Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Jeff Carter AND the goaltending problems strikes again...

Episode Date: March 15, 2023

This team continues to make no sense. Hunter is beside himself as the Pittsburgh Penguins lost yet again to the Montreal Canadiens but it wasn't due to a lack of effort. Hunter starts the show by slamming the usual culprits as enough is enough when it comes to Jeff Carter. He looks at his plus/minus (Yes, you read that right) and how, despite it being a flawed stat, it shows everyone just how bad he is when he's a -4 on the team for the game. He's also in a fourth-line role! He then looks at what went wrong for Tristan Jarry and why Mike Sullivan seems to be gaslighting everyone when it comes to Tristan Jarry's injury. There's absolutely no way Jarry is healthy based on how he's moving and how he's playing. Usually, a player doesn't come back from an injury and immediately stinks, right? After that, he analyzes what went wrong in the defensive zone as Brian Dumoulin, Jeff Petry, and Po Joseph had some brutal moments. He analyzes how Petry misplayed the Gurianov goal while also not liking how Petry stepped up at the blue line right before the Hoffman goal. For Joseph, Hunter goes into what he should've done to the point where the go-ahead goal should never have happened. Finally, he does offer some positives after what he saw from the top six in this game.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.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/NHLNETWORKFanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go to FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable free bets that expire in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) 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.

The Pittsburgh Penguins showed all of you who they are tonight, and you need to start believing them. For this episode, I'm going to tell you what went wrong in this game and how this can hopefully be fixed down the stretch and into the playoffs, assuming that they do get in, but I think they will. That's all coming up right after this drop. 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 to another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm, of course, your host, Hunter Hodes. We're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, all the shows, Twitter, at Elton's for Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this. Your first listen of the day.

We're free and available on all platforms. Montreal, Canadian 6, well, Montreal Canadian 6, I can just say Canadian 6, Penguins 4 in a game that had a whole lot of, from the home team. You know, start out, great. 2-0, 5 minutes in. You're thinking they're going to blow this team out.

Nope, just a few minutes later, it's tied. A couple minutes after that, they have the lead. A couple minutes after that, this is a 4-2 game. And Montreal's winning going into the second period, and we're like, what the hell is happening? Penguins tie it. Their period happens, a defensive lapse. I can blame Casey to Smith all you want.

And then they dominate most of this game, but they come out on the wrong end of it. the score sheet. And you all saw the Penguins Faults on display tonight. Honestly, I could say this. You all saw microc—I don't want to say this. You all saw a summary of what this team has been all season long. This game summed up their whole season. The stars are doing their work. Evgeny Malkin gets his. Jake Gensel gets his. Chris Latane gets his.

Sidney Crosby gets a couple of assists. But the debt players who have been really bad did not do their thing. And the goaltending, which was a major question mark coming into this season and has been throughout the season, did not do its thing. And this is what you have. All the Penguins' faults and all the Penguins' strengths were on display. in this game. Sadly, the faults cost them two precious points that they definitely, I think, will need at the end of the season, whether it comes to playing Boston the first round if they

make it, or it's Carolina or New Jersey. You can probably catch in the Rangers goodbye unless you win both of these next two games in regulation. With how the Rangers played against the Capitol tonight, I don't think that's going to happen one bit. Just a comedy of errors in the first period after they went up to nothing. For some reason, Mike Sullivan continues. to ICE Jeff Carter in more high-leverage situations. I have been covering this team for this podcast the last few years. I have been watching this team ever since I was in kindergarten

to first grade and elementary school. I cannot remember something like this happening for as long as I have been watching slash covering the team. It is baffling. I think that's probably the best way to describe it. I am baffled at how. Mike Sullivan, who is a brilliant tactician, one of the five to six better coaches in this league, because I think, you know, a lot of the coaches in this league are not that good.

Why is he continuing to ice him in these situations? Jeff Carter, I am not a plus minus person. I think the stat is very flawed. It usually does not tell you, you know, who was making mistakes on the ice versus, you know, just with goals against and stuff. the guy was a minus four tonight. He's been awful all season. That should tell you

that this player doesn't have it. Heck, after that first period when he was on the ice for three of those goals, right? Three of those goals. He played a buck 43 in the second period. Buck 43, two shifts. Comes down to third period. First shift on, goal.

