Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins embarrassed in back-to-back games in Western Canada

Episode Date: October 28, 2024

The Penguins were run out of the building in Edmonton and blew it in Vancouver in two unacceptable efforts. Hunter and Patrick are joined by Jesse Marshall for their newest recurring segment, Marshall Mondays! The trio discuss the Penguins two losses to the Oilers and the Canucks. Jesse gives an insight into the Penguins' offensive and defensive zone attacks and what is going wrong, what has to change, and if it even can change. Next, they discuss how Erik Karlsson might still be battling injury and that could be the root cause of both his below-the-line play as well as Sidney Crosby's lack of production. Finally, with three home games this week, including one against Marc-Andre Fleury, they dive into what the expectations are and how this is shaping up to be a crucial week in this still-young season. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!IndeedStill searching for a great candidate for your company? Don’t search, just match–with Indeed. Claim your SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT now at Indeed.com/LOCKEDON. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. PrizePicksDownload the app or go to https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNHL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup.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.FanDuelPlace your first FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - guaranteed ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 ( Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, if you watched the Pittsburgh Penguins this past weekend, you might be entitled to financial compensation. 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 episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Joined, as always, by my co-host, Patrick Damp. You can follow him on Twitter at Center for Wet. and of course, thank you so much for making this your first lesson slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by GameTime, Dalma GameTime app, grant account, and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. So before we crush this team for how bad they looked against the Oilers and for how bad they looked against the Canucks, Pat and I have a bit of a special announcement to kick off today's show.

So as everyone knows, we love to do Warrior Helmet Wednesday every Wednesday. Dave in the final segment of that show, giving out our player of the week of war. We also like, feel good Friday for our Friday episodes at times. Well, we were thinking, what should we do for the start of every week on Mondays? Well, that's where Jesse Marshall comes in. So our goal for every Monday throughout this season and even into the off season is to have Jesse Marshall on every Monday for Marshall Mondays to discuss all things penguins. And it kicks off right now.

So Jesse, thank you so much for coming on. and we're really excited about this if you can make it happen every Monday. I thought it was a bold decision to have me on and ruin your show at the beginning of the week. But whatever, you guys are in charge. I'm not one making the decisions here. So you do whatever you want. It's fine. Hey, even though the penguins got embarrassed these last two games,

it's still going to be good to have you on to talk all about them. And let's discuss the Oilers loss first. And as I tweeted out after that game, I can accept this team losing to teams this year that especially they're better than because I understand that the penguins are, They're not close to competing right now. But you cannot look that lifeless and lose. The shots at one point were 29 to 5.

Only one player in that game showed up. And that was your rookie goaltender, Yo, El Blum, because he was making 10 bell save after 10 bell save after 10 bell save. And you look at the underlying numbers for this game. The Oilers finished that game with 24 high danger chances at 5 on 5. I understand the Penguins were not going to be very good defensively heading into this year. you cannot be that bad defensively with the talent that this team has. Again, I'm not expecting this team to be a world leader this year.

I never thought they were going to be. I predicted them to miss the playoffs this year. But you cannot look that lifeless, have no energy, no spirit, no loyalty, etc. It was that bad of a loss. And in any other year, it feels like that's a loss that should get the head coach fired, but it doesn't look like they have any interest in doing that right now. Jesse, why aren't these defensive issues fixable at least right now? Oh, man, you're starting with the banger.

That Euler's game felt to me like you have an 11 p.m. Beer League game. Your team's 1 and 4, and you have 8 guys. And you're playing a group of 18 and 19-year-olds that are a division too low for how good they are. and they're sandbag down and they can just skate you have and you're all close to 40 by the way your whole team's close to 40 they're 18 and they're really good at skating I gotta be honest to you I probably

I'd quit in that environment I'm not chasing these goddamn kids around are you kidding me that's the vibe I got like from that whole game and I just I'm beating a dead horse so I apologize like I'm gonna beat a couple dead horses I think by the time this whole thing's over with but they are playing like they were eight years ago

right the system is like systemically speaking, like from an X's and O's perspective, it's the same soup with the same ingredients as it was all the way back of the Genesis of the Mike Sullivan days. The problem is, is that time has, it's been eight years for so long. It's a long time. People are getting older. The rosters discernibly change top to bottom. I mean, that's a given. And they just, I don't think it works anymore, right? I don't think it works. And I think what made it good and And what caused a lot of other teams to catch onto it is that it's aggressive, right? You're on the front foot.

