Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins gut out a MASSIVE 6-5 win over the Bruins, how did they do it?

Episode Date: January 5, 2024

The Penguins were able to fight back after blowing a three-goal lead to the NHL-leading Bruins, winning 6-5. Patrick, with a little help from Hunter on the road, recaps the massive victory. Patrick then gets you ready for the matchup with the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night, what the Penguins need to do to keep it rolling, and how they can win. Finally, is Sidney Crosby for Hart becoming a national campaign? Patrick thinks so!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!SleeperDownload the Sleeper App and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelScore early this NFL season with FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your team wins! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Penguins win a wild one in Boston on Thursday night, six to five. We're going to recap that 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. Welcome back, Penguins fans, to the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host Patrick Damp.

I am flying solo today as Hunter is flying back from Boston, but you can follow me on Twitter at Synonym 4WWet. You can follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. We are free and available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. And we thank you for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. Today's episode is brought to you by Sleeper. Download the Sleeper app and use promo code Locked on NHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. In terms of conditions apply.

See Sleeper. terms of use for details. So, as I said, I am flying solo today as my co-host Hunter Hodes is making his way back from Boston. He was in attendance to watch that crazy six to five Penguins win last night over the NHL leading Boston Bruins. So we are going to break down that game here just a little bit. But I am not all alone today. I do have a quick cut in from our pal Hunter Hodes to give his thoughts on last night's game. Let's hear what he had to say. And I will be back as soon. as he finishes that. Hey, listeners, you know me.

It's Hunter Hodes, one of the hosts of the Lockdown Penguins podcast, giving you on audio insert slash video insert for today's episode. Pat is going to be solo. Obviously for this one, I'll be flying home back to Pittsburgh. After watching the Penguin 6 to 5 win over the Boston Ruins at TV Garden on Thursday night. I just want to give you all some quick thoughts from the game. Just a tremendous gutsy win by this team. It looked like after the Bruins tied it with Marshand's shorthanded goal.

this was going to be a classic case of, oh, the Penguins blowing another multi-goal weed. What's Kyle Dubas going to do after this one? This Tar Rear didn't get fired. What does he do with the roster? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But Cindy Crosby comes in and is like, you know what, screw that. I'm going to go get this team the win, and he sure did that. One goal, two assists in this one, the game winning goal, obviously,

coming on the power play with less than nine minutes to go in the third period. But it wasn't any of his playmaking that really stood out to me. It was the effort that he showed with beating out that icing call with less than a minute to go in the third period. The way that he was able to win that race at 36 years of age, it's tremendous. And it goes to show what he does on a nightly basis to get this team wins. He's not just doing it on the score sheet. He's winning races like that to make sure to kill more time so that the Bruins don't have. other opportunities to get chances in the penguin zone. And he continues to play at such a high level.

If you don't have him as one of your favorites to win the heart trophy this season, you are not doing it right. Just another fantastic effort by the Penguins captain in this one. I also thought that debt players were great. Lars Eller continues to play very well for this team. And I'll say this for Jeff Carter. He has been legitimately good for the last two to three weeks. I think a few healthy scratches really ignited something in him. And ever since that point, he's been very, very good for this hockey team. Had another goal last night. He drew the penalty that eventually led to Cindy Crosby's game winner. He has been really good lately. And it's been great to see considering how bad he was for the last year, year and a half plus and all that stuff. And also I'll say

Drew O'Connor, I thought, had the game of his life in this one. He could have had two to three goals. One of the chances that he missed was on a two on O firing it over the net, but he set up Lars Eller's goal. He had a goal early on as well. He's been playing lights out ever since that auto game. It's been great to see him play at this level. I know the Penguins didn't get good enough goaltending from Alex Ndilkevich, but sometimes you got to win those types of games where one of your goalies who has been very good all year doesn't have it. And this one, 828%, usually that leads to a loss, right well the penguins were able to put six on jeremy swamon who has also been one of the best goaltenders in the league and it didn't matter even though to delkevich probably could have had a couple

of those back but those are just some of my quick thoughts in this one of course ryan grave scores the day after i say that he should be bench really nice shot though overall just a solid game i thought from graves you know i think playing on the bottom pairing definitely did help him in this one i don't take back what i said to say the least just because he was playing really poorly and maybe a few games off could have done him some good, but I will say it was at least a start for him on the bottom hearing. I do think he played a bit better down there with Chad Rueedle. But overall, that is a massive two points for this team. They're eight and two and one in their last 11 games. You've got to beat Buffalo on Saturday. If you're able to do that, bank those two points. That's a good week.

