Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Reimagining the Pittsburgh Penguins and the NHL!

Episode Date: May 31, 2024

It's a Friday and the last day of May so in this episode Patrick and Hunter propose some fresh ideas to reinvigorate both the Pittsburgh Penguins and the National Hockey League as a whole! First, the boys talk about the current playoff format and what they would do to make it better for both competition's sake and ratings. Then, it's time to crack open the rulebook and make some changes. What rules would they change, get rid of, or modify? Everything from replay review to puck over the glass - it's all on the table. Finally, how can PPG Paints Arena become an even better atmosphere? Patrick and Hunter have some easy fixes to make it one of the best places to see a game in the NHL. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARANTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – with any winning FIVE DOLLAR BET! 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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The NHL and the Pittsburgh Penguins are two of our favorite things, but for a fun Friday episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast, Hunter and I are going to reinvent them. 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 edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host Patrick Damp. You can follow me on Twitter at Synonym 4 Wedding. joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes.

You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's account a follow at L0 underscore Penguins. And we thank you for making this your first listener watch of the day because we're your team every day. And today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase terms apply. So it's the last day of May.

It's a Friday. and as you all know when your team is not in the playoffs, it's a difficult time to come up with things to talk about. But since I said those things, last day of May, it's a Friday, Hunter and I are going to have a little bit of fun today. And this is something him and I have discussed back and forth for probably years at this point. It's something that I'm sure all hockey fans have talked about at some point.

We're basically going to come up with a handful of suggestions here and there. that we think would make the National Hockey League better. Now, we fully understand similar to when we talk about silly season trades. These are probably never going to happen. But they are some things that we believe would make the National Hockey League more fun, more marketable, more enjoyable as a fan, you name it. So since it is the Stanley Cup playoffs and we are in the midst of the conference finals, let's start there.

One of the biggest hot button topics for hockey fans is the playoffs. format. Everybody seems to agree on one thing, and that's that the NHL's current Stanley Cup playoff format kind of stinks. There's wild cards who aren't really wild cards. It's divisional, but not really divisional. The seating doesn't make a lot of sense. So, yes, ideally we would love to go back to 1 to 8. I think that's kind of the consensus. Everybody misses the 1 to 8 format, even with the silly top 3 division winners getting a top 3 seed regardless. But Here's the way I would like to see the playoffs changed. Since the NHL feels totally compelled to dig into this rivalry thing and the divisional thing,

I would love to see us go back to the divisional playoff format from the 90s, where you are in your division for the first two rounds, one plays four, two plays three, the winners play each other, you win your division, and then you go on to the conference final. Hunter, by your reaction, I can tell you do not. agree with me. Yes, it's not often that Pat and I disagree on the show, but we definitely do here. I am not in favor of that at all. I really don't want to see the same teams playing each other in the playoffs, just like how they do during the regular season, especially inside your division.

That's the biggest reason why I hate this current playoff format right now is because you get a lot of the same matchups almost every year. Yeah, I mean, it's cool that you saw the Penguins and Capitals beat each other up for three years in a row, though it was a lot. It was a lot of round too early. I don't think you are rewarding regular season success with this current playoff format. If you went back to one versus eight, you reward regular season success a little bit more, and you get some newer and fresher matchups. This year in the Eastern Conference, if you were at one versus eight, it would have been the same as the current playoff format. So there's not that big of a difference there. But say you go back to 2016-17. Remember when the Penguins and the Blue

Jackets played in the first round. Pat, those two teams were two of the top three teams in the Eastern Conference by points. They played in the first round. Had this been one versus eight, the Penguins would have been the two seed and played the seventh seed, and the Blue Jackets would have been the third seed and played the sixth seed. You see where I'm getting at, it just doesn't reward regular season success. And even last year, you know, most of the matchups, I would say, would have been the same, but you also would have gotten Toronto versus New York in the first round and not New York versus New Jersey, and I can't lie. Seeing Toronto play New York in the first round would have been hilarious.

So that's at least one option to change the playoff format. Another one, and this is a fully chaotic one. How about we get the top seeds to pick who they want to play? I think that would be so much fun in the NHL for a league that really doesn't, I guess, adapt at times. This would be a blast to watch. And you know what? You can also, like, televise it or something.

