Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Looking ahead to Thursday's Penguins-Wild game with Seth Toupal!

Episode Date: November 17, 2022

Well, Hunter didn't get a good birthday gift on Tuesday, that's for sure. That said, he's brushed off that loss and is ready to look forward as the Penguins start another massive three-game road trip. First up is a date with the Minnesota Wild and what better way to talk about that matchup than to bring Seth Toupal on, who's the host of Locked On Wild. They start going over the Penguins' issues and why they got worse on Tuesday against the Toronto Maple Leafs. What's the main culprit right now? Is Sidney Crosby going to get out of this rut? Is it past time to swap Rust and Rakell? Hunter also discusses the lack of scoring depth and how the team continues to get below-average goaltending in their games. After that, they flip to the Wild and touch on how they've struggled this season. What's wrong with their goal-scoring? Do they also have depth issues similar to the Penguins? How has MAF played this year (before he got hurt)? The two also look at if Dean Evason is on the hot seat and if Billy Guerin could make some changes soon before wrapping up with some keys to win for both teams and a prediction. All that, plus much more on this special crossover edition of Locked On Penguins and Locked On Wild.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!SimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnNHL to learn 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, Pittsburgh Penguins fans, happy Wednesday. Yes, my five-game losing streak at Penguins Games came to an end on Tuesday. I'm going to be blaming my girlfriend, Ashley, for that. It was her first game. She's 0-1. My overall record now, 5 and 3, was 5 and 2. What can you do? Hopefully I'll be going to do a lot more games once I finalize this move to Pittsburgh,

which is about 99.999%. But that's a discussion for another day. For today's episode, I was joined by Seth Topal of Lockdown Wild, to do, I guess, a little bit of a recap of that game against Toronto, but also look forward for the Penguins as they will play the Minnesota Wild in Minnesota on Thursday night. So a nice little crossover episode for you all. It's all coming up right after this drop.

You're Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. And welcome in to a special crossover episode of Locked on Wild and Locked on Penguins, part of the Locked on Sports Podcast Network, your teams every day. Thank you for making both Locked on Wild and Locked on Penguins your first listen each and every day. Just a reminder, you can find both shows on your favorite podcast platforms absolutely free of charge. On today's episode, we take a look at why the Wild and the penguins are off to uneven starts.

so far this season. We'll check in on a couple of players who have Minnesota ties, and we'll get to the bottom of some of the problems the Wild have had so far this season as we preview the game between the Wild and the Penguins. My name is Seth Topal, your daily Minnesota Wild Insider, joined today by Hunter Hodes of Locked on Penguins. Hunter, two teams that in just talking before he hit record, two teams that seem to be having similar issues, so far to start the season. So let's just talk a little penguins to start. What have been the biggest culprits for the penguins getting off to, by their standards,

a slow start this year? Yeah, I mean, before this really bad streak, 4-0-1 to start this season, things were looking really up. And then all of a sudden, you lose seven games in a row, you win a couple. Looks like you maybe get back to what things used to be. and then you've lost two in a row. And, you know, the goal that it feels like it's been forever

since they've gotten at least league average goal tending during those couple wins. Casey Smith played well. But, you know, outside of that, it just hasn't really been the same. It feels like these last nine or ten games, they've just been a one-line team of Gennie Malkin and Jason Zucker, former Minnesota wild player, of course. They've been on a tear this season. Funny Seth, you know, for your wild listeners,

Jason Zulger's at a point-pigin pace this year. This is probably the best I've seen him play. since he's become a penguin since the trade happened. So he works his tail off every shift. I'm really happy with how he's doing. Outside of that, you know, you got the Crosby line, which is usually one of the best in the league. They have stunk it up the past seven to ten games.

It looks like they're finally moving Brian Russ down to play with Malkin again and moving Ricard Raquel up to play with Sid. And that's the right move. I think Raquel is a better fit with Gensel and Crosby. And then outside of that, when you have the bottom six not producing, it gets ugly. Josh Archibald's had a few goals this year. Okay.

