Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Now, was THAT the win of the season for the Pittsburgh Penguins?

Episode Date: March 4, 2022

Utter DOMINATION by the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight! Hunter dives into perhaps the game of the year by the Penguins as they were ready right from the jump. He breaks down Heinen's goal and how it was all started by Evgeni Malkin as he was a menace all night. He also touches on the play of Kasperi Kapanen on that goal as he made one of the finest decisions he's made all year. After that, he gets to how this is the blueprint for the Penguins to go on a Stanley Cup run, plus gets into Geno's revenge on Bellemare. It was 'The Shift Pt. 2" for Geno and all it needed was a vintage slapshot like we all saw against the Philadelphia Flyers. Hunter also gives his thoughts on Mark Friedman and how he continues to be a lunatic, plus ponders the question if the Lightning have a problem against the Penguins. Of course, the show ends with the listener takeaway segment before previewing what's to come on Friday.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 “LOCKED15,” 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!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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.

Well, was that the win of the freaking season for the Penguins or not? I mean, from the start of the game to the finish, Pittsburgh absolutely took it. And I mean, took it to the two-time defending champions. Of course, that is, the Tampa Bay Lightning. I have a full game recap episode coming up right now for you all. I'm Genie Malkins' brilliance. Cindy Crosby's brilliance. The awesome defensive play, Tristan Jari, John Cooper's Phil Diper.

I got it all for you. And, of course, some post-game takeaways 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, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Myr to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Also follow the show's Twitter at L.O.N.S. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. Wow. We have a lot to get into for this episode. I'm fired up. I mean, that was a hell of a game by your Pittsburgh Penguins tonight. I said in my tweet on my personal Twitter that this was probably a top three to win of the season. This was probably their best win of the season. The vibes were there right from the opening minute when the penguins were just launching everything at the net and out skating and outchancing the lightning. And it continued for the entire freaking game. The lightning barely even had any scoring chances. I mean, if I go to natural sattrick here, the lightning only had one high danger chance in the third period. When they

were down three to one going in, they only had three high danger chances in the first period. They pushed back a little bit in the second period at times. But for the most part, the penguins just absolutely dominated them both offensively and defensively. And, you know, I think that's honestly my biggest takeaway from this game. Outside of getting Malkin, I'm going to get to him, of course, in just a second. But, you know, if this game were on a national audience, I think you would see more and more media, you know, on a national scale, say that the penguins can play with Tampa Bay. And that's what I'm going to say for you all right here. The penguins can not only play with them, but they can push back against them and they can beat them.

You know, I know those three games against the lightning this year were, you know, different in their own way. the first one, the penguins were just so banged up and they were able to get a lot of depth scoring and played well defensively. I know tonight a lot of it was about the stars. The second game, I thought Pittsburgh played okay. They were pretty banged up, but, you know, Tampa Bay just had a lot more firepower in line up,

and Andre Vesalewski also showed up. But tonight, it was just, I shouldn't say it was both those combined because it wasn't, but tonight you just had the penguins dominate them in a fashion that I really haven't seen since 2016. You know, this is the first time the Penguins have won the season series in five years. It's pretty crazy to think about. But, you know, again, just with how fast the Penguins skated tonight, with how they defended,

with who, you know, they got, you know, goals from in the lineup, this is a team that can beat Tampa Bay in the playoffs. Obviously, Tampa is going to play much better than this in a seven-game series. I'm sure John Cooper is going to give it to them after the game, and they're not going to play like this, you know, too many times during the year. Remember, this is, this is Tampa Bay. This is only their fifth home regulation loss. Two of them have come to the Penguins in blowout fashion. Penguins have scored 11 goals in two games at Emily Arena. The lightning have only scored three out home against Pittsburgh. I mean, and again, I know regular season hockey and playoff hockey are two different things. I'm not going to deny that.

