Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins really make no sense, don't they?

Episode Date: March 8, 2023

The Pittsburgh Penguins just have to do it the hard way, huh? Hunter starts this episode with a funny little intro before getting into the biggest reason for the historic comeback on Tuesday night. If you guessed a certain forward, you'd be correct! Hunter looks at how he's always there to give them the spark that they need and it started in the second period when he got them on the board. He also ponders where the team would be right now without him as he's been one of their most consistent players all season. He then analyzes how Alex Nylander looked and how he's starting to come around on him a little bit more. WIll he get the chance to stay for Thursday's game? That's TBD but Hunter does make a case for why he could after this performance. Following that, Hunter looks at the others goals that were scored and how the Penguins took advantage of an AHL goaltender in net to mount the comeback while also realizing what team they were playing. Even though there were a lot of positives, he does touch on the negatives, including how bad the special teams have been (minus the OT goal) and what needs to be fixed for them. He also slams the team for another poor start as these can't be happening at this point of the season. Finally, he shouts out Casey DeSmith for his great performance in relief for Jarry and how the Penguins played a little better in front of him, which has been rare.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.Athletic GreensTo make it easy, Athletic Greens will give you a FREE 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORKFanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go to FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expire in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) 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.

Are I working to confirm here? Yes, the Pittsburgh Penguins did have a ridiculously massive comeback against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night, coming back from four goals down, something that they have not done very much during my childhood. I'll get to that stat in a little bit. But to start off the show, I'm going to tell you why, the main reason why this team came back in this one. And no, it's not just because the Blue Jackets are bad. That's 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 and welcome back to another episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast I am of course your host Honoredos Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes Follow the shows Twitter and Ors or Penguins

Thank you all so much for making this your first list in the day we are free and available on all platforms Woo! I want a win for this hockey team, a game that should not have been that hard to win because you're playing the worst team in hockey outside of the Anaheim ducks. But they come back from four goals down to defeat the Columbus Blue Jackets and get two points that they needed to have. And this was the first time they have come back to win while down four goals. December 11th, 2006, per Bob Grove.

He is the best penguin's historian out there. He has all the comebacks from four of the goals plus down. He is the best out there. First four-goal comeback since 2006. To sum that up, I was nine years old when last time this team came back from four goals down to what he gave before that. 2005-2005 against the Atlanta Frasher's, 7-5 before that, 1995, 91, 87, 86, 85, and 70. So literally only twice before today, only twice in the Sydney Crosby of Guinea-Malkin era had they come back from four goals down. Kudos to this team for staying in it.

But the main reason why they came back, number 16, our nice Jewish boy here, I can say that because I am a nice Jewish man, of course. Jason Zucker, you know, where would this team be without him? just ponder that for a second. Where would the Pittsburgh Penguins be this season without number 16? Gets his first 20-goal season with the Penguins. Gets two goals tonight, I should say. He has been the heartbeat of this team all season long, and you have, you know, and you saw that on display tonight.

Gets the first goal to make it 4-1. Gets another goal after Gensel scored to make it 4-2, he physical-crimator 4-3. and he was being chippy out there, laying in his body, playing well defensively. Again, he is everything for this team. I am not,

I haven't been super crazy about signing him back just because I feel you can get even better value than him for next season. And they're also going to have a lot of cap space this off season if they play their cards right. Especially if they can get maybe a new general manager in here that knows what he's doing with a salary cap because Ron Hexel's not that guy.

But I am really, getting close to being there where he is almost a necessity to sign back. It's going to be tough because I don't, you know, how much of a discount can you really ask him to take at $5.5 million? Does he want a long-term extension? Would it take a short-term deal? I don't know. We'll get to that during the off-season.

But again, he is the main reason why they came back in this one. You know, you look at the Penguins forward lines. You know, when Suckard was out there with Malky, and Alex Nealander played almost nine minutes at even strength. When they were on the ice, the payments had 75% of the shot attempts. They also had 82% of the expected goals, 77% of the swinging chances, six high danger chances for,

no high danger chances against, and one goal for, zero goal again. That was that line. So Zulker, just insane underlines tonight. He is the heart and soul of this team right now. it really is something to be hold because a lot of people had him written off coming into this season. I know I was bullish on him. I did say, and I'm going to do my own horn on this one,

25 to 30 goals from him this season. He's at 20 right now. I think he's going to get that before the end of the season. I will take the W with that. All he needed to do was stay healthy, and he has done exactly that. Knock on wood, of course. but what a performance from him.

