Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins beat Kings in a dominant 5-1 road victory

Episode Date: January 21, 2025

The Penguins went into Los Angeles and scored one of their most impressive victories of the season, beating the Kings 5-1. Patrick and Hunter broke down what was a complete, sixty-minute effort by the Penguins in California and how Monday night represented the exact blueprint the Penguins need to be successful the rest of the year. Then, they talk about how part of the reason the Penguins won so convincingly was the play of some of their depth contributors, namely Kevin Hayes, Philip Tomasino, and Cody Glass. To wrap up the show, they get you set for the rest of the road trip which includes matchups in Anaheim, Seattle, San Jose, and Utah. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! SelectQuoteGet the right life insurance for you, for less, at SelectQuote.com/LOCKEDONNHL. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelFrom the first whistle to the final drive, FanDuel makes the NFL Playoffs even more exciting! Right now, new customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get THREE HUNDRED BUCKS in BONUS BETS – if you win your first bet! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Penguins scored what was maybe one of their best victories of the season to this point against the Los Angeles Kings. Hunter and I are going to break down that victory and more on this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello, and welcome back to another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp.

you can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4 Wet. Joined as always by my co-host, the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's Twitter account a follow at L.O. underscore Penguins. And of course, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcast as well as YouTube. Plus, if you follow us on YouTube, make sure to hit the note. button. That way you'll be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through

Friday episodes. Before we get started today, today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. From the first whistle to the final drive, Fandul makes the NFL playoffs even more exciting. Right now, new customers can bet $500 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win your first bet. Visit fandul.com to get started. Hunter, the penguins went into Los Angeles to take on one of the NHL's better teams, a team that is in a bitter fight in the Pacific division amongst some of the best teams in the NHL. And there is really no two ways to put this. They went in and dismantled the Kings for 60 minutes. One of the Penguins' best efforts to this point this season. The game was never in doubt. They gave the Kings next to nothing with the King's only tally coming on a five on

extended power play for the Kings, which we will get to as we break this game down. But overall, for the Penguins in the trend that they have been on to start the calendar year, this was a much needed, much, much required victory for them to get back into the playoff picture, because as we know, that's where they say they want to be. So a win like this against a team like the Kings, given the way you've started the calendar year, a lot to be happy about. Yeah, coming into this game, when you looked at the standings bat, or towards the bottom of the Eastern Conference and the league as a whole,

because of the way they've been playing for the last seven to ten days, well, really the last couple of weeks, if we're being honest, they really hit a little bit of a wall after going on that really nice stretch run in December, a little bit in January, but this was a much needed win. And I can't believe I'm saying this. I have no complaints from this game. This is an all positive episode. There is nothing the Penguins did in this game that I can complain about.

They kick the King's butts up and down the ice for the entire 60 minutes. That is their most complete effort in a very long time. I would say probably since the Washington game, the first one where they beat the Capitals in D.C., this is right up there. If people want the blueprint for how the Penguins need to win games on a consistent basis, pat, this is the game you want to look at. They foretracked aggressively.

They generated especially against the stingiest defensive team in the league. Usually when the penguins play a team like this, they don't really generate that much. They get held to, you know, 15, 16, 17 shots. That's kind of a little bit what I was expecting, considering how good the Kings have been playing. Nope, Penguins went in there and crushed LA with the way they generated the way they able to finish chances. And they didn't give any of it back in their own zone. the Penguins were also so good in their own end, played a simple, clean game, didn't give up too many odd man rushes, and when they were giving up a little bit of zone time, Alex Ndilkevich was there to make

the timely saves. That's now two really nice starts in a row from Nadelcovich, and I know he's heading in this game, I would have given this to Blumquist because I want to see him get an extended run, and I was also a bit nervous because the last time Ned had a really good start, or the Edmonton game, Pat, he followed that up with a complete dud. So I was a bit nervous about that. Thankfully, it didn't happen. He was able to string together two good starts in a row. Now, see if he can maybe build on that later on in this roadship.

I think they might go back to Blumquist for this next game against Anaheim just because, I mean, A, the Ducks aren't that good. And B, you're kind of continuing this 1A, 1B situation. But Net has definitely earned that third start somewhere in this road trip because they have four more games on it. you know, he's that's, again, that's two really nice starts. But they got contributions from all four lines. The penalty kill was even good.