You're playing on the gas pedal all the time. You have a minimum two four checkers engaged in what's going on in the defensive zone when they're trying to break the puck out. That's a lot of commitment, right? And if those guys don't get there, they're trapped, right? They get stuck up ice in that forechecking posture in that zone. And the other team started their breakout. Now you have three guys defending.

One of them might have pinched because there are an aggressive. defenseman that saw an opportunity to try to create a turnover. Now you got two. And now there's a knowledge you're at an odd man rush. And it's just, this stuff, it's, to me, you know, I look back at last year, they had the seemingly, you know, run of like reserved games, right? I think back that early Colorado game, like the quarter point of the season where they like shelled it up and like outdold Colorado from the counter. And you saw it like a couple times like sporadically. I wrote an article about it and then it just disappeared. So I don't know where that went. But to me, I think the, the, the, tangible frustration that you see out of some of this team stars is they know it, right?

They know it because they're the ones trying to do it and it's not working, right? And if they freelance or they go off the game plan, then you've got national media coming in to write about how they don't listen and they're trying to get Sullivan fired and all this other stuff. I think they're doing what they're being asked to do and it's not working and it's frustrating. And, you know, there's another, a number of other elements that haven't worked out to their favor as far as like goaltending and things like that that also I think compound those frustrations. But I just I think that's it. I think the soup's gone bad. You know, I think that's all it is.

Like the soup's gone bad. And until you change that, you can put different ingredients and it's still going to stink, right? And I think that's that's kind of where we're at. They're playing. They, you know, they tried to out that their goal going into the Edmonton game was to do what Edmonton did to them to Edmonton, right? But like I think that you saw within the first three minutes that was not possible, right? There was no plausibility that that was going to happen at any point. They, even on their on their dump and chases, right, when they did forfeit it at the red line and try to go get it, they were just getting smoked. They couldn't get any elongated offensive possessions because there was nobody in there getting those pox, right? So that's to me, I mean,

like, I, you know, again, beating a dead horse, but like, that's, that's it to me. It's just, we're going to have this conversation ad nauseum, right? until something changes, right? I don't know what that something needs to be at this point, but, um, you know, it seems like we've, uh, we've kind of got ourselves, uh, with the same ingredients as last year. I wanted to pose this to you, Jesse, because you are so much better than I am at breaking down film. And I've, I've noticed this a little bit. I want to know if you've noticed it is it feels like when they do get some, maybe not even extended, just a little bit of of offensive zone time, it does seem like they've changed a few things up and have tried to focus

more on possession down low, opening up the middle. And instead of being that front foot, all gas, no breaks kind of system that they ran all those years ago, it appears that they've made that kind of a change. What is it about the fact that they haven't made any changes defensively? because it feels like they have to work in tandem here. You can't change up your offensive zone attack without changing up your defensive strategy. So what exactly is it? Why are they still trying to do the same thing? Is it the fact that Sullivan hasn't changed it?

Is it freelancing? Or is this team just not any good anymore? Yeah. So the thing that concerns me, Pat, like, you know, I think we can all look at the video and discern those moments where somebody jumps into the play and they shouldn't or they pinch and it's an all-man rush. I want to move aside from that a second, right? Because that's just like it or not, that's just an inherent characteristic of this team.

Now you're not going to trade for Eric Carlson and have Chris LaTang and be like, don't ever be aggressive offensively. Like we have to live with this. This is what it is. I think what I would say is the concern I have is that like the standardized regular old defensive zone possessions, Pat, like to your point, right? Like I don't know that the system works super well last. year. I think there's a lot of people that struggled with it. It's not complicated, right? Like,

it's called what its title is is what it does. Puck side overload. That's what it does. The beef is in the name. Like, you just flood the zone, the side of the ice that the puck's on. Divide the ice in half between the circles, draw a line down the middle of it, right? If the puck's on the right side of that, you're going to have two forwards and a defenseman, press the wall and try to keep that thing outside. you're going to have a forward and a defenseman in the slot in the middle trying to defend the home base. Pause, that's been a disaster. That has been a disaster. We haven't even thrown in a variable from the other team that can make it harder yet.

