Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins BLOW IT AGAIN, this time against the Anaheim Ducks

Episode Date: December 10, 2025

The Penguins once again surrendered a lead late in the third period and lost in a shootout, this time against the Anaheim Ducks. Patrick and Hunter begin the show with the good. The Penguins, for about 59 minutes and 43 seconds, played one of their best and most complete games of the season. They forechecked well, got scoring chances, saves, and defended their own zone and the neutral zone quite well. The Kid Line once again had a dominant performance - all good things, right? (0:00) Wrong. Then the Penguins surrendered a lead at the literal last possible second, causing them to head to overtime and then a shootout. They discuss what was the worst part: the tying goal with .01 seconds left in regulation, a powerless overtime power play, or yet another poor showing in the shootout? (12:39) With that out of the way, it is Wednesday once again, so it's time to hand out the MVP award of the week as part of another Warrior Helmet Wednesday, and this time, it's going to the man who has arguably been one of, if not the best, players on the team this year. (28:45) Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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.MonarchTake control of your finances with Monarch. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at https://monarch.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. So if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit FanDuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. 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.

It may come as a shock to our listeners, but as we begin the Wednesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast, the Penguins once again blew a third period lead and lost in the shootout. We're going to talk about it right after this. Your Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back to the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4WET, joined as always by

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-U-U-Square penguins. You can also follow us on Instagram at Locked-on underscore Penguins, and you can find us on TikTok at Locked on Penguins. Of course, as always, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube. And if you follow us on YouTube, which you should be. Make sure you hit that notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday

episodes before we dive into whatever the hell that was last night against the Anaheim Ducks. episode is brought to you by Fandul. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fandle.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. Pittsburgh Penguins, four to three losers in the shootout once again, this time to the Anaheim Ducks. It's the second game in a row that the penguins surrendered a late third period goal. We're unable to score in overtime and then ultimately would lose in the shootout. Now, here's how I want to structure this episode, Hunter, because I can see. see through my camera here that you are like a rabid dog in a cage and you really,

really want to get out. Unfortunately, hold on to some of that because we're going to save that mostly for the second segment because here's your teaser, dear listener. Hunter and I kind of disagree about this game. And I want to make sure we have as much time as possible to hash that out. So let's start with just the game recap. The Penguins let's be completely honest here before we get into the negative. They dominated this game, both analytically and top line statistics. They put 47 shots on the net. They greatly outshot the Anaheim Ducks for the vast majority of regulation.

They were taking it to the Ducks. They were pinning them in their own end for long stretches. They were playing extremely well defensively. Sheelovs with a couple leaky ones, but nothing that would really send up any red flags but at the end of the day for i would say 59 minutes and let's say 52 seconds they played a really really strong game and i know it's cold comfort to say so again hunter keep that powder dry for the second segment i will say this they deserved a better fate than what they got i was gonna say 59 minutes and 43 seconds just because the final 17 seconds were

laughable. But if you want to say 59-52, I'll give it to you. But I agree with you on the overall game. Yes, they dominated the ducks up and down the ice. This probably should have been a 5-3, 6-3 game in favor of the Penguins. They put up almost 50

shots in Billy Huso. Pat, we joked about Jonas Johansson last week of the lightning being the random goal tender that just plays his absolute tail off against the penguins. Well, that was Billy Huso on Tuesday night. And I want to say this about Huso before we get like two more you get too deep into your analysis here he deserves his flowers he

made a lot of 10 bell saves and they weren't it wasn't the penguins putting up 47 who gives a crap shots right into his chest he made a lot of massive saves and he deserves the credit for that no i mean like if you just look at the high danger like 18 high danger chances for the penguins three for the ducks who so is great man again just plays his best game of his career looks like in a cassock against the penguins because of course a random goaltender that's not an elite goalie will do this at times against the penguins it really is funny it was countless high danger chance after countless high danger chance puck wasn't going in the back of the net they weren't getting the bounces until they eventually did i mean tommy novak really 200 IQ play to bank the puck off of

