Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Thoughts & observations from the Penguins 3-2 preseason win!

Episode Date: October 5, 2022

We're almost done with the preseason, yinz. Hunter fully recaps the Penguins' 3-2 preseason win from Monday night and there was A LOT to like. He goes over the goals that were scored (two on the power play) and what he liked about each. What changes about the PP were noticeable? Will those basic mechanics be a mainstay during the regular season? He also praises Jason Zucker for his goal and again goes over one of his BOLD predictions for him heading into this season. After that, he shouts out Casey DeSmith for his tremendous performance as he looks to be ready for the season. What could this mean for limiting Jarry's starts? Does he have a different swagger to him compared to last year? He then goes over some "concerns" about the bottom pairing and how some of them are pretty similar to how fans felt when the Matheson-Ceci pairing was rolled out. After that, he gets into a scenario where the Penguins could be in a cap crunch to open the season and then finishes the show with who has the edge between Poehling and Archibald for that 12th forward spot.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!SimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnNHL to learn more. 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.

What up Penguins fans? Happy Tuesday, October 4th, nine days now until puck drop, or in Penguins' term, Pascal DuPui days until pup drop for the regular season. The Penguins almost have finished the preseason, a three to two win in their second to last preseason game on Monday night. For today's episode, we're going to recap that game. Yes, I understand it is a preseason game, but there are a lot of things that I did like about that win for the Penguins going into the regular season. I've touched on some players who I thought had a good performance to some other players who think have a little more to give.

And we're also going to get a roster cut that happened today and a couple of other topics in Penguins and especially the salary cap concerns because there is a scenario where, you know, there would be some issues with the cap related to the Penguins. I didn't see it at the start. But for a couple of people, DM me and told me about it, I was like, well, you know, I did research myself and sure enough they all right. So we're also going to touch on that a little later on for today's seven. So that's all coming up right after this drop.

You're Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honored Hode. You want to follow me on Twitter.

Hunter Hodes can also follow the shows, Twitter, at LORScore Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen. the day. So penguins get a very rare preseason win. You know, people always like to, some people at least like to harp on the preseason. Again, the results really don't matter, but, you know, it's still nice kind of seeing them get away. I mean, the Penguins really not had a winning preseason record and I think well over five or six years now. So it's gone totally fine for them. They've made the playoffs every year. These games really do not mean a thing.

But last night was kind of a tune-up game for the Penguins. A lot of the regulars were in a lineup and, you know, they jumped on the Red Wings pretty quick. I think they were maybe a little bit miffed about how, you know, they got bounced around by that C-C-Mina team that the Red Wings threw at them about a week ago. And they came out with a vengeance, you know, the first goal that will score Brian Russ, power play goal. Beautiful stretch pass from Cindy Crosby. I don't know if some of you are watching it if you weren't.

He's in his own zone, fires it cross-ice to Russ. Who's kind of cherry-picking a little bit at the blue line. I will say that. It was a little Danny Breyer kind of. ask from 2012. Sorry, had to bring it up. But definitely looked a little similar. Comes in, he's actually on side and then fires the puck past Philly, who's a really nice goal from Ross. And I was on the power play. So funny enough, two of the Penguins three goals last night were on the power play. Definitely look like they fixed some of the issues that we saw last week when they

were just, you know, just trying to call them Globetrotter in and passing way too much. They kind of just stuck to basics for this game. And I really, thought the power play looked much better. Second goal, Josh Archibald, because of course, you know, on the day that redeems El Hornet gets waived, he has to go and score a goal. But, you know, props to him, it was actually a nice, really nice shot. Ful de Huso. I don't even think he's solid until the last second.

