Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Now THAT is a bounce-back win for the Pittsburgh Penguins!

Episode Date: October 21, 2022

The Pittsburgh Penguins needed to respond after Monday night's showing and boy did they ever. They got off to a slow start but they gave the Kings a 6-1 drubbing before this was all said and done. Hunter starts this recap episode by looking at how the goaltending on both sides was the biggest reason why the Penguins won this game. He looks at Tristan Jarry's performance and how he was able to keep the Penguins in it during the first period and all of the timely saves that he made throughout. He then flips the script and looks at how the Los Angeles Kings got putrid goaltending from both Cal Peterson and Jonathan Quick that gave the Penguins this win. After that, he goes into some of the players who had much better performances compared to Monday's game. He looks at Jeff Petry & how we're already starting to see how much of an upgrade he is on the second pairing before transitioning over to the entire top line. Was that vintage Sidney Crosby that we just watched? He also breaks down Guentzel's third goal of the season & how it was a classic Guentzel goal before shouting out Kris Letang, Jeff Carter, and Brian Dumoulin for much better performances. Finally, Hunter ends the show with Mike Sullivan's 300th win & how this team continues to play super hard for him while also taking a listener takeaway.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.

Good evening Penguins fans. Happy Thursday, Hunter Ho do you see back with another episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. Fresh off the Penguins 6 to 1 drubbing of Los Angeles Kings. For today's episode, we're going to focus on the first segment, the goaltending for this matchup and how big of a deal it was, especially from the Kingside because the Penguins had brilliant goaltending. And the second segment we're going to get into the players that I thought bounced back with this game, especially Jeff Petrie and Crystal Teng, a couple others. for the final segment we're going to get into some other thoughts and observations from this contest. And again, look at how good this team has been to start the season.

So that's all coming up right after this drop. Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes.

Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow the shows, Twitter, at L.N or Sour Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. So as I said in the intro, the Penguins absolutely blitzed the Los Angeles Kings, a six to one final. The Penguins are now three in 0 and one to start this season, seven out of eight points. Probably should have all eight if they were able to defend that lead against Montreal, but you will still take seven out of eight points every single time. And a big reason why they have seven out of eight points start the season is the play of the

goaltending. And that showed again tonight with another spectacular performance from Trishinjori. I said coming into this season, one of my big bold predictions was that he's going to be a Vesna trophy finalist. He is definitely playing at that level right now coming into this game in a couple starts, had a 930A save percentage, goals against average below two. It's going to stay that way after this performance, that's for sure. had almost a 40 save game tonight.

Save percentage is probably going to go up to about 940, 941, something like that. And, you know, also tonight at 5E5 had all 25 saves at even strength. His expected goals against was 2.1. That is how, so he was expected to give up two goals. He was that freaking good, especially in the first period to save seven high danger shot against. So those are shots about 5 to 10 feet out, medium, about 15, 20 feet out. That's nine saves that he had and then low danger.

That's about 30 feet out. More than that, seven out of seven. He was awesome. If you go to all situations here, expected goals against 3.9. That is just insane. The level that he played at tonight. And other stats here, 11 high danger, at all situations, 13 medium, and then 13 low danger.

He's been a wall to start this season for the Penguins. And I'm really hoping that some people start joining me on the bandwagon that he's going to be a Desmond Trovee finals. Because if he does keep it up, keep this up, I think it's only a matter of time before he does become a finalist at the end of the season. In the first period, you know, he was the reason that Penguins were getting a chance to, you know, break the ice and go up 1-0 and then 2-0 and then 3-0 going in to the first intermission. He was making timely save after timely save after timely save. And some of those chances

were, how don't I want to say it? A couple of them were high danger. The Kings only had two high danger chances in the first period, but a lot of them were still decent chances 15, 20 feet out, and Jari was slamming the door. The Penguins really weren't connecting on a lot of passes out of their defensive zone. I thought they were kind of being suffocated in the neutral zone. They weren't getting a lot of offensive zone time, which obviously led to the Kings. out skating them pretty badly in the first period. But I was able to shut the door, which then led to Yon Rouge to his goal, and then Jake Gensel scored. And then, again, the floodgates truly open, and this game was over by the first intermission.

