Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - That was a comeback for the ages!

Episode Date: January 11, 2023

That was a wild one, yeah? Hunter is back with a fresh episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast as the Penguins came back to defeat the Vancouver Canucks in Tuesday night, 5-4. Hunter starts the show off with how the Penguins never seemed to be out of it even when they went down by three. He looks at how the team just needed average goaltending or this probably would've been a blowout. He likes how the team trusted the process and continued to pepper Spencer Martin with shots before they were able to tie the game before the end of the intermission and then go up by two heading into the third. He also praises the Top 6 as the big guns came alive to jumpstart this comeback. After all, the Penguins NEED their top players to win them games, especially with their depth problems and injuries. After that, he praises Brian Dumoulin (yes, you read that right), for his performance as he was the best defenseman on the ice. He goes into what he did well and if that can carry over into Friday's game against the Jets. He also shouts out Ty Smith for perhaps his best game as a Penguin yet. He analyzes what changes he saw in Smith's game tonight and why his time up here continues to be more fruitful for the team. Hunter also shouts out the power play for getting back on track but also points out how the Penguins need to do a lot more of 1 main thing for the PP to stay hot going forward. All that, plus much 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 “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds, and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Athletic GreensTo make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORK 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.

Wow, what a win for the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight, a five to four come from behind victory. They were down three nothing early on. They were able to win their second in a row after scoring three goals in, well, less than 15 minutes to tie the game going into the intermission, and then get the two goals in the second before giving them a goal in the third, but able to win the game. For today's episode, we're going to recap that entire Penguins Canucks game, how crazy it was, why Casey to Smith was off his game,

why Dustin Tukarski should get the start on Friday, and I would give Casey to Smith the one on Saturday. Back of getting Malkin's big night for Carl McHale, sitting across the top six in general is going to be a big topic of discussion for this episode. All that plus so much more coming up right after. Yes. You're Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I am, of course, your host, Honra Hodes. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Honra Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at LORS for Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. Penguins 5, Canucks 4 did not look good in the early parts of the first period.

But the penguins were able to overcome a three-goal deficit. The first time they have done that this season. First time, I believe they've done that since. It's the Vegas game last season when they went, they were trailed 3-0 in Vegas. That was when Vegas was pretty healthy. And the Penguins come back and score five unanswered goals. Penguins did that tonight, well, except until Connor Garland scored to make it five more. But kind of the same thing.

A win that the Penguins badly needed. You cannot drop a game like this to a Vancouver Canucks team that's been, you know, also Jackal and Hyde this year, though I think a lot more, you know, bad hockey, if you were talking Jack and Hyde. If that makes sense to you all. But it didn't start all right. But what I really want to focus on for this first segment, the penguin stuck with it. You know, I even said, I was saying to myself, my girlfriend was sitting next to me,

where we're watching the boys. If you all are old enough and you have not started watching the boys on Amazon Prime, please go watch it. It is just an incredible show. Little gory at times, but it is, no, it's awesome. Great acting and just a great story. It's in there watching it. I have the game on.

I was going to go to the game tonight. a couple things came on. My anxiety just been really bad. The last couple days, but it's a lot better right now. But I was sitting there saying to her and saying to myself, okay, they're playing really well.

They have the lead in Corsi. They have the lead in expected goals. And shot attempts and scoring chances and high danger chances. They just got to get a safe. And sure enough, after the penguins go down 3-0, Mike Sullivan decides to make the goal change. And I haven't put on Twitter, you know, at Poland, you know, Desneth doesn't have it tonight.