He is easily going, I shouldn't say easily. Looking at the roster right now, and I'll get, well, I'll get to that in a little bit as well, but I'll just say this. He's going to be the 12th or 13th forward to start the year. There is no way he is not making the team. No, obviously, I think there are a couple other players who should be on the team, but you know what, I've said my piece on that. He's going to make the team, you know, everyone's going to have to support him,

try to see how he does. They like his goal scoring from a couple of seasons ago. You know, maybe he'll prove me wrong in Alie Crow like I did on Cody Zizi. But nice goal from him last night. And then finally, Jason Zucker, really nice deflection on that power play to make it 3-0. I think Capitan was the one that originally shot it, and then Zucker redirected it past the goaltender. I tweeted it last night,

I will say it again on this podcast. If he is healthy this year, there is no doubt in my mind that he scores 20 to 25 goals. He has the talent. He plays his butt off. He has a nice shot, great skating ability, great playmaking ability overall with his past. But in terms of his goal scoring,

he's done it numerous times in his career. all he has to do is stay healthy. He's also going to be playing most of his minutes, I would think, with Gennie Malk, and maybe they'll bump him up to Sydney and Prosby because they've had pretty solid time together as well when he first got acquired a few years ago. I definitely do think, again, if he's able to play at least 65, 70 games this year, he is going to score 20 to 25 goals. I said that a couple weeks ago.

I'm standing by it now. I know I said it last year. He didn't stay healthy, but, you know, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I'm going to stick with that. And I'll also give a big shout out, moving gears a little bit. I know we're going all over the place with different player performances that I liked and all that. Casey DeSmith, a little bit of cheers there.

Great performance by him. And for those that have not watched this preseason, he's looked really good. His movement looks top tier. He's seeing the puck well. he's playing aggressive, which he wasn't doing a lot of last season. He is looking like the dismiss that we saw in the second half of last year when he on it, when he was about 925, 930, you know, before he got hurt in the playoffs against the Rangers. And I tweeted this last night, too, for those that are not on social media,

I'll say it here for you all on our podcast. If he is able to play at the level that, you know, I saw last night when he was making, you know, outstanding saves, his movement looked good, seeing the puck well. That can really help Tristan Jari. Because Tristan last year, he had to play way too much in the first half. He looked gasped by the end of the regular season. You can't have someone like him play 60 to 65 games a year. And honestly, no goalie should have to do that now in today's NHL with how long the season is,

and how much of a grind it is. You know, most goalies should be playing 55 max. goaltenders, that is, in my opinion. But if DeSmith is able to keep this level up, I would say Jari could only play 50 games this season and then you can give the other 30 to 30, 32, something like that to DeSmith. And if both can stay consistent and give the Penguins at least average goaltending, they should be totally fine going into the playoffs and potentially winning a round or two, or even going on a long Stanley Cup run.

But he's been good all postseason. He's been good in camp. He looks 100% healthy. I know he played kind of the same way going into the last regular season, but right now something just looks different about him. He kind of has that swagger that he had in the second half of the regular season last year. I'm really liking his form right now. And there were a couple of saves when it was three to two last night after I think it was,

I think it was Raymond that made it three to two. Raymond or not. I know both of them scored, but I probably just confused about it. But after the Red Wings second goal, the Red Wings pulled. their goalie again. And DeSmith makes a pad save, juicy rebound coming out to the center of the ice. And for those that on YouTube, you can watch what he does here. He basically slides over, puts his glove hand and his walker hand up, shots coming in and just wax it away with both of them. He falls over on his side. And then another shot comes in when he's down and out and he's able to

put it up again and he saves that. He's able to cover the puck. Three tremendous sales. during my sequence, I think I think it came with like a minute and a half to two minutes left. Excuse me. That's the level of play that I want to, you know, see from Desmith this season. There's obviously the routine saves, but was really thrilled with his performance last night. And again, this could only make Tristan Jari happier. You know, if he's playing 50, 51, 52 games, that's totally fine. It's a lot better than 60s, 65.

Heck, honestly, if he's even playing. playing less, and he's healthy, that's fine too, because that means DeSmith is also playing well, and he's taking starts away from him, and that means that Jari will be able to be fresh for the playoffs when hopefully the Penguins clinch their playoffs. So I really wanted to dedicate a lot of this segment to DeSmith because he was one of the standouts for me during the game, and I'm glad that he was able to get a full games of work, really excited for him coming into this year after how he's playing in the preseason and in training gap. Now, that wraps up this first segment of the show.

Coming up in the second segment, I'll get to a couple of other things that I noticed from the game, including Ryan Paling, Sam Poulan, and a couple others. But before I get to that, let me introduce you to your new favorite. Cookie dough chunk puffs have a light and should be textured, real cookie dough chunks, and of course, they're covered into 100% real chocolate, all the joys of eating cookie dough without the hassle of making it. Plus, it's healthy for you.

