Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins players get second in NHLPA trios tournament, plus the latest around the NHL

Episode Date: May 19, 2020

The Fortnite NHLPA trios tournament was today and there were three players on the Penguins who played in it and got second place! Hunter discusses how Bryan Rust, Zach Aston-Reese, and Brian Dumoulin were able to do it and win $50,000 to a charity of their choice. He also discusses the latest news around the league as we could be nearing a preliminary plan for resuming the season as the NHL had been discussing a 24 team playoff over the weekend. 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.

Hello, welcome to this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show's Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-Skore Penguins. As usual, the show is brought to you by BiltBar. We still have that $10 off for your first order at Biltbar.com with the promo code locked-on, so always remember that. Welcome back this week. I'm sorry I did not have an episode on Friday.

I was busy celebrating my college graduation. It still is kind of weird that I'm officially an alumni, and now that I have to actually, you know, look for full-time jobs at places. So different. And this is, it feels really, really weird because school is all I've known for basically almost my whole life. And now that I basically never have to go back to school again unless I want to get my master's.

But to be honest, I'm not really interesting going to getting my master's. I don't think I need it really for what I want to do. It's just, it's just a weird feeling that I never really have to go back to school again, unless, you know, unless I want to. You know, I needed to do this. I did it. I remember the biggest thing was, you know, after I graduated high school, people were like, oh my God, congratulations.

Like you did so well. I'm like, don't congratulate me for graduating high school. You know, I didn't really give a shit in high school. I basically just said, you know, congratulate me. Congratulate me when I graduate college because I feel like for me, like that's just such a more bigger accomplishment than just graduating high school where I did not like most of the people in my high school. But, yeah, this felt good.

you know, I worked my ass off and, you know, I was able to do it. And, yeah, so now we're here. Three episodes this week, we'll do franchise what ifs. We've been doing that a lot these last couple weeks. We may not be doing as much of it this week. This week, though, is a big week around the NHL. Looks like we may have an NHL draft announcement, but the bigger and bigger news is that we may be close to a preliminary plan for the NHL

for the 2014 playoff. It's been gaining a lot of traction. this past weekend pierre lebrun reported it um also renna de la la la la the french reporter for the n hl he also reported it on his website but for pierre lebrun basically you know they said they've been talking throughout the weekend they're making progress on the 24 team format but he also says they're stressing there's still work to be done but the weekend has produced some traction so good news for the n hl on this front but you know as me and some others have said i also know dom of the athletic basically said this you know i i just

everyone who knows, I've talked about this a lot on this podcast. You know, anyone who knows me knows, you know, I'm not a big fan of the 2014 format. I think rewarding a team like Chicago and Montreal is garbage. They don't deserve it. You know, you can throw this, oh my God, like they're doing it for money revenue.

It's just like, you know, okay, cool. I mean, it's just, I think a 20 team format is much bad. Hell, you can do 22. Maybe you can do even do odd numbers. But it's just 2014 team format. It's just, It's weird. We've also had more details about it over the weekend.

Apparently, there's an idea floating around what they might do, for those that did not see on Twitter and athletic and all that. They're going to have a round-robin thing. So, like, the divisional teams, they're going to meet up in their hub cities, basically. I think the Rangers, though, are going to move over to the Atlantic just to make it all even, you know, six times four, 24. Yeah, I actually did a math thing there. So, and basically what they're going to do is they're going to have five round robin games. each and your point percentage of that combined with your overall point percentage before the NHL season pause will play into how you get seated so and apparently the top two teams

in each division for this get a buy week so four of course that's four teams per conference and then basically you'll have a four versus five and a three versus six and a best of three and then the idea also has after that it goes best of seven um In this scenario, if the Penguins were not to potentially get a buy, they would play someone pretty far down in the division. Also, if they don't do that, there's the chance that the Penguins would play Montreal in the Best of Three series. If they do not do this idea with the round robin,

I think round robin makes the most sense, excuse me, because the NHL has been wanting to get these regular season games, well, in quotation marks, regular season games. They want to play some warm-up games, I guess I should say before the playoffs come back. So I guess that fulfills the requirement for that. I just still hate the fact that they're doing 24 teams. And you're just you're sacrificing, you know, a team like Pittsburgh's chances

of doing a lot of damage in the playoffs, you know, Toronto. Because, you know, I've seen some ideas yesterday on Twitter. And, you know, one of them I think that stuck out with me that I actually agreed with was why don't the top three seeds in each division get a buy, you know, and not have to have like, let's say, you know, for the metro, let's say it's Washington and Philadelphia get the buy. Why should Pittsburgh have to play a best of three when they earned a top three spot in their division? Out in the Atlantic, you know, you have Tampa and Boston, Toronto.

