Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman Announces the Return to Play Format! What it means for Pittsburgh, plus some thoughts on the re-seeding vs bracketing!

Episode Date: May 27, 2020

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman officially announced the NHL's return to play format today and what it would look like if the NHL does indeed have games start back up. Hunter breaks it all down and what it means for the Penguins, plus has thoughts on the draft lottery announcement and the round-robin games between the top four seeds in each conference. That, and much more on this episode of Locked On Penguins! 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 Tuesday 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. Happy late Memorial Day to you all. Happy you all had a safe and good holiday weekend, maybe did a nice little barbecue for your families at home or whatever, everything. But like I said, happy late Memorial Day. A lot of stuff to get to today. It was a really, really busy day around the NHL today. First off, remember that the show is brought to you. by Bilt Bar and that we still do we still have that week long offer from of course yesterday till

the 31st of May you get $5 off every box of bars you can this can be used in addition to the $10 off promo code for your first order the four new flavors will be Peebee banana coconut pecan pie pineapple upside down cake and blueberry lemons so just remember that and we'll have more on Bilt Bar later but but yeah it was announced you know earlier today that you know Gary Bevin was going to have a press conference at 430 p.m you know everyone knew what that was basically going to be They officially announced the return to play format. This was the first major North American sport league to do this. I'm sure I said this in one of my tweets.

It was probably, it's very, very likely that I think the NBA, the MLB, well, the NFL, maybe not as much, you know, they were probably, like, definitely the NBA, because, you know, their seasons line up just very closely. And then MLB still hasn't even started their season. They were probably watching this to see, you know, what their ideas were, you know, what's going to happen and all of that. that. But the biggest thing that came out of this, you know, the draft lottery was probably one of the

most weirdest things I have ever seen. It really was hysterical. It sounded complicated, but I mean, I guess when I finally sat down and read it and then understood it, it wasn't that complicated. So basically, so nothing really changes for the bottom seven teams, the eight mystery teams. So that would basically have a shot at the number one or number two number three overall pick they'll have a shot after the play in series if these do happen july august and basically they'll get a shot at the number three picks uh top three picks excuse me but after that it would be the points percentage for picks for um through 15 so i think the way i understand it is if one of the bottom seven teams does not get a top three pick and it goes to one of the um the play end teams

I think they basically have to do another draft lottery. But if the top three picks go to the bottom seven teams or three of the bottom seven teams, I don't really think there's a need for the next draft lottery. I think they'll just go based on the point percentage from the playing teams who lose. So I believe that is how it goes. But do not quote me on that. But Gary Ben, you know, they officially announced, like I said, the format. You know, we got the Penguins Montreal matchup, which is going to be quite interesting.

We all know that. Carolina, New York, Islanders Panthers. We get a rematch of that series from a couple years ago where Vincent Trocheck was famously tripped. And, yeah, Islander fans got very, very lucky with that. And then we get the Toronto Maple Leaf's Columbus Blue Jacket series. But we also got the news. I found this very, very interesting.

So one of the biggest points of negotiations between the NHL and the NHLPA that still has to happen is whether or not the first two series are going to be best of five or best to seven. Gary Bettman said the best of seven. series are going to be the conference final on Stanley Cup Final. They're not changing those. And I agree. What my idea would be, just do what baseball does. You know, baseball, they have the NLDS, the divisional series. That's a best of five. It's basically the first round. So make that first round. And then for your second round, too, make it the best of five. And then when baseball goes to their

pennant series for the championship series, and then for the World Series, they go best to seven. That's what the ANShell should do. You know, it keeps up the best of seven series from the conference final and Stanley Cup final, which you don't need to change. And then you know, change. It's perfectly fine. You really don't. And then you just have the first two series as a best of five. It goes by quicker. You really don't need two full months of a Stanley Cup playoffs. I know we're in a completely different time period right now, but I really don't think that they need to do the regular Stanley Cup playoffs for a best of seven series for the first round, second round, third round, fourth round, and after the play-in series. I think that's just, to me,

I think that's a bit much. And then you're looking at what a season starting back up in December, and then you have a full 82, they want a full 82 game season. That's going to be over in, what, July of next year? It's just, it's going to take a little bit for this to head back to normal. But I found that interesting. Another interesting thing I think that came out of the presser from Betman was that, apparently so the top four teams at East Conference, they're going to have like a three-game round robin, so they'll all play each other.

