Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins can't blow it in front of Patric Hornqvist, right?

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Penguins are in sunrise tonight to take on the Florida Panthers. And for today's episode, the Locked on Penguins podcast, Pat and I are you going to preview that game. Plus, dive into the massive injury situation that's plaguing this team right now. You're Locked on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:39 I am one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter. at Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-s, Patrick Damp. You can follow him on Twitter at Center for Wet, and you can follow these shows, Twitter, at L.O. Underser Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this, your first lesson slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms.

Starting point is 00:00:57 So tonight, Pat, Penguins Cats in Sunrise, the Penguins wrap up their three-game road trip after dropping the first two of this trip. And this is a pretty pivotal game for this team. With the way they played in Philadelphia to start this week, with a way they laid an egg against the lightning on Wednesday, how it looked like they quit on their head coach. This is a pretty pivotal game because you didn't see a change made on Thursday to anyone

Starting point is 00:01:22 behind the bench, any trade in anything like that, Kyle Dubis, continuing to be patient with this team. But if the Penguins go out there tonight and play just as bad, if not worse than how they played on Wednesday and on Monday, I do think this weekend and into next week, you will see Dubus truly do something because the penguins will be back home. This is a very big game. Right. And to kind of build off that and put a little more context behind it, one, they didn't make any changes because, you know, let's step back a little bit, take a little bit of the emotion out of it. The home at home with the Flyers, while not good, was not disastrous.

Starting point is 00:02:03 You didn't go over. Yes, you didn't win either game, but you got a point out of each. Like you said a couple episodes ago, you can treat it like you won one and lost the other. And the real problem is against the light. They came out, they looked disinterested. They looked like a team with no answers. They looked like a team that may have quit on their head coach. And while a lot of us have been trying to figure out what's going on, why aren't they making changes.

Starting point is 00:02:33 Well, here's why. because this is the last game of a week-long road trip. They were in Philly, then they were in Tampa, now they're in sunrise, and if they go out tonight and they play another disinterested game where you don't see a lot of effort, you don't see them pushing back. Now, we're going to get into it here in a little bit. A lot of injuries, a lot of call-ups, a lot of guys who probably aren't long-term solutions on the roster.

Starting point is 00:03:00 But if you go out and you see fight, you see the effort, you see them work, and they just don't have the talent. You know what? That's part of sports. That's part of hockey. But they go out tonight. They look disinterested. They don't have any fight.

Starting point is 00:03:16 There's no effort. They're off until Tuesday. And unless things go so catastrophically bad, you rarely fire people on a road trip in the middle of it. Because then you got to figure out who the replacement is. to get them out there. You got to figure out how you're getting the person fired back home. And you kind of let, especially this early, early, I know it's not early season anymore, but at this point in the season, you can let the road trip finish up

Starting point is 00:03:49 and then make your decision once the team gets home. And that's kind of what the Oilers did earlier this season, too, when they fired Jay Woodcroft. They had that disastrous road trip, came back home, and then they fired Woodcroft, and then they hired their new head coach, and they're playing really well right now. I'm not saying that's going to happen with the Penguins, I understand what you're saying there. And to build off your previous point about, you know, that lack of effort on Wednesday and if that could carry over into tonight, I really hope it doesn't because you know what tonight means. You know what tonight is as well. It's Patrick Hornquist's night, people.

Starting point is 00:04:19 Patrick Hornquist, who is one of the most important players of this generation for the penguins. He embodied what it meant to be a penguin. And he's being honored tonight by the Panthers and the penguins. you can't go out there and play like crap in front of him. With everything he did for the organization before he got traded, you have to go out there in player tail off for him, especially the players who played with him when he was a member of the Penguins. I just, I can't get that thought out of my head when I look at tonight's game.

