Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins training camp storylines!

Episode Date: September 13, 2023

Training camp is less than two weeks away! To get into the spirit of things, Hunter and Pat dive into three of the biggest storylines heading into camp with the season so close to starting. They first dive into Erik Karlsson and how he will mesh with the Penguins under Mike Sullivan. How will he do when it comes to not being "the guy" every night? What will having a partner in Marcus Pettersson do for him? In turn, how will EK65 help Evgeni Malkin since the latter will FINALLY get ice time with a No. 1 defenseman? After that, they switch gears to Drew O'Connor and whether his camp performance can carry over into the regular season where he can be an every-night player. They discuss his strengths and what he still needs to work on, plus how he could use more time this season so that the Penguins can properly evaluate him. Finally, they look at Tristan Jarry and what he will look like now that he has a massive extension.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Jase MedicalSave more than $360 by getting these lifesaving antibiotics with Jase Medical plus an additional $20 off by using code LOCKEDON at checkout on jasemedical.com. FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS - GUARANTEED. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

With training camp just around the corner, Pat and I are going to be discussing the three main storylines that we're going to be keeping an eye on next week, and that's all coming up 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, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

I am one of your hosts, Huntrahodes. you can follow me on Twitter or X at Hunter Hodes. To my right is my co-host Patrick Damp. You can follow him on Twitter slash X at Sendem for Wet. And you can follow these shows Twitter slash X at LO underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. And today's episode is brought to you by Jace Medical Empower Yourself when you purchase a Jace case, providing you with a personal supply of five antibiotics that treat 50 plus infections.

get yours today at jesmedical.com. That's jaseemedical.com. So believe it or not, Pat, training camp is at this point, eight or nine days away. We're less than a week and a half away at this point from the roster is being set for camp. They always split into two or three different groups at the start.

And then when they make some cuts, they weather it down to one or two groups, and then you have the main group once you get really close to the season. We've almost made it. And there's some pretty big storylines heading in the camp, the first of which, the one and only Eric Carlson. Sources can confirm that the penguins acquired him last month. I don't think that was a dream or anything like that. He's in Pittsburgh this week working out with a lot of his new teammates.

And one of the biggest things heading into camp, how is he going to mesh with the penguins? How is he going to handle, you know, not having to, you know, I guess be the guy like he was. for the sharks splitting up some of those minutes with Crystal Tang. Yes, he's going to still have a great partner, and he'll have a better partner with Pittsburgh than he did with San Jose, and he'll still get quite a few minutes with the Penguins, but it's not going to be like he had in San Jose when he just was relied on for all of their offense.

So how he meshes, especially in a new system, Mike Sullivan's system, that's going to be a big key, I think, for me at least heading into the camp at least. Yeah, my biggest thing looking at. Carlson is, I know he's going to fit into a Mike Sullivan system. That system is tailor-made for his style of play. So I don't think there's going to be any issues with the system. The things that I'm going to be keeping an eye on for Carlson are twofold.

And it's mainly going to be who he's with, who he plays more with. And I know we all have him penciled in on the second pairing, if you even want to call it that with Marcus Pedersen, and we've got Ryan Graves pencilled in next to Chris LaTang. But as we see every year, in one way or another, big or small, we always end up having some kind of camp surprise or camp standout or something you didn't see coming. So while this isn't exactly a Carlson directly related thing,

I'm curious to see the kind of camp Marcus Pedersen has. because who knows, maybe this is the year that he actually steps up and grabs that number two spot on the top pairing next to Chris Latang, because there is a history of him playing with Chris Latang and playing pretty well. So maybe those two do swap. Maybe it becomes Latang and Pedersen and Carlson and Graves. So I want to see that. I want to see how those pairings shake out and who Carlson ultimately is with between those two defensemen. I also want to see how they split up Chris LaTang and Eric Carlson in regards to the forwards. I want to see does Eric Carlson get the treatment every big name gets when they come to Pittsburgh?