but, you know, what I saw tonight is a team, you know, back in play with the best of the best. You know, we all know coming into this, this was going to be such a huge stretch for the penguins. They're going to be tested. You know, how are they going to fare against these really elite teams? Obviously, a team that, you know, was gunning for three cups in a row just like the penguins were a few short years ago. But this first test, check mark. That was an A plus performance from everyone. in a lineup i i don't even think i can be negative um towards any player on the team for this game

and you you you won't know me for as long you know if you've you've been listening to this podcast for a long time heck even if it's for a week you know i'll be as objective as i can be if a player plays bad i'm gonna dump on them but tonight you know i really don't think any penguin skater you know was bad and obviously the best player on the ice when are teams i tweeted this of course When are teams going to stop screwing around with Evgeny Malkin? Bad stuff usually happens when you make him mad about 85 to 90% of the time. You know, that shit, that it was, you know, the shift basically when, you know,

Pierre Mawr is going at him a little bit, then Gino comes over, gives him a huge hit along the boards, and then comes in on a breakaway, fires it, Gloveside Pass Vasselovsky, and just has a nice celebration, has a couple of things. words, I think, for Tampa Bay's bench. You don't want to keep making this guy mad. And, you know, he was on another level this game. Just he was the main, you know, reason why the Penguins got that first goal as well. Go back and watch it because he gets the puck coming out of the blue line. You know, just always does his little retreat, right? But, you know, comes at, turns the corner, starts galloping as he always does when he's fully healthy, gets it to captain. And who makes a great

to get it to Hinen, who then gets his 12th of the year to make it 1-0 and obviously the floodgates open right after that. But if it weren't for Malkin at full speed there, going into the zone where no one can stop him, that goal is not scored. He has his legs back completely. This is the best I've seen of getting Malkin since, you know, maybe the halfway point of last season before he got hurt. He has 24 points in 20 games.

He's already at double-digit goals and he has played only 20 freaking games this year. You know, for the, again, for those people that said that he's going to kill the structure, you know, he's, you know, he's going to kill the vibe or whatever. You know, I hope you're eating that crow right now. This team is a completely different animal when he is on the ice, the Penguins PowerPlay play since he came back in early January, number one in the league and power play efficiency. You know, that is how much of a difference he makes him lineup. And I know they played well without him. Don't get me wrong. I saw the record. but with him in the lineup, the team is that much better.

He was just a force all night long. If he's going to keep playing like this and if Sid's going to keep kicking ass and taking names as well, the sky is the limit. And overall, again, with this performance, I should say, you know, if the penguins can consistently play like this down the stretch into the playoffs, the sky truly is the limit. This is the blueprint for the penguins to go make a deep playoff run for the first time since 2017. Stellar defense, great goal tending, depth scoring, your stars showing up, all of that. And, you know, obviously a little bit of pushback,

boom. That is what, that is all the team needs. I think obviously they're going to need a little bit of luck to go their way and championship team needs luck here. But that is the blue print for your penguins to go on a Stanley Cup run. And I did not expect it to happen tonight. That's for sure. I thought this was going to be a much closer game just because of how Tampa was playing coming into this game. I mean, they had won five in a row, eight out of their last 10.

I know the penguins won six out of their last 10 in February, but they were kind of struggling coming in. I mean, they played the Rangers and the Blue Jackets good. But before then, you know, just they weren't playing their best hockey. Heck, even in those two games, they didn't play some of their best hockey. but you know this was a December slash January performance for the Penguins and you know it was it was nothing short of awesome coming up in the next segment we're going to get into Sidney Crosby's goal on how that was on how you know how that was able to basically be set up and how the power play continues to hum at a very good rate Brock McGinn's goal you know how he was

able to beat Andre Vasselowski there and you know obviously we got to get into you know the scrum You know, that led John Cooper to being ejected and also your listener takeaways. I haven't done those in a while. I'm going to save those for the third segment of today's show. But before I get to that, football might be over for the season. The basketball is in full steam for both pro and college hoops. From all the latest odds, total plays play performance props to where the next fired coach is going to land. Beteline.com.net is the number one spot for all your sports betting needs.