Brock McGins had three goals in his last four games. Okay, but other than that, no one else is scoring down there. Jeff Carter is getting paid to basically do absolutely nothing. Kisbury Kaepin is getting $3.2 million. Just sit in the press box at this point. Danton Hinen hasn't done anything since NOM. Ryan Paling hasn't done a lot lately.

They just got Teddy Bluger back, which is good. I believe against the Maple Leafs when he was on the ice that England's had about 80 to 90%. of the expected goal share. You know, he's one of their best bottom six players. And, you know, hopefully he'll be able to say healthy for the rest of the season. But there's just the forward depth is not good right now. And defensively, you know, Brian Dumlin hasn't been that good.

Chris LaTang, who, you know, I love very much, been one of the best defensemen in the league for numerous years. He's off to really rocky start this season. It's probably the worst stretch of hockey. I think I've seen in play in his career. and Jeff Petrie's been up and down. And you know, you combine all that together and this is what you have. Just a middling team that right now, you know, if the playoffs were to start today, they would miss it and it wouldn't even be close.

So, you know, there's just a lot of issues plaguing them right now. I didn't even go into the power play and how bad that is. The PK at least has been able to round it out a little bit. But, you know, it's not fun watching them when one line it looks like is actually trying and the other three are just really not doing anything at all. Wow, I get deja vu because I feel like I've been talking about those exact types of things for 95% of what you said. And so we'll get into that here in a little bit. I do want to talk a little bit about Zucker.

You mentioned him being on an absolutely torrid pace. Is it as simple for Zucker as he's finally healthy? I know he has dealt with some injuries over the past few seasons. Is that just kind of the simple formula at this point that he is? at this point in the season healthy and therefore able to fully produce. Yeah, I think that has a big thing to do with it. I mean, in the playoffs last year, he played very well. But, you know, from I was told, he had a torn groin and he barely could even stand on the bench.

He was gutting it out. And, you know, he missed over half the season last year. But when he was playing, he was good. And this year, he survived, I think, at least one injury scare so far. Knock on wood, he doesn't have another. And so far, he's been one of the teams lead goal scores. He's one of the team leaders in points. And I think he's arguably their best four checker.

And you see that on a nightly basis. You know, the way he has played this season, Seth, that is what they thought they were getting when they acquired him a few years ago. He is worth that $5.5 million cap hit so far this season. And he's a great fit with Malkin. Has that great shot, great pass, good defensively in his own zone, can recover pucks on the dump in. He's doing everything for them right now.

He actually looks like one of the, I mean, he definitely looks like one of the, players who just tries his tail off every single shift. And, you know, it's, it's no wonder that he and Malkin work so well together. So I do really think it's health. I said coming into this year, I think he was going to score 20 to 25. He's definitely on pace for that. He's, and right now, I don't think anyone said this coming in the season, but if he continues this, you know, I would love to bring him back because he's been that good. And he's been outside of probably, I guess, you know, Malkin, Denzel's been decently consistent.

Sid hasn't been that good lately, but I'm not really concerned about him because it's Sidney Crosby. He's been one of their most reliable forwards this season. So at this point in the season, and I ask this because the Wilder in a similar spot, is there panic? Is it a situation that you just hope is going to kind of figure itself out? Or are there some underlying things that are causing some concern that this might not be a situation that can be fixed. I'm not at the panic button yet. I'm getting close just because the effort lately is just, it's not there.

And I get it. It's been November. Teams are out of the playoffs sometimes in December. They go on and make the playoffs. But, you know, the Metro, you know, I'll say it. It's a bit better of a division this year. Obviously, the New Jersey Devils are playing really good. The Islanders are off to a decent.