Toul-Carski comes in. plays very, very well. He was able to give the penguins at least average goaltening. That's all they needed to win this game. If DeSmith had given them average goaltending, this probably would have been a blow by the penguins. Even after going down three nothing, they stuck with it. They get a goal to make it three one. Thanks for Kenny Malkin. Penguins make it three, two, just a few minutes later. Cindy Crosby, redirect a Brian Dumolin, slat pass. I'm going to get to Dumlin's performance a little later on in the show. And then boom, the penguins tie it to make it three to three.

on another really good shift by the top six. And then, you know, four, three, five, three, you know, just the top six tonight in general was fantastic. But the way the Penguins were able to stick with it was the reason why they won this game. And I'll also say this. If this game was on the road, do you all think the Penguins come back and win? No. No.

I think, especially because this game was at home, the crowd was really into it, the Penguins were able to feed off of that and get back. to this game. And I say this, you know, when I go to natural stoutrick and when I look at this, you know, look at the end of the first period. This game should not have been 3-3. At the end of the first period, the Penguins had 72% of the shot attempts. They had 75% of the scoring chances. They had 71% of the high danger scoring chances. And they had 74% of the expected goals. They were down 3-2 in terms of 5-5 actual goals. They were dominating the Canucks for the opening 20 minutes. It was just, again, DeSmith could not make a save.

Once he wound that first one, which that should not go in. I'm sorry. I understand. It's a little bit of a bad defensive break now by the Penguins. Your goalie should be able to make that save. It goes, I don't know if he whipped on it with his glove, but he's got to put it out there and make that save. And then it snowballs with the second goal because penguins are really out of it defensively. They're not playing well with it.

And then the third goal, you know, I kind of just. chalked that up to, you know, maybe just Smith could have had it. But, you know, at that point, when you've given up three goals in, what, 10 minutes, basically, you got to make a spark, you got to send a message to your team. This is unacceptable. You got to put a spark in there. They did what they have with Tocarski. And he played a very good game. And actually, according to Bob Grove, he's now two of his last starts at PBG-Painz Arena, Tokarski has saved 63 out of the last 65 shots that he has faced in Pittsburgh. So, again, start him on.

Friday against the Winnipeg Jets. But again, in all seriousness, the way the Penguins were able to keep firing everything at Spencer Martin, getting it forechecking aggressively, you know, they were just passing the puck around like it was nothing with the Canucks. You know, that was the reason why the Penguins were, if they were going to come back, I think I just screwed that up, whatever, you know, that would be the reason the Penguins were going to come back, that would be it. Sure enough, it happened and they were able to win the game.

but I can't say enough about the top six, and I'll say it again, when the top six scores, this team has a very good shot of winning. In this top six, it is meant when you can throw out Gensel-Crosby-Russ, or Gensel-Grosby-Rquel, and then Zulker-Malk and Raquel, you are doing a lot of things right if you are running the Pittsburgh payments. That is one of the best top sixes in the league. We all know they have debt problems right now. you all know that their two best defensemen, at least in my opinion, are out,

and your starting goaltenders out. So you need the big guns who make the most money to carry you, and that's exactly what they have done the previous two games to get them out of this little funk that they were in. And, you know, Jason Zucker, he had a goal tonight of getting Malcon had two goals. Sidney Crosby had one, you know, Rickard Raquel had one. You know, who are all those players? top six who get at least over $5 million per season.

Their best players are paid to do this, and they led the Penguins back in a big way. I think this win could really turn some things around with this team. They haven't had a multi-gold comeback like that this season, so it was really big for them to do that. We'll find out more about this team, I think, later on this weekend when they play Winnipeg at home, and then they go to Carolina, speaking of hurricanes,

they've started to struggle a little bit. As well, they actually just lost in New Jersey Devils tonight, five to three, and they've lost a few other games in a row off that. And last I checked, I think the Penguins were maybe going to get some more help in the standings here, if I can see who wanted to shootout. Nope, the Rangers actually did win a shootout, so the Penguins not get any help from the Minnesota wild. But, you know, Penguins, they've banked four out of four points lately. They'll have more chance to do that later this week.

This was a big win, and it was carried on by, the top six. And they stayed with it. They gave the Canucks hell in the first period, in the second period, maybe a little more low event. Third period, the Canucks pushed a little bit more in terms of shot attempts. The Canucks at 63% of those.

