Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins give away late lead in Calgary, fall in the shootout

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

The Penguins surrendered a third-period lead in Calgary on Tuesday night and were unable to pick up the extra point in the shootout. Patrick and Hunter discuss what was not a great loss to the Flames on Tuesday night and how the Penguins will need to find a way to get wins like this in order to return to the playoffs. They also discuss how the start to the 2024-25 season for captain Sidney Crosby has been a slow one. While it may not be a big concern just yet, Crosby's start certainly has the boys concerned. Finally, it's Wednesday which means they give out their weekly Warrior Helmet to the team's MVP of the week!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 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Penguins found themselves on the losing end of some bad luck in a shootout loss to the Calgary Flames. Hunter and I are going to talk about that game and more on this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. 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 host, Patrick Damp. You can give me a full. follow on Twitter at Synonym 4 Wet. Joined as always by the one and only my co-host Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

You can follow our show's account at L.O. underscore Penguins. And of course, we appreciate you making this your first listener watch of the day. Because we're your team every day. And as always, don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube. Before we dive into it today, today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on NHL for $20 off of your first purchase. The Penguins lose on Tuesday night to the Calgary Flames in a shootout.

And you and I, Hunter, we were kind of getting into this as we were preparing the show today, a 4-3 shootout loss to the Calgary Flames in Calgary. Late night hockey, your favorite thing. You get to be a night out and a sicko and stay up late and watch hockey. It was also the NHL's Frozen Frenzy. which I dipped into for quite a bit last night on ESPN, all 32 teams in the National Hockey League in action last night. But keeping the focus on our Pittsburgh Penguins, we, like I said, we were talking about this before we hit record. Given the context of everything going on with the Penguins right now, it would have been very easy to jump on here today and crush them for losing again because it hasn't been the most inspiring start for the Penguins.

they've yet to beat a playoff team from the 24 Stanley Cup playoffs. So that's not a very encouraging sign. But you look at last night's game in totality. A couple of bad bounces don't go the penguins way. The penguins go to the shootout, which we all know, you know, our listeners know. The shootout has very much overstayed. It's welcome. I think even when we talk about this,

this game. Both teams with their efforts in the shootout basically sent the message of we just want to get the hell out of here. We're tired of this. So we can put that to the side. But when you look at the game as a whole, the penguins played better. The defense is still an issue. There were individual issues both on the penguin's blue line as well as the way the penguins still play in the defensive zone. But all in all, I looked at last night's game. I got up this morning. I watch the condensed game. I watch quite a few highlights from it, read as many recaps as I could dug into the stats. And I can't say I'm upset about this loss. It's not good that they lost. They get a point out of it, which helps. But at the end of the day, we are still again,

and I will say this, this time period is rapidly coming to an end, but we are in the tail end of the portion of the season where I'm looking more at process than I am result, and I'm a little bit more encouraged by what I saw last night than what I've seen in the last week. Hunter, your thoughts on last night's game? In my opinion, I think that is a bad loss for this team. You have not one, but two opportunities to close out that game in the third period. Okay, you give up that first, school, the first tying goal to McKenzie Weeger, the puck bounces off Cody Glass and Stick. that's whatever. I still maybe would want to save from Nadelcovic here, considering it was so far out.

But it was kind of a bit of a knuckler for a shot. Okay, whatever. But then you score with a little over six minutes to go with Nolachari, who I felt that was the best I've seen Nolichari play as a member of the Penguins. He was blocking a lot of shots, getting a stick into passing lanes, really bringing the physicality part of his game for the Penguins. And also gets that goal right around the front of the net. Really nice game from Achari. From that point on, I thought the penguins were doing a fine job defending, but once it got to the six on five, you had that long, long shift for the fourth line and the defenseman.

And even though they won a face off or two, they weren't doing anything with the puck. They were just continuing to ice it, continuing to ice it. You can't do that in a six on five because you're going to get tired. And eventually, sometimes you're going to have that goal against. And yeah, was it a bit of a lucky goal? Absolutely. You get a block shot, Nassam Kodry pounces on the rebound. There's really not much anyone can do there in that situation.

