Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The first ocean sounding episode...

Episode Date: July 5, 2021

Is that the ocean you hear? Even on vacation, Hunter still produces content and there's no shortage of topics to discuss. He first starts out with his thoughts and prayers to Matiss Kivlenieks as he unexpectedly lost his life last night due to a fireworks accident. After that, he goes into the surprising departure of Sam Ventura and what it means for the Penguins moving forward. Who could they replace him with? Is this a bigger deal than what it's been made out to be? What was the potential motive behind the move? Hunter also discusses the Stanley Cup FInal and how this should be the result that everyone expected. He also goes into some lineup thoughts for Montreal as they're making two key blunders going into tonight's game. All that, plus much more on today's episode of Locked On Penguins.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hey, everyone, welcome to this Monday, early evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes,

follow the show's Twitter at L.O. Orn's Well, Penguins, if there's any background noise, I am in the Outer Banks for the week. It is my first actual vacation of the year. So like I said, if there's any background noise, it is the ocean. We have an ocean front house for the week.

For the week, excuse me, the waves just keep pounding, you know, the shallow ocean. I am a absolute sucker for the beach, and I'm just, I'm really glad to be on vacation, but still the content does not stop there. I can provide you a whole bunch of good content this week. I'm locked on Penguins podcast. But before I do get to that, I do want to say this.

My thoughts and prayers go out to, God, I hope I don't mispronounce his last name, but Matisse Kivlincus of the Columbus Blue Jackets, the goaltender, who sadly passed away at the age of 24 this morning. And originally was reported by the AP that he slipped and hit his head on concrete, he was pronounced day, but after an autopsy by a medical examiner, according to the AP, he was struck by a firework mortar and then died of chest trauma. He was gone way too soon.

This is, you know, I don't care what team you root for. This is just so sad in so many ways. Just always remember to hog and talk to your loved ones every single day because you truly never know what can happen on any given day to anyone. And again, you know, with the 4th of July being yesterday, I'll reiterate this. I don't think I've talked about this on the podcast before. Someone who is untrained to use fireworks should not be handling fireworks. I don't care what state you're in, you know, whether in your Virginia, you know,

the big ones where the state that I'm in are banned, you know, whether in your pen, Pennsylvania with Phantom fireworks, Ohio with what they do, West Virginia. I know a lot of people in my area go to one of those three states to get their big fireworks. But if you're not trained to use fireworks, just don't even bother using them. Just if you're going to use fireworks, be extra careful. Because this is the sort of awful shit that can happen when someone, an idiot, doesn't know what they're doing when it comes to fireworks. But again, my thoughts and prayers, go out to him and all of his family and his friends. As they sort through this, it's just, I honestly thought it was a fake account when I first saw it. I was like, there's no way this is real. And then I saw the verifications and I just, my heart just sank. So, again, rest in peace. He was gone way too soon. And my thoughts and prayers do go out to him, his family, and his friends during this.

So I really just wanted to touch on that to start off the podcast. But we still have a bit to get to for today's episode, including previewing game four of the Stanley Cup final as Tampa Bay is up three games. to know, we're also going to talk about the surprise exit by Sam Ventura as he has gone to the Buffalo Sabres. Now, I'll get my thoughts on that in this first segment, and we'll also touch on a couple of other things as, you know, hockey season is coming to an end relatively quickly. I'm probably going to do maybe a little bit of a segment on NBC as tonight could be the last ever game on an NBC network. But to start out, there's definitely some disappointing news with the Penguins at San Ventura, who is the director of hockey research for the team for the last six years,

has departed the organization and has gone to Buffalo. where his new role is, if I can just find this on my Twitter real quick, Elliot Friedman put out the tweet this morning. So he will be vice president of hockey strategy and research. Jason Nightingale will be assistant director of amateur scouting moving forward. I'm definitely a bit stunned that Sam did this, though. I guess when I think about it a little more, I'm not as stunned because Jason Carmanos is there

as he's the associate general manager to Kevin Adams. Remember, Carmanos was Sam Ventura's boss before he left to go to Buffalo after he was fired from Jim Rutherford. And we still don't know the actual reasoning behind it. It really was never confirmed by anyone in the local media. Jim Rutherford never really touched on it. So that's still something that I'm sure will be digged up at some point. But yes, Ventura leaves Pittsburgh to go to Buffalo to be the vice president of hockey

strategy and research. And there is no sugar-coding it. I tweeted this out. This sucks major ass. He was great, I think, for the organization. I know a lot of people are saying out there that the organization never listened to him. I'm not really sure how much I buy that.