20 chances were even though high danger was close to even. For the game, the Penguins at 58% of the expected goals at 5B5. The Canucks at 41%. So Penguins got the result they deserved, but it would not have been possible without the play. The top six and just sticking with the people, because it's so easy to just back on saying, oh, hey, it's not our night. We're just going to get blowing off the ring.

But, no, this Kinnucks team's blowing a lot of leads this season. They have not been good. There's been talk that Bruce Bredro could get fired after, you know, a great second half of the season last year. John Rutherford's probably going to make a lot of changes with their team at the deadline. No, Penguins had the right where they wanted them, and they were able to make it work and come back and win this game. So kudos to the top six for doing a great job with this one. Coming up in the next segment, we're going to get and do some other. performances that I really enjoyed tonight, including Dustin Dukarski, and, dare I say it,

Ryan Dumlin. Fantastic games tonight. We're going to get into some of the stats after this break. But before we get to that, BetOnline is your number one source for sports betting info, stats, news, and analysis. You can get the latest odds and trends for every professional amateur league out there. From pro football to college bowl season to basketball in the World Cup, we've got it all at BetOnline.com.

And if you love sports podcasts, you can even find those at Ben Online. line as well. We're always the fastest and easiest way to get your sports bending fix. You can head to the website today or use your phone to learn more. That is better online where the game starts. All right, I'm back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host. Honoredos. We're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter. At L.O.S. for Penguins. And of course, thank you so much for making this. Your first listen of the day. Excuse me. Still battling a little bit that cold. Almost gone, but I feel a lot better. My eyes aren't watering like checking.

if Petrie's War a couple years ago. But in some important performances that I really enjoyed tonight, great job by Dustin Tocarsie to come in, stay in the moment, made some flashy saves for this team. The one save that he had with his blocker barely even knew where the puck was. His glove hand was completely off. The whistle kind of shot of blue in that situation, but, you know, the rest didn't see it.

Makes the save with a blocker, a puck goes to the corner. That, I think, was the save for the night for Tocarski. but I thought his rebound control was mostly fine. His awareness, eh, you know, it's a little bit questionable. It's his first NHL game of the season, so I'm not really going to get too upset about it. But for someone coming in, ice cold, his first game, I think he did the job well.

He gave the Penguins average goal tiny. He bought them enough time for the Penguins to come back. And then when the Penguins gave him a lead to goal cushion, he was able to do enough to preserve that with seven minutes remaining in the third period. He also made a breakaway save, I'm pretty sure. Elias Pedersen, if I recall correctly from my notes, yep, that was a hell of a save by him.

I'll say this, does Louis Doming make those saves? Probably not. I have Dustin Tocarski is a better goaltender than Louis Doming, and it pays to have a better third string goaltender, you know, especially after what happened last season. And again, you know, I would give Tocarski the start on Friday,

especially because he's been playing really well, PPP's been playing really well, PPP's from you know, over his last couple starts, but also because I think he gives the Penguins the best chance to win in that game. He has a lot of momentum going into it. Penguins just played mostly a pretty good game outside of a few early goals where DeSmith was not that good. But I will say I would give Tukarski the net in that one.

And if you're able to win that game, and then, of course, I would go to DeSmith on Saturday. Yeah, you're playing Carolina on that Saturday a hurricane team that's probably going to be a bit upset because they've started to lose some games as of late. But, you know, back to the rotation I would do. At least until Tristan Jorang is back. And speaking of Tristan, he was at the morning. Well, he was skating a little bit before the morning skate, taking some shots, doing some drills.

So it looks like the injury is not that serious. He's already on the ice a week after, or eight days after, I should say, the injury. Maybe he's out for another week or something like that, but it's good to see that it's not that serious. So he should be back pretty soon. But, you know, overall, very good performance from Tukarski coming in cold for the final, you know, 45, 50-ish minutes of this game.

