Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - This year's Stanley Cup Playoffs will be re-seeded and not bracketed! Plus, we have a big day in Penguins history today!

Episode Date: June 4, 2020

We got official word today from Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman that this year's Stanley Cup layoffs (if they happen) will not be bracketed and the teams will be re-seeded after each round. Hunter dives into that in this episode of Locked On Penguins with his thoughts on that, plus how dumb the round robin idea still is. We also have this day in Penguins history with Jordan Staal's goal against the Detroit Red Wings in Game Four of the Stanley Cup Final in 2009, plus Sidney Crosby released a statement yesterday speaking out about the racial injustice in this country. 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.

Hello, welcome to this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. Happy Thursday to you all this June 4th, day, 80, whatever, of the quarantine. Today is also my dad's birthday. He's 57 today. Pretty, not that he's almost 60.

So that's 22, 50s. So it's a 35-year difference. Okay, I'm just going to stop rambling. But still, you know, June 4th is always a special day. You know, I get to celebrate with my dad. That'll be a bit later on. for dinner. I think he's making a prime rib tonight for his birthday, so that's just absolutely outstanding. Throw out just a little announcement. Look for a Hockey Jeopardy episode from Locked-on

Ducks, Jason Hernandez, who is the wonderful host of Locked-on Ducks invited me, Sean Woodley, and Sarah, oh my God, if I mispronounce her name, I'm just going to look like an idiot. Avampato. Yeah, okay, I got it. I got it. Geez, if I mispronounced her name, I would never hear the end of it for Sarah. I would also probably never be allowed to go on the Lockdown NHL show again. The National show, I should say, yes, she would probably crucify me. But no, it was a lot of fun. I got my ass handed to me. There were some questions on there that were pretty difficult.

There were some that I tried to buzz in, but, you know, Sean, you know, of Lockdown Raptors, who is my boss? Yeah, I believe, yeah, he's my boss. I guess you can call him that. He oversees everyone at Lockdown NHL, just a wonderful human. He is, as is Jason and Sarah. But, yeah, he was kicking some serious ass, as was Sarah. But, yeah, I mean, I got my ass handed to me.

That was, when you guys listened to it, I probably only, you know, I probably only, got four questions right and that might be being generous it was just bad you know i got one about a nilon luchich i'm not going to spoil the whole thing but it was it was really fun to do um at the end you know we all decided you know we're going to donate some of some of the money to charity so i think it'll be forty four dollars each for the four of us because i believe uh there were 22 questions that were correct from all the questions so 22 times two is 44 and then 44 times four uh 176 so that'll be a of $176 to charity to support the current movement that's going on right now in this country for the Black Lives Matter movement.

That was awesome to be a part of. I'm really happy that we all can donate some money and just help fix this because, you know, the status quo is just not acceptable right now. Change needs to happen, like I said on my episode on Monday. And, you know, hopefully if people can keep protesting and keep demanding for change, changes will happen. I said on Monday I really do think changes will happen. If we just, we keep speaking out and everything.

I did. We all, of course, saw yesterday, Cindy Crosby, released a statement through the Penguin's official Twitter page, but also through his foundation that he runs. He says, you know, what happened to George Floyd cannot be ignored. Racism that exists today in all forms is not acceptable. While I'm not able to relate to the discrimination that black and minority communities is daily, I will listen and educate myself on how I can help make a difference together. We will find solutions through necessary dialogue and a collective effort.

So, you know, really great statement from Cindy Crosby. I know Sid doesn't usually do this kind of stuff. You really don't see him just talk at all through social media because he doesn't have social media to begin with, but still, really awesome to see St. Nick Crosby released a statement about this. You know, the one thing I've always said about Cindy Crosby, you know, his actions speak louder than his words. He donates to all kinds of charities.

