Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - No, the sky is not falling for your Pittsburgh Penguins...

Episode Date: October 27, 2022

Yes, it's a bit late, but we have another episode out for today! Hunter recaps the woeful 4-1 Penguins' loss to the Flames and he first starts out with the goaltending...but this time it's in a bad way. He goes into how Casey DeSmith was great at the start before he let in a couple of stinkers, which thwarted the Penguins' comeback attempt. He breaks down the first goal and why he needed to get his stick in the way to prevent it from getting to Nazem Kadri before going into how he looked small and out of place on the Huberdeau and Stone goals. He then gets into just how bad the top pairing and Sidney Crosby were as they looked like they had nothing all game. In fact, the only main player that he shouts out for playing well was Evgeni Malkin. After that, he dissects Sam Poulin's debut and how he should get more games moving forward, especially with the injuries. It's time to see what the team has in him. Finally, he looks at how this losing streak is nothing to worry about and compares this start to the one they had last season.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.Athletic GreensTo make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORK 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.

Hey everyone, happy Wednesday, October 26th for today's episode on the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am here, of course, your host, Hunter Hodes. We are going to recap that 4-1 loss against the Calgary Flames, going to what the Penguins did wrong, go into some of the goals against, that were allowed, and touch on why the sky is truly not falling for this team. And a whole lot more. So that'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. Hey everyone, I'm Hunter Hodes here with the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Back with another episode for you all. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow the shows Twitter at L-O-Ns for Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this, your first listen of the day. Flames for Penguins One. Ugh.

Ugh. Just a... That's how I think I should describe that game. Ugh. Thank all so much for listening. I'm just getting. But, first of the announcement, though, the YouTube page just officially hit 700 subscribers.

Thank you all who have subscribed to that page. Of course, thank you all so much for listening in general, whether it's also on the audio side of things. But, you know, for YouTube, I've been really building that over the past year. And I'm hoping that in the near future, I can get 300 more subs to get to my short-term goal. of 1000 and after that my next goal will be 1,500 and of course 2,000. So thank you all so much

that continue to subscribe and watch on the YouTube page. And again, thank you so much for continuing to listen on the audio platforms as well. So last night, Penguins come out and it's more of the same with what you saw in the second and third periods against the Oilers. I mean, first period of the flames, they have 63% of the shot attempts. They have 55% of the high danger chances, 70% of the scoring chances, 65% of the actual goals, two actual goals at 5E5. They also outshot the penguins. I couldn't believe it was 20 to 6.

In that first period, everything about it was flat out ugly. They weren't skating. It looked like they couldn't even complete two passes going from defense to offense. They literally looked like they did not want to be out there that period. And a couple of goals at DeSmith. gave up. Some people came at me a little bit on social media when I said that Dispint they need to be a bit better on that first cadre goal. But if you go back and watch it, it comes right by his stick in the blue plane and he's too slow to react to it. I'm just saying,

if Frist Sanjari is in that net there, he sticks that to the corner and the flames do not score there. Maybe they score another goal at some point in the first period, obviously, because when that first goal scored, it leads to the second goal, which would not have been scored at this one was not to stick to the corner. So you get my dream. DeSmith needs to be more aggressive there. He's at his worst when he's playing. He's already 5-11. So he's short as it is. But he's at his worst when he's playing small. He's going down when he doesn't have to. And that's what you saw on that goal. He was playing small, not aggressive enough. And he got beat by Cadre on that goal. Obviously, that shot is not going to be stopped. I don't think any goalie is stopping that shot.

but again, I think he needed to be a bit more aggressive with playing that puck. And, you know, he obviously wasn't. The second goal, I'm not really going to blame him too, too much. It's more so a couple of goals that were scored in the second period that I think he needed to be a lot better on. For example, the one that got through from the point, the Michael Stone one, right? Just not good enough. I know Jeff Petrie's in front of him and he's trying to box out his player,

but like Desmith needs to be better with the movement there he made himself look way too small and he went down when he didn't need to just a really weird goal to give up and you know that basically kind of forwarded the Penguins comeback attempts

in that game you know they're down 3-1 the biggest difference in that second period you know he was Jacob Markstrom who has killed the penguins he was able to make the saves and Casey DeSmith was not. And again, the third goal as well, that was to make it three to nothing in the same area,

