Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Revisiting our Penguins preseason bold predictions

Episode Date: April 25, 2024

Prior to the start of the 2023-24 season, Patrick and Hunter made some BOLD predictions and today, they revisit those to see just how wrong they were. Then, it's time for the first season-in-review segment where the boys look back on how Evgeni Malkin fared in the 2023-24 campaign. Finally, they take a look down on the farm to see how the Baby Penguins and the Wheeling Nailers are doing in their respective playoff series.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monopoly GO!Get in the game and join your friends. Download MONOPOLY GO! now free on The App Store or Google Pay. The mobile hit twist on classic MONOPOLY.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.PolicygeniusCheck life insurance off your to do list in no time with Policygenius. Head to policygenius.com/lockedonnhl to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save.SleeperDownload the Sleeper App and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARENTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – win or lose! 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.

Hunter and I made some bold predictions to start the 2020-23-24 Pittsburgh Penguins season. And spoiler alert, dear listeners, they did not go well. You're Locked-on Penguin, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguin. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome to another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on Twitter at Synod. an M4 Wet, joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes.

You can throw him a follow on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow our show's account at L.O. underscore Penguins. We thank you, as always, for making this your first listener watch of the day, because we're your team every day. And don't forget, you can find us wherever you get your podcast. We are free and available Monday through Friday. And today's episode is brought to you by Monopoly Go. I admit it, I've got a competitive side.

And that competitive side is a big fan of Monopoly Go. It's the mobile hit twist on the classic Monopoly. So join your friends and download Monopoly Go now free on the app store or Google Play. So if there is one thing in the sports talk industry that is extremely fun to do, it is to go back and look back at your preseason predictions. And for the two of us, we didn't just make preseason predictions. We took an episode where we made three bold predictions each, some of them oddly specific, some of them putting,

ourselves out there on the ledge. But guess what? All of those bold predictions made us look like the absolute goofballs that we absolutely are. And to kick us off with this, I'm going to start with one of my own, and I was not just wrong. Boy, I was way wrong. My oddly specific prediction, if I can get my notepad here and take a look at it, I said that Chris Latang, thanks to the acquisition of Eric Carlson, would be spending more time with Evgeny Malkin at 5 on 5 than he normally does with Sidney Crosby because as we know, Lattang and Crosby, his line and his pairing were often locked to one another. So let's start with Sidney Crosby.

Chris Lattang spent 650 minutes and 30 seconds with Sidney Crosby at 5 on 5 compared to Evgeny Malkin, who he spent 397 minutes and 12 seconds with. Hunter, not only was I wrong, I was way wrong on that one. Well, I can one up you at least a little bit because I was very bullish on Evgeny Malkin heading into the season. I said on that episode right before the season, I predicted him to have 95 plus points the season. That's how high I was on him. That's how high I was on the Riley Smith acquisition because I thought he was going to be great off the rush, which was really going to help Gino on his line.

I was dead wrong on both. Malkin finished the season. 27 goals, 67 points in 82 games. Still, a pretty respectable season, but he had 28 less points than what I boldly predicted him to have before the start of the season. Yes, he did lose a little bit of a step. I guess I had some copium just because of how he finished last year,

how he was one of the Penguins' best players. But, yeah, I will definitely take the L on that. I don't think I'm going to predict him to have 95 plus points next season. I still think he's going to be pretty solid, especially with Michael Buncing on his line. But I will definitely take the L on that. And of course, the Smith trade because that line just went absolutely nowhere when both were on the second line. Yeah. And I think looking back at both of our predictions that involved of Gennie Malkin, I think a lot of it, we have to admit, were extenuating circumstances.

It wasn't so much the people we were talking about. It wasn't so much Sidney Crosby or Chris LaTang or even of Gennie Malkin. It was the circumstances surrounding them. Chris Latang was pretty much out on an island all season long because he was either with Ryan Graves or he had a rotating cast of partners. But he did eventually find some consistency at the end of the season with P.O. Joseph. And that was because of how poor of a season Ryan Graves had. It really felt like that we talked about it, that Ryan Graves was going to be the replacement for Brian Graves. and Dumlin. It was going to be a seamless transition. Chris LaTang was going to have a good stay at home,

