Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson shines at World Championships, can it translate?

Episode Date: May 27, 2024

Erik Karlsson was spectacular for Team Sweden in the World Championships in Prague, but can he bring some of that success with him back to Pittsburgh? Patrick and Hunter discuss what they saw from Karlsson and what they believe he did that can translate to the NHL when the Penguins are back in action this October. Next, Braden Yager also put on a show in Moose Jaw's opening game of the 2024 Memorial Cup, despite the loss. They dive into what he needs to continue to do to develop, how Moose Jaw can stun one of the best teams in the CHL and more. Finally, it's season in review time for Jansen Harkins, a training camp waiver claim that didn't pan out as expected. They also give some thoughts on the Stanley Cup Playoffs conference final round. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!IndeedThere is no “I” in “team.” But there is one in “Indeed” and that’s the hiring platform you need to build yours. When you’re hiring, you need Indeed.Claim your SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT now at Indeed.com/LOCKEDON. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. PolicygeniusCheck life insurance off your to do list in no time with Policygenius. Head to policygenius.com/lockedonnhl to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARANTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – with any winning FIVE DOLLAR BET! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON 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.

As Sweden took home the bronze medal at the world championships, it's safe to say that Eric Carlson was amongst the most dominant players in the tournament. But how can he bring that game with him back to Pittsburgh? 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 hosts, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on Twitter 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 account a follow at L0 underscore Penguins.

And we thank you for making this your first listener watch of the day because we're your team every day. And remember, we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube. And before we get started, today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. Make every moment more. Right now new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $150 with any winning $5 bet. Visit fandul.com slash locked on to get started. So world championships are behind us.

Sweden takes home the silver medal. Chequia gets the gold. Canada gets silver. But we have to talk about what affects the Pittsburgh penguins the most because this is indeed the locked on. Penguins podcast. One of the most dominant players in the tournament this spring was defenseman Eric Carlson. In 10 games, he recorded, I believe, if I got the numbers right here, because their website is very silly. He had six goals, five assists, four 11 points,

and he looked dominant throughout. He was one of, if not Sweden's best player. He was their captain. He led them to a lot of success in that tournament. tournament. He was, if I can be blunt about this, the player we'd hoped he was going to be for the Penguins for Sweden. I will add this caveat, though, it's a different team. There is a lot more talent involved on a international stage. They're playing on larger ice. And it's just a very different game than the National Hockey League. But when I watch the film of a lot of what Carlson did, in Prague at the world championships, I can see a lot of things that would translate

to the national hockey league and make him a more productive member of the Penguins. So for me, I think it starts and ends with, I know Penguins fans are tired of hearing about it, but the power play. Yeah, that, but for me, and yes, just to start, you are very much correct. It's six goals, 11 points, in 10 games.

he was that good at the world championships. But when I was watching him throughout this tournament, he had a very big shoot first mentality from the point. Every time he was past the puck, he was ripping it to the net. Just look at the tying goal for Sweden against Canada in the bronze medal game. Sweden's down.

He gets the puck. Boom, fires a one-timer. It's in the back of the net. He was doing that constantly throughout this tournament, even though he wasn't doing it that much for the Penguins it felt like during the season. He was kind of at times looking for that perfect play, especially in the first half. But he's able to bring that shoot first mentality and fire quite a few more pucks from the

point. That's going to lead to more offense for this team for the 2024, 2025 season and beyond as well. That's the biggest thing I saw from him at this tournament, where he was just firing a lot more pucks here than he did with the Penguins. And if the coaching staff is able to get him to do that here with the Penguins, again, I think you're going to really see a lot more offense, whether it's at five on five or the power play. And I actually have to correct myself just to make sure we get things right on here.

Canada did not meddle. Canada did not meddle. Switzerland got the silver. I was, again, their website's very silly. Canada was in one of the featured photos. And I made the assumption like an idiot. But it's a holiday episode. This is what we do here. But getting back to Eric Carlson, a lot of what you were saying comes back to me is saying he needs to be more definitive as a player with the penguins.

