Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Pittsburgh Penguins are going streaking once again!

Episode Date: December 15, 2021

That's now five in a row for the Penguins! Hunter does a full game recap of this one as Pittsburgh did what they needed to do against an inferior opponent. He goes into his biggest takeaways of this game and it has to begin with Evan Rodrigues. He touches on what he's on pace for after another outstanding game, before then going into the full Mike Matheson experience. Is this what everyone should expect from him on a nightly basis? Hunter also brings up Kris Letang after another strong performance and touches on the Pierre Lebrun report about a contract extension. Should Letang get another long-term one? What's the sweet spot for a contract for him? He also speaks about the power-play woes, Tristan Jarry, Kasperi Kapanen, and a whole lot more.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! BetOnline AG There 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 Bar Built 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. StatHero StatHero is the first of its kind Daily Fantasy Sports platform where it’s YOU vs. the HOUSE in head to head fantasy matchups - winner take all. Sign up for FREE - RIGHT NOW - at StatHero.com/HOCKEY and use promo code HOCKEY for a One Hundred Percent Deposit Match. Omaha Steaks The holidays are around the corner and finding the perfect gift is tricky. Omaha Steaks makes it easy to send friends and family an unforgettable gift guaranteed to be loved. Go to Omaha Steaks dot com and enter “NHL” into the search bar to order The Perfect Gift Package.   Files 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. Hello, welcome to this Tuesday evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O.R.4 Penguins.

And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. What a win for the Penguins tonight. is now five in a row for them. And they're now 10 and 2 and 1 in their last 13 games. Also, I should say, Paul, if anyone is watching this on YouTube, I apologize for the glare on the light over here. I'm going to be ordering a new webcam very soon. I'm probably actually going to set a reminder to after I record this episode to order one

because I am so tired of the lights making me look like a fool on YouTube. It's just the last couple of episodes if you like, just my, the lighting is not been up to usual par. So that's definitely on my checklist, and I will be getting that for you all really soon. For those of that listening on audio, you don't have to deal with that. But if you want to watch me on video, you can subscribe to the Locked on Penguins YouTube channel. You can just go search Locked on Penguins on there, and voila.

But my biggest takeaway, I think, from this game, so we're going to do the takeaways in this first segment, going to some other stuff in the second and third segment, such as, you know the play of Tristan Jari, Cindy Crosby, Chris LaTang but for this first one we're going to do the takeaways. My first one for that is just the Penguins took care of business and I know it's anything can happen in sports

when you play a lowly team. The Penguins have lost Montreal once this year. I know they've won the season series two out of three. They've also lost to Buffalo one time. They've lost to Ottawa. You know, they've lost to a couple other bad teams as well. But tonight they made sure not to lose to Montreal for a second time. They banked those two points when they badly needed them in a five to two victory.

I know it wasn't the best of starts. I thought those first 10 minutes were anything but crisp, at least in my opinion, for the Penguins. They were missing a lot of their passes, really sloppy play. But after that, those next 50 minutes, they really turned it on outshot Montreal quite a bit in the second and the third periods. and overall, Pittsburgh took it to them in that second period. I know they gave up a lot in the third period, but a lot of that had to do with Montreal being two or three goals down. I think Pittsburgh was kind of just playing.

I wouldn't say prevent defense, but they were turtling a bit, and that's expected. You kind of just want, you're waiting for the final whistle to blow. But still, you know, this is, you score five goals against a bad team. Montreal did not have Brendan Gallagher in there, Josh Anderson, Christian DeVore, actual Edmondson, obviously no Shea Weber, no carry price. Paul Byron's not on the lineup.

They were missing a hell of a lot of players, and Pittsburgh made them pay. And then some. It was really nice to see Rodriguez get another goal tonight. I mean, he's on a 60-point pace this season. It's ridiculous because no one, not even myself, saw this coming from me, Rod. I mean, this guy's making 700K.