That said, you got to win the defensive zone draw, and you've got to stop icing the puck. If you're able to do both of those things, I think the Penguins would have been able to get out of there with a clean two points in regulation. So that's why I still think it's, for me, a bad loss. You cannot lose that game overall. I know we can sit here and harp on the shootout. And don't get me wrong. There was a time when the penguins were automatic in shootouts. Yes, that was when they did have Mark Andre Fleury, who was the best shootout

goaltender this league has ever seen. But it's just, it's not the case anymore. You don't have Eric Christensen anymore to go out there and be a shootout specialist. And one thing I wanted to jump in, sorry to interrupt you, Hunter, was in that six on five situation, I can see the strategy, but the execution was poor. What they were trying to do was trying to get the Calgary flames to have to use the neutral zone to regroup to disrupt their flow. But you have to have the awareness as a player to not put so much on the clearing attempt that it becomes icing, but make it so they have to pull all six guys out of the zone. They have to completely reset their attack, giving you a chance to counter that attack.

And way too many times during that six on five, like you said, they just fired it down. the ice for icing and you're giving them both a clean entry and an offensive zone face off and a little bit of momentum because they're not going to expend a lot of energy once they see it's going to be icing they're just going to wait for the whistle they're going to line up they're going to get a little bit of rest and then they're right back on the attack right and you can skyhook it if you want but they were doing too much with the skyhook you were doing it too quickly it wasn't a slow skyhook and it was going down the ice way too quickly. You gotta take off a little bit of that steam with the puck when you skyhook it out of the zone

so that it goes, you know, obviously into Calgary Zone, but it doesn't go all the way down for icing. They were doing that way too often on the six on five. That cost them just because even when a timeout was used and the players were able to get a rest, they were still obviously gassed. You saw that throughout that entire shift that the Penguins were able to get a change. I feel like they would have won that game. But not being able to win those. draws and icing the puck too often, that cost them there. And over time, I'm not really going to crush them. That was a very low event three on three, hardly any chances for either side. And then into the shootout, I'm going to be, I guess, a little nitpicky here. I'm not going to overreact

to a shootout loss just because you said it, Pat. I am sick and tired of shootouts. I've been sick and tired of shootouts for a long time. You can see the players are sick of shootouts as well. That said, when you see a weakness in a goalie, take advantage of it. You saw it. with the Ricard Raquel goal, with the Brian Rust one, and the Sidney Crosby almost going the shootout, he hit the post. But I think it'd be scores there. The Penguins probably win in the shootout, in my opinion. When you see a weakness, aka Gloveside there with Dusted Wolf, it looks like, keep going back to it. You saw other players like Lars Eller, Chris, Let's hang, Afghani Malkin, try to do other things, try to be a little too cute. And usually I am all for

deeking in shootouts. But when you see a weakness that's, again, not deeking, take advantage of Again, that's just my little soapbox, I guess, for shootouts. But again, I just felt like they could have taken advantage of more glove side shots than not. And then for Alex Nadelkovich, a couple ones that I know he would want back, like the Rasmus Anderson one, for example. But again, not really going to try to focus too much on that. Bottom line is you got to find a way to win that game in regulation after having not one, but two third period leads.

You do. And a couple positives to take away from last night's game. Power play gets another goal despite it being a little bit disorganized once again, but goals are goals. If they keep putting the puck in the back of the net, it's what I have been saying that it'll help with the confidence of this group, which is something we saw. They didn't have any of last season.

So however the pucks go in, they go in. And the penalty kill was perfect last night going four for four. Because last night's game, let's call it what it is, turned into a little bit of a ref show. and the Penguins penalty killers really stepped up for that. Again, one other thing, if you pop open the hood from last night's game, look at the underlying numbers. Penguins had a very solid performance, 58% of the shot attempts and 14 high danger chances for.

The biggest problem I see with that, though, is then you look at their expected goals and it's only 2.7, which tells me they're controlling the puck, but they're not getting enough quality out. of it. They have the puck in this game. They're getting shots at the net, but they're not getting quality looks. I obviously will never complain about a high shot volume because it is the NHL. You have to take what the game gives you. And there's always the chance to wear down a goalie when you throw as many pucks at them as you can. But when you play a game like this, when you're

controlling the possession, when you're controlling the puck, you should try to get it to better places to score goals and that should lead to more success. But overall, I look back at last night's game and I'm glad that they get a point out of it. It should have been a clean two points. And this is the last thing we'll talk about before we throw it to our second segment. I know everybody is on edge because of the last two seasons and I totally understand it. And I'm not far away from a lot of those people. But right now we are eight games into the season.