And Philadelphia has come crashing down a little bit. that wasn't going to stand. The Rangers aren't off to that good of a star either. You know, Washington's kind of end. But, you know, there are some teams this season, again, like the Devils and Islanders, who, you know, they're playing decent hockey right now, especially when it comes to the devils. But, you know, they're going to have to really start stringing some wins together soon. I understand 13 of their first 19 are on the road.

But, you know, you can't just keep sleepwalking through these games. You know, I think part of this has to do with the roster construction. I thought Ron Hexel did a great job. bringing back the core pieces. After that, though, I wasn't really a big fan of what he did with the bottom six. I think he's made it worse since he's come in for Jim Rutherford, and I just don't think he did enough to give the Penguins four reliable scoring lines.

They get very late Ray Shiro Dan Bilesma vibes when it comes to the bottom six, when you see them trotting out. Like back then, for example, Craig Adams, Tanner Glass, Joe Vitale. You know, right now you got Caput, Jeff Carter, you know, even Ryan Pailing, who, I mean, he's fine, but he was decent against Toronto, but still, he's just not producing. And, you know, you want, you need your bottom six players to be able to score when your stars are down.

Like, for example, said, not at his game right now. This is probably one of the worst stretches of hockey I've seen him play. But they're not getting the depth scoring. They're relying on the top two lines to really carry them. And that's just, that's not how you win in today's NHL. So, you know, I'm not panicked yet. Am I concerned? Yes, especially when it comes to the special teams and the five-on-five play and the defense and everything.

But, you know, I still think they have a potential long winning streak in them, but the time is now. You know, you're playing some teams coming up who have struggled this season. Chicago's not good. They have them coming up. Obviously, Minnesota has a lot of talent, but they also haven't been that good to start the season. You have Winnipeg, who is off to a decent start, but I don't really think they're that. I don't think their record. really matches who they are just because I think they're going to come crashing down.

I think a lot of that has to do with Connor Hellebuk. They're going to have a lot more home games in the month of December, which is big. But, you know, it's we're getting down to the time where you got to start banking points because you don't want to be way too far behind once Thanksgiving comes. Usually that's like, it feels weird, right? That's like the cutoff date. Yeah. Where a lot of teams, if you're in the playoffs at that point, you usually make it.

You know, some teams are able to come back at that point. but it's it's it's hard you it's hard to make up ground penguins these next you know this next week week and a half this is big you know they need to really start stringing some wins together here and getting themselves out of this rut and just getting back to the way they played in the first five games in the season all right before we get back to today's really fun discussion with step topal of locked on wild can we pause the podcast for a second all right we're paused okay so there's white chocolate peppernet granola that's Bilt's take on the granola bar, so it's more filling and still insanely tasty and candy cane

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to say the least. They're all unbelievable and they're all different so you can order a mixed box if you want and try all flavors for yourself. You can get 15% off your order right now and get all those flavors by using the code locked on 15 at built.com. That is the code locked on 15 at built.com. Let's flip to the wild because there's a lot going on with Minnesota and obviously some big news that came down the pipe yesterday in regards to a former penguin, Mark Andre Fleury, and so we'll discuss all of that as we continue today's crossover episode of Locked on Wild and Locked on Penguins after this. Continuing today's special crossover episode of Lockdown Wild and Locked on Penguins,

Thank you for making both Locked on Wild and Locked on Penguins, your first listen each and every day for your second listen. Make sure you check out the Lockdown Sports Today podcast. The biggest sports, the biggest games, the biggest talkers all in one place at Locked on Sports today. You can find it on your favorite podcast platforms, absolutely free of charge. So we talked about some of the things that have been going right and or wrong for the Pittsburgh Pets. penguins so far. Let's flip and let's try to get to the bottom of the wild as well. And so Hunter, I'll turn it over to you. Yeah, Seth. You know, this is a team that I had probably top three in the Central coming

into the season. I know they had the cap recaptures, if I'm not mistaken, with Zach Perise and Ryan Suter. And I think it's going to get worse before it gets better, Seth, if that, if I recall correctly, those, I know the CBA before that was really weird with that stuff. and I think they're about to feel the effects big time. They had it a little bit this year, but I think they're really going to get it next year. I think that's part of the reason why they had to trade Kevin Fiala to the Los Angeles Kings.