I mean, you saw Ron Hextel after he was hired a couple months, I think he was talking about Ventura and how much of an asset that he's banned to the organization. He really does value analytics. Remember, they brought on Catarina Wu, and Ventura was Wu's boss, I think, when that move was announced. So I'll be curious to see if they do bring in someone to replace Ventura.

That's going to be hard because Sam is probably one of the best analytical minds out there. there around the league. If they can somehow bring on one of the evolving wild twins or someone from Natural Static or any other of these analytical sites like Moneypuck even or something like that, that would

be awesome. I don't see that happening, but this definitely creates a big opening within the organization now to go replace Sam. I understand that people are going to be worried because, you know, Brian Burke is in Ron Hextall's year. I mean, I get it. We all know what Brian Burke's history

has been with Truckellian's. You know, having a big hockey team with veteran leadership and grit and toughness. But from everything I have read for as long as this tenure has taken place with these two at the helm, this is Hextall's team, and Burke is just there to kind of be, you know, I guess, you know, someone in the middle between Hextall and Morehouse, you know, sure, I think Burke will definitely give his opinions on stuff. But at the end of the day, I think Burke even confirmed this on a couple podcasts and through the media. The final decision does come down to Hextall when it comes to player personnel.

signings, trades, whatever you want to do. So I think if they do want to make a move for a play sandwich, in my opinion they definitely need to, and I think that's going to go through Sam. I mean, I think you've seen Burke talk about analytics a bit more while he has been here. But I also don't think that this is this doom and gloom move that's going to set this franchise back. Trust me, everyone. I get it. You know, Brian Burke and everyone thinks of what I just say, you know, with Truckellins and all that. But with Hextall here, I couldn't be more common. confident that they're not going to turn into this, you know, grisly, tough, veteran leadership, gritty team.

His first move that he made to get Jeff Carter was an A-plus. So his tenure couldn't have gotten off to a better start. He is literally at an A-plus right now. Obviously, this off-season, this is big, especially because the expansion's coming up, they're going to lose a good player. We have to see what we're going to do in free agency. Do they want to make a couple trades to try to free up money? So I guess the grade is incomplete in quotation marks, if you want to call it.

But right now, it is off to an A-plus. I still think they will definitely hire someone to replace him. But I also will say this as well. I don't think he was used enough, or he wasn't used as much as he should have been. I think Jason from Penn's Twitter said it best when talking about the situation. If I can find the tweet here real quick.

Let me just find this here real quick. Yeah, he says, yeah, good on San Ventura for finding an organization that will empower him rather than force him to sneak his input in discussions through other people. I will say, I think his opinion didn't matter as much when Jim Rutherford was here. I mean, for God's sake, they signed Jack Johnson under his watch. So Rutherford probably didn't give a shit, and they also traded for Eric Good Branson under his watch. And oh, yeah, I'm pretty sure they also treated for Ryan Reeves while he was with the organization as well.

So I really don't think his input valued much there. But I do think under Ron Hextall that it was a bit higher, especially considering a couple of the moves that they made. Even Mark Friedman, who had good underlying numbers coming over to the team, and he still wasn't bad when he played. I think that was definitely maybe a bit of an analytical decision. And of course, Carter, I think he definitely had some saying that even though I think Hextall had 85 to 90 percent of the sake. Because, of course, you know, he was with Los Angeles before he knows Carter. But, you know, Sam might have looked at the underlying numbers, see that he was maybe being misused a bit. He had more to give and then persuaded Hextal to go make that acquisition.

