Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Should Kapanen be moved up to Sid's line when he's back?

Episode Date: October 20, 2021

It's an off day, but when has that ever meant the content stops? Well, it doesn't and Hunter first touches on Tristan Jarry and how great he's been this season. He dives into more of the stats to show it, plus sends a message to some of the fanbase to support him more as he tries and get back on track. He also shouts out Kris Letang again after another tremendous performance and goes into some of his numbers as well. After that, we have a mailbag segment that includes: Should Kapanen be promoted when Sid returns? How should the lines shake out? Should "Seek and Destroy" still be the Penguins song coming onto the ice? All that, plus much more on this episode of Locked On Penguins.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello, everyone, and welcome to this Wednesday afternoon episode of the Locked-on Penguins Podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hoddies. You know to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O.

underscore Penguins. And, of course, thanks for making the Locked-on Penguins podcast your first listen. Every day, you know, we're always free. available on all platforms. The biggest thing that I wanted to touch on to start today's episode is the continued excellence of Tristan Jari. I know I touched on this a lot on my late-night episode for Tuesday for my game recap, but he really has been ridiculous to start this season.

He is fourth in goals saved above expected, 4.6. Sergei Barowski leaves everyone with 6.2. Igor Shus Durkin of the Rangers at 5.2. Thomas Kreis of the Red Wings of 4.5. And then Tristan Jari at 4.6. So fourth among all goalies. Yes, I know it's three games played, but this is all you can really ask for. His goals saved above expected per 60.

He is fourth in that as well. Well, he's actually no, he's not fourth in that. Let me do that ranking real quick here. He is still in the top 10, 1.494 per 60. I think he's actually right around number 9 or number 10 in that regard. So he's still doing good with that. He also has one of the best save percentages on unblocked shots. He's 964.

For reference, that's better than Sergey Bravsky, who leads the league in goals he's but I've expected. It's right out there with Anton Forsberg, Jonas Corpusolo, Chesterkin, Thomas Grice. So he literally has been insane. You know, 1.62 goals against average. And here's the stat that's even more interesting. He has a 1.49 goals against average better than expected. of our replacement, 0.77, so he's almost worth one more win than was expected of him coming

into this season. And his high danger unblocked shot attempt, same percentage is 909. For reference, that's better than Thomas Gray's who's at 857, better than Igor Sesturkin, who's at 875, and that's better than Brebrovsky, who's at 722. And it's better than Vitek Vannichek, who's playing well in Washington right now. So I think those are all the stats that I wanted to throw at you all. Well, actually, there's one more. He is second in the league. in goals he both expected while short-handed for reference he was dead last in that regard for last season so all of these stats just show how great he has been in his first three starts and i would keep riding him until the wheels fall off a little bit he has been the penguin's best player to start the season

and i don't think it's particularly close you know i said it on my last night episode i'll say it again here i understand that people are pessimistic about it just because of what happened in the stand-le-le-up playoffs. I think that, you know, I've seen some people on some other shows or some like that or some other fans kind of just rooting against him because he's not Mark Andre Fleury or, you know, you hate him just because of what happened last season. And don't get me wrong, you know, I was very upset with how he played and I was calling for him to not be the starter this year. But Ron Hextall and Brian Burke made a choice. They replaced the goalie coach. And so far, Andy Kyoto is doing his job. I mean, the results have been promising through the first week of the season. Obviously,

very small sample size. Let's see where we are in about another week's time, potentially a month's time, a couple months to see. Definitely to see where we are at Christmas, right? I mean, that's really the big early season benchmark for where teams are at. So I'm just excited that he's keeping the team in games, giving them a chance to win on a nightly basis. This has honestly been, I think, a dream start for your Penguins this season. You know, everything that we all wanted out of them through the first four games. I think we've gotten, you know, two and oh and two. You've gotten points in all four games, six out of eight points overall.

I said it last night as well. I would have taken that with a fully healthy lineup, and you're damn right, I'm especially going to take it when the two big guns are out, plus Brian Rust, who is week to week. And obviously, you know, Mark Freeman is also day-to-day with an unspecified injury. And I also have no problem with the way they've played. I think in the, what, 14 periods that they've played this season, I think they've only been outplayed for about two of them.

