Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Pittsburgh Penguins got outclassed by a true contender on Tuesday

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Penguins laid an absolutely massive egg against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday, and Pat and I are going to discuss that, plus discuss who our picks are for Warrior Helmet Wednesday right after this. 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 another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, joined by my my. my co-s, Patrick Dampe. You can follow him on all social media platforms at Send him Verwet. And you can follow the show's Twitter at L.O. Understained Penguins, of course,

Starting point is 00:00:44 thank you all so much for making this your first-lost-slash-watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. So, Pat, and to everyone out there, if you designed to turn this game off after 30 to 35 minutes, I would not have blamed you because the Penguins got brutally outclassed by one of the top three teams in the Eastern Conference last night. They had nothing after the first 10 minutes. I actually thought the first 10 minutes were fairly fine for the Penguins. They were getting at least a couple okay chances. They weren't giving up too much in their own zone.

Starting point is 00:01:16 And then it all went to crap for the final 50 minutes of that game, especially the final 10 minutes of the first period. Because the Penguins were down 4-0 heading into the second period, the game was effectively over at that point. You're not going to come back from 4-0 down against this Tampa Bay team with how potent they are offensively and with how good they are defensively. I know when you look at their defensive pairings, they're not as strong as I would want them to be, but they're not going to give a before goal lead to the Penguins here,

Starting point is 00:01:41 especially also with Andre Vasilevsky playing out of his mind this year. But I did not like the attention to detail in the back half of that first period. I did not like Tristan Jari's performance. And look, people, I'm not going to sit here in Blaine Jari for all these goals against. I will say he was over minus three and, terms of goals stayed above expected last night. He wasn't good, was far from the only problem, but he was still not very good. Defensively, they were out to lunch in the back half of that first period. Defense was optional, if I'm being completely honest. No one was covering anyone in their own

Starting point is 00:02:15 zone. I mean, one of the goals goes off, Rickel skating in beautiful redirect there off of Raquel's skate, if I might add. But everything just went to complete crap in the back half that period. The Penguins also were not getting any offensive looks in the back half of that period. Heck pat, through two periods, they didn't even have 10 shots on net. It was that bad for a lot of this game. And we've settled a lot on this show. I always want to see that fight. I want to see the pride and I want to see the heart. I didn't see any of that last night. It wasn't good enough. Yes, I understand. They've been fighting their tails off for the last few weeks in a lot of these games.

Starting point is 00:02:57 So it's natural that you'll probably have one of these performances, at least to end the season. You probably have a couple more if I'm being completely honest. But still, last night, not even close to good enough. You still got to show way more pushback than what I saw. It felt like they just gave up after the first period. I have been trying to figure out how to talk about this game pretty much since the end of the first period last.

Starting point is 00:03:25 night. And I'm of a couple mindsets. Let's start with the goalie. It comes back to a phrase I like to use a lot when it comes to sports analysis where you can say, Tristan Jari wasn't the reason that they lost last night, but he also sure didn't help. He was not very good. And at the same time, you brought up the defense. offensive zone. This was a throwback to mid-season. This team last night was an absolute disaster in their own end. They were just basically puck watching. They weren't picking up people they needed to pick up. The biggest flaw in Eric Carlson's game was front and center last night, where he's just completely unreliable in front of the net. And I know a bunch of vultures are going to come for that and say, oh, typical Eric Carlson. If you have a lot of,

Starting point is 00:04:25 been watching Eric Carlson's career and thought he was going to be responsible in front of his own net. You've been watching the wrong film. That's never been part of his game. But last night, the Tampa Bay Lightning intentionally attacked that. And it was to a great success. And just to go off that, there was on a single skater on this team that played well last night. Like you can look at the average game score. Carlson was almost broke the chart in terms of negative average game score. He was horrendous last night. But again, there was not a single player that played well on this. Yeah, I know. Brian Russ got another goal. He's closing in, Pat, on a 30 goal season, which would be awesome if he can get it. Sydney Crosby now one point away from breaking the point per game

Starting point is 00:05:07 record that's currently held by him and Wayne Gretzky. That's all fine and dandy. The game is a success. We got Crosby's point, but did they play well? Otherwise, no, they both were bad, as was the entire team. Absolutely. And then in the moment, last night watching the game. You know, I said it on social media. I know you're playing a true bona fide Stanley Cup contender. You're down for nothing. You're probably not coming back from that.