Starting point is 00:04:52 Right. And we're going to get into what Patrick Hornquist meant to the Pittsburgh Penguins organization in the final segment of the show today. But you couple that with you are playing. playing the defending Eastern Conference champions, a team that went to the Stanley Cup final last year and knocked off in the first round was, yeah, the first round, the historic Boston Bruins. Yes. A team that looked like they were going to sleepwalk to a Stanley Cup, they went out and knocked that team off.

Starting point is 00:05:23 And they're picking up right where they left off. There is no Stanley Cup final hangover with this team. They are second in the Atlantic behind only Boston. They are the only team that they're behind in the east other than Boston is New York, the Rangers. And the only team ahead of both of them is Vegas at 39 points. So you look at this Florida team. They're coming off a big win against Dallas, who is one of the better teams in the National Hockey League as well. And then you look at this Florida team, a lot of talent, a lot of snarl, good goal to

Starting point is 00:05:59 attending and it's a challenge. Even if, like I said, you're going to talk about the roster here in a sec for the penguins with all the call-ups and everything. But if you want to see where you're at, this is a team to do it against. This is a team to go out and work your ass off and try to push back. And maybe you don't have the manpower to keep up with this team right now because of all the injuries and call-ups and everything. but if you go out and put out an admirable effort, keep it close, hell, maybe even sneak out a win, could turn some things around. Yeah, honestly, man, I think this is a benchmark game for this team.

Starting point is 00:06:40 If the Penguins can go out there and play a really good game against one of the three best teams in the conference, I think that could do at least a little bit of wonders for their confidence heading into next week against Arizona, Montreal, then obviously you have the Dubus Bowl in Toronto next weekend. So that's big. But overall, man, you look at this Panthers team. As you said, they are very good. They're third in the league per money puck and expected goals, 54.3%.

Starting point is 00:07:05 Their actual goals percentage, 55% overall. They're not playing typical Paul Maurice hockey. And for those that don't know what that means, that's usually low event style stuff, very defensive-minded structure. The Panthers are not doing that this season. And part of the reason, they have quite a bit of talent. Sam Reinhart, 32 points in 25 games.

Starting point is 00:07:26 Sasha Barkov, who is one of the most underrated centers in the league. I will continue to die on that hill. 24 points in 22 games. He needs to get more love for the SELC. And I think he probably will. Now that Patrice Berseran is retired, Carter Verhege is awesome. Evan Rodriguez is fourth on the team in points.

Starting point is 00:07:43 And yes, I will continue to die on the hill that the penguins should never have let that guy walked. He has quite a bit of talent. He's showing it down in Florida. And by the way, he was a lot of. a free agent this last off season. The Penguins, even though they traded for Eric Carlson, they could have afforded him. I'll just put that out there.

Starting point is 00:08:01 I'll always die on that hill man. It would have been nice to have a versatile forward like him back, a guy that can play up and down the lineup. The other thing for the Florida Panthers is getting goaltending, too. Sergei Birovsky and 19 starts, 249 GA, 910 save percentage. Anthony Stolars, six games started, 234 GA, 917 save percentage. they're getting good goaltending. They're getting goal scoring, and they can defend.

Starting point is 00:08:29 This is a really, really good hockey team, you know, not to overuse the cliche, but these aren't your daddy's Florida Panthers. This isn't a team that you put on your schedule as two points because you're going down to sunrise and you're going to get a beach vacation and two points with it. You're going to have to earn two points tonight. It used to be that way, but the Panthers are just so talented. They're also fully healthy. Now, remember, they started the season, no air neck blot,

Starting point is 00:08:52 no Brandon Montor. Oh, it didn't matter. They were able to survive that. And now both of them, they're back. Their defense appearing right now. Forsling with Ekblad, Mikula, with Brandon Montor, then Oliver Ekman-Larsen and Dimitri Kulakal, of course, from last year. But this is going to be a true test for the penguins.

