Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins play great, but Juuse Saros was NUTS

Episode Date: March 16, 2022

The Pittsburgh Penguins played OUTSTANDING on Tuesday, but in truth, they got goalie'd. Hunter starts the show out by looking at the underlying numbers from tonight and how certain lines did. He also goes over the full team stats and looks at how this is a complete outlier from how teams usually win in these situations. After that, he praises Saros as he's having a tremendous year in Nashville and how that team reminds him of the Rangers in a little twisted way. He also breaks down Nashville's goals and what led to them being scores, especially the first one. Was it the doomed face off? Was it Dominik Simon that lost his man on the left side of the ice? He also didn't like how Casey DeSmith played the third goal, which basically put the game out of reach. He also goes in on the power play and the issues that the unit is facing and then wraps up the show by debunking some Ben Chiarot rumors.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Athletic GreensAthletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORK. 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.

Hey everyone, Hunter Hodes here with the Locked-on Penguins podcast. A much later recording than I would have like, I had to just get my notes together. And everything, the Penguins, they fall tonight, their winning streak ends. They lose 4 to 1 to the Nashville Predators, a game that, you know, honestly, the Penguins, I thought they played pretty well.

But, you know, we're going to get all into this recap coming up right after this drop. There's obviously a whole bunch of news to get to when it comes to the Penguins. So stick around for that right after. this. 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 to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show. Twitter, hello. Arscoop Penguins, of course. Thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day.

Today's episode is brought to you by Rock Auto. Amazing Selection, Rive, Low Prices, All the Parts of You. car ever need. Visit rockout.com and tell them locked on sent you. As you can see here, for those that watched on YouTube, I actually took the liberty and cleaned up this, my, you know, my recording space. I got tired of honestly, it looked just looking like complete shit. So, you know, maybe outside of the co over there, my work laptop and maybe my dog's toy, I like to say it's pretty good. But, the penguins, they fall tonight, four to one to Nashville. And honestly, I'll say this right out of the gate. I have no problem with how the penguins play tonight.

none really whatsoever. They outskated the predators to death. You know, Nashville just kind of reminds me of the Rangers. In essence, just this, you know, they get carried by their Vesna trophy goaltender. And it's not going to be long until UC Soros wins the Vezna trophy. Look at it tonight. So natural stratrate at 5V.5, the penguins had 62% of the shot attempts. In the third period alone, the penguins had 81% of the shot attempts.

shot attempts. Going to scoring chances, the penguins overall at 5B5, 67% of the scoring chances for in the third period, 90% of the scoring chance at 5B5. Go to high danger. Overall, the penguins led 9 to 2 at high danger had 81% of those chances. They only, the predators only had two high danger chances that entire game, and they still won 4 to 1. P penguins had four high getting your changes in the third period. None for Nashville. Now, going to the expected goals for. Penguins had 73% of the expected goals in this game at 5B5, an actual 1, 2.4 expected goals for,

0.88 for Nashville, and the Penguins were outscored 3 to 1 at even strength. What can you do? I mean, I'm serious. I mean, you honestly just have to tip your cap. you know, to UC Soros for carrying a bunch of corpses around. And that's exactly what he did in this game tonight. He was by far the best player on the icy. He makes it look so easy.

He's not a big goaltender. Hell, he's barely even my height, and I'm six foot one, for God's sake. You know, he looks like he's 5'9, 510 out there. But, you know, his lateral movement is so good. He looks always so poised. And that the only goal that he gave up was just a beautiful, Jake Gensel goal that he was just so, I guess, deceptive. You know, it looked like it could have gone in any number of places.

And Jake was able to creep down to that spot, you know, near the circle that, you know, a lot of Metro teams have kind of, that's the word I'm looking for. You know, they've kind of like, they know that he's done that so many times. So they take that away. But, you know, not a team like Nashville, who obviously doesn't see the Pittsburgh that much. But, you know, Jake was able to have that really nice tying goal, at least for a bit. in that second period. But overall, I mean, this was a total dominating effort by the Penguins.

Now we go to MoneyPuck. Look at the deserved a wind meter. I always love looking at this thing. And usually it's pretty accurate. So out of 500 game simulations, the Penguins win this one 82% of the time. I'm just giving you what I have on my screens right here and all the notes I have with the stats and everything.

at the end of the day, Penguins played well. I'll get into their miscues in just a second, but they easily should have had probably four to five roles in this game. They had so many great chances. You know, sometimes you run into a goalie that is just really good. And, you know, I know I use that a lot sometimes. Trust me, I get it. It's definitely overused by other people.