And it's something to build off of. You know, I would like to see more of him going forward until Tristan is ready to come back. You know, maybe he'll win the backup job. Probably not. That's just not going to happen. But I just kind of said that for, you know, craps and gigs. But, you know, really liked his performance. And again, dare I say, going into the next player performance, who I really, really liked.

Brian Dumlin, if you look at hockey stat cards and they do a great job with their game score, you know, if you're on the positive side, you had a really good game. You know, offense. Defense is actually the dark glue. Offenses of the not as dark glue. And then the other stuff is just production, miscellaneous and stuff. Brian Dumlin led the way.

He was not in any of the negatives. His defensive and P.K. impacts were above average tonight. I will repeat that again. Brian Dumlin's defensive and P.K. impacts were above average night. They were actually a little bit over one. his offensive impact above average well about average tonight his production was also good he had that point

he had that assist on Cindy Crosby's goal where he had that slap pass right to him and then the miscellaneous stuff he was their best defenseman tonight and you all know me I'm objective I can gladly say it Brian Dumont played one hell of a game tonight if the penguins can get that level of Brian Dewan

for the next half of the season they will be in great shape. But, you know, from what we've seen for the most part for the first half, I don't think it's going to happen. But, you know, I will say, Dumlin was awesome tonight. And the penguins badly needed that. If you go to even natural structure care to show some more stats for you all, 5E5, he played 15 minutes. When he was on ice, the penguins had 73.5% of the shot attempts, two goals for, zero goals against, 80% of the against. 80% of the against. He played 15 minutes. He played 15 minutes. expected goals for, 18 scoring chances for, three scoring chances against, 10 high danger chances for, one high danger chance against. Can someone please tell me where that Brian

Junolyn has been for this entire season? Please enlighten. You know, that is 2016 level Brian doing right there. What a performance from the former top parent defenseman. and he was magnificent. Again, they get that level from Dumlin for the rest of the season. This team will be just fine when Jeff Petrie and Crystal Tang comes back. Easier said than done, but, you know, he was great tonight. I still don't know why Mike Sullivan. I still went in the final minute on that five on six with Chabarweedle.

That was a choice as well. Don't know why that he did that, but, you know, it ended up paying all the things and not allow a six on five goal against there. able to actually hold a third period lead for the second game in a row, believe it or not. So kudos to Brian Dumlin for a strong game tonight. Also second up on, and you know what in terms of average game score, Ty Smith, second among all penguins in terms of average game score tonight. And that winds up with the eye test.

It also winds up with what I see here on Natural Statrick. I'll get to here. I'll get to natural stratrick here right now. When he was on the ice, the Penguins had 66% of the shot attempts. They had 200% of the actual goals. They had 82% of the scoring chances, and they also had 83% of the high senior chances.

You all can see the offensive ability is there with them. You know, it's that defensive work. That's still, you know, a little much. He gave up a shorthanded breakaway, I believe. In the first or second period, by notes here. Yeah, yeah. First second period. Didn't look great on that. But, you know, that comes with time. I would personally not like to see him go down when the defenseman come back. But that also, you know, they don't have any capacity. So he's probably going to have to make out. But, you know, this, I think, was his best game as a pro. You're no longer seeing him. I test wise. You know, if you noticed, you're no longer seeing him, you know, flick those little shots to the point, you know, from, flick those old shots to the net, excuse me, from the point where he's just kind of noodling it with his. stick like, you know, I'll throw it to the net.

Yeah, I'll just do that. You know, he's actually taking his time, going through his progressions, going through his reeds, you know, making the right pass and all that. And then when he sees an open lane, he really fires it into the net. Now, maybe he was a little nervous when coming up for the first time. I don't know. But, you know, I definitely noticed a little bit of a change with him these last couple of games tonight, though, I thought was his best game as a penguin again.