Wasn't fully his fault. I'll get to that in a little bit, but it's almost like, what is the thought process here, man? First shift, he comes on in third period. Oh, Montreal takes late and they don't ever squint. They give it back with just, you know, 17 minutes left in the period. I don't get it. It makes legitimately no sense.

And then the penguins, they start dominating the rest of that third period when Carter was off the ice. He then gets put back onto the ice with two minutes left. and that was the most sustained pressure that Montreal had for that entire period outside of that goal. That was just a rush chance. So I'm not really going to count that as sustained pressure. That was the only actual sustained pressure that they had. With two minutes left and you're chasing the game, that's who you're putting out there, man. I understand the pick team only has four defensemen healthy, but you know, this guy's a forward.

You can put anyone else out there. He only played a buck 43 in the second period. I'm not trying to single him out here, but this is some weird coaching. He is not Patrice Bergeron. He's not Angey Kopitar. Excuse me. I don't understand it.

He's not Pablo Datsuk in this prime. One of the better two-way players in this league. Like, even after two-nothing, first line that comes out, Carter scores. After that, up, 2-2. Oh, 15 seconds left in the first period. What line comes out to win a faceoff? They're down 3-2 card line. Loses the face-off, gets owned in that circle.

Joel Edmonds and Swartz make it 4-2 with 10 seconds up in period. What are we doing here, people? What the hell are we doing here? It makes absolutely no sense in the slightest. Again, I have never before seen this in my life. And then Jeff Petrie, he had a horrendous game before he didn't come back for the third period. just looked really bad on a couple of goals, especially the first one, the one that Mike Hoffman scored,

made a really bad play along the blue line, let that puck get into the zone, and then Hoffman scores on that rush chance, and then the second goal. Actually, no, excuse me, not the second goal. I believe it was the third goal. You know, chases the play too far down in his own end. Yeah, basically his own end, behind the net.

He thinks Jeff Carter is going to be covering Gurionov from the front of the net, but he's way too far back. And as soon as he broke away, Grinion is wide open, he gets the puck pass to him, top shelf, three, two, Penguins are down.

Jeff Carver couldn't get back. He was really rough tonight. Honestly, that Dumlin-Petree pairing is just not it. Their underlying numbers are terrible. Dumlin did not look good on those goals either. Again, a lot of the same culprits here, why have they been losing.

Jeff Carter, Brian Dumolin. Jeff Petrie is a usual one. I just don't think he's been that good this season. And the goaltending. Tristan Jari has been awful since coming back from his injury. And I am sorry, Mike Sullivan. You are flat out gaslighting people when you say that Tristan Jari is healthy after your press conference.

That is wrong. I know it for a fact. I've been told what his injury is right now. honest, I mean, I mean, he's dealing with a back injury. I have that on good authority from a couple people that I trust. He has a back injury. Mike Sullivan is flat out lying about it. You can clearly see with the way he moves and his mannerisms.

He's lying about it. He's not healthy. You can just tell it. Honestly, you can just look at Trish and Jari's movement in the way he's playing. He is not this bad of a goaltender. He didn't just, you know, forget how to play a goal. He's not as bad as what we saw in the Iowner series. He's definitely not as bad as we saw tonight.

He's been battling injuries all season. Sullivan is just gaslighting everyone. He has a back, you know, I've been told he has a back injury. And he's also been dealing with the groin slash hip issue all season. He's banged up. I don't even think he's 75% healthy right now. That's how I see it. So, and honestly, you know, the numbers, they kind of back this up, too.

You know, since his return on February 20th, Trishon Jari has an 863% percentage. That's very unlike him. We always know he had that series against Islanders, but in regular season form, that's not him. He was one of the best goals he's in the league last year. You know, before, you know, the Winter Classic, he was playing also very, very well. Not tonight. If the Penguins get average goaltending in this game, they blow those guys out. Heck, I would even go as far as to say if Casey DeSmith is in net, and I can't believe I'm even saying this.

With what I saw in the last few periods, they probably win this game. If Sam Montembow was in, and they put four goals on him. They probably win this game. He gave them no margin for error after the first period. And you saw that they were able to tie it up going to the third. But even then, you know, no margin of error. You can't give up another goal because that was just going to flatten the team. Two and a half minutes in, a really bad read by P.O. Joseph, 5'4.

