Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The cat is finally out of the bag!

Episode Date: January 18, 2021

The Penguins have finally notched their first win of the season and it couldn't have come at a better time. Pittsburgh needed it in the worst way as they got to 1-2 on the season and Hunter is here to break it all down for you. He starts with the goal scorers from the game as three Penguins got their first goal of the season, and none was better than Marcus Pettersson's. Hunter also goes into the defensive clinic the Penguins put on and explains why Chad Ruhwedel shouldn't come out of the lineup again. There were also some negatives with the game: What's wrong with Geno? And what needs to be done to fix this struggling power play? Finally, Hunter gets into the goalie conversation and why it was the easy call to start DeSmith and why he needs to start moving forward if that's how he'll play.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 “LOCKEDON,” 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.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. 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.

So all the show is Twitter at L.O underscore Penguins. Today's show is brought to you by BiltBar. You can go to BiltBar.com right now and use promo code locked on, and you'll get 20% off your next order. So we finally have some good stuff to talk about in Penguin Land. They get their first one of the season on Sunday against the Washington Capitals, 4 to 3 in a shootout.

We're going to break it all down for you guys on this episode. But first of all, before I do say that, the last episode actually was like the most listened-to-episode in this podcast history. I mean, I've been doing this for what? 14, 15 months now. Actually, excuse me, it was the episode from Thursday of last week. That was the Mike Matheson having the rough debut. And then the Casey to Smith one, which was recorded on Friday night.

That was also one of the most listened to episodes in this podcast history. So I appreciate all the new followers, the new listeners tuning in. And for those that I've stuck around for the long haul, I appreciate you very much. But let's just get into this game. That was a much needed win for the Penguins. If they would have started out 0 and 2 and 1, 0 and 3, that's basically equivalent to 0 in 5 and 1, 0.6, and an 82 game season, you basically are up a creek at that point. But, you know, rough start for the Penguins.

just giving up scoring chances left and right, just the same things from the first two games. There was a lot of weird talk, you know, oh my God, the penguin should start Tristan Jolly again. The penguin should start him again. It's going to kill his confidence if you bench it. No, it's not. No, it's not.

I mean, you saw what Casey DeSmith did when he came in against the Flyers. He let in what? One goal, basically, after that. And then the fifth goal was an empty netter. And it's like you just, you play the hot hand. That's what happens in this league, especially in a shortened season. You don't have time to have a goaltender figure it out or, oh my God, the confidence thing.

You really don't have that time. You need wins, and you're in the hardest division in hockey. You have to play the hot hand. The Penguins did that, and Casey DeSmith did give them some really good goaltending in that game against Washington. I was very happy with his play, and I think he will start again Tuesday night against Washington. If he plays bad that game, they'll probably go back to Jari. But if he plays well again, I mean, just keep giving him starts. I mean, you're probably going to have to do 50-50 at this point if Jari is going to not play as good.

I mean, I know it's only been two games. He's probably not going to be like that for a full season. But, you know, if he is, you do have a nice safety net in Casey DeSmith, who really impressed against the Capitals. Now, as for the goal scores of the Penguins, nice to see Evan Rodriguez get on the board after a couple tough games to start out on. He had that basically kick in goal, that one that looked like Travis Kinek when he whiffed on with his dick, but it just went in off his skate.

beautiful play there to go up one-nothing, not even what, 20 seconds into the game. I know the Capitals would respond. You know, the Colton-Siebure thing, I didn't think that was a goal at the time, but, you know, when they saw it just hit the camera and bounced out so quick. And I don't know why the NHL officiating, it was taking about 15 years to get this call right. It's like you can obviously see when they showed that last angle that it was in. Like, is Toronto not looking at that the entire time? I have absolutely no idea.

That was just pretty funny to me. And then, of course, Eddie Oldschicks on the broadcast. You're going to give credit to the officiating. You're going to give credit to them. It's like, no, you don't. They took them 10 to 15 minutes to get an easy call right. So it's just like, that was dumb. Nice to Coul and Steve.