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He's promo code to Lock 15 and get 15% off your order. That's promo code Lock 15 for 15% off your order at Billets.com. All right, I'm back here in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. No, no, follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes for all this shows, Twitter, at L.O.R.R.Square Penguins. And just as I am recording this, Aaron Judge finally hits his 60-second home run, makes history. You know, thinking about my granddad for that one, that's for sure.

Anyways, going back to the game from Monday night. Ryan Paling, he looked really solid in that playing third, fourth line minutes. And also the underlying numbers, they back it up big time last night. And if I can find the tweet that I had here just to be sure, I don't know why this is taking so long. There we go. Played 16 minutes of ice time. Nine shot attempts for, eight shot attempts against.

Also it had 67%. The Penguins had 67% of the expected goals at 5E5 when he was on the ice. That comes courtesy of. natural strategy. Really nice performance room. I thought his skating looked really good. He was winning puck battles in the corner. Also had a couple of really nice scoring chances that could have went in the net,

but there were some nice saves by both Huso and the other wedding schooltender that played. I think he's just a backup HL guy. I liked what I saw. And, you know, I know right now it's basically between him and Archibald for that 12th forward spot. Because when Teddy Bluger comes back, I would assume Sam Poulan would come out of line up. he's one of the reasons he's up here right now is because bluger um is still banged up so it is between paling and archibald for that everyday spot um i would have to give the edge to paling after what i after what i saw last even though archibald did score you know i liked what paling did and you know

he's still a player i'm definitely intrigued about going to this year i know i'm not that high on him just because he's really struggled in montreal but if the penguins were able to unlock um something in him that wasn't there in montreal and have him playing a better system with Mike Sullivan. I think there's a potential when him to score maybe 10 to 15 goals this season. I know he's probably not going to be on the third line that looks like today. That was Hinen with Carter and Kaepinan. He's going to be stable on the fourth line if he's the everyday guy.

What's heading to Bluigan and Brock McGinn, which is fine because Bluhrer quite defensively can also chip in some goals scoring. McGinn begins the same way, though I want his defensive impacts a bit better. Next year, but paling, you know, if he can be more of an offensive juice on that line, I think that has the potential to be, at least a decent fourth line around the division and the conference and all that. So I liked how he played. Definitely like Sam Poulan, his game. You know, I know I didn't really notice him a lot.

Last season, I don't really think anything, anyone did, excuse me. But, you know, to me at least, I think he's playing at a level right now that is leaps and bounds higher than last year. I think the switch to center has really helped him overall. He's more responsible defensively. His skating has also really improved. It's great to see him get playing time with the Varsie squad. And the fact that he is still up on the roster right now when he's not down in Wilkesbury, that goes to show how much the coaching staff thinks well of him right now

because they sent down Jonathan Gruden earlier today. The roster's down to 27. Taylor Friedrichin is going to get sent down when he's unhealthy. That'll be down to 26. So he's down to one of the final few cuts here. He's lasted a lot longer than I think any of us expecting him to. That's for sure. But, you know, he's earned it.

He's at a great camp. He looked good against the Red Wings on my night, even though he didn't score. But, you know, he's definitely in consideration right now for that 13th 4th. I don't think he's going to get it. But I do think he is in consideration for it. A couple other miscellaneous. things that I saw. Evgeny Malkin, I thought he had a really strong game.

I know he got badly out chanced at even strength and badly out attempted. But, you know, his skating looked to be fully there. I set up some really nice chances throughout the game. He is skating, you know, leaps and bounds better than where he was last year. I thought Ty Smith looked fine with Jan Ruta. I know a lot of people are kind of, I was the word I'm looking for for this. They're nervous about that pairing, but you know what?

I'll say this to those people. If you're nervous about this pairing, were you really nervous about that Matheson-C-C-pairing, I know you all were. I was. That's for sure you put a chaotic player like him with someone like C-C who was not that good defensively coming into Pittsburgh.