You're also nine and two and one in your last 12 games. Heading in the next week where there are some much bigger games coming up. You have the Flyers in Philadelphia, you have another game against the hurricanes coming up. You have the Vancouver Canucks coming up. This is a month where the Penguins are going to play some pretty solid teams and they're going to have to continue to big points if they want to stay in the playoff punt. But I will do it for my quick thoughts on this game. Now back to your regularly schedule programming with Pat.

Thanks for that, Hunter. Appreciate you dropping in for this episode. Not a whole lot that I can really add to what Hunter had to say about last night's game. It was an extremely gutsy win by this Penguins team. It's one of those landmark wins that if this season goes where the Penguins want it to go, that you circle on the calendar, that you circle in your memory bank about how they were able to overcome blowing a five to two lead against a team like the Boston Bruins and were able to come out with a six to five victory. Now, that is one quick thing that I do want to address a little bit here. I'm not going to let the penguins off the hook completely.

When you have a team like the Bruins down, you should keep them down and not give them life. The third goal, I can't really fault Nadelcovic too much. He hadn't seen a shot in so long. He was probably cold. And then when they eventually do give up the short-handed goal to tie the game at five, you do need to get some better goaltending from the Delkovich overall. But one thing I wanted to say about that,

this is one of, if not the best team in the National Hockey League in the Boston Bruins. They are a tremendous team. They are a great team. They are a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. And when you play teams like that, they won't just lay down and die. The Boston Bruins weren't just going to look up at the scoreboard at the end of the first period and go, ah, it's 4-2. Who cares? You know, whatever.

It's a game in January. No, that is a team that is efficient. That is a team that has all the heart in the world and the talent to go along with it. So they are going to fight in every single game. That's part of the reason I think they flamed out against Florida last year because like the Penguins, they very much were on the wrong side of 30 and they played at a million miles an hour last season. But I digress. Either way, there are legitimate critiques for the way the Penguins played in the second half-ish of that game last.

night. They took their foot off the gas a little bit. Alex Nadelcovic needed to be better in net than he was. The defensive zone coverage after they were up five to two started to get a little bit lax. It did look like the penguins were going to let them back in because even after two periods, it did appear that the penguins were out playing the Bruins, regardless of what the score said. They just didn't get enough saves from Alex Nadelcovich. Then in the third period, the power play gives up a shorthand goal, and it's a 5-5 game, but the power play takeeth, the power play giveth. Sidney Crosby with an incredible shot on the power play just seconds into it to give the Penguins

the 6-5 lead. We are going to get into him a little more at the end of today's episode since he was named, as we correctly predicted yesterday, as the Penguins All-Star representative. But all in all, you look at a win like this, to put a fine bow on this, to put a cap on this and end this segment, you have to be happy with a win like this because Mike Sullivan kind of said it himself, it's not so much the overall product in the overall effort that you're happy with, but you're happy with the response because with where this penguin's team is, with how their season has gone so far, it would have been very easy for them to kind of throw it in the

tank after they blow a three-gole lead. It would have been very easy for them to think, oh, no, here we go again and just lay down and die. But they didn't do that. And then in the last minute or two minutes with Swamen pulled with the empty net, I thought the penguins, despite losing face off, were tremendous in the defensive zone. They were picking up bodies in front of the net. They were blocking shots.

They were closing off passing lanes to give the Bruins. low percentage chances with the six on five advantage. And then as Hunter brought up at 36 years old, Sidney Crosby beats out an icing call, which probably kills 10 to 15, even 20 seconds off of the clock, which is precious time in a game like that. And that's the last thing I'll talk about before we move into Cid is that's a play that has nothing to do with skill.

