Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins get 3/4 points, but get hosed by the officials...

Episode Date: March 5, 2022

The Pittsburgh Penguins have ended their back-to-back getting 3/4 points, though it was overshadowed by the officials. Hunter starts out the show by touching on how great the game was and how these teams need to meet in the playoffs for a seven-game series. He then gets to the elephant in the room about the NHL's officiating and how it ruined the end of the game. He dives into the Letang/Trocheck situation and how the refs should've called both guys off or none at all. He then squashes the rumors that the "Pens get all the calls" before diving into Casey DeSmith's play. Has he earned his job back? Does the team need a backup goaltender at the deadline? Hunter also breaks down the first period with both goals and how Crosby continues to be a machine. 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 “LOCKED15,” 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!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.

Well, what a freaking game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Carolina Hurricanes. Definitely the makings of a potential second round playoff series between the two teams. I have a full game recap coming up for you all. Right after the drop, we're going to go into the gong show of fishing that happened at the end of the game. The Penguins really hot start, the bad defensive lapses. Casey DeSmith playing his way back into the backup job. John Marino's potentially best game of the year. That's all coming up right after this.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello, welcome to a Friday evening edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow this show's Twitter at L.O.

Arsboro Penguins. I'm not in my normal setup for this one. I'm actually at an Airbnb with my girlfriend and some of our friends. But of course, I am going to bring you all some penguins content. tonight. Let me know if it is a little noisy on in the comments or on my social media and stuff. I'm trying to obviously talk over. I'm going to do some editing with the audio as well. But what a game tonight. Obviously, the Penguins winning streak comes to an end, a three to two overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. My first thought, you know, this, I want these two teams

to play a playoff series so bad. It was back and forth action. I know Pittsburgh obviously came out, dominated the opening 20 minutes. Carolina really, really. pushed in the second period. The third, I would say I would give the edge to Carolina, though I thought Pittsburgh started to find their legs a little bit as it went on. And then the overtime was kind of back and forth until, obviously, Carolina got the power play goal, you know, with some pretty bad officiating there. But seeing these two teams go out, it is a lot of fun.

Great theater. This is definitely, I think, a rivalry that is starting to build in the NHL. You know, there was just a lot of scrums. You know, Mike Sullivan was giving it to, you know, obviously the officials were on Brindamor. The crowd especially was awesome. Both Penguins fans and Hurricanes fans were very passionate in this. And, you know, the players were playing it like it was a playoff game. You know, it's probably not going to happen until round two.

We're going to have to see if the Penguins and Hurricanes can likely win their opening series, unless the Rangers win the Metro, which means Carolina and Pittsburgh would play in the first round. But this is, you know, I want this to go seven games so bad. Again, it would be great theater. It would be a lot of fun. Two very deep teams, well-disciplined, well-coached, good goal-tending. It would be awesome. But let's start also with the end of the game.

So it gets to overtime. The Penguins are lucky to get a point. I mean, I'll say that right off the back. I thought there were numerous times in regulation that the Penguins were going to lose this game and not get any points, which would have stunk because they came out so hot in that first period. But overtime comes. You know, the teams are kind of trading chances a little bit. And then as Brian Dumlin is coming in for a loose puck,

he's tripped and there's no call for some reason. I mean, that was full on playoff officiating. And then the second one, Vincent Trocheck kind of, I mean, Chris LaTang hits Vincent Trocheque. Trocheque doesn't like it. Punches Latang in the head. And then Latang gives him about two, three to four wax. And then they only call him there,

but not Trocheque, Carolina wins it on a power play goal. because, you know, as good as the Penguins penalty kill is, it is very hard to stop a four on three. I don't care what team it is. I mean, that's just, that's one of the biggest advantages a power play could have because obviously, you know, there's one less penalty killer on the ice.

There's more room to roam with that. But that was just pretty disgraceful officiating. You know, I hope John Cooper is happy with himself after last night when he continually said that the Penguins get all the calls and all that stuff. And, you know, obviously, you know, the rival fans, come out of the woodwork with, the penguins get all the calls and they're favored by the

rest and it's been the same thing in the Sydney Crosby era, blah, blah, blah, blah, ignore those people. They're dead wrong. They have no statistical evidence to prove those claims. I do. The penguins are the six most penalized team in the salary cap era if you go to NHL.com. That is not an opinion. That is a fact.

What we saw tonight, the penguins, they actually got a little hose by the officiating. Yes, the Penguins surely get all the calls, right, John Cooper? I really hope Mike Sullivan sends this clip to John Cooper. And it's like, hey, man, saw your comment last night. How about this? You know, does my team still get the calls? No, it would be interesting to see what he would say. It's just, I hate any game in hockey that ends like that.

