Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins got goalie'd again, lose 2-1 to the Sabres

Episode Date: November 17, 2021

Time is running short with the fanbase. The Penguins dropped another one, this time to the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 as Dustin Tokarski had a career game against them. Hunter recaps that loss and goes into the Penguins struggles as a couple of the same things popping up. Why isn't the team finishing their chances? How much of that game was lost in the 2nd period? He also gets into the power play and how there was some progress there before delivering the ultimate message that time is running short. What percentage will the team have to play at for the rest of the way? Is it panic time now? Hunter also gets into the Penguins pending sale and how that will affect the franchise going forward. Will Letang & Malkin retire with the team? Is Mario going to be sticking around? Is everyone in the organization happy about it? All that, plus much more on this episode of Locked On Penguins.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.ShopifyGo to Shopify.com/lockedonnhl for a FREE fourteen-day trial and get full access to Shopify’s entire suite of features. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hey, everyone, welcome to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodeys. You know to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow the show's Twitter at L.O. HensO. Hensk.

And thank you all so much for making this episode your first listen of the day. I really got nothing for you all after that game. No, I'm just really messing around. But that's probably the most frustrated I've been just watching a game since I would say the New Jersey one or maybe the Calgary one when Markstrom went off. This is a game that Pittsburgh should have at least gotten a point out of. Probably should have won. I will say those first 40 minutes, they were kind of mad.

The first period I thought they played fine. Second period wasn't that good. the third period. Everyone knows what just happened if you watched it. Just blitz the sabers for what, 17, 18 shots and only allowed three or four in a turn. Ended up out-shooting them, if I recall correctly. 47 to 19 or 4619, Dustin Cook-Torke-Carsie walks away with 45 saves and hence played like God. In net and something that has just plagued the Penguins all season. They have continually run into goalies who want to play like God, Dominic Hasick, Patrick Waugh,

you know, basically the same freaking thing in my view. And, you know, they just, they got screwed by that tonight. You know, the only goal that they scored was Jake Gensel off of his skate. And, you know, no goalie was going to save that. All the other ones were just smothered by Tukarski. I think a lot of the shots went right into his crest, but I saw some other 10 bell saves. You know, Brock McGinn from the, you know, the low slot.

I don't know how he saves that. The one towards the end, I think it was on Gensel diving across. It's just like, I mean, if a goalie is making these, kinds of saves. I mean, it's just not your night. And the biggest takeaway I have from this one, this team's got to start getting results. I keep talking about it, but that's not eight of their last 10 games they've lost. That's three in a row, no points out of six in these last three. With the division being a lot better than I expected this year, it's unacceptable to be dropping these many points. You're in seventh place right now. You're pretty damn lucky that the

islanders are getting crushed on a nightly basis, too. That's not going to continue for very long. I don't think, especially I believe when they do come home to their new arena. I want to say it's coming in the next week, I think. But with how many points teams in the division continue to get, the penguins continue to fall further behind, I will continue to say also that it's not panic time yet, but it is now a time where eyebrows should be raised. There are problems with this team,

and they got to start finishing on these chances. You know, when you're leading goal scorer, Evan Rodriguez, that's a bit of a problem. I said that's just that's just how it is. You know, defensively, the Matheson-Ruito pairing, I don't think, has been working lately, but, you know, what do you do at this point? Pedersen-Marino works well. Dumlin-Littang, I think works fine, but I will say that Brian Dumlin has also not played well

in large sparks this season. So what do you do there? Do you move him down to the bottom pairing and move Matheson up? Probably not a good idea. So I think Mike Sullivan's hands are kind of tied there. Overall, though, this should have been a winnable game. You know, two of these last three games are against two of, you know, close to the bottom feeders of the league in Ottawa and Buffalo. They're really not that good.

I know Buffalo has had a decent start to the season, but that's not going to last very long, especially with how much talent that they don't have compared to other teams. When you're letting Kyle Oposo score tonight, Colin Miller from a seeing-eye shot, and that's another thing, you know, another takeaway as well. It seems like the penguins have to move all these mountains to score goals in this, league. But, you know, some of these other teams are scoring from point shots when there's like 500,000 guys in front of the goalie. And it's just like, you know, when the penguins do that, the pocket is not going in. So I think Jari probably needs a save there. But also when you watch

that again, he was kind of screened there, I think, by at least one to two to even three people. I have to watch it again. But he really had no chance on it. So I'm kind of fighting that as well. but it is definitely getting really frustrating that the penguins just have to move so many things just to go their way in order for them to score goals in this league compared to all the other teams they're getting you know they're just they're capitalizing on their chances and the penguins are not i mean they're always one of the league leaders and expected goals but when it comes to actual goals they are a bit further behind though i know last year i think they were top 10 in that but i guess the playoffs kind of skewed that for some people just because of what happened

with Ilya Sorokin, but this year, it has been anything but that. Just they have not been able to finish their chances at all. I'm going to go to Natural Statrick right now just because I like pain. That is why I'm going to give you all these numbers, and you will get to feel the pain with me. So overall, at 5B5, the Penguins had basically 65% of the shot attempts. They had 67.6% of the scoring chances. They had 54% of the high danger chances. The expected goals for, 57.7% of those.

