Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins head west with a new lineup!

Starting point is 00:00:00 The penguins are headed off to the West Coast, and with it, they're bringing some lineup changes. Hunter and I are going to talk about 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. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to yet another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:38 I am one of your hosts Patrick Damp, joined as always by the illustrious, the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Sinanin for Wet. You can follow Hunter at Hunter Hodes. And of course, you can follow the show's Twitter account at L.O. underscore Penguins. We are free and available Monday through Friday on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. Make Every Moment More. Right now, new customers get $150 in both.

Starting point is 00:01:08 bonus bets with any winning $5 money line bet. That's right, $150 bucks if your team wins. So visit vandal.com slash locked on to get started. So Hunter, here we are. The Penguins about to hop on a jet plane. Head off to California. Get a little bit of that West Coast sun. And with it, I think Mike Sullivan has answered my prayers, has answered. your prayers, has answered the fan base's prayers, because if you followed this team's practice this morning before they went to the airport, you may have noticed that Vinnie Hinoistroza was on the fourth line in the place of Jeff Carter, who was taking fourth-paring defensive

Starting point is 00:01:58 rushes with P.O. Joseph. So, with that in mind, Hunter, I've got to ask, does the Jeff Carter for Norris campaign begin right now? First off, Pat, do you hear it? Tell me you hear that sound. It's the sound of the fan base giving Mike Sullivan a beautiful round of applause for making a move. Let's face it, it's a year too late, in my opinion. But yes, this is when the Jeff Carter for Norris campaign starts.

Starting point is 00:02:25 He's going to be the best defense from the league, better than Eric Carlson, Kel McCar, Adam Fox, Roman Yosey, and all these other guys. But in all seriousness, it looks like it's trending towards Jeff Carter being a healthy scratch on Saturday. I'm not going to fully believe it 110% until I see that lineup card out late Saturday night in San Jose that shows Vinnie Hino Shroza makes his Penguins debut this year. Looks like he's training that thing. But let's see if Mike Sullivan actually goes through that Hineshroza was taking Carter's

Starting point is 00:02:55 place in line rushes during practice on Thursday. It was also out there on the second power play unit with Chris Littang, Brian Russ, Radim Zohorahorna, and Riley Smith, Ricard McAllble's bump back up to the first power unit during practice. Overall, though, you had to change something about this fourth line. Through nine games, the Nyedo Achari and Carter line was doing absolutely nothing offensively. Were they okay defensively? Sure, they really weren't on the ice for many goals against, but they weren't establishing a forecheck in the offensive zone. Every time that fourth line would be on the ice and they would try to game the offensive zone, the opposing team would just

Starting point is 00:03:33 get the puck and say, oh, thank you very much. If you're not going to for check, we're just going to take it out go back down the other way. That's what I feel like I saw every time that line was on the ice. There was no offensive identity from any of those three players. And in my opinion, I do think Carter is, and it looks like, is going to be the easiest one to get out of that fourth line. I know he's been a go's, but they also just signed him in saying with Noachari. But with Carter, he's been here for quite a while. He hasn't been doing anything for the last year. He is the one that I think is the most easily replaceable on that line. Again, you had to do something. Hineshroza has been pretty good in Wilkesbury this year, see if he can provide you at least

Starting point is 00:04:11 a little bit of the spark that Zahorna did to the third line when he was called up from Wilkesbury after the Jansen Harkins experiment was not working out. If he can, the Penguins may have something cooking there, but even if not, at least you're trying something new because you can't keep running back the same fourth line in thinking it's going to change because it's not. No, I agree. And similar to what we talked about in the preseason, similar to what we talked about in training camp, this is a moment for Hennistroza where he has to be like DOC or redeem Zahorna, where he has to be undeniable. He has to come in and provide a spark for this fourth line. He has to come in and breathe life into this fourth line. He has to, whether it's throwing a hit, whether it's scoring a goal, whether it's getting good chances or just really helping establish a forecheck and bringing energy to that line. That's exactly what he needs to do. He needs to play to a point where taking him out of the lineup and bringing Jeff Carter back in

Starting point is 00:05:18 would be more detrimental than the other way around. So I like what this could bring right now because you look at this fourth line of Nollachari and Matt Neh These are two guys who have speed. These are two guys who can play a little bit with a little bit more tempo. And for better or for worse, Jeff Carter can't do that anymore. And that was dragging them down a bit. So maybe now you put Hinnistroza on that line and they can play a little bit more uptempo. They can push the pace a little bit.