But in this one, it is very, and I mean very easy to say that they got goal. Because it was 100% true. There is a reason why he is number two in the league right now in goal state above expected behind Negorses-Serk. And he is going to be a Vezan Trophy finalist. In my opinion, he deserves it. Nashville has honestly not even been playing that well lately,

but he's been the biggest reason why, you know, the predators have been staying in a playoff spot. So just a really great performance from Soros. It was really unfortunate that the Penguins they weren't able to cash on their chances. And, you know, Mike Sullivan decided to put Brian Ross, actually, back on the Evgeny Malcolon. He wanted to switch the lines up a little bit.

So Ever Rodriguez was at right-wing on the Sid line. And, you know, that top line with Jake and Sid did not miss a beat with Evera-Od-Rigga's there. No really goal differential. It was a watch because they were on the ice for one goal, four, one goal against. But they are on the ice for 15 shot attempts for six-shot attempts against. 86% of the expected goal share. That comes courtesy of natural statuary going to more. Not this one.

Oh, yeah. Penguins forward lines here. You know, all the wines were actually pretty freaking good. The Hein and Malk and Rustin, even 70% of the shot attempts. They were also on the ice for, if I can find this here. 71% of the scoring chances forward. The Gensselan was on the ice first. 86% of the scoring chances.

heck, the fourth line of Zohorna, Carter, and Caputon actually had, you know, 54% of the shot attempts, 71% of the expected goals. Here's a fun fact for you all. I'm going to keep saying it. Every single Penguins line tonight had an expected goals for a percentage of 70% or higher. What can you do? I'm laughing about it because it's just, it's sick. I mean, what more do people want the Penguins to do in these kind of games?

I mean, I saw some takes that they're being pushed around. I mean, I don't really buy that at all. They badly outplayed Nashville in this game and they're still playing good hockey. It was just, again, you know, one goalie was great. The other one was not so great. That happens. It's hockey. You know, this honestly kind of reminded me of the game from the 2017 playoffs for the Penguins

where, you know, they got outplayed most nights, but they were still finding a way to win because they were getting great goaltending. You know, that was Nashville tonight. They got badly out played. Penguins were skating them right out of Nashville into all the bars downtown because I know Bridgetown Arena is right by all those bars. But this couldn't make anything up. You know, just like how Matt Murray was 937 in 2017, you know, UC Soros tonight was, you know, way higher, I should say, than 937 years.

I probably run around like 950 or 960 or something like that. I mean, he was just, he was ridiculous. You know, even the Boyle-Bluger-Simone line were on the ice for 66% of the shot attempts. Scoring chances wise, they were on the ice. That was actually the only negative scoring chance line, 40% of the scoring chances at even strength. I mean, the four lines were buzzing. And, you know, you win some, you lose. So the Penguins are now tied for second place in the Metropolitan Division.

I'm going to get into some of the negatives coming up here in the next segment. Crystal Tang, Mike Matheson, Kasperi Caput, and the Power Play, all that is coming up right after this little break here. But before I get to that, it's that time of year again. this college basketball's tournament is finally upon us. From all the latest odds, contests, and player props, Benalind.com. Benon.com. is the number one source for all of your sports betting needs and info.

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we're back here on this episode of the locked on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. So, all right. Praise them a lot, even though they lost in the first segment. Let's get to some of the negatives.

Mike Matheson and Chris Latang, they both were really not that good in this game. You know, Latang, definitely one of his worst performances of this season. I did not like anything that he was doing outside of a couple of passes. You know, one of them, when it's 1-0 in the second period before Jake ties it, misses a wide open net. That's probably the third time in like the last three or four games that's happened to him. This one hits the crossbar. Again, these are chances that he buries nine-nine out of ten times,

9.9.99 out of 10 times. But for some reason right now, it feels like he's burying them one at a ten times because they're not going in. I just probably chalked it out to bad luck. On the third Predator's goal, the breakaway one that DeSmith allowed, they both kind of just looked like collide. The puck was just sitting there. And then, you know, the Preders were able to take it down on a breakaway. And DeSmith, I think, made himself a little too small.

But that was just really bad defense. They got to communicate better. I understand you're trying like a new pairing because Brian Dumlin has been maybe not himself these last few games. And Mike Matheson has been playing good hockey. But I still think the Dumlin-Latang pairing is better for Pittsburgh. in Matheson-Lang. And trust me, I've seen the underlying numbers. They're pretty decent in a small sample size.