I just, I can't, as he says, like you say in the locker room, best of the year, I can't say enough at the way he's been playing right now. He was the main reason why he would have come down. But, you know, also Alex Neelander plays his first game as a Pittsburgh penguin, just to wrap up this segment. I'll say this. There is an interesting. of Penguin's sweater, Penguin subreddit.

There's a section of the fans that live or die by this player. They send for him very hard. They just love him. He's been in the HL. He's not succeeded on a couple of teams. Okay. You know, they gave him a shot tonight. Again, I haven't really been that high on him just because, you know,

how many players is he better than on this team? I think we definitely got a little bit of that answer tonight because I think he outplayed Jeff Carter. there's maybe a non-zero chance, maybe it's a little low, that he could be a more of impact player than Mikhail Grinlin will be whenever he comes back.

I really liked Neelander's game tonight. Thought he did a great job exiting the zone with control, the defensive zone, also did a great job entering the offensive zone with control, got his first NHL point as a member of the pit, well, first point as a member of Pittsburgh,

I should say, on Zucker's first goal, had a couple of nice scoring chances. I thought he was everywhere in this game. And Mike Sullivan rewarded him with nine minutes of five-on-five ice time with Evgeny Malkin and Jason Zucker. Sullivan does not do that very often with young players. You all know that.

I know that. The fact that he got that many minutes, even though the Penguins win 11 forwards, seven defensemen, I think that speaks volumes. Now, is he going to be on this team on Thursday? I don't know. Brian Rust, I have, lose out due to the personal. reasons. Looks like his wife is going into labor. They were expecting their kidding day now. Congratulations to them. Macaugh Granlin is sick.

Would assume that he's probably going to be back by that game on Thursday. He probably just has a little same bug that Tristan has. But, you know, I liked what I saw from Neander and the underlines were also very, very strong on the ice. Two goals for zero goals against, 28 shot attempts for, nine shot attempts against 79% expected goals. share tonight from the Neelander, of course. I don't know, I almost just started there for a second, but very,

very solid job by Neelander. I will take that any day of the week when it comes to a call up from Wilkesbury. Maybe that fan club is on to something a little bit because, you know, yeah, I think some people have taken it overboard, he's been in the HL, I think, for a reason other than

the penguins maybe being a bit stubborn, but maybe they do have something here. like that performance a lot tonight from number 19. But overall, again, just to wrap this up, Jason Zucker, if he doesn't score, you know, he doesn't score that goal and doesn't give this team life, they do not come back at all in this one. So really nice to see Zucker just continue to be awesome this season for the Penguins and potentially set himself up to get an extension after this season.

Coming up in the next segment, we're going to get into the game winner, how the Penguins were able to tie the game early in the third period, plus so much more from this historic win. But before we get to that, we got to talk about the official sports betting partner of Lockdown, and that is Fandul. The midway point of the NBA season is here. And now it's the perfect time to download Vandual. America's number one sportsbook because new customers get a no-swebirt first bet up to $1,000. That's bonus bets back if your first bet does not win.

Just download the Fandualsportsbook app. It's safe, secure, and easy to use. then you can bet on everything from the money line to point scores and three strain. Plus, Fandu even let you combine your bets for a chance at a bigger payout with the same game parlay. Do not miss a chance to get your no sweat first bet up to $1,000 in bonus bets. When you go to Fandual.com slash locked on, that's fandual.com slash locked on more and more. Make every moment more with Fandul, the official sports betting partner of the NBA and locked on. All right.

I'm back in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honour Hode. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show of Twitter, at Anwarstall Penguins, and, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listener of the day. So, even when the game was 4-1 going into third, I didn't think they had a prayer of coming back, even with Michael Hutchinson and Net, Mers Likens was apparently sick, according to the broadcast. So maybe he got the flu, maybe he got the bug that Tristan got, who knows, or McHaw-Granlon. But, you know, Gensel scores 30 seconds in.