two-way defenseman on his pairing, and we would just keep humming right along. But it turns out Ryan Graves did not have a great season whatsoever. So that definitely hurt that prediction of mine. And as for yours, same kind of deal. You look at that second line. And it was a comical cast of characters joining of getting Malkin on that second line because we remember first few weeks of the season, Smith and Gino were cooking. They were absolutely cooking. It looked like that was going to eclipse the Eric Carlson acquisition for Kyle Dubus' offseason moves. And then it just completely fell off of a cliff. But let's keep this moving, revisiting our bold predictions because we each made three. I'm going to go back to one that I did that wasn't right,

but I came fairly close. Everybody knows. who listens to the show that I am the president of the Jeff Carter fan club, and I expected a bounce back year from him, considering he was put in a lesser role. It would not be put in less advantageous situations. I predicted 15 goals for Big Jeff Carter. Didn't get to 15, but he came sort of close with 11 goals. I thought he did have a better year this year, just because, again, used in a lesser role was not the third line center.

He was the fourth line winger. He filled in at center at times, but it was still the fourth line. And overall for his final season, I thought he did as well as he could. Again, you cannot blame him specifically for signing such a bloated contract. That's a management problem, not a Jeff Carter problem. But overall, I thought BJC had a pretty solid year, all things considered, and considering where the expectations were for him going into the season. Yeah, you came close to a win with that one.

And speaking of that, I also came very close to a win with one of my bold predictions as well. I was all in on Drew O'Connor to start this season. And I'm glad I was vindicated at least a little bit. I predicted him to score 20 goals this season just because of the level of play that I saw from him during camp and especially the preseason. And Pat, he came pretty close. 16 goals, 33 points this season. I did also say that he was going to outscore everyone in the bottom six. I'm half right, but I'm also half wrong because he spent a good chunk of the second half of the season

in the top six on Cindy Crosby line, especially with Jake out for a little bit. And then obviously after the Gensel trade, O'Connor was up there for most of those final several games. So kind of half right, kind of half wrong there. But I did get right that O'Connor was going to have a major breakout year. Just didn't get the 20 goal mark right. But I came super close. I'm glad I'm able to be vindicated at least a little bit without bold prediction, even though I didn't get quite the 20 goals.

And I do think for him that is on the horizon. I think he's trending towards becoming that player. Speaking of trends, let's go to your next one. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to flame you for this one a little bit. Your final bold prediction for this season was that Tristan Jari would finish the season as somewhere between a 925 and a 928 goalie. he finished the season with a 903 save percentage. So Hunter, answer for your crimes.

I will gladly take the L on that. You know, fool me once, shame on you. Full me twice, shame on me. The season before, I actually predicted Jari to be a Vesna finalist just because I was that high on him that year. Well, I got that wrong. And then even though I didn't really like the contract that he signed over the offseason,

I was kind of like, okay, I want him to prove me and a lot of us wrong. I think he's going to have a big year and show everyone that he can change in the second half of the season, at least after February. Well, he wasn't able to do that. He had a great first half, but after February, really after March came around, he turned into the goal that we've seen him turn into countless times since becoming the Penguins number one netminder,

and that's becoming someone who's not reliable. He was benched down the stretch. He really didn't play in the team's final 13 games, and he finished the season with a 9-0-0-3-6. percentage. That is the last time that I think I do a bull prediction regarding the Penguins number wet netminder in Trishanjari. That's probably the worst bowl prediction I think I've had on the show. Though, I did say when they got Riley Smith that he was going to pot 20 to 25 this year. And I will gladly take the L on that one too. I was dead wrong on that. Yeah, not only were our predictions

disappointing. As we know, the Penguins were very disappointing this year. Rapping up this segment here. My final prediction, it's an incomplete one, but I would say it's extremely unlikely to come true. I predicted that Sidney Crosby would get yet another Hart trophy. And while he did have a tremendous season, and I do think there's a world where he can finish in top five voting from the writers, there's no world I see him being a nominee for the Hart Trophy this postseason, let alone winning it. So while I can't quite take the L on that prediction, I'm I'm pretty close to taking that L. But that is going to do it for our first segment of today's episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast.

When we come back, we're going to start off our season reviews. And we're going to kick it off with a guy who we have been talking about a little bit on this episode already. And that is Evgeny Malkin. But before we do that, we have to tell you about our first sponsor. And that is Monopoly Go. I have been told in my life that I'm a pretty competitive person and Hunter that leads me to asking you. would you say that's true? Especially in your beer league games, yes.

