Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins got what they deserved on Monday night...

Episode Date: October 18, 2022

Well, there's no more 82-0 season! The Penguins fell to the Canadiens in overtime on Monday night and Hunter is here to talk all about it. He goes over the goals that were scored first and how Evgeni Malkin continues to have a fire lit within him. He then breaks down what went wrong on the tying goal and then the game-winner. He shows his screen and is able to analyze who is in the wrong in each sequence and what each player should've been doing, especially on the tying goal from Caufield. Hunter also looks at the personnel that as used to defend the lead late in regulation and then during the PK in overtime. Should Mike Sullivan have opted for some different players? Who could've done a better job? After that, Hunter keeps it objective and goes after the top line, along with Kris Letang for their poor performances, even though they'll likely be better on Thursday against the Kings. He then has some positive things to look back on for this game, including the play of POJ, Casey DeSmith's great saves, and Malkin's beast mode gem. Finally, Hunter ends the show with some thoughts about how there isn't much to worry about right now and that this team is still in a great spot.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!SimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnNHL 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.

Hey, everybody. Happy Tuesday, October 18th. I'm recording this on late Monday evening as the Penguins do suffer their first loss of the season. Then out two and oh and one going into Thursday's game against Los Angeles Kings, a three to two defeat to the Montreal Canadians. And overtime, a lead that they let slip away in the third period of game that they probably deserve to lose. But I also don't think they should have also blown that lead with 2.30 to go, if that makes sense. I'll explain it a little more in depth as we get into the episode. But there's a whole lot more bad than good for this game. We're going to get all into that, plus so much more for this full game recap coming up right after this drop. You're Locked-on Penguins.

Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello, welcome back to the episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. You want to follow me on Twitter at Honorable Hodes. You can also follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O.N.R.S. Penguins, and, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day.

So the Penguins drop a 3-2 heartbreaker in overtime off of a Kirby Dock Power Play goal against the Canadians. 2-0-1, let's jump right into it. So first period, definitely not the penguin's strongest period of the season. You know, you look at natural statuary, and, you know, that confirms what I saw. I saw some people say that it was a decent first period. If you want to argue that, sure. I thought it was me at best. They were very lucky or fortunate, I should say, to come out of that period tied,

especially with, you know, the Canadians had 67% of the shot attempts that period, 68% of the scoring chances, and 56% of the expected goals. They had much, the majority of the chances of the penguins were, you know, skating into mud the entire period, and Casey DeS Fifth was just bailing them out. time after time after time. So no goals that were scored. But if there was one that was going to be scored, it probably was going to be Montreal.

But, you know, the funny thing is, Dan Hinen almost had a goal just a couple minutes. And it looked like it was in it first, but it was basically just a double doink for him. And then Brian Rust, really nice pad saved by Sam Montembow on him. I think if he's able to take that one clean on his forehand at the right side of the net,

beautiful pass from that being in the Malkin, by the way. If he's able to take that little cleaner, I think he's able to roof that over the pad. But just because it was kind of at an angle, his backhand was right with it, just wasn't able to get just that clean of a look. And that was why Montembo was able to make a really nice save and Rob Rost of a sure goal nine other times. Second period comes around.

Then the Penguins started to skate. And it looked like the better team was finally coming through. They're out, chancing them, they're out, attempting them. in the second period, the Penguins had 51% of the shot attempts. They also had 52% of the scoring chances, 85% of the high danger chances, and 60% of the expected goals. Very good period by the Penguins of Guinea-Malkin gets his second goal of the season. A beautiful Geno bomb, as you will, from that right side, right by the boards, Montembow,

no chance on it. Then it gets his third goal of the season, crashing the net, burying a Jason Zucker has to make it too nothing, then the penguins go up two to nothing going into the second intermission. And at that point, you're like, okay, you're playing a bad team. You don't want a turtle, but you also don't want to give them too many quality chances. Well, the penguins did both of those in the third period. I thought the third period was easily the worst period of this game. And the funny thing is the penguins actually out attempted the Canadians in that period.