Starting point is 00:05:52 They can be a little bit better on the forecheck. And maybe when they get to do that, it wakes up Nieto and Achari a little bit. Because we need to see something from them at some point. point because you and I talked about this in the lead up to the regular season. These are two guys that the fan base, if they do what they're supposed to do, if they come as advertised, the fan base will fall in love with these guys just because of the style of hockey that they play. But we have yet to see it so far this season. And you saw a little bit of that, I think, in that game against the ducks earlier this week,

Starting point is 00:06:24 especially when Achari was out there on the pedonial. He was bulldozing players left and right. It felt like. And that's the kind of stuff that Brandon Tanev would do when he was a member of the Penguins, but obviously, Achari is not giving everyone the offense that Brandon Tana did. That's the next step. And hopefully it'll come right now. It's not looking likely. I just want to see this line get pressure in the offensive zone, establish a little bit of a cycle,

Starting point is 00:06:49 establish the forecheck. If they can even do that, whether it's 15 seconds, 20 seconds, that will be an upgrade over the Niedo-Achari card line. If Hino-Rosos, it can help with that. and just have some baby steps when it comes to sustaining pressure in the offensive zone, I will take that. It's a process to get that line going. But I really don't think Hineshroza could be any worse than what we've seen from Carter this year.

Starting point is 00:07:16 Maybe I'll be wrong about that, but I firmly believe that he can't be worse, especially with how he's looked in Wilkesbury so far. He's been one of their best players with how he's looked on other NHL teams so far. I do think he can provide a good presence both offensively and defensively on this line. Had a little bit of an up and down training camp and preseason, but regular season is a different animal. Sometimes people that have men camps and preseasons can play better during the regular season. And I hope that's the case here with Hinoistroza.

Starting point is 00:07:45 If this doesn't work out, you can call up someone else from Wilkesbury at the end of the day. Yeah. And outside of that, there's no real other changes being made to the lineup. And there doesn't really have to be because before we, we move on to the next segment, I do want to make a reference to a piece from Dom Lecision earlier this week, the 16 stats piece in the athletic. And one of them was about Penguins. And listen, I understand there's a lot of issues right now. I understand there's a lot of concern. They're sitting in the basement of the Eastern Conference. But I'm sorry, watch the game,

Starting point is 00:08:20 people. We're going to hit you with some analytics. Penguins right now, the process is there. At five on five, they are fourth and expected goals percentage. That means the chances are there. The process is there. Eventually, they're going to start falling. And here's the other thing. We've all been complaining about the power play. We lead the league at 15.9 expected goals per 60 minutes on the power play.

Starting point is 00:08:47 The puck's just not going in. That's the problem right now. Eventually, it's going to fall. Will it though, Pat? Willett, though, because I feel like I've been saying this for three years. I would say the difference now between the last two years is that these teams are deeper. These teams have more talent. I would really have to go look at either Jay Fresh or Dom or somewhere else to find this out.

Starting point is 00:09:13 I would be willing to bet if you dove into the micro stats of this, the quality of chances are much better than they have been in the past couple of years. because in the past couple of years, I feel like there was a lot of shoot and hope rather than get to a scoring area and shoot. This year, it feels like the chances are there. They're just not falling. And I think this has been kind of the good thing, despite us struggling to find content with this long break. It's given me more time to think about this team so far in its start. And while it's not great, while I'm still very concerned about Jari, while I definitely believe the power play has to get better and so does the fourth line. It hasn't been like this team has been garbage.