He was the main difference to get this game going in the right direction. I have to shout him out first to begin this episode on the other side. The King's goal tending, not good at all. Cal Peterson. I was definitely a little bit surprised that he was starting this game. I know Jonathan Quick came into this game less than a 900% I think his goals against average was over three But still I figured they would kind of go back to him here

Peterson just started the other night Three games and four nights go back to the number one that you have last year But nope, they went to Peterson and I definitely think they maybe regretted it Just because he was pulled directly after the first period The Yan Rue took a goal kind of weak, I would say Just a goal that it was some traffic in front but that's from like 55, 60 feet out. You've got to be able to save that.

Gensel goal, I'm not really going to blame him there. But the third goal, though, you know, one that I think he could have saved. So I'm not really surprised that he was pulled directly after that third goal going into the second period. They tried to get a spark with quick coming in. It didn't work. He gave up three goals himself. But I think that's the goaltending is the main reason why the Penguins won this game. Tristan Jari played like an All-Star at one end.

Cal Peterson played like a replacement level goaltender here. If I can go down to Kings on Ice here, if I can, well, I guess it's not going to show the goal-tending stats for some reason, even though it showed for the actually, no, no, it's the individual one. Excuse me. If you go down here for Cal Peterson, you know, three high-danger shots against one save, two, high-danger goals, again. So they got to the front of the net pretty well, but a 625 say percentage, add even strength. That ain't going to cut it. I mean, when your goals against average is basically 10 and you're giving up three goals, that's bad goaltending. And, you know, the Kings were as advertised

in the first period. You know, they focus on a lot of shots from the medium danger ranges and the low danger ranges. And they have quantity over quality. But their goaltending, was not able to be good enough tonight. And you saw that. That's for sure. So I think that is the main reason why the penguins were able to be victorious in this game. I even tweeted at the time of the first period. I have no idea how the penguins are up right now just because, you know,

they were getting brutally outplayed. But the funny thing is I did check natural statric. And the heat map, it really showed, you know, the Kings again, a lot of their chances were to the outside. The Penguins were doing really nice. nice job taking the slot away and at the first intermission the king's only had two high danger chances so i think that's a big reason right there and the penguins were also controlling 56% of the expected goals so we that wraps up this first segment for today's recap episode again shout out tris and jari

great start this to the season i'm not sure if he'll get the game on saturday maybe they may give him a rest but um he was making great save after a great save tonight and you know i can't be more thrilled with play right now. He continues this up. He's going to make a lot of money, whether it's the United Penguins or it's someone else. I will gladly say that. But coming over the next day, we're going to get into some players who I thought had some really nice bounceback games tonight, including Jeff Petrie and a couple others that I do want to focus on. But before I get to that, Benline is your number one source for betting football and the start of the new basketball season. You can find all the latest player developments, team matchups, news, podcasts, and in-depth analysis on every game.

And as always, But Online remains your continued source for all of your sports wage and information with live betting and up-to-the-minute scores for every sport out there. It's the fastest and easiest way to check on all your favorite games and events, including MLB, MMA boxing golf. You can head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more. That is but online where the game starts. All right, I'm back here in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. We're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at EleanorScore Penguins.

And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. So getting into some more reactions from this amazing Penguins win for you Jensers tonight. Players who bounce back. That's the big topic for the second segment of the show. Let's start with Chris LaTang. I trashed him on my Tuesday episode. He had a really bad game. I said this is kind of one of those five to six.

to seven games, maybe eight to nine, that he's just really bad during a season. That's just who he is. He's going to play 65 to 7, at least 65, at least probably 70 really good games. The rest are probably going to be crap. That was one of them. You move on. He played a much more disciplined game tonight, wasn't turning the puck over too much, looked great in the offensive zone, had a couple of assists, was moving the puck well,

was defending well in his own zone, much better performance from him. him and if I can go to NST here and look at the overall numbers for what's saying if I scroll down and find on the defense. I don't know where. Yeah. Only 45% of the Sean attempts at 5E5. So, I mean, that's kind of eh, but, you know, scoring chances wise was fine. He's going up against the Kopitar line.