Really nice to see him get rewarded. I have seen a weird segment of fans that have come back to say that he stings that he should be traded. I ignore those people. He's had a little bit of a rough year, yes, but the points and the production are still there. Now, do I think he's having a season that I envisioned him to have? No, I predicted him to score 50 this year. So I'm taking the hell on that. Is he as consistent as he should be?

No. But hopefully this goal tonight will really get him going for the rest of the season because, you know, it's he's definitely not been his usual dominant self this year compared to in recent years maybe he's playing through an injury you saw he had a maintenance day in practice um who knows but you know really nice to see him get on the board zuckers able to get that third one honestly that second goal was a really weak goal from hutchinson um you can see that this was an a hale lowly um playing and then hinen danton hinen of all people ties the game really nice shot after you know he was on the lineup, I believe it was with Raquel and Crosby in this one.

And they're able to tie it. And then they probably should have won in regulation, a great save by Hutchinson with about four and a half minutes left. And then Sid gets the game winner in overtime and he is fired the hell up about it. Haven't really seen too many of those massive fist pumps from the captain. But, you know, they were able to fire a lot of pucks on it, especially after that first period where that was honestly one of the worst periods of the season. The Penguins came out.

Guns of blazing in the second and third. periods. In the second period, the Penguins had 69% of the Sean attempts and then 69% of the scoring chances. In the third period, 72% of the Sean attempts and 76% of the schooling chances. If you combine all those for high danger and the second and third periods, Penguins had 18 high danger chances combined, five high danger chances against. So very solid job to really turn it up in those final two periods. And that timeout by Mike Sullivan definitely did wonders. I'll get to Casey DeSmith in just a second because he should not be left out of this comeback. I'm going to get to him in just a second.

But, you know, great job by the Penguins to, I think, realize who they were playing. The Columbus Blue Jackets, they are not good. They are letting, you are letting guys like Lane Peterson scored. That was his second goal for the year. I'm sorry. I feel like I know 95, 96% of NHL players in this league. I have no idea who he is. Liam Fowdy also have basically no idea who he is.

And they're letting these, you know, just make a name player some EA sports, NHL score. It was honestly kind of funny. You know, they didn't even let Johnny Goodrow score, of all people. Patrick Vonn had a goal, but, you know, he feels like he scores in most of their games, at least. But, you know, great job by the Penguins. Overall, to end the game, the Penguins had 87 shot attempts,

a good for 69.6% of the shot attempts overall. 45, 47 scoring chances for, 19 scoring chances against 25 high danger chances for, nine high danger chances against 4.89 expected goals at 5.5. They scored five goals. We all saw it with them. So that was a very deserved victory. 77% of the expected goals, 29% for Columbus. If you go to all situations, it gets even better. Penguins have 67% of the Sean attempts, 68% of the scoring chances, 73% of the high danger chances, 67% of the expected. good bills, just a total dominant performance from the second period on. And again, if they probably would have played like this in the first period,

they would have blown this team out like they've done the previous two times. It's obviously a big brother, little brother thing. When it comes to Columbus, the Penguins are now 18 and 3 and 1 in their last 22 games. Against the decades, they have not. They almost lost it at home for the first time against them in quite a few years. so they have that against the blue jackets but still once the second period came around I think someone must have said something in the locker room

hey you all do know who we're playing right and I think the blue jackets also realize hey we know what we're playing for right a spot for Connor Bedard because they're tanking at this point right now they're playing for prime but they're also kind of taking but really nice job at the Penguins to just realize who they were playing I'm probably maybe giving them

a little too much credit there but that timeout by Mike Sullivan, I think, really paid dividends. I understand he has definitely made some questionable decisions this year, but do not for a second think that they do not care about him as a coach. You not for a second think that, you know, the message is going to steal or anything. I don't think a team comes back from four goals down. I don't care who you're playing if you don't think Mike Sullivan, if you don't think the coach is the right voice for your team.

That's how I want to say that. to end the segment another massive reason probably the second biggest reason I probably should have talked about this a few minutes ago brilliant stuff from Casey to sniff tonight comes in relief ice coal for Tristan Jari

who did not have a good game a couple of goals were not really on him the fourth goal though probably should have had back that's the one that got him yanked and he made some tremendous saves especially in the third period after the penguins tied the game

I scored the three goals in four minutes to open the period right after, you know, makes the save on Patrick Lone, makes a save, I believe on Rossovich, Goodrow. He was making 10 bell save after 10 bell saved because the Penguins, they were just going running gun. Back and forth, that's what that's the way they wanted to play. I didn't really like it because they usually could have lost that game of regulation.

