Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins CRUSH the Flyers in the season opener!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Happy October, everybody. It's officially spooky season. And for the Philadelphia Flyers, it was a nightmare of a night. The Penguins get a 7-0 win over the Flyers. Hunter and I are going to recap that and debut a brand new segment right after this. You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to the Thursday edition, a victory Thursday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Patrick Damp.

Starting point is 00:00:46 You can find me on most social media platforms at Synonym 4Wet. Joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can find Hunter on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Make sure you're also following the show on social media. You can find our Twitter account at L.O. underscore Penguins. our Instagram account at Locked-on underscore Penguins and our TikTok account at Locked-on Penguins. Of course, also be sure to subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcast as well as YouTube. And we're going full victory Thursday on this episode.

Starting point is 00:01:26 We're going to talk about how the penguins got a massive 7-0 win, what worked, what led to the victory. and then we are going to debut a new segment we're going to be doing on game recaps this season are Stars in Shame segment, but because it's a victory, we only got stars tonight. Before we do that, though, let's recap this game top to bottom Hunter, a 7-0-0 blitzing of the Philadelphia Flyers. Sure, it doesn't make up for the playoff series, but boy, did that one feel good? And boy, was that a complete and total domination of the Flyers? Inject all the booing from Flyers fans to their own team right here.

Starting point is 00:02:16 Into my veins. That was just as good as the Blitzin we saw tonight from the Pittsburgh Penguins. From the opening drop of the puck, they forechecked them to oblivion. And it was just wave after wave. shift after shift and the flyers pat they had no answer for we talked about it in the preview how they really needed to again dump the puck go to work make those little chip plays they did just that from the first drop of the puck it wasn't anything like we saw in the first three games of the playoff series where they were trying to go do all those cross-size passes and just be cute with

Starting point is 00:02:56 the puck no they kept it simple they kept it clean and they kept it crisp and they were able to dump the puck in go to work down low, work at low to high, and they had plenty of countless scoring chances. Flyers, they were messing up on their own, plenty of bad changes from their end. But from the opening drop of the puck, I just loved the way the Penguins were forechecking against them. The Flyers defensemen had no answer for. Dan Vladar, he was just under siege, literally every single shift, an absolute blitzing by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Every single line chipped in, every single defensive pair chipped in. Nardi Shilov gets the shot out, excuse me, his second straight season where he gets a shut

Starting point is 00:03:39 out in the first game of the year. There's just so much we got to unpack here, Pat, but just a beautiful start to the 2026, 2027 NHL season. I agree with everything you just said. And here's one thing I want to say. And it's a little bit of an olive branch to our friends over at Locked-on Flyers, because they're going to have quite a lot to unpack from this game for the Flyers because there were a lot of problems. One of them was not Dan Vladar. A point that you said there, I wanted to come on and make the seven past Vladar joke, but you can't really blame him for fear of Flyers fan tonight.

Starting point is 00:04:19 He, like you said, he was under siege. A lot of those goals were just absolutely gorgeous. There was a lot of net front presence that the Flyers, defensemen and forwards did not do a whole lot to clear. There were a couple deflections. Villay-Coyvenin scored on an unbelievably beautiful move. And then you have the final goal, the seventh, the seventh of all, where Chinikov has a gorgeous deflection. So I mean, you're forgetting the second Nick Robertson goal when he just knocks the puck in off of his own skate. I mean, sorry, that drew so many laughs for me. But I mean, in that one, that one, and again, I'm not trying to be too nice to the flyers here is that was the

Starting point is 00:05:00 kind of goal that gets scored on you when nothing is going your way. It was one of those nights in a fun of Lidar in the locker room after this one. I'm just looking at my teammates and going, really, guys, that that's what you do after I did all that for you last year. But I digress. I also got to give myself some credit. I set it on the Wednesday show. The first goal of the penguin season would go to Nick Robertson. And I guess spending time with Sidney Crosby has paid off because that was a very Sidney Crosby-esque deflection to open the scoring. We've seen that countless times with Letang doing that classic shot past Crosby. Well, he did to Nick Robertson. And what a deflection. That was great celebration by him.

Starting point is 00:05:48 And what a great game in general from Nick Robertson. He was everywhere. He was even getting physical along the boards. People were asking me on social media tonight. Like, wow, that was only his first short-handed goal. Yeah, Nick Robertson going into this season only had a combined 12 to 13 minutes on the PK during his entire Toronto tenure. They hardly used him at all on that unit. Well, he is going to break that 12 to 13 minutes here pretty quickly, it seems, Pat,

Starting point is 00:06:15 because he was on the PK all night, looked like a natural fit, gets a short-handed goal. You saw his burst of speed there to really make it happen. And yeah, obviously it goes off Ladar's skate, which I had a nice little laugh about it. I know everyone had a nice little laugh about that. But it was all made possible by Robertson's burst of speed there. And he just looks really comfortable on that. You know, just a great game from him in general. Villekhoevenin.

