Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Tristan Jarry gets some much-needed redemption, Penguins win 1-0 over Islanders

Episode Date: November 27, 2021

That's five in a row for the Penguins! Hunter recaps the Penguins 1-0 win over the Islanders on Friday night and he starts off with how well the team played. Pittsburgh skated New York off the rink and got chances all game and if it weren't for Sorokin, this could've been worse. He goes into the underlying numbers of the game and how Pittsburgh dominated throughout before getting into Kasperi Kapanen. He also touches on Tristan Jarry and how he continues to play well and makes the case that Team Canada could come calling if he keeps this up. Also discussed: Was anyone surprised by the Islanders' 4th line antics in the third? Is Evan Rodrigues making the decision for Rust's new contract easier? Should Sid start to deke more? All that, plus much more on this episode of Locked On Penguins!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.StatHeroStatHero 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. 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, my boy, and welcome to this Friday evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the show's Twitter at L.O.R. underscore, penguins, stat hero is the first of its kind daily fantasy sports platform where it's a you.

That's right. You versus the house and head-to-head fantasy matchups, winner take-all. You can sign up for free right now at stathero.com slash hockey and use the promo code hockey for a 100% deposit match. Now, Penguins get that 1-0 shutout victory over the New York Islanders and the team that ended their season in six games back in May, mostly due to Tristan Jari, just vomiting all over himself. But it was not even close to what we saw in May 10. tonight for the Penguins Jari was just sensational.

We're going to get to that in a little bit. My biggest takeaway I thought from this one, the Penguins just flat out, skated the Islanders off the rank, and I'll give you some stats. 61.2% of the shot attempts for the Penguins at 5E5. They also had 63.6% of the scoring chances, 65% of the high danger chances,

55.9% of the expected goals for, in terms of actual expected goals for, 2.5 for the penguins, 1.96 for the Islanders. It was just a clinic from Pittsburgh tonight. If we go to all situations here, 57.8% of the shot attempts for Pittsburgh, no matter what, 61.2% of the scoring chances for, 62.5% of the high dangers for, 2.6 expected goals for on a 52.8% expected goals for percentage. So, again, Pittsburgh was just flat out dominant this entire game. The Islanders did make a little bit of a push in the third period after their power play that they had. And usually their power play is pretty bad.

And it was for the most part tonight. But those last 30 seconds, Walsham had a chance. I think Barzell had a chance. And then after that, for a couple minutes, the Islanders were buzzing for a little bit. Their fans were getting more engaged. And then, you know, you saw what happened. Yallanders, I touched on it in May during the playoff series. And I'll say it here again, what they do when they're down, when they're not doing anything,

which they basically weren't the entire game. They were won and done in the offensive zone every time. They goon it up. And what I mean by that is that they send Calcutterbuck and Matt Martin two completely useless players in the NHL, in Casey Zez, who actually is a pretty decent player, out onto the ice, and they go into the penguin zone, and they just start crap for the sake of starting crap.

And, you know, Matt Martin just basically bowls over Tristan Jari for no reason. I think Jari maybe sold it a little bit, but still, runs into him. The penguins are going to take exception. to that. And then you see Clutterbuck coming to the rescue of his little friend Martin, and then it's just a scrum with Letang, Pedersen, a couple other players. That's exactly what the Islanders have been doing with this dumb and dumber tandem for the last, what, seven to eight years they both have been on the team. I have never seen a more overrated fourth line in hockey

than that New York Islanders' fourth line, Zizekis Martin Clutterbuck. There's only one good player on that line. Again, and it is Casey Sizkas. The other two players are complete frauds. They're not good defensively. They do nothing. offensively. I really do not understand all this love comes from from that fourth line. I would take the Penguins' fourth line in a heartbeat this year over that line, and especially last year with Brandon Tanneth

on that line. There were Islanders fans of my mentions during the playoff series earlier this year, telling me that their fourth line was better than the Penguins' fourth line in the playoffs. It's just not even accurate, both eye test and stats-wise, just because Pittsburgh had, again, they had the better underlying numbers, and they outperformed the Islanders' fourth line in that series. So I really liked

how the penguins responded when the islanders were trying to do what they usually do when they're down. I'm sick of it. It's just, it gets old after a while. Seeing the same two players go after the Penguins, players, no matter who, is on nice. I think, again, Sid was also getting into it. I don't want to touch too much on it. But again, I'm just, that's what the islanders do.