And it's just, you know, it's just, it's the officials inserting themselves into a game when there's no reason to. And honestly, it doesn't even have. in just hockey. It happens in basketball, football, soccer, you know, again, any sport. It's just, you know, the NHL's, you know, version, the officials are so bad on a nightly basis. And, you know, especially tonight where they're kind of calling it like a playoff game, nothing is really being called in the third period. Nothing is being called in overtime. But yet, with that play, you're only going to take the retaliatory guy, but not the guy who started it. I mean,

that's just, that's not, that doesn't sit well with me. Because, you know, you know, know, and I get what people are trying to say about Chris Latang, you know, well, he's a veteran. He shouldn't do that. He should know better. Trust me, I get it. You know, I understand that point to a T. However, if you were Chris Latang in that situation, you know, for you to always, I'm looking at you all right here.

And, of course, audio-wise, what would you have done if you were Tanger? Would you have just sat there and just kind of laughed at them or something? No, you would probably at least do one. whack. I know maybe four was a bit much, but again, I'm not going to kill Chris there because in a playoff game, that is not called. Even if he did it three to four times. The rest are just like, you know what, we're going to let him play because that is peak playoff officiating. But in the regular season, when it's not, you know, officiated like that, you have to send both guys off the ice, you know, keep it at three on three. I believe it would be kept at three on three. It just,

it doesn't make any sense to me that you can call the retaliatory guy but not the other guy who started it. And again, as I will say, you know, for the second or third time and I know Chris LaTang has been done in his past with shit like this, but I really don't know

what he could have done there to, I guess, you know, be better. I mean, that's usually stuff. Sometimes even the regular season, the refs don't call it. They let the guys play. I know in the playoffs they do, especially, but hell, even in the regular season, they still actually don't make those calls. But, I mean, it's just, it's a bad ending to a game that I think deserve better. I would have liked to see that game decided three on three in overtime, not on a four on three where, you know,

I think, you know, most of the time, a team with a power play in that situation will score. It's just, I don't like it. That's for, sure. It just, you know, I wish it was different, you know, complaining about it, it really isn't going to get anywhere. I also wish I was surprised, but this is, this is NHL officiating guys. You know, I used to be when I was a lot younger, this would make me mad for like an hour or two before I would get over it. You know, I was mad for a couple minutes, you know, start recording and, you know, now it's okay. But just a really annoying situation, I think there to end it.

But that wraps up this first segment of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Coming up in the next segment, we're going to go into what I liked about this game for the Penguins, especially in the first period. Casey DeSmith talk, John Marino, Sidney Crosby, Jake, and so all of that coming up here in the next segment. But before we do that, this is the time of year that I've pretty much given up on all of my New Year's resolutions,

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Follow this show is Twitter at L-O. Arswell Penguins. I'm going to take a sip of my Corona here. Sorry about that. You know, anyone that is below the actual, the minimum age of drinking, do not drink a Corona watching this podcast. Okay. I'm mainly messing around just a little bit.

Well, I mean, I'm not. Well, you know, unless you're like in college or something like that, I'm not going to, you know, go tell a 12 or 13-year-old to go drink or something like that. Anyways, I don't know why I went off on that little tangent. getting back to what I liked about the game for the Penguins. That first period was so good. I mean, they came out flying. The vibe check, as Jesse Marshall likes to say from the athletic,

was very much there. They put Carolina on their toes. They struck just a few minutes in a amazing goal from Jake Gensel, but you all know how that started. Sydney Patrick Crosby comes around the net, is falling, sliding down, has one hand on his stick, brings it up to Pedersen somehow. And then Pedersen is able to basically do a shot kind of pass to Gensel who redirects it

past Antirontah. Just an amazing goal there that was all started by Sidney Crosby. You know, I kind of run out of things to say of Sid at this point. That was just an amazing display of what he is still capable of in his career. You know, obviously he's going to go down as one of the five best players to ever play. I say that probably on a daily occurrence when I do this podcast, but he continues to find new ways to impress me, you know, game after game after game.

He is such a treat to watch. I absolutely love it. The second goal, you know, give and go from Gensel to Crosby to make it two to nothing. Really nice zone entry by the Penguins, and then Gensel was able to just thread the pass beautifully right to say to make it two to nothing. It looked like for a time the penguins were going to blow the doors off Carolina. It looked like the hurricanes were, you know, definitely not pleased after that getting blanked by Washington the night before. But, you know, they really took it to Pittsburgh in the

second third period. But, you know, again, for the first period, though, for the penguins, you know, they out attempted, excuse me, they actually, no, they did not out attempt. They had eight to one high danger chances. I mean, it hit almost 90 percent. of the high danger chances. They had 60% of the scoring chances. They were out attempted. They were basically out attempting the entire game. Carolina had 65% of the attempts.