Everyone before the season was like, you know what? You know, we'd be cool with 25 to 30, points in a bottom six role, right? Dude's coming out here and producing at a 55 to 60 point level. So if he keeps this up for the rest of the year and who knows if he does, there's going to be a lot of teams lining up to pay him quite a lot of money next July. That's for sure. But, you know, also another one of my biggest takeaways from this one, we finally, the

Penguins that is, got goals from defensemen. And it's about freaking time. Here's a stat that I'll throw out there for you all. This was the first time the penguins have gotten a goal from one of their defensemen and over a month. Early November was the last time they got a goal from one of their defensemen. It is crazy that it has been that long since they got a goal for one of their defensemen. excuse me, prior to Mike Matheson's win tonight and then Brian Duman, the Penguins,

only had four goals from their defensemen all year. That just goes to show how they just really have not been getting enough offense from the blue line. It's something that I've discussed a couple times on this podcast. I know some other people on different outlets have discussed it more, but it was a little bit of a problem, but it got rectified a little bit tonight, Just a really nice shot from Matheson. We're going to get to him actually right after this with one of my takeaways. And then Brian Dumlin gets his first of the year.

There's not many better things in Penguins hockey than watching the big man, Brian Dumlin, get a goal just because it's so rare when he does it. So just a really big rip from him from the point. Cindy Crosby extends his point streak. So he continues to kill it. Now, to my next takeaway, this was the peak Mike Matheson performance. So you have the amazing spinorama move where he, I think he was setting up, I want to say it was Evan Rodriguez in the first period. Rob Point Blake by Jake Allen.

If it wasn't Rodriguez, I think it was Kaepinan. I'm going to have to double check that. But has this amazing spinorama move, sets up a penguin for a chance, then gives it all back the other way for Montreal's first goal, leaving Jonathan Druand all in front and basically doing a weird spinorama. a ramma pass, which led to that turnover, then he scores the goal. So again, this was the total peak Mike Matheson performance. This is what he does when it's full chaos. He's always been the full chaos player. He will do something that you will be like, oh, my God, that's insane.

And then he'll also do something where it's like, oh, my God, can you please never do that again? We saw both of those tonight. And, oh, yeah, he scored a goal in a really nice shot past Jake Gall. This is what you get with Mike Mathis. You take the good with the bad. I know there's usually more bad than good with him. I know he's good at moving the puck as well. But, I mean, this is what you're going to get with him on a yearly basis.

So everyone might as well just get used to it. I think at this point, Tristan Jari, I thought he played phenomenal in this one. The two goals, I really can't blame him. The Drew-end goal was really just a beautiful move in front of the net. And then the second one, oh, I forgot to mention this one for Mike Matheson. He then, after the goal, stands in front of Tristan Jari where he can't see the block and the Montreal scores with three seconds left in the second period off one of the rookie defenseman who gets his first career NFL goal and only his fourth a career game.

So congrats to him. But Jari probably would have had an easy save there if Mike Madison decided to not stand in front of Jari and allow him to play his position. But for some reason, he decided to, again, stand right in front of him. There was really no need to because I don't think that. other Montreal player was going to deflect it. And, you know, Jari just can't see the thought. So, I mean, so that, those four things right there sum up a Mike Matheson game.

That's what you're going to get. And I hope everyone starts to get used to it sooner rather than later, excuse me. But Jari did make some pretty big saves throughout this game. I know he kind of got bailed out with a lot of posts on Montreal hit five posts in this game, believe it or not. I mean, that's just crazy to say. But, excuse me, just another really strong performance from him. He came into the day, sixth in goal, saved above expected.

I would expect him to stay right around there going into tomorrow via money puck.com. So those are really my main takeaways from this one. You know, I have to touch on Ed Rodriguez, of course. Nice to see Brian Boyle get on the board. That was only his third goal of the season. And obviously, if this team does get healthy, he's probably not going to be in the starting lineup. We already had seen him start to be scratched with the team having everyone in the lineup,

except for Evgeny Malkin. I think once this team does get Gino, Brian Rust, and Jake Anselback, I just don't see a place for Brian Boyle in the lineup. But still, that snick that he had passed Allen. What a rip. Just gets it in the right above the right circle. Fires at Blockerside, Top Cheese. Nothing the goal he can do about that one.

