Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins penalty kill struggles continue in loss to Anaheim

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

The Penguins played pretty well on their first stop in California, except for the penalty kill. Hunter and Patrick begin the show discussing the Penguins’ penalty kill troubles continued, even if the late penalty call on Wotherspoon wasn’t a popular one. Then, they discuss how some of the Penguins’ newcomers have been providing good early returns, as well as the plan for two of the young prospects. Finally, it’s Wednesday and that means it’s Warrior Helmet Wednesday! They give out their MVP of the week and it’s probably someone you would expect!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHLfor $20 off your first purchase. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelDownload the FanDuel app now by visiting FanDuel.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins.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.

The Penguins and the Ducks played a very entertaining game on Tuesday night, and Pat and I are going to break it all down for you guys right after this. You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. 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 by my host, Patrick Dib. We can follow him on all social media platforms at Sender Verwet.

You can follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscored penguins. And you can follow the show's Instagram at Lockdown underscore Penguins, of course. Thank you all 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 by Fandle, down the Fandle app right now, by visiting Fandul.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. Pat, ducks four, penguins three in a wild, entertaining affair late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

If you stayed up for this game that went past 1 a.m. Eastern time into today on Wednesday, you very much got your money's worth. Pat was sadly sounding asleep for most of this game because he had to get up at 4 a.m. Me, because I'm a night owl. I loved every single bit of it. Absolute firewagon hockey for the first 40 minutes. All gas, no brakes. just outstanding stuff.

I want all the games to act like that. I know it gave me a little bit of a heart attack watching the penguins trying to defend against the duck speed in the first two periods before they really settled down in the third. But it was still so much fun to watch. And Pat, Justin Brzo, he stays hot. He gets another goal off of a deflection, put him right in from the net.

Good things are going to happen. Ricardo Raquel also gets a goal to put the penguins up to nothing. By the way, shout out to Ryan. and Shea, I called him out heading into this game. He responded with a really nice performance. He struggled in the first few games, but he was much better in this one. So I will give kudos to Shay for a good effort here.

And then the ducks come storming back, three straight goals. The Penguins are able to tie it off the Anthony Manthel goal. We'll get to that offside stuff a bit later on in the show. And then, Pat, of course, Penguins killer, Chris Kreider, ends the game with less than a minute and a half to go in regulation, off of a really stupid penalty from defense and Parker Weatherstone, who I think was having a really strong game.

He's at a really nice start to the season. He made a bone-handed play. It happens. And that brings us to the discussion about the delay of game. Pat, I have said on this show multiple times that I do not like that penalty call. I just have never been able to stand it. However, I'm not going to complain about this one because this was a bone-headed play. Like, you have all the time in the world.

You can circle around, send it along the ice. The only play you can't make there is the one that Weatherspoon made. So as much as I don't like that call, the penalty in general, I should say, you have no argument there. Like that's a really stupid play. Right. Instead of going on a long screed about the penalty in its existence, because I've often said on this show that that penalty needs a refresh.

and first offense, you treat it like an icing call. Defensive zone draw, can't change lines. And if it happens a second time, then it becomes a minor penalty. But at the same time, you look at that play from Wetherspoon. And he's not under any heavy pressure. The ducks just sent token pressure. And he can do a myriad of things in that moment. He can just bank it off the boards.

He can ice it. He can take it back into his own end and wait for reinforcements. but he airmails it over the glass and it's about as clear cut as that gets. And yeah, was he intentionally trying to throw it over the glass? No, but at the end of the day, he made no mistake about it. And I will give him credit. Even though we do a daily show talking about the team and we need all the content we can get, players don't owe us explanations for anything.

All they owe us is to show up and play. That's it. but good on him for facing reporters, taking accountability for it in saying it was a dumb play. It would have been very easy for him to just hide away to just, you know, pretend like nothing happened and get ready for the LA Kings game tomorrow. But he did the opposite of that, so he deserves the props for it. The thing I want to touch on, though, from this game, two things. The first one real quick, we've had this discussion a million times. I'll just say it again.