And just at that base level, right, like having two human beings in the slot, one defenseman and one forward where they should be in the middle of the ice, that's been problematic. I posted a goal review from earlier this year where Michael Bunting, who was supposed to be the guy that was in the slot, followed a defenseman all the way up to the blue line. What's he going to do up there? What are we talking about? I don't understand how we do. Are we doing this? And now we throw in the variable,

like teams will just flip it on the penguins. So if they're covered on the left or on the right, they throw the puck to the left. Those two men in the middle got a shift over. Center is going to follow them. Now you've got two more guys in the middle. Same structure, right? You're flooding the puck side.

They're just absolutely lost. Like when it comes time to make that transition, everyone's just going how many times have you seen some the whole team go behind the net everyone just goes behind the net and they leave no one available in front it's it's 10 sets of 10 sets of 10 eyes 10 eyes five sets following the puck wherever it's going like there's no cognizance of what so it what that's concerning for multiple reasons for me it's not a different system than last year how do we it's the same one so i don't know how you unlearn it and then get worse. That doesn't make any sense to me. What's not being clearly communicated here? Or is it just

it's not working anymore and nobody's recognizing that and making a change to it. I will mention this. Full disclosure, it is very rare, very rare to see an NHL coach change his system midseason. It is like seeing a unicorn in the hockey world, right? These people get fired because they're married to the system. John Tortorella is in Philadelphia right now doing the same thing that he was doing 12 years ago. Like, maybe you get, you do get, I don't want to say that. There's evolutions that happen, but the meat and bones is the same, right? And that's why they get let go. So I don't, is that the point that we're at now? Is this a system that we're married to? And the only way it's going to change is this is somebody gets let go. I don't know the answer to that question.

I also don't know, I also don't understand why it's failing so miserably. Like that, to me is, shocking to see that. And again, these are simple adjustments to teams make. Like, if I'm covered on the left, throw it off the wall, have the defenseman pinch down there, right? Shift your guys over and start over again, right? Make the defense react. That's hockey. It's what you do. So a cycle is. It's why you cycle, right? It's the whole point of a cycle. So I, you know, they just, there's no, to me, lines that are like drawn on the ice to say, like, you are supposed to be doing this. It just, it's so discombobulated that I, to loop all the way back to your question, Pat, for that reason, I'm shocked that it's the way that it is.

I mean, you're right. And I think everything you said about even strength offense applies to the power play, too. Like they've made the middle of the ice a lot bigger of a focus. And it's worked offensively, Pat, because I haven't checked the numbers since this weekend's debacles. But leading into this weekend, if you looked at them Thursday, for instance, the Penguins were second or third. Second, I think, in the league and expected goals four per 60 at even strength behind only Carolina. Maybe the, no, Rangers. Rangers and Carolina.

So you're third. But that's like elite company, right? Like, you're scoring goals at even strength with some of the best people in this league. teams that are just smoking and buzzsaw on other teams. And then you look at the defensive numbers and your peers are Anaheim and Montreal. It's like, oh, okay. Like we are living two totally different lives here. So I don't understand Pat the desire, I guess, maybe to, unless Quinn came in and

said, hey, this is my system too. We'll use the same thing and we'll work together on making it better. And maybe that was where the decision came from and maybe the offensive influence, you know, evolved and adapted on its own. But it's a great question. I don't have the answer to, but it beg, it's, it literally begs the question, why are, you know,

why are we still experiencing this? It is funny because the one year where they start finishing their chances, they become arguably the worst defensive team in the league. Because I feel like I've been waiting for this team to finish their chances offensively for the last couple of seasons. They finally start doing it because

Mike Sullivan has simplified things in the offensive zone, but all that goes out the door in their own zone. It feels like every time a puck carrier on the opposing team comes in their zone, one player comes toward him, but then a whole other area of the ice is just left unchecked and you're allowing high danger chance after high danger chance and you're not adjusting to it at all. I understand that he's pretty married to his system, but at some point, you got to simplify things because, again, this comes back to the head coach.