It has nothing to do with vision. That is all heart and effort. And that is the kind of tone that Sidney Crosby said. for his teams. If he, with his talent level and everything he's done is still working that hard at that age, nobody else on that team has anywhere to hide. So that's going to do it for this first segment

of the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. When we come back, we are going to preview the Penguins and Sabres game tomorrow night at PPG Paints Arena. But first, we have to tell you about one of our sponsors, and that is Fandul. The NFL regular season is wrapping up, but there's still time to get in on the action with Fandul,

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and make a parlay in the parlay hub the best way to find popular parleys. much more. So visit fandul.com slash locked on and make your first bet a layup, Fandul, the official partner of the National Football League. We're back here on the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Patrick Damp, flying solo today as Hunter Hodes is on the road, traveling back from Boston after being there in person for that crazy win last night. But we have to move the calendar forward for what is coming on Saturday.

On Saturday night, the penguins are welcoming in the Buffalo Sabres, who we've talked about it on this pod before. The Buffalo Sabers probably are one of the more disappointing teams in the National Hockey League this year. They sit not far, or they sit quite low in the Atlantic Division standings. They have 36 points. They're ahead of the woeful Ottawa Senators. They're 16, 19, and 4 with a negative 16 goal differential. And that's kind of where I want to start talking about this Buffalo team. You take a look at their goaltending, and it has been a problem for them this year.

You look at Ouka Peka Lukanin in 15 starts. He has an 892 save percentage. Devin Levi, who did get sent down at one point this year. He has 17 starts this year and not much better with an 893 save percentage. both of these guys are a problem for the Buffalo Savers because there's not a shortage really of scoring. They have quite a few guys with a good amount of goals. You have Jeff Skinner with 16.

Tage Thompson, despite missing time, has 12 goals. J.J. Paterka also has 12. Casey Middlestat and Dahlene with 11. So the guys that the Buffalo Sabers need to be key contributors here have been key contributors so far this year. the problem is they just simply cannot get a save. And the penguins have to take advantage of that. They showed last night that they can score goals again.

You put up six against a really good Boston Bruins team who has arguably the best tandem in the National Hockey League. I know Hunter and I have talked up Alex Nadelcovic and Tristan Jari and rightfully so. Jeremy Swayman and Linus Olmark are probably the two best goalies at least the best tandem in the NHL, and you were able to hang six on them last night, which was just a thing of beauty. But with that in mind,

the other thing I want to add in here is that we're going to build off of what the penguins did last night and what they need to do tomorrow night against the sabres. And one of the biggest things Hunter touched on it a little bit in his drop in the last segment. And that was that a lot of the depth guys really helped drive that win last night. You look at who scored the goals.

You had Drew O'Connor, Ryan Graves, Lars Eller, Jeff Carter. And yes, Gensel and Crosby both put up points. Sydney takes home the first star with a three-point performance. But the guys who contributed last night were largely your role players. You had Lars Eller getting his seven, Jeff Carter getting his fifth, Ryan Graves with his second, Drew O'Connor with his fifth. and they were significant players in the game last night. Drew O'Connor, I think, maybe had the best game of his entire career last night against the Bruins.

And he was all over the ice. He was great on the forecheck. His vision was fantastic when he had the puck on his stick, obviously scores a goal. And it was the kind of goal you want to see from a player in a bottom six role in that he was in front of the net. He scored it from right at the tip of the blue paint. and that's what you want to ask for from guys in your bottom six. So if you go in, if you welcome in a team in Buffalo who is really struggling to get saves with both of their goaltenders, and now you're starting to kind of turn a corner

when you're the penguins of being able to put up goals, this is what you want to see continue happen. Yes, you expect that Sidney Crosby, Jake Gensel, and the rest of the band if Mary men will score their goals and get their points, but your focus needs to be on making sure that your bottom six players are there to put up points. Next, one of the other things that we're looking for here is we have to get a bounce back from either Tristan Jari or Alex Nadelcovic. We don't know who's going to start. I am recording this on Friday afternoon.