this team is pretty much right where we want them and said they would be. They are sniffing around a wild card spot. They're sniffing around the third place in the Metropolitan Division. That said, there are underlying issues that cause us to worry. They have to figure out these defensive pairings to get everybody going, and they have to figure out their defensive zone coverage, because if they don't, those underlying issues will begin to derail their season. but right now, I think we're safe to take a little bit of a deep breath,

acknowledge the issues, and see what happens over the next week or so. Now, last thing for me, they have to get something out of these next two games, whether it's two points, three points, even four points. If they come away from these two games empty-handed, then don't worry about hovering your hand over the panic button. Feel free to press it. Yeah, you have to get at least one win in your next two against Edmonton and Vancouver. And while Edmonton has had a very slow start to the season once again,

that is still a team that you don't want to mess with considering how much talent that they have overall. And especially with how the Oilers have kicked the Penguins' butts the last few times they played. Vancouver, they had a bit of a slow start, but they've won a few games in a row now. That's still going to be a very tough game in Vancouver. If you can get a split of those two games, heading back home to play Minnesota, heading back home to play Anaheim as well, that should at least keep them in a okay position

heading into a small homestand in the month of November. But you cannot walk away with zero to one points here on these next two games. You have to at least split the Edmonton, Vancouver back to back. Otherwise, there'll be more than up a creek overall. It will put them in a world of hurt. And one person who we both think needs to eventually help lead that charge going into the next two games of the Western Canada swing is Captain Sidney Crosby. Hunter and I are going to talk about his game and a little bit more in our second segment. But before we do that, we have to tell you about our first sponsor.

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And it just, it pains my heart that we're going to do this segment because I love this player. I love everything he represents, one of my all-time favorites, but might be. be time to be a little bit worried about Captain Sidney Crosby. It has been a little bit of a quiet week for the Penguins captain in the last three games since he hit his big milestone against the Buffalo Sabres. One assist in his last three games. And we know that 87 goes through these slumps in his career.

It happens more often than I think people like to remember. He will kind of go a little bit cold. he will maybe not put up the level of points you expect him to put up. But the concerning thing for me is that watching his game as of late, it just doesn't look like vintage Sidney Crosby. He's a little bit more on the perimeter. He's not as much in the scoring areas. And you just haven't seen that patented burst from him

where he just picks up the puck or wins a puck battle and kind of shakes everybody off, does his thing, either throws a great pass to a line mate or takes it to the net and gets a great scoring chance. It's just been an uncharacteristically quiet start to the season for the captain. Part of him just looks spooked a little bit on the ice. You're right. He's way too often on the perimeter of the ice, but he's also making a lot of boneheaded decisions that leave me speechless

and not in a good way, people, in a very bad way. Like, for example, Pat, last night, the Penguins had a power play late in the second period. And Penguins, they're moving the puck around really nicely in the offensive zone. And Crosby makes a really bad pass. Calgary picks it off, odd man rush the other way. They almost score. And then the penguins get an odd man rush.

Crosby gets the puck back. Two on one. Instead of shooting the puck, he goes down to the goal line, waits, fires a very bad pass yet again. Calgary has another odd man rush almost scores again. And it's like, what is the decision making going on here? It just, it baffles me that he's taking an extra second too long with the puck on his stick. He's not firing it like he used to.

He's not making the plays that we're used to seeing with the puck on his stick. And it's definitely been a bit concerning to start this season. I think overall he's going to be fine. I don't want to overreact to anything just because of how great he's been throughout his career and how, you know, he's gone into slums like this at times and then he's come out of them and he's just gone on a tear, and that could very well be the case here. It probably will,

considering how great of a player Crosby is. But if we're being honest with ourselves, this has not been a good start. And if this team, again, wants to get to where they want to go, he needs to wake up ASAP. And his defensive play has also been out to launch this season. He hasn't been that good of a defensive player

these last few seasons. There was a few seasons, you know, back in his prime, especially 16 and 17, where he was definitely one of the, better defensive forwards in the league. But that time has passed. On the opening game of the season, Eddie Olcheck said, oh, yeah, Sidney Crosby,

I'm surprised he wasn't a finalist for the Selke Award last year. I'm like, what? His defensive metrics were awful. And you keep seeing that from some of the national media pundits. And it's like he hasn't been good defensively these last couple of seasons. The I test shows that and the numbers show that. I mean, just watch last night's game. He was out to lunch, especially in his own zone.

and he wasn't doing a lot in the offensive zone either. Again, he is probably going to be totally fine. I hate talking about him in this light just because of how rough of the season it's been for him to date, but he needs to wake up and it needs to be quickly. It has to happen sooner rather than later into the Edzo comments. I mean, that comes back to how I've constantly talked about Sidney Crosby and the Selke trophy. It feels like if he were to get one before he hangs him up, it would just be a lifetime achievement award. It wouldn't be the, hey, he was absolutely elite defensively. But as Connor

McDavid continues to draw breath, he will still be the MVP. So we can't give Sid that lifetime achievement MVP. It might as well be the Selke trophy. But I digress. Yeah, that's the biggest thing when it comes to Sid's game right now is I don't know. if I would use your wording to say that he looks spooked because there's a reason that Colby Armstrong and guys on spit and chicklets call him the greatest grinder to ever play hockey because he plays with absolutely zero fear. But this season, so far, again, this could all change by the end of this weekend. And we're talking about, oh, look, Sid's back come Monday.