Power play was good once again. This was a complete team effort, a complete 60 minute effort. That is a blueprint that I want to see on a more consistent basis from this team. Outstanding win. Absolutely. One of the more impressive things about this victory for the penguins on Monday night was not just that they beat one of the better teams. in the NHL as handily as they did, winning at crypto.com arena has become a very big challenge

for visitors. Up until last night, the Kings were 14, 2, and 1 at crypto.com arena, and they were in the middle of a nine game home winning streak. So up into this point, the Kings were virtually unbeatable in Los Angeles. And the Penguins completely threw that out the window with a great 60 minute effort. As for the goaltending, the way I'm kind of starting to see this trend emerge with what's happening with how they're using Nadelcovic and now Blumquist is I think the original plan is still in place when it comes to the goaltending just with a different body in the net with Blumquist, where they're both going to get equal opportunity for the next couple of weeks

until one or the other decides to grab the net and hold on to it. Now, in a perfect world, they're both going to play extremely well, and you're going to have no choice but to do a little bit of a rotation. But I do think Mike Sullivan at this point is basically saying, the plan is still there. We're going to rotate you guys every game or every other game. And until one of you decides to step up and say, I am the starting goalie, this is my net, you have to play me.

We're going to keep that rotation going. And this was a great showing by Nadelcovic because right until the Kings got the five on three power play. And shortly after, they did start to mount a little bit of a push. It wasn't like they took over the game. The Penguins didn't go into a lull, but the Kings built some momentum on that five on three where they got the goal on the two-man advantage. then just a couple minutes later,

Nadelcovic makes a huge save. The Penguins turn it right around, go down the ice, and Cody Glass gets his second goal in three games, which let's touch on him for a quick second. What did we say about him yesterday? The only thing that was missing from his game up until this point was pretty much confidence and consistency.

You could see that the talent was there, the potential was there. He just needed to find some confidence and consistency. And in the last week, he's really started to find that. 100%. Yeah, I think the biggest thing with him has been how inconsistent he's been. He'll have games where you notice him pretty good, though he doesn't get on the score sheet. Then he'll have other games where, A, he doesn't get on the score sheet. And B, you don't really notice him.

Well, these last few games, you're starting to see him really heat up. Two goals in his last three games. Really nice one in this game against the Kings. And he's forechecking well. He's getting below the dots. I'm really liking his overall game right now. also playing pretty solid in his own zone. I just really like what he's doing in the role that he's on, you know,

and I know they're going to make some trades of a deadline. I still want to see what he can do in that third line, third line role, excuse me, and have him be pretty consistent. So I'm really glad that Cody Glass continues to have a really solid last few games. Also, Pat, how about Kevin Hayes, buddy? I know we're going to get more into that in the second segment. That might have been his best performance of the year. Was that Kevin Hayes on the first goal?

or is that Cindy Crosby with that edgework, by the way. The way that he was able to knife through so many Kings players on that goal, cuts to the net. Yeah, did he get a bit of a lucky bounce? He did. Let's be real here. He did. But the way that he was able to skate with the fuck,

the way that he was able to protect the puck there, as I said on Twitter, gorgeous stuff. And he continues to play awesome. And then he had that feed to Cody Glass for that goal. But he's been really good since coming back in the lineup. It still kind of makes me scoff at why he was even scratched for as long as he was. Yeah.

And I think that's kind of to build off of a little bit what I was saying about the goaltending. It's something that I like, but also don't like from Mike Sullivan when it comes to the bottom six this year is I have been abdicating for you're going to carry a little bit of a heavier roster load just because of all the players that you signed and acquired in the offseason who aren't HL players, but also aren't regular everyday NHL players. He is someone who is stuck to what I wanted them to do where he's going to play three, four, five, six games, then he's going to sit for two, three, four, and then come back

into the lineup. But there hasn't really been, from Sullivan's perspective, a lot of consistency with that with everybody. Now, I still don't think that Hayes should be an every night 82 game player. just because he's a little bit older. The style of hockey he plays is going to add a lot of miles to his body at that age. So if you were to put him in the lineup for 82, he's going to severely wear down by the end of it. But the usage they're getting out of him has been effective.

When he's been in the lineup, he's been a very good player. And I want to kind of, before we dive deeper into Kevin Hayes in the second segment and a little bit more of the depth, I'll end it on this one. Another player who I noticed quite a bit last night. Philip Tomasino. On Evgeny Malkin's goal, just that is exactly the kind of thing that you're looking for out of players like him, out of players like Cody Glass, and a couple of the other guys that you're taking a chance on,

where you're waiting for them to put it all together, and you're seeing the flashes in an unreal pass from him to have Gennie Malkin for the goal. So really, really excited to see what these guys bring. But after off a great shift there, by the way, they were skating circles around the Kings in their own zone. And Tomasino just let Pat puck fly. Gorgeous feed. Malkin makes no mistake with that. It's been really nice seeing Thomasino, he'd back up again as well because for a little bit there to Pat, he was a little, just a little inconsistent. But he is heated back up

in a big way. He's been awesome though since coming over. dubious fully fleeced very trots in that deal. But yeah, we'll just, we'll dive more into Kevin Haysel a little bit in the second segment because I do want to push back a little bit on something you said about the 82 game stuff in the second segment. But again, we'll dive into that in a few minutes. Like Hunter said, we are going to dive into that in our second segment, but a massive win for the Pittsburgh Penguins over the Los Angeles Kings.

