Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins decided to make it worse for yinz...

Episode Date: December 29, 2022

In Penguins fashion, they had to say "hold my beer" when it comes to the worst loss of the season. Just one night after the Penguins laid an egg against the New York Islanders, they blew a 4-0 lead to the Detroit Red Wings, and...yeah, we have a lot to talk about. Hunter starts the show by slamming head coach Mike Sullivan for continuing to deploy Brian Dumoulin and Jeff Carter like nothing is wrong with them. He looks at some stats which show just how bad they've been in a recent stretch and why they cannot be trusted in late-game situations anymore. He also looks at how it's time for Sullivan to stop being stubborn and catering to veterans who obviously don't have it anymore. He goes into why Ty Smith should start seeing some minutes and why even a move to the wing for Carter probably won't save him. After that, he ponders the question if things have gone stale for the Penguins in the Sullivan era and why some fans need to "tone it down" a bit when it comes to him, even though criticism is valid. Finally, he does get into some positive things for the Penguins to take from this performance (Hello, Jason Zucker?). All that, plus much more on this episode of Locked On Penguins.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!NHTSADrive sober or get pulled over. Click HERE to learn more.  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.

So just when you think things could not get worse for the Pittsburgh Penguins, they said, hold my beer and another devastating loss for this team. In today's episode of Locked on Penguins podcast, we are going to get into all of that. What a doom-win and Carter problem needs to be addressed today, not tomorrow, not Friday, not Saturday, but today. We're going to get into other players who I thought really struggled tonight, why this loss was not on a Casey Smith, and why Mike Sullivan really needs to address you know, the doom one card problem and why he needs to stop being stubborn with a couple

other things as well. We're going to dive into all that, plus so much more about this game coming up right after this drop. Your Locked on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes,

and want to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes Follow the show's Twitter at L-Orens for Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. So coming in today, I was looking at some tickets, they were a bit expensive, kind of wanted to go, but I was like, eh, you know, maybe I'll save it for another game.

And then my buddy texts me saying, like, hey, you know, got a couple tickets I'm looking to sell. These are the price. This is the price I'm looking for. And, you know, ended up taking my buddy, Darren D underscore nasty on Penguins, Twitter, one of my favorite follows and just a great person. Overall, thanks for coming if you're listening to this, Jamie.

And, you know, I got to see the team below a four goalie, which is something that you don't really see every day. That's for sure. The Penguins played a great first period. What's Detroit? Game wasn't looking close. Second period, they played fine. You know, Red Wing scored a couple of goals off broken sticks.

Okay, you're going to the third. The vibe's still good. The first 13 to 14 minutes of the period. You're not allowing any goals. You're thinking, okay, the Red Wings are going to pull the goal. probably soon. And the final five minutes happened and then the overtime happened and you come out with a pretty pathetic loss.

This was a disgusting, deplorable, embarrassing, whatever word you want to call it kind of loss for the Penguins. You knew once the Red Wings got that third goal with five minutes left, like, okay, I don't know if they're going to win this game. And you saw them take that stupid too many men penalty with 319 left. If they don't take that penalty, you know, we might be having a goal. completely different conversation right now. But that was just a really dumb play by the Penguins there because the Red Wings

really weren't doing that much at 5E5 after that goal that made it 4 to 3. And then, you know, Walman in overtime just gritties on the ice like a full-on Zach Wilson experience with the New York Jets against the Pittsburgh Steelers about a couple of months ago. You know, you can't get gritty in your own arena like that, especially by a no-name player. Like that guy's a freaking tweener. Guy scored his second goal the season. Again, that's like literally getting gritted by Zach Wilson. And I understand Zach Wilson's a former number two overall pick.

But he's bad. He's just a bad quarterback. You know, Jake Walman just not a good hockey player, so you can't get grittyed like that on their home rank. But, you know, this loss, again, another situation where they continue to ice Brian Dumlin and Jeff Carter in high leverage situations. I don't care about Jeff Schroeder scored tonight. He scored on a wide open net.

I don't care that he also had his 400 assists tonight. Okay, cool. What the heck ever. But, you know, the fact that they're continuing to ice them in big time situations, it is stupid. And that's on Mike Sullivan. And you won't listen to this show. I'm a huge fan of Mike Sullivan.