So I'm not really too worried about that. But it was a much better performance I thought from him. I test wise. Jeff Petrie had a miserable game going up against the Canadians on Monday. Much better game tonight against the Kings had three points. Got his first goal of the season and fun fact for you all. This is going to be sad, but also funny. With Jeff Petrie's goal tonight, he has tied John Marino's goal output from last season in four games.

One goal in four games for Petrie, one goal in 82 games last year for John Marino. I know Moreno might be a little bit better defensively than Petrie, but the offensive upgrade that Petri provides, it's not even close. So I thought he looked great tonight. I figured he was going to bounce back after that poor showing. Took some penalties, was responsible for the penalty that lost the game in overtime when Kirby Doc scored at the side of the net.

No, it's great to see him playing with a Gennie Monk in most of his minutes. Gino badly needed an offensive defenseman. I'm really glad that Ron Hexel was able to target that over the offseason. I mean, tonight, 58% of the scoring chances for the Penguins when Petrie is on the ice, 50% of the shot attempts. High danger-wise, if I can find that here. About 3 to 5, so not that good, but scoring chances-wise, definitely much better compared to last game.

And then the top line, also much better performance. I'll shout out all three. those guys. Sidney Crosby, he had some very vintage Sidney Crosby-like shifts tonight that even had one late in the third period that I think would have brought down

PBG Paine's arena. He came into the offensive zone right side of the ice, right? Gomsden kind of does a little bit of a dangle on a King's Defender, gets around him and pushes the puck just wide of Jonathan Quick. If he scores there,

that's probably one of the better Cindy Crosby goals that we've seen for as long as we've been watching him. But I thought he had an extra umph to himself tonight has continued to be top five in points. I believe that's now, he has now seven points in four games. He is on a mission to start this season, that's for sure. You know, he lives very quiet against Montreal.

One of their young defenseman, Gully, basically allowed like one shot against when he was playing against. I think he played like 12 to 13 minutes, even strength against him. Very uncharacteristic for him to be shut down like that, especially by a rookie defenseman. he definitely did not take kind of that and he had a much better game tonight also will say that to jake gensel though he also was just taking up beating ones from brendan lemieux with a dirty elbow to the face takes a puck to the ear hopefully he is okay um i tweeted this at the time just please get off the ice with like 11 to 12 minutes remaining i do not want to see him um on ice remainder that game thankfully the penguins listened um i'm sure they're going to have an up

date pretty soon if they have not had one already. And yes, actually, they are just, they just tweeted this out the Payman's account that is. Jake is being evaluated right now. Mike Sullivan said he doesn't have any specifics. As far as they hit, he said he thinks it was late and unnecessary. That was the Brendan Lemieux hit. So hopefully Jake is okay. He was able to skate off on his own power.

They cannot have an injury to him at this point, especially with how he played tonight, got his third goal of the season. Watch what he does on that goal, by the way. know, the tang puts it to the front of the net. Jake kicks it to himself off his skate to his stick, boom, in the back of the net. It's little things like that that make Jake the goal score that he is. Because, you know, other players, they'll kind of just try to maybe kick it in the back of the net. You know, they won't try to think about kicking it to their stick.