because remember, the Penguins were only down to nothing going into period two when they were starting to really tilt the ice in their favor. But the Hubert O one comes on the power play. It's basically a seeing-eye shot from the left side of the point, and DeSmith did a really bad job tracking that one as well. I hate to just dump on him a lot just because he had a really good camp,

really good preseason, had a great performance. in Montreal, but sometimes you're going to get some of these games from your backup goaltender and some of those problems that he had last season popped up a little bit tonight, last night, excuse me. He just needs to do a better job of, you know, seeing around through a little bit of traffic, and he needs to stop making himself look small in the net. It is okay to make a save to help bail out your team, especially when they're trying to come back. You know, that Hebert-O-1, that can't go in. You're only down to you nothing.

think if Malkin scores to make it two to one at that point, because he scored to make a three one directly after, then it's a different game, and, you know, your key peppering marks from, who knows if you tie it. And then the Michael Stone one, um,

in, after that, excuse me, um, just not good enough either. The movement, he didn't do nearly as good of a job as he should have trying to track that puck.

And, you know, the penguins, they got what they deserved in this one. Um, if I can go to, this page here. Yeah, 89 goal tending.

That's not going to get it done. I don't care if Case de Smith's in net. I don't care if Justin Jari's in net. I don't care if Andre Masolevsky or Igor Shostarkin are in net. That is not going to get it done. Point blank, boom. Like, that's just the reality of the situation. I assume Tristan will be playing on Friday in Vancouver against a team and the Canucks

that are 0 and 5 and 2 to. start this season. I mean, I don't know if they're going to make a coaching change soon or potentially make a player trade. I don't know. But it's been, that's a mess out there. I'm going to preview that game on my Thursday episode for you all. But yeah, I really wanted to kick off this first segment talking about the goaltending yet again. I know I've been talking about that a lot on my recent episodes. That's really been how good it was. But for this game, I think it really cost the Penguins. I know DeSmith was making a lot of good saves to bail the penguins out early. He certainly was, and I'm not trying to discount that.

But when you really needed him to make a save, especially when they were pushing in that second period, he wasn't able to, and that's a difference. And you know what, guys, that's hockey sometimes. I'm serious. That is hockey. Sometimes your goalie doesn't get the saves. The other goalie does. Jacob Martian, he's one of the best goal turners in hockey.

He's killed the penguins last couple of years. and you saw that on display again on Tuesday night. So that's really all I have to say about that. Coming up in the second segment, we're getting into some player struggles that I thought were apparent yet again last night, but before I get to that, Ben Online is your number one source for betting football

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easy to wait to check in on all of your favorite games and events, including MLB, MMA, Boxing, Golf. You can head to the website today or use your phone to learn more. That has been online where the game starts. All right, I'm back in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Honour Hodes.

You're going to follow me on Twitter at Honor Hodes, follow the shows Twitter at L-OenS for Penguins. And, of course, thank you so much for making this your first listen of the day. It was another not good night for the top hearing of Dumlin Letang. Letang just looked out of sorts. I thought all evening, the puck was jumping off his stick.

He also was just making a lot of brutal turnovers, I thought, on the powerway. The power plate looked absolutely woeful. I'm going to get to that in just a second. But Latang especially and Dunlin, just not good enough. And their numbers together, you know, 46% of the shot attempts at even strength. 47% of the scoring chances, 46% of the expected goals. Not good enough. Like that's usually one of the best top hearings in the league,

and they got their lunch taken last night. Not a good enough night for them. Sidney Crosby, I thought he was also brutal last night. That's a very weird thing to say because he's been outstanding this season, but I don't know if you notice this as well, Cuyens, but the puck was also jumping off his stick a lot last night. I thought his skating also didn't look as sharp. I'm sure that's going to be fixed by the time they play on Friday.

But I also think people need to realize just how tough this road trip is. Out of your time zone, they're playing good teams, especially these two on a back-to-back. It would have been nice if they scheduled it like Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and then Saturday in Seattle, then they come home. But for some reason, the NHL schedule makers, they decided to do back-to-back for both of them. So I really don't understand why they decided to do that. I almost just lost my train of thought but you know

anyways getting back to it the penguin star players last night they were not going to I thought of getting Malkin I guess I should say I thought Gino had a good game had that goal really nice job for him to bang home that rebound from Jeff Carter so that was nice and of course congratulations to Sam Poo-in for getting that first NHL point I'm going to get to end to him a little bit later on in this episode.