Betterline remains the best spot for all of your sports scores, podcasts, and news this season. and it's not just basketball. Betonline.net is your source for hockey, boxing, and UFC odds right to the Olympic coverage and information. Head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends and action. That is BetOnline, where the game starts. All right, I'm back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Myrna to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Also follow the show's Twitter at EleanorScore Penguins. So the Penguin PowerPlay goal that was able to make it two to nothing. That was probably the power play of the year. The passing that I saw, and I know all of you that listened to the show that you all saw, was just nothing short of sensational. They were getting plenty of chances before Sid was able to convert. I believe it was Rust Pass that got to Crosby. Vasilevsky was all over the place.

He's able to fire into a half-empty net, gets his 17th of the year. But, you know, Latang and Malcolon playing. hatch at the point, you know, nothing looked even close to being rushed. And the Penguins were also not even trying to be, you know, the Harlem Globe Grudders or anything. I know they sometimes try to do that on some powerplays. But, you know, this was a very, you know, taking care of business kind of power play. But I also did notice that Tampa Bay's penalty killing wasn't particularly good there.

You know, they were kind of just sitting back a little bit, letting the penguins do whatever they want. And when you give the penguins a team with that much firepower, on their top unit that much time in space, they're going to make you pay virtually every time. You know, and I'm surprised if they didn't, you know, be as aggressive as a team like, you know, maybe Columbus was on Sunday or even before that,

you know, last week against New Jersey, because those two teams were really pressuring the penguins at the point. That is how I think this power play gets slowing now. You know, when they're actively being pressured and they have to, they're forced to make, you know, quicker than normal reads, that sometimes leads to an error pass and then, you know, some, you know, some short-handed odd man rushes or even breakaways. So, you know, thankfully that didn't happen tonight and the lightning basically just said,

okay, you know, we're going to give you a free pass to roam in our zone. And, you know, Cindy Crosby was able to be able to make it to nothing off that power play chance. But, you know, again, just having Gino out there especially makes this unit so much better. It was already playing, you know, decently well up until he can. came back, but, you know, these last couple of months, again, you know, you want to put the penguins on the power play, you do it at your own risk, because, you know, they have just been scoring basically a one, at least one of their goals for a game now is on the power play.

So, you know, teams want to keep doing that, you know, that's their, that's their bed to lion. You know, the scrum, there's a few scrums, obviously, in the second period. Corey Perry does what Corey Perry does. I'm not surprised. That's how he's been for the last however many years he's been in the league. Excuse me. I mean, it's in at least 15 years.

But, you know, has an obvious penalty that's not called after he slashes Mark Friedman's stick. And then Jari basically just gives him a look. And then basically just sticks Jari up high. And then Friedman basically is just a total lunatic. And slams him down, you know, good on him. You know, I've never cared. for Corey Perry. You have John Cooper barking at the refs. His diaper is obviously very fitful. It also was pretty weird tonight. How many diapers that the Lightning players,

you know, have? Because it was just like all they were doing all night was just complaining to the officials. And don't get it wrong. I thought the officiating was horrendous. Wes McCauley was calling a terrible game. There were obvious penalties that I think remote teams were not being called. But I think at times, lightning players are just going a bit too far. And that's exactly what you saw, you know, even behind the bench with Cooper's. He was giving it to McCauley. And, you know, he ended up getting ejected. And I think some of the Tampa Bay announcers said that that's one of the first times they've ever seen Cooper be, you know, A, that hot during a game

and even ejected from a game. Because he's usually pretty composed from what I've watched in the playoffs and the regular season. But, you know, Now, I hope he does get his, you know, maybe he gets a diaper change after the game. You know, I can say the same for Patrick Maroon. Don't really know what was up. His tree all game. He was just, you know, taking runs at some players. I don't really know what was going on there.

Pierre, we're Belmar, again, you know, taking a run into getting him allkin, pissing him off. You know, Gigi's in the chat, as I like to say, you know, my little gaming term there. So just really weird. I don't know if that's a nightly occurrence for the lightning. I don't think it is. I don't watch a lot of lightning games outside of obviously in the playoffs. But, you know, it was definitely not a good look for them. That's for sure.