Oh, boy, did it ever work, you know, with 16. points in 20 games overall with the team. But wanted to share my thoughts on that. Like I said, I think they will hire someone to replace him, but it is going to be very hard to find someone with as bright of a mind as he has and with as much of an analytical background as he has. But that would do it for the first segment coming up in the next segment. We are going to preview game four of the Stanley Cup final tonight as Tampa Vegas

one win away from going back to back and sweeping the Montreal Canadiens. I believe this will be the first sweep in the Stanley Cup final. in 23 years, I believe that sounds right. And yes, yeah, there has not been asleep in the Stanley Cup final since 1998. I believe, if I am correct, was that the Red Wings that beat the Washington Capitol? So that was the last time that we had a sweep in the Stanley Cup final. In my opinion, I think we actually will get asleep tonight, but we will see. I'll have my full thoughts on this series in the next segment.

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and you'll get 15% off your order. That's promo code locked 15 for 15% off at Built.com. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow this show's Twitter at LO onuscore Penguins. So let's talk about this Stanley Cup final.

So I mean, this series has not even been close, everyone. Tampa Bay has outscored the Canadians 14 to 5 and three games. I mean, this has just been a joke to watch. And, you know, I kind of expected this in a way. I know I picked Tampa Bay in six games because I honestly overall thought that Montreal would make it a little bit competitive, but then, you know, when you really think about it, this is probably how it should be going. I mean, this was the 18th best team from the regular season going up against the best

team in the league. I mean, I know Tampa Bay did not win their division. They got third in the Central, which of course was very competitive. Carolina finished above them, Florida finished above them. But they also were without any Qaeda Kutra for the whole season. Yes, I understand. They cheated the cap. But if the league was not going to do anything to what happened with Patrick Kain in 2015,

they were not going to do anything to stop the Tampa Bay Lightning with what happened to Nikita Kutra. That's just the reality of the situation. I disagree with it. It sucks, but that's just what the league wants. So crying about it is not going to get us anywhere. I'm sure they're probably not going to have an injury going into next season. and they actually will have to make some news that will affect their cap phase. I think Tyler Johnson will be one of them.

Maybe they try to move out someone like Alex Caworn. A couple others, I'm sure, will be on the block as well. But they will not get to have that resort going into next season. But as for the series self, that game three, Tampa just took it to Montreal, that entire game. I mean, they were up to nothing, not even five minutes into the game. I know Philip DeNoe got his first of the playoffs to make a two to one, a few minutes after then. Then Montreal push play a little bit. but Tampa Bay was not in any danger of losing this game.

I mean, the second period comes around 3 to 1.1. I think Kutrov scores, then Johnson, I think, scores to make it 4-1, or I have it backwards. But I know both of them scored in that period. And then it's like, oh, wow, could Karii Price be potentially pulled in that game? But obviously, that was not going to happen. I mean, the head coach of the Canadians is not going to pull out. One of their best goalie from these – well, arguably the best goalie from these playoffs. I'll argue that Vasilevsky has been better than –

especially the numbers in this Stanley Cup final would definitely, I think, coined to that. The matter, the fact of the matter is Montreal does not have enough scoring to compete with Tampa Bay, and Kerry Price has also been pretty dog shit in this series. You are not going to win with 840 to 850 goal tending through three games. You're not going to win with a goalie giving up over 12 goals in three games. I mean, that's just, I'm sorry, that's not going to happen. This is a far cry from what he did

in the first three rounds where he stifled Las Vegas, Toronto, and Winnipeg, and all three of those series. This is the regular season version that we are getting from Kerry Price right now. I do feel bad for him in a way because Montreal is not getting and he's going, but he still needs to give them more saves. I mean, I'm not going to put the blame squarely on him for this series. Obviously, Tampa Bay is the better team. They have the better roster. They're deeper at every position, but Price does need to be better, and he definitely knows that. I think he talked about it a bit after the game. It's just, it has not been good enough, and I think that is a reason why the habs are down 0.3 in this series.

and this has honestly been the worst Stanley Cup final to watch since 2007. I mean, none of this has been fun. I mean, and again, you know, this is what happens when the number one team of the league is going up against a team that in a normal year would not have made the playoffs. I mean, and don't get me wrong. I'm not shitting on Montreal. You know, what they did with this run is nothing short of extraordinary, beating Toronto, being down 3-1, that's no easy tax, who crush Winnipeg,

who, you know, they're probably not that good. That's probably their easiest series. and then going up against a juggernaut in Vegas, beating them in six games. That is very impressive. But, you know, Tampa Bay was just a different beast. This series is basically over. They are not going to beat the lightning four times in a row. I honestly may eat a hat if they do that.