Starting point is 00:06:37 What a move there, Pat. And talk about someone who needed a game like this. A lot of his NHL sample so far, you know, had the look of a player who was just a step behind, wasn't having his confidence fully up there. he looked at h all ready tonight had his confidence what a move that was to go up to nothing especially after he signs that big contract his camp and preseason are okay at best and he gets a huge goal to open the season he really needed that and it was just awesome to see man you're spot on that is exactly what philly covenin needed and it's something you and i have constantly gone into about

Starting point is 00:07:20 Coivanin is that he is a player who feeds off of confidence, who feeds off of momentum. We saw it with the baby penguins. We saw it in his first stint in the NHL two seasons ago. And him getting an early goal this season and playing in a pretty solid win for the penguins does look to be a really good first step. And that was one of my keys to the game going into this one was I wanted to see a solid start from Villay Kovinen in this game. It didn't have to be lighten up the score sheet. It didn't have to be, you know, being the best player on the ice. But he was among some of the better skaters for the penguins tonight. And getting that goal on a breakaway, just absolutely gorgeous. And speaking of

Starting point is 00:08:06 one of the players who absolutely torches the penguins or tortures the flyers, I should say, if Gennie Malkin gets his 100th point against the Philadelphia Flyers on what was a beautiful setup on the powerplay. You and I were texting during that power play going, oh my God, this power play looks broken. What are they doing out there? And then sure enough, a quick little give and go one timer from Fagney Malkin beats Fla Dar up high, gives the penguins a three nothing lead. And they did not look back after that. No, and I thought at some point the Flyers were going to push back in the final 40 minutes, Pat, never really came to fruition at all.

Starting point is 00:08:50 The Penguins had peddle to the medal throughout this entire game. As I said, it was a complete beat down. Even when the Flyers had like a small millisecond glimpse of trying to push back, the Penguins were like, nope, we're not going to allow it. And they got right back to their game. Geno won cork that sucker to make it 3-0. And you're right. You and I were texting because I was saying, hmm, I don't like the look of the look of it. these two units and then as soon as I send you that text, Gino just uncorks that puck

Starting point is 00:09:15 to make it 3-0. No chance there for Dan Vladar. And, you know, I kind of figured, this was something I tweeted on social media. I think because of the short training camp in the preseason, you're going to see some like slow starts to power plays just because there's not a lot of cohesiveness. There's just not enough time to prepare the season starting a bit earlier. And you saw that for the first power play they had tonight, right? Where it just wasn't looking pretty, didn't have any shots on goal. And they were moving the puck, but they were just overpassing. But then, you know, they were trying a few new kinks out.

Starting point is 00:09:49 A couple things worked. They go two for four in the power play. Nice stuff in general. But I do think league-wide, you might see some teams kind of have to warm up their power play a little bit just because of short training camps and short preseason. But hey, Penguins went two for four tonight. That was a big part of it. And their PK was also perfect.

Starting point is 00:10:05 Great job by that unit. I also really want to shout out before we get to the second segment. I know we're going to run a little bit long here. I want to shout out Sam Gerard. I thought this was by far his best game as a penguin, not even close. Yeah, he had a couple of nice spinoramas. That's probably going to get the headlines for some people,

Starting point is 00:10:23 especially one Pat, where he sent Owen Tippett to the Shadow Realm, just sent him gone. It was a beautiful move at the Blue Line. Got a nice chance out of it, too. But I thought he was in position all night. I thought he skated well. His decision-making was great. He seems so much more comfortable.

Starting point is 00:10:40 with Cating Corsack, someone who is, again, more defensive-minded. Only one game, but I am really hoping that this pair takes off for the Penguins this year. It was the best I have seen Gerard play so far, and I hope it's a sign of more things to come for him. You and me both, and we got plenty more to talk about from this 7-0-0-win by the Pittsburgh Penguins. We're going to get into the weeds and talk about some of the things that the Penguins did in this game that if they continue to do them, we'll bring them quite a bit of success this season. We're going to get into that when we come back right after this.

