Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Sidney Crosby clinching a series on his birthday?!

Episode Date: July 27, 2020

Part 1 of our 3 part series preview with Locked On Canadiens is here as Scott and Laura join Hunter to talk about what happened during the season for the Montreal Canadiens, as well as for the Pittsburgh Penguins. The three also talk about how Sidney Crosby has the chance to score on his birthday for the first time ever (August 7th), while also realizing that Laura's birthday is the next day so she could also get a birthday wish as well. They also talk about Crosby is just gunning for that fourth Stanley Cup, plus much, much more! 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.

Hello, welcome to this Monday afternoon edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow those shows Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-U-Squarendes today. Starts a three-part preview series with Lockdown Canadians with a special crossover. We basically talked about where the teams were during the season or wherever they were when they paused, basically, and just a whole bunch of other stuff. So, as always, this show is brought to you by rockado.com.

Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all at rockado.com. So without further ado, here is part one of our three-part preview series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Montreal Canadiens. All right. So we've got a really unlikely playoff occurrence happening in terms of having to qualify to get into the playoffs, but also, you know, the number 24 team ranked in the NHL making the playoffs. So this is all like extremely unusual. So maybe let's start with recapping how. how each team did, like, overall in the last season, because it was technically four and a half

months ago at this point. I don't want to talk about how the Canadian season went. It was part of our descent into madness as that went. But at least the penguins, for everything that was going on, had a pretty solid ending to their season in a competitive metro division, didn't they? Yes. The penguins that they should have honestly got into the top four, but, you know, they had to have a nice six game losing streak in February when they had that California road trip and a bunch of

losses to the Maple Leafs and everyone to basically slide them out to the number five seed. But they were starting to play better towards the pause. But, you know, this is what happens when you have a 67 game losing streak where you don't get any points. And yeah, now you have to qualify just to get into the playoffs. Well, the Canadians had two eight game losing streaks. I mean, not that it's a competition. Not to brag. But our team had two, eight games, like eight games in a row losing streaks.

They did get a couple points because there were some overtime losses in that, but they did have a really tough season. I was just say, is it a bragging point when your team loses eight games in a row twice, or is it just kind of like a shame brag kind of thing? I was shame bragging. I'm not proud of this team by any. Yeah, I mean, the pain was they lost eight of their last 11th. to end the NHL so-called season before the pause.

So, yeah, I mean, at least they get to, they get in. And, you know, the best part is they're going to be healthy going in, which is going to be a lot of fun to watch in the top six. I was going to say they're without Nick Bugstad going into this. And I know they had a bunch of other injuries. They're all back, right? I don't know who Nick Buechstead. No, I'm just kidding.

But, yeah, poor Nick Bugstad. He just didn't really get to play a lot this. season. But he's basically, well, Dominic Simone, too. He was playing all over. So those will be the only two players that the Penguins will be without going into the playoffs. Everyone else is 100% good to go. And the Penguins did have some freak injuries throughout the year, right? That was definitely, I remember, you know, it's, and I feel like this isn't even the first year. It's always like there's this like crazy weird one of like, oh, now this guy's down and now this guy's down. And it's like, it's Sidney Crosby or Chris LaTang. It's not some nobody. And

Every time you turn the corner, there was another penguin's injury. I mean, Cindy Crosby, of course, was out the hernia. We already talked about Nick Bukestad, Dominic Simone. I mean, Zach Aston Reese was out. John Marino had that three-week injury, which, I mean, kind of screwed over his Calder trophy finalist bid that people were trying to hype him up for. Honestly, I don't really think he was going to get it, even if he didn't get hurt because there's at least two guys up there who are one of them is going to win it. But it just seemed like every time you turn the corner, the defenseman got hurt. And then the goaltenders got hurt.

And I honestly thought this was probably Mike Sullivan's best coaching job as Penguins' head coach. And, you know, the fact that he wasn't a Jack Adams finalist is kind of funny. But it was, it just, the injuries were just ridiculous. I think the Canadians had a couple of key injuries. But the unfortunate thing was that even, even if you discount the importance of those, overall, they struggled a lot in two key risks. respects, one was defensive coverage and two, like actually putting the puck in the net. Like they are coached by Claude Julian and his teams are really good at generating shots. Like their possession metrics are always really good.