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All right, we're back here on the Thursday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm Patrick Damp, joined as always by the illustrious Hunter Hodes. And we're going to kick off our season and reviews here. We're going to do this kind of throughout the postseason over the next few weeks. We're going to look at individuals on the team, on the roster, players, even coaches and management, and we'll kind of give our thoughts on their season as a whole. And we're going to kick it off with a guy who has always been a polarizing figure. in Penguin Circles, and that is assistant captain number 71,

Fagney Malkin. It was not a great year for Gino overall. He did play all 82 games for the second season in a row, scored 27 goals, added 40 assists for 67 points, finished with a plus five and averaged about 18 and a half minutes per game. By Hvgeny Malkin standards, not his best season. Overall, though, if you're just looking at the surface, If you're just looking at the counting stats, it's a disappointing season,

but there were a ton of circumstances surrounding it that put Malkin in a position where he couldn't really can succeed, excuse me. But there also is the factor that you could see it with his game. He has started to lose a step just a little bit. That's totally fair to say. He definitely has lost at least a little bit of a step, but I still think he is a very good second line center in the NHL. I've said it a lot on this show. I'll say it again here. Not everyone is going to age like

Cindy Crosby. In fact, really nobody is probably going to age like him. You're asking for the impossible with that. But when I look at a Genni Malkin's season overall, yes, it is a little disappointing, but he still did everything in his power to help this team win on a nightly basis. I mean, you look at his underlying numbers this season when he was on the ice, the Penguins had 52% of the shot attempts they had over 54% of the actual goals for, 53% of the expected goals, almost 52% of the scoring chances. He was setting up a scoring chance virtually every shift. And for the longest time, no one was putting the puck in the back of the net just because

a lot of his line mates were not that good for the season. Yeah, Riley Smith and him started out the season, Red Hop those first few weeks. But after that, Smith trailed off. and Malkin was kind of left on an island just because this team was a one-line team for a good chunk of the season. Heck, they had Colin White on his line at times this year. For as good as Gino is, he's not going to be able to carry a line at age 37 with someone like Colin White on it. I think you're just asking for the impossible with that. But once Michael Bunting came onto his line, he looked like 2016.

2017 level of getting Malkin. In only 21 games, they had a little over 200 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time. With bunting and Malkin together, that line, 17 goals for, 11 goals against, 53% of the squand chances, 55% of the high danger chances. All of those numbers are way up when you look at Malkin's line without bunting on it. He just needs a little bit of help. And once he got that help, boom, that line took off and was one of their best lines. lines for the final month, five weeks of the season.

It also did help, I will say, that Ricard Raquel started playing a lot better through the final month of the season. We'll have to see what happens with him over the offseason. But Raquel started to get back to the level that we saw him play at last season, and that was big for his line as well. He just needs a couple of competent line mates to help him because he can still set up chances. He can still gallop at times. He just needs a little bit more help compared to someone like said.

You brought it up. Michael Bunting, that acquisition really helped rejuvenate Fegni Malkin's season. They really seem to have something together on that line. And I am very curious as you are to see how Ricard Raquel bounces back next season. I'm very doubtful that they could move off of that deal. But we did find out from reporting from Seth Rorbaugh that Raquel was basically playing with a shoulder injury throughout the entire season. he could be seen wearing a brace around it, most of the season after he came back from that injury early in the year.

So if he's able to recover and get back to his usual self, the way he plays the game, the way Michael Bunting plays the game, I do think you really could have something on that second line with those two together. And again, we talked about it at the beginning of the show. You spoke about it there when you were talking about Evgeny Malkin. The biggest hindrance to his success this year, I think, was that he needed consistency.

He's lost a little bit of a step. He can't really take over games the way he once could when he was in his absolute prime. But the power is still there. The shot is still there. The skill and vision are still there. But when you have the legs diminishing a little bit, that is going to suffer your overall game.

So if he has consistency, whether it's Ricard Raquel or this team goes out and gets somebody else to help him in the same, summer. I do think he's going to get back to a normal level into next season. Does that mean 100 points? No, it probably means 70, 80-ish points and another 25, 30 goals because he still has the shot. He still can bomb the puck from the circle. And he still has the vision to make some absolutely incredible plays. And the biggest thing for me is, despite all the injuries in the surgeries that he's gone through, despite losing a step.