You know, why should one of those three teams get to play one of the really, really bad teams in their division, but the other two teams get a bite week? It's just, it's weird. And the Penguins also had a really, really, really good. record better than some of the Western Conference teams that are in their top three for their respective divisions. So I just don't like that they would be punished. But some of the other teams in the Western Conference who are in the top two in their division, who don't have as good a point percentage as the Penguins, get to basically have a by week. It's just, I feel like that's

kind of ludicrous to me. I think if you did the top three teams in each division getting a buy week and then the wild card teams squaring off with the teams directly below them in the standings, you can still have the 24 team format. I think that's the way to go. I think that's a better solution if you want to do the 24 team format. Though I still would rather have a 20 to 22 team format because for the 20, you can have, you know, 8 versus 9, 7 versus 10. You can have a best of 3. Then the winners go in and they play the top seats. You know, you can have the 22 team format 2, 8 versus 9, 7 versus 10, 6 versus 11. Boom, you have those three teams go into the 16 team playoff. You can do a best of 5, best of 7. I think they're still kind of weird that they

think the NHL thinks that they're going to do a best of seven series for when they get back to the 16 teams after they do 24 um if they i think you got to have to do a best of five at first maybe for the first round or two and then maybe go best of seven like baseball does it and then best of seven of course the stand like a final i mean that's that's a given you know every sport does that except outside the NFL which we all know they do the super bowl i saw some suggestions for doing a wild card game like thing which the MLB does that you're just proved well you're just putting so much randomness into one game. I mean, take it from me.

I'm a Washington Nationals fan. My team, of course, won the World Series this past year. In the wildcar game, they were down 3 to 1 in the bottom of the eighth inning, two outs. Juan Soto basically hits a base hit to right field. It was basically a routine base hit. The game was going to be tied anyway, but they won the game because the guy, the right field of Trent Grisham, made an error. The ball went under his glove, and the nationals were able to win the game 4 to 3 because the base has gone. cleared. It's just stuff like that can happen in hockey. I know it's a kind of a weird comparison,

but just randomness like that, I should say, can happen like that in hockey. It happens all the time, especially in a one game thing. If you're doing like an MLB wildcard thing, that's just, that's even a worse idea. I just, I cannot get behind that sort of thing. You got to do at least best or three. You got to give another team at least one game to basically just bounce back. And then if they do, you know, you have the game three, which basically, you know, just some, you know, we all know what game three is, you know, the decider best two out of three. Or, you know, they can do best of five, four, you know, three, who cares? Just don't do an MLB wild card thing. That's just, there's so much randomness in it. And so there's just so much randomness. If you put Pittsburgh, say Pittsburgh versus Montreal, you know, there is a lot of randomness that goes into the best of three series. You know, sometimes weird shit, weird shit happens, you know. Pucks go in off players asses in him. They go off their backs in in. There's a penalty. that should have been called. That's not called so much more randomness goes into it in all these series. And, you know, it's going to be fun to watch. I think it'll drive ratings, which of course is the thing. But I think they can do that even better if it's just a 20 to 22 team format and they

don't have to put a team like Chicago and Montreal and just because of, oh, they're going to play ratings favoritism bullshit, which I just really don't care about. But overall, my thoughts on this situation. If they can, you know, get three buys per division, you know, that may, you, for the Metro, which is obviously one of the, I think, the best division in hockey, Washington, Pittsburgh, Philly, which is most likely what it's going to be. The Atlantic, you know, Boston, Toronto, Tampa, which is most likely it's going to be. Then you have the Pacific, which no one really knows, that division is so close. And then the Central, of course, St. Louis is going to be one of them. You know, Dallas can be up there, Colorado, just so much more.

It's going to be interesting to see if this gains more traction this week. I think we could be getting close to an announcement. very soon, according to least to Pierre LeBron and Darren Dregor, they have the Board of Governors meeting today, so that could come up at this meeting as well. But with that, it is now time to talk about both bar again. They are tasty protein bars. They taste just like a candy bar. 16 amazing flavors, eight chocolate nut flavors, eight chocolate nut free flavors, covered in 100% chocolate, soft and easy to chew. They are very healthy. They are low calorie, low sugar, high protein, high fiber.

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Use promo code locked on for $10 off at builtbar.com. All right, so we are back for this episode of Locked-on Penguins, which is May 18th. This is also the first time I went tailgating at a concert with my family. So, Matt, that's pretty awesome. Let's see here. We go here in 1995, Ken Regget stopped 33 shots to shut out the Capitals to win game seven of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. That score was 3-0.