Starting point is 00:05:36 I would like to see at least some pushback, at least some fight. But then I thought about it. And I want to take it from sports to real life. We've all had that day at work, right? you walk in, you have your coffee, and it spills. First thing you do when you get into the office, your coffee spills. And you're like, damn it, you know what, this is just going to be one of those days, isn't it? And then whatever the first thing you work on, it goes right to crap.

Starting point is 00:06:05 And you're like, oh my God, this really is going to be one of those days, isn't it? And then for the rest of the day, you don't put on your best performance. You just want to get through it. You just want to get done so you can come back tomorrow and hit the reset button. And that kind of felt like where the penguins were. They were like, you know what? We had a first period where, yeah, did we play well? Absolutely not.

Starting point is 00:06:27 But everything that could have possibly gone wrong went wrong. You get a goal that goes off of Eric Carlson's foot. Another goal, Tristan Jari gets at the very least a piece of it, and it somehow squeaks through them. And it's just like one thing after another. And then you mix it in with, this team isn't stupid. they know where they are in the standings. They know where this season is going.

Starting point is 00:06:51 And you just go, you know what? It ain't our night. It's just not our night. Let's get out of this with our health, which they almost didn't. But you get out of this with your health. You get out of it and you say, you know what? We got another game this week. Let's look forward to that.

Starting point is 00:07:09 And in that regard, I can't really blame them because you know that Tampa Bay is that good. you know that Tampa Bay is going to be right there when we get to the postseason and you're not. So yeah, I'm dismayed by the effort, but over the last couple weeks, they at least in the short term built up enough goodwill that I can give them an ever so slight paths on you had a bad night. It happens. I would, in putting it in the context of where this season is and where it's going to go and where it's been, I can't come on here and break this team over the coals for last night.

Starting point is 00:07:49 We know this isn't a very good hockey team. We know this team isn't going to the playoffs. So there's no rhyme or reason for me to come on here and blame everybody on the team and talk about how they stink and this guy needs to be embarrassed and yada, yada, because that's just not who this team is. It sucked in the moment to watch. It was a boring game to watch. because Tampa knew they had this one wrapped up.

Starting point is 00:08:17 The penguins knew they were cooked. And by the second period and into the third period, both teams were just like, we're going to run out the clock and we're going to get out of here and call it a night. That's what the third period felt like at least. Like a little bit of the second period, but I still felt Tampa Bay was pushing at least a little bit to start that period. But I think at least from a penguin's perspective,

Starting point is 00:08:37 not from a Tampa Bay perspective to start the second period, I wanted to see someone create a bit of a spark. Like, yeah, I know. you're down for nothing you're probably not going to come back but i still wanted to see that effort i still wanted to see that heart and i just didn't get it i'm not going to come on here and flame everyone like yeah i said that no one played well which i very much think but i'm not going to come on here and be like oh my god like you embarrass yourself you embarrass yourself you embarrass yourself like yeah like every team has a game like this throughout the season but i still wanted to see that pride that heart

Starting point is 00:09:11 and even just a little bit of a spark that says, like, you know what, hey, let's see if we can somehow, some way, at least make it a little bit interesting heading into the third period. I didn't get that. That was the one thing I really wanted to get. Like, yeah, Pat, again, it's great that Brian Ross got his 26th goal in the third period to prevent the shutout. It's nice that Crosby got within a point of breaking William Gretzky's record.