Just, again, inexcusable, a lot of the same culprits on display for why this team has been so, frustrating, annoying, depressing, whatever word you want to call it. Just because just when it looks like they're about to turn the corner, they're 71 and 1 in their last nine games, a game like this happens. And you lose to a team that you have no business losing to,

a team that was out without half of their forward group. Half Christian Duvorek, Kirby Dock, Cole Calfield, Yorei, Slavkovsky, I have the, the fact, that I can't even remember that full tweet just goes to show how many players were out.

And actually, no, I will load it up for you all right here. No Cole Caulfield, no Christian Nivorak, no Kirby Dog, no Brendan Gallagher, no Sean Monaghan, no Urheus Lepkovsky. No Jake Evans either. Half their forward group. Half.

They're starting going to play last night. They played last night. They had to come through customs with travel. You cannot lose this game. Cannot. And again, a lot of it was on the same culprits and have plagued them throughout this season. Just very, very frustrating.

Coming up after this commercial break, we are going to get into more things I noticed from the loss, especially a couple of some of the defensive, in-zone schemes, and I will take some positives from this game, funny enough. I try to be more of a positive person compared to the most, but we also will get into that. But before we touch on that, nope, not athletic means.

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We're back in this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. You're going to follow me on Twitter. Hunter Hodes. Follow this show's Twitter at Amherstor Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this your first list in the day. We are free and available on. all platforms. You know, this one was just a very annoying loss in general, just because of the way

the Penguins absolutely dominated in this game. Let's go to natural stat trick right now. Five on five, the Penguins had 63% of the shot attempts, 72% of the scoring chances, 77% of the high danger chances, 73% of the expected goals, MA still got outscored 5 to 2 at 5 to 5.5. Goaltending, goal tending, goal tending. That is that always, that's always, that's always the difference maker or the great equalizer. Penguins had 40 scoring chances for in this game, 15 against, 21 high danger chances for, six high danger chances against. That's at 5.5. You want to go to all situations, let's do it. 65% of those scoring chances at 5B5 for the Penguins. 51 scoring chances for 17 scoring chances against for 75%. 23 high danger chances for, 7 high danger chances against at 76%. Oh yeah,

they also had 66% of the expected goals. Ass kicking. Pardon my language, excuse me. Buck kicking. That's what that was. They speedbagged those guys off the ice. But what happened? No one could get a save.

Same stuff. Different day with that. Third consecutive year that you're running this tandem back and it's still showing the same warts that it showed two seasons ago during the COVID-shorten season. What's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If Ron Hextall is still here over the summer,

and I don't see how that's going to happen at this point, unless they go on a deep run. You cannot sit here and tell me that you are going to run that Tandah back for a fourth year in a row. I mean, it was probably ridiculous to do that going into the season. It would be even more ludicrous to do it heading into next season. That's why I would rather have a new GM in there, who actually knows what he's doing and can see that this team has a weakness with goal. with that thing. You know, if you go to the deserved to win meter on Moneypuck,

the Penguins win this. Out of a thousand simulations, the Penguins win this game 92.4% of the time. Canadians win at 7.6%. Again, that just goes to show how Donner the Penguins were. Also, there have now been almost 50 games this season where our team scored at least four goals and had at least a 69% expected goal share. This is for Adam Gretz. The Penguins have lost two of five of those games. Those teams in those games overall coming into this game, 44 and 1 in 3. The one regulation loss,

this was a month ago, was the Penguins. You can now add the Penguins to a second regulation loss. Again, 48, now there have been 49 games this season where a team scored at least four goals and had at least a 69% expected goal share rate. Teams are 44 and 2 and 3. Penguins have both of those regulation losses. It's almost impressive at this point.

It's just unbelievable. I mean, there is just no excuse to lose that game. Absolutely none. And I am sorry. We are well past the point now where there needs to be harder, tougher decisions. Jeff Carter needs to stop playing. I don't care.

You cannot even shelter him. At this way, he's playing on the fourth line. And he's still a minus four. That shouldn't even be possible. He's getting shelter minutes. He played a minute 43 in the second period. But in the first three, that's where they did all their damage. Montreal, at least.