Oh, yeah. A lot of people were nervous about that. But guess what? It turned into one of their most reliable pairings that season. And I think there's the potential for this pairing if it is the third pairing to start the season, which it's looking like it is going to be right now. I think it could be just like that one,

where Ruta, he's defensively responsible, just like the way he was in Tampa Bay, playing on the top pairing with Victor Hedman. And then Sondike Ty Smith, who can do it all offensively. Defensively, he has some issues, but you're hoping those work out. I honestly didn't really see him screw up too much, or screw up too much, excuse me, in the defensive zone.

On Monday night, I thought he had a strong, game, and it looks like still right now, that he does have the inside track, especially with POJ, not playing it. I would expect Joseph to probably play in that final preseason game, which is, I believe, on Friday against the Buffalo Sabres, just to, you know, I've had to have them see, like, okay, you know, maybe he can give us one last gas to see if he's going to make the team over Ty Smith. But, you know, I think right now it is still Smith's job to lose, even though there could still be some cap issues, which I'm going to go into after this commercial break coming up.

But as it stands right now, my top six events have not changed. Dumil and Tang, Pedersen Petrae, Ty Smith, Januta. I think those six have been the best six in camp. They play well for the most part in the preseason. I know some people haven't really been impressed with Petri yet. I'm not really going to freak out too much until, you know, there's a strong sample size in the regular season where he just looks washed. or something like that.

So I'm not really too concerned over that. Just looking over here to make sure I got everything. Oh, one final thing before we get to our final segment. I'm really glad that the penguins are experimenting with Kasperi Kappen on the penalty kill. And he looked good from what I saw on Monday night. He was playing really aggressive, pressuring the Mo Cider at the point. Also had a couple of nice scoring chances when the penguins were down. He was really good at it when he was in Toronto,

from the offseason. I said the numbers were good. You know, it can help him get his game back to where it used to be. And so far, at least for that, I guess they've maybe listened to me a little bit. I hope that he continues to be part of the PK rotation for the regular season because, you know, he hasn't really been part of it for the last couple of years. Don't know why. I guess they've liked their rotations, but they're experimenting with new stuff now.

And I really hope that this one sticks. Thought he played all in the PK. and I honestly thought Caputin had a pretty decent game in general. And then one more thing, nice to see Danton Hinen have a really strong game. He actually was the best Penguins in terms of average game score per hockey stat courts. Gian Ruta was right behind him. Chris Heng was right behind him and then Ryan Paley and Ryan Rust. So Hinen, I think, has the potential to be pretty good again this season.

I don't know if he's going to hit 18 again, but I can definitely see him get a potting. 13 to 15 pretty easily. So that wraps up the second segment here. I basically fully recapped the game for you all. But coming up in the third segment, we're going to get to some of the lines that we saw during practice today. And then we'll also get into some salary cap issues that could be coming up for the Penguins as the regular season is now nine days away.

So stick around for that coming up right after this commercial break. All right, I'm back in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honor Hodes. I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. So a couple of people have reached out to me, just in my DMs on social media, like, you know, I'm a little nervous about the cap situation.

I'm just like, what do you mean? And they're like, well, if they send POJ down, well, if he clears waivers and it goes down to Wokesbury, they're still over the cap. I'm like, that's interesting because I hadn't really noticed that before. Joe, I wanted to make sure, you know, a couple of these people were not capping, of course. I wanted to double check what they're seeing.

And sure enough, you go to cat-friendly, and yes, these people were right. If the penguins do waive POJ and he gets sent down, there's still $730k over the cap. Obviously, that's not good. I don't think they're going to, if their idea is to run 13 forwards, eight defensemen and two goaltenders going in the season, and sending P.OJ through waivers and sending him down, it is not going to work. Even if he is traded, it still does not work.

So I'm sure you are going to ask me, you know, what are the options? The easiest one, which I do not support, but it does solely make a little bit of sense, is sending Ty Smith down because he has a higher cap pit than POJ, and they're under the cap. And then POJ probably gets those minutes. You see what they have in him. He's not good. You've got to figure out a trade or something like that so that Ty Smith can come up and play those regular minutes. Because again, right now, I think he's always the entire track for the job.

But if he does, it gets tricky just because they have to figure out. to get under the cap and with not a lot of trades happening right now that gets tricky because you don't know how many teams want to take on money that no team has really been wanting to take on money throughout most of the on season i don't know if that's really going to change right now either um i'm sure some of you will ask you know what about chatterweedle what about mark freeman no i don't want to trade chadroodle i think he's a perfectly capable depth defenseman i'm sure you could probably get something for him but i think if yonruta doesn't work out the way they intend or if he gets hurt, you know, who's going to be replacing him on the right side parent?