And you look at this team, they shouldn't be where they are in the standings right now. You know, fourth in the central, okay, that's fine, your three points behind Winnipeg. You're seven and seven and two. You're at 500, but you're also kind of not your seven and nine with overtime losses counting as regular, losses. But, you know, what has really been the problem for the wild this season?

Because, you know, Freddie Goodrow has really blossomed into a great player ever since he left Pittsburgh. Heck, he's their top line center from where I recall. I obviously love watching Carrillo Caprisov. He's incredible. Matt Zuccarello has hit a Renaissance since coming over from New York and Dallas. Matthew Boldie's awesome. I love seeing Marco Rossi out there playing just what has been the main problems from Minnesota so far? You know, it's funny because if you took the first three games of the season, you'd say it was the defense and the goaltending hands down. And I would fully agree.

Ever since, it has been the offense. Mark Andre Fleury, who, for Pittsburgh fans that were hoping to get a chance to see him in tonight's game, Mark Andre Fleury was put on injured reserve. And so he's going to be out for a while. It's an upper body injury. He was not at practice on Wednesday, which kind of led wild media to a little bit of a panic because he has been the single constant driving force for this team

from a consistency level. Yeah, the first four periods of the season for him were not good. but he had a stretch over his last three starts in which he gave up three total goals in his last three starts. Three total goals. He stopped 80 of 83 shots and he went one and two. And I'm not talking overtime losses. I'm not talking shootout losses.

I'm talking regulation losses because this team cannot buy a goal right now. The loss of Kevin Fiala was a big one. and something that, you know, I had said is not going to be something easily replaceable, but Bill Garon was banking on Matt Boldy being able to step up his production, Marco Rossi being able to fill kind of the Matt Boldy production level, and everybody to just give a performance that was similar to what they did this past season. none of that has happened. The secondary scoring from Ryan Hartman, Jewel Eric Seneck, Marcus Felino,

has, I think they have combined for, I think, seven goals so far total. That's weird because Hartman was awesome last year. Hartman was phenomenal last year, and especially because it took Carole Caprize off a little while to get going in the goals department. Ryan Hartman had 14 goals through the first 22 games of the season. and he did not have, he had, I think, one goal before he got hurt. He's on injured reserve, and he's going to miss some time with an upper body injury himself. So that production is gone.

Jewel Ericksonek has four goals so far this season. He had 26 last year. Marcus Felino had 22 last year. He has won this year. The wild defense routinely known for stepping up into the play to help out offensively have been so preoccupied with defense that there are combined amongst the six defensemen to wild goals by defensemen so far this season. It's just every source outside of Carillo-Caprizzavrello and Matt Boldie that provided goals last year has evaporated. And so they can't get a goal at this point it is just incredibly hard to put goals on the board because as an opposing team, you just throw all your pressure at Caprizov, Zuccarello, and Boldie.

If you can get those three to not beat you, you're in good shape. And the one player that was kind of helping them bide their time until they got the offense figured out now is on injured reserve. And so you're at a situation with this wild club that they have to figure it out offensively, and they have to do it right now because Philip Gustafson has been good in his last couple of starts, but he is not Mark Andre Fleury. And so this team is just kind of standing at an intersection right now, and they either got to figure it out or this is going to be a very long end to the month. and this is a seven-game homestand that could end up being very dicey without some offense.

