Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Penguins schedule is about to get BUSY.

Episode Date: January 5, 2022

Happy Tuesday! The Penguins are about to play a whole lot of games coming up and Hunter has the latest updates on this episode. He first starts out by discussing the latest practice notes and who looks to be back in the lineup. Is the second COVID outbreak just about over? What are the lines looking like? He also touches on how Evgeni Malkin is back in his normal spot, but he's still a little bit away from playing. After that, he goes into a full preview against the St. Louis Blues. What makes them so dangerous? Were the Penguins ever players for Tarasenko? How are they outperforming their ceiling? He then ends the show by discussing the Flyers matchup on Thursday and how the Penguins can come away with a victory there.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. 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.

You're Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Happy Tuesday. Welcome to this late-night edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Ho-Diz. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Excuse me, you can also follow the show's Twitter at L-Oenus. For Penguins, Funny Story. I was actually trying to record the show for the last 20 minutes. So I use Restream now, at least for both actually the audio and the video before I just used Audacity. But I take it into Audacity to edit the audio, make it sound better. I'm not having my Discord or Slack notifications on anymore. And I guess someone else was using the Restream for the last 20 minutes.

They must have started recording the episode right as I got on to record mine, which is something that's not happened to me yet. But, yeah, I'll probably be a little more careful here moving forward. But we have a lot to get to for today's episode overall. A lot of practice notes for the Penguins. Players have come back out of cooking protocol. We're going to look at the lines. I'm going to do a full preview for the game on Wednesday against St. Louis Blues. We're also going to do a little bit of a preview for the game on Thursday against the Flyers,

as the Penguins will make their first visit to the Wells Fargo Center. Starting today, you know, mostly really good news for the Penguins, more players have come out of COVID protocol, including Gisperi Kappaninan. Trishenjari, he's also come out of COVID protocol. Teddy Bluger, he's out of the COVID protocol as well. The only players that are in COVID protocol right now are Drew O'Connor. He tested positive today and Jeff Carter. Though we got a really good update on Carter this morning for Mike Sullivan after practice.

He said that Carter's feeling a lot better. He's still day to day. So I wouldn't be surprised if he's out of the protocol. in the next couple of days, if not maybe tomorrow. I mean, it's not started skating yet, but you can only really start skating unless they test negative. But going to some practice lines, looked a little bit different,

but in a good way, I would say, top line of Jake Gensel, Sydney Crossey, and Brian Russ is still intact. Evgeny Malkin was centering the second line with Kisbury-Captain and Evern Rodriguez. Zach Asthenrys was with Teddy Blugher and Brock McGinn. Dominic Simone was with Brian Boyle and Danton Hyann. and then you have Caspid Grawiqwitz, Redeems O'Hourna, San Lafrey,

and then the defense remained completely same, and then Tristan Jari was in the starters net. So I would say look for Jari to start Wednesday against St. Louis. That game is also more important for the Penguins, which is weird to say because usually the Flyers game will be more important, right? But the Flyers are not good this year. That's something I'm looking at getting right,

at least for right now. They're just, they've been really mediocre to below average, though Carter Hart has actually played pretty well. but we'll get into the flyers a bit later on in the show. But that's what the lineup is looking like right now, though. I would think Rodriguez is going to slide over to second line center for tomorrow, and I think Bjorquist is going to come back in. The only reason Gino is taking those second line rushes is probably because Carter is still not there.

Remember, Gino said he's not going to be ready to play this game. He was not doing his regular power play Ryan rushes. he was on the second power play unit, so not on the first one. It still looks, as of right now, unlikely for him to play on Wednesday or Thursday. Remember, he said he wants to come back for the game, well, not for an actual game. I wouldn't be surprised if it's for the Dallas game this weekend, but he said during the Western swing sometimes. So the next couple of games, Frank Zarevelli had an interesting report today about Gino,

said it's a matter of days now, you know, not a week or two. And he also had an interesting take in his icebreakers. If I can find that here real quick, he basically said, look for a few players going on waivers or a trade for the penguins to free up some cap space because it looks like, you know, per cap-friendly, they will be a little over the cap. So I would have to think they're probably going to mainly use the waiver wire to get cap-compliant unless they want to move someone like Jason Zucker, but I can't see the team doing that at this point.