He is still a fearless hockey player. You can see it in his game. He still drives the net. He still is willing to go to the front of the net. He's still willing to go into areas where he's going to get hit. And those are all hallmarks of what makes of Gennie Malkin a great hockey player. Agreed. And you brought up that shot that he still has.

You're right. I mean, it's a cannon from the circle. And I want the Penguins to utilize that shot on the power play. more often next season. It's one of the biggest reasons why I want a new powerplay coaches so they can unlock that again, just because the Penguins power play kind of went away from that this season.

I don't know why. He can fire the puck like it's no tomorrow. And even if the puck is not going in the net, it's still creating rebound opportunities for someone like Bunting, who, again, is a ratty player and can be around the net front that sets up garbage goals for someone like him. They need to utilize that a lot more.

And I just want to see some of his decision-making improve a bit more as well, whether it's on the power play or five on five. Sometimes he would make a couple of rust decisions with the puck. Kind of want to see that cleaned up a little bit for next season as well. If I have to give a grade for him, I'll give somewhere. I'm not going to give him an A, but maybe B, B, B, minus somewhere in there. You could argue a C if you want to, but I think B to B minus is a fair grade for me this year. That's right where I am.

I was going to go B minus C plus. He did a lot of very Evgeny Malkin things down the stretch when he he. he was needed more than ever. He at the very least played admirably through having that revolving door of wingers on his line. And like I said, he's just not the Evgeny Malkin of even five years ago. They can just snap his fingers and take over a game. So while it was, again, a disappointing season for the penguins overall, there is still

something there for Fgeny Malkin. Again, I hate to expectation set here. But again, don't expect next. year him to come back and suddenly be prime of Gennie Malkin. Set your expectations accordingly. He is going to be of Gennie Malkin with a bit of a step less. The points aren't going to be as big, but should Kyle Dubus do what he says he is setting out to do this summer, I do expect him to bounce back a little bit and maybe get back to that level he had last year where he had just a shade over 80 points. But that is going to do it for the second segment of the Lockdown Penguins podcast.

When we come back, it's do or die time for the baby penguins as they find themselves after just one game facing elimination in their opening round series of the Calder Cup playoffs. But before we do that, we're going to tell you about our next sponsor, and that is Indeed. When you're drafting your fantasy team, do you ever wish you could just handpick the best stars for your business team? If you're building your talent roster, you need Indeed. Indeed is the hiring platform where you can attract, interview, and hire all in one place. So don't spend hours on multiple job sites looking for candidates with the right skills when you can do it all with Indeed. You can find top talent fast with Indeed's suite of powerful hiring tools like matching, assessments, and virtual interviews. Hate waiting? Indeed's US data shows over 80% of Indeed employees find quality candidates whose resumes on Indeed matches their job description the moment they sponsor a job.

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Indeed.com slash locked on. Terms and conditions apply. Cost per application. Not available for everyone. Need to hire. You need, indeed. Welcome back to the Thursday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. One more time. I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes. And, oh boy, nervous, nervous times for our fellas up there in northeastern Pennsylvania. Because in their best of three opening series against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, they are now trailing one to nothing after a two.

two to one loss to the phantoms. And this is a tough one because we previewed this series a couple of days ago. And I compared the phantoms to the Washington capitals of the Stanley Cup playoffs, who had a dismal goal differential. And the penguins looked like with all the reinforcements they were bringing in for the Calder Cup playoffs, that it looked like this would be a quick work series for the baby penguins. But right now they're going to need all three games to get out of the first round. round after losing two to one to Lehigh Valley.

Yeah, I really hope that they didn't just call up all of those reinforcements for nothing because it would stink if they weren't able to get in a full series against a different team in the next round. I will say, Vili Kovinen was awesome in that game last night. Did you see the goal that he scored? First off, great pass by Sam Poo-Land to get Kovin in the puck. But the way he deflected it in the back of the net. I mean, that stuff you don't teach.

