Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Should the Penguins play some games outdoors?

Episode Date: December 4, 2020

We are starting to get some NHL season updates as the league and players association have started to talk again. What does this mean for the season? And how many games are they discussing? Hunter touches on those, plus how many back-to-backs could be on the horizon for some teams, including the Penguins. Hunter also touches on why the league and PA just need to figure out these economic issues and to stop playing cat and mouse. After that, Hunter goes into Evgeni Malkin's season review and looks at just how great he was. Would he have won the Hart trophy if the season somehow ended in December? Just how good were his underlying numbers and why was there a big change? Finally, the Penguins have been linked to playing some games outside this coming season so Hunter looks at which stadium would make more sense. Would it also be better in terms of getting fans in? All that, plus more on this episode of Locked On Penguins.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BuiltGoVisit BuiltGO.com and use promo code “LOCKED,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order. 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.

Hey everyone, welcome to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the shows Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. I appreciate you guys listening to the episode with Josh Yew. We provided a lot of good intel just on what's going on with the league. There's been a lot more stuff that's happened since then.

Looks like the sides have kind of started to talk again. We're going to touch on that in this segment. And then in the next segment, we're going to do another player season review. This time we will do a beginning Malcon. And the sea was just incredible, but you know, again, of his stats and look at the underlying numbers and see just how good he is and what I think he can do next season because you know he is getting older he's what 30 was it 34 now it's just time goes by so quick now I remember back when he was like 22 23 back in 2009 and all that just

tearing people a new one he still is doing that to this day but you know he is going to start slowing down sooner rather than later which just absolutely stinks and then for the last second you know maybe we'll get some mailbag questions in but you know just to start off with this episode. I mean, they shell and the players association. I mean, they just got to get this under control. You know, I said it on the episode with Josh. You really just don't want to be public enemy number one like Rob Manfred. You saw what happened. If you guys follow baseball, just what happened with the union and the league, you know, the owners, you know, the owners would come with, you know, their proposal, then the players would reject it. You know, then another side would come with their proposal. They would

reject it. It would just be back and forth. You know, Rob Manfred would just say some stuff to the media that, you know, obviously people would take the player's side just for obvious reason, just because, you know, they were just probating their salaries and all that. I mean, the league is still asking for the players for the NHL to pro rate to take a 26% pay cut. I think that's absolutely ridiculous. You know, thoughts and prayers to the billionaire owners, you know, just in these times. Again, that's a joke. But, you know, I just, I feel like people who side with the owners in this situation is kind of ridiculous.

But we did see some stuff this morning. Frank Silverrelli first tweeted that sources of the NHL has shared some draft schedules, with the NHL Players Association yesterday, one including a 56-game regular season for 2021. The drafts were based on January 1st start day. Besides, they were discussing pushing that back to January 15th or January 16th. I mean, you're not going to start January 1st. That is just not happening at this point. Today is December 4th.

That is what, 28 days now? Actually, I think it, I think that was that 28, 27 days. I'm actually just making sure. Yeah. So that is four weeks from now. You are not going to start your season four weeks from now. not happening. You got to have more of your players coming to North America. They have to quarantine. You have to start training camp. If you want to play some preseason games, you got to do those

too. And you got to get all the players just up to speed and everything. I mean, you got to figure out a day for training camp. I mean, you can't do all of that in 28 days. That's just not fair to the players. They'll be very gassed, I think, throughout just the season. You have to push it back. I think January 15th makes more sense. I still think, though, guys, February first, around Super Bowl weekend, that's probably your best bet to your. start the NHL season and you can put a lot of the games on Friday and that Saturday right before the Super Bowl. Obviously, you don't want to put up games against the Super Bowl. Well, I should say maybe you can put some games on the afternoon to get people to prepare

to watch Super Bowl. You're not going to put on a game like during the Super Bowl. I mean, that's TV's number one thing throughout the year. But, you know, I think a nice slate of games on that Friday or Saturday. You can put them on all of the NBC Sports Networks. I think that would just be absolutely outstanding. That I think is still their best. But if they want to start January 15th, it's more reasonable. It gives you about an extra two weeks. So that gives you an extra fucking six. So it would be six weeks, I think, from today is when that season would start.