for expected goals 4-5-5-1.73 for Pittsburgh 1.27 for Buffalo, and now to all situations. Penguins had 70% of these shot attempts, no matter what. They also had 75% of the scoring chances for 39 to 13 per natural stat trick. High danger, it gets even better, 71.4% of the high danger chances, and the expected goals for 3.29-40. the penguins, 1.53 for the Sabres. Flat out, this team got goalied.

Dustin Tukarski played like God, and they had a bad second period, which contributed to this loss. Thank you all for listening. I'm just, I'm really messing around, but it was just, it wasn't their night. And, you know, I have been saying that frequently this season, but it's true. I mean, they've been goalied, I would say in Fortify games that Jacob Markstrom one comes to mind. this one now against Dustin Tocarski there was the one against

Andre Vasselovsky and the lightning where he was making a lot of 10 bell saves the New Jersey game Jonathan Bernier was making a ton of saves so that's probably at least four of those 15 games

where this team has gotten flat out goalied and you know there's also a couple points that they've given away especially when it comes to the shootouts I know the Minnesota one they're definitely going to want back a couple of the other ones as well the Dallas one especially with how I thought they outplayed them

but you have to start banking points. The time is now to do it. Again, I'm not going to panic. If this is still happening by early December, that is when I will panic. I touched on that on Monday's episode, but right now, it's just eyebrows are being raised. This team has to find a way

to get to the high danger areas and finish on these chances. The power play tonight, I thought got better as the game went on. They finally broke that 0-27 curse. courtesy of Jake Gensel on a goal that they got flat out lucky to score, excuse me,

a few years ago, the rule that was in place would have prevented the penguins from scoring there just because it went off his skate. But now when there's no distinct kinking motion, he is allowed to score that goal. The ref is not going to take that away. But it was nice to see Jake get that goal.

I believe that was now his fourth. The season, Cindy Crosby also isn't on the score sheet for the first time this season. I'll bet, no, it is a secondary assist. You know, he always loves to get a ton of those each season, but it is nice to see him back on the score sheet. I thought, again, he was struggling a bit tonight. It was not his strongest game, but, you know, it is still a bit upsetting to look over on the other side in seeing what Alex Ovechkin is doing this year. I understand that OV has not had to go through COVID and a big risk surgery, but, you know, Sid is going to have to wake up here sooner rather than later because the team really needs him right now.

I thought Latang tonight also turned in a really good performance. Jason Zucker was around. the net the entire game. Brock McGinn had some really good chances. Teddy Bluger stoned on a breakway at the early portions of the third period. A lot of the players, I thought, did have a really good game. You know, Kaspari Kappenden though just continues to flat out suck this season. I don't usually use that word a lot on this podcast, but he sucks right now. I mean, the puck is jumping off his stick. He's not even getting or, you know, winning puck battle. So I saw a couple reps on the power plate tonight where it was just like, you know, he barely even made an attempt

to get to the puck when it was escaping the offensive zone. And it's just like, if you're going to play that lazy, I guess a little bit in quotation marks on the power play, get him off there and put someone on there who is actually going to hustle his butt off. And every time the puck would find his stick, he would just fire it over the net just as he's done every time this season.

He has, I think, been the team's biggest disappointment thus far. I know everyone will say Casey DeSmith, but Kaepin continues to be flat out awful this season. I knew that his scoring would regress this season. But I did not think it would be this freaking bad because, I mean, this is just a flat-out joke right now for him. I don't know what your solution is for him. Do you demote him in the lineup? But, you know, who are you elevated him?

You're going to put Brock McGinn up there. You're going to go put Danton Hinen up there. I'm not really sure. I think it was the right call to scratch Brian Boyle for Dominic Simone, just because I think Simone brings more of an offensive punch. Again, the big curiosity will be what happens when Gino comes back, who comes. out of the lineup there. But I did like that decision from Mike Sullivan to bring Boyle out just because I think he's been lacking in certain areas.