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Starting point is 00:12:30 make sure you're on Fandul and signed up for their new rewards club. Make this your most rewarding season ever with Fandul. Visit fandul.com to get started. We're back here on the Thursday victory Thursday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Patrick Damp and Hunter Hodes here with you, recapping that absolutely dominant 7-0 win by the Pittsburgh Penguins. And yeah, I mean, if they score seven goals a game, I'm going to like their chances in most games. But obviously, that's not going to be the most sustainable thing. One thing that I do think, though, Hunter, that will be very sustainable, and it was a stark difference from the playoff series to tonight is that you can see that Dan Mews and the coaching staff completely overhauled their breakout in their neutral zone play leading to their offensive zone entries.

Starting point is 00:13:35 There was a lot of puck support. There was no nonsense in the neutral zone. There was no trying to carry it through three, four, five different players and get a clean entrance. They moved the puck crisply through the neutral zone. If there was nothing there, there was no hesitation to gain the red line, put it in deep, and go to work. And on top of that, you brought it up early in the episode.

Starting point is 00:14:02 The four check tonight was absolutely and totally relentless. You know you have a good coach when you see. some adjustments like this. And this is only Damme uses second season. But the way that they forechecked from the first drop of the puck, the way that they were so relentless, just bullying the flyers down low and in the corners, taking a hit to make a play,

Starting point is 00:14:29 just weaving right around players in the offensive zone. It was a treat to watch. And then also packed defensively with more puck support, the way they were able to break up chances in their own end, break things out even cleaner than at times last season was also a treat to watch. I talked about Sam Gerard earlier. I thought Trevor Van Riemstike was also great in his own zone. The amount of plays that he broke up in his own zone, the way he was so calm,

Starting point is 00:14:59 breaking the puck out was also great. I thought Declan Carlisle, the way that he played defensively, was also great. So honestly, we can say the same for all the defensemen, Pat. None of the defensemen. None of the players tonight played that. Let's just get that out of the way, Pat. I will. I will nitpick a little bit,

Starting point is 00:15:19 but it's going to get to a place that I think is in agreement with you. I do think the first five to ten minutes, the first few shifts for Chris LaTang were a little rough, some not so great decisions with the puck. But he, like everybody else, stabilized. He had himself a much better night. It was a rocky. start, but he recovered. He played very well. And to build off of what you're saying, in the D zone

Starting point is 00:15:47 tonight, there were very few high danger chances by the Philadelphia Flyers. You look up at natural statric according to their metrics. They had all of four high danger chances at five on five throughout the game. The penguins did a really good job essentially playing a box in one in the defensive zone. The defenseman got where they needed to be. The wingers stayed in place in the center provided the support. And for the majority of the night, if the

Starting point is 00:16:20 flyers were getting shots on goal, they were from the perimeter. There were people in front of them to block them. If they were in a shooting zone, they made sure that Shilovs had a look at it. They made his job extremely easy. This was

Starting point is 00:16:36 for all intents and purposes, this was as close to a perfect road game as you can get for the penguins. Yeah, and you and I also talked about how they needed to have a really strong first 10 minutes to really put themselves in a good position. Well, Pat, mission accomplished for that because they were the better team from the first shift of the game. There were a couple of shifts where, you know, the flyers were, their fans were trying to get

Starting point is 00:16:59 them into it. I mean, for God's sakes, Ristlinan, the hit on Crosby, their fans go nuts. Seconds later, Robertson scores to make it one-nothing. That is an amazing way to shut that crowd up. Oh, a big hit happens. Okay, we're just going to keep going to work. We're going to keep blitzing you guys. And we're going to score.

Starting point is 00:17:16 We're going to shut you all up. I just felt everything about that was not only funny, but it was picture perfect. And I'm glad you brought up the forwards coming back, Pat, because they were really supporting all the defensemen tonight. Everyone was back in position, in their own zone. You're right about R.D. She loves. He had to make a few nice saves, but for the most part,

Starting point is 00:17:35 he didn't have to make any, like, 10 bell saves. His job was pretty easy tonight, and that's exactly what you want for your goalie on most nights. Now, there's going to be games where your goalie's going to have to bail you out, and he's going to have to make a ton of saves. That's true for literally every team, and there's going to be games when you also struggle a lot defensively. But that was not tonight. I just thought everything was so clean, so crisp. It was honestly reminded me a little bit of that dress rehearsal preseason game against Buffalo Pat,

Starting point is 00:18:05 where they played such a simple, sound defensive game in their own end, and then got to work in the offensive zone and just went after Buffalo. They did the same thing tonight against Philadelphia. Just everything about it was great. And I know we have other performances to get to because we have our three-star segment, and we're going to explain that coming up here pretty soon. I thought Philip Hollander tonight was absolutely unreal. That third line in general, Pat, I'll give you a stat here. The Hollander-Lapier-covenant line finished tonight's game with a 96.8 expected goal share.