Oh, here's this number one team in the Eastern Conference. conference, who do you want to play in the first round of the playoffs? And then it creates big storylines because say that lower seed upsets that number one seed or so on and so forth. Oh, you create some good new rivalries that way. And guess what? We just had a modern example of that in the PWHL. The Toronto team selected Minnesota because Toronto was the one of the one seed. And guess who just won the Walter Cup in the PWHL? Miniser. Minnesota. So you had that drama storyline there. But back to what I was saying, I do think if you were to take the divisional idea, I would like to see the NHL go a little bit closer to what baseball does to where

you play your division in the season more than anybody else. So rather than having to play a Western conference team twice and the other divisions a handful of times, the last. The last, the lion's share of your schedule would be against the same conference and the same division. Therefore, there's more motivation to win your division or place in the top four of your division. That way, you actually have to earn that seating. Now, the very radical idea I had because it's 2024, every team's got a chartered plane now, every team has great travel, we all have TV and the internet. let's go full chaotic.

Let's go one through 16. If you're one of the top 16 teams, 16 teams, you're in. And we're not going to have an Eastern conference. We're not going to have a Western conference. We are going to have a 16 seed battle royale for the Stanley Cup. It almost just sounds, well, I wouldn't say almost, but I was going to almost compare it to like the NCAA tournament, that really wouldn't make that much sense just because you play in neutral locations there.

But I think the only thing that's holding that back, is the travel. Like say, I'm just throwing this out there as an example. Say the penguins get in next year and you have that one verse 16 thing and they have to play the Edmonton Oilers in the first round. I mean, that's a tough travel thing. You know, there's a reason why you save that for, you know, the conference final. You save that for the Stanley Cup final, especially, etc. I mean, if you get a team like Florida in Edmonton in the Stanley Cup final, I mean, look at how that travel is going to be from sunrise all the way up to Edmonton. So I, I, I, I, hear you, I think it would be a lot of fun, but just because of the travel, there's just no way

they're ever going to implement that. Yeah, that one is definitely full fantasy. You're creating a playoff in NHL 24 kind of idea. And the last thing I'll say on the playoffs, and this kind of has to do more with TV and marketing. The first day of the playoffs needs to be a Saturday, and it needs to be the day where every single series starts. And it is a marathon day. You have your first game at noon. The next game goes at one. The next game goes at two.

The next game goes at three. Then you have a little bit of a break. And then five, seven, eight, and ten o'clock. And that way, all eight series begin. That day is fully the Stanley Cup playoff day. You have your breakfast, have your morning coffee. sit down on the couch at noon and it's hockey for nearly 12 hours. I would love that. It would grow the sport quite a bit. And I think you would also be able to

outgain the NBA at least for that day. I mean, the NBA's TV ratings are obviously through the roof with how their league is. But I think for that specific day, the NHL would be able to get over the NBA. And I don't think they would be just going into a lose, lose battle like they do sometimes. And I will say for as much as I'm going to crap on the Stanley Cup final schedule in a few moments, I do like how the league is not going to be going up against the NBA finals on any of the day. They can have their own ratings because if you're going up against the NBA finals on that same day, the league is going to get crushed. So I'm glad that they recognize that. Yeah, that was a huge win in my opinion is as goofy as the Stanley Cup final

schedule is, the fact that they seem to go out of their way to keep it from going head to head with the NBA finals is very, very smart. Yeah, I agree with you on that. But the biggest thing is why is the Stanley Cup final starting on June 8th? I really don't understand it. In my opinion, the Stanley Cup final should end as late as mid-June. And I would gladly hear arguments for the final to end in early June, if not late May. I think if it ends around that time, it's also a success. But the Stenlika final this year, Game 7 would be on June 24th. That is basically a week away from free agency, and it's only a few days away from the

NHL draft. So the winning team only has a few days to celebrate before it's time for the draft, and then it's time for free agency. There's no reason to have the Stanley Cup final end that way. I just don't like it. Yeah, it's not, it's not good hockey. And I know that there's still, this is the last year coming out of the readjustment, basically after the pandemic, through everything into flux.

But I mean, still having a Stanley Cup final that late is just absolutely absurd. But that's going to do it for the first segment of the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. We're going to keep this discussion going. with some more ideas about the rules, the penguins, TV, you name it. We got plenty of ideas because, like I said, we've been having this discussion amongst ourselves for quite a long time. But before we do that, we have to tell you about our first sponsor, and that is game time. The NBA finals and the Stanley Cup finals are right around the corner, and we know how much

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All right, we're back here on the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm Patrick Damp, joined as always by the illustrious Hunter Hodes, and we're going to keep our discussion rolling here for some fun ideas we had to basically reinvent the NHL a little bit. And I want to start with one that I know bothers NHL fans far and wide. We're going to go more into rules here. And in the last segment, just to tease ahead a little bit here, we will talk about some penguin-centric things that we think they could do to make things better.