I think he's one of the five best coaches in the league. He has done an outstanding job ever since taking over this team in 2015. But right now, he's being way too stubborn with those two players and the lineup decisions. Here's an example from tonight. Drew O'Connor gets things going with the opening goal, right? It's a shot that probably Billy Huso should have had, but he gets things going. After that, he played only seven shifts.

But yet, you're continuing to ice veterans like Dumblin and Carter with the game on the line with five minutes left in the third period, and then you're icing Carter out in overtime with less than three minutes to go. He wins the face off, gets bullied by Perron, and then the wings go down. they get a chance, it doesn't go when the penguins go down, and Carter is still in my eyes at that point. They don't score, and then the wings go down and they score,

and then obviously the gritty happens with Walman. But it's like, what are these lineup decisions? Like, I don't understand the logic that is going into them. And this needs to be fixed today. Today. And the stands right now, they are ugly. And so here's one for you. Jeff Carter has been deployed with Brian Dumont and Jan Ruta for almost 90 minutes this season.

During that time, the Penguins have been outscored 7 to 1 and they only have 28% of the expected goals. That means the opposition has 72% of the expected goals on the other side of the rank. That's pathetic. And I don't know why Mike Sullivan doesn't see this. It is stupid. it is coaching malpractice. It is, to borrow a famous Tomlinism here from the football team. They're living in their fears.

Mike Tomlin always likes to say that the Steelers don't live in their fears, right? Even though they do at times. Mike Sullivan, he's living in his fears right now. He is fearful to take these players out of the lineup and to replace them with younger, better players. And it's costing them big time. especially two of these last three games, you know, the game at home against Carolina on Thursday,

Brian Russ, the goal of the year right there for the Penguins. Who's on the ice that gives up the game time goal? Brian Dewen. Tonight, who is on the ice for multiple goals against, especially in late situations? Brian Dumont again, especially on penalty kill. And I know the PK has been really good for the last couple of months. But for some reason, with 319 to go, Mike Sullivan sends out three of the four penalty killers,

Jan Ruta, Brian Dumlin, and Jeff Carter. What are we doing, Mike? Like, I really do not understand that. And here's another stat that is probably going to blow your mind. That trio of Dumlin, Ruta, and Carter. And I think Yon Ruta, for the most part, has been fine mission. I think he's being, you know, boggled down by Dumlin. But that trio, they've been together for 19 minutes on the penalty kill this season.

During that time, the Penguins have given up five goals. Five goals in 19 minutes. You want to do the math on that? 15 goals per 60 minutes. And you all know that hockey is a 60-minute sport, right? Of course, you know, you're listening to the show. Like, that's a baffling head coaching decision. it's coaching scared, it's being stubborn.

I understand that these guys are vendors. I understand they've played a lot of games at the initial level. They have won championships for their teams, but it's not hard to see that both are shot. In this case, Carter and doing it. I think Routis still has more to give. I don't think he has been that good lately, but I also don't think he's been that bad.

But, you know, these two players, they, stink. It is past time to take Ryan Dumlin out of the lineup. He has no confidence right now. Every time when I was watching him take the puck tonight, he was handling it like a grenade. You know, in the defensive zone, he was ripping the puck up the boards, right to Red Wings players, throwing it right out in front of the net. When Malkin would, who anyone was on the ice with Dumont, they would try to get to the point. He would just fumble the puck. It's honestly reminding me a lot right now. of a late stage Rob Skidari. You all remember that, of course, right?

He just, he had nothing. He was just shot at that point. That is who I think this is reminding me of when it comes to doing one. It's not Jack Johnson's level bat. It's late stages, Rob Skerry. And Jeff Carter, again, maybe, maybe he gives you more value on the wing if you can go out and get a decent third line center. But he is killing, you know,

whatever line that he is on, no matter if it's the third or the fourth line. You all want to look at the expected goals tonight as well per money puck. It's not good again tonight. The Heine and Carter McGinn line at five on five, 21% of the expected goals, 30% of the shot attempts, 28.6% Fenwick percentage. Garbage. Garbage, garbage, garbage. In comparison, the O'Connor Blugher-Captain line, which was the Penguins' fourth line tonight, 72.5% of the expected goals of 5'8, 65% of the shot attempts at 5'5 for Fenwick, 75% of those chances.