So really nice to see him. get back on the offensive score sheet. It had been, I believe, over a month since he scored as well. So it's always nice when you have someone that is an extra, when the team is fully healthy, of course, start to score. But those are my main takeaways from this game, at least. I mean, it's just trying to really figure out the words here. I mean, you really can't read too much into it,

just because this is a team that the penguins are expected to beat. That said, this team still is really good. They've won five in a row. They won five in a row before their little three-game mishap in front of this 13-game stretch. They're one of the hottest teams in hockey right now. Actually, during this 13-game stretch, no team has more points than the Penguins. So technically, they are the hottest team in hockey. Right now, they continue to stay ahead of the field in the –

they continue to stay ahead of the field, excuse me, in the playoff race. They're six points up on the ninth place. team in the Eastern Conference right now. And again, these next four games for Pittsburgh present a really big opportunity for them to continue to bank points. They're still within striking distance of the top three in the metro of New York, Carolina, and Washington. They play Buffalo coming up at home on Friday.

Then they go to New Jersey. They come home to play New Jersey again, kind of like the setup. What we saw last year with a home and home. And then they have Philadelphia before the Christmas break. I'm not sure if Favgeny Malkin will play in one of those four games. but if he takes contact one of these next couple of days, it would seem to be more likely than not that Gina will suit up here at some point.

But still a little more to get to for this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast, including the PowerPlay Mishaps because I don't really know what's going on there, especially on the five on three. A couple of Crystal Tang stats to throw out at you all. A Crystal Tang contract extension update. I'm going to give my thoughts on the tweet that I saw.

from Pierre LeBron of TSN and a couple other things as well. But before we get to that, you listen to a podcast for the power of knowledge. You switch to Boost Mobile for the power of saving money. You can get three unlimited data lines for $30 a month per line and a free five-gigabyte phone when you switch. So you can get the latest episodes of any podcast that you want. It's all on one of America's largest 5G networks. More power to save that is Boost Mobile.

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Omaha Steaks.com with that keyword one more time, NHL. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hoadies. He's not to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hode. So all this shows, Twitter, at L.O. underscore penguins. So a couple big milestones tonight. This was Sidney Crosby's 400th career multi-point game. He is only the 13th player to do that in NHL history.

11 of the previous 12 were in the Hockey Hall of Fame. The other one that's not, Yarmai Yager, because, of course, he is still somehow playing. His jersey will be in the rafters whenever he stops playing. but I think it'll be another 15 years at this point from Yager. So congratulations to sit on that. Continues to set more milestones. He's one of the greatest players to ever play this game, in my opinion.

He'll be on Huggies, Mount Rushmore, when it's all said and done. Chris LaTang, 600 career points. Congratulations to him. The best peer defenseman in this franchise is history. I know Paul Coffey played here for so many years, but I'll say it again, for those that have not heard me say it, in terms of a franchise defenseman, there has not been a better one

been Latang, both offensively and defensively. And we also got a contract update from TSN's Pierre LeBron when basically during the intermission report of Penguins, the original tweet came courtesy of Danny Shibri of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports. And he put out that LeBron said that the Penguins are interested in extending Crystal Tang, but on a shorter term deal. LeBron also says that Latang believes that he can play forever. and would want something longer term.

Okay. So my thoughts on that, I would personally offer Chris LaTang a four to five year deal and see if he bites. Because Latang right now makes $7.25 million. He signed that contract back in 2013 when Ray Shiro was a general manager. I would give him four to five years around that cap number, if not a bit lower. I don't know if he's worth that kind of money at this point, even though he's. is playing at a really high level, you can certainly argue it, but do you really want that cap hit, you know, to say that way as he gets into ages, you know, 36, you know, 37, 38,

heck, maybe even 39 or 40, his level of play will definitely dip for those years. So what I would do, again, four to five years, maybe if you can get him for six to six and a half million per, that would be a really good contract. I personally am not interested in the seven to eight year term. We all saw what just happened with Nicholas Baxter and Alex Obechkin, especially with Ovi. He just signed his last contract that will take him to the end of his career in Washington. That was what a five-year deal. I know a lot more money than what LaTang is going to get.