You're getting on the board, too. Who would have thought that the Penguins' bottom six through three games would be doing better than the Penguins' top six? Nope. Anyone here that's listening thought of that? Nope, I don't think so. That has been something to behold. The third line, again, was outstanding.

Going back to some of the other goal scores, Marcus Pedersen with his first of the year. I have no idea that he could snipe like that. That was a gorgeous shot over Samsonov. I had no idea he added in him to just go borrow down like that. That was just, that was awesome. In the third period, there obviously wasn't a lot of scoring, but, you know, I was going to save this for a little bit later in the episode, but I'm just going to talk about it now. That was the best Penguins game of the season.

Those last 45 minutes were a clinic for Pittsburgh, not just offensively, but defensively as well, I believe they held the Capitals to 11 shots overall at 5V5 over the last two periods plus the 5-on-5 overtime, and only seven of them were at even strength. So seven even-strength shots over the last 45 minutes, a complete clinic by the Penguins. That is how they do it defensively. That is the blueprint. If they can do that for the rest of the season, why not going to happen? They would probably win every single game.

But, you know, if you can kind of mimic what the Islanders do in the defensive zone like that, this team will win a lot of games. I truly believe that. Going to the three-on-three overtime, I still have no idea how the Penguins do not win that game there. John Marino whipped on a chance. He had a wide-open net. Jake Gensel missed one.

Gino missed one wide. We're going to get to a Gennie Malkin in the second segment and what the hell is wrong with him. We'll talk about the power play as well. I mean, they were just, the Penguins were just hogging the puck the entire overtime. I think the Capitals had like one or two chances that entire period. Good thing they won in the shootout.

I still think, though, guys, may need to extend the overtime to maybe 10 minutes of three on three. I think that's best case scenario. I mean, I don't really think anyone wants to see a skills competition in the game. I think everyone is mostly just sick and tired of a shootout anyway. I've been sick and tired of a shootout for about five, six years. I used to think it was cool back in middle school and high school when I was like, what, 12, 14, 16 years old. Then as I got older, I was like, okay, this is stupid. I actually kind of want to see the best players just win the game on their stick in overtime.

You know, just kind of like what they do in the playoffs. And obviously, you're not going to get played until you win in the regular season, just because the games could go on super late. And then you're just – you have a back-to-back the next day. You just be gassed. But, I mean, it's just – I want to see more three-on-three. And I just – I don't want to see games end in a shootout. Some of the Capitals attempts in the shootout yesterday were pretty pathetic.

I don't know what of Gennie Kuznetsov was doing on his, Nicholas Baxter. They made Casey DeSmith's life in the shootout just so easy. I don't even know where they were going with the puck. all the time. Sidd's attempt, I remember when he came up, I'm like, he's going to do one of two things. And if you watch the Penguins for as long as I have and as long as some others have, he does one of two things. It's either that five-hole goal or he'll go forehand back in.

He chose the latter option, tried to go forehand back-hand. Didn't elevate it enough, which was annoying, but still great save by Samsonov. And then the Gensel attempt was just beautiful. Basically faked him out, slides at five-hole, opened up just in the nick of time, and they were able to go home with that win as Casey Smith made. the save on Alex Ovechkin to end the game. But what a defensive performance overall. One of the big takeaways before we do get to the commercial break, guys,

Chad Rueido needs to stay in the lineup for the rest of the season. That was a hell of the game by Rolito. I think Jesse Marshall said he led all skaters on the Penguins on Stattrick with possession and expected goals 4 percentage. He was just that good. I mean, he was one v-winning Alex Ovechkin in the defensive zone, owning him each time. I mean, that was just,