Yeah, I mean, usually when you play a team like the Wilde, defensively, you all know what they're known for. You know, great with shot suppression, expected goals against. I mean, when you have a D-Corps that has Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodine, Matt Dumbah, Jacob Middleton, like those players, they can produce offense, but they're also. very well known for their defense. And, you know, Philip Gustafson also, former Penguin. He was in the Derek Brassar trade, about four years ago at this point. It'll be five in short order. So, you know, just is it really just, it comes down to goals for them? Because again, you know, I look at their lineup, Seth. And, you know, it's a deep forward group. Joel Ericksonac is down there. You know, Sam Steele, Marcus Felino's up there.

Marco, again, Marco Rossi's really making his big debut this season. And, you know, I'm really glad that he's healthy after all that the situation that he went through. Yeah. But is there also like a sense of panic within the wild fandom that this is just not going the way everyone thought it was? Is Dean evas is he on the, is Dean evasin on the hot seat or anything? I don't get the sense that Dean is on the hot seat, but there definitely is a rising of the temperature amongst wild fans. And largely so, the common refrain that I've seen, especially this week and the end of last week as well, is what did you expect? Like, you get rid of an 85-point player and your offense struggles because you are banking on a bunch of guys who had career seasons doing it again.

That's a dicey call, but I think it stems from mistakes that. that were made before Bill Garron got here. And the Zach Preezy Ryan Suter contracts, absolutely the right call to buy those players out because of where they were at on the ice, where they're at off the ice. There's a price to be paid for kind of the desperation of where the wild were at when they signed Preezy and Souter.

Is that on the back end of those contracts, that Bill was going to come due. And unfortunately, Garen was the one that had to dig his hand, into the mud and try to clean it up. And now you're looking at situations where I've tried to kind of crystallize it down to you were either going to keep Kevin Fiala or you were going to sign Matt Boldie to an extension after this season is done because he is going to be due for an extension himself. So there just is a lot that's going wrong right now.

and I can I actually crowdsource this out to fans on Twitter trying to get a sense of what they feel is the biggest problem offensively right now. No line chemistry, really at all, save for the Caprizov line. Save for Carillo Caprizov.

There are a few players that really can get the puck into the zone cleanly. High danger scoring. opportunities. A lot of the shots are coming from the top of the zone. And at that point, you are giving a gole a lot of just wide open lanes to view those shots. And so you're making, you're giving a goalie an opportunity to just make the routine saves, but you're relying on a lot of those as your shots. And so it's all of this coming together at once. And it's leading to a team that just has to work so hard to even get one goal across.

I believe dead last in the NHL in five on five goals so far this season, which after what they did last year, they were one of the best teams in the NHL. And so it just, it is a bizarre world version of this team. And fans are frustrated. I'm frustrated. But at the same time, it's like, This group is just going to have to figure it out because there really isn't anybody,

there really isn't anybody down in Iowa that is going to be an immediate fix. And I don't know what you're going to get from the trade market to try to bring somebody in to inject some life into this mix. I mean, wow. I mean, that's very similar, I think, to how a lot of Penguins fans are feel like, you know, Ron Hextall obviously made his bed in the offseason with some acquisitions and some signings that, you know, questionable at the time. There was obviously the Carter extension last season was also very questionable.

I think he's seeing all these things right now. And when you have a team that has not even 300K in salary cap space, he really can't do much to do it on the trade market. And same thing with the wild for the penguins, Seth. They don't really have a lot of people down in their farm system right now that can come up and make a

difference. I'm sure they would love to have Ty Smith up there, especially because they traded John Marino for him and he had a scorching hot start in New Jersey, though he's tailed all a little bit if you look at the numbers but they can't even have them up just because of their salary cap situation so it's just the guys who are on the team right now like just much like the wild they're going to have to claw their way out of this and they're going to have to pick up the general manager's mess at least from a penguin's perspective and you know really push it forward you know

i was going to end with this you know did you see billy garron getting aggressive soon but you know with a trade, but also with this lack of salary cap space and the future, Seth, with those cap recaptures, which are going to get worse before they get better. You know, I don't know if he has enough room to do something. Yeah, I just, I, it's hard to say at this point because the wild do have some salary cap space right now, but considering what they will be dealing with for the next couple of seasons, it's appealing to just hang on to that and not do anything with it. Bill Garon's been pretty clear, and this happens before the Wild went on the road to start the season after they started the year in a really just a rough start to the year.