Starting point is 00:09:12 And we're going to be able to see if they can live up to that challenge tonight, that's for sure. But that would do what I think for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to get into the injury situation why things went from bad today to a little bit worse. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about eBay Motors. Passion drive and patience would bring us home the winning trophy is also what keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors is everything you need to maintain your vehicle and leveled up to peak performance from superchargers, roof racks, exhaust kits, LED headlights, and more, whether you're into speed, power or style. eBay Motors has got you

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Starting point is 00:10:13 All right. We're back here on this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Honour Hodes, joined by my host, Patrick Dam. So Penguins made a boatload of moves today, putting Golichari on injured. reserve. So he's still banged up. Matneota, of course, is still hurt. Brian Russ is not to be playing in this game. He's still being evaluated. Or Card Raquel is not going to be playing

Starting point is 00:10:32 in this game. The Penguins are down quite a few forwards right now. And based on moves they made, Pat, their bottom six is going to be almost a Wilkesbury version of it. So this is an HLHLBowndombe. This morning, the Penguins recalled Mark Johnstone, Jonathan Gruden, and Volusory Pustin in from Wilkesbury, and then Coppenter and Alex Nealander were reassigned to Wilkesbury. Of course, as I said, Autryo was placed on injury reserve. A good chunk of those sports that were called up are going to be playing in this game. We'll have to see if Johnstone gets in. And honestly, I hope he does because this is a really cool story for him.

Starting point is 00:11:06 Spent four years in the NCAA, two years in the ECHL, over two years in the H.L. With the Marley's and the Wilkesbury Penguins has two goals, five points in Wilkesbury this season. And he's 27 right now and this is his first call-up to an NHL squad. That's really cool. All that invoke comes courtesy of Josh Gets off. Shout out to him, by the way. But that's a really cool story, and I really hope he gets in. But man, this injury situation, it took two months for the injury curse to take full effect with this team.

Starting point is 00:11:37 Here's the biggest thing for me. And I want to see what these three do. You know, obviously John Stone has the mold of a guy who has been paying his dues in trying his hardest to get to the NHL. Now, we're going to find out if he just hasn't been put in the right opportunity or if he's just a career minor leaguer, which, as I always preface, it sounds like an insult. It's not. You can make a pretty darn good living as a minor league hockey player and it's pretty damn hard to get to the ECHL or the AHL. Maybe difficult to get the NHL, just as hard to get to the other two. But the main thing for me is Copan and Nylander, they didn't do anything when they were here. No.

Starting point is 00:12:25 It's an opportunity. They're not young, young guys, but they are guys who are getting a shot and they didn't do anything with it. I'm not saying that, you know, you have to score a bunch of points and light the world on fire. But show a little fight, show a little effort. Get a little nasty if you have to in a game. They just didn't do anything. And these three coming up, you know, obviously I said about John Stone, you know, finally getting a call up after all these years, should he play?

Starting point is 00:12:58 Jonathan Gruden and Valteri Pustinen, Pustin's put up some points before in the NHL, and Gruden's a guy who can just use some speed and work. But at the same time, that's the main thing I'm looking for out of these guys. I don't need you to be superstars, but I need you to put up an effort. I need you to act like this is your shot and you are going to take it. Right. I'm not expecting any three of these players to be world beaters for the Penguins. I think those are unrealistic expectations. But come up here, play your tail off. Heck, throw a hit if you want to. Look engaged because it felt like when Coppening and Nealander

Starting point is 00:13:36 were playing. And honestly, I'll throw Jansson Harkins in there too. They just weren't doing anything. And I know Harkins may play tonight too, because he wasn't sent down to Wilkesbury. but they just haven't been doing anything when they were getting their chances, and I want to see more from these players compared to those three. Act like this is your one big shot at the NHL. You know, for Puson, he's only played one NHL game, has one point in that game, had an assist during the 2021-22 season, five goals, ten points in Wilkesbury this year.

Starting point is 00:14:06 Jonathan Gruden, same. Five goals, ten points in Wilkesbury this season. Gruden, I haven't really been too impressed with him when he's played at the initial level, but that's also really small sample size. I'm curious to see more of Pusinin because he gets talked up quite a bit down Wilkesbury. Let's see how much his game has grown since his last appearance with the Penguins two seasons ago. Of those three, he is the one that I'm most intrigued about or fascinated about heading into tonight.