And from what I make of it, I mean, well, according to Frank Saravelli, He also tweeted this too. So if a team like the Philadelphia Flyers, who is basically the number four seed in the east, if they go 3 and O in the round robin, they beat Boston, Washington, and Tampa, they would be the number one seed in the east, even though they were 11 points behind Boston at the time of the pause. Remember guys, Boston was probably going to win the president's trophy. I think they were eight points up on the next closest team in the east. So basically, because of a three-game round-robin, Boston is not going to be the number one seed.

explain that to me like I am five. I really, really do not understand that, you know. Of course, it's the NHL. They always have to be overcomplicated with their playoffs stuff. It's just, you're just devaluing the regular season more and more with this sort of weirdness that you have to put into your sport. Reward the best team in the league for what they did. The Bruins were the best team in the league during the season.

They should be rewarded as such. It's ludicrous that they're going to do that. And, you know, I get it. You know, you want these teams to play each other. That's perfectly fine. I don't care if they play each other. But, you know, you don't really need to make it so that that determines seating. And apparently it also says that the regular season points percentage comes into play in their event of a round rob and tie.

So if someone's like two, but they're both two and one, they just go based off regular season points. So basically, if Tampa and Boston go two and one, let's say, you know. Boston, of course, gets the number one seed. Tampa goes two, and then Washington, Philadelphia, whatever, whatever. But it's just that bar just really, really made me laugh. It's just, you know, seed them one through four where they placed. You know, like I said, you can play each other, but just seed them one through four. It really doesn't make any sense.

You know, Joshiwi, who covers the Penguins for The Athletic, who's also been on this podcast, and who may or may not be coming on this podcast later this week. Stay tuned for that with Chad. Hint, hint. but, you know, he echoed that sentiments too. You know, it's just, like I said, it's the NHL being overcomplicated. They always have to do this nonsense. But also, Gary Bettman was on a conference call from reporters.

Apparently, the NHL is going to be testing players every evening for coronavirus once. If they get to actual competition, the results will be available by the morning. Apparently, Bettman also says they could conduct 25,000 to 30,000 tests. And if that's going to be expensive, if that's a question. Yeah, it's going to be very, very expensive. Yeah, I mean, that's going to be Millions of dollars. You know, I think I saw a really good tweet too.

You know, for every test that they do, they should donate. They should have like a free one that goes out to, just like a common person, you know, or just someone that, you know, where the age group where it really, really affects. I think that would be a really, really good idea, honestly. That, you know, anyone in general,

I feel like that would be a really, really good thing for them to do. Also, let's see here as we scroll down the timeline here. So the 10 cities were announced. Pittsburgh is one of them. 10 hub cities. So, in the initial, of course, they're going to be doing two hub cities for where the games would be played if this goes through. Cities such as Los Angeles were on there.

Edmonton, like I said, Pittsburgh. I believe Vancouver is on here. I'm trying to find. Here's the full list. So Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and Vancouver. If I had to guess which cities that they're going to use, I think it's going to be Vegas. You know, I keep reading that in Elliott Freeman.

31 thoughts. And I think the other one, it might be Columbus. I would not be surprised if Pittsburgh gets it. You know, they have world-class, you know, skating facilities there. Of course, you know, PPP paints arena is, well, you know, I'm always biased towards PPP's Arena. A lot of hotels outside the city. First-class health officials, I mean, you know, you have UPMC health. You know, they're absolutely outstanding there. So yes, I definitely would not be surprised if the city of Pittsburgh does get it, you know, especially as Pittsburgh is not considered a hot spot for COVID-19. And I believe the governor of Pennsylvania is, I think Pittsburgh is in what phase two of the recovery plan? I can double-check that.

But I believe they're chugging along pretty good. So I'm really, really happy for just everyone there. There's some funny memes that I also saw during this. Dimitri Filipovich, please follow Demetri Philibovic of ESPN. And he does the PDO cast. Just a great podcast. He's absolutely hysterical. He did a really funny meme.

He put it at the end of the return to play. play plan. So basically it says 24 clubs will resume play. 2019, 20 regular season is not complete. Each conference is assigned to a hub city with secure hotels or interpractice facilities. And he puts it at the end, the Blackhawks are getting in whether you like it or not, because they're a big market and, you know, the NHL wants to recoup some money. And, you know, I've said it so many times in case you have not listened to this before, I know it's strictly a revenue thing.

I 100% understand that. I'm talking, though, from a hockey perspective, that team in Montreal should 100% not be in it. They should have just done 20 teams. And also today, we'll wrap up with this. Gary Bettman was asked a question about, you know, the receding of bracketing. He's like, yeah, we're going to have to basically talk about that more. We favor the bracketing. Gary Bettman, you're wrong.