They had 54% of the shot attempts. 62% the scoring chances, but they lost the high danger. battle three to two and montra also had 61% of the expected goals in that period just really bad skating casein and smith couldn't do it all by himself the first goal it's hard to really blame him for that just because he lost track of it definitely one i think that he would want back a little bit just because he thought he thinks he has it it's behind him the entire time but then Suzuki's able to Corral it, come around, wrap it around. Puck goes in, he's just standing there.

To Smith, maybe he needs a little bit of better awareness to make sure he has the puck in that situation. But, you know, he usually makes that save 9 out of 10 times. I just wasn't able to do it there. And then the second goal, just really poor defense. And then the third goal, same thing on the penalty kill. Funny enough, we're going to do a little bit of an X's-as-and-O's breakdown for you all right now if I can find the and I believe you know that that was the that that was the

overtime goal that I had but we're going to go into so I'm going to pull up this tweet here on the YouTube page but so but I'll explain it to you all for the audio like I would for the video if that makes all the sense okay so you all can see my screen right now let's go to Chris Max Twitter so you all can see this right here so the Penguins there Crosby up top, they have a defender right there. They have Jake Gensel at the top right there, Crystal Tang, and then Brian Duhl. And I believe that's Ricardo, Raquel. That is Jeff Carter up there.

Why Jeff Carter is on a six-on-five situation, I have absolutely no idea. So it's a set play. Canadians, they win it back to the point. They're able to slide it down the board just a little bit. But if you see light here, Crosby's doing his job. Carter, maybe he shouldn't allow that pass to get through. but Dumlin, he's guarding his man right here. But what are Chris Littang and Jake Gensel doing?

I think mainly Jake Gensel is the main one to fault here. It looks like he drifted too far up and he's way out of position. Gallagher's not really going to do anything right here at the puck. And you're leaving Cole, leaving Cole Coffield, who is, I think, the Canadian's best goal score, wide open at the doorstep. There's no chance to Smith is able to save this. that pass cannot get through. You have five skaters on the ice.

There is no reason this crossing pass right across the ice should get to Cole Caulfield. It should be an easy interception and easy, clear. But it wasn't just because Jake Gensel, I don't usually like to blame him just because he's not usually doing a lot of stupid stuff, but, you know, he drifted too far up and that left Caulfield open. Let's hang. I also don't really know what he's.

doing here. I think Dumlin has his man in front of the net. I know the Canadians also have a player behind the net, but he's not going to be getting the puck in that situation. Lettang, he needs to drift up a little bit more, and he also needs to try and intercept that pass like Denzel should be doing as well. Those are the two main players that I am kind of blaming on this goal. They look absolutely lost, if you ask me. So there's a little bit of a breakdown for the tying goal with Cole Caulfield. Really nice job by Marty St. Louis to be aggressive on calling that timeout with 226 left. I thought he was going to wait until about the 1.30 two-minute mark.

But, you know, he saw he had an offensive zone face off. He called the timeout. They drew up a play. It looked like that was the exact one they drew up. I'm sure it was. And they were rewarded by it. Two-two tied game. Now, let's get to the next goal here.

I'm going to share my screen yet again for you all. And we're going to do some more X's and No stuff. This comes courtesy of Danny Sharry. He was able to put this on here. You look here, right? So four on three, the Penguins, they're doing their little diamond thing on the penalty kill. 153 left, 40 seconds on the penalty kill. So at the top, you have this Montreal player right here.

He's getting, he has the puck on his stick. Okay, Penguins, they're doing a great job. taking away this passing lane to Carby Doak right there. Dumlin's there. Carter is there. That's Josh Archibald on the other side. I don't know why he's even in that situation to begin with. I would rather have a lot of other players like Brock McGinn,

killing that penalty. Right now, Brian Dumlin, he is way too high. He needs to be down a little bit more. Carter, he's in the lane right now, which is good. But if you fast forward to this next frame here, Carter, for some reason, decides to, oh, okay, I'm just going to drift away. Like, I'm in a 50-mile-per-hour tropical storm down in Florida or something like that. And, oh, look, Kirby Doc, wide open the side.

That is an easy pass-tapping goal. And that is how Montreal wins the game. Dumlin is also way in a position. I have no idea what he is doing on this play. Both players are obviously out to lunch. I can't even really blame the other player, which, again, is Josh Harchapult. because he's doing his job by covering this player right by the side of the net, the top of the point guy.