Starting point is 00:18:37 They also controlled 85.7% of the shot attempts. Every single time they were out there, they were creating offense. There was one point in the second period where they had completed a line change from their fourth line, just having the flyers in, and then the Crosby line comes on, and they also had the flyers in for what felt like a minute or two. It was just wave after wave, shift after shift. You know, I thought Cating Corsack had a couple assists tonight. he was so good, especially in his own zone.

Starting point is 00:19:08 Sid, that gets an assist. Ricardo Raquel, I thought was great. Blake Lazott gets a couple of really rough hits, gets back up, creates some great chances. He's just a wrecking ball out there. And the team is, like, obviously they're way better when he is in the lineup. But you can just tell they play with more confidence

Starting point is 00:19:27 when someone like that is out there in the bottom six. I'm not trying to, like, you know, say like, oh my God, Blake Lazot's like a savior. I'm just saying that like he is so important to this team and you can see it every single time that he is out there. So Pat, those are most of my main thoughts. We're going to get to the three stars. But man, I loved a lot of what I saw from so many players tonight. The last thing that I want to add and it builds off of everything you said about puck support and everything that you said about the way they conducted themselves tonight.

Starting point is 00:19:59 The first Robertson goal. obviously I will make my joke that the high watermark of this game was Ristolining, crushing Crosby. It gets their crowd fired up, but just a few seconds later, the penguins put a goal in. So congrats. That pretty much is the exact personification of this rivalry in the Crosby era, is that they go nuts about getting a couple big hits over Sid and then the penguins beat them. But the thing that was most impressive about that goal was, one, you could tell the penguins knew that they were going to try to chase another hit. They were going to try to continue to fire that crowd up and they filled in the lanes that they needed to fill in. When Sid went down, you could see that the way the forecheck in the offense shifted, they knew that lanes were going to open up.

Starting point is 00:20:54 They knew that they were going to start chasing. So the penguins got where they needed to go. They moved the puck well. And Robertson was pretty much untouched and uncovered at the side of the net. The penguins recognized that they did not let themselves get sucked into anything where it would have been really easy because that is your captain. That is a living legend. It is one of the top five players in the history of the sport. But the penguins went, you know what?

Starting point is 00:21:21 He's a big boy. He can handle himself. We don't need to fight everybody. that looks at them cross-eyed. We have an opportunity to create some offense here. It's going to hurt them a lot more if we go up one-nothing in their home opener, in their building than if we go punch Ristow in the face. So I was a huge fan of that because part of the issue from the playoff series last year,

Starting point is 00:21:49 penguins chased a lot of emotion. They let the flyers get in their heads. Tonight, there was not. a single shred of that. There were some scrums. There was some back and forth. But for the most part, it was initiated by the flyers and the penguins just went, we're good here. We're good. We're going to take our two points and we're going to head back west. You guys have fun tomorrow night. But that is going to do it for the middle segment. When we come back, a brand new segment we're debuting this season. You're not going to want to miss it. Stick with us for that when we come back

Starting point is 00:22:24 right after this. Finishing up the Thursday edition, Victory Thursday edition of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes and we have got a new segment for this season.

Starting point is 00:22:48 We are calling it and we're borrowing it from our friend Chris Carter over on Locked On Steelers. What Carter does every Tuesday or a day or two after a Steelers game. He has a fun little segment he has with Alan Saunders of Steelers now called Stars in Skulls,

Starting point is 00:23:09 where they evaluate the performance of several players, good performances get you stars, bad performances get you skulls. We're going to tweak it a little bit. After victories, we're going to give out our stars of the game. After losses, we're going to give out what we call our shames of the game. Obviously, a 7-0 win. There are not going to be any shames in this one. It is going to be all stars from us. And here's how we're going to set this up, much like we do with Warrior Helmet Wednesday,

Starting point is 00:23:43 where we give our MVP of the week, which we'll return next week after the first week games. We're going to hand out one star, two star, and three stars. The value is right there. And then what we're going to do is I'm going to keep a tally of them. and then at the end of the season, we'll see who has the most stars and we'll see who has the most shame.

Starting point is 00:24:08 But Hunter, I'm going to give the floor to you to start this off. We've got graphics for this. So if you're watching it, it'll be spoiled. But Hunter, give us your three stars of the game. Yeah. So my first star, I know this is going to be a complete shocker to everyone. Nick Robertson with two goals. He was absolutely everywhere.