You know, one of them especially is on offense. But overall, this is a game you have to have. You have to beat the bottom feeders in quotation marks. I know the Sabres have had a better start to the year than some anticipated, myself included. But towards the end of the year, they are going to be one of the bottom feeders. They don't have a lot of talent. This should be a team that you beat consistently.

A two-to-one loss. It is unacceptable at this point just because, you know, you need points that the Metro is so freaking good right now. And I know there are only a few points out from a wildcard spot, or slash a playoff spot in the Metro. But overall, you have got to start getting results. This is a huge road trip coming up in Montreal. They have Toronto as well. I don't think Mike Sullivan is going to be able to coach that game on Thursday in Montreal. I think Sid is going to be able to play, though.

But this is a results-oriented business. you have to start getting them if you want to extend the playoff streak. I know it may seem nuts than I'm bringing up the playoff streak a bit early, but with where they are in the standings, cannot afford to give away points like this. It's just unacceptable. It's bad. The product on the ice needs to be better on a consistent basis.

You have to play 60 minutes to win. I know that sounds like a Burger McFarlane statement. It basically is. But those 20 minutes tonight that you saw against Buffalo, that is not going to be enough against any other team, them included. You have to show up at the start of the game, and especially in the second period where I thought the penguins were fought out awful in that middle frame.

Now, there's still a lot to get to for this episode of Locktime Penguins, including the huge news from today that the team is getting ready to be sold. We're going to get all into that coming up here in the next segment, and I'll fill you all in on some stuff that I've been reading and some questions that I have seen floated around from, you know, some people on the Locked on Penguin's Twitter account and all that, but first, does this sound familiar? You have one device that lets you catch the game live, another that lets you stream your favorite shows,

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Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow this show's Twitter at L.O.N.S. So getting away from the loss, against the Sabres on Tuesday night. There was some very big news for this franchise during the day on Tuesday. Rick Westhead retweeted the report from the Wall Street Journal that it looks like the penguins will be sold to the Fenway Sports Group. So if anyone does not know who the Fenway Sports Group is, they own the Liverpool soccer team in the English Premier League and the Boston Red Sox.

So two pretty highly respected sports teams, not just in the United States, but around the world. So it is in advanced talks, or excuse me, the group is in advanced talks due by the Penguins right now. And for those that were wondering about Muriel Lemieux status, the first report came from Dejong Kovachvitz, who confirmed the Wall Street Journal's report. And he said that Lemieux will remain part of the ownership group in some capacity. it sounds like it's going to be a minority ownership role for how much that is I mean I'm guessing what

10, 15 maybe 20% probably a little lower than 20% if I had to make a guess he will continue to be involved on the hockey side and also according to DK and a few other sources it sounds like Ron Berkel will be fully out so he will not have any

ownership of the Penguins if and when this sale is completed as for how much it is going to be remember I believe when the Penguins were bought back in 1999, I want to say it was what, a hundred million, if I'm not mistaken. This team is now valued at around 825 to 850 million. So I would assume the sale is going to come in around that range, if not more.

You know, I've seen estimates that the team could be worth up to a billion dollars. I'm not sure it's going to get up there with this sale, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is like, you know, a $900 million sale for the Fenway Sports Cron. group to buy the penguins. And honestly, after, you know, thinking about it for a while, you know, just talking to some people who are fans of both of these sports teams, you know, Liverpool and the Red Sox, it sounds like it's going to be a pretty good move. You know, I think these owners, they like to spend in the cap, they know what it takes

to deliver championship teams. I believe they've won with Liverpool. They've obviously won with the Red Sox. I know people are a bit scared because of what happened with Moogie Betts under the Fenway sports screeping. They traded him right before his free agency here, and then he went out and got that huge contract from the LA Dodgers. The Red Sox just didn't want to pay

him that money. So, of course, there's going to be a lot of questions. You know, it's the same thing going to happen with Evgeny Malkin and Crystal Tang. You know, what's going to happen with their futures? I still think they will retire here and sign a contract after the season or even during the season. Josh Joey had a huge report

with Sean Gentilly and Sean Shapiro earlier on in the evening when it comes to this and apparently he spoke to or they all spoke to Rob Rossi and it sounds like that the ownership told them that they favor re-signing Malkin and Latang and of course you know a team is worth more when it has it stars and Fenway hasn't made a habit of full-on extended rebuilds I mean they know what it takes to do a bit of a re-bow you know they were there obviously when the Red Sox did a bit of a retool these last few years but now they're one of the best teams in

baseball again Liverpool they were there when the team was starting out to be not that good and now they've built them up to be I think a pretty decent contender. There's also some interesting reports from Joshioli's article. So Fenway Sports has also bought the rights to develop that 28 acre parcel on the site of the