Carolina also had 60% of the scoring chances. Expected goals-wise, Carolina also led in those as well, 60% of those. And then high danger was very close 14 to 12 in favor of Carolina. So the underlying numbers definitely say that Carolina was the better team. I do agree with that, though I really liked what I saw in the first period. I'm liking that the penguin. are starting out games better lately.

This is, I believe, the second or third game in a row where they've been all over the opposition. And, you know, it's a nice change of pace because usually the penguins have been the team, you know, these last six to eight weeks that have started slow. You know, I know then in winning games,

but they haven't been, you know, getting that vibe check right, you know. But, you know, it's usually just been, they've gotten better as the game has gone on. This game, obviously, it was, you know, the complete opposite. They started out really great. Then kind of drifted,

towards the negative play, but I still really like that start. And if they can continue that through the month of March, they're going to win a lot more games. I also will say, you know, getting to more positives, Casey to Smith, I think it might be safe to say at this point. Maybe it's a little still premature, but I got to, you know, say this right now. He may have won his job back.

You know, I don't really know right now after seeing this performance and how he was standing on his head, Carolina had 14 high danger chances. DeSmith only gave up three goals, and honestly, none of them were his fault. He was saving the penguin's asses throughout that game. Heck, it was halfway through the third period before Carolina finally tied it.

I mean, he was just making save after save after save. I know he looked a little shaky in net, but, you know, he was still making some pretty great 10 bell saves for the penguins. And I think right now he has found his game, whatever work that he has done with Andy Kyoto has worked out and then some, you know, this funk that he was in, I think is past now. I think right now, you know, if a team wants to put a goalie in a trade, okay, I think that makes sense. But I think right now the penguins don't have to go out and get a backup goaltender, you know, just in one trade. You know, they can actually go out now and maybe get that top six, top nine winner, you know, that can fit in the lineup.

I thought we'll get to Caspera Captain in a little bit. You know, it's part of my reasoning. But, you know, I think that is still the biggest need for this team, you know, with how Desmith has been able to play his way back into that backup spot and how he's won that job back. I think right now, you know, with almost two weeks to go now until the deadline, I don't see that as an area of need. You know, it's pretty crazy because I did not think I would have that opinion that soon.

You know, I was pretty, you know, steadfast. on the Penguins really needing a backup goaltender after the deadline because it didn't look like DeSmith was going to have his stuff for the rest of the season. But he has been able to turn around his game. He was fantastic tonight against Carolina. I mean, I personally thought they were maybe going to go to Jari because he didn't really see a lot last night. And the Penguins also didn't give up a lot defensively. But Sullivan said, you know what? I'm going to go to DeSmith. He's been playing well. He's been giving us a chance to win. And he did exactly that tonight. You know, this is the Casey to Smith. that I and I think a lot of other fans in the media saw last year.

So really was impressed with his game tonight. And I'm sure he's going to make plenty of starts here down in the stretch to give Tristan some time off. Tristan will also, he'll play again on Tuesday when the team plays Florida. I know the team doesn't have too many back-to-mack situations left, but I still think to Smith, he is going to need to take some, you know, more than those back-to-back starts away from Jari if he is to be fresh in the playoffs. maybe he plays a couple games against some bad teams or something like that. John Marino, wow.

He was all over the freaking ice tonight. If I can find the Penguins individual numbers here, maybe that might not be it's. If I can, Penguin Shift Report here. Let me just find this real quick. So John Marino played 19 minutes at even strength tonight. 24 total shifts was on the. for an average of, you know, 50 seconds. But, you know, him and Pedersen, they were very stellar.

I'm going to look to see here for the... Let me see if I can find this. Okay, I'm like having... For some reason, I'm having weird trouble. But he was stifling Carolina in his own zone quite a few times. This is the best hockey. I think I've seen John play all year. You know, this has been a nice little two to three game sample

size from him where it's like, okay, he's definitely turning his game around a little bit. And it's something that, you know, I think the Penguins badly need just because he has been bad, you know, at times to see, well, I would say for kind of most of the season. So those players really impressed me. I already touched on Jake. You know, he was back on the score sheet with a goal that was not an empty netter. I was glad that he did. Coming up in the next segment, I'm going to get into some of the negative that I thought from

tonight, especially in Casperi Capman. I mean, you know, he had a couple decent games before this one, and then it all just went to crap. So look for that and a couple of other things in the third segment. But football might be over for this season. Basketball is in full steam for both pro and college hoops. From all the latest odds, totals, player performance prompts to where the next fire coach is going to land.