Cody C.C. ain't going to do that, folks. And if Cody Cici is your number seven defenseman, that's fine, but I think Chad Ruehdle, for at least one game, outplayed him to the point where I don't think Cici will ever get up to that level this year. And that's not to say that CC has been bad this season for the Penguins because he was fine in that opening game. But I mean, Ruehiel, he's just so sound defensively in his own zone, can move the puck up the ice with precision, good in the offensive zone. He's just an all-around good number six defenseman. And I remember when Josh Yoey was on the podcast this past summer, he had that conversation with Jacques

Martin in February of 2020, and he said, you know, for the last three to four weeks, he told Josh, Ruehiel was their best defenseman. And, you know, you can kind of see why he would say that just because of how good he was yesterday in the defensive zone and the offensive zone. He's just a really reliable number six defenseman. And just, it'll still make no sense as to why Jim wrote the third flopping and Cody Cici and for the number six spot was a good idea. when Chad or Wiedel can just do everything he does, but except at a higher level for 700K. For Yus Oricula, good to see him in the lineup.

A lot of people were thinking it was a healthy scratch from Mike Matheson, myself included because he's had a rough first couple of games. It was not, if you guys did not see Sullivan after the game, confirmed that Matheson will be out longer term with an upper body injury. I think I read on Twitter from Josh and a couple other people that he was seen getting treatment on his shoulder. He was also practicing the next day, so it must have gotten worse over the last 24 hours

or he didn't think it was as bad as it looked and it turned out to be bad. So for the defensive movement forward, guys, you're going to see a lot of Yusolec in the lineup. That's not a bad thing. I thought he was fine yesterday, though. I think his possession was like a round 40%, which isn't good, but I thought defensively in his own zone,

he was rock solid. And, you know, if this pairing continues to tear it up, this Rikolo Ruudel pair, you're going to see a lot more people, myself included, just going at your brother for saying, like, dude, why'd you have to bring in Mike Matheson and Cody Cici when you have two players in Ricola and Ruudel in Ruby do, who can do their job just as well for a lot cheaper.

I think it would be basically, what, $2 million for your bottom pairing with two players who are better than them, I would say. I mean, I definitely think Chatter Riddle is better than Cody Sisi. And, you know, we'll see, we'll see now what the Penguins have in use of Riegel. He doesn't have a large sample size, but with Matheson out longer term, what is it, maybe 20, 30 games or something like that, we're going to really see what this team has now in Rikola, and it'll be interesting to see what happens with that. But there's still a lot more we need to get to.

too about this game. It will be some negative we have to talk about because, you know, it can't be all sunshine and roses. Before we do that, we do have to talk about bet online. There's only one place that has you covered, one place we trust. That is betonline.ag. You can sign up today for a free account at that website. Use that promo code locked on for your 50% off. Welcome bonus. You have the AFC championship game, NFC championship came coming up this week that you can bet on all the NHL games for the rest of this day, rest of the week and the rest of until the summer, basically. Don't sit on the sidelines anymore, guys. Get in on the last. the action. Don't forget to use the promo code

Locked on to receive a 50% off welcome bonus with your first deposit. That's Bet Online, your online sportsbook experts. 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 shows Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins.

So, you know, as great as it was for the Penguins to get that win yesterday, there's still some negative that came out of it. Let's talk about it. First up, though, the Power Play. I don't know it was possible for the Penguins Power to Play to be worse, than last year's Penguins Power Play, but it has succeeded three games into this 2021 season.

They are just, it is a tire fire. Whenever they get a power play, I just want them to full on decline it. It looks like the other team is on the main advantage whenever the Penguins get on the power play. Their overpassing is just ridiculous at this point. Just take a bloody shot on net and crash the goalie hoping to get some rebounds.