96, the Penguins dropped game one of the Eastern Conference finals to the Florida Panthers. Five to one. Still cannot believe they lost that series. That was pathetic. Day 2008. They whipped the flyers ass, six to nothing, won the Eastern Conference Championship in five games. They got to the Stanley Cup final for the first time since 1992. I can actually pull up that Doc Emmerich call. I was just able to actually pull it up. So here is the call from Doc Emmerich that sent the Penguins to the Stanley Cup final. We'll have his third shotout. And the Penguins

will be in the Stanley Cup final for the first time since 1992. Yeah. So, it had been quite a while. So let's see if I can do my math here. Okay, I got it. 16 years. I'm just messing with you all. But yeah, 16 years since the Penguins had gone to the Stanley Cup final. They just absolutely kicked the Flyers ass this year.

I remember watching that when I was only 10 years old. The time has really flown by since that run. And yeah, the Flyers stood no chance in that series. The Penguins were just so good. Mark Andre Fleury, that was, I think, his best playoff season. I would say in his Penguin tenure. I know 2009 was pretty good for a bit to

2017 of course during the first two series, but 2008 he was just outstanding. You know, his save percentage was I think it was over 930, I think that whole playoff. I can actually look that up right now as I go to his hockey reference. Let's see, 2007-08

he was, let's see here if I can actually get it. Yeah, 933. That one. Compar. to 2009 when he was 908. Fleury was still good that playoff run, but still, he was 933 and then 2016, 17 with the Penguins 924. So yeah, he was

that was easily his best playoffs. His goals against average in that playoff run. 1.97. That is absolutely ridiculous. We've never really seen Mark Hunter Fleury have a run like that. He was just stopping everything. But that run was just so awesome, though,

because of just the way the penguins were, they were just like kind of underdogs going into it, and then you go up against the Red Wings, who that's the best team of the Salar Cap era. I don't want to hear any arguments otherwise. You really can't argue otherwise. They just, they had so many players in the prime of their careers, you know, a prime Pavel Dotsu, Henrik Zetterberg,

Thomas Holmstrom, Todd Bertuzi, you know, Chris Osgood was actually pretty decent still of that season. They still had Valteri Filpula, Chris Draper, Brian Rofalski Nicholas Lydstrom who's obviously the best defenseman I've ever seen play of my generation

You know I think Andreas Lillia was still there I think I think this was when Darren Helm I think was still there I'm trying to remember if Justin Abdel Cater was still there

He may have been Daniel Cleary I mean The list just goes on And on and on I know I left out probably so many names But that team was just

disgustingly sick And the fact that the penguins were able to take that To six games How they almost took that game six into overtime. That's pretty insane. I think a big what if we can do this just for a quick second.

You know, what if host a scores to tie that game there in the waning seconds of game six? Do the penguins win that game in overtime? Do they send it back to Detroit for that all decisive game seven? You know what no one knows what happens in that game seven, you know? The penguins, they played their asses off in that game six. I remember just watching afterwards when Red Wings were celebrating and they just just, like, they were just sitting there. They just, they look stunned.

And, you know, I think that's really the word that you can use. I mean, I think any team would be pretty stunned or, of course, upset when they lose the Stanley Cup final like that. But, you know, I think at that point, I think I've listened to Cindy Crosby interviews. He's basically said, you know, you never know if you're going to ever get back to that point. That's why it was just so tough. Mellon Arena was just electric that run. It was so awesome to see so many fans outside the arena. I'm just cheering them on.

Same for 2009. And that those are moments where I miss Mellon Arena the most because it's just, it really is spectacular. And yeah, you know, it's just, I guess that's one big what-if moment there. You know, what if the Penguins were able to win that game six and send it back to Detroit? But, you know, the Red Wings were just too good that series, especially in that game. You know, I know the Penguins were able to win in triple overtime in game five, Peter Socorra, you know, I think if I'm not mistaken, I think he called a shot. I think he said he was actually going to score the overtime winner. And then, you know, of course he did.

You know, I wish I could have stayed up to watch that game, to be honest. There was no chance my mom or any of my family was letting me. I think my mom did, though, but, you know, she's all she was, of course, you know, she's way older so she can do whatever the hell she wants. But other than that, you know, those three things I mentioned. Not too much else happened in Penguin's history today. Over the weekend, we did have the few years ago. We had Cindy Crosby's overtime winner against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

That happened. It always just looks like he bends, like the puck just, bends for like some reason and it just goes in you know there's something that happens when crosby shot that pocket it just it just changes its angle or something like that and it was just bad ass just badass to see every time i watch it so um we had that and then on uh may 15th we had the phil kessel um game winner against audible for game two when you know after we're after he uh him and polkin were just sparring on the bench it was just so funny to see and then kris kins of course was seen laughing in the middle but kessel was able to score there, 1-0-0-0-1 for the Penguins to send it back to Ottawa where we know what happened

in game three, and we know what happened for the rest of that series. So that was pretty fun to talk about if I do say so myself on this pretty cloudy, potentially going to be a rainy day here in northern Virginia. All right, so for this last segment, it's going to be a quick little shorter one. Today we had the NHLPA Fort Night Trio this tournament and three players from the Penguins participated. If you guys did not see Brian Rust, Zach Ashton Reese, and defenseman Brian Dumlin played in the trio's tournament. It had a bunch of players from almost all the teams. Nathan McKinnon was on the Colorado's trio.