He does really outstanding stuff off the ice. You know, donated about 100,000 meals just a couple of weeks ago. You know, he's donated hockey equipment to, you know, underrepresented. of Nova Scotia communities. He just does all kinds of stuff. I'm sure he will have some donations here with charities to support the Black Lives Matter movement. It's just who he is. He's just an outstanding person off the ice. So always remember when it comes to New Crosby, his actions will always speak louder than his words. I would very much expect him to be heavily involved in donations and just giving to charity to support this cause. But with that said, we do have a very, this was a very

special day in Penguin's history, June 4th, 2009. This was a very special day in Penguin's history, June 4th, 2009. This was game four of the Stanley Cup final against the Detroit Red Wings. You know, this was the pivotal game, I would say, in that Stanley Cup final, you know, NHL pens, follow him on Twitter at NHL Penns. Always has been posting, you know, 11 years ago today, you know, four years ago today, he's been posting all these videos of what this day in Penguin's history means with all the videos. I don't need to, I played these clips before on the podcast, so I honestly really don't need to play them again.

But, you know, just seeing how the Penguins were able to, you know, score first in that game and then tie the game. That Jordan Stahl goal, man. That's one of the top three most important goals of that Stanley Cup run for the Penguins. I mean, that changed that series against Detroit. You know, I was telling one of my buddies on Twitter earlier today. You know, it was looking a lot, a lot like it was going to be just like 2008. The Red Wings were up 2 to 1.

Second period. You know, they're kind of coasting towards a 3-1 series lead. Penguins really aren't draining anything. And then Red Wings get a power play, and it's like, Oh shit, here we go. And then Jordan Stahl just gets that puck. And, I mean, he goes around Brian Rofalski. I mean, Brian Rofalski was one of the most underrated defensemen I think I've ever watched.

I mean, Cindy Crosby even echoed that while talking to Ryan Whitney last summer in Paul Bisonnet. You know, also saying, of course, that Nick Lodstrom is the best defenseman he ever played against, which, I mean, that's a given considering Nick Lichstrom is one of the best defensemen in the actual history. But Brian Ravalski was just so good. Stahl with, you know, just the way he was able to have that puck on his back. can get around Rolfsky and then fire it past Osgo while he's just so deep in his net. I mean, he was playing really deep there. I still don't know why he was.

Chris Osgood turned into kind of a pumpkin a lot of times in that series. But still, I mean, that goal to tie the game up, it just, that was the turning point in that series. That was the moment where I said, you know what, they can do this. They can beat this team. I know they beat them in game three, just like they did in 2008 to cut the series deficit to two games to one. but, you know, they needed to win that game for, and then you, of course, have the Crosby and Malkin goal to make it three to two,

which blew the doors off, Nolan Arena, and then, you know, that perfect passing play with Cunitz, Crosby, Kennedy, to make it four to two in the second period, that massive three-goal outburst in that period, and then, of course, there were no goals scored in the third period. But, you know, that, like, that just, that's all goal. One of the most important goals in Penguins history, top three goal of that run for the Penguins,

I just, I really just cannot get enough of it. June 4th was also the day that there was game three of the Penguins, Shark's down-like-up final. That was the game that Jonas Don Skoy scored in overtime. Was it a 3-2 final? Yeah, the Penguins were really close to going up 3-0 in that series. I always forget, you know, if it wasn't for Martin Jones in that game and then game five, I mean, the Penguins probably, like I said, they win that series in probably five games.

Martin Jones stole a couple of those games. I mean, easily game five, but, you know, game three, he was really, really good as well. the penguins I thought played pretty well in that game and you know overtime is also a crap shoot you know first team to score wins so sometimes you get lucky and that was also real i remember that shot by don's boy just a hell of a shot on top cheese on murray um wasn't a lot of room but he was able to find it viewed a little bit of fire you know into the sharks but you know we all know what happened in game four eric fair got that monster goal you know we had the power play goal i think by malcon to go up two one then of course yeah like i said that eric fair made it three to one then you remember the uh the mario lemur

reaction after that was just awesome with his wife Natalie at the game. All right, you know, onto some other stuff today in Penguin's history. Let's see here. Do, do, do, do, do. Let's see. Okay, 2012, Penguins acquired goaltender Tomas Vokun from the Capitals.