They goon it up when they're down. I'm not surprised if they tried it. In this one, when they really had nothing going. Scott Mayfield was another player who just mauled over Jake Gensel for no reason. I know the Penguins didn't score on that power play, but he basically cross-checked Gensel right into Sorokin, who had a fantastic game. I had no idea what that was for Mayfield. He's been doing that against the Penguins for the last year, year and a half, so I'm not really surprised by that either. Going away from that for second, my next biggest takeaway, finally,

welcome back from the dead, at least maybe for a little bit, Caspari Captain. What a rip that he had with the Penguins' only goal in this one, of course, that was the game winner. Great Pass from Cindy Rosby as well, but he fired that glove side on Sorokin really had no chance on it. And, you know, that's just the kind of shot that I want to see more from Cappy. You know, he doesn't usually shoot a lot in those situations. At least he hasn't this year. I'm glad he did on this one and not tried to force a pass. Really nice goal, I thought, there, from Cappy. That's his fourth of the season. Hopefully that, you know, this can start him breaking out, I think, a little bit more as the time goes on. I thought Brian Dumlin was really strong tonight.

Looking at his stats, he appeared to receive natural shot trick in 585, played 20 minutes. When he was on the ice, the Penguins had 58% of the shot attempts. They also had, if I can look here from Dumlin. I am so sorry for this. Bad expected goals hole rate of 44.9%. But scoring chances wise was on the ice for 57.1% of those. High danger, 8 to 6 in favor of the Islanders.

So maybe a little bit of a mixed bag, some stats-wise, but I thought overall, I test-wise, he was making some really good plays in the defensive zone. I thought this was, again, pretty encouraging from Dumo after a bad start to the season. I thought Brock McGinn was absolutely flying tonight.

When he was on ice, the Penguins at 52% of the shot attempts. They also had about half of the 20 chances for when McGinn was on ice and for high danger. When he was on ice, the Penguins at 57.1% of those chances. I think there was one time in the second period where he did two spin a rom- on the same freaking play and almost scored off if it's the rocan had to make a pretty nice save on that

he was around the net a whole lot in this game he's really started to heat up i think for the last few games so he's hopefully starting to live up to that contract for some other people who weren't that high on it i think he's been fine for the most part this season there have been a couple times where i thought he should do more especially at the start of the season but since then i think he's really found his footing it was probably a bit of an adjustment time for him but I think overall he's been pretty good ever since then and honestly could have potted one or two tonight in my opinion. Jason Zucker, I feel bad for him on a breakaway just because he never seems to score on them. Sorokin had an outstanding save on that.

I don't think it hit his glove. I think it hit his shoulder. He had him beat with the glove, but just because Sorokin is so freaking big, he was able to save it with his shoulder. It looked like he was going to go close top to top cheese, but if it was a little bit higher, I think Zooker, Barry's at, and the Penguins make it too nothing. Cindy Crosby also had a breakaway in this one. For just once, I would love if Sid would freaking do a deke on the breakaway. I am so tired.

There's really not much to criticize the team for tonight, but I am so tired of watching him just go on in and breakaways and just fire the puck. I'm like, dude, there's no one around you. Make a freaking move on the goaltender. You're allowed to go forehand backhand. You're allowed to go backhand forehand forehand forehand forehand. do something that is just not a shot blocker's side or a shot glove side or five hole or something like that. I just want to see more variety, I think, from Sid at this point.

And again, that was another golden opportunity for the Penguins to put the game away for good. Unfortunately, Sid could not bury it, but in the end, it really didn't matter because Pittsburgh still ended up getting the win in two crucial points along with it. And I'm going to end this first segment with this. I don't really care if the Islanders have 60 to 65 percent of their roster out due to coast. COVID injuries, all that jazz. This is still a team that knocked this team's, excuse the language here, asses out of the playoffs back in May. I mean, you're going to be fired up to play them no matter who the heck is in the lineup

for the Islanders. And the Penguins delivered, it wasn't a beatdown just because Sorokan was so good, but I thought the Penguins skated the Islanders off the rank that entire game. I said a few minutes ago, the Islanders were won and done in the offensive zone, basically the entire game, and that speaks volumes to how Mike Sullivan's defensive system is working right now. The penguins, you know, they're taking it from the opposition. This isn't just the opposition playing like a bunch of crap.