Are they going to be immediately stapling him to Sidney Crosby? Or is Crosby going to continue to spend time with Chris LaTang? And then Eric Carlson gets a Genie Malkin. Now, if I'm Mike Sullivan and I'm controlling the lineup card as almost a son, a sign of and show of good faith and belief, I'm going to give Eric Carlson to Evgeny Malkin because you've kind of talked about it on this show before. He's never really had a defenseman of that caliber consistently deployed with him on the back end that can get him the puck and get his linemates the puck and really aid in their

transition game. So if I'm Sullivan, that's what I want to see right out of the gate. I want to see if these two things mesh. I want to see if Eric Carlson, if Gennie Malkin kind of quote-unquote pairing ends up being fruitful because if that's the case, we talked about it on this show all the time. It's been one of the biggest narratives of the summer is this season, around 80% of the game, you're going to have one of Eric Carlson or Chris LaTang on the ice. The other part of that that we've got to keep in mind is that also helps the top six. Just imagine if they have that kind of transition game, that kind of offensive push, that kind of puck possession. Then that wipes away some of the concerns that we were talking about yesterday with the bottom six, because if the top six is that

overwhelming, they're going to put up enough points that who cares if the bottom six doesn't score. Exactly. And he's obviously going to really help their offense, Carlson, that is. I do agree with I think he's going to spend a lot of his time with Gennie Malkin. It's funny, Malkin has never played with a defenseman this good throughout his career. And now, honestly, I know that people have had a little bit of a gripe that he hasn't had many minutes with Chris Lattang. Just that's because Lattang has been bogged up with Crosby. That's how it's always been throughout their careers. But now that he has his own number one defenseman to work with, in turn, I think that's really going to help Gino for this season.

And I think he could have an even better year this year than he did last year, considering how great of a year Carlson did. As to your comment about Pedersen, I do agree. I think this could be a year where we see some of Pedersen's best offense that he's had to show with the Penguins. And I know Danny Shiree for his substack recently did a full breakdown into Marcus Pedersen's game ahead of this season and just looking back at last season. So if you want to check that out, go to his substack breakdowns and breakaways. it's a really, really good piece. But overall, just with how great Pedersen was last year,

especially defensively, I mean, he showed off some offensive skill at times where I was just like, where did this come from? He had a few curl and drags, I remember, during a few games. I don't remember which one exactly it was. I know it was towards the late stages of the season where I was like, can we get more of this, please? Now that he's going to be playing with Eric Carlson,

maybe you could. And I think people are going to realize this. this year when it comes to Marcus Pedersen, he is one of the most, if not the most underrated defenseman in the league. And I think people are really going to notice that with him, how he plays with him. Because I also assume that Pedersen is going to start the year with Carlson, even though I would personally flip-flop it, but I don't think Mike Sullivan's going to see it that way. But that's going to be a lot of fun.

They got Graves to be that Doom Moon replacement. That was pretty evident after the contract he signed. But, yeah, I mean, with how he meshes over. all Carlson that is it's going to be a lot of fun to see i'm just super excited about it because again this is going to i would i guess transform the offense a little bit but it's going to really help it compared to last year where it was just the forward scoring the defenseman last year i really had a crystal tang really weren't doing that much scoring well pat that is going to change this year when you have eric carlson in the fold and that's also going to have other defensemen

feed off both him and let's hang. I think the penguins could get quite a good amount of offense on the blue line this year compared to last year. Yeah, and I don't want to be the skunk at the garden party here, but the one thing I will say that I do have a concern for in this goes into the how does Eric Carlson mesh once this camp gets going and we get into the season, is I'm forever scarred by the 2013 team that got swept by Boston

because outside of getting horrendously out-coached, the other thing that we have to admit about that team was that there's only one puck and there's only so much of that puck to go around. And we're all really starting to get ourselves hyped up about, oh, man, this power play with Eric Carlson on it, and all that talent they can stack on that top unit, that's going to be electric.

Well, they're going to have to figure out at some point somebody's got to shoot. and somebody's got to make the attempt to put the puck on the net. Now, they're professionals. They're all very talented. And pretty much everybody on that unit has had years of NHL experience. So they understand that. But you'll have to excuse me for having a little bit of worry that there might be a little too much star power.

And I know that's very much a spoiled 16-year-old complaining on their sweet 16 that the Lambo wasn't the right color. I mean, you can never have enough star power on the power play, especially with how the unit was last year. Again, I'll keep saying this Tom Blue in the face, Pat. There's no cease with heart rear in this year, no matter who you put on that unit. Now it's not. Yeah.

Whether you put Carlson there with Let's hang, whether Latang goes down to the second unit, whatever you want to do, there's no excuse. And he's not only going to help him at five on five. He's going, I think, really help him on the power play. know the underlines are pretty close when it comes to LaTang's impacts on the power play versus Carlson's, but you can't go wrong with either one, in my opinion. So that's going to be a main storyline to keep an eye on. Coming up in the second segment, Canbro Connor's camp performances