The game is not until Saturday night. So we don't know who's going to get the nod. I would imagine it is probably Tristan Jari, if I had to guess, since Alex Nadelcovic started last night, and it appears that Mike Sullivan is getting into a one-for-one kind of rotation with these two. But this past week hasn't been kind to Penguins' goaltenders. Tristan Jari was not great against the Capitals. While I can't fully blame him for the loss against the Caps, he certainly could have been better. Alex Nadalkovich, not that great last night against the Bruins. Granted, yes, it's the Boston Bruins.

They're a great team with a lot of goal scores. But 828 save percentage, he was not great as the Bruins were starting to mount their comeback when you could have very much used a couple of saves from him. But overall, I want to see a bounce back from Tristan Jari tomorrow night. And finally, for the Penguins, this has to be a bit of a round. revenge game. You look back at the last game they played against the Buffalo Sabres. That was when they blew a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 to Buffalo in Buffalo.

And it was another night where the power play at the time was in the midst of its historically long slump and struggle really could have put the Sabres away in the second and third periods, but it didn't. And it handed momentum back to the Sabres. You can't afford to do that in this next game. In this one,

you have to take advantage of the opportunities you're given, especially because you're playing a team that right now is really struggling with everything right now. Yes, they're getting back or got,

they have back Tage Thompson, who is going to be one of the best goals scores in the National Hockey League for a long while. But other than that, you look up and down this roster, and it's not all that impressive. It's solid, but it's not one that I think you would say,

is a contender quite yet. They're on they're on the up they are this is a team that is going to contend in the next few years because they are extremely well built. They have a lot coming up. The young talent is there and is really starting to look like it's going to pan out. But as of right now, they're not there yet. They are still a young team that's learning. And if you're an older team like the Pittsburgh Penguins, you have to take advantage of that. You have to use your experience and your superior talent to put down a team like this. It's imperative for this team to keep stacking points because right now, even after the loss of the capitals this week, the penguins, they still find themselves right there. They are all of two points out of the wild card right now, or one point, excuse me, out of the wild card with Tampa Bay having 43 points.

Penguins have 42. They're two points out of the first wild card spot, which is currently still surprisingly being held by the Philadelphia Flyers. with 44 points who I got to give it up to John Torturella and the Flyers. They look a lot better than anybody would have expected. They're starting to fade ever so slightly, but still they banked a lot of early points that kept them up there. And right now, you look at the Buffalo Sabres. They're coming off a pretty big win against the team in their division in the Montreal

Canadians. They beat them at the Bell Center, six to one. Jeff Skinner had a four point night. And all the big players were involved for them. Like I said, these are the guys you're going to have to neutralize. Casey Middle Statt, Jeff Skinner, Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlene. And if you're able to, at the very least, hold those guys in check and hope your guys can step up, you're in a pretty good position to get a victory.

So tomorrow night, you have the Penguins and Sabres. they will be playing at 7 p.m. at PPG Paints Arena. That'll be on Sportsnet Pittsburgh. You can catch it there as well as 105.9 the X. Hunter and I will be back on Monday to recap that one. But that is going to do it for this second segment of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am going to be back here in just a moment. We are going to talk about Sidney Crosby's all-star selection.

But first, we have to tell you about our next sponsor, and that is Sleeper. We're at about the halfway point in the season, Penguins fans. and while the Penguins continue to fight for a playoff spot, they still got plenty of guys who are putting up some solid numbers. Regardless of where we are in the current standings, I want to remind you that you could win big by playing Daily Fantasy Hockey on Sleeper, the official daily fantasy app of the locked on NHL network.

Sleeper is our number one choice for daily fantasy sports, and especially Daily Fantasy hockey, because with Sleeper, you can win up to 100 times your cash in daily fantasy hockey contests. Now, right now, I don't know about you. I would probably take Sidney Crosby to win 100 times my money because he is putting up points at a rate we haven't seen in quite some time, having one of his best offensive seasons ever. I love this app because it's daily fantasy sports. It's not year-long fantasy that you have to keep an eye on every single day.