But the biggest thing is, you know, when you go into tonight's game, you think, oh, yeah, you know, the hives are going to play their best lineup, right? I mean, they're facing elimination. They're out home in the Bell Center where they're only hosting 3,500 fans, which in my opinion is a joke, by the way. I don't claim to be the big expert on what's going on in Canada, but I think they deserve to have more than 3,500 fans in their stadium. I mean, for God's sake, they have like 30,000 people outside the stadium.

I understand, though, that the virus does tend to transmit worse in indoor spaces than outdoor spaces, but I think they do deserve to have maybe around 6,000 to 7,000 fans. I know Montreal was trying to push for 10K. Maybe that's a bit much, but, you know, I think the Canadian government should have met them in the middle, allow them to have 6,000 to 7,000 fans. At least that's what, close to 50% capacity or something like that, maybe 40%. Meet them in the middle. I think people would have been happy with that.

But, you know, they are only going to have 3,500 fans. But again, we'll go back to my original point. So it sounds like the habs are going to be scratching Kaki Miami, and they're still not going to be putting in Tomas Tatar, which is just, it boggles my mind. Adam Grets had this insane tweet here from this afternoon. Tomas Tatar has more points than any Canadians player the past three seasons. He is not going to be playing tonight as the Canadians face elimination.

And yes, very cocking yemi has 1.31 goals per 60, 5-8-5 this postseason, which is the highest on the team. He is also somehow not going to get into the lineup tonight as he's been literally one of their best players. I don't understand what Dom Dusharm is doing. I guess that's why Habs fans are very mad at him during the regular season. I think they're putting in Jake Evans tonight, which, I mean, he's not even a scoring threat. over these two players. So, I mean, they're basically just galaxy braining it here. I really don't get it.

I mean, even Josh Anderson is in the lineup, and he hasn't really done anything in this series. And, you know, I can't wait. As someone else tweeted today, I can't remember who tweeted this, but someone's going to sign Tomas de Tar for very cheap this off season. It's going to be around a two to three-year deal, a couple million per year,

and he's going to put up like 45 to 50 points next season, and we're all just going to be sitting here and thinking, like, wow, you know, remember when Montreal scratched him in the sand, like that? final and basically all playoffs long because they wanted to play Jake fricking Evans and Josh Anderson over him. Yeah, I mean, that's just, that's hilarious to me. I really don't get what Dom Dusham is doing there. When you're down 03, you got to ice the best team that gives you the

best chance to win. I don't think he's doing that here when it comes to this lineup, and I think they're going to pay the price tonight. I really do think Tampa Bay wins the Stanley Cup final and they will get the first sweep in the Stanley Cup final since 1998 when the Red Wings did it to capitals. And just remember that. was when the Red Wings be the Capitals, that was when they went back to back. So it would be funny, it would be kind of funny 23 years later. If for another team to go back to back, it would be a sweep. Even though, of course, the Penguins went back to back just a few years ago, maybe the National Previers in six games. Those are my thoughts on the Stanley Cup final. Kutrov's been great. Vasilevsky's

been awesome. Poyt has been awesome. I think if I had a Kahn-Smith ballot, if I was lucky enough to ever have one, I would honestly go Vasilevsky at one. He's been the best goal. You have the wayoffs. And that's, I think, the big thing. I was talking about this on Penn's sort of a couple people the other night. I definitely agree with a couple people that this does remind me a little bit more of that 2017 Penn's team where Vasilevsky has given them Matt Murray level goaltending. Honestly, he's given them, I think, better than Matt Murray level goaltending. And Tampa has also been able to finish their chances, even though they didn't play as well this year as they did before. You know, I still, you know, when I look at this Tampa team, I also think of the 2016 Penguins,

because they buzzsaw through everyone, but I think they were more of a buzzsaw last year than they were this year, especially with that seven-game series against the Islanders. I think Florida gave them a scare. Carolina, they were able to have that quick series as the Penguins were able to have in the 2017 against the Blue Jackets in, and then it sounded like a final.