The offensive ability with him, it is there. It's always been there. was why he was a first-round pick in an angel trap. It's just getting him those defensive reps, getting him to get that work with Tar Reardon, I think that's going to make a huge difference. And, you know, I thought Jesse Marshall said it best. It's a marathon, not a sprint with Ty Smith.

And as Jesse says, he is definitely in good hands. Yeah, I mean, you're working with Tar Reardon. Say what you want about him with the power play. I understand. I'll get to the power play in just a bit. but I will say Ty Smith tonight, very good and I think we're going to do a good job

with developing him. He's always been very good when it comes to the defenseman with developing them. You know, Chris Lattang has said many times that he's one of the best coach he's ever had. Mike Matheson has said the same thing. I think you're probably going to see Ty say the same kind of thing when it comes to him. Again, definitely some defensive issues,

but the trajectory is there. He's getting points. He's doing, he did well in the power plate tonight, still a little more work to do, but I'm really liking when I've been seeing the last couple of games with Tyson. That's what I was saying about that. Jason Zucker continues to be an absolutely wrecking ball. His goal celebrations are honestly amazing. His past took again he Malkins for the go-ahead goal in the second period to make it four to three was awesome. And I loved that giving go with Gino and Jason.

And if Gino comes in, just guns are blazing, drops the puck off to two-on-one, Zucker. comes down the right, feeds it to Malkin who scores, and then Zulker just jumps all over him. I love that stuff. And I'll get to Gino's second goal in the final segment. We're going to talk about the power play and what I saw differently tonight. But really like Zulker's game.

Nice to see Rokhard Rakel, get back on the score. She hadn't scored in the last five or hit him in the last couple weeks, which is Breverick, because he's been one of their best goals this season. But he was also very good tonight. as well. That wraps up this second segment for the show. Coming up in the final segment, we're going to get into the special teams talk for this episode, why the power play came back to life tonight and why, you know, what they did tonight, and I'm going to explain what they did,

need to just, you know, stay going forward. But before I get to that, our next partner has a product I use literally every day. I start taking athletic beans because I didn't have time in the morning. I wanted more energy, optimized immune system, all that stuff. So you're probably wondering what is this? Well, with one delicious scoop of athletic creams, you're absorbing 75 high quality vitamins, minerals, whole food, source, superfoods, probiotics to help you start your day ripe. This special blend of ingredients support your gut health, the nervous system, your immune system, and your energy recovery, focus in aging, all of those things. They have over 7,000, five-star reviews also recommended by professional athletes. It's cheaper than your cold room

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Follow the show, Twitter, EleanorSore Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this, your first listen of the day. So Power Play tonight, they got back to basics. I think that was the big difference for me, to be honest the ends. You know, the zone entries, they actually looked competent. And, no, they were being aggressive. They weren't just passing the puck around and being lolly, lolly, lolly, lolly, lolly, gone with it. No, they were taking advantage of a very weak Vancouver penalty

killed. The Penguins Power Play at one point was two for four. And I believe it ended two for five. Which, you know, you will take that. Penguins scored two power play goals against New Jersey about a week and a half ago. Probably win that game, right? But tonight, they were aggressive. They were getting pucks to the front of the net. They were, you know, capitalizing on their chances. And they're finally fed of getting Malkin a one-timer. Why have the penguins gone away from that in the past it has proven to work time after time after time after time for last what almost 20 years now basically they need to keep doing that it is such a lethal weapon i'm not going to sit here and say it's some you know it's not i'm not going to sit here and say

that it's you know ovi's you know office kind of slap shot because you know no offense we all we all love with getting malcolm. That slaper from Ovechkin, I mean, that's just his office, and he's probably scored 500 in his goals. But there because teams just don't bother to stop. And I think it's probably a little bit of a better one-timer. Sorry, Gino. Love you. But I will say this, despite Ovechkin having that great one-timer, Gino has almost as good of a one-timer as he does. Why is it not utilize more? It needs to keep being utilized. You saw that tonight. Spencer Martin had no chance on it. please, Tar Reardon, keep that in your game plan.