But he just isn't playing the Sydney Crosby type game. we have become accustomed to. And it could be for a myriad of reasons. And it could all change in the flip of a coin. But the way I look at this is it starts with everything else with this team. And that's his defensive zone play. Because, yes, has he always been an elite defender or a great two-way forward? Not really.

But he's been solid to good in his defensive zone. And you look at when he is at his best. the play starts for him in the defensive zone, whether it's breaking up a pass, stealing the puck, being in good position and jump starting the breakout. That is when Sidney Crosby's at his absolute best, when it's a 200-foot game that begins in the D zone

and takes its way all the way to the offensive zone. And we just haven't seen that yet, but it's been a continuation of this team's struggles in the defensive zone. So once he figures that out, like the rest of the team. I'm not going to be that worried. And then the points will come. Everything else will come with it. And we would be remiss if we didn't at least mention the assist he gets on Brian Russ Power Play goal because that was in a brief period of the game last night, a flash of Sidney Crosby. It was a great pass to somebody who you might not have

seen open and then Rust finishes the play. So I'm concerned, but I wouldn't say I'm worried. And that goal all started because the Penguins won a board. battle in the power play. Crosby's able to get the puck. Had a beautiful pass to Russ, as you said. That was a very nice play. I just want to see more of those type of plays like I know he can do on the ice every night. I want to see him work in his office below the goal line as well a bit more working players left and right. I'm not, I guess, very worried about him, but I am starting to get at least a little bit concerned just with his start to the season. I think, again,

he's going to be totally fine, but they need more from him if they do want to again, get to where they want to go. A couple more things from this game last night, but I did want to bring up. We discussed this during our preview show on Tuesday. The idea of maybe switching up some of the defensive pairs to get some players going. Well, I called it with Pedersen and Latang and Grizzlick and Carlson.

I'll take the W for that at least halfway because Pedersen and Latang together were very good last night. Pedersen and Latang led the Penguins and average game score. Both played really well last night. But Matt Grizzlick with Eric Carlson, that was a utter disaster. Grizzlick had a really bad pinch on Calgary's opening goal, was out to lunch defensively all game. Heck, that pairing was out to lunch all game long. And I don't think that's going to last very long. They might have to go back to Pedersen and Carlson and

Grizzlick with Lettang. I was having a discussion with Kelsey Surmax of the hockey news last night talking about what to do with Grizzly considering how bad he was with Carlson, even though his numbers with Latang haven't been that good this year either. And she was saying like, oh, you could put maybe Ryan Graves up there in a top four role. I'm like, I don't know if I'm ready to do that just yet. We can say that Ryan Graves has been fine this season. His underlines are honestly not terrible, but people also have to keep in mind,

they're very much sheltering his minutes. They're giving him easy deployments against third and fourth liners. They're not really playing him that much. They are giving him easy situations to build his game back up. Why would you give him a top four role after what we saw last year? You have to really earn that. And I don't think he has earned those minutes yet. So the penguins, they're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place right now on the left side.

Owen Pickering's not ready yet, but I think he's going to be at some point here. I mean, maybe later on this season, if not next year. But they're going to have to figure out something on that left side. Because while Pedersen was really good next to Latang last night, Grizzlick was really bad next to Carlson. And also, again, shout out to Nollachari, by far. far his best game I felt like as a member of the Penguins and I want to see more games like like that from him going forward. Really do.

That was a very solid game from Achari and real quick on the defense before we head to our final segment. I was having this discussion with an old old friend of mine, one of my dad's best friends, a listener of the show, by the way, Joe, appreciate you. But I was talking to him about this yesterday and Grizzlick did exactly what I was talking about and it's the ill-advised pinches. And here's the thing about it. This is an old saying that my dad used to always say as a coach.

The majority of edited for the podcast screw-ups, but I'm sure you can figure out which word goes there, are born through hesitation. And the thing with the pinches are, the defensemen are hesitating. They're not fully committing to it. If you're going to do it and you're going to put that pressure on, go do it.