I'm not really concerned about that at all with Caulfield. But with Doc at the side of the net, two players, you're right here. You cannot allow that pass to get through. Carter can't drift over like that. Dumblin can also not be up that high, and he can also just, you know, also he's kind of drifting as well. Just really piss poor play by the Penguins, um, defensively on both sequences, stuff they're going to have to clean up down the stretch.

And, you know, with Dumlin, you know, it was a big question mark for me coming into this year. Definitely hasn't answered some of them to say at least. He looked washed tonight in this game. He was not good enough on that overtime goal, and neither was Jeff Carter. And also, again, you know, those three players that they have on the ice at that time, Josh Archibald, Brian Dumlin, and Jeff Carter, those are the three guys you want out there in high-leverage hits. situations. I don't know, man. I don't know. That's Mike Sullivan, he knows way more about hockey than I ever will. Totally get that top three to five, top three coach in the league. I'll never say a bad

word about it. That said, you know, is that the deployment you want when they get with the game on the line, a player in Carter who was on the ice for the game tying goal? And then someone who his defensive impacts were just wrapped down the stretch, Dumlin, a player who, looked bad for a lot of stretches of last season, did not look good again tonight, and then Archibald, who, you know, fine player, I'm not really blaming him for the goal, but do you really want him out there

with the game on the line? I don't know, you know, just weird coaching decisions, I think, with the penguins are. I would be much more comfortable with someone like, you know, paling on the ice, Brock McGinn, if you want to put Jan Ruta out there. Heck, even Kisbury Kaepin, I think I would rather have him out there killing that penalty

because, you know, he's actually done a pretty good job of it. So definitely some weird, decisions with that, I think to say the least. But that wraps up this first segment with some excesses and knows of what went wrong with the last couple of goals and just a full summary of everything that went on. Coming up in the second side, we're going to get into some of the positives that I did take away from this game and just, you know, how I feel about the overall direction of where this team is going in, just three games in the season.

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All right, I'm back in this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honour Hodes. I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O. underscore Penguins. Sorry about that. I had to mute my mic to cough-ups just a little bit. Anyways, getting to some of the positive performances from tonight. I hope everyone that is not listening to the YouTube, that's not, I don't want to say this.

I hope everyone that doesn't watch on YouTube is able to, understand my explanations of what wrong on the goals through just audio. If you did not, let me know and I'll be, and, you know, I'll try to do an even better job next time. But I do want to incorporate more X's and O's into the show. You know, I know numbers are great, but I want to, you know, take you all into why this play happened and what the Penguins need to do next time to make sure that this kind of play does not burn them in the end. So again, let's get into some positives. Let's start with Casey DeSmith.

I thought he had a really strong game. He bailed them out. Of course, the skaters, the defensemen, and the forwards, numerous occasions, some great gloves. Heathed. His movement looked really strong. He was playing aggressive in front of this crease. Again, the first goal, probably one that he wants back.

Second and third, he had no chance on. But, you know, this was a very encouraging performance. I think on most nights where the team plays well, he wins them this game. He made a lot of very, again, very, very, very, very. a lot of very timely saves, a lot of strong saves. He was not out of place in this one. He did not look like the dismiss that we saw in the early portions of last season where he was struggling a lot.

He looked like the dismissive that we saw in the second half of last season and during this entire preseason. Very strong performance from him. Excited to see him get some more starts to take away from Trish and Jones just because he can't be playing 60 to 65 games this year. I mean, you do that. You're just going to burn him to the ground. he'll be gassed by the time the playoffs come around.

So really good stuff from him. Evgeny Malkin. Two goal night has three goals and three games. I will say this, and I tweeted this on my Twitter account, during the game, I'll say it again here. All right? There are a lot of dumb people on this app that said during the off season, oh yeah, Malkin's not going to make the penguins a better team,

go out and sign Vince Trocheck or Andrew Cop. well dude has three goals in three games his skating looks better than i've seen better than i've ever seen in probably the last three to four years he looks engaged he made a beautiful defensive play with three minutes to go and montreal was really threatening to tie it before they did tie where he's able to steal the puck from behind the net and basically exit the zone by himself you know he's on his game right now averaging a goal per game he's on an eight two goal pace which is awesome. And I think he's starting to make a lot of people eat their words. And I know some people will say, well, it's only game three and stuff. Well, you know what? I wouldn't put it past him

to keep playing like this entire season. He's not going to score 82 goals, but I think he's going to play at a very high level this entire season. And hey, maybe some of these people shouldn't be getting takes from someone who talks on an alternate rock radio station outside of Pittsburgh. But hey, that's just me. You know, I'm not going to say anything else. that. But he's off to a great start, really happy about it, to say the least. POJ, I thought he had another really good game tonight. He was making good breakups in the defensive zone. There were multiple instances tonight where Montreal's coming in, almost not on a lot of many break away. And POJ is able to get back there, break the puck up.