Starting point is 00:09:58 This team has just been, for the most part, unlucky. And I think with a couple of tweaks here and there, if Jari can find a little bit of consistency, and these are all big ifs, this team's going to be okay. Pat has the quote unquote hopium going right now for everyone that's listening to the show. I mean, I do hope that this all turns around. get me wrong. It's great that they have, you know, 15 expected goals per 60 on the power play this year, top five in the league, expected goals. They are always, I feel like, in the top five

Starting point is 00:10:32 and expectable one on five under Mike Sullivan. It's just these past few years, it's not translating over to their actual goals per 60 minutes at five on five, just because this team can't finish. Now, there's some, a bunch of different factors you have sometimes the penguins go up against Godin net, which feels like it happens more often than not with this team. You have guys who have years where they can't finish their chances at all, like Brian Rust last year, he had an awful year of finishing lies. And then, you know, you just have to hope that this can regress to the mean again. I feel like I've been saying this for three years.

Starting point is 00:11:09 It's kind of tiring already. I hope it gets better. I'm just, I'm a little skeptical, I think, right now. I guess I'm someone who I'll believe it when I see it. You got a huff on that copium, baby. Yes. So that will do it for this segment. When we come back, something we talked about yesterday,

Starting point is 00:11:28 the penguins leading the charge for bringing neck protection into the national hockey league took another step today. We will talk about that right after this. But first, we have to tell you about Sleeper. A new NHL season brings all sorts of possibilities. We just talked about them. Maybe Brian Rust could score 50 goals. Maybe the penguins could hoist the Stanley Cup and maybe you could win big by playing daily fantasy hockey on Sleeper. the official daily fantasy app of the locked on NHL network.

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Starting point is 00:13:12 See Sleeper's Terms of Use for Details and Locational Availability. We're back here on another edition of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Patrick Damp, joined as always by the one and only Hunter Potees. We thank you for making this your first listen or watch up the day. And as I said before we went to break there, we talked about it this week already. The penguins are one of a handful of teams who are starting to lead the charge in making a change in the National Hockey League and mandating neck protection. However, the penguins are mandating it with their AHL and ECHL clubs, the Wilkesbury Scranton Penguins,

Starting point is 00:13:52 and my former employee, the Wheeling Naylars, respectively. Today, though, was a big step because a handful of players in practice this morning, like Eric Carlson, Lars Eller, Marcus Pedersen, all were seen wearing some sort of neck protection, whether it was a neck guard, a turtle neck or something of the like. And I got to be honest, seeing their reaction and seeing them wearing it was very encouraging because I expected this to be a typical dinosaur hockey moment where for a day or two guys like, oh, it's such a tragedy and, you know, we got to change something. And, you know, we got to do something about this.

Starting point is 00:14:34 And then in 72 hours, we forget about it. But a handful of these guys wore these neck guards in practice. And some of them said, hey, it was a little bit uncomfortable, but it's something I could get used to. hey, you know, maybe they're going to work on it and make it a little bit different, a little more accessible for when we play with this, but it's a good first step. I agree. And just to reference that full quote, Eric Carlson was asked about and he said, yeah, I'm just trying it out. It's available for us. And I don't think it's a bad thing. I'm just going to try it out and see if I can get used to it and I'll go from there.

Starting point is 00:15:06 And honestly, that's totally fine. If he doesn't like it and it's not comfortable for him, he just won't wear it. And I think the same can be said for other players on the Penguins, other players around the league. But they're giving. at a try, which is I think all we can ask for right now, in my opinion, Pat, they're trying to see if this can work and if it's comfortable, hey, they'll keep wearing it and maybe they'll influence other players to also give it at least a try. Obviously, you're not going to, I don't think they're going to be forcing neck guards down every player's throats right now. But I think as long as players maybe start trying it out a little bit, see if they like it. I think this can