And if he's not willing to do that, well, a decision is going to have to be made by the front officer of this ownership group? You know, I'll take what else you just said, and we can extrapolate it even further because how many times have you seen the penguins get consistent four lines scoring across the top of their offense to the bottom of their offense since the cup years, right? Now you've got this bottom six that's scoring goals, right, and is functioning fairly well, and it should given its price tag. Let's be very clear about that. The expectation should be this level of performance if you're having like $8 million in salary on your fourth line. But now the top six can't seem to get it together, right?

And it's like the Penguins are a 1991 Chevy Lumina, and you're trying to get it to pass inspection. But every time you fix one part, something else breaks in the check engine light comes back on. The thing will just not run cleanly enough to pass inspection. It shows you to me that like if this team, again, I'm not going to call them world beaters. But if everything did click, like there's potential to be a playoff squad, right? Like you could get it. Even with like below average goaltending. Like it still be that much scoring going on that I think you might be able to pull it off.

off. And I do think the top six will come around, but like, man, it just, you get the sense almost like when they'll figure it out defensively, Hunter, then they'll stop scoring as much. And then the bottom six will cool off and the top six will get hot. And it's like you can never have your cake and eat it too. Right. And I feel like even though they defended kind of poorly last year, if they were getting the way they defended last year, they would have won more games by now. Truly. Because we saw the blueprint plenty of times last year, even though they were blowing leads still, we saw the blueprint in games a lot more often through the first 10 games than we've seen it so far this season, and even overall last season. So again, if they were even getting the way they played last year in the defense zone this year,

I feel like their record will be quite a bit better right now compared to last year. But I think that will do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, we're all going to go over the Vancouver game and how things kind of got worse, especially in the second period, where the England gave up three goals in a minute to basically lose that game. up right after this. We'll get you back to our conversation with Jesse Marshall in just a second. But first we've got to tell you about our first sponsor.

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All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, join my co-s, Patrick Dampe and special guest, Jesse Marshall for the first edition of Marshall Monday. So, guys, Penguins get off to a really good start against Vancouver. You get the goal from Anthony Beauvillier. You get a goal from Brian Russ. Things are looking pretty good, even though the Penguins are kind of still playing. a bit dicey in their own end. That long shift to end the first period was not good to say the least.

I felt like Vancouver was only a matter of time before they were going to score to end that period. But the penguins were kind of lucky to get out of that period with a 1-0-0 lead. You then get that 2-0 lead. And I'm still a bit nervous because we saw them have that 2-0 lead in Winnipeg. That went away pretty quickly. You saw them have that lead late against Calgary. That went away with a little bit of a lucky bounce, I would say, with a Nassim-Cadry goal.

And then Pat and Jesse, bam, 2-1, bam. two, bam, three to two. Really bad defensive effort with all these odd man rushes, all these breakaways. And then to top it all off, you get that awful rep from Eric Carlson against Daniel Sprong. And I said this on Twitter. I know Mike Sullivan wasn't going to do this, but if I were him, I would have parked him on the bench for a few shifts. That is an unacceptable effort from someone who has been in this league for so long, who's one of the best offensive defenseman from my generation.

Again, he's never been good defensively. we all know that, you cannot put an effort like that in that game. That was disgraceful to watch. And you saw the same issues. They lost that lead in record time, Jesse. Yeah, yeah. What struck my mind when I saw that sprung sequence was what's wrong with him, right? Like, what was he out of camp for?

And like what was the mystery ailment that just suddenly healed in time for the regular season to start? Because he does not look healthy by any stretch of the imagination. His mobility looks grossly hampered. And, you know, when you're, like, that's a hard thing to play through, right? Like, if you're hurt and you're not operating at max capacity, you're probably, your brain's not going to adjust right away and you're still going to think that you can. Right. And I think that, like, what you're seeing now is him learning that he can't and, like, these turnovers that he's creating are just like, they're unnatural for him, right? And I said on Twitter for the Canucks game, I don't, I know, the data backs us up on this, unfortunately, but he's not.

creating now at the way he did last year that wiped out a lot of the nastiness. Like the worst tweet of my life was last year when he, I can't remember what game it was. He absolutely just gave away a lead and then scored the OT winner. And I was like, you got to put him on the bench. And I got, Hunter, it didn't work. Be glad you didn't tweet that maybe because it didn't work out for me. The jinx would have caught you. But I, you know, we have to now ask this question.