They scored one goal in the final 40 minutes. Just you got to stop playing him. Same with Brian Dumlin. You can't be playing with Jeff Petrie. Those two do not work together. I know Kulakov is week to week from what I have been told. That is a broken foot injury. I don't think he's going to be playing again for the rest of the regular season.

So they're kind of up a creek now with their defense. You know, Donald Rooder got hurt tonight. Jeff Petrie had to exit the game. You know, Trava-Reedle is obviously the next man up. Then you have to maybe recall Mark Freeman and all that. No, but in terms of Carter, Ryan Paling is getting close. He took full contact at the morning skate today. I assume he's going to practice on Wednesday before they travel up to Madison Square Garden,

aka Death Valley to take on the Rangers. If he's ready to go, I'm sorry, you have to take Carter out. It's going to be a hard conversation, but he is not. giving you anything, anything. Nada. Nothing offensively. Nothing defensively. Nothing in the face off talk. And, you know, maybe it's wishful thinking that I'm asking for him to get benched. But, you know, I just don't know if any, you know, any small deployment even is going to work with this player.

just don't. And even with their other culprits on this team, I just, you know, I feel like I've been saying the same thing over and over again for the last 18 minutes, so I truly apologize about that. But when you see the same thing, 65, 66, 66, 67 games into the season, you know, you just, you come out of word, you just, you're out of words really quickly, to be honest. I thought the Penguins' defensive work tonight overall was atrocious, especially in the first period. Again, Jeff Petrie going down below his goal line, leaving Dennis Gariano, wide open in front of the net. Jeff Carter, not doing a good enough job there.

Dumlin and Petrie again, on ice for another goal. That was the first one for the Mike Hoffman goal, not good enough. The Edmondson shot, that's a point shot. I don't, that can't go in. At some point, you need your goal way to make a save. I don't care if it was deflected a little bit. He should still be able to come up with that. Jeff Carter is out there for that face-off.

And then the really bad one of the third period, the Penguins just tied the game going into intermission. P.O. Joseph made a really foolish play stepping up there. His work in the defensive zone has been spotty this season. His metrics support that. He ranks in the 15th percentile in terms of the strength defense. It's his offense that has been the bright spot of his game this season. Not a good play on that fifth goal.

Step up. Try to basically bat the puck out of the air with that saucer pass. Nope, Montreal player. Got it. Beat him to the net. Goes gloves out on Casey. This, so if you know, we can sit here and blame Casey for the that goal.

Okay. You know, maybe you want him to come up with a save there. But, you know, Drish and Jari gave them no room for error. And, you know, he's also been inconsistent. Dismith, that is, this season. That was just a really nice shot. But if P.O. is backed up.

If he's backed a little bit, that chance has not happened. It's still tied four-four. Who knows what happens for the rest of that game is the Penguins really kept pushing. But that's where the Penguins really lost this game tonight. Goaltending. same bad players on the ice when they don't need to be

in some shoddy defensive work there you have it otherwise this team played very well they probably win that game nine out of ten times even with average goaltending they probably win a ten out of ten times with average goaltending but that is where they lost this game tonight to end the show we are going to get into some positives

about this game go into how Jake Gensel has been playing of getting Malkin, Chris Lattang all of that plus a little bit more to end the show But before we get to all that, now I will load out my wonderful athletic beans thing. I use this literally every day. I start taking it because I didn't really have time in the morning to work out. I wanted more energy because sometimes I wake up a little groggy each morning. I also want a supplement that actually tastes good.

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Again, that's athletic greens.com slash an natural network to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. All right. I'm back here on this episode, Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am Hunter Hodes, your host. Thank you all so much for making this your first list of the day. So I know it's hard to take. and pauses out of this, but I will have some good thoughts for you.

Jake Gensel playing very well as of late. He's basically been scoring a goal per game now over the last week, week and a half. Ever since everyone was saying he's done, he's shot, he looks washed. Well, I think he's reminded everyone that he is still one of the better goals scores in this league. He had two tonight, one, 20 seconds into the game, another one to tie it late in the second period on the power play. Two really nice goals from him. He's going, he's at the front of the net, you know, getting those garbage.

goals. Usually not. He's, well, I shouldn't say that. That is part of his game, but you know what? We usually rely on him to be more of a sniper, but he is still a very good net front presence. Nice to see him get rewarded there. Crystal Tang, he had a really nice goal as well.