It goes to the corner. Penguins are going out the other way. Great plays from him. I want to see more of that from him as well. Offensively, I thought he was jumping into the rush as much as he can, not as much as he did against Tampa Bay, but still an improvement from where he was against Arizona. I thought, honestly, he was their best defenseman on the ice tonight. I don't think it was ridiculous any close. What's Letang and June 1 more brutal? Petrie had an awful game. Ruta, fine, Pedersen, fine. But I think if you're asking who the best defenseman on the ice tonight, it was POJ. And it was not close. And those were the main players that I had, you know, positive things to say about.

Well, I should say I'll throw Danton Hine in there. I thought he had a really good game. Almost had a goal to open the scoring earlier in the game. And that had a couple nice other chances to, I thought he was very, very solid going down the list here. Jason Zulker thought he was good. You know, survived an injury scared. They looked like something was wrong, but, you know, just got cut up of his teeth or something like that. I had a high-staking penalty.

He thought the officials weren't going to call it. but they eventually did, which was good. I thought Kestbury Kaepin was fine again, you know, didn't really notice anything bad that he did. I thought he had a couple of decent chances during the game. Also had a couple of nice passes. Apart for the course, I think in the first three games of the season, I think he's playing at a decently high level, to say the least.

That's basically it, though, for my positive performances. Everything else in my final segment is going to be negative on a player performance based and we're going to finish off the show also by looking at the bigger picture and why at the end of the day this is not that big video so stick around for that coming up in this final segment all right i'm back in this episode of the locked on penguins podcast i am your host hono hoodies you're going to follow me on twitter at hunter hoodies you're also following the show's twitter at l underscore penguins and of course thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day so let's get in

into some bad performances from skin. And there are a whole lot. The whole top line was absolute dog water. As the kids say, you know, it's very, very rare when you see the top line shut down. I mean,

tonight they got caved in. Only had 36% of the shot attempts at 5v 5.5 per natural stat trick after having well over like 70 against Tampa Lightning and basically close to that against the Arizona coyotes as well. On the ice for no goals for, one goals against, of course that was the, excuse me that was the second goal in stint of jake out there they only had 48% the expected goals

for and 47% of the scoring chances for absolutely dreadful night for that line the best line that was on the ice for the penguins was actually the zuckerman russer at long runn restaurant line 66% of the shot attempts at even strength uh 87% of the scoring chances if you want a positive build off of it's that malkin's been having rust to help to start the year which is big for him and then Zucker is also playing a high level. But the top line stunk, Sid, very uncharacteristically off game. Jake Gensel, very quiet too. And then Ricard Raquel, not that good either.

I think he needs to fire the puck a little bit more. Right now, I think he's just kind of being too cautious for my like. I know he had a goal against Tempe on Saturday, but still want to see him fired the buck more because I really do enjoy his shot. Let's just get the elephant in the room out of the way here. You all know me. You listen to this show. You know how I feel about Chris Lantang.

Top defense from the league. I will always be a Latang cult sim. That said, I got to be objected. He stunked tonight. He was absolutely woful. Let's not say it. I'll get mad at the sec. The eye test says it.

He was skating in mud. His decision making was awful. Just turning pucks over on a shift-by-shift basis. Wasn't doing anything in the offensive zone. And you know what? this is par for the course sometimes during a season with number 58 i tweeted this during the game and i'm going to say it to you all on here crystal tang has five to seven games during the season maybe a little more eight to nine of ten at the most so 72 out of the 80 so 72 at least of the 82 where he's elite

the others he's total crap one of those games the latter you all saw tonight he stunk and the numbers they back it up. If I come up here, when he was on the ice, Lattang played 18 minutes. The Penguins had 27% of the shot attempts. They also had, if I can find this here, 24% of the expected goals, 30% of the scoring chances.