And I'd love both of your thoughts on this. How much is that play affecting? Sidney Crosby's ability to generate consistent offense, right? Like, is that part of his frustration that he's not getting clean outlets, that he's having, there's nothing more frustrating as a forward than having a defenseman that causes you to have to work way too hard? Like, that'll drive anyone nuts. And I don't care if you're the consummate captain and professional or not.

Like, you're going to wear that a little bit. And I just think, like, one defenseman can't completely sink a five-man unit. But, like, things, I, I. I wouldn't use the term sync. I think it's affecting it negatively. How about that? I think it's affecting it negatively right now. And that's one of the things Mike Sullivan's got to try to solve for is how do you minimize

the impact of these defensive performances on your forward's ability to play offense. Yeah, I mean, I didn't even really think of it in that way with Carlson. I've just been kind of flummoxed by how poorly he's played. But when you put it in that context of both the injury, and to Sidney Crosby, it does seem to make a little bit more sense because you, like you said, last year and Hunter and I have talked about this on the show is last year, yeah, was he disappointing to an extent, but he was still very much Eric Carlson. Yeah. We all just had inflated expectations. A hundred point expectation probably.

Right. But he was still very much playing in line with the way he produced the rest of his career outside of that 100 point season. in this year, now thinking about this on the fly with what you said, you look at the way he's handling the puck, you look at the way he's moving, something isn't right there. Something is wrong with his gameplay right now. And it has to come back to injury because he's too good of a player to fall off of a cliff this quickly. We've seen a lot of these guys on the Penguins, Crosby, Malk, and Latang, they've fallen off ever so slightly. They do the things they could do even five years ago.

But the player that Eric Carlson is, the player that the rest of these guys are, a sharp decline is so extremely rare. They'll have their issues. They'll not be able to do the things they could do when they were 25, but they still have the hockey sense. They still have the ability to do things that others can't. And now thinking about it, you look at Carlson's game, the passes aren't crisp, the movement's not as fluid.

And you're right. I think this is part of the issue is that whatever he's dealing with is not fixed. He is not 100%. It's usually a deterioration, right, instead of like a collapse, you know. I agree with you on that. I just, you know, I just, I didn't think much about, you know, that injury at the beginning of the season. And it was kind of like out of sight, out of mind that he came back so quickly that you kind of forget about it.

but I think visually there's just something off. And I don't know what it is. I think it's just a speed issue, right? He had such a, like that separating speed, right? Or he gets that head of steam through the neutral zone. It seems like he's lost that a little bit. He's getting harassed more from behind, which usually to me says it's a speed issue. So I don't know.

We're all speculating here. I've absolutely no idea. He could be healthy. Maybe this is just like, you know, father times coming to claim his. but I would be shocked by that, you know, especially given what you just said, Pat. I would be, I would be shocked by that. And I think there's something that's nagging him right now. And that's not an excuse, by the way, right?

Like, we're not excusing the performance. I think it just helps us understand it and contextualize a little bit more, that maybe there is an opportunity for him to level out later and kind of even things and take some of that offensive creation back. You know, again, I don't, I don't think he's a 75, 70 point defenseman anymore, but with a functional power play and one that actually works now, you would think that he could get, you know, close, if not above where he was last year. Unfortunately, with the start he's having, it doesn't bode well for the rest of the season.

But again, that's, I don't want to absolve anyone here defensively, right? Like, I think Marcus Patterson's had a real tough go of it, especially himself. Like, I think what Tang's been under the line. You know, Ryan Graves, I'm hesitant to compliment because he's getting sixth parent defenseman minutes. It's like, you know, if he was doing it, like, I was looking at the charts this morning, and, like, his performance is right about where you'd expect it to be, given expectation. Like, he is performing about to expectation. If it was anything below that, given the deployment, then you hit the panic button for that. You'd be like, my God, they can't even fix him on the bottom pairing.