And, you know, as one of my followers said to me on Twitter, the bully doesn't like being bullied. And that's exactly what the penguins did to the lightning tonight. Switching gears a little bit to Brock McGinn's goal. Just a really nice, he kind of deceived the shot a little bit. You know, in my opinion, it looked like he was going to go five-hole. but, you know, Vasilevsky, you know, he kind of went down a little bit when I, when I, when I, when I, when I, we watched it and then which allowed Brock to see the blocker side, you know, mostly wide open and then he fired it there, you know, to get another goal.

You know, this is a player, excuse me, that has been, he's been really close to breaking out again. You know, he's had plenty of really quality chances from right on the doorstep, heck, even 15, 20 feet out that have just not been going in due to some really good saves from some goalies. But tonight he was finally able to cash in and get another goal this season. He has just been a great fit for the Penguins, continues to play solid defensively. Obviously, glad that he's, you know, scoring offensively now. And, you know, he's just, he's the perfect TANF replacement. I mean, if you all have been listening to my podcast for a little bit, you all know that I think Brock is a better version of Brandon Tenev.

So that was a massive goal. It was two to one at the time. Krista Tang had just had. kind of a pretty bad giveaway. You know, if there's one negative, I guess, you know, it's, that play can't be made by Tanger. He has to go either to one side of the ice or the other. He can't go right up the middle where two Tampa Bay players are.

You know, bad things will happen. And of course, Del Mar is able to take it. Coming on a mini breakaway score past Tristan, now is Tampa Bay's on the goal of the night. But, you know, it's a decision that, you know, Chris has to be better than it. And I know he will. You know, he's a great player. Sometimes, you know, the great players make bad decisions with the puck. was one of them. I'm not going to get too mad at him for it.

There's really no mean to harp on him for that. But yeah, Brock got that huge goal. Obviously, you know, I already touched on the beginning. Malkins, amazing breakaway goal. Jake Gensel gets the empty netter to make it five to one. Finally, you know, I'm glad that he is starting to score. But again, you know, he's been playing really well and he's been getting a lot of chances. It's just, you know, the puck is not going in the net for him, as did a couple months ago. I'm sure that's going to regress. He's one of the best finishers in the league. He is going to be completely fine, to say the least.

Mark Friedman, you know, he's going to be brought up, obviously, in the listener takeaways coming up in the next segment here. But, you know, he continues to impress me night in and night out. It's pretty crazy to think about, you know, just how good he's been. And, you know, he's only played in a handful of games this year, you know, but been great in the defensive zone, saved a couple of goals, jumping into the play offensively. And he's doing all of this on his offside.

He's not even playing on the right, freaking side. He's playing on the left. He's definitely making me E. Crow right now because I was someone who wanted POJ in the lineup to see what he can do because he's lit up Wilkesbury this year. But, you know, this is a player that's not going to be coming out of the lineup anytime soon. If he keeps this up, you know, who knows, maybe perhaps Mike Sullivan's going to have to make a tough roster decision after. the trade deadline. I know Matheson is week to week right now. I'm sure he's going to come back in,

but could it be for someone else? You know, not really sure. I thought all the defensemen, you know, were great tonight. This was a big bounceback game from Brian Dumlin. John Marino had a couple really nice defensive plays. He's slowly, I think, starting to turn around. Marcus Pedersen was solid. You know, the fourth line I thought was great. This was just a textbook. Amazing win for the Penguins. I can't, you know, say it better than that. Friday night's going to be electric. They're going to play down at Raleigh.

The hurricanes are going to be pissed. I will say that right now. They just got blanked on Thursday night against the Washington capitals. A team that has been really struggling as a way. They had just lost six in a row at home before this. So Pittsburgh is going to get Carolina's best. And I would not be surprised if Trishon Jari starts that game. He did not face a lot of shots tonight.