But, you know, Jake, again, you give him the smallest amount of time. It's going to make you pay 10 tons times. And that's what he did on that. goal. And also Ricardo Raquel, he gets another goal this season. He had a really nice, just a really good job to cut to the front of the net and clean up the garbage. At least I believe that's his second goal of the season. I'm trying to, I'm making sure that I remember that he scored against Tampa Bay when I was in the, in the building. I'm just trying to, no, yeah, I'm just, I'm just trying to make sure here. Yes, that was his second.

ball. Who thought I had a brain fart there for a second. But getting back to the actual goal, sorry about that. You know, Petrie bombs it from the point. Peterson doesn't have it. It goes off the post. It just kind of sits there. And Raquel cuts to the front of net directly from the right and is able to get that angle

with the puck, put in the back of the net. You know, that's a goal scores, goal clean up the garbage. Really nice job from him on that. I thought the entire fourth line also bounced back tonight. Shout out to Ryan Pailing. I thought this was easily his best. game and a Panger uniform. He had an absolute blast for a short-handed goal, gets his first of the year. He definitely looks like the kind of player that would thrive in Mike Sullivan's system,

a very, you know, good skater, someone who has a wicked release, can play decent defensively. You all know my thoughts on who I would have on the fourth line when Teddy Booger's back. I think at least tonight he solidified a match-12 forward spot. You know, he was very good, and I look forward to seeing him potentially play like that a lot more in the future. So yeah, I got the top line, got, I think I got most of the players that had bad games last time. Brian Dumlin, I will say shout out to him. I thought he was much better tonight as well. Didn't really have any glaring mistakes or anything like that.

It was on ice for 42% of the Sean attempts, you know, 31% of the scoring chances. The numbers weren't going to be that good just because he's going up against top competition. but he was fine. Last but not least, one player that I do want to shout out that's had a great start to the season is Marcus Pedersen. Watch the decision making that he has going right now.

And he was on ice the penguin's at 52% of the shot attempts. About 87% of the expected goals tonight, 70% of the scoring chances. He is on a mission right now. Obviously, those. trade rumors, I think really screwed him up. I wouldn't say screwed him up or the offseason, but they definitely affected him just because he wanted to stay here. And I think he's definitely, if he hasn't, if he wasn't cementing his roster spot in the first game of the season,

he's definitely doing it right now. Watch his decision making in the defensive zone. His first pass looks crisp. He's defending that net front area a lot better than he used to be. He's also doing well in the offensive zone. He's looking great next to Petra. I think that has the chance to be one of the best second hearings in the league with how it's looking right now. So those are the players I really wanted to shout out for this segment to say the least. If any Malkin looked great again, Brian Rust also looked fine. Jeff Carter got another goal, had a much better performance tonight as well. I'll add him.

I thought Carter, for as bad as he was defensively in the game against Montreal, thought tonight bounced back in a big way, was able to get a goal, his second of the season. and hopefully this is the version of Carter that we keep seeing for the rest of the year. Now, coming up in the final segment, we're going to get into a listener takeaway that I believe Alan T. Yoder just sent me. And finally, we're going to touch on a big milestone that Mike Sullivan just hit tonight. So stick around for that coming up in this final segment. All right, I'm back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honour Hodes. We're going to follow me on Twitter at Honor Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at

LO, Orange Score Penguins, and of course, thank you so much for making this your first listen of the day. So the big one, obviously, so tonight, he's been trying to get this for, well, I guess the last few days. But congratulations to Mike Sullivan on his 300th win, as Penguin's head coach, no other Penguin coach has ever gone there before. the fact that he's been here this long, even though they've had playoff failures, goes to show how much the organization values him. Not just as a coach, not as a teacher, but as a person, as an ambassador to this franchise, he is the perfect coach for this team. I would not, I would do not want anyone else coaching this team for this foreseeable future.

Right now, I think it's hard to argue that he isn't the best coach in this franchise history. I've been saying for a while that I think it's between him and Badger Bob. I think right now with the work that he's been doing, you know, last year with the COVID and the injuries, the year before that, they won the division with the injuries. I know they've had a lack of playoff success a little bit lately, but I think right now he is the best coach in this team's history. And I think a lot of people need to realize just how lucky you are to have him. As Penguins head coach, you know, they're playing a very disciplined style of hockey right now. before checking hard outside that game against Montreal.