The shoot first mentality, he needs to trust his instincts a lot more. And more importantly, he really needs to, and I don't think he did it a lot, but I think he did it enough that it became noticeable. he doesn't have to defer to the guys who have been here forever. He doesn't have to defer to Malkin. He doesn't have to defer to Crosby. In the rare moments when they're together, he does not have to defer to Chris LaTang. And that really gets into the discussion of who is going to be the next assistant coach

now that the team has moved on from Todd Reardon. Whoever is running the power play, I think at this point, needs to step in and say Eric Carlson is the quarterback of this power play. He runs the show. He makes the calls. He is the point, man. It all goes through him. Everybody else react accordingly. So I look at that. And then I really do want to see him a little bit. Take the handcuffs off. Yeah, you don't have to, it's great that he was much better defensively this year. I think if you look at his underlying, Hunter, I know you've got them in front of you. this was one of his better defensive seasons,

and he's a guy who is not known for his defense. I'm not asking him to sell out and become a fourth forward, but take those risks, jump into the play. Obviously, be smart about it, because that's one thing we spoke about earlier this offseason, was that the defensemen need to be smarter in pinches. But if he feels he can lead a rush, lead the rush. If he feels like he can drive the offense, drive the offense.

Be the guy that we know you can be, because it showed in spurts this year. There were moments where he took over games. There were moments where he played the game that we expect to see from Eric Carlson. Next season, I want to see more of that. He just needs to be more selfish, I think, especially with a puck on his stick. And you're right, there were plenty of moments this year where we saw it in spurts. Heck, that early season game against the Red Wings, the Penguins were down by multiple goals in that game.

and he put on an absolute show in the third period, try to wheel the penguins back to at least get a point if not to. The penguins didn't win that game. But that was a vintage Eric Carlson performance, and we didn't get it too many other times. We got it in spurts, as you said, especially later on in the season, those final 10 to 12 games.

But I wanted to see more performances like that from Carlson, and we just didn't fully get it, which is why, you know, it was a little bit, of a disappointing season, but I'm not going to sit here and say that the trade was bad or that he was bad or anything like that. But I really do think he can unlock his true potential with this team for next year. He gets a more stable partner, hopefully for a full season in Marcus Pedersen. You have him be a bit more selfish with the puck. You have them run that power play. And you have them play closer to the player that we saw in San Jose, maybe not all the way.

I don't need him putting up a hundred points. I mean, that'd be awesome if he did. I mean, we don't expect that to happen. But if he's closer to that type of player, that is going to help the Penguins very much for next season. But I just couldn't be more thrilled by his play overseas. I know different circumstances, the ice is bigger. It's a different tournament. You have quite a bit of talent on that team, Sweden team.

But there's no reason to think that he can't bring over what he did back to the Penguins. He was magnificent. Well, and we have certainly seen that before as Penguins fans. You think back to right before the penguins won their back-to-back championships in 2016, 2017. What did Sidney Crosby go do? And I understand different players, different circumstances, even different times. We're getting close to a decade on that.

Different age, too, I will say. World championships for a lot of top tier players are often used as a get right place for them. To go and play a bit more of an open style, to be a little bit more. more dominant to get their confidence back, so to speak. And you can see a world where he puts up this spectacular performance for team Sweden in the world championships. And it kind of reminds them, okay, this is what my game is. This is who I am.

I can take this back and translate it to the national hockey league and to my club in the NHL and play a lot better. I also think like you said, if he can have a more stable partner, partner in Pedersen have him for the majority of the season, as well as getting an assistant coach that can kick some life into this power play, we could very well see a much improved, rejuvenated Eric Carlson in the 24-25 season. Yeah, I mean, they are committed to making this work. I don't think you're going to see him get traded this off season and nor should they trade

Carlson, in my opinion. So I do think you're going to see a really strong version of him next year, especially when we did our season review on him. You know, I gave him kind of in that, you know, B category for the season. I wasn't in that C range or anything like that. But he also didn't blow me away the way that I expected him to for the season. I would say for your expectations too. But I do think this is going to work next season.

I'm really high on this player. As am I. And it all comes back to what I said when we had the discussion a few weeks ago about whether to start the rebuild now or push it off, you look at the talent that's in place on this team and then you go to a real micro level and talk about a guy like Carlson. The talent is there for him to have a bounce back season.

In saying bounce back season is even a little bit ridiculous because he wasn't bad by any means. He was definitely a little bit disappointing, though, compared to expectation. But the talent is there. The bones are there. to create a situation where he can have a better season as a penguin, both at five on five and on the power plate.

But that is going to do it for our first segment of the show today. When we come back, it was a big night in the opening night of the Memorial Cup tournament for the penguin's maybe top prospect, Braden Yeager. But we will talk about that right after this. But first, we've got to tell you about our sponsor, and that is Fandul. It's winner-take-all-time in the NBA and the NHL, and Fandul is giving you a shot to bring home a big win of your own.

Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $150 to bet on spreads, money lines, player props, and more. Visit Fandul.com slash locked on and make every playoff shot count. Fandul, America's number one sportsbook. All right, we're back here on the Monday edition. of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes.

And we got to talk about our boy because he had a big night in the opening night of the Memorial Cup tournament. And that is Braden Yeager, a two-gole performance, unfortunately in a 5-4 loss to the Saginaw spirit in their opening game against the host team. And that said, it gets into a lot of what we talked about and have been talking about when it comes to Yeager. It's answering the bell, coming up in those big moments,

and being a leader in those situations. Because at one point, Moose Jaw found themselves down 4 to nothing to Saginaw and both of Yeager's goals helped them climb back to within 1 to 4 to 3. So Hunter, what did you see from Braden Yeager? Moose Jaw was getting flat out dominated by Saginaw for a good chunk of the first half of this game. They were down 4-0 at one point, but it was Moosechaw's top players, especially Yeager, that got them back into it to end the second period. This was a 4-3 game heading into the third.

It ends in a 5-4 loss from Moose-jaw, but Yeager was all over the ice, especially in the second half of the second period. And both of his goals are great, but the second one is the one that really stands out to me, the give and go, just the way he was able to start the play and then finish it off after getting the puck back. That's just stuff you don't teach. And it's really been awesome to see him continue to develop and do a really sound prospect. And I know you said it before we threw it to break that he was maybe the best prospect in this system. No, there's no maybe about it.

This is by far the penguin's best prospect in their system. And then, you know, two goals, three points in this game. He continues to show that he is a big game player. And I know Moushant is going to be the underdog in its next game against London, who, I mean, they're just crazy good. But I expect Yeager to have another big game against London, too. Moosejah may not win that game just with how good London is. But Yeager and Moushaw are still going to give it everything they have overall, but just a really flawless performance from him.

It looked like at times in the third period that Moosechaw was going to tie it up, but Saginaw was just too much overall. But man, I had a lot of fun watching Yeager just absolutely cooking the second half of that game. Yeah. And to his credit also, that goal that he, his first goal of the two that he scored was Moose Jaws. According to the CHL, this was Moose Jaws first Memorial Cup goal in team history. So huge, huge thing for him. But like you said, tonight, they are taking on the London Knights in their second game,

and they're coming off a huge 4-0 win over Drummondville. So this is going to be another massive challenge for Moose Jaw in the Memorial Cup. And it may not be a must win, but it's a definitely don't lose, because if you fall into an 02 hole in a round robin tournament like the Memorial Cup, then you can pretty much kiss any aspirations you had to win the Memorial Cup goodbye. Yeah, this is as close to a must win as there is out there. And as I just said, this is going to be a massive challenge. Just Pat, look at the talent on London overall.

It's star after star, after star, after star. And Mark Hunter, he's done a tremendous job with that team. with the way Moosechaw was getting dominated by Saginaw for the first half of that game before Moosechaw scored three goals in a minute and a half to get back into it. I'm just really a bit worried for Moosechha and Braden Yeager just because Saginaw, I said last week that this is quote unquote the worst team of the four, but they were still really good. You saw that on display.

London, oh, they're five times this. This is going to be a massive challenge. Yeah, you look at their victory over. Drummondville and it's just everybody that contributed contributed for them is some sort of a top prospect, whether it's Oliver Bonk for Philadelphia, Casper Hultonan for San Jose, Gazov is going to be a highly touted prospect going into this draft and he scored two. So this is a huge challenge. And then on the other side of it, though, you have to keep in mind, this is the best of the best

in the CHL. This isn't, yes, occasionally there are the host team that gets in because they're hosting the event and they really don't have any business being in the tournament. That's not the case for Saginaw. They're now 2 and O. They are a team that's making a case to get into the Memorial Cup final. But back to Yeager and the Warriors, they kind of have to take what they did in the end of the second period and the third period into this game against London.

You know that you have a tremendous top line. You know that your top end talent can really make or break a game for you. And yes, they are going to be overmatched by London. But if you're the Warriors, you have to look at it as let's put our top guys up against their top guys and see how the chips fall. You just got to show that desperation as well. Play like this could be your last game. even though I know it's fully not, but I want to see that desperation from Moose Shaw in this one.

And just go out there with nothing to lose. I mean, you're going up there against the team that is the quote, unquote, favorite. Go out there and see what you can do. I mean, this is why the games are played at the end of the day. And I know the Western Conference final game three is tonight, but I am still going to be very much watching this game as well to see what happens. Oh, yeah.