Whoever is at the point, Tyne Smith, P.O. Joseph, Chris Tank, keep feeding, Malkin, one-timers. I promise it is going to send this power play unit to another level. And even if you don't score, you get juicy rebounds. And who is in front of the net usually to clean those up? Jake Gensel. He's a very good net front presence. Before him, it was obviously Patrick Hornquist.

Penguins need to start doing that more often. But even outside of that, you know, bomb that we saw in some, tonight. It was just a much more cohesive unit. Tyne Smith is starting to get more comfortable, at least tonight was more comfortable quarterback in the top power play unit. He's not firing those little noodle flick shots from the point. He's actually making the reads, whether it's Sid, whether it's Gina, whether it's Raquel, whether it's Gensel. And the passing was very crisp tonight. I mean, sure, there were some short-handed opportunities for the Canucks. Penguins do have to clean that up. I've been saying that all year. Penguins

have to do a much better job when it comes to these shorthanded opportunities for the opposition. They are giving up way too many two-on-ones, breakaways, has to stop. That's when they think they become a little too aggressive. Tonight, I don't think they were at that level, but still, yeah, got to clean it up. But I do think overall, I liked what I saw. Again, the passing was very crisp. Geno's bombs were awesome. You know, they were getting to that slot area.

And just setting up some nice plays down low, up high, right half wall, left half wall, all that stuff. It was a very good performance for them, especially when they needed it. You know, the power play, you know, coming into the night, over 20 skate, basically, they needed that in a big way, yes. Hopefully that can start not being also Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyatt. I love that saying. So whenever it happens to come up, I'm going to keep talking about it. but penalty kill.

As usual, very good. The P.K. has been awesome for most of the season, and it continued in a big way tonight. Glad to see you, though, Brian Newman was not heard after a little bit of a scary collision in the, it was the third period that looked a little rough. It was kind of limping off the ice. He was able to finish the game.

Hopefully, in not typical Penguins fashion, he's not out for a little bit. But, you know, we'll have to say, I believe the team's going to practice. tomorrow so then we'll find out everything then um so that almost basically does it for this episode i will say the officiating tonight was kind of funny especially at the end of the second period where an obvious penalty was committed brian duman was not um was the player that had the penalty the Vancouver player you know committed a penalty on brian dumlin and you know the ref he's reaching

for his hand sees at the end of the period decides not to call it uh they went to cancun right there as the saying goes, I don't know what they were doing. Like I said, was just laughing at them. The whole team was laughing. You know, that's just a, come on, be better. You can call a penalty at the end of the second period. It's not the end of the end of the world.

But overall, I think we're going to wrap things up here. Really big win for this team again. You just knew, even when they were down 3-0 and they were really bringing it to the Canucks, you knew in the back of your head, if there was ever a chance to come back from a multi-goal deficit, which has been hard on the Penguins this season, it was going to be this one because they were carrying play.

They just weren't getting the goaltending. Sure enough, when Tocarsie came in, Penguins continued to play well, and they were able to trust the process and see it pay off in a big way. That's two in a row. We'll try to make a three in a row on Friday when they have the Winnipeg Jets in the home

before going to Carolina. Again, that'll do it, though, for this episode of Locked on Penguins podcast. Really appreciate all of you listening. If I had my anxiety from this morning tonight, I probably would not be doing an episode right now, that I am feeling a lot better. I take these highs and lows when I can,

but glad to see them get a win, and I'm glad to be talking about it here with you. Let me know what you all think in the comments about the win, and let me know if you want his message me on Twitter or Instagram or whatever. You can do that as well. Now, what did you think? You know, who stood out for you? You know, is this a big win for the team?

Do you think this could be big moving forward for them? Let me know. Just want to hear all your thoughts about it. So, again, thank you all so much for listening. I'll be back with another episode for you all on Wednesday.