Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins defensive woes continue against the Maple Leafs

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Pittsburgh Penguins, well, they're getting a lump of coal in their Christmas stocking after a poor effort against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Hunter and I are going to break down the loss and give out our MVP of the week as part of Warrior Helmet Wednesday 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 another edition of 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.

Starting point is 00:00:47 You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can follow our show's Twitter account at L.O. underscore Penguins. You can find us on Instagram at Locked on underst. Penguins and 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 podcast as well as YouTube. Plus, if you follow us on YouTube, which you should be doing, make sure you've hit the

Starting point is 00:01:19 notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. Before we get started, this episode is brought to you by Fandul. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this NFL season, visit Fandul.com and place your live bets all season long. More on them later. Six to three final at Scotia Bank Arena between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Toronto Maple Leafs. But for all intents and purposes, let's say four to three, because the Leifes did get two empty net goals. And yes, they count.

Starting point is 00:01:59 Yes, it makes the final score six to three. But with an actual goaltender in the net, it was a four to three final in Toronto. And I'll say this right off the top, Hunter. This is the kind of game where nobody on either side is going home happy after this one. If you're the Toronto Maple Leafs, you're certainly not going to complain about getting a win and getting two clean points, but you definitely did not play what one would describe as a good game.

Starting point is 00:02:29 If you're the Pittsburgh Penguins, you're definitely unhappy that you've lost yet another game. You're probably not too upset about your effort because I would say they were mostly the better team for the majority of the game, but you made one too many mistakes that ended up in the back of your net and you come out with another loss.

Starting point is 00:02:48 So all in all, it is a weird game for both clubs, because, yes, leaves are probably happy they got two points, and William Nylander woke up, but they certainly didn't have a lot of positive to take away from it. For the penguins, plenty of positive to take away, but still quite a bit of negative. 100%. I think the biggest negative once again, just the defending from this team in their own zone, I keep coming back to the word, junior varsity. It was at a JV level. I did not like the way they defended at all. They handled the puck left. like a grenade at times, especially in the final eight minutes of the third period where

Starting point is 00:03:27 they weren't getting any swing chances after Max Domey made it a four or three game. I just didn't really like the way they played when they were trailing after that goal in the third period. But the way they defended Pat, just too many stupid mistakes. Like, you know, Kevin Hayes giving the puck on a silver platter to Willie Nealander. Not going to work, man. I mean, Willie Nealander came into this game in a little bit of a slump, but can't be giving away pucks like that to someone like Nealander who.

Starting point is 00:03:53 can make you pay at any time you have another situation where Carlson you know loki blows a tire of the blue one but also gets stripped of the pub i love how steward skinner was able to make the initial save but you have to get back there and clear the pup they were asking even to make you know three to four to five as shades you can't ask him to do that he made the initial save you've got to get back there and defend a bit better you have the own goal which you and i were talking about 99 at 100 times that doesn't go in. Bad luck there. And then Max Domi's corpse blocking Brett Kuwack in the defensive zone. Come on, man. Can't be allowing Max Domi in 2025, almost 2026 now to do that to you. Domi has not been good this year at all. That's a really bad clip for Brett

Starting point is 00:04:42 Kuwack. So when you combine all of those circumstances and you combine other situations in this game where I didn't think the penguins defended very well, this is the result that you get. I didn't think the least played that well for most of this game, especially in the first three attack, look like they were still trying to get Barube and Trilly being fired. They were very flat. I thought the penguins were the better team in that period. I would say the same for the second, and I kept texting some of my buddies. Like, there's an opportunity here to really make a comeback and Mantha ties it early in the third. You're thinking, okay, there we go. Just cut back on the mistakes. they weren't able to do it, especially when you saw.

Starting point is 00:05:20 Obviously, some of the penalty calls don't help in the third period. There's Garrett Rank for you guys, by the way. We all know how awful the refsky is. But you still need to defend in your own zone a lot better. And I'm not, like, naive to think that, oh, my God, they're this, like, you know, average defensive team. They're not. We all know how bad this defensive group is. You got to be better than this JV level that I saw on Tuesday night.

Starting point is 00:05:45 that was just bad for me it's it's the the inconsistency that kills me with their defensive game up to this point and i know this is going to sound almost delusional but i just want this defensive group and i don't mean just the defenseman i mean the team as a whole because everybody on the roster has to wear this for after this game and in this recent stretch is there are nights where I would say their defensive play is passable to even bordering on good. And then you have nights like, well, I can't say nights. It was afternoons like yesterday where it's just awful and it's just sub-professional. And I just want them to pick a lane already.