That was a seventh round pick. Wow, what a trade that turned out to be, folks. Tomas Vokun was just absolutely incredible in that next year's playoffs. You know, of course, taking over for Mark Dundry, who had another shit fit against the Islanders. I ended up winning that series. Penguins owned the Ottawa Senators.

I mean, I think Flory could honestly have been in for that series against the senators because the Penguins just steamrolled them. And then I felt bad for him with the Bruins because I actually thought he was playing pretty well. But the Penguins, they were just, they were so taken off their game against the Bruins. It was unbelievable. And also, you know, today on 2008, this was game six of the Stanley Cup final, but against the Detroit Red Wings, they lost three to two. They were eliminated. So we have that.

We hate to see that. and then we already talked about the 2009-1. In 1981, Randy Carlar won the Norris as a penguin, and then Rick Kehoe won the Lady Bing Trophy for the Penguins. One more thing on this day in 1984, they replaced their head coach Lou and Gotti with Bob Barry. And Gotti won only 16 games in his only season behind the bench for the Penguins. So, folks, that is, apparently it is, that was a 238 winning percentage.

That's the lowest for any Penguins coach in their franchise history. So you hate to see that. for poor Lou Angadia, 238 winning percentage. Man, that is tragic. And also remember, you know, this show is brought to you by Bilt Bar. And speaking of Bilt Bar, just remember that Bilt Bar, they are tasty. They are protein bars that taste like a candy bar. 16 amazing flavors, eight chocolate nut flavors, eight chocolate nut-free flavors.

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You'll get $10 off your first order. That's promo code locked on for $10 off at Billbar.com. All right. So we're back here on the Locked-on Penguins podcast. We did today have some NHL news for you. In case you guys did not see it, I will share this news for you guys right now. Elliot Friedman tweeted this during the day. So the NHLPA, they wanted to have some more negotiations regarding the return to play format.

one of the big things, you know, was this going to be a bracket set up like March Madness, or was it going to be, the teams will be receded after the play-in series? Well, the players won out on this one. The teams will be receded at the play-in series. So, say, Montreal does beat the Penguins or the Blackhawks do be the Oilers. They'll go up against the number one seed, whether that's, you know, in the West, that's St. Louis or Colorado or someone else or in the east. You know, it's Boston or Tampa.

You know, again, that's the right thing to do. If you guys listen to the episode with Joshiote and Chad from last week, They both agree that it was silly. You know, I've been on that bandwagon training for a long time. You know, I've always said it. You know, I'll say it again. I said last week. The NHL is not March Madness.

The March Madness is a one-of-a-kind thing. You know, you have 64 teams. You see the one through 16, 8-verse-9, 7-vers-10, 2-15, whatever. It's chaos. It's one game. It works because March Madness has always worked. It's one of the best things to come during the sports year. You see so many upsets.

But, you know, the NHL is not Marks. Madness. It will never be like that. You know, that's, it's just, the spectacle of March Madness needs to remain just by itself. You know, you shouldn't have a 12 seed having to go up against the four seed in a bracket system or, you know, whatever other ones will be in the bracket system. You know, the 12 versus 4, when is the first thing that comes to mind just because of how stupid it is. But so the players were not on that. That's very good. But also some more news came out.

So after the playing series, the all the four of the playoff series will be best of seven. You guys know my thoughts on that situation. I think the first two series should be best of five. I understand why people would be against that. We all know the NHL is very random. There's so much randomness that goes into it. Sport has the most parity. Anything can happen.