But I'm going to start with one of the biggest hot button topics in hockey, and that is replay review. Here's my main rule that change I'd like to see made. I don't want to get rid of review. I think it's necessary. I think it helps the game be accurate. It helps officials get calls correct. However, we take way too much time with replay review. My proposal for the NHL, all reviews have a.

two-minute time limit. If you cannot overturn the call or confirm the call in two minutes, the call on the ice stands. I like that. And I'm going to take that a step further. So with off-sides reviews in the NHL, I am very much for it just because of obviously what happened with Danny Breyer and so many other situations as well. Yes, I'm sorry I had to bring up the Danny Breyer goal. It still irks me a bit to this day. But with that, and I know how good the penguins have been with off-sides reviews ever since they were implemented. That said, there should be a 30-second time limit for off-side challenges. So if a goal is scored 30 seconds after there was an off-side, for example, that goal should count.

I think just because when you look at some of these reviews, it's off-side by the slimmest of margins. And if it's more than 30 seconds, you've had ample opportunity, usually to get the pocket. out, I think 30 seconds is good enough. Just because I've seen so many of these goals come back, 45 seconds after the play, a minute after the play, and you've had to have the clock turned back a little bit. I think 30 seconds is a good time limit for me, in my opinion. I know that that might be controversial to some people, but 30 seconds is a good ballpark for me.

I mean, I'm right there with you because aside from the fact that you're getting rid of offense, which is something that we know empirically sells in professional sports, it's what people show up to watch. People love a shootout. And I mean that by like a 8-7 game, not the end of overtime shootout. You're also making these judgment calls on pixels at this point. It's half of a toenail off sides and they call it back.

But to your point, you look at a lot of these. There's been plenty of examples to where the team has the puck in the zone for 30, 45, 60, 70 plus seconds. And it's no longer an impact on the play. You've had a chance to clear it. You've had a chance to cover it. All that.

And the one half of a toenail off sides didn't really affect the outcome. And I think that also gets right back into my original proposal of when you go back and watch that and you're zooming in, you know, 1,500 times on the camera over a two and a half, three minutes span. At this point, does it really make that much of a difference? It shouldn't. I don't think so. And just another thing also while we're on that topic, I want to see more consistency with goaltender interference, man. I'm sick and tired of having to look at the rule book and be like, oh, is this goal tender interference? What about this one? What about this one? There's just no consistency when it comes to that rule just because there could be quite a bit of contact in the crease, legitimate contact, but a goal will stand. But yet there's also

very minimal contact in the crease, but the goal will be taken away. There's been a couple examples already in the Stanley Cup playoffs this year, namely in the Bruins Panthers series where I know both fan bases were pretty riled up at each other for that. So I just, please get more consistent with goaltender interference because I don't want to keep having to ask myself every single year, what is goalie interference? Please have it be more consistent. And I'm totally fine with there being some subjectivity to goaltender interference calls

because not all contact is made the same. But there needs to be, to your point, more consistency on the, okay, this person initiated the contact, this person was pushed into contact. The goaltender did not have enough time to reestablish, reestablish position, excuse me, and make the save. Because that's where the inconsistency has shown up. You see calls where the goalie gets bumped, but it doesn't really affect his ability to make a save.

And then you see others where a goalie gets. it's knocked out of position. His pad gets moved. And I know people will scoff it. Oh, his pad gets moved. But the goaltender is afforded the space to make the save according to the rulebook. So if you're not giving him that space to establish, what are we even doing here? Again, until this league actually wants to get serious about getting consistent calls right when it comes to goaltender interference, people are just going to have questions about it, including myself and you too.

but I got one more for this. Get rid of the delay of game penalty. I hate it. I know that's going to be very controversial, I think, in the YouTube comments or maybe in my DMs as well. I hate the delay of game penalty. I think punishing players for a complete accidental play is stupid. It's dumb.