Freeze Sam Montambeau during the second period, a couple lead, Canadians lead to four to three. Just, you know, walk the blue line. Really nice to get a round of a defender. Fire that shot goes in. Thought he had a really good game overall tonight. I didn't really like, obviously, the end. is what stands out.

I think he rushed that play. He wants that back every time. Just a foolish play there. Outside of that, I thought he played very well. Nothing much else to complain about. But yeah, definitely will want that moment back. That was not a good one for Letang. He should not have rushed that.

Should have maybe taken his time a little bit. Survey the situation. Made a better read. Maybe the thing wants to tie it there. Who knows? Cindy Crosby. He had misses 20 seconds in. He's just about out of point for game yet again.

I think he's going to break Wayne Gradsky's record here in short order. It's either he's going to break it or tie it for the most consecutive point-per-game seasons in NHHL history. What else needs to be said? The Penguins followed his lead. They went up on nothing. Heck, they even had a 2-0 leading this game. Can you imagine that? If you would have told me that they played the way they played,

if you would have told me after seeing them go up 2-0 and then seeing how they played the rest of this game that this would end up a 6-4 loss, I would have thought you were crazy. You know, the game looked like it was over, honestly, after the first five minutes. But obviously, Tristan Jarring and a couple of other people had other plans. But, you know, as usual, the core players all showed up. Jason Zucker almost had one of the goals of the season.

Goals of the season, excuse me. Just split the Montreal defenders when forehand backhand, really nice gloves saved by Sam Montembow. And then Marcus Petter. said what has gotten into him lately and he came around the the net comes out does the spinorama try to do the gino move that he pulled on cam ward back in 2009 i'm like uh excuse me did not think i would ever see him attempt the gno from 2009 never thought it the funny thing is it almost went in i think montemot just got a little bit of a piece of it he was on another

level. Heck, he also had a ridiculous power move to the net, went forehand, backhand, goes off the post. He almost had two spectacular goals tonight. He has been on another level, not just tonight, but this season, this has been the best professional season of his career, and it's not even close. You know, he keeps playing like that. He's only going to continue to get more of it, as he is feeling very confident right now. I liked Alex Nealander's game tonight. He had a couple golden chances with the Malkin line. I feel like it's only a matter of time for Ford he is going to bury one. He had a two-on-one in a third period when he was five to four.

Tried to pull back with a puck. Because the Montreal defender was sliding, but he just knocked the puck off kneelander stick. He was still able to get a little bit of a shot off, but not the one that he wanted. Thought he still played overall pretty well. Yeah, top six showed up. I thought the third line with Mikhail,

Drew O'Connor, and Ricard Raquel was great. They were getting plenty of quality looks. Outside of, you know, the goaltending and Jeff Carter and Brian Dewan, the team played very well. They did everything, right, except get the result. I know these games happen to every team during the season

where you outplay a team so bad. The Penguins, they finished 42 shots to 21 from Montreal. At one point, it was 33 to 11, and the game was tied. it's hockey sometimes, especially when your goalie doesn't play even his C game. Again, they play average goaltending. They blow this team out of the water. So, yeah, I think that's really in terms of positives. It gets a lot tougher going forward here.

The Penguins will play the New York Rangers. Thursday and Saturday, we'll have a preview for that first game for my Wednesday episode. And then Thursday we'll be recapping it. And then Friday, I'll be joined by Nick Sereris to go a little. a little bit of what happened from Thursday's game as well, and then get you all set for Saturday's game. So, yeah, inexcusable loss, unacceptable. Any way you want to put it,

you cannot get swept by one of the worst teams in the league, especially one that is legitimately tanking. They have lost seven games in a row coming into this one. They have half their forwards out. Just a very inexcusable loss. Oh, yeah, and they played last night. But I'll have a chance to get right back out on Thursday. We'll see what happens, man.

God knows what this team is going to do over the next two games. And my emotions for this team with these episodes or something else. This is unlike any season I've ever had experience watching slash covering this team. I'll say that. But again, thank you all so much for listening. I really, really appreciate it. I'll be back with another episode for you all on Wednesday. Be sure to like, subscribe, and write the podcast wherever you listen slash watch it.

Again, talk to you all on Wednesday. Thank you.