But the Canadians just couldn't finish. And then whenever the puck was in their own end, they couldn't get it back out. Like that's something that's kind of like that was, if you wanted to summarize the Canadian season, that's how I would summarize it. Yeah. If I wanted to summarize the penguin season, good start. Then they had a really hot stretch where I think it was like a 23 and 6 and 2. Then the ending to the season, which of course was just terrible.

But I guess at the start, they were really good at limiting chances. Their underlying numbers were good. Then the numbers went up as Brian Jumelin and Chris LaTang and John Marino got hurt because someone such as Jack Johnson decided to play top pairing minutes, which is just absolutely ridiculous. And then the goaltending kind of sunk down a little bit, mostly Matt Murray, and then Tristan Jari also sinks down a little bit. But then the numbers start going back up as the players got healthier. So kind of it was just up and down in terms of the defensive play, I guess, is one of the biggest ways I would describe the season. Oh, and Brian Rust almost had 30 goals, which came out of nowhere. So I just had to throw that one.

Must be nice. Yeah, I don't think anyone saw that coming with Brian Rust. Zach Ashton Reese, too. I don't think anyone saw that he was going to become one of the best defensive forwards in the whole NHL. I would have said good bottom six player, but he is the machine that makes that Ashton Rees Blue Grattan of Langeau, which I mean, we're going to get into that, like with the whole matchup later in this, but he came into his own a lot this season. It must be nice that it's like, no matter who they,

like even if it was just Sidney Crosby or if Crosby was out, it was Malkin, whoever they put up there, it's just kind of like, oh, this just kind of works now. And it always seems like every season. It's like that's how Jake Gensel kind of came out of nowhere. Like you said, Brian Rust, Zach Aston Reese and all these other players that they just come out of nowhere, but because they have that centerman who, you know, lifts up their play or elevates their play. And then all of a sudden it's like, hey, they scored 30 goals. And you go, when the hell did that happen? Like, it really must be nice.

It does help when you play next to a Genie Malkin, who was basically on a tear this season anyway. He came out like a house on fire, and especially when Cindy Crosby was out. He was carrying the Penguins to wins basically virtually every time they won games. He was just on fire. He's a beast. And, you know, like I keep saying, it must be nice. I think the Canadians kind of have a bright future. But the contrast with the Penguins is the Penguins.

is the penguins are very much in a win now mode because I don't think that they expected this window to open. They want two in a row and the window is still open. And I want to ask you from your perspective because it seems a little bit like for a while people thought, okay, like when they didn't get that three Pete, it's over now. Like now it's like it's time to start retooling, rebuilding, thinking towards the future. But, you know, especially Sydney Crosby, is like, no, no, like we got to do this. Like we've got a lot more left in us. Yeah, when they didn't get that three feet, I mean, a lot of us were kind of relieved in a way, and I honestly shouldn't say that, but like that team was just so gassed after that season.

I mean, they just, you could just tell during that series against the capitals. It's just like, yeah, I mean, they're not playing like they used to the last couple seasons. And then, of course, you have the Islanders sleep, which was just embarrassing on all levels of all the trade rumors came out. But, I mean, they've made a lot of good additions to the team this offseason. Brandon Tanev, a lot of people dumped on that contract. I ate all the crow. I'll continue to eat all the crow. But he's been really, really good.

John Marino. But, I mean, Cindy Crosby just lives and breathes hockey. He will not be satisfied until he probably wins at least one more Stanley Cup. This guy just, he loves to win, I think, more than anything. This also will be a new thing. He will get a chance to potentially play on his birthday against the Canadian. So on Cindy Crosby to score a goal in one game of this series. If it goes to four games, you should probably put the house on that one, considering it is August 7th.

Why is 87 his number? Well, there you have it right there. But yeah, he's just, he wants to win basically all the time. And I know that goes the same for any hockey player, but this guy just lives and breathes the sport. And he knows he senses, I think he just senses the opportunity with Gino to tie. Gretzky with four and Messia because I think they only won four together when they were a duo. Now that we have a little bit of a break, it is time to talk about rockado.com. It's a family business serving auto park customers online for 20 years.