whoso and in really strong game from him overall and then anthony mantha also gets a nice little bounce at the end of the third period should have been the game winner again pat's making me wait until the second segment before i go i guess maybe two out of ten nuclear here i'm not going to go fully off if we recorded last night i think it would have been bad but it's been a while i've had time to decompress and we're pat and i are going to talk a lot about this but they did deserve a better fate just based on the way they played outside the final 17 seconds this should have been a very comfortable win for the Penguins. And I think that's what's annoying pan is because these last two games, yeah, they've gotten two out of four points. It should have been four, though, because

they dominated the stars. They were the better team against them. They then dominated the ducks, another really good team in the West this year. And you only get two loser points out of it when it should have been all four. Right. And I totally agree with that sentiment just on, on the surface, is you play really well against two bona fide really good teams. I mean, I know that you said it yesterday and I was in agreement with you at the start of the season that I thought it was about a year or too early for the ducks. That said, I didn't think they were going to be bad. I didn't think they were going to be in the basement and still rebuilding.

I thought they were going to be honestly kind of similar to what the penguins are right now currently. They were going to be a team that for a couple weeks, you look at them and go, you know what, there might be something here. and then you have a couple weeks where you go, ah, no, never mind, they're still figuring it out. But they are legitimately good deep into this season. And they played both Dallas and Anaheim extremely well. Now, since you have been such a good co-host for this and you're keeping your powder dry,

I'm going to give you a little bit of a treat here because it's something you and I definitely agree on. The kid line once again last night was unbelievable. That was another game where Rucker McGority, Ben Kindle, and Veele Coyven, and had themselves a night. They hemmed the Anaheim Ducks in their end. When they weren't in the Anaheim offensive zone, they were very good defensively. And I think a very underrated part of what the Kid Line did last night was their neutral zone play. Because we know that Anaheim is an offensive transition team.

and any time the kid line was on the ice, they stifled their neutral zone transition. And for a line made up of guys who are all under 22 years old, that is very mature play for those three. Kendall was especially also great in his own zone. There was a few sequences when his backchecking was sensational, was able to break up a couple of really solid chances for the ducks. His hockey IQ, especially in his own zone,

continues to blow me away for someone who is only, only 18 years old. It's crazy, man. And that line was living in the offensive zone, shift after shift, pinning the ducks in their own end, shift after shift. And this wasn't just for 25, 30 seconds. This was a minute plus, sometimes a minute 30, sometimes even closer to two minutes. They were doing a great job, cycling, getting a lot of high quality chances. Puck just wasn't going in the back the net. McGrody had a couple of really good chances around the neck mouth, covenant a couple of good chances. Kindle also had a couple of really good chances around the net mouth and from the high slot. They were great. And the underlying numbers again showed that. They played 9-10 of 5-on-5

minutes during Tuesday's game. In those minutes, they had 72.4% of the shot attempts, 86.7% of the expected goals, 79% of the scoring chances, and all 100% of the high danger chances. Give this line more minutes. This isn't just a one-game thing I wrote about this for the hockey news today, ever since they got together in Philadelphia, they have been taking every team's lunch when they have been out there. Please give them more minutes, because when you look at the minutes from each line last night, Pat, the Brazil Hays-Mantha line got almost a full minute more than the Kendall Cove and the McGroarkey line, and their underlines weren't nearly as good. And if you watch the end, you saw they weren't in the offensive zone

as much. So the eye test match, the numbers there. You need to make the kid line. You need to make the kid your bona fide second line until i'vegeny malkins ready to return or i'll add this if you saw that the penguins made some roster moves today they sent sam poolam back to the american hockey league which might tell us that ricard rickle is closer than we once thought if that's the case and rickle's ready to go make him your second line center and with wazot out you can put him you can put haze down on the fourth line is the center there with wazotte being out as i said and then You can have Raquel as your second line center. You leave the top line intact.