The fourth line is badly outplaying that third line. Third line has just been a black hole all year. So every decision that Mike has been making with those two players has just been crazy. I have no clue why Ricardo Raquel did not see the ice in overtime. That was another thing that baffled me, especially, you know, Carter going in over him. I would have just put Teddy Blugher out there in that situation. He's playing better than Carter is right now. This was only Carter's fourth goal of the season when you take away an empty net.

So this needs to be fixed now. In his past time, Mike Sullivan needs to be pressed about this a lot more. Again, I'm not saying that he needs to be fired. or anything like that, but it is past time to make changes to the lineup when it comes to those players and maybe a couple others if you want to juggle the lines and stuff.

They cannot continue to try to win hockey games with the way those chairs are playing, especially where they are in the lineup. It's garbage coaching. It's absolute and utter trash. That's all I have to say on that situation. Coming up in the second segment,

we're going to get into just Mike Sullivan as a whole, I think, and why I think some people are taking it a little too far, in my opinion, just because it's a three-game losing streak. But before I get to that, betonline.net is your number one source for sports-fitting info, status, news, and analysis.

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to get your betting info. can head to the website today or do you use member of the license or more. That has been online where the game starts. All right. I'm back here on this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm your host. Mike, almost said Mike Sullivan. Hunter Hodes.

Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the shows, Twitter, L.O. or script. Wow. I have never done that before in over the three years that I have been doing this show. I just had Mike Sullivan on my mind. You know, we're going to get to him right now, even more. saw some people come into my social media mentions tonight and said oh you know time to clean house time to fire mike you know the team has gone stale and all that and you know none of this

was being said when the team was red hot you know going to that game against carolina last and i understand this is a results oriented business losses tend to bring out I guess the worst in some people just because of the hot takes do I think mike Sullivan needs to be doing more for the team right now absolutely no I spend 10 minutes in the first segment, ranting about the change that he needs to make. But am I going to be calling for his head or anything? No. And honestly, to the people that want him fired, I am sorry to tell you this.

His seat is not even close to Luke one right now. It ain't hot either. This is a new ownership group that just signed him to an extension this past off season. In case you all forgot, he's extended to at least what, 2026, 27. initial season. They could literally lose probably every game this season and not make the playoffs. He's probably not getting fired. I mean, they're probably going to make the playoffs. I mean, I'm not going to bet against any Crosby. And of getting Malkin. And this team is also back to third place in the Metro, even while losing this game. And they can get to second place in the Metro

by being in the New Jersey Devils at home on Friday night. But Mike Sullivan is not going to get fired. He is a great coach still. I truly believe that. His system does. work as proven to work time and time again. I think people, when they look at the past playoff losses, they make these broad statements that like, oh, well, you know, they haven't done anything with him at the helm, but they fail to realize, you know, what has gone into those playoff losses. And I know each one is different, but there's been one common denominator. Goaltending, goaltending, goaltending, and goaltending. They've gotten garbage goaltending ever since 2018. Not much a coach can do with that.

Again, I know it's a result when we're into business. There's really not much they can do. And, you know, look at what he's also done with the team, you know, to get into the playoffs, especially with all the issues they've had and all that. So, you know, I do think, you know, he's mostly fine, but has it been a little stale lately? Yes, does he need to make some major changes with the line up? Yes, especially with the two players that I've talked about.

But I'm not going to sit here and say that he should be fired or anything like that. I think that's just a little too far for me. I'm trying to be as objective as I can. I understand that you as fans that listen to the show and everyone out there that watches this team, you know, you get emotional. I get it. It's sports. People, you know, people are very passionate about their sports teams. But, you know, people just got to, you know, calm down for a bit, step away from the keyboard, your phone, all that, just, you know, to take a chill pill.

You know, he's still a great coach. But I also understand that it is past time to make those. changes and he needs to stop being a bit stubborn and getting in his own way because I do think he's leaning a bit too hard on loyalty right now and past occurrences especially with someone like Brian Jones helped the penguins early on in his you know he was playing great hockey when he got called up in 2015 when half the defense was out 2016 and 2017 he was obviously great 2018 2019 2020 was fine but you know last season was really when it started to go downhill they took a chance on it and they're paying the price.