I will definitely be dual screening it tonight between, the Western Conference Final and this game in the Memorial Cup. That kicks off at 7.30 tonight. Moose Jaw versus London, we will see how Braden Yeager carries himself in another huge moment for a team that has seen several huge moments throughout this year. But that is going to do it for the second segment. When we come back, one more season and review series for us to do, we keep that rolling on this episode.

We're going to talk about a player that, well, didn't really make that much of an impact as a Pittsburgh penguin, but we will talk about that right after this. All right, we're back here for the final segment of the Monday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm Patrick Damp, joined as always by the illustrious Hunter Hodes. And this player, well, you got to say he was certainly on the team. That much is confirmed. and that is Jansen Harkins. He was claimed off of waivers from the Winnipeg Jets during training camp on October 2nd. And you look at his statistics and they are pretty bleak.

45 games played, no goals scored, four assists for four points and a minus four. He is a UFA at the end of, well, right now, because once we get to July 1, he is officially a UFA. but at this point, Hunter, I think it's pretty safe to say they're going to be moving on from Jansen Harkins. Yeah, he only made 850K for this season, but there's really no reason to bring Jansan Harkins back. I'm not going to be too mean to him or anything like that on this show, but he just really didn't contribute anything on a nightly basis for this team when he was in the lineup, whether it was five on five or on the penalty kill.

I mean, I know quite a few times the counting stats don't fully tell the full story, but I think they kind of do in this case. When you only have four points in 45 games and none of those are goals, you're just really not doing anything to help the team. And his underlying numbers this year were not good. When he was on the ice, the Penguins only had 48% of the shot attempts, six goals, four, 10 goals against 47% of the scoring chances, and 46% of the high danger chances at 5 on 5.

Just not good enough at all. And this should be a very easy decision for Kyle Dubus in the front office and Mike Sullivan and his coaching staff move on and look to upgrade elsewhere in the bottom six. Absolutely. And the thing that's most disappointing about it is that he does play in a way the game that we have been asking the penguins to play for the last few weeks. He has a lot of speed. He's on the younger side.

He's not afraid to get physical. But it never really translated into any kind of success. And then you look at other counting stats for him, 21 penalty minutes in 45 games played. If he was putting up 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 goals, a bunch of assists, you know, 10, 15 assists, something like that. You can live with a guy who in your bottom six,

plays with a little bit of sandpaper, has some speed, but takes some penalties. But when you're not getting the point production from him, at that point, he's essentially a liability when he's on the ice. And then like you said with his defensive, or his overall metrics,

it shows that the team was not as good defensively as they should have been with him on the ice. Because again, we at the start of the season, understood the idea they were going for with the bottom six. After the season prior to this one, the bottom six not only couldn't score, but they got caved in defensively. So we were totally on board for the most part with,

all right, if nothing else, let your top six drive the offense. And at the very least, hope your bottom six plays to even. And that really wasn't the case, especially with whichever line Jansen Harkins was on. Yeah, I think he was honestly just kind of a cardio merchant for this team when he was on the ice. And the experiment didn't work out. There's really nothing else I can really say about it at this point. It didn't work out.

He didn't do anything offensively. He wasn't good defensively. He wasn't good on the penalty kill. You look to move on. I wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors. But I just, I'm not going to bring him back if I'm this front office. There's no reason to. I know that it has been reported that Kyle Dubus is a fan of this player and has been for a while.

But at this point, we're not talking about a young team that's on its way up and going into its prime. We're in a team, we're at a team in a franchise now where you're trying to squeeze the last bit of good hockey out of your superstars. And in that case, you can't keep taking flyers on guys like Jansen Harkins. Again, don't mean that as any sort of shot at them. Don't mean that in a derogatory way or anything. But if you're not contributing positively at this point, you have to be left aside and you have to move on. But that'll do it for the season and review of Jansen Harkins. Before we go, we would be remiss if we didn't talk about the conference finals and the Stanley Cup playoffs.