from over the years, and especially this year, finally translate over to regular season success. He's been really good in camp over the past couple of seasons. Last year, it had the most that it translated over the regular season, but this year, can he finally put it all together and become a full-time regular for the penguins? We're going to discuss that. But before we get into that, everyone should be empowered to care for themselves and their loved ones during the unexpected. That's why Jace Medical offers the Jace case. The Jace case provides five life-saving antibiotics for emergency use and gives you a peace of mind so that you are not just hoping that you have access to medication in an emergency. Jace Medical, make sure you have the medication

hand. Jace Medical is simple. They handle everything from the online evaluation to license pharmacy, medication, delivery, and ongoing consultation and care do not get caught on prepared. Save more than $360 by getting these lifesaving antibiotics with Jace Medical plus initial $20 on off by using the code locked on at checkout on jacemedical.com. That's j-a-s-s-e-medical.com with the promo code locked on. All right. We're back here in this episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast. I am your host Hunter Hodes. To my right is my co-o's Patrick Damp. So Drew O'Connor, I teased it at the beginning here. Always a little bit of a camp hero going back a couple of years. Just hasn't fully translated over to a full 82 game season. I've been super bullish on him heading into the year.

I've said repeatedly that he is going to surprise a lot of people. And one of my bold predictions, I think, is that he's maybe going to be the, leading goal score in the bottom six this year. I'm going to stick with that. I think he has a lot of untapped potential, especially if you put him with the right linemates. I'm really high on him this year. He didn't have the best end to the season last year when goalless in a lot of those games to end the year before the Penguins missed the playoffs. But with how young he is, with how some goals that he scored last year really impressed me, especially the one against the lightning late in the season, Pat, where he kind of pulled off that Jordan Stahl goal from the-

Red Wings in 2009 and how he beat Andre Vasseletsky was the opposite side of Vastelowski where Stahl beat him on the other side, or Stahl beat Chris Oskine, I should say, on the other side. But I really just like this player quite a bit defensively. I think he's going to be trusted a lot more in his own zone. And I'm really high on him, man. I think he's going to make a difference this year. If I'm wrong on that, you know, whatever. Okay.

But that's how I'm. I feel about him. Now, the one thing I do want to say here is I don't want this to come off as an insult to DOC, but he has always been a camp standout. And I think part of that is for so long now, the Penguin's roster has for the most part been set in stone. We know who's going to be on it. We know who's going to play. We have a pretty good idea who's going to fill it out. So when a young guy kind of comes up and has a moderately good camp or a surprising camp, we're bound to talk about it. We're bound to say, oh, this guy, he's crushing it this week.

When in reality, he's probably doing just run of the mill well. And again, not a shot at the OC. He's not a superstar. He's not pegged to be. He probably never will be. But I agree with you. This is a big year where him standing out in camp has to be more than just standing out camp. And I think he's poised to do that simply because, again, similar what I was saying,

for Carlson, he plays a style of hockey that Sullivan loves. He's aggressive, he's quick, he's not afraid to shoot the puck. And the one thing that, and I know this will come off as a little 100 hockey men, he's got size. He's not a small guy. And you put all those things together. That's going to help this team, especially once they get late in the season and you're competing for the playoffs and going into the playoffs because whether we like it or not, playoffs are more physical, way more tight checking and you're going to need those bigger aggressive guys to play. So for him, he has to find a way to take a performance at camp that is above the line and continue it into the season and find that consistency to become a regular

everyday contributor at the National Hockey League level. I agree with you, Pat. My biggest thing with O'Connor, though, is that I want to see him shoot the puck a lot more this upcoming season. I know people are going to frame me as that shoot it guy from the crowd, some of those Ginzers that love to shoot that from the 200 levels of BPG Paints Arena. But I really do mean it.

I want him to be, I guess, more selfish this season. Because when I was watching him this past season, he really wasn't ripping the puck too often from the ring. I was always looking for that extra pass at times, focusing on other parts of his game. I want him to focus a little bit more on his goal scoring this season. And if he does that, those goals are going to come. I also hope that Mike Sullivan gives him the ice time that is, I guess, necessary for him with his development because he's one of the younger players and you can't really find out more about him if you're not icing.

And even though it's in a bottom six role, I would have them on. the third line this year, you've got to give him the necessary ice time and put him with players who can set him up for success. For example, putting him with, you know, Jeff Carter, I don't really think that's going to do him much. You know, Carter, he can still at least deliver you a pass or something like that, but it's not as good as it used to be. I would rather have him with someone like a Noachari or a Matt Mietto, something like that. But that's what I'm really looking forward to with O'Connor for this year. Yeah, and two quick things on that.