He said it's on this group to be better. He said we just collectively have to be better. We have to play the brand of hockey that we set out to play when we were starting the season. And we saw that for a little bit, and now things have kind of regressed once again. and so one hexal said too fun of us yeah it's just he is is leaving it to this group to figure it out because if this group doesn't figure it out then i think we're going to see this team take a step back to maneuver through the biggest years of the the dead cap hits and then at that point you haven't if you do this correctly you haven't you haven't

tied yourself to any sort of free agent contracts that blow up in your face. You haven't gone out and tried to sign Nick Deloree to a four-year deal to where you go the route that Philly did, and you just have, you've committed, you know, as much money as they did to him. It's not a lot, but at the same time, you're doing that for a fourth-line guy. So he has navigated through these last couple of seasons without making big commitments in free agency. And so once the team is through the worst of the dead cap,

when it goes down to, I think, combined, it gets back to like one and a half million total. Once it gets to that point, you have pieces in place. You also have like $14 million in cap money that is just there right away. That can make a big difference. And so this team, he's going to give this team as much opportunity as possible to fight through this,

but it's a tough proposition going into it because of what they're dealing with on the back end. Yeah, I mean, I know the Penguins, they don't have any cap recalptures themselves, but, you know, they do have some dead cap with Jack Johnson's buyout. You know, they're paying money. Again, it's just a cap. And he's not even playing right now. That's $3.2 million. Jeff Carter is getting about $3 million.

He's not really doing that much. So that's like $7, almost $8 million right there. you can get a decent intact winger, get another center in there potentially that can really make a difference. And it's just those kind of decisions, you know, at the time, they don't look that bad. But, you know, when you really look back and you look at it in the vacuum, you're just, you're paying some players and there's wasting their cap away. And it's just, it's making the team, you know, worse, I think, in the short term and the long term. And if the penguins continue this as well, you know, I think they may take a step back too. Seth, if you have anything more on the wild you want to get into,

we can. Otherwise, we can just jump right into just, you know, breaking this matchup down. Yeah, I think we can hop in to just talking about this game in general. Plenty more that Penguins listeners and wild listeners can find, did another episode breaking down the Mark Andre Fleury situation and just kind of where things are at right now. So I'll let that kind of speak for itself.

And yeah, let's dive into this match. up between the Wild and the Penguins. We'll do that when we finish today's crossover episode of Lockdown Wild and Locked on Penguins after this. Final segment of today's crossover episode of Locked on Wild and Locked on Penguins. Once again, thanks for making both shows your first listen each and every day. Seth Topol joined by Hunter Hone's. Hunter, in looking at this matchup between the Wild and the Penguins, what is coming in?

Let's talk about the Penguins Power Play because I can bounce off of that and talk about the Wild's Power Play myself. What is the biggest concern with that unit at this point in the season?

How long do you have? In all seriousness, I could write a freaking 200-page novel on it. I could probably sit here and talk for two hours about it. I think the biggest concern, I mean, outside of just not scoring, they look lethargic. The zone entries are disgustingly bad. It just, it takes way too much effort for them to enter the zone.