Right now, I would say Zucker's value has never been lower. Well, last season, his value was pretty low. Maybe it's gone up just a little bit, but I still can't see it being that high. I don't think Ron is going to pull the trigger on him. I know some people are throwing out some top 12 forward lineups without Jason in there. I think at this point that's a little premature.

sure, at least in my opinion, I just don't see Ron doing that unless they're getting a better player in return. I mean, you know, sure, they could get the cap space. That's huge if they want to go out and get a cheaper forward, you know, with not as much of a cap hit. I could see them doing that, but will they? Probably not if I had to guess. So look for the Penguins again to probably make a couple moves via the waiver wire. Who could that be? I mean, I could see it being Drew O'Connor.

I believe he does have to go through waivers. I think he does. Last time I checked, do he sent down? Rikula, he'll be sent down. I'm sure Biorquist will be sent down. You know, Angelo was sent down today. Lafferty will probably be sent down. Zohorna could be sent down.

Because when this team is healthy, I would have to think Brian Boyle is going to be that 13th forward. You know, he's always in the lineup. Oh, and that's also another point here that I have to make. He was back at practice today with the team. Congratulations to him. I'll do a little bit of a clap here with the birth of his new child. Apparently the story came out. He got to the room 10 minutes before the kid was born. So that's the life and a hockey player right there. So I would have to assume he'll be back in the lineup Wednesday. Again, I totally forgot about that until now. That just goes to show that sometimes I'm not thinking straight when it comes to this team. And then I just realized that when the team is fully healthy, he's not in the lineup. So he might be taking Gino's spot on Wednesday, and then that he back could be with Rodriguez and Cappaninan. But again, you know, maybe maybe somehow Gino is going to play. I don't know. That's what the lines look like today. I'm not reading too much into the second line because I don't

think Gino is ready. But if he does not play and it looks like that's likely, Brian Boyle or Cassidy Reward Quist will come in. Remember Dominic Simone, he's also out of of COVID protocol as well. So it looks like the penguins, they're surviving their second outbreak. It's gotten a lot better. And you can really see these new updated protocols have really helped the penguins with getting back their regulars. A lot of the players have said they were asymptomatic during their time with COVID.

Teddy Bluger said today he did not have any symptoms. John Marino said he was asymptomatic as well. So he's fully back. Gisbury Capnin. He also said that, you know, he didn't really have a lot of symptoms during. it. So as Mike Sullivan, you know, he told the truth. You know, a lot of these players do not have symptoms.

It looks like Jeff Carter got it, though, pretty bad. But again, you know, he's been doing a lot better as of late. I don't think he'll play tomorrow. I think at the earliest, he'll play on Thursday against the Flyers. Definitely this weekend, I would say, though, starting the big Western road trip. Remember, the Penguins had that six-game road trip coming up. All the California teams, Vegas, Philadelphia, and Dallas. I mean, it's a lot.

But those were the updates today from practice. Mike Sullivan did speak afterward. And, you know, just basically confirmed, you know, what I just said, you know, drawing captain out of COVID protocol. All those players are available for tomorrow night. Jason Zulker has been skating on his own. So that's good news. I would assume his return is, you know, maybe a couple weeks away, something like that.

But, you know, it's good to see him skating. Let's say that. But that wraps up this. first segment, just want to get that little newsy segment out of the way, just get into how the team is doing with practices and stuff. And the second segment here, we're going to preview the game against St. Louis Blues. This is a team that I was definitely a bit more down on than some other people were, but they're playing like one of the best teams in hockey right now.

And I think they're going to be really dangerous down the stretch, especially if Vladimir Tera Sanko keeps playing well. But that's coming up here in this next segment. Before we do that, though, if you or someone you care about, has a lot of, beard, it needs to get primal. Maybe you are that guy who has never considered the benefits of treating your beard with product. Primal origin oils will stop the itch and make your beard look healthy and boom. The products are free from harmful synthetic ingredients and with low impact on our planet. Primal origin oils makes palms, oils, and whipped butter that are renowned as the best

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We promise you will see and feel the difference. Remember the code locked on gets you 20% off at primal originoils.com. Use the code locked on at checkout, excuse me, for 20% off at primal originoils.com. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hoddes.

Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow this shows Twitter at Ellen underscore Penguins. One quick thing before we get into our preview against the blues. Danny Shirey of DK. Pittsburgh Spores, shout out to him, did this big little Google poll or something, you know, how everyone got to put in their votes for the top 16 Twitter accounts on Penguins Twitter. I was lucky enough to tie for 12th.