They were outplayed in the first period last night against Dallas. The Panthers, they were outplayed in the first period of that game. Third period, I think it was even, I know the Panthers won in overtime, but the Penguins also had some great chances in that overtime. It's really just been two periods at the least, maybe three at the most out of the 14 they've played. I mean, they have outplayed the opposition fairly effectively. in these four games so far.

There has really not been that stinker game that a lot of people were expecting. Or stinker games that a lot of people were expecting with the amount of talent that the Penguins have been missing to start the season. So this really is as good of a start as we all could have hoped for, especially because they're top five in points right now. And now that I mentioned this, so the Locked-on NHL's Twitter account just tweeted out the power rankings for this week around the NHL.

Actually, it's the full lock. on account and your Pittsburgh Penguins have risen 10 spots in the last week. They are number two behind the Florida Panthers. I'm not surprised. You know, this is honestly a week that I didn't vote on them. You know, I kind of just forgot to do it. But the fact that the rest of the network is that high on the penguins speaks volumes. I mean, this is a very good team that are deep, they're fast, they four check hard.

They've gotten really good goaltending and the defense has been awesome as well. And I want you all to check out this stat that I have for real, you know, at Danny Shiree of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports posted this on his Twitter page, and I'm going to share this on the podcast with you all. So the Pittsburgh 5-5 defense, looking at Micah Blake McCurdy stuff from HockeyViz. If you're not subscribed to his stuff,

please go do it if you're trying to get into analytics and the advanced stats of hockey. He is well worth your time. So the Penguins have played 164 minutes at 5E-5 with Tristan Jari on the ice, and the expected goals against Per 16 in the defensive zone, 1.53. That is one of the best marks in the league.

And there is a whole lot of blue surrounding the front of the net and all of the high danger areas and even a lot of the medium danger areas as well. I mean, they are not letting anyone shoot near Tristan Jari. The only places where the players are really getting their looks

from Jari, it's around the left side of the point, a little bit above the right circle, and then a little bit above the left circle as well. There is nothing in front of the net. nothing from the actual circles and there's nothing even, you know, 15, 20 feet out. The Penguins defense has done a tremendous job limiting the amount of chances that they've given up. And this is also something that I've touched on a lot, you know, coming into the season is that when the Penguins are short-handed,

they tend to play some of their best defensive hockey of the season. And you're definitely seeing that right now with that 1.53 expected goals against per 60 while Trishonjari is on the ice. They are trying to make it as easy as possible for him while he's playing. especially after what happened in the Stanley Cup playoffs against the Islanders, and they are doing that to a T right now and not allowing, excuse me, the elite players on the other teams to get near Jari for some high danger scoring chances. So I'm going to be curious to see how that continues when Cindy Crosby comes back. He was not at practice today.

We're going to get into some notes from practice later on in today's episode, but it is nice to see how great defensively this team has been to start this season. I was kind of expecting it just, again, because they dumb their game down a little bit when the big guns are out. But I guess I didn't expect it to be this freaking good right out of the gate. And real quickly, before I do get to a commercial break, I do want to say this. I touched on a little bit last night. Chris LaTang is playing like a top five defenseman hockey right now. He has a 2.3 points per 60, which is one of the best marks in the league for defensemen.

18 shot attempts while he's on the ice. That's a freaking great number. eight of those were shots on goal. Overall, he's also on the ice for 51% of the shot attempt, so that's really good. The expected goals percentage while he's on ice for the Penguins, 56.5% the team off the ice only has a 52.6% expected goals percentage. So obviously, LeTang is going to drive that up a whole lot while he's on the ice

just because he's one of the best at his position in the league, and he's playing like it so far. All of those stats come to you via Moneypuck.com. That site is free to use if you want to dive into. some more underlying numbers a little bit, but I wanted to end the first segment by giving a shout out to Chris L'Tang. The hashtag Latang Colt is in full swing to start the season, and just some of his defensive work last night was magical.

I mean, you know, just that two-on-one and overtime, put getting his stick in the lane, and then I was able to send it back the other way. I think that was a three-minute shift for Tanger as well. He's just been ridiculous this season, and if he keeps playing like this, he's going to start to get, I think, some Norse love by the end of the season, that's for sure. Coming up in the next segment, we're going to answer some of your mailback questions that you had for the Lockdown Parenthood's Twitter account. And we're also going to go over some practice notes a bit later on in the show as well. Before we do get to that, did you know that Bill Plar has so many delicious flavors?