You leave the kid line intact. And to your point about them living in Anaheim zone, they got what I like to call the broadcasters compliment when it comes to offensive zone time. It seemed like every other shift that the kid line was hemming Anaheim in their zone, the broadcast would bring up the shift time chart for the ducks. and it was always well over a minute. And that is when you know the producers of the broadcaster going, they got something cooking here.

Let's let the viewers know how long these Anaheim defenders have been on the ice because this line is forcing them to stay on the ice for longer than they should. So there's all the positive. There's all the stuff that we need to get out of the way. Now we got to talk about the end of the game. We got to talk about the point 0.01. one second tying goal, the overtime, and the shootout that led to this penguin's loss. So hang with us.

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Use code locked on NHL at monarch.com in your browser for half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with the code locked on NHL. all right we're back here on the wednesday edition of the locked on penguins podcast i'm patrick damp that's hunter hoodies and all right let's get into it penguins give up the tying goal with 0.01 seconds left on the clock to becket seneca really it's an own goal it goes off of eric carlson's glove and let's begin there i'm this is the tying goal for me in last night's game is pretty far down on the list of things that I'm worried about from last night's game because I'm a sicko and I spend my time extremely wisely. I have rewatched that

sequence no less than 50 times and not because I hate myself, not because I wanted to relive the pain. I really wanted to get a feel for what happened. And I'll be honest, that was about as bad luck of a moment, as I can imagine in hockey outside of, like, the puck hitting off a ref. Well, even though it can't hit off a ref because then it is a dead play, but like hits off the stanchion and somehow Karam's into the net on a clearing attempt. But I go back and watch it. The ducks clear the puck off the glass. It lands right on their stick after that.

Try to do that 50 times. In the NHL, they might get it 25 of 50. So that happens. Rust plays it very well. well. He puts Seneca right into Chris LaTang. Chris LaTang tries to go stick to stick, which I will say this about what I'm going to say. He should have absolutely taken the body. He should have just stepped up, put a body into him. But at the same time, we have seen Chris LaTang make that stick on stick check a million times. It didn't work last night. And then Carlson put in the puck in the net,

I watched, again, I watched this over and over, he didn't slide. He caught an edge and fell. If he would have gone for the slide that both you and I hate, I would have been even angrier about the tying goal. He loses an edge. The puck hits his glove. It goes in. I think if he stays on his feet, they win this game outright.

So I look at the tying goal and it's low on my list of frustrations because it was a moment of when every bad luck thing that can happen to a defending team late can happen it happened all right so i disagree with pat on a majority of his points here which is rare because pat and i are usually in agreement on about 99% of things on their show so i think this is going to make for a really good discussion i think the final 17 seconds were embarrassing and completely unacceptable when you have to defend a lead they gift wrapped at you a perfect honica present got taking a penalty with 17 seconds left. All you got to do is win that face off and play patty cake.

Just pass the puck back and forth. Don't even let them get the puck. And if they do somehow get the puck, you just send everyone back and play prevent defense and don't even let them get a chance like that. So Seneca's coming into the zone. I actually disagree with you on Rust. I don't think he played that very well at all.

I think if he's able to force him to the boards a bit more, that would have been better. Then, Le Tang, honestly, him, trip him or tackle him. The game's over. Like, I don't know why he's trying to make that play there. If you literally just trip him, you don't even know if the ref is going to call it, even if the ref does call it, Pat, there's two seconds left on the clock. I would be stunned if they could draw up a set play there to score in two seconds off a faceoff, because all you have to do if you're the Penguins, when the face off back, you win the game. So I don't think he played

it well there. Carlson, I will agree a little bit just because it went off his glove and in, that's a bit bad luck. I know a lot of people are crucifying Carlson more than anyone else. I think that's wrong. You should crucify Rust and Letang more than you should Carlson. But there's just no reason to even allow a chance like that. Also, I don't want to leave the head coach either. This is the part that we're going to agree on, but go ahead. Yeah. If you want to put Eric Carlson out there, which is good. I'm fine with that. You need to put Parker Watherspoon out there with him. There is no reason to have Gliglatang and Carlson out there in the final 17 seconds left. I don't care that you're on a power play to end the game.