Starting point is 00:09:32 And I'm glad that he did not break the record last night because it would have been kind of weird, especially in a blowout. Like, I wanted him to do that in a game that they win. in a game that they especially play well in. So I felt like if they got another garbage goal last night and Crosby got the record, it would be like, oh, yeah, it's awesome that he got it,

Starting point is 00:09:50 but also they just got blown the hell out. So again, I'm glad that he saved that next point, hopefully for Thursday against Buffalo, or this weekend against Otto, it would be even better if he did it on home ice because the ovation that he would get from PVG Paints Arena would be awesome. But again, man, you said it, not going to come on here and, you know,

Starting point is 00:10:11 just be mad online for 30 minutes. But I will say, wanted to see a little bit more pushback from this team last night because I feel like that's been a big part of their game, especially these last few weeks. And I didn't get it last night. For sure. But like I said, it, it's really difficult in a game like that. And it's easy for us as podcasters with microphones who don't play in the league to say,

Starting point is 00:10:38 you got to go out there and show some fight. But a game like that last night, you're playing a genuinely great team. You know by this point of the season that you're not one of those genuinely great teams. It's very difficult to say after losing 4-0, but after going down 4-0 in the first period to a team like that to really get yourself up. And again, they've done well enough since the Four Nations break that I can give them a pass on it. Now, if this happens again over the next two games, might be a little bit more fireworks on this show.

Starting point is 00:11:16 Yeah, we might be way more mad online for a 30-minute episode than we are right now. Because, hey, again, crap happens. You see these types of performances from every team at least once or twice starting a season, but still again, wanted a little bit more of a spark, a little bit more pushback. But that will do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, we're going to discuss Brian Russ and how he's closing in on a pretty cool milestone. Pat, if he gets four more goals, we're going to discuss that in the second segment and discuss a little bit about Cindy Crosby before we get to Warrior Helmet Wednesday

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Starting point is 00:12:44 I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-s, Patrick Dam. So really no positives to take away from this performance outside of Crosby getting his point, which, hey, the game's a win in my book if you get that because we're closing in on the record. And a little bit of a smaller one, too, but it could be way more important down the road here. Brian Russ gets his 26th goal of the season. He's two away from tying his career high of 28 last season, Pat. But he only needs four goals in the next few weeks to get his first 30 goal season in the NHL.

Starting point is 00:13:16 And by the way, he's been producing lately, he has four goals in his last three games. Stay tuned for Warrior Helmut Wednesday, by the way, people, because he's definitely a big candidate this week. And maybe one or both of Pat and I could be giving our Royal Helmut to him. Stay tuned. But I think he's going to get it. Like he's been one of their best players, not just this last week, but all season, 26 goals, 55 points in 62 games last year.

Starting point is 00:13:39 It was kind of similar, you know, like 28 goals, 56 points and 62 games. It's literally right there, Pat. He's like, it's crazy to think about it. 56 and 62 last year, 55 and 62 this year. Oh yeah. And he still has more games to play here down the stretch. So he could literally end the season right out of point per game if he keeps this up, continues to be one of the driving forces of offense on this team.

Starting point is 00:14:05 he's such an important leader on this team as well. And I really hope that he is able to hit 30 goals here down the stretch because he has been fantastic all season when he's been healthy. It actually surprised me this morning when I was getting ready for the show to see that Brian Rust has never had a 30 goal season. I just kind of assumed that sometimes since he broke on to the scene in 15, 16, that one of those years he put up 30. but to see that the closest he's come was last year at 28 and then in 1920 before the world shut down,

Starting point is 00:14:42 he was on pace to probably have a 40 goal season because he had 27 at that point and he was an absolute man on fire. But it was surprising to see that. But I go back to and I know that he's been a polarizing figure to the fan base for the last couple of years, but I really liked what Mike Sullivan had to say about him after the game against the Panthers, where he basically just said he's an honest player. He plays on both sides of the puck. He works incredibly hard. He's earned everything he's got.