Bracketing is just not the way to go about it. He says, while the players favor the receding, which is much better, I think the players will get what they want on this one. I have a hard time believing they'll really, really go with bracketing. I know it would be a peak NHL thing to do. They love making it overcompeting. complicated. It's just a number 12 seed, if upsets a five seed, they should not be playing a number four C. They should be getting the best team in each conference because, you know,

that's how it should be. That makes sense. But as always, guys, you know, there's, this is such a long, it's a long ways away. You know, they still got to talk about many more things. We've got to see where the world is, where the country is. And in a couple months from now, they got to make sure everything is secure. They got to make sure, like I said, everyone gets tested, you know, what's going to happen with families, you know, phase two. I think it's supposed to start between June 1st to June 8th. I think phase 3, they're hoping early to mid-July and then phase 4 when the games begin. You know, we're talking about that not happening until late July, early August.

So, you know, there's just, there's a long things that have got to happen, you know. And guys, that's the best case scenario. That's what we got to remember here, you know. Something could always falter and this could push back even further. But, you know, that's what we have right now. Really cool to see the return-to-play format being announced today. I'm sure we could potentially have the NBA doing similar in the next couple of weeks. I know I think Adam Silver is having a conference call with the GMs pretty soon to talk about what they prefer and everything.

I think they actually sent out a memo to the GMs asking them, you know, what format do you prefer and all that? So we could be getting something from the NBA as well. But with that, it is now time to talk about some of my favorite candy bars ever. Bilt bar. They are protein bars that taste like a candy bar. candy bar. You get 16 amazing flavors, eight chocolate nut flavors, eight chocolate nut free flavors. They're covered in 100% chocolate. They are soft and easy to chew. They are low calorie, low sugar, high protein, and high fiber. We're still doing that offer. Go to buildbar.com. Use

promo code locked on and you'll get $10 off your first order. That's promo code locked on for $10 off at builtbar.com. Okay, so for today, guys, this day, in Penguin's history, A lot of really, really cool stuff happened today. In 1992, Lemieux scores with 12 seconds remaining in game one of the Stanley Cup final. They defeated the Blackhawks 5 to 4 at Mellon Arena. And I believe the Penguins in 18T Sportsnet, like they're continuing their partnership for showing the games back. The Stanley Cup final games, they already did 91, they did 09, they did 2016, and they did 2017. They're now going to show the 92 sleep of the Blackhawks.

So that game one will be shown. shown, excuse me, tomorrow night on 18T SportsNet, and they'll be showing the whole sweep basically of the Blockhawk. So I don't know what they're going to do from there, though, and what they're going to go show more Stanley Cup final games? Nah, I'm just kidding, they won't do that. They'll probably go do some Eastern Conference games

or maybe some awesome regular season moments for the Penguins. But also on this day in 2009, they defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 to sweep the Eastern Conference final earn a return visit to the Stanley Cup final. It was their sixth team sweep in team history. The four-time Pittsburgh made it to the final. That's right. They blew the doors off the hurricanes in that series.

We also had yesterday in Penguins history, guys. We cannot forget this moment, everyone. May 25th, 2017, Chris Kunitz ended the Ottawa Senators franchise with the overtime goal, the knuckle puck. Easley one of my top three favorite moments of being a Penguins fan. I even tweeted yesterday. I don't think my neighbors have forgiven me and my family for the noise that we made when that puck went in. I'm pretty sure a noise complaint was filed.

That was just an unbelievable moment. I wish I could have been in Pittsburgh for that because that was just, that was awesome. But I did forget to touch on this in the last segment. So apparently, if the Penguins were to lose to the Canadians, I believe their 13-year playoff streak would end. I'm going to find, okay, I'm going to find the tweet right now from Pierre the Run. Apparently, Pierre the Brun says the round robin play and are considered qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs.

So for record-keeping purposes, the playoffs were not expanded from 16. So, yes, if the penguins do not, when they're qualifying round into the playoffs, their 13-year streak of playing in the Stanley Cup finals will officially end. So, you know, how about you? They just beat Montreal. I thought it would be 14 years, considering that the regular season was ended, but I guess, you know, the NHL says, nope, you know, you still have to, you know, actually qualify through your playing. This is not considered part of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

So it's just basically a medium, I guess, is the word for it. And also today, we did get some news. Apparently, if the penguins fail to qualify, if they lose to Montreal, I think, I believe their first round pick where they traded in the Jason Zucker trade, it goes to 2021 because it's lottery protected. So I believe the penguins would still have their first round pick this year

if they were to lose to the Canadians. And yes, I know everyone is freaking out with the possibility of the penguins getting the number one overall pick if they lose to the HABs in the plan series and get Alexis. Oh, my God, I'm going to mispronance his name. LaFrenierre, I believe that's his last name. I probably just butchered that last name so bad.