So I think that makes a lot more sense to do that. You know, Frank Cervelli also said the talks were unrelated to recent economic requests. He said it's difficult to say definitely progress, progress has been made given the outstanding economic issues and skyrocketing COVID-19 numbers. But to me, this is one of the most positive signs yet, but there will be a 20-21 season. I mean, there was a lot of talk earlier this week. You know, Gary Batman was just kind of being stupid. just talking to the media, kind of throwing the players under the bus.

Excuse me. I just need to find a tweet if I can, if I can. I think there was a tweet here from Frank Zarevili. He said, Batman says the Anshel was not seeking to renegotiate the CBA with the NHLPA. Rather, he says there are stretches on the system and it's trust for both of us with players owe us more than anyone imagine. It's like, yeah, Gary. I mean, I'm sure going at the players in this situation who you guys want to have a take up 26% pay cut, That's really going to go over for you well.

This was a great tweet in response to that tweet from Seattle Valley. How can the players owe more than anyone imagine when they agreed to play for 72% of their contracts? It's like exactly. I mean, I just find that honestly absolutely hilarious to me. It's like you're not going to get the fan side on this. You're not going to win the fan support. They're going to support the players. I'm going to support the players for sure.

I mean, the owners need to stop being greedy. The league needs to stop being greedy. I mean, he also said, he said, we're not having negotiations and we're not seeking to renegotiate. He said the NHL, it adds to the ANShell is looking for ways to avoid stretches on the system because the players would be paid more than 50% under the MOU deal. I mean, thoughts and prayers to you, Barry, I mean, they deserve to be paid more than 50% under that deal. I'm sorry. I mean, they're already taking as big of a pay cut as it is. And, you know, the fact that you're just like kind of spitting in the player's face about this is just absolutely ridiculous to me.

I mean, Pure LeBron also followed it up this morning. you know, there's also a 52 game season being reported as from Prieta LeBron, but, you know, apparently he said both the league and the PA would prefer 56 games. Remember that the league they want to end the cup final in early July. Well, why do they want to do that? Because they have the Olympics coming in that July and the NBC and Sports Network are going to be showing the Olympics whole time. They will not be showing hotkey at that point. I mean, it's also the last year of their TV deal. I mean, Gary Batman also spoke about that. I'm actually going to get to that in the next segment or the last segment, but, you know, I'll touch on that and my thoughts on what's going to happen on that. next TV deal. But overall, after I've given you all this information, it is good that the sides are talking again, you know, this cat and mouse game of back and forth, you know, with Donald Fair and Gary Batman. It's just like, guys, go up. You guys were able to do so good with the

return to play thing. You even agreed to a new CBA deal, which is very unheard of between these two sides. But now, you know, as you're getting ready to potentially start another season in the middle of a pandemic, I mean, you're really going to like just butt heads, especially during these times. I think it's just ridiculous that they have to do that. You know, just get the economic issues settled, get a schedule settled, get a start date settled. I'm not just going to keep saying that word. And then just get training camps and preseason and all that, get the players back to their respective cities. I mean, Josh Yew, he did say that most of the penguin players are back in Pittsburgh, except for Kenny Malcon, who's still in Moscow, probably just partying it up with Alex Ovechkin over there.

But yeah, I mean, just keep the negotiations coming, keep talking, get these economic issues out of the way. and let's have a season. You know, I know I tweeted the other day, guys, if you guys didn't see it, the more and more that I think about it, the less I think that we'll have a season. You know, now that they're talking, my tune is kind of changed a little bit,

but, you know, if they're not going to get these economic stuff settled, you know, they're not going to have a season. That's just the reality of situation. You know, I remember when Gary Batman was like, oh, yeah, we're going to have a full 82 game season. Like, we're totally going to do that. It's like, dude, you're not going to have an 82 game season

starting in mid-January, early February through July, early July. That's just flat out not going to happen. 52 to 56 games, that's probably their best bet. I mean, you're probably going to have a bunch of back-to-backs. I mean, we could see what they happened in the 2012-13 shorten season with the 48 game season. I would not rule that out either. But, you know, it's still good that we're having some updates that they're giving some draft schedules to the league and to the players.