Starting point is 00:15:17 And he embodies what it means to be a Pittsburgh penguin. And oh, yeah, he's a multi-time Stanley Cup champion. So you have to love Brian Rust because he just is a, a success story. The meme is always who the F is Brian Rust from Dom Lecision all those years ago. But it really is that story that you love to see in sports. It's a guy who kind of flies under the radar, doesn't have the hype, doesn't have the pomp and circumstance, wasn't a blue chip prospect, just works his butt off and becomes a reliable,

Starting point is 00:15:59 genuinely very good player because I've talked about it on the show before. You remember when he came up to the Penguins, everyone thought like, oh, this is going to be a great depth guy. This is going to be a great guy to have in your bottom six. This guy is going to kill penalties, guy is going to block shots, he's going to work hard, he'll chip in 10 to 15 goals. He can be a top six fill in when there's injury. And the exact opposite is to happen.

Starting point is 00:16:25 He is developed into a genuine top six, if not top. line forward. And it's all because he doesn't do anything flashy. He just works very hard. He has a very smart mind for the game because what do I always say? There are a million players who have tried to play with top line talent because you think it might be there. But being able to play with elite talent is a talent in and of itself. And Brian Rust can think the game on a level to where he can play with Evgeny Malkin or Sidney Crosby. And to me, that is as valuable as anything else he brings to the table. 100%.

Starting point is 00:17:05 And even outside of everything you just said, which I agree with, Brian Rust embodies what it means to be a Pittsburgh penguin. He's one of the top leaders on this team. Yeah, I know. You got the core leadership group with Crosby, Malkin, and Lattang. But if there's ever a night where they don't want to give quotes for whatever reason, Brian Russ is that kind of guy's like, Hey, come over here.

Starting point is 00:17:27 I'll give you a quote that's going to be a big message to locker room. And it's been like that, honestly, ever since he came up to the league, it feels like he has slowly become a leader since coming up to the Penguins full time. And there's going to be a time pretty soon where he has an A on his sweater full time. He has said repeatedly to other members of the Penguins media, he wants to be here when this team becomes good again. He loves the penguins, loves everything about them, and he doesn't ever want to leave. Like, you know, you've seen his name come up in trade rumors, like teams would pay Kings

Starting point is 00:18:02 Rainson to get him in. Honestly, I think that's valid. I know he's not having the season that Raquel is having this season, but I still think teams would give up quite a bit to get someone like Rust because he's good for 20 or 25 plus goals a season, really good guy in the locker room, can kill penalties, all that stuff. but again, he embodies what it means to be a penguin, and I can't say enough about the season that he's having this year. And I can't say enough about the player that he's become since getting into the league.

Starting point is 00:18:37 You said it, Pat. We're all like, oh, yeah, he can be like a okay, bottom six, maybe a middle six-fourth. I don't think anyone pegged him to be a top-line player in the league at all. But he has been nothing but consistent since coming up to the league. I mean, he played only a little bit in 1415, played obviously, well, way more in 1516. That was his first, you know, full season in the league. But he's been fantastic. And he's getting close now to 200 goals, Pat.

Starting point is 00:19:06 He's at 198 right now. He's going to get his 200th goal, I think, at some point here before the season ends, also has 427 points. I think if he keeps it up, there is an outside shot that he could hit 500 points in the NHL. next season outside. Like right now he needs 73. So more unlikely than it likely than it right now. But it's coming.

Starting point is 00:19:32 He's going to hit 500 points. And that's also going to be quite an accomplishment. Because again, when he came in the league, I don't think a lot of people saw the type of career coming from him. But I can't say enough about how amazing his career has been to watch throughout these last several years. And I'm with you on that. I do want to see how he ends.