Betelline.com.net is the number one spot for all of your sports betting needs. Benadeline remains the number one spot for all of your sports scores, podcast, and news this season. You can head to the website or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends in action. That is been online where the game starts. All right, I am back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honoredo. He's not to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Follow the shows, Twitter at L.O. Rscore Penguins. Coming across this quote here post game from Joshio, we have the athletic. Ask Sullivan if Latang needs to keep his cool or both players should have received penalties. Sullivan said yes to both. You know, Sullivan's not going to really bash the refs after games. He's not really been someone to do that. he always takes the hybrid and says, you know, I have a thought on it, but I'm not going to share it.

That's just, that's who Mike is. He likes to do his talking during games. Also not surprised that he is going to say that Latang needs to keep his composure. Usually Mike Sullivan, you know, he's been preaching since day one. Discipline, discipline, discipline. He's not going to back down from that because we all know how much of a mess this team was under Dan Bilesma and Mike Johnson in terms of just them losing their cool for no reason after plays. I'm sure Mike is going to have a conversation with Tanger.

Again, as I said at the beginning of the show, I know it's probably something he shouldn't have done, but if I were in his situation, I would have been pissed as well because, you know, Trocheque was not called there. You know, had Latang actually not retaliated, who knows, maybe the Penguins somehow get a power play out of that.

But, you know, switching gears a little bit to Kasperi Kappan. That was just bad. You know, he was just a total. little mess on the ice night. Had a couple of decent chances. It was like, okay, you know, his good play is continuing over. But then other times, again, coming into the zone, button hooking up, the puck gets turned over.

Other times he's not shooting the puck in obvious shooting situations. And it's like, buddy, if you just, and I hate being that, shoot it, dude. But in that situation, when you don't have a lot of confidence, just rip the puck on net and see what happens. I mean, that's, I think the biggest thing that I can say right now with him is that he needs to be better, you know, in those, you know, all-man rush situations or, you know, even a two-on-two situations where it looks like he has, you know, I shouldn't say a B-line to the net, but a good look at the net.

Just, you know, rip it. You know, for a player that just hasn't scored a lot this season, the best way to get out of a funk is to, again, just rip it as much as you can and see if the puck is going to go in the net, but he has not been doing that. You know, lately, I know, again, he's been decent these last few games, but tonight was a major step back again. I'm just kind of, I think, sick of it at this point. But, you know, other, I'm trying to think other negatives here. I thought, and also, you know, again, Kappan had that really bad clear on Jordan Stahl's tying goal with about 10 minutes left in the third period.

Just totally flubbed on it, which, you know, Saul was able to deflect a point shot, just a weird goal. Again, I'm not really going to blame to Smith for that because the puck changed direction. But I definitely think Kisbury has to be much better there. I thought at times Chad Riegel struggled a little bit tonight, had a couple of really bad plays behind the net. He was trying to go to Friedman one of the times. This was in the second period. They're up two to one.

Had a very soft pass behind the net for whatever reason. And he turns the puck over and Carolina gets about one to two high danger chances and it's like, okay, I don't want to ever see something like that again. So definitely a couple of players who I, I thought, you know, need to be better. I love Dayton Hine and I'll be any Malkins line. He continues to impress. You know, Jeff Carter, I think he needs to do a little bit more right now.

I'm not seeing enough, you know, scoring punch from him, I guess. I mean, I'm trying to be fair because I know he's a bit older, but, you know, I definitely think he is struggling in some regard, though. I will say I love the fourth line tonight. Simone Boyle and Aston Reese were really good. And I think I can end on the podcast with this. Teddy Bluegra, I think, is going to be back to the next game, which is going to be so crucial for the penalty kill defensively at 5E5 and offensively.

I definitely think people underrate just the offense that he brings to this team. So the Penguins are going to be off. I assume on Saturday, they'll probably practice on Sunday. They're back at home on Tuesday to play the Florida Panthers. They then play Vegas. And then they'll get Carolina one more time this season before a potential playoff matchup. So a three-game homestand coming up for the Penguins. Overall, though, it takes three out of four points.

How mad can you really be? These are two of the best teams in the league. I thought the Penguins, they weren't terrible tonight, though I know they could have played better. They could have won this game. I'm sure a playoff series again between these two teams would be absolutely off the rails. So that'll do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast.

Thank you all so much for listening. I'm not really going to go into a full one way and about John. Cooper's comments. I just, you know, if people are out there that think that the team still somehow gets all the calls, you're just, you're biased and you're a homer. You know, that's just, that doesn't happen in hockey and it never has. So people can take those takes and shove it where the sun don't shine, as a lot of people like to say. But again, thank you all so much for listening to this. I hope you all have a great weekend. P Penguins are back in action next week. I'll have it right here for you all on.