So I'm, I would almost argue that you should be seeing better out of him a little bit, given the way he's being used. I'm not going to nitpick, I think, him being just simply better than he was last year is good enough for me. But it begs the question, how long will this, like, don't you have to try it again in the top six or top four? I mean, you have to, right, for his contract and his salary he makes. Like, I think you have to give it at least a go, right, and see if he can handle it. Otherwise, I mean, I've always felt to me like this was a rehabilitation stint on the third pairing. You know, like that's the goal is to not leave him here. It's to get him back up there again.

So I don't know what you guys think about that But I think it'd be It's a tough put to swallow Right? If you have that amount of money in terms Fixed to basically what is the equivalent of like a 60th D man I mean the thing with with Ryan Graves for me Which pair are you going to put them on?

You can't put them with Carlson last season They were awful together like you know 45% shot times per 60 rate 40% scoring chances per 60 rate They were awful washer Even with Latang his numbers were a little bit better But he was still out to lunch So I just get nervous about that, even though he has been at least a little bit better this year.

But again, you're right. He's getting six, literally six defensemen pairing minutes. He's going up against third and mostly fourth liners, I would say. And going back to your point about Carlson, another play that really should out to me, it's the six on five at the end, Penguins are down four to three. He gets the puck at the point about 20, 25 seconds left. He passes it to no one. Vancouver clears the puck and then the game's over.

It's just like, where are you passing it to there? What is the decision making going on right now? in his brain. It's just non-existent. And to your question about Crosby, I do think it's maybe part of it, but I don't think I've seen Crosby look, this, what's the word,

less engaged since Mike Johnston was the head coach. And I hate saying that, but he just, I don't know, like, is it bad to call him lazy out there right now? That's what it feels like it is. And he is my favorite player ever. I love Cindy Crosby. I have loved watching him,

brought my life. But part of me just feels like he looks so disinterested on the ice right now. And I'm like, where is the Crosby that we saw last year? Because if this team has any hope of getting back into it this season, he needs to wake up here pretty quick. Yeah, I just see a lot of frustration. I don't know. You know, I think you can probably confound that with like it looks lazy sometimes. Right. And this are like, there's a Venn diagram that they share a space somewhere on. But I think that I think what is the identity of his line right now? You're both shrugging. I'm shrugging.

I don't know, right? I don't know. I don't think this is like, I'm not attributing this to Jake Gensel by any stretch of the imagination, right? But like there was a good thing there for a really long time, right? And it's not there anymore. And I think I think playing with him is a high demand to ask, right? Like I think, I think back to Chris Koonitz years ago. This is a long time ago now.

But Chris Koonitz was saying, you know, I would come back to the bench and he would say, Hey, do you remember when you, this one little moment on our shift? And I would like, no. Like, you know what I? He was living in a meta that like Koonitz wasn't even in. Right. So like taking that in is hard. I don't think everybody, everybody can do it.

Right. So I don't know that that like, I know Brian Rust can do it. I'm very confident in that. But I think the other players they're trying probably haven't yet. And it's given him the feeling of, you know, I think having less of a line as a result. And I think when you don't have that chemistry immediately, right, and you're used to having this unspoken mental connection with a wing, like is it going to feed off you and play off you to a very specific way,

tailored to your liking. And maybe in, I think in the case of Gensel, I don't think Crosby had to talk to him a lot. Like I think they were that, you know, in line. And I'm not advocating that the penguin should have kept Jay Gensel. Like that's not the point of the conversation. I'm just, again, painting a contextual picture of where we are and I think why we're seeing what we're seeing. And I think it's that line from the back end wants to be very aggressive, right?

It wants to push to play. I think the defense would want to be involved. I don't know that they're getting him the puck in areas that benefit him. Like when I think about Crosby, like I want him getting that pass in stride with that burst, right? Crossing over the blue line and now he can control the Duffalo. tempo of what happens next, right? Maybe that's you whoa up and pat and you throw one cross ice, right? Or maybe, you know, you bear down and grind one out behind the goal. Like, I just think he's not getting those, I almost call them like scene passes, right, that allow him to get that

burst and carry it across the blue. The thing that I have most look forward to up to this point is when Corey dumps his first all three zones data dump of the year, right? Because he's tracking zone Entries, zone exits, right? Carry-ins, all that stuff. I would bet my right arm that Sidney Kurosby's carrying in numbers are going to be grotesquely down. And I think that, I think, again, like, to me, this all, like, it all is interconnected, right? I just think that he's, you want him being the driver, right? And he's one of the most prolific playmakers of the entire generation. I don't know. I don't think, I think he is. I don't think there's anybody out there who's a better playmaker than him and his generation. You want guys like that having the first decision, right?