Starting point is 00:15:43 only be good things for the rest of the teams and just the league as a whole. Absolutely. The other thing on this is, one, it hasn't even been a week since Adam Johnson's death. So not even the National Hockey League could get neck guards and neck protection ready to go in every locker room for every team at every level in just a handful of days. Not to mention this is what we talked about yesterday. I feel like this is a moment where we're going to see these treated like advisors, where now that, teams like the penguins and the Bruins and the hurricanes and the capitals have begun telling their minor league systems you have to wear neck protection. It's going to get grandfathered in like visors did to where if you're in the NHL right now at this very moment, it's not going to be required

Starting point is 00:16:35 for you. But if you're drafted this summer, if you come up to the NHL next year to make your NHL debut, it's going to be required. And that's how it should be. Listen, I can't remember who it was that said it might have actually been it was either tj oshi or somebody in the uh capitals organization basically said in the in the first article in the athletic basically said it's better to be it's better to look stupid and be alive and look cool and die so as much as it may look silly wearing a neck card and trust me when you're wearing that big of a shoulder that big a shoulder pads your neck is very easy to be seen so is the same thing with the helmet when you're only wearing a visor or in some players' cases no visor at all. Yeah, it's going to look a little silly.

Starting point is 00:17:21 But at the same time, I said it on the pod the other day. You can fix a broken bone. You can work on a pulled muscle. You can replace a broken tooth. You only get two eyes. You only get one brain. And if you get an artery cut, say good night. Because unfortunately, as we saw with Adam Johnson, that there's not a whole lot of coming back from that. Absolutely. No, I agree with you 100%. At the very least, again, it's good that some players are at least taking this matter into their own hands, giving this a shot. In terms of whether this will get past the NHL Players Association, right now, I mean, it's probably at least a little bit of a long shot because not all the players are obviously trying it out. But if a few Penguin players like it, excuse me, they text to other players that they know another team saying like, hey, you should give this a try. That leads to that. Then maybe that leads to more players trying it. Maybe the people. would consider making it a mandate, but I don't think you're going to see, I guess, a mandate on this, Pat, probably at least for, I don't know,

Starting point is 00:18:22 a season or two, maybe three seasons, something like that. But I'm just glad that they're at least giving this a go in seeing if this is, you know, comfortable during games. I'm sure Eric Carlson is probably going to wear this during the game against his former team on Saturday. And a few other players are going to wear it in that game.

Starting point is 00:18:40 And I'm sure they'll be asked about after him. We'll have to see what they say. It's going to take, a handful of players to start. It's going to take guys stepping up and doing it for this to become a thing. And then it's also going to take the NHLPA's leadership to actually be leadership for once. And that includes the big young guns like Austin Matthews, like Connor McDavid, Jack Eichol, the Hughes, the Hughes brothers, the Cichuk brothers. So if these guys step up, I think a lot of the league will fall in line.

Starting point is 00:19:12 And I really think that will be a huge step for the league because realistically at this point, again, like the guy in the caps organization said, it's better to look stupid and live than look cool and die. So I think that's going to do it for this segment. When we come back, the penguins have made a little bit of a roster move that may impact the future of this roster. Hunter and I are going to talk about that when we come back. But first, we have to tell you about Indeed. When you're drafting your fantasy team, do you ever wish you could do the same thing with your business team? If you're building a roster to win the league, you need Indeed. Indeed is the hiring platform where you can attract interview and hire all in one place,

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Starting point is 00:21:47 Okay, we're back here on the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes. You know us. You love us. And one person you may have to get to know here relatively soon in the Pittsburgh Penguins organization is one defenseman, Mark Pissick. We talked about him quite a lot in the lead up the preseason and in training camp. And then all of a sudden, he got that typical welcome to Pittsburgh that a lot of guys get. Injury bug just dug and bit right into him. So it was announced today that Wilkes Bear has signed him to a PTO. It looks like they're going to put him right in because they said right in the release

Starting point is 00:22:27 that their next game is Friday night against Hershey. So thoughts on her? I mean, he's ready to go. They're not ready to let him go just yet. They want to see what they have in this player. And Pat, if he plays well in Wilkesbury for at least a decent sample here, maybe four to five games, maybe upwards of 10 games and looks good. And maybe someone on the bottom pair continues to struggle like a Chabrewoodle.