Starting point is 00:06:33 Either let us know that you are a leaky, sub-professional defensive team or you're a team that can nut up and play at least passable defense in big moments and it's just been so wildly inconsistent this season because we saw it even going into the the losing stretch for a few games they did all right and then obviously there was their start at the beginning of the season where they defended really well but there's just too many stretches where they're too cavalier with the puck. They're not making decisive decisions. They're careless with where their position is. They're losing track of players in the zone. And it's all the, the more annoying part of it is a lot of it is so fixable. In years past, since they have been missing the

Starting point is 00:07:30 postseason, you look at their, you've looked at their defensive play and just gone, it's bad. like it's the personnel it's the system it's just completely wrecked it's not good you look at the way this team has played and stretches this season and you go why can they not put this together consistently i think a lot of that is on the personnel though at least this year i mean we'll use on the blue line man i mean you and i have talked about this a lot chrysletang is having a season from hell he's not the same player anymore as much as i love eric carlson offensively we all know defensively, he's not very good. Brett Kuwack is not having that good of a year.

Starting point is 00:08:09 I actually was liking his game since coming over from Evanston. Asnike, though, wasn't good. Jackson Ivaney, he's just a guy. Connor Clifton, he's not very good. You're kind of just rearranging deck chairs on, you know, the bottom pairing. I like Parker Watherspoon. Again, on a cup contender, he's not a number one left-handed defenseman. He's on a cup contender.

Starting point is 00:08:32 He's more of a second-to-third-payer guy. again, he's been good this in extra Carlson, but on the cup contender, he's not playing up this high in your lineup. So I do think a big part of this is personnel. You're just finally starting to really see it come to fruition over the last few weeks. You know, some of their underlines even during their hot stretch were, you know, still a little bit leaky, but, you know, they were getting the saves. They were also outscoring their problems. Now, Pat, they're not outscoring their problem as much. And the goaltending, let's be real, it has regressed a bit. You know, it's not they're not getting there's a time early this year power where they had a top five all

Starting point is 00:09:08 situation say percentage among jari and she loss obviously jari is not here anymore skinner is and i mean it's not top five anymore and i'll say this about skinner i know a lot of people are going to come after him in the comments i really can't put a lot of that on him yesterday sue me for saying that if you think that's a bad take let me know i can't put a lot of that on him yesterday that this team needs to do a much better job of defending in front of them. If you look at goals, state above expected, he was positive. He wasn't in the negative, even though he gave up four goals. Usually you don't see that when a goal he gives up four goals.

Starting point is 00:09:43 But Pat, that goes to show how awful they were in their own zone in front of them yesterday. I'm with you on that. I know that you look at a game like yesterday's, and it's really, really easy to go after the goaltending. It wasn't the goaltending yesterday. It was the play in front of him. And we have seen it for the past couple of years with the up and down play of Tristan Jari

Starting point is 00:10:07 before him being traded. I always go back to that early season game last year against the Blue Jackets where they fell into an early hole. They started to make a comeback. And then Columbus scored on a real leaky one. And you could just see the body language of the team going. There's nothing we can do here. We're doing everything in our power to keep ourselves,

Starting point is 00:10:29 in this game but every time we get down to the other end of the ice jari gives one up and we can't outscore that you look at last night or yesterday afternoon there's a couple that you might want to be able to say yeah a big save there would have been nice or bailing the team out here would have been cool but there were no goals i looked at and went oh man skinner you've got to have that he he played well enough to keep them in it the team in front of them just let him down the waller spoon one really fluky bounce i think he potentially could have had it but again it's a very flaky bounce but the other three guys they got to do a better job defending man and you know sometimes also on breakaways you got to give credit to the player for making a nice

Starting point is 00:11:15 move sometimes so yeah i mean i mean William nielander is one of the better players in the league you give him that much room on a breakaway he's probably going to score right and then Brett Kulak, you need to shut down Max Stoming. Shouldn't be that hard in the big 2025, almost 2026. And then, again, he makes another save on an initial breakaway, Pat. And then the players aren't getting back to deny the next couple chances. You have to do a better job in front of your goalie there. So that's what I've got to say about that.

Starting point is 00:11:45 But, hey, there's still some positives to get into. Let's dive into that in the second segment because Walker McGrady was awesome yesterday. That is a great tease for the second segment, because as Hunter said, Yes, you hate to lose yet another game, making it nine of your last 10. But there were positives to be had from that loss against the Toronto Maple Leafs. We will get into those when we come back right after this. But first, we've got to tell you about today's first sponsor, and that is Fandul. NFL Sundays, they move fast, one big play, and suddenly everything feels different.