Last night's the kind of game we're looking for out of the Pittsburgh Penguins. We know the expectations are low. We know they're probably not a playoff team. But if they play hard, they play well. And if they come out on the losing end, that's going to happen. Yes, the ducks are a young, unproven talented team, but they still have talent. And you're going to run into games like this this year,

where you play a team like that and you don't win. So good on them for playing a pretty darn good game, all things considered, they just came out on the losing game. However, part of the game that wasn't good because I've seen this crop up over the last 12-ish hours. Yes, the penalties were lopsided. Yes, the officiating was not good in this game. It was especially bad. I will say that, Pat, six power plays for the ducks, one for the penguins,

and the only one they got was because of the ducks failed offside challenge. There were multiple calls that went uncalled in this one. And I will say, there was a blatant hook on. I wish I wrote the player's name down. I should have. There was a blatant hook on a penguin player a bit later in the game that went uncalled. I just did not care for the officiating in this game. And I will say this.

There were missed calls. Again, you said it at the top. I was in bed. So I've watched condensed games. I've watched replays. I've read recaps. If I had to handicap it, I probably watched in total 30, 35 minutes of the game.

Obviously, I didn't watch from puck drop to final buzzer. So I don't have a full feel for it. But watching it and reading about it, there wasn't anything. There were a couple, yes, that they missed. And that's going to happen. That's human error. That's what happens. It's baked in.

We know that NHL officiating is not great. But this is all to say. The Penguins penalty kill for the last two games has been atrocious. I don't care that the officiating is bad. You've got to kill the penalties, especially in the high leverage moments. You give up a power. play goal in the first period or even the second period. Hey, it's the NHL.

These are the best hockey players on Earth. Sometimes the other team makes a good play. But last night of the two power play goals they gave up, both to Chris Kreider, they were not good on the PK. And the Ducks could have had more than two power play goals last night. The Penguins PK has been really bad the last two games. It's been atrocious. A, there's been absolutely no resistance on the penalty kill.

B, they're not nearly aggressive enough. They're playing way too passive, like what we saw last year and the year before. What we saw in the first two games where there was a penalty killer at the top, pressuring the puck carrier, and the other three were taking away all the high danger areas. You're not seeing that right now. And then C, Pat, they're just allowing these opposing players to set up in prime scoring areas. That second Crider goal, for an example. They just allowed him to set up there.

That's 10, 15 feet out from the net. As much as people probably want to blame Tristan Jari, there's not much he can do there in that situation. Like, yeah, you'd love it if he was able to bail out the penalty killers. But I don't know if there's a lot of goalies in the league that's making that safe. I know that I've been mostly fine. The third goal you maybe could have, he probably could have had. But I'm not blaming that one on him. The penalty kill has to be so much better right now.

Again, I've said it a million times on the show. And I know people are tired of hearing it because Jari is the enemy de jure of the last two years, and deservedly so, but there have been several instances over the last two years where there's not a whole lot he could do. I get that he is a below average goalie and we're all pretty much done with him, but we at least got to be rational here. Like, of all the reasons the penguins lost last night, Tristan Jari's not on page one. He's on page two at the very least. And you said it. There were multiple moments on those power plays for the ducks where, especially the goals, what do you want them to do? Like, your, your penalty killers in front of you are giving you no resistance. And I know that I'm reticent to criticize coaches on here because I'm of the mindset that coaches can't play. Granted, there's a whole other discussion about that, but not the tire of place for it. Penalty killing at the end of the day is effort. Like, you can have the best X's and O's in the world, but if you don't have effort, I don't care how good your sister. I don't care how good your sister.

is you said it. The effort on these PKs of the last two games have not been good. No. There's no pressure. There's no aggressiveness. And I'm not telling them to be reckless. I'm not telling, and I sound like a melting down here. It's game four. But anyway, at the end of the day, on the PK, you have to have to work hard and you have to be a little bit aggressive. You have to put the other team under duress. And you look at the PK, the last two games, they're not doing that. They're just kind of conceding the ground. And this is what happens when you concede the ground on the PK in the NHL. And Chris Kreider is going to bury that chance.

Basically every time Kreider came into last night, 18 goals against the Penguins. Pat, he now has 20 goals against the Penguins for his career in the regular season. Since coming into the NHL, he became a full-time NHL or during the 2013-14 season. He made his NHL debut, though, during the 2012-13 season. only two players other than Kreider have more goals against the penguins. Can you name those two? All right. I'll take my free space in Alex Ovechkin.

Yes. Going to be the guy who has the most. 21. The other one. You know what? I'm going to hedge on this one. I'm going to say it's someone who either is on or was on the New York Islanders. Correct.