One, it's really easy on a roster like the Penguins to think you have to constantly defer and not play selfish because there is so much talent there that you think, okay, it's not on me to score the goals. It's on the big guns to score the goals. And while that's not incorrect, no one's going to get mad at you for scoring a goal. If you put the buck in the net and party hard starts playing at PPG, nobody cares. And secondly, as for the Jeff Carter thing, it's not that this team needs it anymore, like they used to 10, 12, 13 years ago. He's a good leader. We saw it last year, regardless of how good or bad Carter or the person I'm going to name here,

Casperi Capitan were. You could see when Caponin started really getting frustrated on the bench, there was one person there who could truly calm him down and bring him back to Earth. And that was Jeff Carter. So having that stabilizing force and that influence on him, while I don't want to see them on a line together, it's not like, it's a lot more intimidating to have a Sidney Crosby and of Guinea Malkin, a Chris LaTang and Eric Carlson come up to you and say, hey, kid, shoot the damn puck. But if Jeff Carter comes up to you and goes, hey man, got an open look, fire that bad boy. chances are you're going to go, you know what? He's right. I should take a shot.

And that's the impact of having a veteran leader like Carter. Again, we can say what we want about his on-ice game. And yes, it's definitely taken, it's been gone down a few notches to be nice, I think. But I think he can definitely help in that regard. A roster spot is not just going to be given to a corner. He is going to have to earn it. But I do think if he continues to have a good camp and really ups it up a few notches, plays well in the preseason, he will have this down in the blink of an eye.

And I think of all the young players that could come up to the Penguins this year and contribute on an every night basis, he is the one, not Alex Nealander. Drew O'Connor is the one that I am most excited about. Yeah, I would put him in this. I know I've said I'm looking to Neelander this year. That's more just to see if he's finally actually an NHL contributor. but at the same time, it does feel like DOC has the faith and confidence of both the coaching staff and management. Now it's on him and them to find the right mix of, okay, we've got the faith in you.

Now we've got to keep you motivated and help you develop into a contributor on this roster. And of a lot of the guys we've highlighted on this show going into camp, I think he's in one of the best positions to become a key contributor, for this team. Right. I completely agree with that, and we're just going to have to see what happens when camp comes around next week. That'll wrap up this segment.

Coming up to end the show, Pat and I can discuss what will Tristan Jari look like now that he has a brand new, massive contract. How will he play this upcoming season? How will he do during camp? That's coming up right after this. All right, we're back here in this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am Hunter Hodes. That is Patrick Damp.

So Pat, Pat, Tristan Jari? the new $5 million man after that massive extension during the offseason, it's a big year for him. I can't say that enough with his injury history, with his inconsistency problems, all of that. He needs to show that he is the number one goalie and that he can play at a consistent level night after night. I don't need to see him play 55, 60 games a year. I think the days of that for most teams are gone with how. just crazy the 82 game schedule is now.

I think a good, I guess, medium for Jari, if he's fully healthy, is somewhere in that 50, 52, 53 range for games, the backup if Nadelcovic is playing well, gets the other 25, 30 plus, something like that. But Powell Dupus took a major risk signing Jari to this deal. And here's two hoping Jari proves it, to him and all of his doubters out there. Because, yes, I'll admit it, I am a little bit of a Tristan Jarrah doubter

heading into the season. I know when healthy he's good, but I also know those moments have been few and far between lately, and that needs to change if this team wants to truly contend this year. Again, when he is healthy, he is one of the, I think, you know, 9 to 10, 11, 12 best goalies in hockey. You can maybe make an argument for number eight just because the top five to seven are the elite of the elite. But after that, Jari is in that range, and we've seen him be there multiple times throughout his career.

He should have started in the COVID bubble over Matt Murray. He was playing electric until he had Andersly crash into his foot and break it before the playoffs. He can play at that level this year. And that's going to solve so much of the problems. But how is his confidence level going to be during camp? Looks like he changed some pads throwing these skates this week. up that mojo a little bit. Maybe he gets a new mask,

something like that. I know when, it's funny, when Mark Andreoy got that new mask, if you remember he had that, I'm blanking on the symbol name, but it was like that weird ghost face. I thought that's what I was called it as a thing.

When he got that mask, something in his game honestly changed. And he also had the new goalie coach. If Jari can, you know, have those pad, new pads work. Maybe he changes up something with his mask too. That could play.

a little bit, but I have my eye on him a lot as Camp's about to get started. For Jari and for Kyle Dubus, the way I look at this is this contract was an investment in the mental health of Tristan Jari. Because you think about where his game has been, and you kind of already went over it with, should have started in the COVID bubble in Toronto over Matt Murray, had the injuries, had the inconsumption, And a lot of that came from, I'm going to take over for a back-to-back Stanley Cup winning goalie in this franchise, a guy who took over for an absolute fan favorite before him. And then he takes over the job, plays well, gets hurt, inconsistence, he's coming with injury. And all of that under the guise of he's on an expiring deal. So not only does this guy have to increase his play just to keep his team in the hunt,

he's got to increase his level of play to get a contract. And now you take that burden off of his head. You take that weight off his shoulders of, I got to get a new deal. I got to earn a new deal. Where's it going to come from? Now you have it. You have been given the deal.