And, you know, that hopefully, you know, this leads to more talks, more talks about the economics situation going forward. And hopefully we get an announcement soon on when this season is going to start, if there will be a season. because, you know, it is kind of tiring, just kind of talking about the same thing each episode. I want to talk about games with you guys. I want to go over storylines about the team. And I just want to see how these new players just fit in with the Penguins next season and how, you know, Crosby and Malkin do.

How is Chris Latang coming off another great season? How's the goaltending situation going to be with Tristan Jari with his first full season as the Pittsburgh Penguin starter? You know, there's just a lot to talk about, a lot to see. And just, you know, I'm hoping they go on one more cup run before Sid and Gino retires just because, you know, the duo with Ty Gretsky and Messia for 4, which would just be absolutely outstanding. So I'm really hoping we get a season soon.

This offseason is just, you know, it's at a snail's pace. We're basically in the dog days of the off season. Usually that's August. So, you know, it's just hopefully we get this done with and out of the way pretty soon. But before we get to our next episode, which will be the player season breakdown with Hvgeny Malkin, it is time to talk about Vilco. You can break through your role, whether it's a mental or physical wall, breakthrough with go every day.

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Come. Let's go. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes and the show's Twitter at L-O-Nscore Penguins. And guys, please follow Locked-on Steelers with Chris Carter, you know, especially after the Stewards, somehow won that game against the Baltimore Ravens. And go follow Locked on Pirates on Twitter.

If you guys are Bucco's fans as well, they do a great job over there talking about the pirates. But let's dive into a Genie Malkin's season review. For the Penguins, he was just virtually outside. I thought he was their best player this past season for them. And honestly, it wasn't really close, if you ask me. The production was pretty similar. I mean, 2018, 19 and 72.68 games this past season, though,

74 points in 55 games, 25 of those were goals. But then when you really go to the underlying numbers, played 805 minutes, mispossession was so much better this past season, 53% compared to just 50% last year. Chances for, not chances for, scoring four, scoring four, scoring. against, you know, 498 to 419, and then it was 517, 4, 534 last year. And then goals for, goals allowed 54 to 40 this year in favor of the four. And then last year, 44 to 46 against. His goals for percentage was 57.4% compared to 48.8%.

His scoring chances for, 434 scoring chances for, 344 scoring chances against. Last season was only 476-4-404 against. A lot of this guys has to do with, let's get a drum roll going here, please. He did not share the ice as much with Jack Johnson. He actually got with John Marino and Marcus Pedersen. Sometimes Chris LaTang would come out there for him. Jack Johnson was just killing his production last season. And his scoring chances of 4 percentage this past season, guys, 55.7% compared to 54% last year,

which is still good last year, but that's almost a 2% difference. I mean, it's high danger, if you go there. 203-4 last year, high-danger change for 181 against. This past season, 104 high-danger chance is allowed 186-4. I mean, that's just, there's just such a big difference. The gap just widened so much. I mean, he was playing better defensively in his own zone, but he was also having, like I said,

Marino and Patterson on the ice with him. He wasn't getting caved in his own zone because they just, last year, they couldn't get the puck out of their own end because Johnson and Schultz were on the ice. This year, you have the emeritus. of a rookie sensation who is only going to get better. It looks like also according to D.K. Pittsburgh Sports,

they're starting contract talks with him, which is awesome. I can't wait to see what that number comes out to be. But, you know, when you put two capable defensemen on there who know what the hell they're doing, oh, Evgeny Malkin is going to benefit from it. And, you know, he's going to produce no matter who's on the ice. That's just who Evgeny Malkin is. He's one of the five best players in hockey. I will die on that hill until he retires.