I mean, that's really all there is to it. Like get some good looks. You don't have to be like the Harlem Glover. trovers on every freaking powerplay. It's just, it's ridiculous. With the amount of talent that this team has on their top powerplay, it should not look this bad. I mean, you have the sky hook pass on Reardon's powerplay unit, which has been in place since

NOM, it doesn't work. He needs to get it out of here. And then they just need to work on the zone entries, too. It's just like, it looks terrible. I mean, when Hvgeny Malkin is gaining the zone on the power play, the puck is immediately turned over. And speaking of Evgeny Malkin, he has been, he needs to come back down to earth. He is absolutely terrible these last few games.

I don't know if he's hesitant to shoot. I don't know if he's hesitant with his all-round game. It sure looks like it, but if the Penguins are to compete this season, get to the Stanley Cup playoffs, and win a fourth Stanley Cup in the Sid and Gino era, he needs to wake up out of whatever the hell he's in and start playing like the of Guany Malkin that we all know and love and have been accustomed to because this is unacceptable from him and he just looks absolutely lost out there. I mean, the game yesterday against the Capitals,

that was the first shot on net for this season that he had. He didn't have any shots on net in the first two games against Philadelphia. Yesterday was the first time they had a shot on net. I mean, when have you ever said that about getting Malkin three games into a season? Never. I mean, and I know he's 34. He's eventually going to slow down at one point, but it shouldn't be happening like this. We all know that he has a lot of hockey left in the tank,

and I expect him to come out of this slum, but if he somehow doesn't, there's going to be a lot of talk about Gino one way or the y'all. other. And, you know, just bringing back about the power play, you know, he just needs to be more confident in his ability, you know, to shoot the puck, not trying to force passes that aren't there. That honestly goes for everyone on the unit. When Tang was guilty of this yesterday, you know, I've seen people say that you could replace the Tang with Marino on my top powerplay. I wouldn't hate it. I still love Chris LaTang, but if he's not doing the job up there, you try to replace him with someone who can and John Marino who moves the puck very well. Said, he's not really

been down low as much as from what I can tell. Put him down low. I don't know why he's working in the slot. I think he works great down low. Gensel's obviously the front of the net. Rust, he needs to work out of his fung. And, you know, maybe they'll try Casperi Captain on there on Tuesday or towards the end of the week if this doesn't get fixed. But, you know, it's just, it's been a bad unit right now. And there's just one simple fix that could honestly have it be a better unit. Stop overpassing and get pucks on net and crash the goalie. I mean, I don't know why the penguins have gone away for him. Like I said, you don't need to be like the Harlem Globetrotters every freaking time you get on the power play looking for that perfect play looking for the highlight real play and that you can put on

sports center or something like that so just go back to basics they can have a good powerplay i expect them to have a good power play so we'll see what adjustments they make on that unit i'm going into tuesday's game as they were oh for five on the power play um on sunday that could have made the real difference in the game in regulation and they're lucky they didn't lose because of it um you know i already had my i've guany malcon rant um he just looks lost out there and you know you're going to hear a lot of uh trade of guany malcon chatter from some weirdos in the fan base. I'm not at that level yet. I'm probably not going to get at that level ever unless

you know this success continues for a full season. Trust him to get out of it. I think he will. And, you know, a lot of people are going to be looking pretty stupid once he does find his way out of this funk. Other stuff. It is pretty interesting to me that Brandon Tannov, of all people, is out playing Jason Zucker, Brian Rust, and Jane Gensel. Most notably, though, the last two,

Brian Rust and Jake Gensel. They have been invisible through three games. I think the chances will come for Gensel. He's going to bury some of these. The same with Russ. I mean, he's been pretty invisible. Zulk could release had that nice pass to Pedersen on the third goal. He had the primary assist on it.

That was a hell of a read. He's been getting some more quality chances than the other two. I think he's going to find the net at some point. As Jesse Marshall was saying during the game, the dam is going to break. I mean, their shooting percentage is not going to stay this low for the rest of the season. But you do want to see more out of some of your top six wingers, especially Rust and Gensel.