Starting point is 00:14:33 Hey, any chance you can get to call up a point per game player in the NHL, you got to take it. Right. No, but I agree. I agree with you. You know, we have heard about that, you know, this guy has been the white whale to so to speak, for the Penguin's prospect system that isn't a guy who they've drafted in the last couple of years. It's a guy who we hear about is he's got this offensive upside. He can score.

Starting point is 00:14:56 He can produce. Well, now it's time for him to prove it. It's time for him to come up. And maybe he doesn't come up and steal a spot and keep it forever. But move yourself up the depth chart. Move yourself up the system depth chart. Make it so it doesn't have to be two guys getting sent down and you coming up in a group of three. make it so when there's call-ups, you're the first guy they call.

Starting point is 00:15:19 Agreed. And apologies on this. 10 points and 18 games are posting in 10 points and 21 for Gould and just want to get my correction in on that. But I agree with you overall. You're going down the depth chart here with Wilkesbury. Obviously, there's not too much down there. We all know that, Pat.

Starting point is 00:15:37 I mean, this team isn't whittled with all this talent like some other AHL teams are. but all it takes sometimes is you find a hidden gem and maybe Pusin can be that guy if he gets a little bit of a shot here as more Penguin players are a bit banged up at this point. Yeah, he's going to be playing bottom six minutes, so we'll have to see when it comes to that. But again, I'm still excited for him for this opportunity.

Starting point is 00:16:02 I'm excited for all three of these players to get this opportunity. Switching gears a little bit for tonight. Looks like the top power play unit is going to be a bit different. We could see Vinny Hinojana Stosa on that top power play and, you know, maybe they're out of answers, at least right now. I mean, see what you can do with him on that one, I guess. I will throw a prediction out there for you, though.

Starting point is 00:16:22 Stamp it. Penguins will score a power play goal tonight with Patrick Hornquist in the building. They got to do it for Hornquist. He was the wrecking ball in front of the net, and we'll get to Hornquist in just a second, a little bit more. They're going to score a power play goal tonight for him, and hopefully I don't get old takes exposed on that. I'm just feeling it for this long with him in the building.

Starting point is 00:16:42 Vinnie Hinoistroza, and I don't want, I don't want this to get taken too seriously or too out of proportion because it shows you how pathetic this power play has been, but he's got to be a bit of an X factor for this power play. And just in the sense that he's got to be the guy who just gets his ass kicked. Just go to the front of the net, stand there, get the puck out to the guys who are talented, and cause some havoc in front of the net. Do nothing else. I don't need you corraling the puck behind the net. I don't need you possessing it at the tops of the circles.

Starting point is 00:17:17 Just plant your ass in front because I don't know what it is. I've said it on the show. I've said it on Twitter. This team at 5 on 5, they like going to the net. They do. They finish in front of the net a lot. Then as soon as the power play shows up, they're allergic to it. So be nice to see that change tonight.

Starting point is 00:17:38 Be nice to see that change overall. also if there's somebody who could and should do it, make it Hinnis-Rosa. Hey. That's not like an advertisement for like a drink. Make it Hinnis-Rosa. If he scores a goal in from the Nets tonight, we should honestly point that as an advertisement for him

Starting point is 00:17:53 or maybe just a new drink or something. How about that? Let's do that. I'll just use my Photoshop ability, my Photoshop capabilities of like the goal celebration and like find like a 90s beer poster font and just say like, make it Hinnisroza. This team still truly.

Starting point is 00:18:09 does need another net front presence. Speaking of that, we're going to talk about the Penguins' last net front presence in the final segment because it is Patrick Cornquist tonight on Friday night. But before we get to that, we've got to tell you all about the Jace case. I know we come to sports to escape from some of the crazy realities of real life, but can we talk just a minute about preparing for real life? According to the FDA, pharmacies are running out of antibiotics right in the middle of the worst flu season in over a decade. This is scary. I can't imagine a more help of stealing than if my girlfriend got sick while a supply chain issue kept them from the lifesaving medication that they needed.