Seven game series are already as short as they are. Like I said, I get that. I 100% understand that viewpoint. I just think that, you know, with the playoffs potentially going over 60 days, and, you know, there's a chance that, you know, we could have a second wave of COVID-19 coming by the fall. I just, I think it would be prudent for them to kind of get this over with as quick as possible. I get it, you know, the players, I'm sure, push for best of seven all the four of the series

because it gives them more of like a chance to come back. Say, if you go down too well, you know, you still have more time to come back as opposed to the best of five. You know, you have to win three straight to win. You don't have to win three straight in the best seven, but you know, you have to win four out of five, which is still very, very tough as it is. But still, like I said, I get it. I just think if they, to make it shorter, because I, I don't know. I think there might be a second wave of this coming.

They could have just done what Major League Baseball does. I mean, I know MLB is a shit show right now because the owners are just being complete morons. But, you know, one thing they do do right is the division series is the best five. And then they have their pennant series and then the World Series best of seven. You know, that's how I would have done it for the NHL. You know, the first two series, best of five. And then the conference championship and the same like a final best of seven because

that's how it should be done. You know, there's just no other way to go about that. But I think we also have phase two. potentially coming at the end of this week. There was a report from Eric Francis, Cal would be famous before that apparently he was hearing that the training camps may not open until the beginning of August, which, of course, you know, sparked some discussion.

According to Emily Kaplan of ESPN, you know, she writes about the league there with Greg Wajensi. She said, she asked Bill Daly. He said further delaying the opening of training camp is also not being discussed or considered. So, I mean, I guess that was washed out there pretty quick. Also, let's see here. There's another thing I thought they announced, too.

Oh, yeah, here it is. So the one thing they did, we know, so the top four siege in each conference will be determined by the results of the three-game round-robin with regular season points percentage serving as a tiebreaker if needed. Again, there's a lot of things in this format that I think a lot of people can be talked into. You know, like, okay, you know, that this works. You know, I understand why they're doing it. I will forever, never understand why they're doing this round-robin thing.

I mean, three games, and so a team, so say like Boston, you know, we talked about this last week with Josh, in chat. So say Boston goes, oh, and three. Oh, so they're just the four seat now. After being almost 10 points up on the second place team in the Eastern Conference during the regular season before it was boss. Explain to me how that's fair. You know, I mean, it's just, it's not fair. I mean, I can see the point, you know, for St. Louis and Colorado, because, you know, Colorado, I think, is, what, two points behind the blues right now. So, you know, that makes sense. But, you know, I think what they should do, and this was actually, someone actually suggested this, and I happen to be with it.

I think it was under a tweet from Scott Wheeler. I'm trying to find the tweet right now. So it was actually some guys name is Cole Hurlbert on Twitter. The Cole Hurlbert. Geez, I cannot speak today, everyone. So his idea was this. I actually really like this. So is there a good reason why you wouldn't just take the points earned in the round robin

and then add it to the locked in four teams current point total? Yes. Like, that actually makes a lot of sense. So, I mean, teams would have to really, really play catch-up. So I think in that scenario, though, wouldn't the Bruins still have the top seed locked if the lightning are eight points behind them? I think they can only get two within two points in those. So I think in that scenario, if they made the wins two points, the Bruins would still

have the number one seat or also they can make it three points. So, I mean, there's a little bit of a chance. I think if the lightning would go three and O and the Bruins would go 0 and 3. they would leapfrog them by just a point. So, I mean, they could do that, but still, you know, it still gives the Bruins a big advantage to get the number one seed as they should have it. They earned it during the regular season. They were going to win the president's trophy.

That's a really, really good idea. Hell, I didn't even think of that going into this, but when I saw that tweet, I was like, wow, you know, that actually makes a lot of sense. And, you know, like he says in his tweet as well, you know, it also provides the way for some of the other teams to move around a bit. So, you know, maybe the flyers could jump up to number two, the caps. could jump up to number two, lightning can slide down, caps could slide down, whatever, but still mostly have the Bruins being the number one seat. Again, I think that's a really, really good idea. Sucks, I didn't bring that up, but I'm glad this Twitter user did, and I happen to very much

agree with them. Give Scott Wheeler a follow, though, for all things, NHL. He is one of, I think, one of the more underrated follows on NHL Twitter. His Twitter is Scott C Wheeler. You know, he even said as well, you know, I don't know how they thought this was a good idea. Well, Scott, you know, it's the NHL. You know, they're full of bad ideas all the time. The Round Robin thing is just so stupid. But, you know, as Cole said, you know, they could make it work in theory if they just, you know, take the points earned during the regular season. And then, you know, you just, you add it to, like, the Round Robin.