Starting point is 00:24:26 That first goal that he scored. Beautiful shot pass. by Chris Lange. We have seen that so many times. The deflection was also great. Love the celebration. And then the second goal, just a great LOL moment out there.

Starting point is 00:24:39 Just thanks off Dan Vladar Skate. But again, it was created because of Robertson Speed on the PK. I think you're going to see a lot more of Robertson on the PK this year. Damies really trusts him on that unit so far. And I just felt that he had a great game. Two goals down, Pat. 23 to go to reach my bowl prediction for this year. so we are off to an amazing start.

Starting point is 00:25:01 And you know what? I'm going to give myself a little bit of a pat on the back. I thought he was going to be the first goal score of the season. Didn't happen, but he did score tonight. And that was Philip Hollander. He is my second star of the game. A goal and the assist, the assist, by the way. That is not getting talked about enough.

Starting point is 00:25:21 That nifty little play with the puck to get it to Hendricks-Lop Pierre. Man, Chef's Kiss. Just the way that he did it was great. The goal crashes the crease, gets the garbage in, pokes it in, loved his games tonight. And I am so happy for him considering everything he has been through over the last year, thought his playing career was over. He's able to come back, have not only a great camp, but a great preseason, makes the team, and makes an immediate impact.

Starting point is 00:25:52 So he was fantastic, loved that. And then my third start of the game, I went back and forth on a lot. because I could have put a ton of players here. But you know what, Pat, Gini-Ville equivalent tonight. I just felt he played a super composed, poised game, the confidence that he showed on that goal to make it 2-0.

Starting point is 00:26:11 I honestly haven't seen that since his brief sample size at the end of the 24-25 season under Mike Sullivan. Everything about that was fantastic. Also, shout out Sam Gerard for that pass. Beautiful pass right through the, middle of the ice finds Coivinen and he makes no mistake, puts it viable to make it too nothing. And even outside of that, he was getting some good quality chances. He was skating well, making good decisions.

Starting point is 00:26:39 He wasn't lost around the boards or anything like that. I just felt, you know, in terms of his NHL sample, that was one of his best NHL games yet. And I hope that he's able to build on this. So those are my three stars of the evening. All three players were great. I could have said so many others in these spots. But those are my picks. Pat, what say you?

Starting point is 00:27:02 A lot of very deserving players to get stars tonight. And it would have been really easy to put someone like Artur Sheelovs in there, gets a shut out. Like you said, second straight year. He gets a shut out in the season opener. That's pretty impressive, if you ask me. But a lot of obvious ones for me here in my three stars. My one star goes to Nikki two goals.

Starting point is 00:27:28 Robertson with two G's on the night. Hendrix LaPierre with a goal and an assist. He gets two stars for me. And then three stars for me goes to Philip Hollander. It's, you already went over it. It's just such a good story of Hollander. It's a great story of perseverance. They talked about it on the broadcast that he dealt with the blood clot and then gets a shoulder injury after he's trying to make his way back from that has a great summer a great camp gets rewarded for it by making the team and pays off everything that this team has given him to this point and he was just a menace all night he was involved in the play he was fast he was physical gets two points as well and i can like i said there are so many other players that could get stars tonight i also look at someone

Starting point is 00:28:23 unlike Igor Chinikov. He had multiple chances. It was nice to see him get the chilly goal for the Penguins, get that seven spot. Gino, I thought, had a solid night. Sid, it was just another classic night in Philadelphia. He just didn't get a goal, got the assist, but he was, his first shift, he had three hits. It was a classic Sid performance in Philadelphia. But yeah, this is something that we are going to do this season. It's a nice fun little wrinkle for us to further break down what happened in a game. But Hunter, unless you got anything else to add from what was a...

Starting point is 00:29:00 Just let us know what you think about this new segment. Do you like it? Do you dislike it? Do you want us to keep it going for every game? We want to hear your feedback. We're really excited about it. But otherwise, no, Pat, I think you can bring this home. Great start to the season.

Starting point is 00:29:15 Bring on the home opener against Montreal now. And don't be afraid to tell us in the comments who your stars of the game were. because, you know, we love interacting with you guys. But like Hunter said, I'm going to take us home on this one. That is going to do it for the Thursday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Hunter and I will be back on Friday to get you set for the home opener against Les Habitans when they come to town. And we will have fan take Friday. So make sure you're subscribed.

Starting point is 00:29:47 Make sure you're following us on social. Get your hot takes, get your questions in. and we will talk to you on Friday.

Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins CRUSH the Flyers in the season opener!

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