civic arena. There have been so many qualms and talks and just, you know, regarding that land of when the civic arena was demolished you know, what's going to happen there, what's going to be built. The Fenway Sports Group has now bought those rights and they will get to decide what

is built there. So that's going to be interesting to see what happens there. And it sounds like a lot of people inside the Penguins organization according to Joshio and a few others are very happy about this move because not much is going to change. Brian Burke is still going to be there. Ron Hextall is still going to be there. David Morehouse is still going to be the team

president and a couple others, higher ups are still going to be there as well. Mario Lemieux again will be a minority owner. So he will still be involved on the hockey side, probably signing some of the deals and all that. Jai is communicating with the head owner of the Way Sports Group, and the deal is considered imminent, and it sounds like it could be done by Thursday

at the earliest. And so there's also this question in that I was reading a lot on Twitter and some other sites today as well. Well, why are Mario and Ron doing this? It doesn't make any sense. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, I'll tell you all this. I think it does make sense because, one, they probably see the writing on the wall a little

bit because the penguins have already had their glory years. they accomplished what they came here for with buying the team and saving it from bankruptcy in 1999 from Howard Baldwin who should literally remain in the gulag for as long as possible. That guy flat out sucks. He had so many great players while he owned the team. I think, you know, Stevens, Yager, Lemieux. I'm pretty sure he was also the owner when Paul Coffey was there and a whole bunch of other star players.

And then a moment's noticed they are all gone because he's. had no idea what he was doing and he was the main reason for why the team always moved. You know, Jesse Marshall had a great thread about this today. If anyone tries to tell you, I'll repeat this on here for you all too, if anyone tries to tell you that the Penguins almost moved because of the lack of fan support, you have my permission to punch those people in the face and tell them that they are flat out wrong because they are. It was all because of Howard Baldwin, you know, but again, getting back to my original point, they

are doing this because, again, they accomplished what they came here for. They brought this city, three Stanley Cups. The franchise is worth more now than anyone could ever dreamed of when they bought it. Back in 1999, there had been 15 straight years of this franchise being in the playoffs. And they probably sold the sports ownership group on the fact that this is one of the most valued franchises in the NHL. And this is also, I think, where some sports ownership deals are going with some of these big conglomerates, just gobbling up sports teams. You're going to see that, I think, more as the years go on.

And here's another fun fact for you all. LeBron James is going to be a current minority owner of the Penguins if this goes through because he is a minority owner of a Fenway Sports Group. So I want to throw that fun fact for you all out there. And I think the timing of it just suited them. You know, they've always tried to put the team out there for sale, I think, a couple of times. I think the latest one was 2015. They flirted with it, and they kind of pulled it back because they didn't think it was their correct time.

You know, they won that one because they won two Stanley Cups directly after that. But I really have no problem with them doing this. You know, Mary Lemieux after getting all this cash is going to be sitting every night in his house drinking a fresh, beautifully made bottle wine and thinking about all the good times that he had with this franchise. Again, he's not going to be going away forever. but I see a lot more positives to this than negatives. If the ownership group is willing to spend in the cap, if they're willing to know when to undergo a huge rebuild,

stay out of the way of the general managers and the head coaches, don't just don't involve themselves a lot, aka James Dolan with the Knicks and the Rangers, because he doesn't really know what he's doing up there. I think this will be totally fine. So I am pretty on board with this, and I don't think this is going to be doom and gloom when it comes to Evgeny Malkin

and Krista Tang finishing their course. careers in Pittsburgh, I think they still have a pretty decent chance of signing that contract extension or those contract extensions, I should say. I think that's it for me when it comes to this segment of the podcast and discussing this mega deal with the penguins being sold. Again, there are far more positives and there are negatives, and I don't think this is going to change a whole lot with how the organization is running all that. Mario is still going to be there in a little capacity. Mike Sullivan is still going to be there. Ron Hexton, Brian Berg is still going to be there and David Morehouse is still going to be there as well. The only difference is there's going to be

a new headman at the top, but no judging by how he's done with owning the Red Sox and Liverpool, I think that's going to be totally fine. And it's also awesome that, you know, everyone hates the Red Sox from baseball. A lot of people hate Liverpool and a lot of people hate the Penguins. So if you can't beat them, join them. So I think that's how I will end this segment of the Locktime Penguins podcast. Still a little more to get to for our third segment, including touching on just a little bit on Jared McCann. Yes, I'm going to bring that up for the first time and a while. I've been pretty quiet about it,

but I want to bring up a point for this next segment of the show and a couple other things as well. Before we do that, though, bet online. They are back and better than ever. They have a new web interface for the start of the basketball season, and that means more props, odds and lines than ever before.