I spoke that backwards. Take the points from the Round Robin and it added to the regular season point totals from those teams. I just, I'm sorry, guys. I cannot speak today. But, you know, I wish the NHL made sense, but, you know, they never really do. You know, can't wait for the outrage if the Penguins beat the Montreal Canadiens, and then they may have to face the Boston Bruins in the 4V5 matchup. Yep, can't wait for that.

All right, so just to finish up here for this locked-on penguins episode, we did have some more Penguins news today, some unfortunate news, but good thing the player is okay. So apparently a Penguins player today has tested positive for the coronavirus, or he did test positive, but apparently he is okay now. The statement reads as follows. The Penguins were advised today that a player tested positive. positive for coronavirus. The player is not in Pittsburgh and has been isolation at his home since

first experiencing symptoms. He's recovered and feeling well. Those in close contact with the player leading up to his diagnosis have been notified. The health and safety of our players, fans, staff and community remains our highest priority. The club will have no further update at this time. We probably would never find out who this player is that got the coronavirus. I think a couple senators players tested positive as well. I think it was about, what, a month and a half ago? I don't really think we ever got word of who those players were so like i said i really don't think the penguins are going to allow um this player that got the coronavirus to get leaked um this information yeah it's just they they will not tell that for reporters i i 100% guarantee you that i would be pretty shocked if

any of the reporters found out but you know we do know that a lot of the penguins players decided i think to stay in pittsburgh we all know sidney crosby did uh brian russ and zach asyn race and ruse are living together chris letang i believe is there um i think matt murray returned to pitts just a few days ago. I think he was doing an Instagram live today with, and I think he was doing an interview with someone, and he basically said, yeah, he got back to Pittsburgh about a week ago because they're getting ready to go

to phase two and he's ready to get it on the ice. So, you know, I really don't know who this player was, but I'm just glad the player is okay. They're healthy. They're out home isolating from everyone. They're quarantining, so, you know, thank God for that. In the replies to the tweet, Beau Bennett, of course, he played for the Penguins

and has always been cursed injury-wise. he put the eye emoji because he's like, oh, I'm wondering who this is. And of course, you know, Godspeed, Bo Bennett. I hope you're doing well. We all know how injured he was during his time in Pittsburgh. And you know, for once, you know, you're innocent. You're not injured here as a penguin. But yeah, you know, like I said, glad the players, oh, Clay, glad they're recovered and

they're doing well, glad they're isolating and hopefully it'll be good to go in the season starts. But, you know, as I've always said, the thing in all this, you know, just making sure the players are all healthy. I really hope this penguin player and everyone around the league that has tested positive for the coronavirus and all players in general

even who don't have it or have not gotten it I hope that they're all healthy and they're all to be safe and everything like that. So I think that may do it for this episode of Locked on Penguins will be back tomorrow.

Like I said, look for the Locked On Docs podcast with the Hockey Jeopardy where I get my ass absolutely handed to me where I only answered not even five questions,

guys. If you guys listened to that you can count the number of questions I answered correctly on one hand. But, you know, like I said, it was a lot of fun with Jason, Sean, and Sarah, you know, just all donated to charity

to support this cause. And, you know, it was all on good fun. Hopefully next time when I get invited back, I'll actually win this. Hell, I hope to answer more than like four questions or whatever the hell it was. Because, man, that was just awful. But, you know, like I said,

we have another episode coming tomorrow. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodeys, follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. and we will talk to you tomorrow on yet another Friday. It is almost here, you know, along with the weekend, and I am just so excited. So like I said, we'll talk to you all tomorrow.

Thank you guys so much for listening.