It just hasn't been closed, just like it was, I think, for the Penguins. I never really thought the Penguins were in any danger in 2017 of losing to Nashville, just as I know now, that the Lightning have not been in any danger of losing to Montreal, Those are my thoughts on the Stanley Cup final. We will see what happens tonight as Tampa Bay will go further back-to-back championship. But before we do get to the next segment, it's time to talk about Bet Online, the fastest, easiest way to Belmont on your sports section.

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All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Murdo you know to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O underscore Penguins. So again, I'm very happy that tonight could be the last ever game on an NBC network. You know, I will say, you know, NBC did kind of save the league in a way when they did get the rights all those years ago. I thought the product at the start was pretty good. you know, it did get better than, you know, these last four to five years, it's just gotten

really stale. And I'm really sick of it as the number one's, the number one TV provider in the country. I'm really glad that a shift is happening. I get that there's sentiment, you know, from some people that, you know, don't lose sight in the fact of what the good NBC did. And I definitely understand that. But there is time for a change. And it's been needed to happen now for a long time. I'm really glad that it looks like Turner and ESPN are not going to be hiring people like Mike Milbury and Jeremy Rennerick, who are so out of touch with the modern game. I mean, sure, you know, ESPN's going to drop Barry Melrose out there, but I don't think he's going to be the lead color commentator for their broadcast.

I think that's going to be Ray Ferraro. Brian Boucher is going to do a lot of it. I think Melrose will do some studioed stuff. Maybe he'll be color commentator for a few games, but he's not going to be the number one guy. That's the biggest thing. For NBC, it was Milberry and Roanick, you know, always being the number one people in the studio and the number one people doing color commentary, at least for a little bit, with Millberry.

and no one wanted to listen to what they had to say because it just didn't line up with the modern game of hockey and where this sport is going, you know. Gone are the ways, you know, talking about physicality and grit and toughness and faceoffs won and face loss lost. I mean, don't get me wrong. I think face offs are more important than some people want to believe, but it's not this huge step that needs to be talked about, talked about, excuse me, every five to ten minutes on a hockey broadcast. It really does not do a lot. I don't think for the casual fan. You know, as Nick Zara and I, been texting about this, you know, just explain why this play happened. What went into this happening? And no, we don't need highlights of the game that we're watching at intermission. That was one of the biggest things that continued to piss me off with NBC. You're showing us full game highlights for the game that we're already watching, even if it's a regular season game on a Wednesday night between the Blackhawks and the Red Wings,

you know, which really those two teams should not even be shown on a national broadcast anyway. Or, you know, now with a sound like a final, they're still doing that to this day. And it's like they have not learned in the slightest how to accurately show this sport the way that it's meant to be shown. That said, I will say some positive things about NBC. I am going to miss John Foresland a lot. I think he was so underused with NBC. I definitely think he should have been calling the Stanley Cup final over Kenny Albert. And don't get me wrong, I think Albert does a better job than some people like to give him credit for.

And I think he's going to do a really good job with Turner Sports as the number one play-by-play guy. but I still think that Foresland should have been doing this over Albert. Hopefully tonight is also the last night that we're seeing a Pia McGuire. I really liked the Brian Boucher hire when they brought him on just a few years ago. Joe McAletty, I think he's okay as well. And I'm also definitely going to miss Catherine Tappen in Liam McHugh. Liam McHugh more so I think he did a better job as a studio host than Catherine, but I think Catherine did do a good job as well.

And I think they will definitely be missed as the host for a pre-game, post-game, or even intermission show. I think those are all my thoughts, mainly, on NBC's last potential game tonight. I understand that there's not as much penguins talk for today's episode. I'm just waiting for them to do something. Like, Ron Hextall, give me something to talk about.

We're going to continue to do more season reviews this week. Hopefully they make a trade or something like that as the final will likely end this week. Hopefully, it's tonight, as I keep saying, and then we can really get this off-season underway. I will also be on Nick Zararis' show, the Upper Bowl GM podcast tomorrow. looked for that then and we'll also have another episode of the locked on england's podcast on tuesday

so i hope you all had a very healthy and safe fourth of july that listened to this podcast in america and i really hope you enjoy the sound of the ocean in the background for today's episode if you can hear it i apologize if it is a bit too loud i tried to get as far away as possible to do it i also wanted to do this episode outside because it really is a gorgeous day here but again i'll have another episode tomorrow and i will talk to you all that