They probably should have, especially after you go down for nothing. But he was on his game tonight. The A also do not win that game if it was not for dissimmed. Congratulations to him. You know, glad to see, you know, I know he's been very inconsistent. Glad to see the inconsistency go in the right side of things compared to the bad side of things. You know, if Jari stays in net, I'm not really sure they win that game. It was just a very bad night for men.

Honestly, you know, the Penguins, you know, outside of a couple few rushes in the third period where DeSmith had to make some 10-bell saves, I thought they were playing pretty decent in front of them. You know, it's no secret that the Penguins have played better defensively in front of Jari then to Smith this season. If you go look at their heat maps on HockeyViz, Penguins expected goals against 2.50. For Jari, expected goals against for DeSmith, 2.85, there's a stark difference there.

And a lot of the red is right in that 5, 10 to 15 feet range around the net, right? But for Jari, all that is blue, which means you're not allowing as many chances or goals from those areas in front of the net or on the slot area. So I don't really know what it is. It should be the opposite. You should be playing a lot better

in front of your backup goal compared to your starter. but, you know, for tonight, the rules reversed. They played horrendously in front of Jari. He didn't have a couple, he didn't have a prayer on some of those goals. But then with his Smith, they played a little bit better, even though he did have to come up with some good saves in the third period when that game was tied. But really good performance from him.

I don't expect him to start on Thursday against the Islanders. I think that's going to be Tristan's game when he's healthy. But, you know, they got the goal tending that they needed to have in the final, you know, 35, 40 minutes. of that game. Really solid stuff from the backup. But that does it for this segment. Coming up to end the show,

we're going to get into some more miscellaneous thoughts. Plus, you know, why these horrendous starts need to stop happening, especially this time of year. And also why all of a sudden, look at the standings. There's potentially an opportunity to go a little bit higher with them being

only a few points behind the Rangers now. We'll get into that coming up after this commercial break. But first, it's time to talk about athletic beans. You know, I usually didn't have time to work out in the morning. So that's one of the reasons why I love using athletic greens. I also wanted better gut health, more energy, all that good stuff. So what is this? With one scoop of athletic greens, you're zoning 75 high quality vitamins, minerals, and whole food source food food to help you start your day right. The special banded ingredients support your gut health, your nervous system, your immune system, your energy recovery,

focus and aging. All of those things cost you less than $3 a day. You're investing in your health and it's cheaper than your cold brew habit. It's also cheaper than getting all the different supplements yourself. It's lifestyle-friendly when you eat keto, vegan, dairy-free, or gluten-free. Also has over 7,000 five-star reuse, and so recommended by numerous professional athletes. Right now, it's time to reclaim your immune system and arm yourself with convenient daily nutrition. Just one scoop in a cup of water every day, and that's it. There's no need for a million different pills and supplements to look out for your health.

Make it easy. Athletic beans is going to give you a free one-year-s supply of human-s supporting vitamin D and fry free travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athletic greens.com slash an natural network. Again, that is athletic beans.com slash internet network to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. All right, I'm back in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. You're going to follow me on Twitter.

Hunter Hodes, follow this show, Twitter at N-WRexamines. And, of course, thank you so much for making this. Your first listen of the day. So let's jump right back into it here. You know, other miscellaneous thoughts, they got to start stopping games. I'm just screwing that up. They have to stop starting games out like this. I'm sorry.

It is unacceptable to play that bad against one of the worst teams in hockey when you are in a fight for your lives to make the playoffs. There is no guarantee for this team to get in. Do I like their ons right now better than I did about a week and a half ago? Two weeks ago, I should say, absolutely. this team's won five out of six. There are three points up for the final spot off the Florida Panthers. They also have two games in hand on the Panthers.

There are five points up on the Senators and the Sabres and same with the Washington Capitals as well. That said, you cannot start games like this even against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Honestly, any other team there outside of Anaheim or Arizona, you lose to. And the Penguins, their decision making was horrendous in that first period. The puck was, they were making some really weird readings with the puck. I don't know what I was watching. They were, especially on the power play, way too much overpassing, passing the puck to no man's land, which leads to more odd man rushes, you know, even exiting the zone was a chore for them.