Starting point is 00:22:52 Would you be surprised if Mark Pissick gets called up to the Penguins? I wouldn't. It looked like he was the favorite to win that job over Traver Wiedel when training camp started. And then he got that unfortunate injury, which made him out a bit longer term or week-to-week, whatever Mike Sullivan said. I think he said both of them, actually. But they weren't ready to give up on him just yet. They want to see what they have in this player

Starting point is 00:23:13 because he's been pretty serviceable throughout his NHL career. He has very decent underlines, especially defensively. Offensively, he's fine, but he's more known for his play on the defensive side of the ice. And again, if he can play well, I think he can get a call up if this bottom pair continues to have more questions and answers because right now, I still see some questions on that bottom pair.

Starting point is 00:23:36 I mean, Ryan Shea has improved a little bit since he's come in the lineup. Chow Riedel, I think has been okay this year. If that bottom pairing continues to be just okay, I think Pissick would definitely be worthy of a call if he play as well in Wulkesbury. Right. I can't say I've been overly impressed with P.O. Joseph's play as well. I expected a lot more out of him. I really expected him to take charge as the number five defensemen in the organization.

Starting point is 00:24:08 And he just kind of didn't. I do think that Mike Sullivan, as well as I guess Kyle Dubus a little bit as well, gave him a little too short of a leash. I do think he was more of a guy that you keep in the lineup for a little bit and let him figure out. And if he doesn't, then you yank him out. I think they were a little too quick with the stage hook to get him off the lineup. But again, I don't know what he's looked like in practice and away from the rink. So there could be a whole other thing there.

Starting point is 00:24:38 I don't mean to imply anything. I'm just saying from his gameplay, I don't think he was catastrophic, but he was definitely not what we wanted or hoped him to be. I also think this is just a really good depth move because, again, it's a PTO with Wokes Bear. It was a PTO with the Penguins to start. And guys like that rarely ever get big contracts. after the fact. So this is just another good depth option to have. And like you said,

Starting point is 00:25:07 there's a good track record of this guy being reliable in his NHL career. So now you just have yet another dependable bottom pairing defenseman. And lastly, this is what I talked about in the lead up to the regular season with that spot when Mark Friedman was still here. Now you just have a platoon. And that's perfectly fine for your bottom pairing because these aren't guys. you're expecting to beat 25, 30 minute contributors a night. You're going to need 10, 12, 13, 14, maybe 15 minutes out of them. So they don't have to have that every single day consistency. You can run a couple of them together for a handful of games, swap them out for the other two for a handful of games. So, and again, I think his ceiling is actually a lot higher than people

Starting point is 00:25:53 are giving him credit for. I would agree with that. And also, if he does get signed to just a regular two-way contract with Will Experts. and the penguins and, God forbid, injuries arise. There, he's also a call-up option in that regard as well. I would personally like to see if Shea struggles a little bit and if Ru-Rweedle struggles a little bit. I would like to see a bottom pairing of P.O. Joseph and Mark Pissick, I think that could actually work, in my opinion, with how P.O. is, he can bring a little bit of offense to that pairing, while Pissick can bring the defensive value to that pairing.

Starting point is 00:26:27 I was intrigued about that possibility during camp and the preseason, and I still am. especially if Pissick ends up working out with Wilkesbury plays well and that sample gets off the PTO, signs a regular contract. I would be very intrigued to see that pairing because I think that could provide some decent value as a bottom pair. I'm right there with you. I was all in with you during the preseason before he got hurt in thinking that if you had a P.O. Joseph Mark Pissick third pairing, you actually had a pretty stout six defensemen

Starting point is 00:26:58 going into the regular season. but injuries and whatever else just completely derailed that. So I think that's going to do it for this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. We will be back tomorrow to set you up for Saturday night's late night affair on the West Coast with Eric Carlson's former team, the San Jose Sharks. We'll be back to preview that and talk about the rest of the news of the day. Thank you so much for listening. We will talk to you on Friday.

Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins head west with a new lineup!

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