It's whatever word you want to call it. I don't like it that it's in the league. And I want the NHL to get rid of it. Obviously, that's not going to happen. I know that there are people out there who, love this role and I totally get it, but I can't stand it. I'm going to add an addendum to what you said, and I'm going to keep the rule, but I'm going to modify it.

You get one. If there's one play where the puck gets flipped over the glass and it goes into the stands or the penalty box or the bench, or over the benches, no harm, no foul. It happens. It's part of the game. Sometimes it's accidental. Sometimes it's accidentally on purpose. We know that.

But you get one. It happens once. Okay, you're good. Play leaves the zone or play stays in the zone. Whatever. If it happens a second time, that's delay a game. Because if you're, you can get one, like, and you can even use that as a tactic as a team or a coach. Hey, we're under pressure.

Even then, it could be subjective by the official. Hey, you were under pressure for a minute and you flip the puck over the glass to get a whistle. But at the same time, you get one. If it happens, no big deal. If it happens again, there's two minutes. I can at least be persuaded for that, Pat. So, okay, but also just get rid of the rule. Yeah, I mean, I'm mostly in agreement with you that I think it's stupid.

I think 99.9% of the time it's an accident. You're trying to get it high off the glass or you just weren't looking. Hell, you even have the example from all the way back in 2010 when Matt Cook cleared a puck all the way from his own zone and it hit the netting above the, opposing goaltender and that was the rule. But at the same time, you know there was no world where he was aiming for the netting, but it was the letter of the law. But I think that is going to do it for the second segment, for the thing that everybody came for.

We're going to talk a little bit about the Penguins specifically and some things we'd like to see them do as an organization going forward in our little fun Friday episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. We will talk about that right after the game. this. All right, we're back on the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes.

And now it's time to get into some hyper-specific things that we would like to see our team do in our little, our little laboratory of an episode here where we're cooking up a little bit of new things for the National Hockey League, including the Pittsburgh Penguins. And I'm going to start with one, that's a throwback. It's something near and dear to my heart, because when I was in high school, and a little bit in college, I took full advantage of it. And I want to see the Penguins bring back the OG student rush program to where you don't have to have a text message link,

you don't have to have a special QR code where you can buy the discounted tickets. Listen, I love discounted tickets. You're never going to hear me complaining against discounted tickets. But there was nothing more fun in the early days of the Crosby-Malkin-Latang era then going down to the old melon arena, hanging out outside of the box office for an hour or two, pulling out my Penn Hills High School student ID and getting a $25 ticket that honestly was a wheel of randomness. You could be all the way up in the nosebleeds.

You could end up on the glass. It was a complete randomization of tickets. But I love the original spirit of it because it got you that younger demographic. It made it affordable because even in the late days of Mellon Arena, tickets still weren't cheap. They weren't as expensive as PPG paints arena, but they were still pretty costly. And when you have Duquesne, Pitt, CMU,

all those other schools kind of right in that area, you really could use that as a night out. And I think it would be fun to do not for every game, but if you could pick five, six games, Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday afternoon, and make those your student rush games, I really think that would go a long way to getting that younger demographic coming up

because to them, these are the old guys. This isn't, you know, people like me who were two, three years younger than Crosby and Malkin. They're looking at Crosby and Malkin as the old guys and you got to get ready for the next generation. Yeah, I agree with you. And I think just having them buy cheap tickets, that's only going to make them, I think,

bigger hockey fans as well, even though Crosby, Malkin, and Lattang are at the end of their careers at this point. But my idea, it's a little bit different. I want the Penguins to bring back the Jam Siren a little bit more. For those that don't know what the Jam Siren is, it's the Penguins old Air Siren that they played in the 90s. They've also brought it back at times for playoff hype videos. They also play it in the playoffs, especially in the third period where they're either up by one or even down by one. But they have really done. it that often these last couple of years. I know the penguins haven't made the playoffs these last two seasons, but I still want them to bring it back at least a few times the season. You don't need

to bring it back every single home game. That would turn into overkill. It would be a bit too much. But in big moments in the third period, especially in the late stages of the regular season where the games get even bigger, bring back that jam siren in the third period with the penguins up by one or maybe a tied game, something like that. To get the crowd going to get the team a little more juice, et cetera, I think that would be a great move by the organization. I love the jam siren. I miss it so much.

I mean, I saw a video on Twitter today from someone just playing the Penguins intro against the Sharks game one, 2016, and just hearing the jam siren once again, it really sends chills down your spine. So just bringing that back at least a little bit. You can't see it. You probably can't see it on YouTube, but oh, chills. Yes.