Rust, of course, had 27 goals this past season. Gensel was on pace for, like, what, 40 to 45 before he got hurt? So, yeah, they need to wake up. As for the third line, this has the makings of a top five third line in hockey. Again, something I didn't think I would be saying after three games for the regular season. This Jan Kalski, Teneff McCann, line has been awesome. I think Danny Shiry Irving of the Pensblog had this really awesome tweet this morning that shows just how good Jared McCann has been for the Penguins this season.

He ranks first among Penguins' Awards at 5V5 in shot attempt share, expected goals share, goals four per hour, shot attempts for per hour, shot attempts against per hour, expected goals for per hour, and expected goals against per hour. Is that good, folks? Yes, that is very freaking good. That shows that he is excelling both in the offensive zone and the defensive zone. He's just a really good third-line player, and he's just worked so well with Tanev and Jenkowski. I never thought that Jankelski was this good offensively. I mean, he has some nice hands. He made some good playmaking ability.

Tanef, he's just a wrecking ball. I got a funny tweet from the locked on Penguins' Twitter account. True North Penn Spam says, I'm officially scared of Brandon Tannibb, always sends shivers, but that shot of him losing his helmet and getting off the ice with his crazy eyes and hair. Terrified my kids.

I loved him. What are your thoughts on that? I do remember that play, man. It was really funny. I think that was the play when he basically, what, he raised his hands up, saying, okay, get me off or something like that. And then, yeah, he flipped his hair like,

Carl Haglin used to do. Yeah, the dude is like, he's a freak, is what he is. He just honestly looks like the boogeyman out there with how crazy he is. He's a lot of fun to watch, and like I said, he's been one of the Penguins' best three forwards, I would say,

for this season. He's just everywhere in the offensive zone and the defensive zone, and I can't wait for Austin Wiesk to come back because I think he'll be even better next to him. But I mean, are they even going to move Tenev off that third line? I don't even know, so who knows what happens with that. And thank you for tagging me and that too. I always like to talk about someone with

nice flow and someone who just looks like a menace on the ice and just a complete freak. So thank you. But we still have more to get to coming up in the next segment and there's been rumors that the penguins may be close to making a trade. Jack Roselovich of the Winnipeg Jets. Apparently, Elliot Freeman said on headlines on Saturday night on

Hockey United in Canada, the Penguins are one of the more interested teams. For those who don't know he is a forward on the jet, so I believe has asked to be traded 23 years old. We're going to get all into it in the next segment and some other stuff as Before we do get into that, it's time to talk about Bilt Bar, 18 amazing flavors, six new flavors, caramel brownie, cookies and cream, care cake are a few, the 12 original, raspberry, coconut, almond,

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Hunter Hody. So there has been so a lot of this Jack Roslovich rumors. I wouldn't mind getting him on the Penguins. I think he's a better option than Sam Lafferty, Evan Rodriguez, Colton Severe on this last season in Winnipeg was his best season yet, 71 games. 12 goals, 29.71 games. Possession-wise, 51.6% for Scores, C Fenwick, that's a career high for him. The season before that in 2019 had nine goals, 24.77 games. So he's basically strictly a bottom six player. He'll be 24, I believe, in two weeks.

If I go to Jayfresh Hockey's model when he was talking about the rumors, it doesn't paint him in a pretty good light, but I think for a bottom six player, he would be totally fine here on the fourth line. The biggest question is, you know, what's the cost to acquire? I mean, are the things going to have to give up someone like you so weakly? maybe Colton Severe, are going to give up a draft pick for him or something like that. I don't think Winnipeg is going to let him go for peanuts,

but you never know with some initial general managers. Kevin Shevoldiav is honestly hot or cold with trades. But if you read Jayfreshers hockey's tweet, you know, just with his war wins above replacement model, requesting a trade is a good playmaker, but not very impressive in terms of driving players scoring goals. You know, his primary sis per 60 in the 85th percentile,

high-danger passes per 60, 68%. Quality of teammate, 71%. His finishing ability, 57%, so it's okay, but you know, on the power play, not even 20%. His projected wins above replacement percentage is only 33%. His goals for 60, 46%, even strength offense, 30%. The good part about him, though, is that he is still very young, 24 years old. He's in the peak years of his career. And if he can give the penguins, what?