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That's promo code locked 15 for 15% off at built.com. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. Onersore Penguins. So let's get to some of the listener questions that you had for me today. I'll start here with Fiona.

What are your thoughts on how John Marino has been playing this season? I think you said softer this season, but I wouldn't really say he's been too soft. I guess you're just wondering how he's been this season. Overall, I mean, it's been night and day, I think, for him. And a lot of that has to do with him playing with his usual partner in Marcus Pederson, who has been a stalwart on the defensive group this entire scene as well. you know, Tara Reardon confirmed today after practice that he sees that pairing

staying intact for a while and it's like, hey, thank God, you know, the results are showing it, the numbers are showing why they should be sticking together and we all know what we're going to get with Marino he defends his line better than a lot of people on this team. I think honestly,

probably Chris LaTang and Brian Dumont are the only two better than Marino in that regard. And that's usually his bread and butter, but we want to see more of his offense and we saw that last night when he did not go back up to the point. He read the play when Brock McGinn was getting that one-timer came down a little bit and then was able to roof the rebound top cheese over Braden Holpey. That's a play that he was not making last year or a play that he probably

didn't know he could make. But, you know, with Pedersen back there covering for him, Marino knew that he could stay down there a little bit in the offensive zone and take a little bit of a risk. And that paid out in a big way. And I think that's definitely a bit of a key to unlocking more. of Marino's offensive potential for this season. I mean, the underlying numbers back came up in a big way this season as well. So far, he has a 2.6 points per 60. That is better than Chris LaTang's, which I explained a few moments ago. When Marino is also on the ice, the Penguins have 54% of those shot attempts.

And then for the unblock shot attempts, or A.k.a. Fenwick, 51% of those when Marino is on the ice. His expected goals is a bit down this season, 41.6%, but it's still only through four games. but the fact that he's been on the ice for a lot of shot attempts this season shows that the penguins are driving offense when he usually is on the ice. So yeah, Fiona, I guess this long-winded answer to summarize this. He has been awesome this season. It's a complete 180 from where he was last year. And we need to see more of this just because his contract is now kicked in.

In case those forgot, six years, 4.4 million during that contract per season. He needs to play like this if he wants to live. live up to that contract. And I even said coming into the season, he was going to be one of the biggest X-factors for this team, because if he gets back to that rookie level that we saw, it's going to make their defensive corpse even that much more formidable. Jackson Hollister says when Crosby comes back, would you keep Hinen with Carter on the second line and move Cappin up with Cater to see if that sparks a little bit for Cappin.

That's a great question. You know, thank you for asking you that. I think I would. You know, Cappin really needs to get going. It's not working while he's been playing with Evan Rodriguez and Jason Zucker. And, you know, I think Zucker is a good player. And I'm fine with Rodriguez being in the lineup. But when he's centering someone like Casperi Capon,

and he's not going to get the feeds that he's going to get from someone like Crosby or Malkin. So, yeah, Jackson, I think I would put Capon up there. I mean, why not? I mean, he's definitely been one of the more disappointing players to start the season. If I had to do like a stock up or stock down segment for the show, captain would squarely be in my stock down segment just because he is not living up to what we saw in the preseason and training camp where he was, you know, knifing through guys left and right, finishing his chances, getting a lot of chances overall because this season, he just, the puck

keeps bouncing off his stick a lot. He's not, his shots are not going on net. It's just been really weird to see from him so far this season. And I think at some point you may put Hinen up with sin. I know Doug Glacky of the forechecking TV has been wanting that. to happen but when Sid comes back you really have nothing to lose by putting captain up there Brian Rust is still out and it's going to be week to week for however long that's going to be

I think Gensel Crosby Capon could and should work in the short term while also you know doing Danton Hinen with Jeff Carter and whoever else you want to put on that line you know maybe Jason Zooker or something like that so you can leave the Aston Rees-Bulgir McGinn line alone and then have Drew O'Connor with Brian