But, you know, when you put two guys on there, that they can just, they make his game better and they make it easier for him and they can actually get him the puck to go up the ice and do his thing. That's the big thing with Malkin this season. High danger goals for 31 to 24 last season, 34 to 23. His high danger goals 4 percentage, 56.3% is on ice, you know, shooting, his shooting percentage this year, 10.8%, 8%, 8.5% last season. So, I mean, yeah, guys, Gino was just Gino this year. He was their best player, especially in the month of November when Sid went down for

what was it, I think six weeks or something with the sports hernia. I mean, he was getting a lot of heart trophy love during that month, and if by some divine circumstance where the season had to end in November, I think I would have given my heart trophy vote to Evgeny Malkin, and I think a lot of other people would have as well, just because of how great he was. He was carrying the Penguins night in and night out, producing it well. I think the stat was he had like 25 points in 14 games or something like that.

I'm going to have to go double check that stat, but it was well over a point per game. He was just absolutely sensational with Brian Rust on his right way. And I mean, if you guys remember, it was the Gensel Malkin-Russ line for that whole time when Sid was out. And Gensel did not miss a beat. We all talk about just how great Gensel is with Sid. And believe me, guys, he really is awesome with Sid.

But his underlying numbers with Gino were just as good, if not better. You know, their possession was great. Their scoring chance was 4 percentage was just as good as it is with Sid. you easily could have made the case for Gensel to be playing with Gino at the return to play. You easily could have just because of how the numbers were during those two months when Sid was out with that injury. And then, you know, if you just looked at regular points and get away from the other line numbers, I mean, 18 of his 25 goals came at even strength, and the other seven came at the power play. So he was just a menace at even strength.

I mean, assists, 32 of the 49 assists came at even strength. Again, that just shows how awesome he was at even strength. Got second, got 10th in the Hart Trophy voting. It's another season where he got top 10 in the Hart Trophy voting. I think he had it a couple years ago, I want to say. Was it 2017, 18 when he almost had 100 points? Yeah, that's right. He had that 98 point year.

He got only seventh in the Hart Trophy voting. I don't know how he got seven. I would have given him a top five hard trophy voting. But this was just another outstanding season by Gino. And, you know, as terms of next season, I really do expect him to repeat this kind of year, even though it's only going to be around a 50. 52 to 55, 52 to 56 game season. He had 74 points this past season.

I would expect him to be right around there. I don't think he's going to go for 85 to 90 points. That's just going to be very hard to do. I could maybe see 80. I could definitely see that, but I think you're definitely going to get at least 70 to 75 points from Gino in around 25 goals, 50 assists for him next season. I think that's probably what you're going to expect from him.

And then for a 4-82 game season, as he starts to slow down a bit, that's going to go down. He's 34 now. He'll be 35 next year. He's probably going to be a 70-point player these next few years, even during full 82-game seasons. And then, you know, as it gets to maybe around 37 to 38, that's going to go down to maybe about a 55-to-60-point player.

You know, he can't do this forever. I mean, it's going to be the same way with Sid. He won't be able to do it forever either. But, you know, they also are cyborg. So there's that to think about as well. But, yeah, Gino, guys, just another awesome year. I'm really looking forward to see how his line with Jason Zoker and Brian Rust is for a full 55-5-6 game season for next season.

if that does indeed happen. But coming up in our next segment, guys, we're going to talk about something very interesting. That news that came out yesterday, thank you to Alan T. Yoder as well, who asked me a question on the Lockdown Penguins' Twitter page. You just asked what my thoughts were about. We're going to get my thoughts about this outdoor game stuff

right after this commercial break, so stay tuned for that. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hody. So yesterday, Elliot Freeman put out a report saying, that some NHL teams, I was actually multiple considering playing a bunch of their games outdoors. Pierre LeBrun also confirmed this. He said, the Pittsburgh Penguins are actually one of the teams