Starting point is 00:19:51 the season here, the penguins have nine games remaining. He's not, he's approaching his career high in points, which was 58 in 21, 22. So he's kind of always hovered, especially in the 2020s. He's hovered around 45 to 55ish points per year. So yeah, I don't think, like if he were to go into, you know, a hibernation here, the rest of the season and not play. finish with 55. I think it would be a bit of a monumental lift for him next season to get to that 500 point mark. But you've got to figure he's probably good for six to 10 more points the rest of

Starting point is 00:20:36 this season. He'll probably break his career high this year and probably reach somewhere 61, 62 points, which makes it a little bit easier for him next season to reach that 500 point mark. The other thing I'm interested to see with Brian Rust moving forward is I've hinted at it on this show and obviously I'm not treating this like I'm in a lab or I'm one of the people at the athletic who do great work in tracking analytics and things like that. But one of the things that has kind of been an interest of mine is we talk about how there is such a youth movement in professional sports now. where younger players are better developed and they're able to become pros at younger ages than they used to in the past. Whereas it used to be, unless you were a phenom, chances were you weren't playing in the pros at 18, 19, 20. Now we're seeing that pretty regularly. The other end of it that I think doesn't get discussed as much is guys are prolonging their careers into their mid to late 30s just because of how advanced training,

Starting point is 00:21:47 sports science, nutrition, recovery, and all of that have come along. And everyone says, oh, Brian Rust, you know, he's 32 now. I don't know how much longer this can last. Well, yeah, he's not Sidney Crosby. He's not going to continue to be a dominant force into his late 30s, but can he play a valuable role into his mid-30s, 35, 36? Is he going to put up 50 plus points, but probably not? but 30 to 40 for the next couple years, it's entirely possible.

Starting point is 00:22:21 The challenge then becomes exactly what the penguins are trying to do. They're trying to get some younger players who develop into better players and can actually play an elevated role with the big club. So if you can do that and then supplement them with a Brian Rust, who not only has experience, brings great leadership, but can put up 30, 40-ish points, it's not a bad player to have on your roster. No, I'll gladly take that. And again, he can be sort of a mentor to that player as well.

Starting point is 00:22:52 I mean, because again, this roster is going to look so much different next season. I think you're going to see a big influx of young talent coming in here, whether it's Rucker McGority, Dilly Coivant, potentially Harrison Brunick, maybe Y'all Blumquist coming back up for full-time basis, maybe some other players coming over from other teams that Kyle Dubas wants to go out via trade and get. The team is going to look a lot different. And I think having someone like Russ there still after having this type of season will be very beneficial because A, he can obviously still very much play. And B, he can be like that leader slash mentor to that player and show him, okay, this is what it takes to be a pro in this league. And I still think that is very valuable to a team in 2025 for the NHL.

Starting point is 00:23:40 But I think that I'll do it for this second segment coming up to end the show. it's Wednesday. You all know what that means. Warrior Helmet Wednesday, Pat and I are going to give out our Player of the Week award for this last week. And I have a pretty good idea of who I'm going to give mine to based on this last second segment. So there's the hint for everyone for the final segment. Pat will have to see what he decides to do. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about our final sponsor and that is trade coffee. If you're like me, you're mornings have to start with a good cup of coffee. But I got tired of selling for grocery store brands that just weren't cutting it. That's why I I turn to trade and let me tell you this coffee is next level. Trade is the number one specialty coffee marketplace in the United States, bringing you fresh coffee from over 50 of the country's top roasters. Their experts have taste tested thousands of coffees, creating over 450 amazing roasts. Whether you are new to coffee or know exactly what you like,

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Starting point is 00:25:12 one more time, drinktrade.com slash locked on NHL. All right, we're back to on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host, Patrick Dam. So, Pat, it's our amazing Warrior Home Wednesday segment to end the Wednesday edition of the show. And I'm actually going to hand this over to you because I kind of hinted who mine is going to be, but I want to see if you're feeling the same way or if you give it to someone else. It's going for me to Tristan. No, I'm kidding.