But still, that's probably something with what you're looking at term-wise, you know, four to five years, six to eight. That's just, I disagree if Ron Hexon and Brian Burke would do that. So I'm not surprised that they would be looking at something shorter term. I mean, it makes sense because he is in his mid-30s now. I would assume they're going to try to do the same with Evgeny Malkin, maybe something four to five years. That said, they got to find a way to get both of these players not locked up,

excuse me, not just one. I mean, these are two of your core players. They've been with the organization since they were drafted. They've been with them for as long as Sid has been here. You don't want to, if you're breaking up one or two of these players, from the core that just signals to me that, I mean, you're kind of going to be rebuilding, at least, because if one or both of them leave after the season, you really don't have anyone that can step in, you know, that's a prospect, one from Wilkesbara, even someone that's on the

team and can give that same value that that player brought to the lineup on an every night basis. So hopefully Pittsburgh will be able to figure out something sooner rather than later with both Lutang and Malkin, but I figured I would share that update with you all in case some of you all did not see it on TSA or did not see Danny's tweet that he had during the intermission report. So yeah, four to five years, six to six and a million per if you can. But if it is seven, I wouldn't be too thrilled with it, but I would be able to live with it considering what Chris Lentang has done for this franchise. He's the best defenseman in this franchise's history. And, you know, he had another really strong game tonight as well.

He's gotten so much better these last few years that really just defending his own zone was making the right play with the puck every time. I mean, I said it last week, I'll say it again. As he gets older, it also feels like he gets younger at the same time with the plays that he's making on an every night basis. This is some extraordinary hockey that we're seeing from him right now.

And I really hope people do not take it for granted because it is going to be weird when he is eventually not on this team anymore. Now, for the special teams, you have the good and the bad? The good, obviously, the penalty kill is sensational. It has been also a full month since the penguins have given up a power play goal, which is just crazy to say. This is now 32 straight penalty kills by the penguins.

It's just, it's extraordinary, to be honest with you all, that they keep killing penalties at a rate this good. And the best part, they're not even giving. up a lot of high quality chances when they're down in man. I mean, sure, Tristan Jari is making a lot of good saves, but, you know, he really hasn't had to, you know, sweat his tail off making those saves because the PKKers have made it, you know, easier for him than it was last year where the unit was just absolutely terrible. So obviously Montreal does not have a good power play. They have one of the worst units in the league. But to see them continue this streak is nothing short of

Awesome. Now for the power play, just a, I don't know what's going on with the five on threes that they get. They had a buck 43 of a five on three tonight. Yes, I understand that Jay Kensel is not out there. Brian Russ is not out there. McEvgeny Malkin is not out there. That said, Montreal has the worst penalty kill in the league. You should be able to get a goal with 103 seconds up two men. I mean, that's just, that's how it should be. but the thing was they weren't even getting good scoring chances during that five on three. I mean, the puck was also bouncing off Edvin Rodriguez's stick quite a bit. You know, the passes weren't crisp. A lot of the shots were being taken from the point.

They were not getting to those high danger scoring areas that, you know, they have in the past with these situations. And, you know, I don't know what the fixes. I guess it's maybe just to get healthy. But it is weird because it seems like, you know, when they get a four on three or something like that in overtime, they do a lot better with that. But yet in a five on three, they can't score a power play goal. It's something that I really don't understand.

Again, I think it's a combination of things. They're overpassing. They're trying to be too cute, looking for the perfect play. But it's also that they're just, they're not getting back to the basics and getting to those high danger areas where, you know, they're parked in front of the net, you know, right at the dots and everything like that. So I'm sure they'll have to do some more work on the five on three in practice. Hopefully it'll get better once of the getting Malkin comes back. But that wraps up the second segment of the Locked on Penguins podcast.

Coming up in the next one, we're going to go around the league a little bit. But also preview, I'll do a little preview of the game against Buffalo. That's on Friday. The Penguins have the next two days off before their game at home. Chippane's Arena. Before we do that, though, founded in 2009, Stance Apparel represents a radical reinvention of socks, underwear, and active apparel with a sharp focus on comfort, quality, and creativity. Stance brings in a typical aesthetic, excuse me, alongside some of pop culture's hottest collaborators for the ultimate in style and self-expression. Because everything you wear

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Enjoy the color and comfort of a life less ordinary with stance. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hoadies. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hoadies, follow the shows Twitter at L.O. 1004 Penguins. I wish I had more to touch on about this game, but there really wasn't much else to discuss other than the topics that I brought up on the show. I think I saw this tweet from Danny earlier on in the day. He asked for everyone's top three Penguins MVP this year. For mine, I would go Jake Gensel number one, Tristan Jari, number two, Evan Rodriguez, number three, and a nice honorary mention to Mike Sullivan because he has done a tremendous job.