If you're not going to do it, stay back and stay on the, and stay on the point, but it can't be halfway. You either have to fully commit to the pinch or stay back. I'm fine with them still pinching if that's what they feel is the correct decision, but it cannot be a half measure. And that was absolutely shown from Grizzlic last night. But that is going to do it for our second segment. When we return, it's Wednesday.

So you know what that means? It's Warrior Helmet Wednesday. Hunter and I will be back and we will hand out our weekly award for the Penguins MVP of week, our warrior helmet. But before we do that, we got to tell you about our final sponsor, and that is Fandul. NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on Fandle, America's number one sportsbook. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, say you're sitting around watching Monday night football as Russ and the Steelers will look to cook the New York Giants at Accresher Stadium. You can check out the latest stats, view live play by play, and so much

more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in Bowels. bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. That's Fandul.com, America's number one sports book. All right, welcome back to the Wednesday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes. And like I just said, it's the Wednesday edition of Locked on Penguins. So that means it's Warrior Helmet Wednesday.

For some of our newcomers, if you are not aware, this is us paying homage to the 2016 Stanley Cup winning penguins, where they gave out their team MVP. post game in the locker room, and it was a warrior helmet. So for us, we take every Wednesday to give out our weekly MVP for the Pittsburgh Penguins. And as I've said before, it isn't always limited to a player. It can be a coach. It can be the GM. It can be anybody in Penguinsland.

But for the second straight week this season, I think both of us are going to be handing our warrior helmet to a player. I will kick us off. I'm giving my Wednesday warrior helmet to one. Lars Eller, another two-gold performance, four points and four games. And he has just continued his hot stretch that he ended the season with last year. And I think he has been one of the Penguins' most consistent performers. Obviously, this past off season, both Hunter and I kept beating the drum that the Penguins

were maybe going to have to make a move it forward, make a trade to help out their salary cap situation. And Lars Eller fit that bill. if he keeps cooking like this man and they stay in the hunt, I'm holding on to Lars Eller. So Lars Eller gets my Warrior Helmet Wednesday Award Hunter. I think you've got a different pick than me this week. I do. And also Pat, vice versa.

If he also stays hot and the penguins are not really in the race at the deadline, they'll be able to get quite a nice haul for Eller at the deadline. I mean, last year, Adam Henrique went for a first round pick. Give me a first round pick plus at this rate for Lars Eller with the way he's going. if the penguins aren't in the race at the deadline. But he has been awesome. He's not my pick this week, but I am going with another debt player.

And that is Kevin Hayes with the way he's been playing for the penguins. Three goals and four points to open the season. In the last week, he has two points, one goal, one assist. The goal came against Winnipeg on Sunday the assist last night against the Calgary Flames. He's playing very well. It doesn't matter if it's in his own zone, offensively on the penalty kill. He's been everything the Penguins have needed from a four-fly.

and more to start this season. He's blocking shots on the penalty kill. He's getting his stick into passing lanes. He's getting his stick into shooting lanes as well. He's showing off his really nice release. You saw that goal against Winnipeg over the weekend. Gorgeous one-timer down near the goal line. And even the goal against Detroit also, just one heck of a release there in the third period.

I know that was really to start the season, but still, he has been fantastic this last week. And he's been better than I think a lot of fans expected him to be, at least to start the year. And I'm excited to see what he can do for the rest of this year. I definitely think he can score double-digit goals for this team, be a really good, effective fourth liner for the Penguins. Maybe he can also jump up to the third line if needed when injuries arise. But he's really impressed me to start the season. So Hayes, he gets my warrior helmet. But I almost went to Ricard Raquel as well.

He's off to one heck of a start for the Penguins looking like the player that we, saw two years ago when he had a great season for this team. And I do think if he continues doing that, he's going to have at least one warrior helmet on a Wednesday later on this season. He definitely will. He has had a great start. And so is Kevin Hayes. But with Kevin Hayes,

I'm going to go ahead and take this hand. I'm going to put it on my back here, give it a little pat, because I remember saying not long ago that this reminds me a lot of the Brian Boyle era in the Penguins where does he fit the system? Does he fit the modern NHL? Not really to either of those questions, but he's still finding a way to be effective. And so far, that's looking like a pretty savvy move from president of hockey operations and general manager, Kyle Dubus. But that is going to do it for the Wednesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

We appreciate you guys, as always, tuning in and taking the time to talk puck with us. Hunter and I will be back with a brand new episode for you on Thursday. but until then for hunter hodies i'm patrick damp thank you as always for tuning in and we'll be back tomorrow