Their third game of this seven game 15 day road trip. But when we come back, like we said, we're going to talk a little bit more about some of the depth players on this roster. But before we do that, we've got to tell you about our first sponsor, and that is Fandul. From the first whistle to the final drive, Fandul makes the NFL playoffs even more exciting. Right now, new customers can bet $500 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win that first bet. That's $300 to keep the action going. The Fandle app, it's easy to navigate, and the variety of bets keeps every game exciting. Plus, when you win, you get paid instantly.

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welcome back to the Tuesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm Patrick Damp, joined once again and always by the one and only Hunter Hodeys. and you said you got some pushback for me, Hunter, and we're going to talk in this segment about some of the depth players, Kevin Hayes, Cody Glass, Philip Tomicino, et cetera, et cetera. But I want to know right off the jump. What are you pushing back on? Just that you're claiming that he shouldn't be an 82 game player.

I get what you're saying to a degree. But when you look at this team top to bottom, I don't really think they have a choice. Like I know Ricardo Raquel was out of the lineup on Monday and we hope that everything is okay with his family. By the way, that was the reason they said he was out due to some family reasons back in Pittsburgh. Again, hope that everything is okay with him and his family right now. But even with him in the lineup, Raquel, that is.

I still think Kevin Hayes is one of the teams 12 best ones. So you can figure that out however you want to. They're also going to make trades by the deadline that's coming up now and what? Chays January 21st. So about a month and a half, I think, at this point until the trade deadline. But even then, I still feel like with what I've been seeing when, he's been in the lineup this year, almost a double-digit goals, really good playmaker. Heck, his skating, especially last night against the Kings was great, even though he's still

not that good of a skater. That's still the type of player that I want in the lineup over some, you know, PK specialists who really don't do anything at five-on-five to drive offense. So I think with that, he should be in the lineup on an every night basis. I get what you're saying, though, just because of his age and everything else, but I still think he should be in the lineup on at least most nights considering what he's doing right now. I think I would go in agreement with you, but I would kind of piggyback more off of what you said right at the end where maybe not all 82, but most.

Like if you can have him play 65, 70 games, leave a few out there, let him recover, let him rest because again, the skating isn't all that great. He does play a heavy game, which is something. something that most of the penguins don't. And when you're the one guy doing it and in shouldering, no pun intended, that load, you are basically doing it extra and that is going to put extra miles on your body. And if this team does in fact pull itself back into the playoff race and find somehow a way to sneak in, you're going to need him in that first round. Because I still maintain, If this team can find a level of consistency and play the way they have, say, against your teams like Los Angeles and a couple others,

do I think they can win a first round series? Now, obviously, I'm putting the cart so far ahead of the horse here, but I'm not going to say that, oh, they'll get in and surprise someone and went around, but they can have a puncher's chance. And a way to have a puncher's chance is to have a guy in your depth, a depth option like Kevin Hayes, who can chip in when you need him to, but I digress. I think we'll find the standings a little bit more before we start talking about. Right, right. But when you look at this from the big picture standpoint of where this team says they want to go,

and if you're going to look ahead that way and act as if that's where they want to go, this is how I want to see that roster shaking out if and when you get to that point. But the other thing I wanted to say about last night was, yeah, you had your best. big guns, get a couple goals. Obviously, Crosby with a classic Crosby tip. Fgeny Malkin makes no doubt on a great pass from Tomasino. But then your other goal scores, we just talked about him. Kevin Hayes, he gets on the board in the first period with a great move on the power play. And then you have, we talked about Cody Glass, who tremendous effort in feed from Kevin Hayes to make that goal happen, put a great effort in on that one. And then the guy

who ends the scoring for the penguins, Anthony Bavillier, his 11th of the season, a guy who you started talking about the trade deadline, Hunter. His stock just keeps going up. Pump that trade value, my friend, please. Just keep pumping it up, try to get the penguins back the best return they can. It's still Pat probably going to be like a mid-round pick. I don't think a player like this is going to drive too much value, but hey, he can pump it up as far as he wants, 11 goals, 15 points in 48 games.