You are the guy. And I think that will do a lot more than we can, then we'll be able to quantify because that worry in his head is gone. He's been given the deal. He is the penguin starting goal. We also look at the goalie market from this past summer, and it was not good. There were no better options, and everybody's going to say, oh, they should have traded for Helibuck. Well, as we saw with the Dubois trade with L.A., Winnipeg is not tearing it down.

They are not going into a full-scale rebuild. So regardless of whether Hellebuck wants to be there or not, they were not going to trade him for pennies on the dollar. So you got your guy in it. You have a solid backup. He has the contract in place. Now it's all on him. And that sounds like a challenge, but it's really not. If he, like you said, if he can play 45, 50 to 53 games, stay mostly healthy, stay in that 908.

nine, ten, save percentage range with the firepower this team's expected to have. It's always got to be. He doesn't have to be a Vezna candidate. He doesn't have to steal you games. As I've said on this podcast a million times. He doesn't have to win games for you. He just doesn't have to lose them. And we saw the latter quite a bit towards the end of last season.

And granted, I understand he was battling a couple of big injuries. hopefully those are in the past now. And if he comes into this fully healthy, fully confident, I mean, who's to say he can't have a season where he's 919, 920, 922, something like that. Again, I don't need him to be Igor Shosturkin of two years ago when he was 938 and the best goaltender in hockey. But if he can be a little bit above average, even 920, which is actually really good in today's NHL, I will take that in a heartbeat from a goalie who is making over $5 million

for this season and beyond. And I really do think he's poised for a bounce back because outside of the stretch run last year, and I know that's a huge asterisk to put on things because they were going to fight for their playoff lives and they didn't win. Outside of that, he was good enough. The problems were everywhere else on the roster. The defense was shaky. The bottom six was terrible.

and they were getting very spotty scoring from everywhere else. So it fell more to him to be that guy, and he's not that guy. And I don't mean that as an insult. He's not one of the league's elites. But when you're the Pittsburgh Penguins, you're not known for elite goldheading. Unless it's Tom Barrasso, you are not known for elite goaltending. Love Mark Andre Fleury. Like I said with Nick Benino a few episodes ago, beach front property in my heart for the Stanley Cups.

but let's call it what it is. Outside of a couple of seasons, Mark Andre Fleury was just good enough to let the firepower of the penguins win. Oh, I hope you don't make a lot of the people listening to this mad there. Listen, everybody's already mad at me when I talk about Mark Andre Fleury

because I don't pretend like he was Patrick Waugh and his pride. Love the guy. He is in my top five penguins of all time, but let's not pretend like he was an all-timer, Vezna winning goalie. He's going to be a Hall of Famer. He's got the rings. He's got the awards. He's got the wins. But a lot of those wins came on really good teams where he just had to be

good enough. You're not wrong. I'll say that. And I grew up a massive Mark Andre for the right fan, but I will say this. It breaks my sister's heart that I don't worship him. But I love him to death, but I'm not going to pretend like he's something he's not. And I'll say this too. Obviously the Penguins, they'll go as the top six goes. year. But right behind them, they will go as far as their goaltending takes them. You have bad goaltending that can sink a season in the blink of an eye. We've seen it happen numerous times with a whole bunch of other teams that cannot happen for this team, no matter how good the firepower is up front. If you don't have a guy that can at least be average, you're not

going to go anywhere. And again, outside the top six, this team will go as far as he takes them. To me, it's the second most important storyline of this season. The most important is, as always, how well does this top six stack up to the rest of the league? But like you just said, right behind it is can Tristan Jari keep the ship afloat? And again, always got it, all he has to do. We don't need him to steal games. Just do not lose them. And I hope he kicks a lot of butt, proves a lot of people wrong, including myself.

I think that will do it for this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Pat and I will be back for a Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast before we get into the everyday stuff on Monday. We'll probably do some more training camp preview stuff on Friday before really diving into more about camp next week because camp officially starts late next week. But again, thank you all so much for taking the time to tune in, whether it's audio, Apple, Spotify, Amazon music, all those other places, or it's YouTube. Thank you all so much for tuning in.

We'll be back for another episode on Friday.