I don't know if Juan Hextall is going to go in there and have a meeting with Mike and talk to them about it. But, you know, I'd like to think that Mike is smart enough to realize that what he's doing with the lineup is not working and that he needs to make some changes with it. Another example, put Ty Smith in. He was just recalled today for the first time. I understand they wanted to go with Mark Freeman just because he's been up there and he's a righty. so they don't really want to put, you know, Smith on his offside. All right. But I still think Smith should get some minutes in over Dimmeland.

Why not? He brings more offense defensively. He's mostly fine. He played good in the preseason and in training camp. He's playing fine in Wilkesbury. See what he has. I honestly can guarantee you it's probably not going to be as bad as it has been with Duma. That's just how I see it.

But I really don't think it has been as bad. And then with the Carter situation with that, you know, move him to wing or better up, better yet, you know, you can scratch him because again, I think the more minutes that these players play, the worse off the team is going to be down the road. So that's really all I have to say about Mike in that situation. I do think a couple of other players need to start stepping up a little bit more. I thought Jake Gensel was horrible tonight. You know, I haven't really noticed him that much. the last few games, I guess it's just kind of a little bit of a dry spell for him, but he needs to wake up a little bit.

I'm not going to hear it. Dump on the guy, but he needs to do that. I thought that was one of his worst games of the season. I thought of Gini Malkin. He's been fighting the last couple of nights, you know, just hasn't been as consistent. Definitely needs to, you know, just tone it down, I think, a little bit in all three zones. Chris, the thing was fine. Sid, he had a couple of glorious chances that did not find the back of the net.

But, yeah, I mean, it's just, it's really hard to focus on anything else when it comes to this loss. Other than, you know, just the two players who continue to stick out in some real, just some coaching now practice from Mike Sullivan. Because, you know, some of these decisions, you know, they are losing the Penguins games. and, you know, they're obviously costing the points in the standings. So it's not good enough to say the least. But that wraps it up for this segment of the Locked up Inglings podcast. Coming up in the final segment, I am going to touch on some things that the Penguins did right tonight.

I know it's a terrible loss. You want me to all be negative. But I got to get into some of the positives that I did like from this game that the payments can take out of it heading in the Friday's game against the devil. So stick around for that coming up right after this. All right, I'm back here in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Honor Hodes. We're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the shows, Twitter,

Elers for Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. So positives. Again, I know, not many there, but the first period did happen. And I liked a lot of what I saw. Jason Zucker was a man on a mission tonight. I think he read a lot of people who were talking crap about him. He gets two coming into this game.

He had one goal in his primary 14 games. He was a menace around the rank. It looked like he was going to get a hat-trick on numerous occasions. He's awesome. Really think he can build off that. He has been amazing for the Penguins all season. Yeah, he's been a little bit cold as of late. Some of the balances just haven't gone his way.

But, you know, he surely got those tonight. He's been one of the Penguins, most consistent top six players this season. You really can't even harp on them that much this season. He's had, he's missed a couple of games. with an injury. That's it. Really great, great to see him in the lineup. I'm again and get those couple of goals. Drew O'Connor, he gets his first goal of the season.

Really solid job from him on that shift. Gets a nice shot past Billy Huso a goal that he probably should have had. So I thought that was really weak by Huso there, which, you know, one of the goals that ended up having him get pulled from the game. But I really like O'Connor's game in all three zones. I think he's responsible defensively, has that really nice wrist shot. You know, can play, you know, on the third or fourth line. He's one of the good young players from Wilkesbury that is an inch already. It's just can Mike Sullivan play him a bit more while Paling and Archibald are out there.

Obviously, they're on R.I.R. right now, retroactive to their dates. 18th, I believe it, for Archibald, the 20th for Paling. Pailing has been practicing as a late. So with the retroactive of the 20th, he can come back a bit. sooner. We'd probably have been back after the year, but I still want to see more of O'Connor and what he'd bring on a nightly basis. I just don't want him to only play seven shifts in night.