I mean, I would be more comfortable with Ruehiel in that situation than Friedman. You could put Mark Friedman on waivers. I think that would work. I think that would get them under the cap from what I checked earlier. But are you also confident that he will pass through waivers? I think he would have a better shot of going through the waiver wire than someone like Rewittle just because I don't think Friedman is really well known throughout the league. outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, of course, I don't think most, I'm excuse me,

I don't think most fan bases know who he is and that stuff. And honestly, general managers, they have kind of those kind of fringe players to be, they always have those kind of fringe players. So I'm not really sure if they would, you know, take a flyer on him. But if you put Rubito on waivers, I mean, that's just, you know, you're ringing the dinner bell for someone to claim him. If Redeems O'Hourna is getting claimed, Chababot will 1,000% get claimed, to say the least.

So if the decision is to keep Ty Smith up, the penguins will be in a bit of a bind. They'll be a little over the cap, sending POJ down or through waivers, excuse me. Even if he gets claimed, actually, I should say this. They're still over the cap. So they would have to make another corresponding move, whether that's a deaf defenseman,

whether that's a forward or something like that. So Ron Hextall definitely is a, in a bit of a crunch here. What they might have to do is, I mean, do you run 13 forward, seven defensemen, you know, two goaltenders? Do you send Smith down? And do you want to keep

13 forwards eight defensemen, two goalies with POJ up and were Riedel and Mark Friedman? Tough questions. And, you know, not enough answers right now to say the least. But it's definitely something that I'm going to be paying attention to, and I'm sure, Hextalio, they're going to have quite a few tough decisions over this next week. I know that they've offered POJ to basically every team according to Frank Sarevelli.

Not surprising. You know, they want to put the fuels out there. I'm sure they may do that for some of their other depth defensemen as well. Again, I've been saying for the last few weeks now, if they are going to make a trade, it's probably going to be one of the depth guys, if not maybe two. I also don't want to lose two depth defensemen for basically just, you know, small draft picks. I guess. Now, finishing up today's show, we're going to go into some of the lines that we saw during practice on Tuesday.

So, Gensel, that's not going to change. That's probably going to be your first line to open season, Zuckermalk and Rust. Heinen was with Carter and Kappenden. So it looks like Jeff Carter fully cleared for contact. And if Kappan is able to bounce back this year, I think Hinen is able to keep scoring. and Carter is able to play a lot lesser minutes this year. I think that has the potential of being a pretty decent third line. And then of the fourth line, Brock McGinn is on the left wing

with Ryan Paling, Sam Poulan, and Josh Archibald. So again, Bluger, he's going to take Poulan's place whenever he's healthy. And then the battle for the 12th forward spot is going to be between Archibald and Paling. Maybe they rotate them during the regular season. Who knows? But it looks like that's going to be the main battle. that you're going to see going into the regular season and honestly throughout the regular season too

defensively juman latang peterson peters and peters and petrie smith ruta no changes there for even with roedal and joseph are rotating so nothing um much else there again i i've been said i've said this 10,000 times today i'll say it again right now looks like tie smith's a frontrunner but you know they obviously know that they live in a salary cap world and you know you can't keep everyone um to say the least so i like those lines for the most part they look even better once bluger comes back and you know if i had a preference i would

have paling in over archibald i would have archibald it's a totally fine 13th 4 i do think paling has a little bit more to offer though especially if you can get um more of this offensive game back that's for sure um so that wraps up today's episode let me know what you all you will you all think If you watch the game, who do you think stood out for the penguins, and for you especially? What are you most looking forward to over this last week heading into the regular season? The Penguins only have one more preseason game left. So, you know, we're really just counting down just the small days at this point.

This next week is just going to go by so quick. So that I'll do it for today's episode. Again, thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate it. I got to go do this fantasy hockey draft. I got the number five pick. I'm taking Kilm McCar if he's there 100%. I don't know if he will be, but I'm totally going to take him.

But again, thank you so much for listening. I'll talk to you all on Wednesday.