It is the penguins taking it and seizing it and sending offense the other way to get scoring chances. This is how hard it is to beat the penguins right now, and I don't see it going away anytime soon just because this team is mostly fully healthy. For the most far, I know Brian Russ was hurt and warm-ups. He's sustaining a lower body injury. He's day-to-day right now unclear if he will play against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night. But I wanted to make that point clear.

You will take these two points and run with it. The Islanders are now 12 points out of a playoff spot. They're probably going to wake up, I think, at some point. This is not a team that everyone should just say, oh, they're dead. That said, the math is really bad for them. It has been a horrendous start. They've scored seven goals in their last eight games. The offense has not been there, also.

was not tonight. But I wanted to say the Penguins played a really good road game tonight in a brand new arena. They skated New York off the ring, and they played exceptional defense in the defensive zone. They made Tristan Jari's life pretty easy, I thought, in this game, even though he made a couple really good saves that we're going to get into coming up here in the next segment. But this is a win that you will take every day of the week. That's now five in a row for this hockey team coming back home on Saturday to play the Canadians. And that's a perfect way to go into a displace.

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One more time, stathero.com slash hockey. Promocode, same word hockey, terms and conditions apply. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow this show's Twitter at L0 underscore P penguins. Some other big takeaways that I came away from this game against. See, I mean, what else can we say right now about Tristan Jari?

That is now three shutouts for him in the last five games. And even better, this is the stat courtesy of Bob Grove that I have for you all. So with Jari recording his third shotout in five starts tonight, the Penguins have only allowed two goals in five games played. Jari basically is only allowed two goals in the last five games played. And that is the fewest in any five game stretch in team history. That is the stat of the night right there. And it goes hand in hand.

The Penguins team defense is playing their best hockey of the season right now, and their goaltender is also playing. Not only I think the best hockey of his season, but I think the best hockey of his career right now. And here's another stat for the Jari train. He has saved nine goals above expected to go along with three shutouts in his last five starts. That goes per evolving hockey.

Danny Shirey of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports had that tweet first. If we go to MoneyPuck to see if this has been updated yet, Trishonjari, still up to 7.9 goals saved above expected. 9.62 save percentage on unblock shots. 9.53, expected save percentage on unblock shots. Overall, 933 save percentage coming into this game, 2.03 goals against average. If we go to his hockey reference page to see if this has finally been updated, because I guess Money Puck is going to be updated.

I'm pretty sure tomorrow officially. Yeah, same thing, 933 save percentage, 2.03 goals against average. So that'll be updated tomorrow as well. Funny enough, I actually just scrolled across a tweet on my timeline with some updated numbers from Jari. This comes courtesy of Jake underscore 871. Please go follow him if you're a part of Penguins' Twitter. The updated stats, I mean, they went up a little bit, not that much,

but Jari, 936-8 percentage, that's third in the league, 1.91 goals against average now, three shutouts, that's second in the league, goals against average, it's fourth in the league. He's also played the most out of any goalie so far this year. He is loving the workload right now. I would assume that Casey DeSmith gets to start against Montreal on Saturday. But just another tremendous performance from him.

That kick save that he had with what, about two and a half to three minutes remaining. And I want to say it was on their rookie third line center, Coyvula. I think he was a call-up from their HL team just because they're so banged up and so many players are out due to COVID. I thought for sure that was going to go in. Just a beautiful right-toe save by Jari. If that was in the playoffs, that was going to go in. 100% of the time since he couldn't stop a beach ball.

But that was just the save of the game, I think probably the save of the year so far for Jari. And he was just so composed. And I saw a lot of Islander fans kind of celebrating saying, oh, well, you know, we actually have a chance tonight. You know, Tristan Jari is coming back here. We owned him in the playoffs. And I'm like, well, be careful what you wish for because Tristan Jari has been pretty good for the first six weeks of the season.

And sure enough, he was a rock again tonight for Pittsburgh, one of their best players. I saw this today on like message boards and stuff and I have to agree with it as of right now Jari should be getting a little more love for Team Canada and I know that probably sounds weird to say because he could fall off any minute that with how he's played this year he should definitely get a look to go on Team Canada

just because of how good he's been. I know they're probably going to go maybe go with Mark Andre Fleury if Carrie Price is available they're definitely going to take him but I'm not really sure what his availability is going to look like just because he's still not fully back with the Canadians just yet. But with how Jari has played so far this year, if I were Team Canada, I would be giving a

serious look towards him right now and see if he can continue this for the month of December, for the month of January, heading into February for the Olympics. Obviously, a lot can still change. I'm not really sure if the NHL is going to boycott the Olympics just because of the COVID situation and a whole bunch of other things in China, the Peng Shwai situation. If some of you all have not been following that, the tennis star, who is, But basically, I think, has disappeared, and really nobody knows what happened with that. So there's a whole lot of situations that's just going on with the Olympics in China.