I'm sure he's probably not even going to be nominated for the Jack Adams, which is an absolute joke. But this is some of his finest coaching work yet, especially with dealing with the huge covert outbreak. And speaking of COVID outbreaks, I mean, today was a banner day for that with just the NBA, NFL, and the NHL having so many players test positive. I hope all these players get better ASAP.

I'm not sure if the season is going to be put on pause or something. I think the NHL and the HLPA doctors are having on call tonight to see if they have to change some of their protocols. I can't see that happening in terms of a pause, but I could see some tighter protocols being put into play. But again, going back to what I was saying about Sullivan, just with dealing with that, all the injuries that he's had to deal with as well. There's another one of his finest coaching performances yet. And there's going to be a day very soon, I'm sure, where we're all going to be missing, Sally, because he is just a tremendous coach. there are not three coaches better in the league than him at this point. Another Honor I mentioned.

Marcus Pedersen and John Marino. Marino has been really good, I think, this season. I don't know of people, I think, are talking about it. I mean, obviously he hasn't been scoring a lot. This is the first year of that mega extension that Jim Rutherford signed him to about a year ago. But he's playing really good defensively. He did have that play against Washington, that beautiful feat of Dayton Hinen, where he was being a bit more active in the offensive zone.

I want to see more of that. from John, but he's been steady as he goes with his usual partner, Marcus Pedersen. He's not having to carry around Mike Matheson's corpse on a nightly basis. Just a really strong performance so far from Reno. And then, you know, the same with Pedersen. They mesh well together. Marcus has been great in front of the net, great in his defensive zone. I know he hasn't provided a lot of offense yet this year either, but you're not paying him

for his offense. They have Crystal Teng can drive that. Mike Madison can do that in some degree. John Marino has been driving a little more offense. so far this year. But, well, compared to last year, I should say. He's not driving a lot of offense, but compared to last year, it is a bit better. But, again, you're not paying Pedersen to drive a lot of offense.

You're paying him for his defensive ability. He has been really good in that department. It's some of the best underlying numbers metrics-wise defensively on the team. So those would be my honorary mentions for players. And then I almost thought I did not say Jake Gens, but he was the first one I talked about. So I have no idea what the heck I'm saying anymore. It's just, I just goes to show that.

I'm getting a bit tired as we near the end of this episode. Then, of course, Mike Sullivan, who I already touched on. But coming up soon, this is just like a minute preview for the game on Friday. We're going to do a much deeper preview coming up later this week. Penguins have Buffalo. The Sabers only have 47% of the expected goals this year per Money Puck, and only 44% of the actual goals. This is per five.

on five. They had a nice start to the season, but they've definitely gone downhill a little bit. I mean, and that's to be expected. They weren't going to keep this up. They don't have the talent to compete with a lot of other teams on a nightly basis. They're 8 and 15 and 4. Hopefully the penguins will not get Dustin Tocarsky like they did last time because I know they didn't play well in those first 40 minutes, but they sure brought it in that last 20 and outshot Buffalo pretty badly in that final frame. They cut the lead in half, but the only reason they didn't tie the game and they had numerous changes to do that was because of the play of Tukarski. So not sure if he'll be playing that, but assuming what I was, oh my God, I just stuttered so badly what I was going to say. But I'm totally

blanking on this last sentence. Usually in this point I would pause what I was going to say. So you're getting some great podcast stuff right now. But, after what he did last time, there we go. I would assume Don Granato will go back to him for this game. Okay, there we go. I got it. That was probably very painful to listen to. I apologize for that.

But hey, you know, I appreciate everyone that listens to this podcast. So thank you all so much for listening and watching to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. We'll have another one for you all on Wednesday. Big win for Pittsburgh, five in a row, 10 and 2-1 in their last. 13. They're in that first wildcard spot, trying to make a run for that top three. We'll see if they can make it six in a row on Friday against Buffalo at home. I'll see you all on the other side.