He did the same thing a couple months ago against the Islanders. You remember Barzell walked right around Carlson there? Tristan Jari had to save him there, but the game almost went to overtime there. Got really lucky. Why are you still running out that pairing to end regulation? It just doesn't make any sense to me. And we've seen the minutes this year, bad things have happened when those two are on the ice together you know at the end of periods obviously here that should have been an easy

two points to skate out all the vibes are good i was going to come on the show today saying they played an amazing game because they did for the most part that those first 59 minutes and 43 seconds were some of the best hockey they have played but you put it all to waste because of the way you played in the final 17 seconds it is completely unacceptable and it's embarrassing that this keeps happening to this team like later, you're going to have to start defending some leads or you might be left out of the playoff race here. These loss points are going to add up and they may come back to bite you in the ass. So I don't know what needs to change with their mentality at the end of games, gripping their

sticks too tight, getting too nervous, their controller disconnecting. But something's got to change with this man, because it's getting really bad with the way they're defending leads in the third period yeah and i think the head coach is our biggest point of agreement and this isn't us saying that we're out on dan mus he has been fantastic as the penguins head coach but i i understand wanting to go for the kill shot because you get that 17 seconds of power play time you're up it's you're already again you're already up you got 17 seconds left in the period why not try to put that final nail in the coffin but you said it you know that bad things happen when LaTang and Carlson are paired up together.

So that pairing doesn't need to be out there together. And even if you want to go Watherspoon or hell, if you just want to put Watherspoon and Shay out there together and just lock this thing down, fine with that too. Because, yeah, you know, that if with how tight this Eastern Conference race is, you probably should be a little bit more wary of regulation wins, goal differential, stuff like that, because the way the East is going this year, we might have some tiebreakers at the end of the season.

Now, here are the two things that I'm more upset about than the tying goal. The rest of the power play in overtime was completely useless. That is fair. They just played around the perimeter with it. They got chances, but didn't pull the trigger. And if you're able to get that extra point, all is going to be forgiven. because again, I think at the end of the day, the tying goal was mostly bad luck. Yeah, there were bad plays made and bad decisions made, but that doesn't hit Carlson's glove.

We're not even talking about this. And then the other problem, and this gets into what you were saying about the overtime or the tying goal in defending leads, yeah, it's fun right now to make the joke that, ah, they stink at the fake breakaway competition. You don't play the fake breakaway competition. they have lost in these last two years they have lost 11 of their past 12 shootouts that's 11 points left on the table and eventually you've got to win one of these because if you don't you're leaving those points on the table and you're going to find yourself on the outside looking in

if they were to lose every other or they go back and between win and one or two and then losing one or two, I don't care. But 11 of their last 12, those two things are way, way more frustrating for me than a tying goal that goes in off a defenseman's glove. They're both up there too. I agree with you. I just think it shouldn't have gotten to that point. That's why the end of regulation is higher than those two things.

Like it shouldn't even have gotten to overtime. They should have skated away with the two points. We will be on here singing their praise. this about how, what a great overall game it was. So those other two things, I agree. They are problems, but the end of regulation still trumps that just because of the way that almost everyone played it. As for the shootouts, yeah, I mean, they've converted on three of their last 20 shootout

attempts. And, hey, they at least changed the lineup last night. Still awful. Cindy Crosby still comes down, does the same move. And I've liked Billy Coimbington's game for the last couple of weeks. He had his earlier shootout attempt earlier this year. when he came on he tried the same move people scout you man like they know what move is coming so you're going to have to add a new move to your repertoire i know tommy novac came out there as well

not much of anything there's just no original moves make a deke i'm just it's terrible archer she loves we all know how bad he is in shootouts got destroyed on the first one got lucky that the second one missed the net completely but we all knew what was going to happen when that game went to shootouts just because the penguins are terrible and the skills competition. And now their losing streak in shootouts is now at nine. And to go even further, Pat, they've lost 13 of the last 14 shootouts. It's a major problem. You talked about the power play in overtime.