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Starting point is 00:19:10 It's never been more important to be prepared than today. Go to jacemadical.com and use offer code locked on to get $20 off your first word. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Connor Hodes, joined by my host, Patrick Dam. So in the spirit of it being Patrick Harkwis tonight, I've already guaranteed that there's going to be a power play goal tonight and they'll break this long over 34 drought that it's on its way to becoming historic, if not it's historic already, to be able to be. be honest, but Pat, what did Patrick Hornquist mean to this organization?

Starting point is 00:19:48 This is actually what I wrote about today for my weekly column at KDKA, Penguin's Perspectives, just because he represented a culture shift for this organization. Because if you think back to, and I actually, Yo, he wrote about it today too, and I tweeted back at him, I said, I swear I didn't know you were going to do this when I drafted my column. on Thursday. But if you think back to when they traded for him, it was unpopular. It was a very unpopular move with the fan base because James Neal became everything that he was advertised to be. 30, 40 goals scorer, great with Hvgeny Malkin. He scored a, we don't remember it because he was kind of a jerk, but scored a lot of clutch goals as a penguin. And they

Starting point is 00:20:40 tossed him out for this guy we'd never heard of. Patrick Hornquist drafted the same year as Sidney Crosby, but he was Mr. Irrelevant. He was the last pick of the draft. And he represented everything the Penguins were lacking. He was tenacious. He was physical. He played a really fast, physical game. And he was just an all-around positive presence that this team needed. There was something in Josh's column on the athletic today that I didn't either I didn't know or forgot about that he did during his time as a penguin. When things would be, when they would be struggling or things would be going poorly and all the reporters in the locker room would gather around Crosby or Malkin, he would step in and go,

Starting point is 00:21:27 no, don't worry about them. Come talk to me. Come talk to me. And it's not me saying that Crosby and Malkin need shielding. They don't. They're big boys. They've been in the league for almost 20 years. it speaks to understanding the mood of the room and the mood of the team.

Starting point is 00:21:43 And they just have not been able to replace that since he left. You took the words right out of my mouth to end your answer because I honestly still feel like to this day, Patrick Hornquist was the leader that they never knew they needed. You know what you're going to get from Crosby, Malkan, and Lattang. Heck, even Kessel a little bit was a leader that Rockerman. But when Hornquist came in, even before Kessel obviously got traded to the penguins. He was immediately a leader because when those three didn't want to talk to the media,

Starting point is 00:22:16 Horne was like, you know what? Okay, come on over. I'll send a message to this team and we'll go from there. And usually every time he sent a message, the team responded. And you're right. The penguins haven't been able to replace that since he got traded. Shifting to his on-ice abilities, everyone knows just how great of a net front presence he was, how he got his butt kicked in front of the net, but didn't give a damn at all.

Starting point is 00:22:38 He would just stand there, be like, you know what? You can slash me. You can whack me all you want. I'm still going to stand here, and I'm going to deflect every puck that comes near my stick, and I'm going to terrorize your goalie. That's just the kind of player that he was. He was the typical player that you hate him if he's not on your team, but you love him if he's on your team.

Starting point is 00:23:01 I'll always keep saying he's a modern day Tomas Holmstrom, just an absolutely amazing player. And the goal that he scored for the Stanley Cup winner in Nashville, typical Patrick Hornquist goal. The Schult shot from the point, he's right in his office, banks and then off Peck Arena and in. That is the typical Hornquist goal. And I still miss him all the time on this team.