Starting point is 00:12:24 and you have got a cornucopia of games coming up here in the NFL with the Christmas season. You've got Christmas Day games. You've got Super Saturday. And obviously you've got your Sunday and Monday games coming up. Plenty of opportunities for you to get into the action this holiday season with Fandul. And that is what makes live betting with Fandul so exciting. You're not just watching the game. You're reacting to it in real time.

Starting point is 00:12:51 With Fandul, you can place bets as the action on Fandul. folds, every drive, every momentum, every momentum swing, and every highlight moment. Live betting, it's the best when the game starts to shift. A receiver gets hot, a defense tightens up, or the momentum flips after a turnover. Fandul lets you jump right into the moment. Live spreads and money lines adjust instantly. Player props update as guys heat up. You can bet next touchdown scores, drive results, totals, and more. It keeps you locked into every snap, every drive, and every possibility. So if you want to be right in the middle of the NFL action this season,

Starting point is 00:13:28 visit fandle.com to place your live bets all season long. Fandul, the game moves fast, and so can you. We're back here on the Wednesday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes, and you teased it right before we went to break. What a game yesterday for. Rutger Magrorty gets his second goal of the season on an absolute rifle of a shot, just completely got all of it. But it was more than just the goal for Magrorty. He was all over

Starting point is 00:14:07 the ice against the Maple Leafs. He played physical. He really helped him the Maple Leafs in their own zone every time the kid line was on the ice. I thought they had another fantastic outing as a group. And I know that a lot of us are frustrated right now with the play of the penguins and understandably so. But I don't want to get too carried away. That kid line, even if you have a rotating third member of that line, McGority and Kendall together, they just have it, man.

Starting point is 00:14:42 They look really, really good together. Instant chemistry. That's what I keep coming back to. It feels like they always know. where each other are going to be on the ice at any given time. Just got to get Billy Coyvenin a bit more involved, Pat. Like, I still feel like he's lacking a little bit right now. I thought after scoring that goal, he was really going to get going a bit more.

Starting point is 00:15:03 Hasn't been the case. So I really want him to get going on that line. But as for McGority, you said it. I mean, that was one of the best games he has played as a member of the Penguins, if not the best game he has played as a member of the Penguins. He was all over the ice. he was making plays along the boards making small little plays defensively in his own zone and that shot was spectacular just an absolute piss missile to get the penguins right back into the game i know mantha eventually tied it early on in the third that was such a big goal in that moment for the penguin just because you know they were down by two i still was liking their game but i was like they still need a moment from someone to get back into it and make it a one goal game and sure enough that was

Starting point is 00:15:49 Rucker McGority. There's been a couple games where he has struggled a little bit this year, but this one especially, he was fan-freaking-tastic, and I hope he keeps building on this, because, you know, I think he has the makings of a really solid NHL contributor that can play in the top nine throughout his career for several years. He was fantastic in this game, man. I just, I agree with that sentiment. I look at him as a player who has a ceiling as a really good second line winger who is going to provide you good two-way play he's going to have the ability to chip in offensively and you can trust him in just about all situations i don't think it's a direct player comparison but he does remind me a lot of brian rust in the sense

Starting point is 00:16:42 that you can really trust him in all situations if you need him to provide you a spark offensively he's going to find the ability to chip in as he continues to develop he's already very good defensively he has basically said on record that he takes a lot of pride in being good defensively which a player of his age you don't expect him to be that mature and that aware of hey i take a lot of pride in being a good two-way forward you think that hey his pedigree his history is a player. You think he's going to want to be the guy, but being willing to do that dirty work has a lot of value, both individually and for the team. Another player whose game I was a big fan of yesterday, and this is a really welcomed sign for the Penguins, it's Justin Broseau.

Starting point is 00:17:34 I thought he played extremely well, and he is at his best in my estimation when he is a puck hound in front of the net. And yesterday, he lived in the Maple Leafs crease. Every time they had offensive zone time, he was right around Joseph Wool. He was making his life miserable. It was the right call on the challenge and disallowed goal because you can't push a goaltender's pad with the puck over the line. That is textbook interference. I know everybody loved to pull out their phones and tweet, I don't know what goaltender interference is. We know what that one is. And it was the correct call. But aside from that, I really liked his game yesterday. As soon as Gino comes back, that is going to do him a world of good. Yeah, I kept seeing that take a lot out there on social