If anyone that is listening to this podcast voted for me, thank you from the bottom of my heart, or anyone out there that did that. Thank you so much, you know, to be compared to legends like Dave Molinari, I was tied with Joshi, DK, Bob Grove, even. I mean, that means so much to me. I try to provide the best Penguins content that I can. I try to get better with every podcast episode that I put out there. I try my best to learn from my mistakes and just bring something fresh when it comes to this team.

Every episode that I can. And, you know, I love doing this. I would never give this thing up for the world. And, you know, there's going to be a day where I'm further up the number 12 for the best penguin's Twitter accounts. My goal is to be top five, if not top three, hopefully around the number one point. Number one point, excuse me, at the, I don't know why I just said, excuse me, after that. At least number one at some point, okay, not that out of the way. Just wanted to share that with you all, just because that came out yesterday.

Now, to the game against the Blues, it's almost like Vladimir Tarasenko is still a great player. Who knew? 14 goals, 33 points in 33 games. He leads the team in points. and it's hilarious because this was a player that wanted out of St. Louis. There's a lot of trade rumors going around about him, but not a lot of teams wanted him. Nice job, NHL general managers. Really nice because now he's a point per game player.

He wasn't even protected in the expansion draft. The Blues were just asking Seattle to take him in that big contract. For some reason, they decided not to. And you're looking at Seattle right now, I mean, they sure could use a player like that, that's for sure. I know their goaltending has not been good this year. I don't believe it's, I think it's bottom five, bottom 10 in the league. But, you know, they definitely could use some more scoring. And Teresanko has been on one this season.

I'm not going to sit here. And I've seen takes on sports talk radio and message boards and all that. Or just by talking to, you know, people off the record and stuff saying, like, well, you know, the penguins could have traded for Teresanko. It's like they probably could not have because, A, they're not going to fit back contract under their cap. B, the Blues probably would have asked for a fortune from him and C, I mean, where is the fit there? You got to put him on an Afghani Malkins wing when, you know, they have Kasparik happening.

I mean, you know, I mean, sure, he's a better option than Jason Zoker at this point. I mean, who isn't? But my first two options, well, I guess the C one is not as big as A and B, but still, this was never going to happen. I thought that a team like the Islanders was going to go out and get him, but he has been awesome this year for St. Louis. I don't know what his future holds there, but I mean, he's been great. Jordan Kairu has 32 points in 29 games. Excuse me, 12 of those are goals. Pavel Bucenevich, 11 goals, 30 points in 30 games. So he's a point for game player. Really stupid

trade there by Chris Dury, sending him away for Sammy Blaze. I know the Rangers are a really good team this year, but if you really do a deep dive into their underlying numbers, it's not been Sunshine and Roses. They are fully carried by their high-end talent. That is the reason why the Rangers are winning games. It's Igor Shostorkans playing awesome. Artemann is one of the 10 best players in the league. Adam Fox is arguably the best defenseman in hockey and make his advantage that has been awesome as well. And, you know, Chris Grider's been up there as well. So that's mainly why they're winning games. You know, it's not their depth that's doing it or these other gritty moves that I'm sure some of the media will say that Chris Rydoray made, that's

helping them win the team. I mean, win games, excuse me, that's not it. I mean, it's mainly that their high-end talent that they paid a premium to get

and wanted to go there are playing like superstar players. And again, Bichnevich has been a great fit there is a player that I think St. Louis really needed because they needed more scoring for this season. And he has been great. Barbashev has really come out

his shell this year, 27 points in 32 games. Robert Thomas has 22 assists out of his 25 points, which is insane. Piran is playing okay. Ryan O'Reilly's always a two-way force. Tori Krug is playing not too bad. Brandon Saad has 12 goals this year.

Again, that was a player. I really wanted the Penguins to go out and get, but you know what? I guess they didn't have, again, he didn't really have the cap room for it and that they didn't want to. Underlying numbers-wise, the Blues, you know, a mixed bag,

they have 47.4% of the expected goals of 5V, 53.6% of the actual goals. So they're finishing their chances, even though their expected goals, is not the high. Their shot attempts are course. They only controlling 48.4% of those. They have a plus 10 goal differential.

Expected goals for at 66%. So, I mean, that's really good right there. I mean, I'll say that. There are goals for 60, 2.69. Goals against per 60, 2.32. They're expected goals against per 60s 2.69. their expected goals for four per 60, 2.4.3. So the blues are outperforming their expected goals 460 by about 0.26.