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Like hockey players as a whole are competitive. Like nobody wants to lose. They all want to win. They all want that glory. They all want that Stanley Cup. But I feel like, like, like Sidney Crosby like you said he lives and breathes it I often feel like there's I don't even know if there's anything else going on in his life you know like when he's not playing he's training skating trying to get better I know you know I've heard from so many people that he he really gets into stats and video and stuff like that like he's crazy about hockey and it would you know if if I if I weren't a Canadian fan it would be like from my perspective I would be like that'd be really cool, you know, to see somebody have that kind of success over his career. But as it

stands now, they are playing my team and I don't want them to win. It's he, he literally like, yeah, he just lives and breathes hockey. I mean, there was a, I think it was on social media the other day. We finally got to see his girlfriend for like the first time in five years. And it's like, wow, Sid, you like actually, apparently he had a social life, though. you just do not know about. So everyone was just making jokes on Twitter and all that. I thought that was really funny. But I mean, yeah, he's, I've been a couple articles on the athletic.

He just, some people just send something about him that he's just ready to carry the penguins, this, this, if you want to call this the pandemic cup or whatever the hell out of their name you want to use for it, people just think he's ready to really just give this another go, especially with Jake Gensel coming back. and the whole team just basically being 100% healthy. And that's kind of for, you know, like people keep talking about, oh, it's an asterisk cup. It's an asterisk cup. No, it's an asterisk qualification. But once you're in, you still got to win that many games.

You still have to beat the best of the best. And so, like, and he must, I know we're going to get into this, like, it later on in our preview. But just to be able to come back from injury after having that kind of trouble and, like, be whatever the Sydney Crosby version of refreshed is, like, to come into the playoffs. Like, that must be huge. Yeah. And I know he's been battling a little injury the last, like, week and a half. Apparently, Elliot Friedman on his 31's thoughts podcast said it's like a minor abdominal

injury. We all know Mike Sullivan can't comment on it, but that's what L.A. Freeman's been hearing. But, I mean, I think he's going to play in the exhibition game. He'll play in the playoffs. But I think, yeah, especially coming off those sports hernia injuries, I just, I've heard those injuries are very bad. and they just they take a lot out of you but he should be 100% ready to go i've i've said it already

jake hensel coming back on his line is just going to make him even more um dangerous than he already is um i we'll get into like just basically like you said previewing it later but i think people are underrating connor sherry on that line too i've really liked his camp um he just looks a lot different and just a lot better so i'm i'm crossing my fingers for that version of connor sherry to come over to the playing round. But I was going to ask both of you guys, are you guys like happy you guys are going to be playing in the qualifying round? I mean, I know a lot of HAVS fans are like,

okay, let's tank for the number one overall pick here. We're the team that probably needs Alexis Lafranier the most. So what are your guys' thoughts on it, I guess? I'm scared to answer this question on the basis that my fan base will come after me with, you know, pitchforks and talk. gorgeous. My entire thought is, hey, I want you guys to kind of go out there and give a your all, but kind of lose in five games so we can still get in that draft lottery there.

Like, it's such a difficult situation that it's like, hey, we won. Crap. And then it's like, now what? It's like, this is a team that needs that lottery pick to finish, you know, kind of going into their retooling. and as fun as winning is going to be, it's just kind of like, it's not what the team needs right now, but also it's carried price and net so anything can happen. And it's just the most conflicting thing ever is that I'm like, I want them to play well.

I want them to go out there and prove that they were not this bad this year. But I need them to go out there and prove they were this bad this year. So they get the lottery pick out of it. It's also a huge difference. Like if they, even if they don't get that number one pick, if they lose in this qualifying round, they're going to end up with the ninth overall. But if they win this and lose the next playoff series, it goes down to pick 16. I believe the act that it calculated it that way.