They want that first decision to be theirs. They're the guys, more often than not, that vis-a-vis their first decision, elongate your offensive zone possession or give you a long offensive zone possession because they're setting the table, right? We've seen a lot of that. So I, you know, I just rambled on there for like 10 minutes about the top line. But that, it's all threaded together to me, right? It's one problem on top of a problem, on top of a problem, on top of a problem.

And when you put them all together in a sandwich, it's just absolutely disgusting. Yeah, I mean, you look at the way that, I think that's the best way to describe this opening of the season is just frustration. It, I, I, our top line conversation about, hey, we didn't expect this team to be world beaters. We weren't waking up in October with Stanley Cup dreams. we were just thinking, okay, maybe for once this year they can get back to the postseason and then we let happen, whatever may happen. And just everything that could go wrong has pretty much gone wrong. So we'll see what happens because the old saying is, hey, it can get late early in the season.

And it's starting to get a little bit late. But the flip side of that still got some time to make up for this, especially in November. Yeah. you're right. And I think that, again, there are good things that are happening, right? Like, the power play seems functional and competent. Like, again, and that's great news. Like, that's, we've all been waiting for that. The bottom six looks, isn't getting caved in over and over again. It's like producing points, right? So you have this sort of like, you know, functional foundation that's operational. I think, you know, Blomquist has been a good story. I think I love what he's doing right now. I'd

love to see him just take the net for a little bit and just give it to them. Spot start net if you need to every once in a while. But yeah, you got to find a solution for the defensive zone stuff because that almost single-handedly right now is the reason that you are where you are. And the fact that I think that the wheels have a tendency to, like, if you go back to that Vancouver game, right, like, okay, like, Bain's goal should never really, like, you should never get to that point, right? Like, that collapse should have been stopped way before that. And it's just the lack of resiliency is like when that one wheel falls off or that like that check engine light comes

off or on like everybody freaks out. Everybody freaks out. And then you get these like repeated just bad situations where you blow a game in a period and not even a whole period, a five minute stretch of a period because, you know, you lost control of it. So I, you know, I don't think this team is going to change defensively, right? Like I think like, Even if people tweet me all the time, like, oh, what if they traded graves? And like that, maybe they brought in another defensive style defenseman. I don't think that changes anything, right? Like, look at Marcus Pedersen right now.

Like, he's struggling in this environment. For the first time in his career, his creation for metrics are better than his creation against metrics. Marcus Pedersen. That's crazy, right? Like, that's not like Brian Dumlin having like Unreal shot quality metrics and being bad defensively. You wouldn't even fathom that. So I don't, I think where it is. what it is, guys. This is just who they are. This is like what they've become. But I think you can

tidy it up, right? I don't think it needs to be this bad. Like the odd man rushes are, that's where I'm really saying, like, I've made my peace, right? They're going to pinch. They're going to take crazy chances. It's everything else. It's the basic level stuff in the defensive zone that's alarming, frankly. And if you could just fix that part, you're given yourself at least a fighting chance. Well, they'll at least try to rectify some things this week when the Penguins have three big home games against Minnesota, Anaheim and Montreal. All three of us are going to do a quick look ahead to those three games coming up right after this. Hey, we'll be right back with Jesse Marshall, but we've got to tell you about our last sponsor and that is Fandul. Get ready to tackle the NFL

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an official sportsbook partner of the National Football League. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hansar Hodies, join by my co-s, Patrick Damp, and Monday's special guest, Jesse Marshall. So, guys, three big games for the Penguins this week, a three game homest game before the penguins go on the road to play three Metro teams next week in the Islanders, Hurricanes, and the Capitals. But this week, starting off, Mark Andre Fleury Night against the Minnesota Wild