I see the great power plays like Colorado, for example, their zone entries are flawless. Like, they get in, they set it up, they go to work, put puck to the net, great traffic. They score. Penguins don't do any of that. Like, it takes them forever get into the zone. They do that stupid drop pass in their own zone. It just screws everything up. And then once they, once they, they're going to.

they get in the zone, they turn the puck over, and basically not even five seconds and it's just going the other way and then short-handed chances are created, excuse me. It's almost like the second unit right now is better than the first unit. And that shouldn't be the case when you can throw out Chris Letang, Gensel, Gensel, Brian Rost, I mean, that unit should be one of the best in the league. And it's crazy that they're not. You know, they start out the season pretty well. they were top five in the league and power play percentage. Since then, they've been in the bottom third of the league. They're not getting the puck in the zone,

which means they can't set up their power play. And even when it is set up, it's just they're overpassing. Crystal Tang is not taking enough shots from the point. It took him until about game nine or game 10 just to get his first shot from the point. Usually he's much more shot happy from there where he can create traffic and all that. He's a great power play quarterback when he's on. But I think he's just been way too tepid of getting Malkin. He's starting to shoot the puck a little bit more.

at times I kind of wish, you know, they just try not to Harlem Globetrotter. They always looked for the perfect play once they get set up in the zone. They want to wow everyone just because I'll hold the skill. But, you know, you just got to get back to basics. And they just haven't been doing that for a lot of this season. I just, I don't know what they practice on the power play. They surely don't practice the zone. They obviously pass way too much still.

And when the puck does get to the net, it gets swallowed up. The net front traffic is really terrible. And I think that's a big area where they miss a prime patrol hornquist who can clean up the garbage. Jake Denzel's good in front of the net. Don't get me wrong. I think he's great. But compared to a prime Patrick Hornquist, it's just it's not the same. And I think at this point, Brian Russ is just not doing anything on that unit.

And at 5E5, I would potentially look to replace him with someone like McCard Raquel. And, you know, again, when the second unit comes out there, they're the ones that actually look competent. They're getting into the zone quick. They're putting pucks in the edge. Jeff Petrie has a booming shot from the point. And usually his numbers on the power plate aren't that good this season so far. They've been better than when they were in Montreal. They just, they seem to have a much more trigger-happy, I guess, presence, if you want to call it that, compared to the first unit where it feels like they're just skating in mud and not doing anything. It's something that needs to change in fast because the penalty kill is also bad.

They seem to have cleaned that up at least. But the power. play, it's terrible. You know, it's funny because you talk about the second unit for the penguins being the one that's kind of driving things there. It's the opposite for the wild in that the pretty much all of these success, power play wise at the beginning of the season was directly because of the top power play unit. And it was good to start this season, but it is really tailed off substantially because we're seeing the same things that are causing issues just in even strength goals. We're seeing that

on the power play as well in that zone entries are a big problem. It seems like it all just kind of fell apart at once. And that has led to a couple of big shakeups in that Matt Boldie now has been moved off of the top power play unit. Freddie Goodro is on the top power play unit in his place. and Matt Boldie is down to PowerPlay 2. I get it, but I think I'm worried that we're going into the same sort of thing that we did last year that didn't work in that, hey, we're just going to put an entire line out here and try to kind of replicate that success as opposed to treating it like an actual PowerPlay. Like they did that where they just would have all five players, three forwards and two defensemen,

and just say, hey, here's your top power play, and it just act like it's even strength. And it's, yeah, if it works, that's okay, but it hasn't been working. So power play could be a points of concern for both teams in this game. Golly-wise, what's your confidence level right now in whichever Penguins goalie? up hopping in the net. Yeah, I mean, they got to figure that out. You know, I've always said this team can win with average goaltending, but for the last several games, they just haven't gotten it.

I mean, DeSmith was good against Toronto, good against Washington, and then against the Maple Leafs last night, you know, wasn't that good. Tristan Jari, he's been playing a bit hurt. He even admitted to the media that he's been battling something. But at that point, you know, if you're playing hurt, you know, just call up Dustin Tocarsky or Philip Lindberg. or something like that down from Wilkesbury,

they're going to need one of these guys take the net and run with it. You know, I was very high on Tristan coming into this season. I said he was going to be a Vesna finalist. I thought he was going to have one heck of the year. He started out great, 940, say, percentage. Since then, though, just hasn't been the same goal that we saw last year. Part of it could be due to an injury.