It starts when the game starts and end when they end. You can talk about all of the stuff with your friends. You can make bets. You can have all that fun with them. And all you have to do is pick weather studs like Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Nathan McKinney. in Connor McDavid or even Connor Bedard, who record more or less than their sleeper projections for things like goals, assist, saves, plus minus,

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on your first deposit. Terms conditions apply. That's code. Locked-on NHL, see Sleepers' Terms of Use for details and locational availability. Welcome back Penguins fans to this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Patrick Damp. Hunter Hodes is on the road today, traveling back from Boston, so you're stuck with me and me alone. So let's get into this.

Sidney Crosby named the Penguins first All-Star representative last night. The NHL made the announcement of the first 32 All-Stars that will be going to, to Toronto for the All-Star break and for the All-Star game and skills competition. And Sidney Crosby, to nobody's surprise, is the Penguins first representative. A fan vote, I believe we'll get the next 10 in, and you can do that whenever you'd like. If you ask me, I say your next vote should be Jake Gensel, but I digress. So huge game from Crosby last night. He was absolutely incredible with three points.

He was all over the ice. Hunter talked about it. I talked about it. The biggest play of the game that probably won the game for them was his negation of the icing call with the Boston Bruins goalie pulled that burned all that time off the clock and probably sealed a win for the penguins. He's still able to do this at this age. He's well over a point per game pace once again.

He's on pace for 49 goals at age 36. And I mean, you really do have to talk about how, We're going to get into the minute details of what the Hart Trophy is voted on by the writers, the Hart Trophy, most valuable player to his team. And I do think right now, if the Penguins were to get into the Stanley Cup playoffs again this year, that definition is Sidney Crosby. He has been just an absolute terror this year. And in typical Crosby fashion,

we're not just talking about setting up goals, scoring goals, putting up points, anything like that. It's all well and good. It's there. It's what he does. It's what he's been doing forever. But it's one of those things again where he's doing something else that at some point or another in his career he's been critiqued for. He is, I believe, just a shade above 60% in the face off circle this year. he's winning critical draws at critical moments.

It seems like every game he's north of 60% in the faceoff circle. And I know that sounds silly. I know that sounds like something that's not that big of a deal that is something that, oh, we don't have to worry too much about that. You know, at that point, you're just trying to cherry pick statistics for your favorite player and all that. But it's very important. And we saw that last night with the game winning goal that he's

scored on the power play. He wins the face off back. He wins the draw. He gets into position to get set up for a shot and a pass. And it puts the penguins back on top. And if he doesn't win that face off, they're never in that position to do that. So that has been a huge part of his game. And at this point, I think you do have to talk about him as a serious candidate for the Hart Trophy. Now, I don't know if he'll win it because Nikita Kudjouj, Chorov is having himself a dazzling season. He's leading the NHL in points. He looks every bit as one of the best players in the world.

And Connor McDavid is always going to be Connor McDavid. But I would genuinely be stunned that when we see the NHL awards this summer, his name is not in the nomination process for the Hart Trophy. So I think he's having a marvelous season. I don't think I'm breaking any ground saying that. but I have to give a shout out to the athletics, Josh Yohe and friend of the show. I agree completely with what he said in his recap this morning. If you have some extra money and you got nothing going on tomorrow night,

buy a ticket to the game against the Sabres, just a marvel at what Sidney Crosby is doing. I write about this a lot of the time on KDKA when I write my column, Penguins Perspectives. We have to cherish what we have in Pittsburgh, because it's not going to be here for much longer. And Sidney Crosby is really having himself a renaissance of sorts this season. And it's not going to last forever.

A day is going to come when his play will drop off. And he won't be the all-star that he has been for his entire career. So if I had a vote for the Hart Trophy this year, it would definitely be going to Sidney Crosby. He's having an absolutely marvelous season. he is an all-star and he's every bit deserving of it. So that is going to do it for this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Thank you for tuning in. Hunter and I will be back on Monday to recap the Sabres game on Saturday night.

But until then, for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you for listening to the Locked-on Penguins podcast.