That was a really nice deflection. I continue to be really intrigued, really fascinated about this kid. I want to see more than just one more game from him in a Wilkeshire uniform for this season. Yeah, absolutely. And it was a pretty solid night for the Penguins top goaltending prospect, Joel Blumquist. Despite the loss, he made 30 saves on 32 shots. Meanwhile, on the other side, a guy we talked about yesterday is in net for Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

then that is Cal Peterson. He turned away 21 of 22. And game two of this will be on Friday in Lehigh Valley. And this is do or die for the baby penguins. They lose this one. They are done. So they are going to have to get a win in Lehigh Valley. And that is crucial because like we were talking about,

a lot of guys the penguins really want to develop, excuse me, are involved in this series. And if you only get them two games of Calder Cubs, playoff experience, that could hinder their development because we were gushing about how playing these games at this level at this time of year would do wonders for their development. So at this point, if you're rooting for the penguins to get younger and faster, oh boy, you got to get to rooting for the baby penguins. Agree, yeah, it goes back to what you said this week.

A deep playoff run will do wonders for all these Blighters developments. And I also thought Jackson Ivany had a pretty sound game. Last night he was on the top pairing with Ryan Shea, who again was playing really well for the Penguins down the stretch. I want to see more from those two in this series and hopefully later on in the HL playoffs as well. So this is big, man. I really hope that they don't just go quietly into the night here. Meanwhile, if we go one step lower into the H.HL and we have been telling you that Saturday night, The Wheeling Nailers will take on the indie fuel at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.

And ladies and gentlemen, that could be a series clinching game for the Wheeling Nailers as they now have a 3-1 series lead over the fuel. So again, if you are looking for a good game with some guys you could possibly see in Pittsburgh in the next few years, that game is going to be a great one to go to. So keep that in mind, couple days to go. before that. A couple other odds and ends here we want to touch on before we close out the show. Sad, sad news in the hockey world today.

The longtime voice of Hockey Night in Canada, Bob Cole has passed away at age 90. You have undoubtedly, if you have been a hockey fan for more than just a few years, you know Bob Cole, you know his calls, you know the signature. Oh, baby! after goals and big plays, if you've never seen his call of Mario Lemieux's iconic goal against the Minnesota North Stars in the 1991 Stanley Cup final, absolutely worth your time. Give that a look, but that is a tough, tough loss for the hockey community. He did retire a few years ago and got the greatest victory lap for a broadcaster you could expect in just a sad, sad day in the hockey community. one of the greatest play-by-play announcers, not just in hockey, but all-time.

There are so many calls that I could really bring up that I know he was a part of. I mean, you obviously brought up the Lemieux one. That's forever in my head. But one that still always stands out to me was the second round series, Penguins Caps, 2017. And you remember when the Penguins were down to nothing late in that game, and they rallied to tie it before losing overtime. I know the Penguins went on to win that series.

But Bob Cole was on another level to end. regulation in game three. His call on the Schultz tying goal was awesome. Did the Schultz score tie game? Oh, baby. And then he let the crowd get into it. You got to hear PBG Pains Arena get so loud. And then he said,

Schultz, a corker, tie game. Can you believe it? And it just sends chills right down my spine when I hear it. I looked it up as soon as I saw the news and I'm like, yep, it's still exactly as I remember. one of the best to ever do it and just a really sad day for the hockey community and the sports community in general. And speaking of his relation to the Pittsburgh Penguins in those classic three years where the Penguins and Capitals met in 2016, 2017, and 2018, Jesse Marshall and I, when he retired, did a tribute episode of our old podcast dying alive to his career.

And I'll never forget before Game 7 Penguins Capitals in 2017, there was a clip of him in the pregame kind of setting up just everything about that game. And he had one line that I'll always hear in my head. And he just goes, it's the Penguins and Sidney Crosby, the Washington Capitals, and Alex Ovechkin, game seven folks, everything on the line tonight. what more could you ask for? And it's simple, straight to the point, but man, just the way that he set that up, just an absolutely tremendous broadcaster. He was missed the day he retired and he will be absolutely missed by everybody else in the hockey community. All the best to his family and all the best to those at Sportsnet and Hockey Night in Canada

because he obviously had great relationships with all of them. So one last thing before we go real quick. Tomorrow, Friday, our last episode of the week, we will be doing a mailbag episode. You will get a call from both of us on social media asking for questions. Anything you want, hockey related, get to know us. We're going to have ourselves a little bit of fun on Friday and answer your questions.

You can tweet those at us. You can put them down here in the YouTube. comments. We'll go through them tomorrow. And when we record, we will answer your questions. But Hunter, unless you've got anything to add, I think that is going to do it for this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. For Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always, for tuning in. And we will talk to you on Friday.