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Twain Hopper does bring up this very good point on Penguin's Twitter. He says The Penn said really lacks some depth finishing for the last few weeks. They definitely have me. Jason Zulker is not finishing on all the chances that he's been getting. I think he's been more unlucky than anything Kispera Kappan.

He has not been finishing on his chances like he was last season. Evan Rodriguez has, but you know, when he's your leading goal score, you definitely have some problems. You know, Brian Rust. he has not been finishing on his chances Jake Gensel only has four goals through 15 games and he makes the point

Has anyone on this website ever suggested that maybe they should have kept Jared McCann? And yes, they absolutely should have and I was a big proponent of that trade being bad at the time and it has only gotten worse as the season has gone on. I will never

understand why they decided to not protect him in the expansion draft. It seemed like a layup at the time but for whatever reason Hexel decided to go in a different direction, and the moves that he has made have not panned out, I think, the way that he expected them to, just because of the value that McCann brought to this team last season, especially on the powerplay. I think the power play would be in a much different place right now if McCann was on there. And here's another interesting fact is for you as well.

This comes courtesy of Chad from the Mad Chat and Eddie show. McCann and Brandon Tann have had more goals this season than Jason Zucker, Casperi Kappan and Brock. them again combined. Definitely something that I was not expecting to write or speak out loud, excuse me, for the season. But that goes to show that the Penguins depth scores that they chose to keep over a couple others have not panned out that the way they wanted to thus far, and it is one of the biggest reasons why this team is struggling in the season for reference. McCann so far has five goals and nine points in 10 games.

Those five goals, they are more than what Jake Enstall has. More than what Jason Zucker has, more than what Brock McGinn has, more than what Kaspari Kappaninan has, and a whole lot more on this team. And the fact that they decided not to keep him, I will never understand the roster mismanagement there. It doesn't make any sense. And, you know, Brock, he's definitely been struggling. I think these last few games has not been able to find his way back onto the score sheet. I'm not going to go full Penguins Chronicles or some other weirdos that I've seen on Twitter the last few days

or message boards, anything like that, talking about how, you know, he's like not TANF in quotation marks or anything like that. But he is going to need to start producing to live up to the contract that he signed this offseason or that 40-year, 2.75 million per. And I also will say Danton Hinen's goal scoring has dried up a little bit. Obviously, he was not going to score 82 and 82. He has, what, four to start this season, but he's not been finishing on his chances as well. Hopefully that comes back sooner rather than later. but, you know, I still think that's the biggest thing with this team right now is that they are not finishing on the chances they have been getting. They've also been taking a lot of low percentage shots this season as a whole, firing a lot of pucks right into the belly of all the opposing goal turners,

which is making the job easier for them. I don't think the Penguins have been making the opposition work a lot more than what I've seen in recent years, especially last year. No, they were really good at the expected goals, but, you know, they were also firing a lot of shots from the opposition work a lot of. those prime scoring areas and you're not seeing that this year, which is definitely getting on my nerves, that's for sure. But I'll be curious to see if this continues. Is Ron going to make a desperation move to salvage or save this season? We always have known that he is a bit of a more patient GM. I think if this were Jim Rutherford, you probably would have seen him call out the team thus far, make another panic move. I don't know who the trade would have been

for it would probably be someone like I'm trying to think of the name here it would probably be like a Kisperi Kappan or a Brian Russ kind of move just knowing Rutherford and just considering what happened with the Patrick Hornquist situation and then you know he moved out Carl Hagman for the sake of doing that

he would just totally move I think one of those two players for the sake of doing it but I'll be curious to see how patient Ron gets here as the season you know continues to spiral array a little bit again though I'm not in full panic mode I'm just saying I'm very worried about what's going on right now

and they have got to start getting the results because this division is too competitive to let points slip away. We are almost at Christmas at this point. It's pretty crazy to think about because we are just a little over a month away from that but that is when teams usually start to think about or even before that as well

how is the rest of the season going to go? Am I going to be a buyer or a seller? And what should I do as this team continues to struggle? But I'll do it for this episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast coming up on Wednesday's episode of the show, we will do a full preview of the game against Montreal, and then Thursday have a full game recap, and then Friday we will preview the road ahead for this team. Keep it right here on Locked on Penguins, you know, five fresh episodes coming for you all every day during the week as we continue to cover this team on a daily basis.

I'm glad that I've been able to sort out my schedule since I've started my full-time job. I love doing this for you all, and I'm glad that I can keep doing this for the first able future. So thank you all so much for listening to this one, and I'll catch you all for the next one.