But I just, I don't like Mike getting these top pairing minutes. I would prefer him to be on a second or third peering, either with John. Well, you know, we tried that last year and that didn't really work out that well. Chara-Reedle, you know, they always have a fine pairing just because, you know, I'll always say this on the pod. You know, Matheson's kind of like that running gun guy, you know, that one-man's own entry. But then, you know, Chad, he's kind of like that defensive stalwart where, you know, he can cover for his mistakes if he makes mistakes. And, you know, he's, he just plays a much more safer game. And that's why I think they complement each other so well. I just, you know, when you put two

players on the same pairing in Matheson and Latang, who are both very, very high risk, I would probably say Matheson is much more higher risk. You're more prone to get burned. And we saw that tonight with a third goal. And again, you know, I don't really, I didn't really like that goal from Casey DeSmith. Thought he looked way too small in net there. At least in my opinion, opinion, you know, if he made himself a bit bigger there and actually was more aggressive, I think he could have saved that. And, you know, it wouldn't have been a two-gold deficit going into third period. You know, this first one, I'm not really going to blame him for that.

Second one was off of deflection. It's definitely annoying that it came from the point. I mean, I feel like he's sometimes prone to those a little more often than some other goals. I mean, I'm not going to say DeSmith played bad. I mean, I don't think he was the main reason they lost. Again, I didn't really like the third goal. but you know with the way sorrows was playing i mean do the penguins even score if it's still two one going into the third for the rest of that period um i i don't know to be honest you know probably not um honestly so um i'm not really going to criticize dismiss too much i just again that one goal that third one um did i really care for um it was definitely frustrating that they gave up a goal um with about a second left in the first period it's funny you know i'm watching the game i'm going to feed my dog

I'm at eight seconds I face off. I'm like, all right. And I'm just going to go take early intermission, come back from doing that. And oh, they tied it up. And I had to watch the replay. And I'm like, okay, some notes down. And I think the main reason for that, the loss face off, that's not good. I know people tend to, I guess, overrate face off.

But that one there, you know, can't lose that one in that situation with such a little time left. And Dominic Simone lost his man on the left side. If Zach Ashton Reese is probably on the ice, I don't think that happens. Ashton race, for those that missed it, is out with a non-COVID illness. Maybe it's the same one that Brian Doom one gave him. I'm not really sure.

But I just, I feel like he let that pass go cross-ice. And, you know, no goalie is going to save that. Just a, you know, piss poor defense there towards the end of the period, you know, where, you know, again, who knows what happens if it is zero-zero going into the second period. You know, it's a completely different game. You know, it looked like at first that it maybe was scored. after the hornblue, but it looked like it was with about 1.5 seconds that, you know, that, excuse me, National scored.

So, you know, just can't lose a face off there. The second one again, you know, shots from the point, you know, those are usually low percentage shots, but, you know, nice deflection there. You know, not really, not really too much dismiss can do. The power play was not good tonight. They've converted now, and what is it? One of their last four team, one of their last 15 chances. It's unacceptable.

There's that much time on the ice. And I know there's obviously going to be cold streaks with a main advantage during any season for any team. That's just how it is. But there were times where I just thought they were too passive. Some of the zone entries were kind of eh. They weren't setting it up properly. I thought, though, you know, there was one unit that, you know, they actually got quite a bit chances. Nashville's kind of playing passive, I think, that time.

and then I think they started to get a little more aggressive but there were multiple times where the Penguins could have gotten themselves back into this game with the main advantage and they couldn't do that. If that happens, you know,

maybe we're talking about a different result right now and not being negative towards the power play but it was not good to say the least. Just a really piss-piss-bore effort on that unit there. You know, there was also a very scary moment,

And then I think first, Andy Crosby looked like he took kind of like a skate right up here to that elbow. And it saw like some blood dripping off his jersey. It looked like could have been like a really bad skate cut on like a like a week to week basis. Thank God he was able to come back in. Nothing seemed to be wrong or anything like that. So, you know, glad that he is okay. You know, he was definitely getting into it. I think at times with Matthias at Colm.

The officials were, you know, whatever. I'm not going to blame the rest for something like this. I don't really, you know, that's kind of baby talk, at least in my opinion. I know I'm going a little around the horn here. I'm trying to be as organized as I can with my notes, obviously, here. But, you know, I honestly, again, I just don't have, like, much else to say about the game that I've already said in, you know, in about the 16, 17 minutes that I've been recording this episode. I mean, at the end of the day, the penguins played well.

You know, there were some miscues that cost them, you know, that ended. of the first period. That can't happen, the breakaway to make it three to one. That can't happen for both to Smith, Matheson, for all three of them, actually, to Smith Matheson and Latang. And at the end of the day, those plus UC Soros playing out of his mind, those cost the Penguins the game. Luckily, the Penguins are back in action. On Thursday, I know they play a better St. Louis team with the Penguins have also already beat St. Louis this year. And they're also not going up against UC Soros in that game. I think it's probably going to be Jordan Bittington that they go up against.