He's a fine debt contributor. It's been nice seeing him contribute this season, at least on a third or fourth line role. He's fine to replace Raquel until Raquel is ready to come back from whatever family issue he's dealing with. I don't want Bavillet up there for a while. But he's at least a fine enough replacement until Raquel can come back. And then you can put Bavillier on the third or fourth line, whatever you want. But he's at least been an okay depth contributor after having a really rough year-lashor

considering he played for. you know, more than two teams. That was just a really rough year for him overall, Pat. But still, nice seeing him get that goal. And again, hey, he can pump that trade value up. Matt Grizzly gets a power play quarterback as well. He can keep pumping up that trade value. Marcus Pedersen, I thought like had another great game once again.

He can keep pumping up that trade value. All the players that they will probably deal at the deadline are pumping up their value right now. And that's all I can ask for from those guys. And I agree with you to. an extent on the Bavillier thing. I'm not going to pretend like he is going to get some King's ransom at the deadline, but we do have to keep in mind double digit goals on an expiring deal that is all of $1.25 million.

I don't think he's going to get a prospect or a first round pick or anything, but I think you could probably juice multiple picks one or two out of it, just because when you have a guy in double digits, and he's making that little money on an expiring deal, there is going to be a team who finds themselves third place in their division or first wild card spot that talks themselves into, man, we really got to juice that depth. We really got to get that depth score guy.

And they're going to be willing to pay a little bit of a higher price. It's not going to be a premium. It's not going to be King's Ransom. So make sure to expectation set here, people, you're not going to get a ton for him. But I do think if he keeps scoring at this rate with that contract, Dubus could maybe set off a little bit of a bidding war. One player who I wanted to bring up since we've been so positive,

and it's not going to be an overtly negative thing, but it just kind of continued the trend of the season from last night, Drew O'Connor. I don't know what has happened to this player this year. obviously wasn't terrible last night, but it just kind of continued the trend of, I haven't really noticed him this year, and it's becoming an issue.

It stinks because he had a really good year last year, double-digit goals. I was hoping he was going to score 20 goals this year and potentially have the Penguins get a decent return for him at the deadline. Don't think you're going to be getting a pretty good return for him with the way that he's played. You might get a pickback, something like that, probably a mid-round pick for right now.

But it's just been a rough year, man. I mean, he really hasn't had any consistency. He had a little bit to end 2024 heading into this year, but it just went right away again. I'm not really going to spend too much time talking about his performance just because of the way the Penguins as a whole played last night. But it is still cause for a little bit of concern handing in this next month and half where he's also on expiring deal.

Again, Pat, I just don't think you're going to get a lot for him right now, even though he was playing at such a high level last year. I really thought this year he was going to break out even more, score 20 plus goals with the way he was playing, just hasn't been able to find any consistency this year. But again, I don't want to spend too much time on it. I will say, loved how sports in that Pittsburgh ended the broadcast last night, playing big city nights by the Scorpions. Awesome song by an awesome band. Love rock music. That was great.

right, Pat, had to say. The man is older than his age, says Hunter Hodes, that is. But yeah, I mean, to the, to the Drew O'Connor point, like I said, it's more than anything, it's just been disappointing because he, he was so good throughout last year. It really looked like he was poised for a huge breakout this coming season. And it just has not materialized. We'll see what the organization's plans are for him. Obviously, we'll know if the deadline comes and goes and he remains a penguin. They obviously, that'll tell us they still believe in him, but we will see what happens with Drew O'Connor.

But that is going to do it for the second segment. When we come back, we didn't get a chance to do this yesterday because we had two games to recap and then we had a game to preview. There's a whole week of hockey ahead of us. So we'll get you set for the rest of the week when we come back. but before we do that, we've got to tell you about our last sponsor of the day, and that is select quote. In sports, having a winning strategy is everything. It's how the best teams make it to the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Stanley Cup final, and the Olympics.

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All right, welcome back to the Tuesday edition of Locked on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp, joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. And like I said, we didn't get a chance to do this yesterday because we had to recap two games. and then get you ready for what became that massive 5-1 win over the L.A. Kings. But there is still a big week of hockey to be played for the Penguins. And they continue their tour of California on Thursday when they had to Anaheim to take on the Ducks. And then they finish off the week Saturday afternoon because they are going to be in Seattle. It will be a 4 o'clock start for the Penguins and the Cracken.

So this is really one of the ones. the better positions they could find themselves in right now as this road trip progresses. Obviously, they got a win over the Sabres. They lost to the caps, but then they follow that up with a big win over the Kings. And now you've got four games ahead of you that are extremely winnable. Obviously, you've got the two this week, Anaheim Thursday night at 10 o'clock, Seattle, Saturday afternoon at 4. And then you start next week on Monday against the San Jose Sharks at 10, 3,000. 30, another night out game for all you sickos out there.