I am not good with those kind of last names. Yes, he is the consensus number one pick. He will be picked number one overall by any team who gets him because he's the best prospect in the draft. So, yes, a lot of people are freaking out if the Penguins fail to qualify for the 16-team Stanley Cup playoffs. They would get the number one pick in the draft lottery. And yes, I would be here for that.

I even tweeted that today that I am officially ready for the Penguins to win the draft lottery after losing to Montreal in the play-in series. One of my good buddies, you know, Marcus, of course, I've mentioned him on this podcast for me, thinking losing in the first round, but then the possibility of Crosby, Malk, and Rust, Gensel, Zucker, and LaFrenier for the next five years with a good gif. Yeah, that would be, that would be badass. The Twitter takes would be through the roof, everyone. The takes would be hot.

They would be melting steel beams. I would be here for it. I know you all would be as well. Just, you know, to see the conspiracy theorists come out. Oh my God. The Penguins, it rigged for them again. Just like they did for Cindy Crosby and Fgeny and McGinie Maloney and Mary Lemieux and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

You know, those are my favorite kind of takes, too, because, you know, they just spew out, people just spew out nonsense like that. So yes, guys, if the Penguins somehow lose to the Montreal Canadiens in the playing series, it would not be the end of the world because they would have a shot at getting the number one overall pick. And all of Twitter would be very, very mad on. line. So yes, I would be 100% here for it. I am on board for that if that does occur. Now, do I think it's fair? No, not really. I really don't think a top 10 team in the league should

have a shot at getting the number one overall pick, but you know what? The NHL likes to be different, and they like to have the draft lottery. I think the top three should only go to the bottom seven teams. That's just, I think that's the only fair way to do it. If one of the Bottom seven teams does not get the top three, and it goes to, like, a fringe team. For the first lottery, I would, the takes would be so bad. It's just, it needs to go. All three of those picks need to go to the bottom seven teams. You know, they were bad.

They deserved to get those top three picks. That's just how I see it, at least. So for our last segment we're debuting our new theme for this week. We're going to be doing this a little bit for each segment, well, one segment per show this week. So it's basically a time machine theme. So basically for this segment, we're going to be going back to a year during the penguin's history, you know, review what was happening with them, you know, some big moments, you know, maybe how it they could have interrupted today. So we have a choice for it today. You know, we're going to do 1990, 2000, or 2010.

Let's see here. I'm just going to go e-nie-miny-money-mo, and we're just going to do that. Okay, so I've decided we're just going to do 2010. So, well, what happened with the penguins in 2010? Well, you know, they were coming off the 2009 Stanley Cup championship. The 2009-10 season was going really, really well for the Penguins. They defeated the Senators in the first round of the playoffs in six games. That series almost went to seven games, scared them live in hell out of me.

I mean, that series I think also almost ended in five. I think the Penguins were up three games to one in that series. They were up, I believe, in game five as well late. Then the Senators tied it, and then I believe the Senators won game five in overtime. Actually, no, my mistake. This game went to triple overtime. I remember, yeah, my mom, I think it was after the first overtime. This was when she was finally actually letting me stay up for some overtimes.

After the first overtime, I think it ended at like 10 something. She's like, yeah, you're going to bed. I was only 12 at the time, so, you know, I couldn't do anything about it. I don't know what time that game ended. It had to have been, like, what, midnight, 12, 30, even later. And the goal, the game winning goal in this game was scored by another other than Matt Karkner. I have no idea who that guy was. I know I do who he is, no idea who he was.

I didn't even know he played on the Senators. That is a name that has escaped me. In this game, you know, Mike Fisher scored the first goal. Yarkarutu made it 2-0-0. Chris LaTang was able to make it two to one. Second period, Chris Kunitz was able to tie it. And then that's right. Yes, Cindy Crosby did score in the third period.

I think this was a goal when he was falling. Assisted by Malkin, this was, yeah, like I said, about with 11 minutes left. And then just a minute and a half later, you know, Peter Regan was able to tie up the game. And then, you know, 706 into the third overtime, we get Matt Karkner's goal to send the series back to Ottawa. And like I said, you know, the senators jumped out to a 3-0 lead in game six. In game six, excuse me, I cannot speak today. It looked very, very likely that that series was going back to Pittsburgh for seven games,

but the Penguins, they chipped away at it. I remember Matt Cook scored in that game six. He actually had the first goal. And then I remember, yeah, he had the tying goal, Billy Garon scored. And then the winner in overtime, about halfway in, 9-56 into. overtime, Pascal Dupuy from Jordan Staud. That was from a really, really bad angle. And if I'm not mistaken, the goaltender

in that game for Ottawa was, yeah, Pascal LeClair. That is a name that I had not heard in a long time. I remember he replaced the other goaltender that they had at the time. Oh yeah, that's right. That's when they had Ryan Elliott.