Coming up in the next segment, we're going to get to some weird Ben Charrot rumors that I saw today. Just going to maybe nix those a little bit. Plus, going to get to some of the best answers that I saw for our little mattress factory question that I got to ask on the Lockdown Penguins Twitter account. But before I get to that, if I can find this here, save time and money when using Rock Auto. So why she choose to spend 30%, 50% or even 100% more for the same parts in a chain store or car dealership. Rock Auto is a family business to endure your selfers for over 20 years. The prices are reliably low for every customer. They have everything you can need from bright parts, tail lamps, motor oil, and even new carpet.

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All right, welcome back to another episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hoddes. I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hoddes. Follow the shows Twitter at L.O. I swear penguins. And I'm scrolling Twitter, and I see that Anthony Rossook goes back to the New York Yankees.

Anyways, this is not a New York Yankees podcast. If you want to check that, if any Yankees fans listen to this, go check out the Lockdown New York Yankees podcast. Okay. So, saw some weird rumors this morning about potentially the penguins are closing on maybe getting Ben Sharott of the Montreal Canadians. A, that makes no sense.

B, C.A. I think is my best way to say it. The Penguins already have seven very capable defensemen that can play. I mean, Marcus Pedersen is scratched right now, for God's sake. they already have a surplus of D on the left side, and they're probably going to potentially move one to go get a forward help, which is almost five days now.

Why in the hell would they be going out and getting bench law? This comes courtesy of Jimmy Murphy and Dan Kungerski of the National Hockey Now Network. I'll say this. I don't really think they're trustworthy. That's my opinion. They have really never broken anything in the NHL world.

And again, I'm not going to sit here. and claim I have because I haven't. I don't have an ego or anything like that, and I don't claim to be an insider. But, you know, those will be the last people I would go to, you know, that have actual NHL sources. I mean, I've, you know, heard from a couple of people. Just, I'm going to, I'm going to leave it at that. I'm not even going to share that, honestly, on the show. But that's just, it's my own thought that I will keep in my head that I've just heard from a couple people. But it doesn't make any sense. I'm going to shoot it down. I would be very stunned.

if that happens. Anyways, getting to the last part of today's show. So ask some people about, you know, the Mattress Factory question. I don't know if I can get to the tweet here. So, you know, they would love, mattress factory would have loved to have everyone's take on sports, our art, asked to everyone what their thoughts are. Alan T. Yoder says, when I think of art, I think of pictures.

There are certain moments when you can picture it in your head. Kunitz, Game 7, Eastern Conference Final in 2017. Game 6 of 2016 and the 2017 game, Stanley Cup final. Also, Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final in 2009. Some of these moments I would love to have his pictures hanging up in my man cave. Yeah, I mean, those are obviously all awesome moments, Alan, you know, Kuhnitz's winner. You know, game six where, you know, Sid just wheels into victory and Matt Murray was incredible. You know, game six, obviously down in Nashville with Patrick Hornquist's winner, game seven where they hung on for dear life.

and of course the save and I have close to a photo up on my gallery wall up here it's an old throwback with stall Malkin, Flurry and Crosby I always love that photo and I always love Jordan Stahl but I wish I did have a photo of the Flurry save in my man cave. He was

it looks just spectacular I would love to have photos of all honestly all these moments and Sam Alv says you know art for sure and gave me a video Predators get too yeah this is the Ron Haines Eagle, where he basically sidestepped two Predators players. I'm pretty sure one of them was James. I think the other one was Mike Fisher, if I'm not mistaken, he's able to go down.

Right after that, score the goal to put the game away, for sure. It was like 5-6-0 at that point. That was game 5 of the 2017 Stanley Cup Final against Nashville. I will always remember that moment. So yes, that is definitely an example of, you know, sports being art. And then Jackson Hollister says, more art with Chris Cunits and nailing him teaming in back in game three in 2009 honestly as i tweeted to you jackson that is one of the biggest hits that i have ever seen in my life um he just absolutely railed teaming in there um

you know another one that you know gets to me a little bit is when i think this was in playoffs in 2012 the whistle had just blown and kunit still decided to tee up a slap shot from the point hits the cross bar like where the goalies like standing there and they all came after him and all the flyers fans were getting jammed i think it was just basically a spiteful shot um i will always remember i always remember that you know he was not the biggest dude but he was always feisty um and he could definitely lay quite a few booms out there so i really appreciate all those responses stay tuned for something else regarding the mattress factory tomorrow on the Locked on Penguins Twitter account as well.

That'll do it for this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. A little shorter episode today. But, you know, the team will be back in action on Thursday. I'll be back on Wednesday with another episode previewing that game in St. Louis. You know, who knows? Maybe the Penguins will make a trade on Wednesday. Who knows? You know, the market's been definitely a bit slower than normal this year.

But that'll do it again. That'll do it for this one. Hope you'll have a great rest of your evening. And if you're listening to this on Wednesday, look for an episode a little bit. later in the day. Have a great one, guys.