Yes. that would be Brock Nelson, who also has 21 goals, another penguin killer. Anders Lee at 20. So Crider and Andersley tied right now over that time. Brock Nelson, Alex Ovechkin at 21 over that time. Obviously, you know, going way back, Alex Ovechkin, has a ton more goals against the Penguins. But at least Pat, since 2013, 14, when Kreider became a full-time NHLer, only two players league-wide have more goals than Criter.

just a pure penguin killer. If you listen to Tuesday's show, I said it. If you're a betting person, any time goal score on Chris Kreider, he has four goals to open the season for the Ducks. But that will do it for the first segment. Coming up in the second segment, we're going to talk more about Justin Brazo,

Anthony Manta getting his first goal, and a whole lot more. So stick around. That's coming up right after this. Before we get to that, though, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor, and that is Monarch Money. Most people can't name all their financial account,

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That's 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with the code locked on NHL. All right. We're back here on this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host Hunter Hodes joined by my co's Patchdamp and Pat. I do want to start this segment off with some of the new guys that came in last night. We saw Matt Dumbah make his season debut. we also saw Connor Clifton make his season debut, Harrison Brunick, comes out of the lineup because Damuz and Kyle Dubas have a set plan for him. And I'm totally good with that, by the way.

Just based on the wording in their statement, I kind of get the vibe that he is going to stick beyond the nine-game trial. And he will play maybe what you talk about at 45, 50-ish games this season. They kind of have him on a pitch count so that they don't want to just, you know, drive him. to the ground and just make him gas for absolutely no reason. So Matt Dumbah, Connor Clifton, come in. Dumba, I don't really think he played very well, to be honest. He was out of position in his own zone quite a bit. He didn't drive offense, but that's not really what he's going to do at the stage of his career.

I just didn't really like his all-round game. Connor Clifton, he at least brought some physicality. That is a plus. I like that aspect. Otherwise, didn't really do too much else either. This defensive core is what it is, people. You got Eric Carlson who will run the offense from the point and who I feel like could be a bit better.

I don't think he played his best game last night by any stretch. You have Chris Lettang, who did not play well last night. His play directly led to the Cutter Goetje goal. Did not like his effort in his own zone for that one. Ryan Jay is who he is. Caleb Jones is who he is. And Dunba and Clifton at this stage is in their career are who they are as well. Parker Weatherstone has been fairly solid.

And then Harrison Brunich, you know, I think he continues to get better with each game. But again, the point is there's just not enough dudes here with this defensive group. And it is what it is. But Pat, your thoughts on Dumbah Clifton in the Brunick situation. I'm going to start with Latang, actually. And I know that Dan Mews is new. I know that Dan Mews is young. He's got to put his flag down with Latang.

And I know it's really hard to tell a veteran in few. your Hall of Famer to sit out, but I don't think he's 100%. Like I know he left the Rangers game and we all kind of looked at him when it didn't look that bad, but you look at the way he played against the ducks and he's hurt. Like he's got to be hurt because as much as we said Latang had a down year last year, there were still flashes. There were still times where you saw Chris Latang being Chris Latang. And to start the year this year, same deal.

He looked good through the first two and a half games before he got hurt. And if you're Mews, you got to go, look, man, it's a long season. Like, we're in California. Rest up. Like, let some of these other guys play, get back to 100%. And yeah, sure, they're not trying to make the playoffs. It's not like you need them to do that. So let them be 100% so you can use them in the best, most optimal way possible.

And again, I know that's difficult to say to an Uber competitive future Hall of Famer, but at the end of the day, he didn't provide much. you could tell he wasn't 100%. For Harrison Brunich, yeah, I mean, I'm not going to take my victory lap yet because we got to get past the nine games. But that does kind of indicate to me that they have a plan of we're going to keep you here. You're not going to play all 82, but you're going to train, you're going to skate, you're going to learn, you're going to develop. But it's not going to be your first year of playing 82 games or close to it, which is smart. He's got a history of injuries.

He's still very young. You don't want to burn him out. Clifton, I mean, I'll take the physicality. I'll take that all day. The Penguins have needed that for a while. In Dumbah, I mean, not his best first showing. And I thought he was good in the preseason. I thought he kind of looked like he started to figure some things out.

But again, it's one game. Can he rebound from it? We'll see. But at the end of the day, this defense is what this defense is. Yep. I don't think you could have said it better than that. This is what you're going to get from the Penguins defense, I feel like, on most nights this season. Outside of that, Justin Brazo, Pat, he stayed hot.