Because just thinking about it, chills. And I do agree with you to an extent. Like, I think you hit the nail on the head. You don't want to bring it back all the time because it takes away the gravitas of it. It's not as, it's not as significant if it's every single game. They were doing that for a while where they would play like the old NFL films music and like play a little like hype video when the team was down one late in a game. And like the video board would say like,

we need you fans get loud. And then the air raid siren or the jam siren, as you call it would play. And it would hype people up. Like, because it has that significance to the fan base. It makes you think of like, oh,

this is like real. These are the play or we're close to the playoffs. Because like you said, I saw that video too on Twitter from game one, 2016. And just hearing that building. erupt as soon as that siren started. Oh, it's just, it's so, so good.

Again, just using it at least a little bit during the regular season, I really think would go a long way. Yeah, you can maybe argue you could save it for the end of the regular season just because the first half, the games are important, but, you know, the games can get bigger down the stretch, but I still feel like they got to find a way to bring it back. Agreed. And the last thing I'll say, and it kind of builds upon my student rush thing, is I really would love, they do this every now and then. I would like to see them do it a little bit more frequently.

They used to do it with Mikey and Big Bob from 96.1 where they would have these kind of themeish nights where like there would be a section or two set aside for their listeners or that group or whomever. and it would be good seats. It wouldn't be up in the diagonal corner away from the net where they shoot twice and you pack them all up there. They would be closer to the ice. But I know that it's gotten better over the last 10-ish years. But for the first few years of PPG paints arena, Consol Energy Center, that lower bowl was very corporate.

It was very, and I get it. You know, it's a lot of very wealthy people, a lot of businesses, entertaining clients. But when you're in that environment, no matter who you are, no matter what your status is, when the crowd starts getting rowdy, it's really difficult not to join in. And I think after the back-to-back cup runs, this building finally got the moments it needed. It's been a lot louder. It's been a lot more fun. But having that electric atmosphere more consistently makes it such a better entertainment product.

Oh, 100%. I mean, I was at that game late in the season this year against the 10th. Bay Lightning. And the way that crowd was so loud, it felt like game one of the playoff series. And if this were before the Penguins won their back-to-back Stanley Cups at PPG, I don't think it would have been nearly as loud. But just the fact that it's changed so much, you know, big credit, obviously to, you know, Mikey and Big Bob with their watch parties and everything. But just with the way it's changed, it's fantastic. And it really has turned, I think into one of the best home atmospheres in the NHL.

I know there's a few other arenas that get really loud during the regular season and also the playoffs. But Pittsburgh, I think, is very underrated when it comes to that category. Yeah, I think once we finally got those playoff moments in those runs, it changed the environment in that arena because there was still, even though it was only opened up two years after a Stanley Cup, there was still that air of like, oh, no, they might underachieve. This group might underachieve. They might not win more than one Stanley Cup.

And we were all tense and kind of like waiting for the other shoe to drop. And then they got those big moments in 16, 17. And people were like, oh, yeah, this is our team. Let's let the cap off. Well, yeah, for sure. Just because like you look at the other playoff games they've had there, most of them have turned into first round exits for the penguins. I mean, obviously you had that run to the conference final before they got swept against Boston.

But other than. that, I mean, you had that win against Columbus in that first round series in 2013, 14. But other than that, all these exits were first and second rounds. So you just didn't have that big opportunity for this team to go on a deep run. And once that happened, boom, this place just went nuts. And you saw it really turn it into one of the best home atmospheres in the league. No doubt. But I think at this point, it's safe to say you and I have saved, reinvented and made the

NHL, a tremendous product. So Gary, if you're listening, give us a call. We'll help you out and get one more, Gary. Please get rid of the shootout and let's add five more minutes of three on three over time. Let's do that. 10 minutes three on three. I did, I did have that in my notes. We didn't get to it. I would like to see 10 minute three on three. And I would like to see a three two one zero point system. But we got a whole off season ahead of us where we can do even more of this stuff. But again, Gary, we've fixed the NHL. If you need some help, give us a call. We'll help you out. no problem, but that is going to do it for the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Hunter and I will be back on Monday with another episode to talk about who knows what.

We'll see what the Penguins do for us over this weekend. And maybe we'll have a Stanley Cup final matchup to start talking about, who knows. But for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always for tuning in. And we will talk to you on Monday.