12 goals, almost 30 points in a season. You would take that, especially on the fourth line. And I think he would be an upgrade over player such as Colton's season. and Evan Rodriguez and Sam Lafferty, I'm just not interested in moving out like a premium to go get it, I guess. But, you know, but if it's a good package that you don't have to give up a lot for the future, basically, just do it. You know, you don't have to give a player like Yuseligal who's going to be purely your number five guy moving forward with Matheson out.

So we'll have to see where that goes. You know, I've already seen people from Penguin's Twitter saying that he could be a penguin by the end of the weekend. It wouldn't surprise me with Jim Rutherford, which is how he is. And he just loves getting ahead of the trade market all the time. So those are my thoughts on that. Like I said, I still think he would be a good fit here, has a good pass-first mentality. And if he can just work on his finishing ability, he would be that much better of a player. So that's basically it on him.

Lastly, though, to end this episode, you know, posted a tweet on the lockdown penguin's Twitter account. Basically just asking everyone what they were impressed about with the penguins during the game against Washington. Got a few good responses. I'm from True North Penn Spam. Third line by far, all three guys have shown they are ready to play. Again, man, I 100% agree with you. That third line has been the Penguins' best. line this season and it's turning into one of the top five third lines league wide in my

opinion i'm tannib it's just been outstanding jankowski he's already at three points in three games he had seven points all of last year in like 70 games or something like that or so um he's going he's on pace to shatter that um and then mcann you know i already put out those stats that danny of shiririr irving of penn's blog said and yeah it's just it's been a freak line um gilbert gilbert the goat how well case he just smith played yeah man he he was great he made some very timely saved during that game that I don't think Tristan Jari would have made. I will give him the next start on Tuesday. If he plays bad, you give it back to Jari.

But, you know, right now you're going to ride the hot hand. If Casey Dismith plays well again tomorrow against Washington, you start him again later than this week against, I believe they played Boston coming up, if I'm not mistaken. Or it's the Rangers. I have to double check. And then Hockey and Nat, a Pittsburgh Penguins podcast says, pleasant and surprise with Jane Kalski's played through three games.

You know, you're not alone in that, man. I think everyone in this fan base is surprised with how well Jane Kalski has played, especially at 700K, and I didn't know that he had the offensive skill that he has been displaying on that third line. But that will basically do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I don't think I missed anything for this episode. There's still some stuff that has to be fixed moving forward, namely the power play, getting of Gennie Malkin back from Mars or Pluto or whatever the hell planet he's on,

and just making sure there's not many bad defensive gaffs in the third period, which could just do real games for the Penguins, because in the second period of the season, they have been the best team in each of their three games. And just when they keep it at 5V5, they are outplaying their opponents very decisively. So the Penguins have to stop taking penalties, you know, to end on that, stop with the too many men. I don't know how you're taking three too many men penalties in three games. That is absolutely embarrassing.

That may have to be a league record. I'm not having to look that up maybe for next episode. But thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. I really appreciate it. Tomorrow I'll probably have an episode after the game against Washington. That'll be up on Tuesday night. and then Wednesday we'll go into a preview for the Penguins next opponent and also do a little more of a recap of that game.

And actually, oh yeah, just before I forget, Kasperi Kappen, very likely to play tomorrow. Was that practice today? Skating on the top line with Crosby and Gensel, I would expect him to get in. I know it's only been one practice, but expect him to finally make his debut on the top line, and we're going to see what they have in Captain pretty quick here.

We'll see if he has his legs yet. But on that note, thank you so much for listening, and I will talk to you all on Tuesday night, after the game against Washington.