And then they finish off the road trip next Wednesday in Utah at 930. So you look at these four games coming up. And the penguins can take this from a good road trip to a great road trip. Yeah, man, the good part about this road trip already is that their biggest games or their biggest test, excuse me, are already behind them. You played Washington, you played L.A. Those are the two best teams on this trip by far. You got to split in those two games, which, in my opinion, was probably their best case scenario.

I mean, obviously, the best best case is winning both games, but I don't think they were ever going to do that, considering how good both Washington and L.A. are. You also be Buffalo, of course. So the two and one so far, heading into the final four games against teams that are not very good this year. They're not even in a playoff spot. This year, you play a Ducks team that they're struggling once again this year. They're going to sell up a deadline. How much they sell is TBD, but they're still going to sell off some assets.

I think one of them might be John Gibson, but they're having another really rough year. After that, you play a Seattle team that just came into your barn and won a game that they probably didn't have much business winning because the Penguins outplayed them for most of that game. So I think the Penguins are going to have a pretty sour taste in their mouths from that. They also, of course, didn't get the goaltending in that game. So I think they're also going to want to go out there and really try to prove a point in Seattle. After that you play a Sharks team that is also not very good. They're one of the worst teams in the league.

But that's by design. Yes, they have Macklin Celebrini. They have a couple of young pieces around him in Will Smith, William Eklin. You know, Gremlin is having a decent year, but they still don't have enough high-end talent to surround this core just yet. So they're still going to be bad for a little bit, but that's also another winnable game. Then you have Yudsaahoo. They kick the penguins' butts earlier this year where the penguins were playing like utter garbage in the first month of the season. My dog is barking downstairs because he agrees with me.

So the penguins, they're going to have a sour taste in their mouth from that game. game as well. But again, Utah, they're still not very good. They're more fun than they are good. They have some fun pieces, some good players. They just haven't been able to put it all together this year. But it's also only their first year in Utah. But again, my point still stands, Pat. They have an opportunity to really bank some points here and try to get back into the race. Because again, you look at the sameings right now, they are still further down in the conference than some of these other teams. But if you can finish off this, road trip and style beat teams that are either below you in the standings or right around you in

the standings, you know, potentially go, I'm just pitballing, you know, five and two, heck even, you know, five one and one in one on this road trip, obviously is the goal. You know, you can maybe start cooking something up here as you head back home for the month of February. I know you'll have that long break in there because of the foreign Asians face off, but they have an opportunity here to really bank some points. The game that I am circling on the calendar, for the rest of this trip is Saturday in Seattle. Yeah, because I agree with you. They have to have a sour taste in their mouth.

They have to be ready to go out there and make a statement against a team that won a game. They had no business winning on the Penguins Ice. And at the very least, it appears for now that that problem maybe hasn't been solved, but at the very least, the process has begun to solve that problem, which is goaltending. because we said it after that game. The Penguins played extremely well for the majority of it and got undone by poor goaltending. And this is the first time this season,

the Penguins have gotten three consecutive games of goaltending at 900 better. And what do you know, they went two and one. And the one in that two and one is against an extremely good team. And sometimes you just have to tip your cap to a team being better than you. yeah, we're obviously going to have an expectation of beating Anaheim, an expectation of beating San Jose because they are very bad teams. And if they drop those games, we're having a much different discussion. But the one that that means the most, I think right now, is Saturday in Seattle

because you have to get your revenge for a game that you should have won. And I'll even throw Utah in there as well, not just from a revenge point of view, but Utah embarrassed the penguins to open the season. That's one of their worst losses of the season to date. I think the penguins are going to go in there pissed off because I think they're going to show, yep, that was not us, and we can show that we can play a hell of a lot better than what we showed you on our home ring.

So I'm also going to be especially watching that game. But again, these are all big games. They're all against teams that are either below you in the standings or right with you. They're not in playoff spots. You have an opportunity here to really climb your way, a little bit at least back into it because again, you look at the standings, none of those playoff spots in the wild card race, at least,

none of those playoff spots are solidified. So a really strong road trip here could potentially go a long way. But again, let's see. Two and one to start. Let's see how the second half of it goes. Huge, huge opportunity for the penguins to get back into the race. And obviously we will have full coverage of all of that. But that is going to do it for the Tuesday edition of Locked on Penguins.

for Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Dam. Thank you, as always, for tuning in. And we will be back with a brand new episode for you on Wednesday.