We have Carolina, Sebastian Ajo, Tevo Terevaynan. Brad Pashy, I think, of course, Zach Hyman was commentating. He was basically casting it. I'm trying to think of other way. We got Devante Smith Pelly. Travis Kineckney was doing it. I think Mitch Marner, Frederick Anderson. I think we had J.T. Brown was doing it.

Vince Dynne. Robert Thomas of the Blues. The Blues ended up getting first, their trio. The Penguins got second. Only five points off of first. They played... This is... Okay, I'm not to be careful how I talk about this,

because, you know, I'm a very avid gamer, and Fortnite is one of the main games that I play. They act... The Penguins trio actually played really, really well. They were able to get to the end of the game, which is, of course, the goal. You know, kills are a big part of the game, I would say. But the object of the game is to, of course, win.

you know, it's not like bot fest or a kill fest, as other people like to say. The Penguins, I think, in two of their games, they got third place, one of the games they got second, and then their fourth game, they actually won with the 2B1 at the end. The Winnipeg Jets team of Connor Hellebuck and Jack Roslovich and I'm trying to remember the other guy. They got third. They were in first for most of the time, but the Penguins that tree was able to get second. $50,000 to a charity of their choice, the Blues. They got $100,000 to a charity of their choice.

So yes, this is all the money is going to do with charity of the trio's choices. It was really, really cool to watch. You really don't get to see a lot of NHL players, just, you know, squat up and play video games, especially when it's like league-wide. It's really awesome that the Players Association organized that. Like I said, Zach Hyman of the Leafs, he was casting it. Yet, Nick, I'm trying to think, Nick E.H, he's a Twitch streamer. He was also casting it.

And then the host, the other guy, I can't really remember his name. I actually had never seen him before. but the Penguins, the interview that they gave after was just, it was just really, really funny because they were just so in character. They didn't really have to say much here. I'll play a little bit of the interview, the interview here for you guys. Let me just get to it. So, yeah, here's the interview right here with the Penguins trio.

I'll play it right here for you guys. Second place at the NHLPA opened featuring Fortnite. How is everybody feeling after those four matches? Pretty good. Yeah, that was awesome. Now, we... I just, I love how they just say, yep, pretty good. Yeah, that was awesome.

It's like the Penguins, like, PR, social media. It's like they just train them exactly for this moment. They're like, yep, pretty good. Yep, we played well, you know, not really much else to say. I'll keep playing the interview here for you guys just a little bit more. We talked a lot about consistency, and finally you guys were able to secure yourselves a victory royale in that fourth and final match. What was going through your head in those final stages? Because it was quite chaotic with the way that the storm surge was moving in that fourth match.

We were just trying to get good rotations. I know the point is to kill other people, but we were just trying to get good rotations and attack from there. And it ended up working out pretty well for us in the last game. It was a value effort by a lot of you guys. And with $50,000 towards charity, have you guys decided exactly which one you're going to put it towards? Yeah, we have not signed on that yet. It's just, okay, so the person who's asking the question is Bill Carter.

Yeah, that's who it was. I completely forgot. But still, it's just, I just find it so funny how the Penguins, the players, they just don't say anything. Compared to the other teams that they interviewed Winnipeg, they were a lot more talkative. St. Louis was a lot more talkative. And the Penguins players have always, some of them have always just been, you know, they're more low-key, especially with their game day interviews, you know. I honestly just felt like I was watching a post-game interview after their hockey games because that's really all they say, too. So like I said, it's just funny how, you know, their PR team or social media team, they just, they prepare them for these moments.

So I thought that was really funny. But yeah, I thought this would be a little cool segment to do. I totally forgot that this was today. I'm right up until, honestly, when it started, I was like, oh, yeah, crap, this actually is today. But it was really fun to watch. If you guys watched it, let me know what you think. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodeys, follow the shows, Twitter at L0 underscore Penguins. We'll be back later this week with another episode of this podcast.

So stay tuned for that. And I hope you all have a great rest of your day. And we will talk to you soon.