Starting point is 00:25:45 It's going to Brian Rust. It has been a great week for him. He has had three goals, six points in the last three games this week. He's looked every bit the part that everybody wants him to look like. And Hunter, if I pull up my little spreadsheet here where I've been tracking our warrior helmet for the season, this is the first time in 10 weeks that we have given Brian Russ the warrior helmet. And it's only the second time that you and I, unless you suddenly swerve and decide you want to go with someone else, that we have unanimously given him the warrior helmet.

Starting point is 00:26:21 It's the first time we've done that this season. But he really does deserve it. We just got done speaking glowingly of him overall with his entire body of work as a penguin all these years. But this week, given that, yeah, this team has about as good a chance of making the playoffs as a snowball does surviving in hell. But even with that little flicker of hope, he has continued just like his counterpart, Sidney Crosby to say, you know what? We may have one foot in the grave and one on a banana peel. But until they knock our asses down into that grave and start shoveling dirt on us, we are going to continue to play hard.

Starting point is 00:27:07 We are going to continue to give our best effort. We are to continue to try to push this team forward. And I'll keep beating that drum. To me, that is way more valuable for this team's future than them just throwing it in the tank and saying we suck. It's over. Burn it all down. Well, I love saying Cindy Crosby has been dragging this team into the fight all season, which is true.

Starting point is 00:27:30 Same thing with Evgeny Malkin, for example. But Brian Russ and Ricard Raquel, I've also been doing this all season as well, especially Rust now that you just said it. He has always been there to provide them a lift all year. And even though they got blown out last night, he still showed up on the scoreboard, even though it was garbage time. But I will amend your stat a little bit. It's actually four goals in the last three games, Pat.

Starting point is 00:27:55 One goal against Tampa, two against Florida because he was on Hat Trick Watch, and then one against the Blue Jackets finishing off that really nice play. against Columbus on Friday. So four goals, six points in his last three games. Ryan Rust also gets my warrior helmet for this last week. Continues his outstanding season. And who knows, maybe we'll give it to him again here in the final few weeks of the season. We're almost done with our second season of this patch, believe it or not.

Starting point is 00:28:24 Yeah, it's, I like this segment just because one throwback to a much more fun time. Yeah. The Pittsburgh Penguins. but we kind of lose sight in analyzing this team day to day of who is really putting up a good performance because I've long been an advocate of you can't live and die with every single moment in every single game. You kind of have to take the season in chunks. And if you can condense it down to one week, I think you can get a pretty good look on who's playing. well, it's it's all, it's honestly kind of that classic sports talk radio trope of who's up,

Starting point is 00:29:09 who's down, who's trending, who's not. And for the last week, it's, it's pretty obvious that Brian Rust, yeah, he knows this team isn't very good. He knows this team probably isn't going anywhere. But until you tell him it's over, he's not stopping. Even when they get eliminated from playoff contention, I still don't think he's going to stop now. He's going to play his ass off every single night. And again, man, like,

Starting point is 00:29:37 I can't say enough good things about him, especially this season with the way he's playing. But I think that I'll do it for today's episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with another show for you all on Thursday to get you all set for Penguin Sabres. The third and final meeting against the Sabres this season,

Starting point is 00:29:56 Penguins have won first two trying to go for the season sweep. We were supposed to have Jesse on, but he told us today, he has a seven-hour meeting schedule for work tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. So Jesse, Godspeed on that. Hopefully we'll have you back on next week for another, either Marshall Monday, Marshall Tuesday, whatever day he is free going forward, people. We will have him on. We'll try to every week that his work schedule allows him to. But again, that'll do it for this one. Thank you all so much for tuning in.

Starting point is 00:30:24 We appreciate it. We'll be back on Thursday.

Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - The Pittsburgh Penguins got outclassed by a true contender on Tuesday

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