Starting point is 00:18:25 media. You and I have been talking about that. That second line is really going to take off once Gino comes back. Maybe it's the Sunday after the Christmas break. Maybe it's right before the new year. Maybe it's early 2026. Whenever it is, and it looks like he's hopefully getting closer to returning, that second line is going to be really good just with, you know, the hands that Brazil has, again, very underrated with, you know, being silky, just the way that he can play in front of the net, you know, the release that Manfa has. Again, he scored last night too. The playmaking ability that Gino has, he feeds off both of those players on his wings. So I am really looking forward to that. I agree with you about Brazil. The goaltender interference, yes, that is textbook,

Starting point is 00:19:06 goaltender interference. I had a couple of people DMing me asking me, asking me about it. Guys, as much as I love to crap on NHL officiating, that one was textbook. There was no way that one was going to stand. A lot of times it is spin the wheel when it comes to this rule. That one, it's pretty kind of dry, my friend. But I thought overall he was getting some chances after that. He was making life a living hell, as you mentioned, for Joseph Wolfe.

Starting point is 00:19:32 I really liked his game, honestly, the last three to four-ish games. And I think once Malkin comes back, his game is going to take off, even more. I just like the fit that he provides on that second line. I didn't think I would be saying that entry in the season. I thought, eh, he's just going to be a bottom six player. But no, I mean, when he's been healthy and when he's been on top of his game, he's been a legitimate second line player this year and has the production to boast. So I'm excited, man, thought he was pretty solid. I also thought Cindy Rosby had another good game in this one, too. It's two consecutive really strong games and that's a hint for later on in the show for more

Starting point is 00:20:10 your helmet Wednesday by the way but that passed to spring Russ had to tie the game right after the Leafs made it one nothing just vintage stuff I thought Sid was good in this one Brian Rust again has the production process just isn't there at times I don't know what it is man like he has a production but I'm still sitting there watching him I'm like I want to see the process really match your actual results and then one last thing in this one It's not a positive, sadly, but in any six-on-five situation, this team needs to be so much better. Like, whether it's defending and this one, you're going for the tying goal, just simply not good enough. Again, that was very junior varsity level.

Starting point is 00:20:52 They really have to work on both of those in practice a lot more. We've already talked about how passive they are when they're defending a lead. But when you're going for the time goal, they're kind of just sitting up there playing Patty cake a little bit. I think for Carlson, you don't go from that slack. pass you just fire that on net see what happens i think once he fired that slap pass went right down game was over just they really got to work in that department that slap pass by carlson is such a double-edged sword because when it works and i don't even mean when it works as in it leads to a goal i mean as in what it can just give you offensively it is such a good play he is one of the

Starting point is 00:21:34 absolute best at it. You saw it multiple times through last night's game, and you've seen it multiple times this season. I've seen a lot of the takes of, oh, he's just got to put it on net. He's just got to put it on net. And I don't totally disagree with that idea, but the fact that he is so good at the slap pass slash the shot for a deflection, it's really valuable because you know who you have on this team. You've got Sidney Cross. Rosby, who is the greatest player in history at puck deflections. I will not hear any takes otherwise. And then you have a bunch of other players on this team, like you're Brian Russ,

Starting point is 00:22:16 you're Justin Brzoes, who are very good in front of the net. So it's very valuable that he knows how to shoot for a deflection and do the slap pass. But then there's the other end of it, which we saw at the end of the game yesterday, where sometimes you do need to just put it on the net because it can, lead to a turnover it can lead to a change of possession and it springs the team the other way and in that six on five situation i understand what he's thinking i understand what he's trying to do but you got to be a little more aware of there is someone right in front of me and if this goes poorly they're going to have a clean look at the empty net and sure enough McMahon gets all the time in

Starting point is 00:22:59 the world barely has to even put the puck at the net he just kind of lets it slide in so Too much traffic. There was too much traffic for that play in that moment. You have to really pick and choose. That was not the right time to do it. Just fire into that. That's my take on it. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:23:14 And I'd agree. But at the end of the day, that yesterday was the Eric Carlson experience because it was many moments where you can play the hypothetical game. You look at what he did and what went wrong. And you go, yeah, but man, when those things go right. He is so good, and more often than not this season, it has gone right, but that is the risky run with an Eric Carlson. The last thing I'll say about yesterday's game, and again, it's cold comfort, I liked a lot of what they did. I liked a lot of their effort.

Starting point is 00:23:52 It was just mistakes and high leverage moments that came back to bite them. And the only real true negative that I took away from yesterday's game was the Domego. I like Domi a lot more than most. I think he's a valuable player. Has he been struggling this year? Absolutely. No question about it. You can't get walked by Max Domi if you're Brett Kulak.