And they're also outperforming their goals against per 60 by about 0.37. If you go to their goaltending, I believe Jordan Bennington has had a pretty, honestly, a lot of their goaltenders are playing well this year. I mean, even in a short game sample, Charlie Lillian, Grimm has only played five games. He has 4.6 goals saved above expected. Again, very small sample size. If you go down a little bit, it's actually funny.

You know, Bennington has only played 19 games a season, has minus 0.2 goals of above expected. The state percentage overall, about 910, 2.94 goals against average. So it's honestly, they have not been winning due to the their goal thing. It has been due to their strong finishing ability. The defense has played well. I think they are a team that is outperforming their season. I mean, they're their ceiling right now, excuse me. If you look at their lines, Saad O'Reilly, Perron, that's a great first line. Robert Thomas, Letera Sanko, Jordan Kibru. With how that top six is playing this year, you are not

going to find many top sixes that are better than that, especially right now. You know, both Ozak is on the third line. He elected to go back there. Buchennevich, Logan Brown, Claustine, Barbashev, and Sunquist. That is a deep forward group. I don't think you will find 10 better teams with forward group as good as that. I really don't think so defensively.

Their pairings, Colton Pareko on the top pairing, we haven't even mentioned him. He's one of the best defensemen in the league. Justin Fulk with Tori Crue. I think Falk has kind of slipped a little bit. And then Scandella is on the third pairing. And then the goal is this year. on Billy Huso and Bennington. And, you know, Huso has also been pretty good this year for the Blues.

He's played seven games this year. 4.4 goals saved above expected his stapest, overall, 927. So, you know, it's actually some of the backups that have outplayed the starter who's making $6 million per on that contract. I know Jordan Bennington always has, sometimes his filled diaper moments. them. That said, he is still a good goalie. This is a game, you know, we're going to really see what the Penguins are made of in this game. You know, they come into this as the league's hottest team, but they're also playing, you know, another really good team that's getting hot at the right time as

well. In the blues, it looked like, you know, their time was ending. They're not going to be doing anything after they won that cup. But this year, you know, especially if you look at the standings, you know, they're in a playoff position right now. I mean, they're first in the central 19 and 9 and 5, the predators are right behind them at 2011 and 2. If you would have told me back in October that in 2022 at the start of it, we would be seeing the Nashville Predators and the St. Louis Blues at the top of the Central Division, I would have thought we would be joking here. I would have thought that it would be a prank, that, you know, the world ended and it came back,

and this was what it was going on. I did not see that coming whatsoever. I saw Minnesota was going to be good, but Colorado, they've won seven of the last 10, and they're starting to wake up, but they're only in fourth right now, only three points of clear of the Winnipeg Jets and the Blues. They've also won seven of their last 10, and two straight. The Predators, they've won eight of their last 10. That's a really competitive division this year.

But this is going to be a really tough game. If the Penguins just, you know, they stayed at their game, they play well defensively, they limit the chances to outside of the high-dain. zone, you know, if they play well on the penalty kill and they're able to continue their regression back to the mean with their finishing ability, they can and hopefully should come out victorious here. That said, I would not be surprised if they lose this one, if the blues are the one that breaks their street just because of how good they've been this year. I really think they're going to be a force to be reckoned with in the Stanley Cup playoffs that they keep this up

because that's a really deep team that they have, especially with how their players are playing. right now. So that is a full preview of the game against St. Louis doing a deep dive into that team. I'm excited to watch them. You know, the Penguins haven't played them in a year and a half. So excited to see what happens with that. Coming up in our final segment, we're going to do a small preview into the Philadelphia game on Thursday. So stick around for that. All right. We're back here on this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore penguins. So Philadelphia, there were some updates today from Philly. Claude Juru has been placed in the COVID protocol. So he will be out for that game.

It looks like he has tested positive. It looks like Ivan Provrov has also been placed on the COVID list. He will be out for that game as well. So Philadelphia is definitely a bit banged up, I would say, right now. So it just makes it that much tougher for them to win that game on Thursday against Pittsburgh. You know, the Penguins, they did win the game earlier in the season. That was the one that ended in overtime because Mike Matheson had that horrific giveaway with about three minutes left. The players able to tie it and salvage a point. Even though the Penguins were playing lockdown defense, that entire third period, you know, again, so we're able to win the name and over time, which is, you know, that's what matters.