No one really knows if the NHL is going to fully go, but they did make a promise to their players. Anyways, back to my original point, Jari should be getting a hard look at Team Canada, I think, at this point, at least in my opinion. Another stat for you all. This comes courtesy of Josh Yewie. Penguins are on pace for 98 points through 20 games, which would be a playoff spot, while receiving a grand total of four goals from Cindy Crosby, Fgeny Malkin, Brian Russ, and Chris Lattang. That just goes to show how deep this team is.

As each passing game goes, I really think they can beat almost any team in this conference in a seven game series if they are healthy. And they have been mostly healthy for the last couple of weeks. Hopefully this rust injury is not that big of a deal. Evgeny Malkin is starting to skate in full capacity. Well, let me pump the brakes on that. Not full capacity, but, you know, in full equipment.

Excuse me, the next step for him will be in a practice. I'm still not sure when that's going to be. But this team is really freaking good, and they are really freaking deep as well. I mean, again, Evan Rodriguez's seven goals this season. Tanton Hinen has six. I know it's been of a slow start for Capon and so far. He has four. Of course, I can't forget about Jake Gensel having eight goals.

This was the first time that he had not scored in five games tonight, even though he was around the puck like a menace did have a secondary assistant I'm pretty sure on captain's goal Sid was close to a couple of goals but again this just goes to show how deep this team is they can run four lines against anyone in the league and for all those people that said there were going to be debt problems with this team coming into this season they're not going to be deep enough well I hope you all are eating crow right now I did say coming into the season I didn't think it was going to be as deep as last year's team I had a couple of concerns but overall I still thought this team was pretty freaking deep and I'm glad that they're kind of proving me half right I'll get a little bit of crow as well I didn't see every marigas being

this good I saw heinan being good I just didn't know he would have six goals in the team's first 20 games I didn't see brian boyle contributing too much even though he also has a goal or two this season Brock McGinn's been really good for the last couple of weeks teddy bluger's been awesome with depth scoring Zach Ashton Reese finally got on the board against vancouver this team has been getting scoring from everyone in the lineup. And the fact that they haven't relied on their stars to win them games yet, that goes to show that how good this team is. So I wanted to make note of that.

Also, shout out to Andy Kyoto. He has been a wheel G, as some of the kids say, with his turnaround for Tristan Jari. I have not seen Jari look this confident ever throughout his initial career. And I think a lot of that does have to do with Andy Kyoto. So I'll leave you all with that. up in the next day we're going to get to some listener takeaways. Plus do a little small preview of the Penguins

matchup against the Canadians on Saturday. That is another very winnable matchup for Pittsburgh. But before we do that, it's Thanksgiving time, and we all know what that means. Football, nothing goes better with football than Turkey and betting. Ben in line has you covered all holiday season. That means more props, odds, and lines than ever before. Benin line remains your number one spot for all the sports action this Thanksgiving.

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I'm your host, Hunter Hodeus. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow this show's Twitter at L.O underscore Penguin. So getting to some listener takeaways, Alan Tioder says two points is two points, especially against a goalie like Sorokin and a coach like Trots. Speaking of goalies, my goodness, Tristan Jari, what a performance. Definitely should have been higher scoring,

but that was still an entertaining game. Nice to see captain and score. Hope Rust is okay. Yeah, the Rust injury, I don't know if any of you all saw this, I'll give you all an update. So Jake Gensel reported to the meeting. after the game that Russ just flat out fell in warm-ups and then exited the rank. So I thought at first did it sound like he fainted or something like that, but it is a lower

body injury. I guess he just must have tweaked something in warm-ups and decided that he was not going to risk anything. Hopefully it's nothing serious. He just came back from injury about a week and a half ago. We're starting to play some better hockey, especially with how he played against Vancouver, scored his first goal against an actual goalie this season, so I'm really hoping that. You know, this is not nothing serious, just because this team has actually been healthy for almost two weeks straight without any injuries or COVID-related illnesses.