Starting point is 00:24:17 Even if you got to haul him down and take the penalty, take the penalty. So I've liked Kulak's game since he's come over. I think he's caught a lot of unfair flack. We've also seen it's kind of stabilized Chris Lattang for the most part so far. but that goal was just it was bad it was and pat who was the ref yesterday garret rank garret rank baby oh you you knew who was coming they missed that obvious trip during that game on carlson and then he starts calling a whole bunch of penalties right after i'm like yep that's the garret rank experience i remember it was it was just i mean yes we obviously have

Starting point is 00:24:59 the bias of not liking garret rank but i do think over Overall, the game was called fine. There were a couple of things missed on both sides. But at the end of the day, like, I can't look at officiating last night and get really upset about it. I think just we already have that negative polarization as soon as we saw the name Garrett Rank. But I think overall it was it was called fine. There were a couple things here and there, but nothing egregious. He stinks at the end of the day.

Starting point is 00:25:30 Just the way they defended, though, was still the biggest negative for me. As much as I don't like Garrett Rank in the way that he officiates games, especially Penguins games, defend better. And you probably win this game. Just don't defend at a junior varsity level. That's all. So now we are officially at the holiday break for the NHL. But that doesn't mean that we're going to let a Wednesday pass without doing one of our favorite segments handing out our MVP of the week as part of Warrior Helmet Wednesday. Stick with us.

Starting point is 00:26:01 We're going to do that when we get. back right after this. Finishing up the Wednesday edition of Locked-on Penguins, I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes, and it's our favorite day of the week. It's Wednesday, which means we hand out our MVP of the week as part of Warrior Helmet Wednesday. If you are new here, Warrior Helmet Wednesday is us paying homage to the 20th. 2016 Stanley Cup winning Pittsburgh Penguins that season when the team would win a game both in the

Starting point is 00:26:40 regular season and throughout their championship run in the locker room they would hand out their game MVP with a warrior helmet so we do that here on locked on penguins and I don't think there needs to be a lot of suspense here on this one hunter I'm just going to put the graphic up right now because we both have the same pick. It is the Penguins franchise leader in points. Sidney Crosby. He breaks Mario Lemieux's record this week. He's really started to round back into form after a couple of rough games.

Starting point is 00:27:19 And there really is nobody else. We could give the Warrior Helmet to this week. Then Sidney Crosby. Yeah, this was easy. I'm not going to be a hater like I was when I didn't get out any Warrior Helmet for the last one pat slams on you know gets the record most points now in penguins franchise history he was sensational in that game through and through i thought he was also really good against terno on tuesday night he's played two get two really really strong games in a row

Starting point is 00:27:49 after again just felt like part of his game was a little bit lackluster leading up to these last two just in my opinion but for what he was able to accomplish the way that he has played over the two games, slam dunk for me. Cindy Crosby has to get this week's board around that man. Not only is he now the Penguins franchise leader in history, he did what I said he would do on Tuesday's episode after you jumped. He now has 180 all-time assists moving him past Adam Oates for eighth in the NHL record books. So that is huge for him. And like you said, he really does seem to be picking back up after a bit of a lull.

Starting point is 00:28:35 He's looking a lot like Sidney Crosby again. He's all over the ice. He's a step ahead of everyone else, both mentally and physically. It just looks like vintage Sidney Crosby. It looks like he is taking it upon himself, as he has done many times to say, we got to get out of this funk, and I'm going to be the guy to do it. hopefully the rest of the team starts to join him but we don't got to worry about that right now because it's Wednesday that means it's warrior helmet Wednesday so let's pull up our tracker

Starting point is 00:29:07 for the season crosbie now moves into the lead with four if you are watching us on YouTube you can see this on your screen but for those listening on audio here is the rest of the warrior helmet Wednesday tracker ifgeny malkin has three justin Brazow, Kyle Dubus, Ben Kindle, and Sergey Murshov with two, Eric Carlson, Dan Mews, the penalty kill, the power play, and Tristan Jari, each with one. And why are we doing that? You may be asking, because this year we got to take Warrior Helmet Wednesday to the next level and keep track of all of our Warrior Helmets. So at the end of the year, whenever that may be, whether it's Game 82 or maybe after a playoff series, we will give out our year.

Starting point is 00:29:57 Long Warrior Helmet Awards for our season MVPs whenever we get to that point. But Hunter, unless you've got anything to add for the rest of this episode, that is going to do it for us here on the Wednesday edition of Locked-on Penguins. We will be taking Christmas Day off so there will not be a new episode tomorrow. So a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to all of you out there who listen to us. but we will return on Friday to get you set for this weekend's matchup against the Chicago Blackhawks. That episode will be out on Friday, but for now, for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always, for tuning in, and we will be back on Friday.

Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins defensive woes continue against the Maple Leafs

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.