Keatius Smith, he is what he is. He's a backup goaltender. He's not going to start your 50 games during a season. So they're going to need one of these goaltenders to really start stringing together some strong starts. It feels like it's been a millennia at this point since they've gotten consistent, at least league average goaltending. Again, they had it for a couple of games when they won, but then these last two just

reverted back to the same stuff during the seven-game losing streak where they're just not getting good goaltending and they're also running into some really solid goaltending because during that losing streak, they were playing good enough to win a lot of those games. They were just, A, not getting the saves. And B, they were just running into goalies who decided to, to play like God against them for some reason, like Martin Jones, for example, twice. He's a career backup but wants to play like a prime Dominic Haskich against the Penguins. So, you know, my confidence level, it's definitely not high. I guess it's maybe

below medium right now. They just, they need one, preferably Tristan Jari, if he's more healthy now to go in and take the net and just string together some strong starts. Because if he, if one is able to do that, the Penguins are able to get some of their goals scoring back, you know, they can win a lot of games and get back into playoff contention. So hopefully that does start against Minnesota, but am I confident in it? You know, I don't really know. Before we move to our prediction for the game, I'll just say that the Wild now with Mark Andre Fleury being out

are going to need Philip Gustafson to take the lead, I think. And like I said, his last two starts have been good. He has, he's given the team all you could expect of a starting goaltender. given them above, you know, as you had alluded to, just kind of that good enough goal tending to win, he has beaten that over the last couple of starts against Detroit when the Wilde lost 2 to 1 and his most recent start against the Anaheim Ducks in which the Wilde won 4 to 1. So if he can be at that level and just be steady, just be steady, just be steady, just be consistent because at this point, the Wilde have such a small margin for error offensively,

that if you allow things to snowball, kind of like what happened against Nashville, where the wild gave up two goals back to back, feels like a back breaker at this point. So he's probably not going to record a shutout, especially against this penguin's lineup. So if you give up one goal, that has to be it for a while. That has to be it for enough time for the team to catch their breath

and get back to it. Because if one becomes two becomes three, this team has not had they've scored eight goals in their last six games that's not going to cut it so you got to figure it out and if Gustafson can give them time

to get something figured out line combo wise that's going to go a long way so we'll see what happens ultimately Hunter what do you think what's your prediction for this matchup no I do have a stout for you the Penguins, they're six and no and one in their last seven against Minnesota. I love getting the stats from the Penguins PR team.

I love being on that mailing list, and they put together some good stuff. The Penguins got three out of four points against Minnesota last. Honestly, that first game in Pittsburgh, they choked away that multi-goal lead in the third period. That was when I don't believe they lost that game in a shootout. Then they got some payback in overtime in Minnesota later in the season when it was an end up getting Malkin winner. You know, this is tough. I think it's going to be really close.

I do think overall the Penguins find a way to win it and get back in the win column. They need it badly. They go to Winnipeg on Saturday. They head to Chicago on Sunday. They have a three games and four nights set here. They need to get this off to a good start. And I see it as a very highly contested three two game. I know the wild, you said it, they've struggled to score at 5B5.

I do think they will get at least a couple in this game. But I do think the penguins, I think they're going to. come out fired up in this one. I think Sidney Crosby is going to start taking some of these losses a bit personally and start to really up his game a little bit. And I do think they will come out and get the win. I'm trying to go absolute heel, reverse jinks. And so I hope it works. I'm going to say 4-1 penguins, and I think there will be an empty netter. I think it'll be 3-1 for a good majority of the game. And the penguins get an empty netter to make it 4-1. So I hope that what I want to happen isn't that, but we'll have to see because goals.

I hope I didn't just reverse jinks. I'm one in one when I do these predictions. So I'm at 500. Hopefully, I don't know, if they lose this one when I predict them to win, I think I'm just going to go reverse jinks. Yeah. At some point, you just have to embrace the reverse jinks. So we'll see what happens.

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