So I'm hoping that street does not break. Jackson Hollister says, once a third period hit, we gave them the old Barry Trots Islander special, packing the defense with great goaltending. Honestly, Jackson, that's a great takeaway. Thank you for sending me that. They definitely took a taste of the Islander's medicine and applied it right there. The Penguins. I mean, the Islanders definitely pushed back, I think, a couple of times.

third, especially during that second powerplay in that period, those last 30 seconds, a couple minutes after, and then in the final couple of minutes, they had some really nice chances as well. But overall, I said it early on in this episode, the Islanders were pretty one and done, I thought, in the offensive zone. And then for most of that third period as well, you know, they packed it in. They ran that one, two, two neutral zone trap. Jari gave them some amazing saves. And they were able to out Islander the Islanders as some other people.

like to say. And then finally Zachary Buffington asks us Ever Rodriguez making the Russ decision easier. I think you are probably referencing the decision for him in free agency. That's a good question,

Zachary. I don't really know if they're going to have room to sign him anyway. Even if Rodriguez was not playing this well, I don't think they were going to sign him back anyway just because I don't think they're going to have the cat for it. And I know that's going to piss some people off and people maybe some people might say,

Hunter, you know, just being a hater, you're not being realistic. Trust me, I am. The salary cap is a very real thing. They still have to sign up getting Morgan and Krista Tang back. Jeff Carter is a free agent. Kisbury Kappen is a free agent. I think there's going to be a boatload of teams out there that are going to want to pay Brian Rust what he wants, and he could potentially even get $6 million per on the open market.

He could have, he could honestly get a Zach Heimann kind of contract. And Hyman is someone who has never even won a Stanley Cup in his career, and he basically got Max Turn with a little over $5. 5 million per. I mean, I could definitely see Rust getting that kind of contract. It's not going to be with Pittsburgh. I just don't see Russ coming back here next year no matter what.

I'll gladly be wrong. It will be interesting to see if Hextall can make it work, but I just don't see it happening even if Evan Rodriguez is playing the best hockey of his career right now. But thank you for that question on the Post Game takeaway. I actually really appreciate that because it's something I haven't gotten that

much this year and also something that You know, not a lot of people have touched on it as much, mainly the Brian Rusk next contract discussion. But next up for the Penguins will be another game against the Canadians. This was the same Canadians team that the Penguins went up to the Bell Center and destroyed 6-0 about a week, almost a week and a half ago. Canadians only have 47% of the goals of the season, 41.5% of the actual goals score. They will have Jake Allen back, so I would assume that he will start in this one, the expected goal. goals full percentage is 38.4%. Our goal differential is minus 13.

That is just horrifically bad on all accounts. I'm looking at some other stats here from Montreal. If I can find something there. Goals 4 per 60, 1.87, their goals against per 60, 2.63. They're just, they're not scoring and they're giving up quite a bit the other way. They're expected goals 4 per 60 is 2.22. So they're underperforming that. It's just been a awful season from Montreal.

every impossible. I would not be surprised if Bergevin is not retained after this season. I'm curious to see what kind of cell that they go into as the deadline gets close. I would have to think someone like Brendan Gowler is going to be available, even though they just went to the final this past

year. But I also think that they want to set up this young core to contend in a few years. I don't think they're going to strip it down completely. There's going to be some players there that are not going to be traded like Cole Coughfield. Nick Suzuki, Jeff Petrie, Carrie Price, a couple others as well, but, you know, Tofoli, I think, could be available.

Gallagher potentially, Yol Armiya, Jonathan Druand could potentially be available. They have a bunch of good players who they could get some good packages for on the trade market. So that's going to be an interesting team to watch. Again, though, this should still be a very winnable matchup for Pittsburgh. They have a chance to get to six in a row before they start the Western Canada trip on Monday against the Calgary Flames. So that'll do it for this episode of the Lockdown Piggins podcast. I appreciate all of you listening to this one. We'll be back next week with five more episodes for this podcast.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Let's see what the team can do on Saturday and then go Steelers on Sunday. And also, go Hokies, Virginia Tech plays Virginia this weekend. I don't want to lose to UVA. I just, I can't stand them. So I hope maybe some of you all will tune into some college football, watch that game. And of course, Michigan, Ohio State is going to be awesome as well. But again, thank you all so much for listening to this one.

and we'll be back on Monday with another episode.