But really outside of him, I don't think anyone had a good game. And especially the star players, most of the Penguin star players were not good enough. Brian Russ didn't have a good game. Danton Heppelin. Eh, just where I cap'n. Eh, Latang, even Ricard Raquel was off.

This was a game that looked like a sure loss right from the jump. That's what it looked like to me. And sometimes you don't have it. That's going to be the case sometimes for a full. 82 game season. I mean, I was listening actually to D.K.'s Daily Shot this morning, and he said when he was covering the team back when Brandon Sutter was on it, and they had just played really well against Edmonton and Calgary, and they had nothing against Vancouver.

He said they got shut out. I think that was in 2015 or 2014 or something like that. And D.K. said after the game, he interviewed Sutter, and he goes, like, what was that? And he goes, like, we just, we had nothing like that. Those kind of games happened. And, you know, you saw them in the third period where a lot of these penguins, you know, players just didn't want to be out there. I kept seeing people saying like, oh, you know, why weren't they skating and all this stuff? And it's, and it's just like, well,

you know what I mean? It's almost just like, wow, like the team is gassed for one. And two, they just want to get off the rank because it's full of one at that point. You're kind of just playing for pride. I know people want to see comebacks and stuff just because there's been a lot of multi-goal comebacks in the NHL this year. But against a team like the flames with how Darrell Sutter coaches them. all that, that just wasn't going to happen. So at the end of the day, you know, they got what they deserved in that one. And again, going back to the original point, the star players, when they need,

when they had a chance to try to bring them back outside of Malkin, they didn't deliver. And I think that's another big reason why this team lost the game. Even outside of that second period where the penguins were very dominant, they had 69% of the shot attempts, 88% of the scoring chance is 71% of the high danger chance, 81% of the expected goals, they legit had nothing. So, you know, that's, again, these kind of games happen. I would expect the team to come out with a vengeance on Friday against a Canucks team that is also pretty desperate, especially for a win, but you know they're playing for their

coach. Jim Rutherford and Patrick Alvin had some interesting comments. That's a messy situation out there, to say the least. I'm trying to think of any other bad performances that I thought of. I mean, I will say I do think Brock McGinn, outside of that goal against Columbus, he has not been doing enough this season. He had another game where 41% of the shot attempts for the Penguins when he was on the ice. scoring chances-wise, not bad, 57%, 58% expected goals.

But he feels like he's in the wrong place at the wrong time. Outside of the first half of last season, I'm just not really seeing it with him at this point. And right now, you know, he's just eating up a lot of cap and they have two years at 2.75 million left with that one. I'm trying to think. I really, I'm looking at my notes here. I honestly don't have that much more for you in terms of, you know, those kind of performances. But I do want to talk about same Poulan coming up in this third segment and why I thought he could, you know, I think he could be here to stay. Plus why, again, this guy is not falling for the scene.

So, second around for that, coming up. after these messages. All right, I'm back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Want to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes? You can also follow the shows Twitter

at Eleanor for Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen to the day. So obviously the big injury news from that game, Jason Zilker was out with that lower body injury.

For those that forgot, he got cross-checked in the hip ribs area, has to be, hopefully it's only just a stinger, keeps him out for a game or two. I think they're expected to practice on Thursday. Hopefully he will be out there for that.

He was able to return for the game didn't, I think, leave. But it's obviously maybe a little bit worse than he maybe realized. Hopefully, though, it's not that long of injury. He has been playing very well to start the season. I want to see him continue to play well. But St. Kulan, he came in for him for his NHL debut, and he was able to get his first NHL point on that of Guinea-Malkin goal. I thought at first, a little bit of a mixed bag.

That second goal that led, I believe it was the second cadre goal, had a brutal turnover at the line, led to the two-on-one. Cadre's going to bury that nine out of ten times. Under Smith, he did there. But after that, he was able to rebound. I thought he was forechecking very aggressively. His speed is very, very evident. I think coming up the ice, he looked like he was defensively responsible for most of this game.