So the lines right now without Claude Giroux, and remember, it also looks like they're without Sean Couturier as well. These are massive losses for the flyers. Joel Farabee with Scott Lawton and Cam Atkinson, JVR, Kevin Hayes, and Gerald Mayhoe, whoever the heck that guy is. Travis Connecting, Morgan Frost, Oscar Lindblum, great to see Oscar back and playing well. You know, this might be a huge rivalry in one of the best. best rivalries in the NHL.

But I will always be an Oscar Lindblum fan on what he was, what he went through and how he's been able to come back is nothing short of outstanding. So I will never say a bad word about that player. Patrick Brown, Zach McEwen and Maxwell Wilman are on the fourth line, three players that I have no idea who they are. You get, their penguins are going to see Rast and Mr. Linen on the top pairing so Cindy Crosby can potentially eat him alive with Travis Sanheim, who was at a pretty good year.

Cam York with Justin Braun. York is going to be a force the next few years. I mean, he made his debut last year, looked pretty good. You know, that's one of the Flyers prospects that their fan base is excited about and rightfully so. I mean, he lights up almost any league that he's in. Keith Yandel, and then with Kevin Kahnaten, and then goaltending-wise, you know, Carter Hart and Martin Jones, I'm sure Carter Hart will be in net for that one. Now, if we look at their overall stats, this is, I've had like a cough almost every episode,

and I have no idea. what is going on. If we look at their overall team stats, underlying numbers-wise, it's not pretty for Philly, everyone. 44.3% of the expected goals, 45.5% of the actual goals is here. Child attempts-wise,

the Flyers only controlling 47.4% of those. Their goal differential is minus 11. It's just, it's a really rough year there. In Philly, no. I, Lane, Vigno, and Michelle Terry, and we'll let go. Mike Yo is now, the head coach. But, you know, the biggest bright spot for them, you know, was their biggest weakness last season. Carter Hart has been really good. I know a lot of Penguins fans like to

dump on Carter Hart, you know, just because the Flyers never seem to get the goaltending position right. I mean, remember they had Michael Neuverth starting, Steve Mason, Brian Boucher, Michael Layton. The list goes on and on, right? Amory, may he rest in peace, of course. Just so many that it's just going to, it's like a, the circle goes round and round here as I'm doing from the people that are watching on YouTube. It's insane how many goals they've had over the years. But he saved 8.5 goals above expected.

His overall same percentage just here, 918, 2.74 goals against average. That I think would be a bit lower if the Flyers defense actually gave him some help. That is not a good unit. I feel bad for Ryan Ellis. It's because the Flyers also gave up a lot to get him, but he has not been available for a lot of the season. A lot of it has had to do with injury, but he's also been in COVID protocol.

He's just, he's hardly played at all. And, you know, that was their big acquisition this season outside of Kim Atkinson. I would say that that was a bigger acquisition, at least in my opinion. And he just, he's not been able to play hardly this season. But this should be a game that the Penguin should win. Obviously, I know it's a rivalry, so anything can happen. And I know the Flyers had their number last year. You know, this season's gone off too better.

Start the Penguins won that first meeting. With how banged up Philadelphia is and with how, you know, they have a little bit of an outbreak going. I still think Pittsburgh, you know, they should, again, this should be as close to a comfortable win as there is in the NHL. But there also are no comfortable wins in the NHL just because if there's any given night. But right now, as I'm looking at the lines on left wing lock, this was updated today. There's no Sean Couturier, there's no Claude Jureau, and there's no Ivan Provrov. I mean, those are three of their best players. Penguins have to take advantage of that.

That's really all I can say at this point. But a lot of game action coming up for the Penguins this week. Again, Wednesday game against St. Louis, that will be on TNT. So no local broadcast for that. The only thing local for the Penguins is the radio. call with Josh Getsov on 105.9 the X. And then on Thursday, that I believe is an ESPN Plus slash Hulu exclusive game. Ray Ferraro is calling the game with John Butcher Gross. 99% sure of that. So if you don't have ESPN Plus, I highly recommend that you subscribe to it. The initial package

is worth it alone. That will be the only way I think that you will be able to watch that game. And then, you know, you're back to your regularly scheduled programming for the rest of the road trip. They go to Dallas and then they have the California trip and then they exist. with Vegas. So that'll do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I appreciate all of you listen to this one. We'll be back on Wednesday with a full game recap of the matchup against St. Louis, and I'll talk to you all then.