And so a top 10 pick is very different from a top 20 pick. So for us, the silver lining is, it's not a silver lining, it's a goal. Like the silver lining would be if they win, that's not the desired outcome, but at least we get, you know, a few more weeks of fun out of it. And that's really the way that we kind of approach it. So we can't outright say we want our team to lose, but we think if the team loses, if they happen to lose to a far, like far superior team,

then we're not going to be too bad because it's better for their future. Yeah. And, I mean, this would be interesting because if you guys beat the penguins, then the penguins have also an opportunity to get the number one overall pick. And then I would just beat. Twitter takes and just the chaos that would come out of it if the Penguins got Alexis Lechranier. So win or lose situation for the Penguins? Of course, I'm going to want the Penguins to win because, well, you're trying to get Cindy Crosby's fourth Stanley Cup time with Wayne Gretzky.

But if you lose, you potentially get a shot at the number one overall pick. Your depth gets better. And, oh, you get to see Twitter melt and just have a bunch of drinks and just enjoy that because it's terrible. I don't want them to have another first overall pick. though. Well, I mean, it could be worse. It could be the Oilers, I suppose, which no thanks, or it could be the Maple Leafs. Out of everything, I suppose it's the best, if that's possible.

But, like, I want the first overall pick. Yeah. If the Oilers lose to the Blackhawks, that's just sad because that Blackhawks team is just bad. But, yeah, I mean, I think you guys getting the number one overall pick would make the most sense because you guys are the team that needs him the most out of any of the qualifying teams. I definitely agree. The NHL's never been about deserving things.

They're just kind of like, oh, yeah, here you go. And then we're in there. There we are. Poor Detroit, poor Detroit Red Wings fans. Eh. Eh. After this year, eh. Yeah.

But yeah, like, so last week we had Sean Gentilion for two episodes. And one of the things that we talked about was how. I mentioned that, like, if I'm the Penguins, I'm really pissed that I now have to beat this team that, like, didn't even deserve to, like, get into the playoffs. And now I got to beat them to actually make the playoffs. But his argument was that if you don't want this to happen, don't go on, like, what was it, they lost eight out of 11 games at the very end? Like that, so, yeah, like, you lose eight out of the last 11 games. That, that's not really, I mean, that's not what a championship team does, right? yes that that whole trip that whole losing streak basically started you know right around close to the trade deadline you know they lost to the maples and they lost to the savers then the capitals and then oh you go out to the west coast to play three really bad california teams oh you get swept in the california road trip against three teams that were just basically tanking and yeah it's just you just you wanted to get into the round robin you can't lose eight of your last 11 especially a lot of those games were against really really bad teams, basically teams that were tanking, like I said.

And you know what? Now you've got to go up against a team that really doesn't deserve to be there, but anything can happen, especially if somehow Kerry Price goes into God mode, like Yaroslav Halak did in 2010, which I really, really still try to forget to this day. Yeah, and that's the thing because, like, from the Canadians' perspective,

this is a really weird turn of events, because at that point, like, they kept trying. They were not making it happen, but they kept trying. They did everything. They trade, they, they, sorry, they signed Ilya Kovalchuk. I shouldn't say that they traded for him. He was bought out. But, you know, they basically pulled out whatever stops that they could, but then it

became really evident around the time of the trade deadline. And it seemed like they had given up. And when I say given up, I don't mean they were playing to lose. I think they just, they didn't have any ideas. They didn't have anything left in the tank. And then they're kind of like three. rest in the situation where everybody expected at the pause, they would go home. Like, they didn't think that they were going to be part of this, whatever the plan for the

postseason would be. I think they all expected to just go home, prepare for the draft, prepare for the next season. And then all of a sudden it's like, actually, you know, you're coming back and you have to qualify to make the playoffs when really you should have just, you know. And so it's a very, very weird turn of events where, like, you've given up and then now, like they might even have new motivation you know i don't think that you know they i don't think that they think that they're the favorites by any respect but even shea we said you know it's nice to be the underdog and maybe you know we just we just need a couple of things to go our way and we can

do it yeah no i i agree with that i was i was reading the elliott freeman's 31 thoughts and he was talking about like that montreal situation how apparently there was a raucous call and you know it seemed like they were unhappy like oh now we're back in this situation and blah blah blah And I do like that. Shea River Quote, you know, feels good to be the other dog against a team that is very, very good. That should probably be in the Raub, but you know what?