And he was also playing at center after he moved from wing, of course. And honestly, right now, I would continue playing him. I think the penguins really need to see what they have. in this guy like obviously you know you know what you have in someone like archibald you know what you have and someone like paling i thought he didn't really have a good game last night either but you know teddy blueger he's still going to be out for the next couple of weeks why not play him at that fourth line center spawn and bench one of those regulars to see what you have from i mean again i know he's been getting a lot of minutes in wilkesbury i know he got minutes last night where i believe was brought again and ryan pailing

um at times but he didn't look out of place at all to me i thought he played played very, very well. And I think it's a sign of hopefully some things to come because, you know, the Penguins, they don't have a lot of players in their farm system that I guess are ready to come up and be difference makers. But if they can get some value out of Poulan and he can be a player that can be in the bottom six for years to come and someone who's a steady goal score and someone who can also play well defensively in his own zone and not really have his numbers tank, I think that's

big for a team that just doesn't have a lot in the cupboard right now. I feel that's probably honestly the best way to say it. So really enjoyed his performance. I do hope that he continues to play later on. Now, I know I saw a lot of takes last night in general. Just, you know, about like, oh, my God, you know, this the sky's falling. They look so bad in the third period. Again, you know, they're four and two and one.

This team last season, they started out five and six and four through their first 15 games. And I know maybe situations, the circumstances were a bit different. COVID. Crosby was hurt to start the year. But also Malkin was hurt to start the year. I don't think really think said made his true debut until like basically my birthday, which is about in three weeks at this point. So, you know, they had a lot of different situations in that one.

But the thing was they were able to still get some points. They had points in nine of those 15 games. So they were able to stay in the race a bit before the guys came back. And then once they did, they went a nice five to six to 70 winning streak towards the end of November into December. The team, they know when to bring it versus not to bring it. You saw that last night, especially in the third period. They knew it was basically over at that point. Everything is fine.

They've gotten a point in five of their first seven games. They're clearly in a playoff position. Now, if they continue to slide and they look like crap against a team like Vancouver and Seattle, two teams that definitely don't look like they're going to make the playoffs this year, then, you know, maybe I'll start to be a little more concerned. But at the end of the day, there's no need for doom and gloom. This team is still very good. They get the goaltending and they stay healthy.

I mean, they're down three forwards right now in typical Pittsburgh-Painland fashion because they have to be down players even when the season starts. But I'm not worried. I think they're going to play well against Vancouver and Seattle. I think more people need to realize, again, just how tough the Western Canada trip is. It's a lot of fun to watch. I love late night hockey. I could watch late-night hockey for, I mean, every day, if I could, legitimately.

If the Penguins played every night for me at like 9, 10 o'clock, I would absolutely love it because I love going to bed at like 1230 or 1 every single morning. So, yeah, with that said, though, it's a tough trip. You know, it starts in Columbus, got to fly out to Edmonton. You play well, then you just get beat bad. Then the next night, not even 24 hours later, you're playing the Flames, another very good team. Nazim Kadri looks to be picking up right where he left off when he was with Colorado. Jonathan Hubertoe, another very good player.

Their best players were their best players. And then you have to go to Vancouver on Friday after a couple days off. And then after Maddoxon, less than 24 hours later, you have to play Seattle. It's a tough trip. Like, if you can get to three and two out of this road trip, I think everyone would be pretty happy coming home when they play their next game. But we got to see what they can do with it. You know, they have a practice day on Thursday.

I'm sure there will be some injury up. dates and all that stuff. But, you know, they got, they made their bed with these last couple of games and they got to live with it. So four and two and one, it's one of their best starts that I've seen in the last couple of years. Again, five and six and four last year. And that was basically into early to mid-November and the team people were saying that they were cooked. So everyone needs to pump the brakes a little bit. It's okay. Penguins are back in action Friday. I will have a full preview episode for the game on Thursday. I apologize that this episode is a little bit shorter. I know there was just so much bad to talk about. So,

no, it's not one of my longer ones just because there's not a lot of positive things to say about it in general. So again, they'll practice on Thursday. I have updates from that and a full game preview for the game against the Canucks on Thursday. And then on Friday, I will have another episode either directly after the game or going into it. So again, thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate it. And I will talk with you all again. on Thursday.