I believe it was only. 19, I'm pretty positive. At least I'm going to make sure of this actually. Just Google the schedule here. I know I don't have this in front of me. I am a complete and utter moron. But I just want to make sure I am fully. Yeah, no, he only faced 21 shots tonight.

I had 20 saves. I'd send them out there again. I know that might be, you know, maybe an unpopular opinion, but you're playing Carolina, you're only three points behind them. They have games in hand. If you can win in regulation against Carolina tomorrow, one point behind them now. And it's a full race for the division.

I know it is still a race, but it's going to be that much closer, I think, you know, towards the end of the season. But coming up in the next segment, we're going to get to the listener takeaways, you know, what you all thought of the game. I'm really glad I can incorporate your views into this podcast, you know, at times.

You know, it's always one of my favorite things to do and something I do want to keep doing. So look for that coming up here in the last segment. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockedon Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodeys. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodeso. Hohdees. Follow the shows Twitter at L-O-Nsquare Penguins.

And of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. So a lot of takeaways, I think, to get to here. I appreciate everyone sending them in. We'll start here with Nick Berlanski. Of course, he's one of the hosts of the tip of the Iceberg podcast. Go check that. shutout there with the, I call it the Nick and Nick show. They do a very stellar job.

He says when the Penguins want to, they can absolutely shut down anyone defensively. One Latang turnover separated them from perfect performance. Another Tristan Jerry shut out. Yeah. You know, as I said, you know, Nick, outside of that, this was a perfect game by Pittsburgh. And, you know, I also said, this is the blueprint if they want to go on a deep playoff one. They got to start out a game exactly how they did.

They got to finish their chances. They got to get stellar goaltending. got to play that good defensively. Heck, even, you know, a little less better defensively will still get it done. But this is a Penguins, this is a championship performance that I saw tonight and something that, you know, I didn't see much the last few seasons. I saw it at times last year, but this year, you know, with this team and how good they are, you know, this is, I think they they hopefully just sent a message that, you know, they also can be said that they already Stanley Cup contender with some of the other teams.

Jackson Hollister says a full 16-minute effort in my opinion. I don't know about the underlying numbers, but it seemed like they had the puck for 80% of the time, and they actually finished on their chances. Yes, they very much finished today, Jackson. Underlying numbers-wise, I'll tell you, man, 61% of the shot attempts, even strength for the Penguins. They also had 58% of the scoring chances,

55% of the high danger chances, 56% of the expected goals. If I go to all situations, 63% of the shot attempt, 10% of the scoring chances, 55% for high danger, and 60% of the expected goals for. Dominating against one of the best freaking teams in hockey. He said, people always say this team needs grit. No, they don't, but they need one more top six forward.

Yeah, 100%. I saw some weird people saying that they need Nick Deloree or something like that when the penguins were being pushed around. The penguins responded just fine. I don't know where that kind of talk is coming from. They don't need a weird deterrent or something like that. What they need, as Jackson said, is another winger that they can stick on the second or third line. And you did mention Jackson. Captain played well.

I'm not comfortable with him either. I think this is probably still like a blind squirrel finds a nut. But this definitely was a big step in the right direction for Kasperi. That pass that led to Hinen's goal was probably one of the best plays that I've seen him make all year. Greg McCann 12 says, don't wake up the penguins. sleeping giant, yes. You know, this, or the penguin sleeping giant. I think he might be referring to Evgeny Malkin there.