Boyle and what you know Dominic Simone or something like that but yes I definitely agree. Thank you for asking that, Jackson. I think Kappanen needs a change of line, and he needs to be playing with higher talent to get the most out of them. You know, you saw what happened last season when he was with Malkin, right? Ten goals, 30 points in 40 games. A lot of it had to do while playing with a superstar center. Yes, I know his shooting percentage was high at 16.2%, but that's what happens when you're finishing your chances that you're given by a superstar center. So I really hope that Mike Sullivan does do that because we were seeing it, I think, experimented

little bit last season as well before they ultimately went with Kaplan and Geno. And I think you'll probably see that once Malkin comes back in December as well. Ethan of Lockdown Pirates asked, do you think Jari will continue to build confidence throughout the season and keep improving and leave last season behind? I mean, I hope so. You know, four games in, he's been one of the best goaltenders in the league. I think if the Vesna were to be handed out after the first week of the season, he would be a Vesna candidate. Now, let's see how he does for the next week.

let's see how he does for the next month, but I definitely think that he does have a lot of confidence right now. It looks like he has a little bit of a swagger to his game. He's a lot bigger in the net. He's coming out further to challenge shooters. I know he probably played a little too deep in net last night with that Radulov chance in the shootout, even though that move was just sexy as hell. But I do think you will continue to see him build more confidence. It really looks like he's developed a relationship with Andy Kyoto.

It looks like it's been building for quite some time. time now. So to definitely answer your question, yes, I think he will continue to build confidence throughout this season. And I hope that more people in the fan base, you know, start to get back on his side a little bit. And, you know, there's not going to be a playoff redemption for this guy overnight. He's going to have to prove it throughout the rest of the regular season and in the Stanley Cup playoffs. So right now it's been a good start. And I think he is going to continue that for the rest of the year. You know, the biggest question mark obviously was goaltending for this team. But so far, it has been anything but a question mark to start this season.

Alan Teodor says, if it was up to you, this is, I love this question, Alan, thank you for asking me this. Would you keep the Metallica music that they take the ice to, or would you change it to something else like any of the other theme songs or any other song? Yes, Your Right is a Metallica song. It is called Seek and Destroy. I only really know that because I'm a huge rock fan. I've been to so many rock concerts through my life. Metallica is one of the ones that I have not been to. And, you know, Answer Samman is also the entrance that Virginia Tech comes out to.

but you know I also don't think Enter Sandman is Metallica's best song. Anyways, to answer your question, I do think they should keep the Seek and Destroy song because it gets you really pumped up. I mean, you hear that guitar rift. It is just, it's awesome, man. And then at the end of that riff, they do the all right, and then it goes right into the little chorus a little bit

with the drums and the guitar. It just gets you really pumped up. So, yes, Alad, I think they should keep that for an eternity. I know some people have also been asking for the Penguins to change the goal song from Party Hard to Party on Fifth Avenue. You might as well just do Party Hard for the goal song and then Party on Fifth Avenue for when they win the game.

I mean, I think that's just too easy right there. I don't really think Party on Fifth Avenue would be that good of a goal song. I'm sorry to say I would keep Party Hard. But overall, yes, I believe they should keep that song. I don't really know what other song you could change it to that would get you just as hyped up as He Can Destroy does. But yes, please keep that song going. Whenever there's a playoff game going, I'll always probably play that song five to six times for the game,

and I'm just ready to run through a wall at this point, to say the least. And finally, Chuhnorth Penn Spam says, I want your thoughts on how things will work out line-up-wise when Crosby comes back. I think that second line needs Carter, but what to do about the fourth line. Yeah, so, you know, I just touched on that a little bit from Jackson's question, but I definitely think, man, that they need to put Cappin up there with Cid. have Gensel, Crosby, Cap, and if you want to do

Carter with Heinen and Zulker, that could work as a top six line. And remember, this is until Brian Russ comes back. Obviously, one of these players will slide down to the bottom six. I think maybe they'll go Zulker with Carter and Russ to round out the top six.

I think that will be a pretty interesting line and then you could have Hinen on your third line with whoever you want. Well, now then I'm thinking about it, so when Brian Russ comes back, which, it's probably going to be before of Kenny Malkin, what I would do, Gensel Crosby

Cappanin, Zooker with Carter and Rust, Aston Reese, Bluger and McGinn, and then Hinen on your fourth line. Man, this is tough because they have so many good forwards down there, but definitely Danton Hinen down there. I think they'll probably ice Brian Boyle and then one

of Drew O'Connor or Dominic Simone. I don't really care which one is in the lineup. I think both of them deserve to play. I think I would probably lean Simone over O'Connor right now, even though I do think O'Connor should be in this lineup on an every night basis. I just, I really love what Simone is bringing to the team as well.