Flurry will be starting in that game. I'll be at the arena for that game. I'm super excited just because this is big, the big Flurry sendoff. I mean, it's going to be, I think, very emotional night at PBG Paints Arena, you're probably going to see some people crying a little bit just because of what Mark Andre Fleury has meant to so many Penguin fans. But that's still going to be a tough game, considering Minnesota's off to a really good start this year, a lot better than I expected. I did not think Minnesota was going

to be a playoff team this year. But so far, they're playing like it, and a big reason why is Corral Capri Sov. After that, you have the Ducks who, again, I don't expect much out of this year, but they still have quite a bit of young talent. And then the Canadians who I think they're going in the right direction, but they're also one of the worst defensive teams in league. It's funny, guys, the Penguins, even though they're awful defensively, they are playing two other awful teams defensively this week. So that could make for some two pretty entertaining games, but I think if this team really wants to get back on track this week, you're probably going to have to win all three games in sweep this homestand.

Yeah, I'll give them a pass against Minnesota. Yeah. We'll see how that one goes. I don't know if that emotional part of that. takes any steam out of them. But yeah, you got to beat, you got to beat Anaheim Montreal. I mean, there's the only two teams in the league worse than you defensively. You have to beat those teams, right?

And they don't score anywhere near as many goals. I mean, they're expected goal generation rates, like half, under half of what the penguins have been putting up. So you have to win those games. I'm now kicking myself for not going on this flurry game because that could have meant is it the first one and the last one. I cut in line in the student rush line. Don't tell anybody that. It's the only reason I got in.

I got there late. And my friend Kelsey, let me cut in front of her. So shout out Kelsey for all these 18. That's just sad. Yeah, dude, it's a vet of the student rush line. I was not getting into that game. I got in just and sat down just in time for the Sipariness penalty shot. So we were already down, I think two nothing at that point.

But I think overall you're right. I don't want to say I'll give them a pass for Minnesota. I got to see how they play. Yeah, I don't get blown out. right that's yeah 100% agree 100% agree but when you go when you play anaheim and you play montreal this week i'll be at the anaheim game always fun the Halloween night game those are always a blast but like like you guys have already been saying who are the worst defensive teams in the league you're scoring at a rate you haven't scored at in the last couple of years those are games

that have to be ripe for the picking in it really could be a get right week for this team because as much as we will pour in two statistics, as much as we will look at analytics. There is something to be said for confidence, because last segment we talked about frustration with some of the players on this team, but you rattle off three wins after such a poor trip across Western Canada, you can kind of start building that confidence back of, all right, we got these wins under our belts. We're starting to feel ourselves a little bit.

And then you've got a huge week in the metro coming up right after that. So along with just needing this for, I don't want to say, saving their season because you can always have a bounce in a month or a couple weeks that pulls you back from the brink at this point of the season. But if you don't perform this week, it can put you really far behind the eight ball. So if they can get a few wins this week, maybe we're having a different conversation next Monday about this team. But you don't want to go so far to say must wins, but they are good wins. If they were to, drop them all. Do you see them winning six games in a row at any point to like make that gap up?

I don't. I don't think they're going to do that. I don't think to have that in them. So yeah, I mean, your best bet is to just chip away at it over the course of time. And it gets a lot harder to do if you are dropping points to teams that you should discernibly beat. I will say that I know you gave a shout out to one of my young sons from the wild a minute ago. But Matt boldy. Holy smokes. Like really good right now, really good. That injury stuff he dealt with last year seems to be in the rear mirror for him. And he is looking dangerous. So that is all of a sudden a team that while they haven't scored among the league's leaders, they're controlling play just fine at five on five and is going to be a difficult uphill slog against some really young and talented

skaters. Yeah, Pat, now you're going to preview that game for the Tuesday episode. I think we're going to be doing a crossover with Seth Topol of locked on wild. because he'll have some good Flurry stories, at least from this last season. And we'll get to probably tell our favorite Flurry stories a bit as well. And also, just to end the show, shout out to Evgeny Malkin for another great performance against the Canucks and how great he's been all season. It just thinks that the rest of the team is kind of wasting just how good Gino has been to start this season. But I wanted to end the show on that. But, Jesse, we really appreciate you coming on.

And we really hope that this is going to be every Monday for the rest of the season, schedule permitting. and then into the offseason as well. But for Patrick Damp and Jesse Marshall, I am on Sir Hodes. Thank you so much for tuning in. We appreciate it. Pat and I will be back on Tuesday to preview this game against the Minnesota Wild.