I agree with you. It was horrendous. Way too much perimeter play. But even after that expired, Conor Dewar, golden chance, you just have to hit the net. And that puck goes in. Oh, hits the post because, of course, it hits the post with all the bad luck balances that they had in that game outside of the Manta, no back goals. But all you have to do is hit the net there and they still skate away at the extra point, wasn't able to do that. And here's the last point that I want to make that I don't think a lot of our listeners are going to be expecting.

I don't think overall that this game was totally lost in that point one second tying goal. or the overtime power play or the shootout. I said this to you in a text message. There was about a 10-minute span in the second period that I think really put the penguins behind the eight ball. For the first, I'll say 25 to 30 minutes-ish of the game, the penguins dominated simply because they stuck to good puck support, quick passes, strong breakouts in taking what Anaheim gave them.

for about a 8 to 10 minute span in the second period, they decided that they wanted to go for the home run stretch pass, and that is what opened the door for Anaheim because they were able to run their transition game. They were able to run their speed game, knock down the stretch pass, and it gave them life because you look at what they did in the second period. They were able to come back on the penguins,

and they didn't have to change their strategy. Now, maybe they saw something that Anaheim was doing and tried to counter it, But at the end of the day, as a friend of mine, Josh Taylor likes to say, it's the George Novak principle. You keep doing the same thing

until they stop it. They hadn't shown an ability to stop what the penguins were doing. And for some reason, they changed it. They got a little too cute. I agree with you on that. I mean,

the Jackson-Locom shot was pretty good. Though I will say there might be a hot take to some. I still want she loves to make that save and not give up that little bit of room upstairs. don't get me wrong. The release was great. He put it in the perfect spot. Just would still like she loves to make that save. Maybe I'm being a little too picky on him, but that's the way I see it. The second goal, though, you and I both agree. That's bad. Like, he gave him way too much room. You ought to square up to the shooter there if you're

after she laws, and he didn't do it. So I agree with you. I felt they got a little too cute, but they were still able to, A, tie the game later in the period. And then B, you take the lead with less than four minutes to go. This was actually looking like Rollerversal, remember, from the game in Anaheim when Crichter scored late in the third to give the penguins that loss before it looked like the penguins were going to get a point. It looked like the ducks were potentially going to get a point out of this. And then Anthony Manta had other ideas because the ducks took a late penalty in the third.

Parker Watherspoon took that late penalty in the third. Look like the penguins are going to skate away with at least a point. They didn't. So we were very close to Rollerversal until everyone's control or disconnected in the final 17 seconds so just really frustrating if they can really clean up these self-inflicted stupid ways that they keep finding to lose i think they'll be fine because they've shown an ability throughout this season to not just be better than the good teams in the league but dominate the good teams in league and you've especially seen these last couple of games 100% it's been

two really good efforts followed by bad luck or just self-inflicted wounds but i will end with this. We didn't have high expectations for this team. Now, that doesn't mean that we're not going to critique them. It doesn't mean that we're not going to analyze what goes wrong and hold them to a higher standard because as I've said, we know this team clearly has designs on returning to the playoffs. So if that's the standard they're going to set, we're going to hold them to it. But do keep in mind that we didn't expect to be here. We didn't expect them to be this good. Just keep that in mind that they might regress to what we expected at the end of the day, but still, tough losses, self-inflicted wounds, but you can see that, as Hunter said, the potential is there, the efforts

are there, they clean it up ever so slightly. This could be a really, really good hockey team. But we're going to end this marathon segment right here. When we come back, it's my favorite segment on this show. It's Wednesday. That means it's Warrior Helmet Wednesday, where we give out our MVP of the week, and we will do that when we come back right after this. But before we do that, we've got one more sponsor to get to, and that is Fandul. NFL Sundays, they move fast, one big play, and suddenly everything feels different. That's where making live bets with Fanduel can be so exciting. You're not just watching the game. You're reacting to it in real time. With Fandle, you can place bets as the action unfolds, every drive, every momentum swing,