that are considering doing this. I heard the Penguins were examining the feasibility of hosting multiple outdoor games to begin the short in 2020, 2021 season. He also says, well, fans currently not allowed at Stewart Games in Pittsburgh. The hope is that by January, February, fans may be allowed back in outdoor events, way ahead of the day fans will be allowed back inside an arena. So yes, the Penguins are apparently let the NHL know

if it's interest to host at either Hinesfield or PNC Park. Me personally, guys, I don't want them to play their games at Hinesfield. The Steelers most likely will be playing late in January, and if they do want to do this mid-January restart, there's not going to be a lot of time to have games played at Hines Field just because the Steelers are going to need it to, you know, host their divisional playoff game, host the AFC championship. Obviously, they're not going to host a Super Bowl that's in Tampa Bay this year.

But, you know, there is a very likely situation where the Steelers are going to, to host the EACC championship game in Pittsburgh, especially if they get the number one C because the playoffs will go through Pittsburgh. I like the idea of PNC better if they are going to do this. One, a real team will play there. Sorry, locked on pirates guys. Sorry pirates fans.

The pirates are just such a bad franchise, a bad organization. And the product they put on the field every year, it's just terrible. So, you know, having an actual legit team play there will be music to everyone's ears. And it's just a gorgeous, venue. I mean, you can allow fans in their extreme social distancing. I'm sure maybe allow what,

5,000 fans in there or something, just spread them out evenly, I would say. And it would be something new. It would be something exciting. And, you know, you can have some fans in there to watch the game because there's just arenas can only hold so many fans. You know, before the Steelers didn't allow fans this season, they were only allowing, what, 5,500 people max at Heinzfield for just a couple of games. I mean, that's not many people. I mean, the whole upper bowl was not even fill. There was actually just no one even sitting up there. So, I mean, how are you going to put fans in NHL arenas and just make it safe? I don't think you're going to only be able to do that, especially if you're starting the season next month or even in February. Maybe as the season

goes on, you'll be able to do it. But I think to start, it does make sense to play some games outdoors like a PNC park to get fans in. But, you know, what are you going to do with weather when it starts getting warmer? I mean, especially in most of the season. March, it'll definitely be getting warmer in Pittsburgh. I know January and February, Pittsburgh is one of the coldest places in this country with the winters that they go through. So it makes sense to do it through there. But you know, what about March?

What about April? What about May when the playoffs happen? You know, the Penguins will most likely be in the Stanley Cup playoffs. So that's other questions that they're going to have to consider. But overall, guys, I am in favor of the idea a bit, but you know, you're not going to play like half your home games there or something. Like that, that's ridiculous. Maybe around four to five, I think, is the way you're going to have to do it.

I mean, 10 at max, but if that, to be honest, it's going to be, I think, in the single digits, though. I mean, most of the games at PBJ Paints Arena, I would assume otherwise, are going to have no fans. I mean, I know Gary Bettman and, you know, a lot of the players want fans back in the arena as soon as possible and whatnot. I mean, that's the obvious situation that's going to come at some point. But, you know, it's just not safe to do it right now as the pandemic keeps spiking. But, you know, I think that'll do it for this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. We'll do a mailbag. week. And also stay tuned for next week, guys. We will be having Jayfresh Hockey come on the

Locked on Penguins podcast, a big Penguins fan. He does outstanding work for his page. You can go to it at patreon.com slash day fresh hockey. His visualizations, his player cards are just through the roof. I love looking at them and just, you know, also he's a big Penguins fan too. So it'll be awesome to pick his brain about, you know, the moves that they made this off season and how excited he is going into the season or if, you know, trust the front office and stuff like that. So stay tuned for that next week. We'll have some more episodes other than that coming next week as well. Hopefully we get some more clarity this weekend on the economic issues surrounding the NHL and the PA. I think we're getting closer, but, you know, there still have a lot of, you know, stuff to iron out here with this deal.

So thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I always appreciate it. And I will talk to you all next week. Stay safe this weekend and go Steelers on Monday.