Once again gets his fourth goal of the season for the Penguins and just parked his big ass right in front of the net, gets a nice deflection. Stay tuned for Warrior Helmet Wednesday, by the way. That was really nice. Anthony Mantha gets his first goal as a penguin off of a, I guess, a mini-controversial call with the off-sides. and I guess that's what we'll transition to next. I have started to get sick of offside review challenges because I feel like we're at the point now where we're just trying to get rid of plays

that are a 10th of a millimeter offside and I don't feel like that's the main reason why we put this rule into effect. I feel like this rule should be an effect to get rid of plays like we saw in 2012 with Danny Breyer, like where he was an absolute mile offside, that one's obvious. Other plays where a player is easily offside,

yeah, those are obvious. But when it's that close, based on the replays that I saw watching this on SportsNet, Pittsburgh, what are we doing? I'm glad that goal stood just because I don't think there was any indisputable evidence. I'm just kind of getting sick of these little 10 to a millimeter calls where you're just trying to take away offense for the sake of it. It just, it pisses me off. Here's my proposal. It's 2025.

Look to the NFL and what they are doing now with replay assist, where, you have a crew either in house or in Toronto or in New York, wherever, that is watching the game. And not even, I shouldn't even say replay assist. I should say look at what the NFL does with scoring plays. Every scoring play is reviewed. It doesn't mean that the ref is over in the little tent looking into the little monitor. it's the people in-house are watching the play, and if they see something, they radio down to the official and say, good touchdown or, hey, you got to call it back with replay assist. You can do that in the NHL.

Just have the video official in the building radio down and say, hey, that was off sides. And they can come out and say replay assist shows the goal was off sides. We don't have to do five, 10 minutes of review. And coach has to challenge. and then there has to be a counter challenge. Just have the replay assist there. If we're going to use technology to fill in the gaps for human error,

let's just do it. Okay. We don't need to do this challenge stuff. Right. And it also took the ducks well over a minute or two to even challenge us. And I'm like, you should have a timer. Like if it goes beyond 30 seconds, you don't get to challenge it. And that's my other,

that's my other proposal is there needs to be a time limit. on challenges. If you can't figure it out within two minutes, you're not going to figure it out. So if the challenge goes longer than two minutes, calling the ice stands, we're moving on. Hell,

and even for the opposing teams' decision to challenge it, excuse me, if you can't challenge it within 30 seconds, you're not allowed to challenge it. That's what I would do, at least. But hey, that's just my opinion on that.

Otherwise, did you have anything else to add about this game? Um, I don't want to keep harping on this because I know that you're, fans of them, but I got to see more from Novak and Tomasino. I don't think that they're playing poorly, but I don't think they're doing enough. Like for what we want and need them to be for the future of the penguins, they have got to start stacking some more consistent in good performances.

And while I don't think they were bad last night, I didn't really notice them. And I don't need them to be top six dominant talents, but I need you to have a handful of shifts, a handful of moments, whatever they are, where I go, okay, like, keep doing that and the points are going to come. The goals are going to come. The process is there. Right now with the two of them, I don't want to label them cardio merchants yet because they're not, but they're walking dangerously close to that line. I agree with you, especially on Tomasino last night.

I thought he was fine in his first game. Last night, he was mostly invisible. That's not good enough after he was scratched for two games. He needs to be more consistent. He had one really nice chance coming on an on-man rush pat, fires it 50 feet over the net. Can't do that there. Hit the net, man.

So I don't know if he's going to come out this next game against the Kings. I got to see a lot more. And I will agree about Novak. Yes, I am higher on him than most this season. But he has not been up to par yet. So I agree with you on. both of those. And before we get to the final segment, Pat for Warrior Helmet Wednesday, I want to send my best wishes to Penguins play-by-play announcer Josh Getsoff.

Will he hope everything is okay? He was announcing the game for the first two periods on Tuesday night, until he passed out, was walking around during intermission, was taken away on a wheelchair, was taken to the hospital. Phil Bork was able to say on the radio broadcast that Gets Off is okay, and he will continue on the trip. So great news there. Pat, really scary situation. Just want to make sure that everything is okay with the Penguins play-by-play announcer. For sure. Great guy.

Great broadcaster does a really good job. And just nothing but are positive vibes to him. I'm glad to hear he's doing better. If you're not ready to go Thursday, man, you don't need to tough it out. You got a good team around you that can fill in. Get back when you're well, man. 100%. And also stick taps to radio play-by-play announcer Joe Branden for,

for filling in for the third period. No, Pat, that is not my twin. I know the look that you're giving me right now. I'm sorry about that. But stick taps to Joe for filling in for the third period, thought he did a great job. And again, our best wish is to go out, do go out, excuse me, to Josh after that really scary situation on Tuesday.