And boy, oh, boy, did we get a doozy of a game? against the Rangers and Panthers. I know you were on the edge of your seat for that one, just like I was Hunter. And I want to let you cook on that one because I know you have thoughts. Yeah, I mean, outside of Rangers fans getting mad in my Twitter mention, just because I mentioned Jacob Truba for the first time in a while,

I mean, I had a lot of fun watching this game. I mean, the Panthers threw everything, including the kitchen sink at Igor Shusirkin. But at the end of the day, the Panthers got goalied. That's what happened in this game. And when the Rangers have the, ability to have arguably the best goaltender in the sport, and they basically had that for the last

20 years with Henrik Lungwist to Igor Shasturkin, it's a luxury that, again, not many other teams have in the NHL, and sometimes a goalie can steal a game, and he did exactly that in this one. I mean, did you see the metrics for Matthew Kachuk on the ice versus when he was not on the ice? It's about over 90% for shot attempts in this game. He was a menace for the Panthers. Again, they threw everything at the Rangers. They were dominant in that third period. I thought they were going to win the game in the third period,

especially on that power play late. But Shostarkin was awesome. He was the reason why they won that game. Sometimes all you need in the playoffs is a hot goalie, and he was hot in that game. The Rangers have been getting depth goals. Some of their top players have really not played well in this series. Panarin hasn't fully arrived yet.

Kreider hasn't fully arrived yet, at least in this series. I think Pennergan and Crider have been good in the other two series, but they haven't been good yet in this series, same with Zabinajat, but it's players like Barclay Goodrow, who didn't even score six goals during the regular season. He's playing his tail off in the playoffs. Alexei Lafranier, he's playing really well for the Rangers.

And then you're also getting a goal from Alexander Wenberg. Sometimes you need your depth players to step up, and that's also what happened in this game. Rangers up two games to one, and now the Panthers face a pretty big game in Game 4. you don't want to go down three games to one against his Rangers team and be forced to beat Igor Shosturkin three games in a row. So curious to see how that goes.

And then game three tonight, Western Conference Final, Dallas, Edmonton, in typical Dallas fashion, they struck back in game two. This is what they do. Curious to see what happens now that the series has shifted to Edmonton. And we should say, Mouscheon has loaded up their starting lineup tonight. Savoy, Yeager, and Furcus to start. and that's going to be a lot of fun against London. That's their starting lineup and forward.

There is a lot of good hockey to watch tonight. But back to the Rangers in Panthers game from Sunday. The one thing I really liked, though, after it was what Paul Maurice had to say, where he basically said in the playoffs, there are times when you want to forget about a loss and move on, but there are other times where you want to remember how that loss. lost felt. And I think tonight's game is one that these guys need to remember and carry into game four because they did everything right and did not come out with a victory. And that is going to be

an energized, motivated, angry Florida Panthers team going in to the next game. And I can't wait to watch that one. And finally, I couldn't help but laugh after game one of Edmonton, Dallas, when Connor McDavid talks to the panel on TNT and basically apologizes for not ending the game earlier. He's like, yeah, sorry to keep everybody up so late, but, you know, things happen. So that's another great series, man. And I think even with the result from Sunday in Rangers Panthers, we're in for six to seven games in both of these series. Yeah, I'd be surprised if any of these series ended in five games. I think these are both going at least six, if not seven.

I mean, I know I picked the stars in six. I mean, it's going to go at least to that length. I would not be surprised if it goes seven with the way Edmonton has played so far. They've really surprised me in this series. They've taken it to Dallas quite a bit so far. Curious to see if the stars make some adjustments where they're carrying the play. But also for Dallas, once they get a lead, goodbye. Yeah.

You saw what they did in the third period. They shut down the Oilers once they got that lead. They can beat you in a whole. whole bunch of different ways. So really looking forward to game three tonight. And we also should say to end the show, congratulations to former Penguins head coach Dan Bilesma. It looks like he's going to be the head coach of the Seattle Cracken. He hasn't been in the league for a long time. Really curious to see how he does with the Cracken, assuming that Elliott Friedman's report is correct after what happened at the end of his tenure in Buffalo. I want to see what he's learned since then. So curious to see how

that goes. It'll be really cool to see what he can do in a more stable environment because I don't think you can really count his Buffalo tenure because that was when Buffalo was in absolute disarray. They're finally starting to get back to where they need to be to be a good team again. But it's like you always say, you want to see what a guy does with his second shot, even though this will be his third. I do again, don't think you can really count what happened in Buffalo. but very excited to see what he does with a stable management and ownership behind him in Seattle. But that is going to do it for the Monday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Hunter and I will be back tomorrow with more.

We'll be talking about what Braden Yeager did in this game against London, as well as any other news that may come up with the Pittsburgh Penguins. But for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always for tuning in, and we'll talk to you on Tuesday.