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We hand out the Warrior Helmet as part of Warrior Helmet Wednesday. And if you're new here, that is how we pick our weekly MVP. It is paying homage to the 2016 Stanley Cup winning Pittsburgh Penguins where the team that season after wins in the regular season and the playoffs would give out their team MVP of the game with a warrior helmet. So we do that for our week and Hunter. It's going to be another week where you and I are in agreement on our weekly MVP. And let's pull up the graphic here without further ado, it is Tristan Jari. What a week for him, three starts against Philadelphia, Tampa Bay,

in Dallas against Philly, a 966 save percentage against Tampa, 925, and against Dallas 9.13. In total, he only gives up six goals in those games. And he is back to play and confident. he has grabbed the starting job and run with it. It has been quite a week and quite a season for Tristan Jari. Yeah, I mean, this one was pretty easy. Honestly, we probably could have given it to him last week as well. This one's felt a little overdue for the last week or two, I think, but Jari's been sensational.

I mean, against the Flyers, you said it, 966. He was cool, calm, and collected in his crease was playing aggressive against Tampa Bay. He was the biggest reason outside of the Penguins being opportunistic. why they won that game. He was making 10 bell save after 10 bell save. Even against Dallas, especially in overtime after the stars tied in late in the third, he made a couple of monstrous saves on Jason Robertson. Jari has just been great so far this season.

And I obviously want to continue for a full season. I'm still a little nervous just because we've seen the inconsistencies pop up throughout his career and how, you know, when the calendar flips of January, he kind of turns into a different goaltender, but for this past week, he was, in my opinion, the penguin's best player, and he deserves the warrior helmet because he has been very consistent in net throughout this season, but especially this past week. Yeah, this week, you said it. I mean, you look at the Tampa game, especially. They probably don't win that game without him just because he faces 40 shots, makes 37 saves, and Tampa was pressing all night long. The penguins were able to

take advantage of the opportunities that they got. There were some fluky bounces, a call that a lot of people didn't like late in the game. But when they needed him to step up, he stepped up. And the same thing goes for Dallas. Dallas had quite a few big time opportunities and regulation. And he was able to stymie them, get a big stop and shift the momentum back in the penguin's favor. So it has been to this point, a marvelous rebound for Tristan Jari. Obviously, we're all. little wary of whether or not it's going to keep up. But in the here and now, it has been really, really good. So let's take a look at our tracker for the whole season. Here is where

we are at. Tristan Jari joins the list of people to get one on the season, joining Kyle Dubis, Eric Carlson, Dan Mews, the penalty kill, the power play. A couple of players with two warrior helmets on the season, Justin Brzo, Ben Kindle, and Sergey Murrish. and leading the pack with three guys you would expect if Gennie Malkin and Sydney Crosby. Why are we having the tracker up? Because this year we got to take Warrior Helmet to the next level, folks. We got to make sure we know who we're handed Warrior Helmets out too.

So when the season ends after Game 82 or maybe some playoff games, who knows what this season is going to hold, we will give out a season long Warrior Helmet for our MVP of the 20th. 25, 26 Penguins season. But Hunter, unless you got anything else to add, I think you and I have used up all the words we have left in us after that game. But that'll do it for the Wednesday edition of Locked-on Penguins. Hunter and I will be back with a brand new episode for you on Thursday

to get you set for the penguins and the HABs on Thursday night. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. thank you as always for tuning in and we'll be back on thursday