I just, you know, you're micromanaging there for the sake of micromanaging. It just doesn't make any sense to me. I really like Kisferra Capitin's game tonight. Two passes or the two assists that he had early on in that period were awesome, just the passes he made great. he's been a lot better over the last week and yeah you know he's kind of been a lightning rod you know for the paying you know is that the best way to say it like run and just because you know

he's you know up and down and all that but tonight in the last couple of games i think he played real boss also someone tried to throw him in there with doomlin and carter and i disagree with that i think he's been playing much better hockey um as of late i also will say casey de smith played a very fine game tonight i know he gave up five goals it's not going to show up on the stat sheet he made some timely saves for this team he is not the reason they lost no he had no chance on any of those five goals especially on the first two where the penguins were literally without um one of their players was was literally without a stick a four one goal for example basically a five on three and a half of the red wings they get the goal and then the second one sid

has his stick break uh sure enough um the red wing score on that towards the end of the second period so So some bad luck there. If the sticks don't break, maybe the Red Wings don't score. But, you know, that's how it goes sometimes. But he made some big time saves for the thing. He wasn't really flopping around in his net. He was staying aggressive, you know, making the saves that he needed to make, and, you know, bailing them out on a number of occasions.

Again, he is not the reason why they lost. And, you know, I thought that was a big bounce back game from him. This should have been an easy win. but, you know, again, that's the break sometimes when it comes to the NHL. I understand Jeff Carter scored in the first period. I already got into him a bit there. Those were my main pause in terms of players that I did want to take out of this performance. I thought all the ones that I just mentioned play very well,

and if they can continue that play into the game on Friday, I think the Penguins will have a good shot at winning unless they just barf all over themselves. in the final 40 minutes. And, you know, that comes with the territory. They got to start putting together six full minutes of games. You cannot play one good period in the league and expect to just coast your way through the final 40 minutes. And that's what the penguin is honestly doing.

In the second, they were kind of like, hey, you know, we play one good period. We're up four goals. Let's just kind of, oh, let's just skate on by. Let's just, you know, glide around, not really do anything. And I know the Red Wings haven't played well as of late. They came into this game, having lost, what, seven out of ten? They're banged up. These teams are going to throw everything that have at you,

especially after the Penguins just played a game on Long Island on Tuesday. So there's no excuse to play, like, I don't find a four minutes. That was a gross effort by the Penguins, and it needs to change. They have to stop doing this where they play ugly, undisciplined hockey for large stretches of games. where it's just it's costing them points in the standings. You win that game against Carolina right now, right?

And you win that game tonight. You have two extra points. You're tied for a second right now, at least with the New Jersey Devils. They got to stop throwing away points and being inconsistent in these games and playing stupid, especially late in third periods. I know the Red Wings scored to make four or three

or five minutes left, but after that, the Red Wings really worked. in doing anything that the next minute and a half to minute 40 until the Penguins took a really stupid penalty. I actually would have liked to see how they would have defended that lead in the final three minutes had the Penguins not taking that penalty. And yeah, I trust the penalty could get the job done because coming into this game, they had killed off 23 straight penalties in the road and the number one penalty killed team in the league. But, you know, ask them to always bill you out. That's not a recipe for success. It's just stupid,

undisciplined hockey, and it needs to change now. Funny thing is, with a win on Friday, penguins can get up to second place in the marriage quality division because the devils, I do not believe, I'm just making sure of the score tonight. Yeah, they lost 3 to 1 to the Boston Ruins, and yes, the devils do not play tomorrow. So with a win on football,

Friday, Penguins can get you second place in the metro or tie for second. You know, though they've had a couple of losses here where things are just not going their way. So, yeah, I get it. The vibes are bad. It's playing like garbage. Three on three stinks. A couple players who should be in the lineup are in the lineup right now.

But I'm here to tell you all it's not the end of the world. They can make a couple of these changes, get things back on the right track, but playing winning hockey for you know. it. I guarantee it. But again, thank you all so much for listening. Really appreciate it. I'll be back with you all on Thursday for a full preview for that game on Friday. Again, as the devil's as I said, I will be the first of four meetings between the two teams this season. So again, thank you all so much for listening. I know it was a rough game tonight, but we'll see how they respond on Friday. I'll talk to you all on Thursday.