Yeah. Teams, again, teams want to keep screwing with him. Do it at your own peril. I mean, you know, we, I, I so badly wanted him to tee up the slap shot that we saw in 2009, you know, the great Joe Beninati call, you know, Evgeny Malkin says, take that. And it pans to Mike Richards, you know, on one. knee after he hit him and then Malkin had that amazing slap shot goal in that series against the Flyers. It was just, you know, that was amazing. I, you know, I try to watch that goal all the time

if I can, you know, I should say as much as I can. And I'm trying to make sure that I get the, that I get the game right. Yeah, I'm trying to make sure the game number. I'm trying to make sure the game number right. Well, I'm going to do that after the listener takeaways here. Irish AJ says, Friedman gives the team some edge and to me they play better, tighter, sounder D with Freeman versus Matheson. I definitely understand that kind of take. Though I will say, I think some people might be overreacting to a

very small sample size with Freeman. And don't get wrong, he's been electric since coming in. He's played three games. He's had an A-plus performance every time. But that said, you know, Matheson's been one of their best defensemen this year. When he comes, when he's healthy, he's not coming out of my lineup. It would have to be someone else. And, you know, with how the defensemen are playing right now, you know, can we actually, you know, take someone else out for Freeman?

You know, are you going to take Pedersen out? I think he's been pretty good. You know, maybe if Dumlin continues to struggle, I could see that. but would Chris a Tang really want to play without his partner? Probably not, right? Chow Rweedle, he's been steady as ever. John Marino, he's starting to turn it around a little bit. So, you know, I just, when the D is healthy,

I still think he's probably a number seven option, which is fine. But I think that also says to me that they don't have to go out and get another defenseman on the trademark. You know, I've seen that take flown around. I don't agree with that. Overacting habit says, great game all around, minus that bad pass by 58.

the five on three wasn't very good. Yeah, the five on three was kind of eh. You know, I kind of said to myself at the time, like, okay, hopefully Tampa Bay doesn't make a massive push after this because they can score goals and bunches. You know, that did not happen. The Penguins were able to take it to them the rest of that period. But, you know, I thought the power play was still fine outside of that five on three.

You know, I'm not super worried. Wesley Reed says Mark Freeman should be a regular in the lineup. That is my takeaway. I mean, I get it. trust me he's been awesome the last three games yeah i was just telling obviously irs a j this um but i still i personally still think went healthy he's a perfectly fine number seven um i don't see who i would take out of the defensive corp um at this point that's just that's my opinion though and of course my dog continues to whine teddy you want to stop whining for me as i recorded the show thank you

hopefully she stops um alan teotter says wonder what john cooper thinks of this team when they're more healthy than they were opening night. Yes. He did say after opening night that his team did not even come close to deserving to win. So I am curious to see what he does say after the game for this. He also says such a weird game. But wow, this team is so much fun to watch. Hopefully they can keep up this energy tomorrow to make up some more round since Carolina lost. As big of a Tanna fan as I was, I think McGinn is better.

And Malkin has been awesome. Yeah, 100% agree with all those takes. and yeah, the Penguins are right back in action on Friday night. I do have a small announcement to end the show with. So it looks like for the first time since I started hosting this show, I'm going to try to make a trip to Pittsburgh for the final game of the regular season. I believe that is April 29th at home against the Columbus Blue Jackets. If any of you all are going, just let me know, send me a message on any of my social media channels.

You know, comment on the YouTube page. I would love to meet as many of you, obviously, as I can. You know, we can talk about whatever. I believe I'm going with one of my very dear friend, Rachel. She is just, you know, great person and an even better friend. She lives in the city. And, you know, it's funny. She doesn't root for the penguins, but, you know, she still goes to a lot of games

just because she loves hockey. So it'll be really fun to do that. And hopefully, again, I can meet some of you all at the game if you all are going. But that'll do it for this one for the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am back on Friday night for another full game recap against the Carolina Hurricanes. It's going to be awesome. Two best teams in the division going at it. We'll see if Mike Sullivan decides to start Tristan again.

As for a Teddy Bluger update, I'll leave you all with this. I think he's probably going to go Tuesday against Florida. I know I kind of said maybe a little differently on my last episode, but I think Mike Selvin wants him to have a couple more full. contact practices. He'll be able to do that after the game on Friday. And Sullivan also said that Jason Zucker is very close to getting back onto the ice and is not far behind Blueberg. So good injury updates there. Again, big win tonight. Penguins are three points out in the metro and the look to make it won on Friday against Carolina. I will talk to you all then.

Have a great rest of your night.