But that'll do it for this second segment. Coming up to end the show, it's Wednesday. Yins know what that means. It's time for Pat and I to give out our warrior helmet for this last week, and that's coming up right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our final sponsor, and that is Fandall. The NFL season is here, and Fandall has an offer you don't want to miss right now. New customers can bet just $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win.

That's right, pick a bet, put down $5, and if it hits, you will unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. I love how Fandle gives me so many ways to play. I have built parlayes, try player props, and even follow the live lines during games. It makes watching football even more exciting when you've got a little something riding on the action. Whether you're a casual fan or love diving into the stats, Fandall makes the game day experience so much better. So what are you waiting for? Visit Fanduil.com to download the Fandle out today and get started. Back here on the Wednesday edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast,

I have wrestled the host chair away from Hunter for our favorite segment of the week, at least it's mine. I don't want to speak for Hunter because I already wrestled the chair away from them. So here we go. It is Wednesday. You know what that means. It is time for us to give out our MVP of the week as part of Warrior Helmet Wednesday. If you are new here, because it's a new season and we got plenty of new people on the ride with us here on Locked on Penguins. We're paying homage to the 2016 Pittsburgh Penguins during that season when they took their ride to the Stanley Cup.

in the locker room the players we give out their player of the game with a warrior helmet so we're doing that and for the first time this season hunter it is a unanimous vote for the warrior helmet of the week and it is going to newcomer and forward just in briszo if you're watching us on youtube you can see that we got the graphic up there big week for justin briszo four games four goals and a plus one. And Hunter, I want to start with this part about it. I'm going to dive back a little bit. And I know that I said in the off season, this was a sneaky good signing for the penguins because Brazo has shown an ability to score. But I want to go even further back than that. This kid has been able to score everywhere he goes. And I felt like it was just a matter of time

before he got it to click at the NHL level. If you go back and look at his junior stats, even as an overager in the OHL, his final year of 1819, in 68 games, 113 points, 61 of those points were goals. And then you put him in the AHL in 21, 22,

with the Providence Bruins, 51 games, 16 points, 15 goals. Next year, 22, 23, 67 games, 16 goals, 23, 24, 49 games, 18 goals. He has been able to score wherever he goes. And so far in the NHL, he's, at least with the Penguins, I should say, he's showing chemistry with Evgeny Malkin. And what do you know? Four games, four goals.

he's had some soft hands on some of these goals as well some really nice deeks around the net this one against the ducks not like a deke but just a really nice deflection off of a point shot for ryan shay again parks is big ass right in front of the net he's been a really nice net front presence to open this season man pat he's got some moves as well he's been a really nice fit alongside leviny malkin and anthony mantha on the second line hell now i'm curiously see if this stays the same, you know, when Rucker McGorkemardy comes back, Kevin Hayes comes back, et cetera. So, you know, this could be a thing we see for even more of the season than I originally thought. Like, I just felt like at the start that this was going to be a placeholder.

I didn't see this coming four goals and four games. Pat, this man's on an 82 goal pace for the entire season here. But I mean, it, you brought it up. He is a big man. He's 6-6-232, according to the NHL website. But he doesn't play like a big lumbering goof. He's got a little bit of foot speed. I wouldn't call him fast because he's not. But he's quicker than you would expect for a guy that size. And he's got hands.

And he's got hockey IQ. I say this all the time on the show. Being able to play with elite talent is a skill in and of itself. And obviously it's four games. This could all go 180 in, two weeks and we're wondering where Justin Brazow went. But early returns, he's got chemistry with Gennie Malkin. And we've seen throughout the years, just like Sidney Crosby, there is a graveyard

of wingers who have not been able to figure it out when playing with the penguins big guns. And early on, it looks like he's found himself some really good chemistry alongside Manta and Malkins. So let's take a look at the tracker for this year, something we are bringing in. to the show this, this season. We're keeping an eye on how many warrior helmets we are giving out this season. And right now, Justin Broseau leads the clubhouse with two warrior helmet nominations behind him, president of hockey operations, Kyle Dubus, rookie Benjamin Kindle,

rookie goaltender, Sergey Murashov, and head coach Dan Mews. We're going to keep an eye on it all season long. So when we get to the end of the season, we can give our war. your helmet for the whole year. But Hunter, unless you've got anything else to add, I think that is going to do it for the Wednesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Hunter and I will be back on Thursday to get you ready for some even more late-night hockey when the Penguins play the Los Angeles Kings.

But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you as always for tuning in, and we will be back on Thursday.