Starting point is 00:23:30 And I thought the trade at the time was fine. The contract was a lot. You were getting Mike Matheson back, who went on, I think, to play pretty well for the Penguins before he was dealt, but they still have not replaced him on or off the ice since he left. No. And my favorite thing with him was 2016, because it's a fun fact that really doesn't mean a whole lot of anything, but it's fun. He scored the first and last goal of that run. He scored the first goal against the Rangers in the first game of the first round,

Starting point is 00:24:03 and then he scored the empty netter in San Jose to seal it in game six. So, I mean, if there was, and, you know, those two runs had moments from all the big boys, Crosby, Malkin, Lattang, Gensel. But Patrick Hornquist provided so many clutch moments in those runs that it almost gets underrated what he meant to the team. because like you said, Stanley Cup clinching goal in Nashville. If you remember in 2016, they go up against the Rangers. That's the third straight year they're playing them. And that was their boogeyman. They could not beat that team in the playoffs.

Starting point is 00:24:50 They were absolutely shell-shocked by them two years in a row. And Patrick Hornquist goes out in game one and is like, you know what, I'm just going to terrorize Henrik Lunquist until we win. Or Henrik Lunquist quit. and they went out. We're from game one, too, because he scored that goal late in the first. And yeah, Hank got a bit banged up in that game, but he still came back in the series. But even after he came back, Hornquist was in his grill the entire five games.

Starting point is 00:25:16 All game long. And he was, you could tell he was getting upset because the Rangers had no one to stop him. That was the thing. And then obviously you had the game four winner against the Capitals to go up three games to one. And I'll still say to this day, that certainly. series is over after that game. The Penguins, you knew they were going to win that series. And yeah, they had that crazy blown leading game stakes before Nick Menino did his thing in overtime. But after Hornquist scored, the OT winner, and thank you, Mike Weber, by the way, for that beautiful bounce right to Hornquist stick.

Starting point is 00:25:49 Right when he scored that, I'm like, yeah, this is done. The Penguins have their number, and they've been bullying them all series, and it's going to continue. Right when they needed a goal in that moment, And right when I feel like they needed a spark or just anything in that run, and in 2017, he provided it. And, man, I can't stop smiling about thinking about Hornquist because he was such an absolute warrior for this franchise. And man, what a player, really. My, and I'll finish with this, my all-time favorite story about him was the 15-16 season

Starting point is 00:26:25 when it gets announced that. the penguins have traded for Carl Hagelin. And he's walking through the facility. I can't remember if it was UPMC, Lemieux, or if it was PPG at the time, or Consul at the time. And he says to somebody, I can't remember who, wait, you mean we traded for Haggy?

Starting point is 00:26:49 Don't you know that's my best friend? Yeah, has this big grin on his face. And that embodied him because he just, he wasn't afraid to be just this positive. energy in the locker room when you needed it. And, you know, the funniest thing about that, too, was in that first cup run when the Showtime show, All Access, came out. And they were in the Tampa series.

Starting point is 00:27:17 As much as he was a positive force, you could also tell how focused he was. Because he wins the warrior helmet in one of the games. And they literally, like, barely smiles, barely says anything, puts it on. He's like, that's right, boys. And you could tell that was a guy who set the tone of like, yeah, we're happy. We won, but we're not done. Absolutely. And yeah, he was definitely, obviously, giddy when Hagelin got traded.

Starting point is 00:27:38 And that even goes back to the series before against the Rangers when they lost in five in 2014, 15, because you saw the two have a really nice moment in the handshake line. Like, they gave each other quite a long hug after Hagelin ended the penguin season there. And I could tell right away, like, okay, these guys are definitely close. And then they obviously became closer once Haglin joined the penguin. the Penguins and helped win the two Stanley Cups. But I think that would do it for this episode of Locked-on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this one.

Starting point is 00:28:09 Pat and I will be back with another episode for you all on Monday to recap this game against the Panthers. And let's see what happens. If they win, the vibes are good. But if they lose, we could be talking about some changes on the Monday episode show. But again, thank you all so much for tuning in. Really appreciate it. We'll be back on Monday.

Starting point is 00:28:28 Thank you.

Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins can't blow it in front of Patric Hornqvist, right?

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