I don't think there was no deflated pugs or anything like that. but it was still really weird to see them just play that bad in the first period, especially against a team that they dominated over the years. I mean, this is, again, big brother, little brother. I mean, I'll be in Columbus in a couple of weeks for a concert to go see Steel Panther. If you are rock fans, maybe you'll know that reference. But still, weird. You know, just their decision making was awful.

Even the penalty hill in the first period was terrible. And honestly, you know, people, I could wait about this for five, ten minutes, but probably not going. I'll just do a short of the rant. People have been saying like, oh, you know, the PK's, you know, it's going to be even worse now that the Teddy Blugers gone. I'll just, I disagree with that because the PK was bad with him even when he was on there. It's only been a couple of games. This team has given up 21 goals on the PK in their last 21 games.

That's pathetic. And one of the main things that I've noticed with it, look at how easy the Penguins are making it for the opposition to get. game the zone. There's no pressure up. There's no pressure from the team exiting their defensive zone. And then when they pass the red line and even pass the blue line, they're not even trying to get them to dump the puck. They are giving them the zone freely, like literally how an adult passes out candy to kids on Halloween, and they're just letting the other team set up. It's like, what's the point of a penalty kill here? And yet I watched the Penguins power play,

and it's a chore for them to game the zone. It's very odd. both special teenies units have just been dreadful this season. Pickett had a nice little stretch November, December. Since then, though, it's just been... Power play all your head. A little bit, a couple of good stretches. Just terrible. If they, you know, I'll say this,

if they do have early exit, if they make the playoffs, I know they just extended a couple contracts. I wouldn't be surprised if a new management staff comes in, if that happens. and they may clean out some of the assistant coaches because this is, you know, they just got extensions. We've seen a lot of regression

from the units that they coach. Not good enough. Not good enough in the slightest. Those are really my big thoughts on the special teams. Sid had a nice bounceback game after a little bit of a rough one down in Florida. I thought Gino had a much better game as well.

Ricard Raquel, he's gone to eight and nine straight games without a goal. I'm hoping that's that's a good. going to break at some point. And overall, you know, this team is so weird. Like, you know, as, as my buddy said to me, I think this is probably the best way to describe the Penguins. They're not that good, but they're led by very talented players who have a huge will to win. That is probably the best way to describe this team right now. The top players are carrying them. They do not want to see a spring where there is no playoff hockey. A lot of the other players are passengers at this

point. But, you know, just what a win, one of the wins of the year outside of maybe that one against Colorado, the one against Tampa Bay last week, I would probably put this one up there as one of their best combat, just one of their best wins of the year, especially considering how bad they played in the first three. I'm not sure, I'm not just glossing over that fact. They were awful in those 20 minutes. They looked like they didn't even care. You heard Fy on Hextall chance. That's got to get cleaned down. Peter down the stretch. I don't care who you're playing. Columbus Islanders on Thursday, Rangers, Flyers, predators later on in the month, don't care. You have to clean that stuff up.

It's all there is to it. I don't think I've missed anything else. Well, Jim Hulikov's debut. I didn't really like how he played tonight. I know it's one game, and I know he's played on the Ducks for most of the season, but I was watching him, pretty closely in about two to three, four times when the penguins had the puck in the offensive zone, this was, this was even in the first period and the second period, I should say. Puck would go back to the point and it would die on his stick. A couple of times it would just somehow flubber over, which I know how his puck is right there. And it was just be really weird that, I don't know.

He just did not play particularly well at all. His first game, they're playing 11-7. We'll also have to see how that changes going into Thursday. But that's going to do it for this episode of Locked on Penguins podcast. I'll be back with another episode for you all. On Wednesday, I will preview the game against the Islanders. Big one for this team. They're one point behind that right now.

They got the games in hand. You have to win this one. You win this one in regulation. You go one point up and you have the games in hand on them. That would be huge. I know you don't play them the rest of the way. You're not going to play them in the playoffs. But this will be a big one for this team to win.

We'll preview that one for Wednesday's episode. But again, thank you all so much for listening. really, really appreciate it. Talk to you all soon. We'll have to see how this team plays on Thursday.