And then I would have Rodriguez on the bench and then the loser of those other two players that I just mentioned. So that's how I think the lineup would probably shake out once Crosby and Rust come back. They're going to have some really tough decisions to say the least. I mean, especially also when Malcon comes back in December, it's going to make it even tougher to figure out what to do just because this team is not even just 13th forward. deep everyone. They are 14 to 15 forwards deep. You know what you're going to get with your defense.

That's not going to change. I don't think. And then the goaltenders, obviously, you know, to Smith and Jari. But I definitely know there's going to be some really tough decisions for Mike once this eventually starts. Again, I want to thank every one of you for sending in a mailback question today. I really appreciate it. It was just something that I

really hadn't done in a long time. So I wanted to bring you all into the show a little bit. And I definitely plan to do more of these more often. Before we do get to our next segment, which will consist of some practice notes from today. Bet Online is back and better than ever. There's a new web interface for the start of the basketball season,

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I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. You know to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow this show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins to wrap the show up. Oh, one thing I did want to bring up as well, I would be an idiot not to bring this up. So the Penguin Sellout streak ended last night 14 amazing years of sellout after sellout. And remember, you know, a sellout doesn't mean that every seat is filled. it just means that every ticket has been purchased. But, you know, there's just a lot of factors that led to this happening.

I mean, obviously, number one is the COVID-19 pandemic. That was always going to be the biggest factor. But I think another big thing, the Penguins didn't make a lot of moves this off season. So I think some people weren't as excited about them. And also, you know, when Cindy Crosby and of Guinea-Malkin are both not there to start the season, I think that's going to drive some people as well. But still last night, over 16,000 people at PBG Paints Arena.

it was rocking pretty good from what I could tell while watching on ESPN Plus. There were some diehard hockey fans that showed up last night, and I will always say, you know, the Penguins fans are the best fans in hockey, especially during that 14-year sell-out streak. And this was a really funny tweet from Seth Rorbaugh. Mark Andre Fleury was in net for the first game of the Penguin's sell-out streak in 2007, and then the last game of the sell-out streak for the Chicago Blackhawks. And he also gave up four goals in each game.

So back in 2007, 24 saves on 28 shots, 8.57% of the Penguins got the win in that game. But then in this one against the Blackhawks, six saves on 10 shots, 600 state percentage, gave up four goals and his Blackhawks loss. So that is a really cool nugget I wanted to share with you all that Seth put on his Twitter. But it's just, that's just the nature of where we're at now. You know, I think also some people don't want to go to indoor events yet just because they still think it's a bit soon. with the COVID-19 pandemic. And I understand, you know, there's still a lot of people in the world, especially in this country that are not vaccinated against this virus for whatever reason.

Again, I'm not going to go into a hold to rate on that. I've done that on my Twitter numerous times. You all come here for hockey content. But I think that is a deciding factor for some people is that, you know, they don't want to go to an indoor sporting event where a lot of people are not wearing masks and they're not vaccinated. So hopefully the Penguins can start a new sellout streak here pretty soon, but I wanted to bring that up as we end today's episode.

Also, for a little bit of practice note, Cindy Crosby did not practice today, but according to Todd Reardon, it was a pre-scheduled day off from skating. Mark Freeman is still working through his injury, and the team ended the practice session with a shootout, and Dom Simone and probably Casey DeSmith will be sporting mustaches after the drills.

It looks like they lost, according to Marcus Pedersen. That is some great content. I had to share that to end this episode. Remember, the Penguins will be off tonight, Thursday, and Friday, they will play their next game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday as they continue this eight-game homestand, which is something unheard of in this city. They don't think they've ever gone, you know, five games with a homestand in a very long time. I appreciate you all listening to this episode, Lockdown Penguins podcast. They really didn't do too much with drills with lying combinations or defensive repairs or everything.

It was just mainly working on face off, shootout, you know, three-on-three, that kind of jazz. They'll be back to practice, I'm sure. tomorrow and we'll have another episode for you all tomorrow so stick around for that hope you all have a great rest of your day.