, with the guests. Hopefully we'll have some mailbag questions coming in tomorrow. We'll probably try to do some fan Friday stuff.

And I will talk to you all tomorrow. Thank you guys so much for listening. Keep following my Twitter at Hunter Hodes. The show's Twitter, L.O. underscore Penguins. Keep staying safe. Quarantining. all that good stuff. I hope you all are doing well, and hopefully at some point in the next couple months. We'll have hockey, and you guys will be able to come here for all the Penguins content when the season returns and all that.

So I'll talk to you guys tomorrow.