So this was the days, yeah, before Craig Anderson. But still, you know, it was almost like the Penguins were playing the Senators every year in the playoffs during Cindy Crosby's first early. years in the league. I always remember, you know, 0-6-07, they got swept by the Senators, and then it was 0708, where the Penguins returned the favor and beat Ottawa, and then, you know, like I said, of course, 2009, 2010. So, yeah, in three of Sydney Crosby's first Stanley Cup playoff runs, they beat the Ottawa Senators. And then, of course, they had two more run-ins with them

during the 2012-2013 season, and then we had, of course, the Magic against the Senators in the 2016-2017 Stanley Cup playoffs. it honestly sucks just thinking about this team because this team was still so so good you know this was winning at a time where Craig Adams was still scoring a little bit you know you still had Matt Cook Cindy Crosby in the prime of his career

Pascal Dupuy was doing his thing you still had Fetotanko I always say how underrated he was Alex Gologoski was still not bad I believe this was Gonschar's final year as a penguin before he went to Ottawa I'm double I'm a

don't quote me on that but I do believe that was Sergei Gondchars last year before he left. You know, Billy Garon was still scoring a bit. Of course, he had Chris Kuhnitz sort of in the prime of his career. Chris LaTang was still coming into his own. I mean, he basically already was at this point. He was really, really, really good.

Evgeny Malkin. Brooks Orpick was still, he was serviceable. You know, Alexei Ponikorovsky, man, that is a name that has also escaped me too. I always think about, you know, just how underrated he was at times, too. He would score in, like, just some of the big moments. You know, Mike Ropp. Jordan Stahl, man, I miss Jordan Stahl every day. You know, I probably can't say that enough.

I know I don't say it a lot on this podcast, but man, I miss Jordan Stahl a lot just because of how good he was. He was just a monster, you know, that goal that he scored against the Red Wings and the Stanley Cup final with the short-handed goal to tie the game. That's one of the biggest goals of his career. That's one of the top three, I think, biggest goals of that Stanley Cup run. I will say that till the day I die, man. That goal was just so big.

utter monster. He was so good. And then, you know, Maxine Talbot was still there. You know, that team was still good enough to win. It sucks what happened. And then that next round with Mark Andre Fleury, basically shitting the bed. And then Montreal, just having Yarslav Halak, continue to be hot. You know, I know they lost to the Flyers in the conference final.

But, man, the East was just honestly not that good that season. I really think if the Penguins were able to beat Montreal, I think they beat Philadelphia. And then we finally see a Penguins, Blackhawks in like a final. And, man, what a matchup. would be, you know, like I said, it still sucks that we probably won't ever get a Penguins Hawks' Stanley Cup Final featuring Taves and Kane versus Crosby and Malkin. I know the Hawks are in the playing series this year, as of course are the Penguins, but to see them both in the Stanley Cup Final this year, if it happens, of course, pretty, pretty

unlikely and just, you know, for the rest of their careers, I really don't think that it's going to happen. And of course, you know, as we all know, this was the final season of Mellon Arena before the Penguins officially moved to PPG. I've said that so many times on this podcast I'll say it again I miss Melan Arena each and every day it still sucks that I was never able to get up there

for a game I guess my mom just hated me no I'm just kidding I just could never get up there I was also insanely young I think my mom wasn't as into it as she used to be I don't know what happened but for some reason I could just I just never was able to get up there for a game

and yeah I still I'm still sad about it each and every day so I think that might do it for this episode One more thing about the 2010 thing. That was the year where, you know, just a lot of the pop and rap music was just, you know, it was continuing to gain steam as it was, you know, basically when 2000 started, honestly, just the whole 2000s era. So I just wanted to throw that little tidbit in.

But, you know, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Locked on Penguins. I really do appreciate it. We'll be back, I think tomorrow with another episode. Then on Thursday we'll have a couple special guests that I mentioned earlier on the podcast. to talk about the return to play format, what it means for the penguins, and a bunch of other stuff. I'm really, really looking forward to that conversation. So I hope you all continue to stay safe. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Follow the show's Twitter at LO underscore Penguins. And I will talk to you all tomorrow with some more Penguins content. All right. Take care, guys.