That's gross. That's not Chris Lutang level numbers right there. I mean, that's bad. So he got one of those games out of the way. Maybe there's four to six more to go, but he was not good tonight, and he'll rebound by Thursday. you can stamp it right there.

Put a stamp on it. I'm serious. He's going to be a lot better on Thursday. That got the top line out of the way. I got Christen out of the way. Oh, Jeff Petrie, awful. You know, it was not a good return for him to Montreal at all. Three penalties, the last one.

That's the game winner to Kirby Doc. The second one I thought was kind of weak. It looked like an interference call, but I don't really know what the penalty was there. but you know, you can't take that penalty overtime. It's a track meet at that point. Malkin had just gotten a really good chance to get his hatchwreck. You can't be taken a penalty to put your team in a really impossible situation,

even against a team like Montreal who doesn't have a good power play to begin with. But, you know, you can't be taking a penalty like that. He had a really rough game coming back there. That's for sure. I already touched on Brian Dumlin. He looked pretty bad. Jeff Carter didn't have a good game. in my opinion either.

I think those are the main ones that stood out to me in this one. Overall, again, a game that, you know, they got what they deserved. But at the same time, I feel like you also have to close out that game when you have the chance to with 2.30 left. They pulled the goalie. You know you had issues last year with defending leads late in games that can't leak over to this year. And right now they had their first one.

It did. according to Bob Grove, this is actually the first time the Penguins have lost a multi-goly going in to the third period in a regular season game since March of 2018 when they played the New York Rangers. This is something that does not happen super often when it comes to a regular season game with, you know, blowing, you know, at least a two-goal lead in one period. They had their issues with one goal leads in the third period last year, but, you know, this is usually not been a problem with two to three to even four goals. So we'll have to make some changes with that. I mean, the first goal, you can't, and that's just a flukee one. Second goal again, got to be better with your deployment in that situation. Third goal, you got to take that pass away to Doc.

He's standing right at the doorstep. Last but not least I will say this. Some weird takes going around, you know, the universe right now. Some people saying that like, oh, well, you know, this is a worrying game for the penguins just because they were rested and they're playing a bad team. I mean, Yins, it's game three. It's a marathon and ain't a sprint. You all know.

You've been watching this team for as long as you all can remember. I'm the same way. They know when to wake up. This team doesn't usually play their best hockey in October, November. They start waking up a little bit in December, January, February. They have some nice streaks. And then obviously in April, that's when they come alive, especially last year in the playoffs.

for it all unravel due to the goaltending, but they still came alive when it mattered most. I'm not going to put too much stock into it. It's three out of 82. Again, they should have won. Yes. Did they also get what they deserve at the same time? Also, yes. Would you also take five out of six points to start the season?

You're damn right you would. You're absolutely right that you would. I know I would. And I'm happy that they're two and oh and one right now. Obviously, three and a lot better. I would love to have the six out of six points. and defend that lead with two minutes left, but beggars can't be choosers.

They're still in a good shape. They got Los Angeles coming up in a few days. So we'll have to see what happens. That game before they've been, they have a massive road trip after that, and those will be a lot of good games out in Western Canada. So if I were a betting man, I think this team's going to play a lot better on Thursday.

There's no need to freak out. Bad loss. Yeah. Some concerning things. Sure. the end of the data, it's mid-October. It's probably going to be nice out where you are tomorrow. Maybe it's not.

Maybe it's getting a lot cooler where you are. But it's game three out of 82. It's nothing to worry about. So we'll have to see what happens on Thursday when they play the Kings. That does wrap up this episode of the Walktime Penguins podcast. So thank you all so much for listening to this episode. Let me know what you all think. You can leave a comment on YouTube.

You can message me on social media and something like that. So again, thank you all so much for listening. I will talk with you all again on Wednesday when I do a full game preview for the fourth game in the season against the Kings on Thursday. Then I'll have a recap of that game after the game on Thursday, and then Friday I'll be previewing the road ahead for the Penguins. So a lot of great contact coming up for you all this week. Hope you keep it right here on Locked on Penguins.

Have a great rest of your day.