They're defending well. They're scoring in bunches. They've scored 18 goals in their first three home games of the season. I mean, that's just unheard of. Basically, this is Mike Sullivan and Penguins hockey, and you are seeing it firsthand. So Mike, congratulations to you. You are the perfect coach for this team,

and hopefully the Penguins are going to be able to get some playoff success for you all, for you at least, this year. Now, getting to a, listener takeaway from Alan T. Yoder here. I appreciate you sending me this, Alan. He goes, they looked pretty sloppy for some parts, but still good. Raquel's goal was definitely one of the two best I've seen in person. Petrie definitely made up for Monday. And yes, Alan, the Petrie tonight, as I talked about in the last segment, was very good, making smart decisions with the puck. He has a bomb of a shot from the point defensively. He cleaned up a lot

of his issues did not really take any penalties. His pairing with Pedersen looked much better. it was a cleaner performance from him. And again, you can just see the upgrade that he brings offensively to this team on a nightly basis. It's not even close. And yeah, as you said, the Raquel goal, awesome one, too. The way he was able to cut in behind Cal Peterson there and get that goal was awesome. You know, just the angle that he had to reach back and put the puck in the back of the net. You know, that's awesome stuff.

And again, yeah, you were right out. They definitely looked a bit sloppy, but they were able to clean it up. And for the game, you know, just looking at the overall game stats now that you were on the subject, Alan, penguins only had 45% of the shot attempts, 45% of the scoring chances, 43% of the high danger chances. But, you know, they had all four goals at even strength. They were close to 50-50, in expected goals. In the third period, the penguins actually dominated the Kings in a lot of those categories, 79%. of the expected goals, 81% of the scoring chances and 61% of the shot attempts. And they also had 51% of the shot attempts in the second period.

So again, after a little bit of a rough first period, even though the Kings only had two high-dangered chances, they were to clean things up and deliver a dominant win. And I said coming into this game, just to wrap this episode up for you all, this was a big test for the Penguins just because the Kings, I think they're easily one of the four best teams in the West coming into this season. outside of Colorado, Calgary, maybe Edmonton, I guess I would have the Kings right there. They got a lot of skill in their top six, very deep team, good defensively. Usually their goaltending is a lot better of this.

You saw them play at a high level in the first period. They just weren't able to sustain that once the Penguin started to get some goals, even just because the King's goaltending had an off night tonight. But I think that was a statement win for this team, 3 and 1 to start the season. and now they embark on a massive road trip. You know, they go on the road tomorrow. They'll play Columbus on Saturday. I'll have a full game preview for you all for tomorrow's episode

and I'll look ahead as well with some other topics. But, you know, it's hard not to be excited about this team right now. With how they're playing, they look like a sure playoff team, they look like a fringe family cup contender. And Tristan can continue to deliver this kind of goaltending. I think this team can be a really tough out in a seven-game series. I've said it all the time. It really just comes down to the health and the goaltending for this team.

Knock on wood, the team is healthy right now. Also, knock on wood, the goaltending is also playing at a very, very high level. If both of those things can continue for this entire season, this potentially could be a very special season for the penguins. And also, shout out to Jan Ruta, got his first goal as a penguin tonight. outside of paling and Petra. I thought Ruta had a really nice game. He's been a great fit.

These first four games, looks like a national in the third pairing. If he was able to play, again, if he was able to play well, Victor Heddon on the top pairing, these should be baby-like minutes for him. I mean,

he should be able to crush these, and so far he's been doing that, to say,ably. So I got no negatives tonight for you all. I got nothing bad to say about the team. And, you know, 3 and 1, 7 out of 8 points. It's a great time to be a Penguins fan right now.

And it's a great time to keep following the shell. I'll have content for you all every single weekday throughout the regular season. Keep it right here on Locked on Penguins. I really appreciate all of you listening. I'll be back with another episode on Friday to preview the game on Saturday. And then we'll also look ahead to the Western Canada trip. And I'll preview those games during the episode as well, because the next episode I will bring for you all will be on Monday,

probably be a full game recap. So again, thank you all so much for listening. And I'll talk with you all on Friday. it.