That's why you don't go on those big losing streaks. But, you know, there were some people I've seen them saying, oh, yeah, I mean, Montreal is really not going to, like, give it their best. Like, oh, they want the number one overall pick. It's like, let's just be real. Any player in this situation is going to play their ass off. I don't really care who it is. and they're going to give it their wall

and if you know what they lose, they lose if then they win. You know, you keep playing. You keep this Cinderella story going, at least for a couple more weeks. If you play like Boston in the next round, who they go three and no, they get the number one scene or Philadelphia,

Washington, whoever. So, you know, I think, you guys honestly said at best, it's kind of a win-win situation, more so a win if you lose because you get the chance for the number one overall pick, but still if you win this, I mean,

you keep the Cinderella story going at least for a couple more, week since I think the next round is a, all four next rounds are a best of seven. Right, exactly. It's like, it's actual playoffs. And, you know, the conventional wisdom on tanking, and I really do believe that is that players don't tank, coaches don't tank. It's management that tanks by putting bad players and bad coaches out there.

So, like, these players are not going to play to lose. Like, Quillian's not going to coach to lose. They're going to do their very best. And our hope is that they do their very best, but it's just not enough to beat the penguins so that then they have that 12.5% shot at the number one pick. Like that's, you know, the players are just not wired to lose. Like, that's not something that we can sit and expect is that the Canadians are going to tank this five-game series.

Yeah, that's got to be Mark Bergevin's mindset going into it too. Okay, I want my players to play really good, but in the back of my mind, I'd prefer them to lose because I don't get that number one overall pick. But, I mean, like you said, the players are not wired that way. They will give it their all every time in this situation. because, you know, it's a second chance. They didn't expect to be in this. So you know what?

They're not, there's no expectations for them. So just go out. Yeah, give you, give you're all and you just see what happens. Right. And so let's quickly, as we get into that, recap sort of, like, did anything major happen during the pause? On the Canadian side, Jonathan Dr. Ryan came back from injury. Yaspari caught Keny at me first, like, all of a sudden, like, grew twice his size and

worked on his skating. you know, there's like, there's been a couple of things like that where the Canadians have kind of benefited from the pause. Scott, who am I forgetting? Somebody else came back. Shea Weber grew a ridiculous mountain man beard. I know there's someone else that we're forgetting and I can't remember who. No, Byron moved back for the season ended. Oh, no.

Oh, no. We're forgetting somebody who was injured. Oh, let's see. well, Weber was back. Oh, Mette is back. Because he has his broken foot at the end of the season. Sorry, Victor. We really do love you, but I forgot about you.

This is a very professional podcast. I need to just let our listeners know that we've been out in the sun. Like, we've been spending a lot of time outside before we record. So that's why our brains aren't firing in all cylinders. We do know what's going on in the Havs world. It's just, you know, I'm going to blame it on tiredness and heat. I'm going to blame it on the wine, but that might just be me. Well, I didn't want to say without you saying.

I mean, I'm not going to hide it. Anyone who follows me on Twitter knows that I was drinking wine all afternoon. Yeah, I'm going to blame it on being at the beach for like about a week. And then I get to go back in a couple weeks with the same family bringing our own food. And I'll probably be filling it again. So that's just going to be a time. So will it be when the series is going on? You'll be out at the beach or will it be after that?

Right after. So I think the series ends on the eighth. Well, that would be game five. So we would go away on the ninth through the 16th. So it'll either be a pretty happy trip with the penguins winning the series so that I can just enjoy myself and just drink a bunch or, you know, it'll be a little more disappointed but also realizing that they have a chance to get the number on overall pink. So either way, I think I'm going to drink a lot. Well, the funny thing is my birthday is on the 8th.

So if this does go to five games, like, this has the potential to, like, really, really ruin my birthday or make me really happy, depending on what I'm feeling. Like, if it, if it, I don't even know. Like, I want the Canadians to give it. They're all in lose. But, like, I don't know. Like, it might be that the moment that they do lose, I'll be really upset. I don't know.

But this has the makings of either making or ruining Sidney Crosby's birthday and then making a ruining my birthday.