Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Truly nothing to write home about this one...

Episode Date: January 29, 2021

The Penguins played their worst game of the season in Boston on Thursday night. With that, Hunter is still back with another episode to talk about the game and what went wrong. What's the No. 1 reason as to why the Penguins are where they are right now? What this performance expected given the circumstances? Hunter also breaks down Geno's struggles again as more issues of his game popped up. He also gets into two big positives of the night and why P-O Joseph needs to stay in the lineup full-time even when the other defenders get healthy. Finally, Hunter finishes up with the listener takeaways before teasing a special guest for Friday's episode.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 “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order. 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.

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 to this third-day evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hody's all this show's Twitter at L-I-W-N-Square Penguins. And I apologize if this is going to be maybe a shorter episode. There was just not a lot to write home for this game as the Penguins lose 4-1. in the first game in the post Jim Rutherford era after, of course, he resigned on Wednesday. Just a terrible performance all round.

I don't think any player played well except for P.O. Joseph and Cody C.C. And if you would have told me before the season that it would be those two players playing well in a game and everyone else stinking up the joint, I think you always probably would have told me I'm nuts. But, you know, that's exactly what happened tonight as the Penguins fell 4 to 1. Also, second straight game to Boston. and, you know, they're losing streak against the Bruins in Boston is only going to continue. They still have not won a game in Boston since 2014, and I don't think they've won a regulation game in Boston since 2013. I was 16 and 17, respectively, when they last won a game in Boston, neither regulation or overtime.

So that's pretty embarrassing, but let's get to the little positives they came out of this game. The play of P.O. Joseph, he's looked great in every game that he's played since he made his debut. Just looks more comfortable. I mean, he got top pairing minutes with Chris Lentang tonight. And honestly, guys, he was the better player on that pairing. You know, who would have thought of that going into the season that P.O. Joseph would look better on a pairing than Chris Lange. But that's exactly what we saw tonight. La Teng, still in a funk.

You know, I'm going to see, we're going to keep seeing people say he should be traded. You know, same with the Gennie Malkin. Don't entertain those people. It's just not worth it, I think. And I do think Latang will bounce out of this funk. I just, I don't think he's washed, but, you know, just watching Joseph. just skating the puck beautifully up the ice, even in his defensive zone. Just nothing really gets past him.

He makes really good decisions with the puck. He always has the right read. He does not need to come out of the lineup when everyone gets healthy. I know Matheson is obviously going to get healthy soon. Pedersen's going to come back. Duman will eventually come back. I think Josh Yew and his mailbag today said he's going to come back around mid-February, it looks like.

You know, all these guys are going to come back. And once this defense is healthy, or if it ever does get healthy because the Penguins' injuries have just been terrible as they were in 2020. What I would do for the defense is go Dumont-Latang, Pedersen-Lan-Marino, and then Joseph Rueh. I know it's only a very small sample size for P.O. Joseph, but he just looks like he's getting better and better each and every game. And, yeah, I would scratch Cody Cici. I mean, it's only one year, 1.25 million. And, yeah, I would scratch Mike Matheson.

I mean, the new general manager that's going to come in is going to have to evaluate the team that he didn't even build. So he's just going to have to do it himself. And, you know, maybe he'll like Mike Matheson. Maybe he won't. But, you know, maybe he'll tell Mike Sullivan just who he thinks should be in the lineup. Obviously, it's up to Mike Sullivan who he wants to play. But, you know, just from my opinion right now, I think P.O. Joseph deserves a spot on the bottom pairing when the whole defense gets healthy. As for Cody Cici, he made a beautiful play in the offensive zone to tie the game 1-1 before the game went to shit.

It's a great play to keep it. And what a shot past Yaroslav Halak. I mean, you know, he did some. something in the set, what was this, the eighth game of the season that Jack Johnson didn't even do in the two years that he played here in every single game. So, you know, Cody C.C. has that going for him, and I honestly thought he was pretty decent in this game. Outside of that, though, this whole game was a load of crap, I thought for the Penguins. No one played well. We're going to get to your thoughts, you know, from my Twitter and the Lockdown Penguins Twitter. We'll touch on

Evigney Mall again, we'll touch on Crystal Tanks and more of the goaltending. We'll touch on all that later on in the show. But just what a terrible performance all around. I mean, there really is just like nothing more to write home about just with being all negative. It's just it was a terrible performance. I don't know how else I can say it. I mean, look at the injuries that this team has. I mean, Pedersen's out.

Dumblin is out. Matheson is out. Rikula is out. I mean, you're playing Kevin Churchman. Yes, that is actually how you pronounce his last name. It is Kevin Churchman, even it looks like it's Kevin Kuzman. There's a reason why he hasn't played in the league. since I think it was, what, 2014.

He wasn't good tonight. I think as these defensive injuries continue and that some of these players don't come back yet, you may see this team go five defensemen now, and they honestly just play C.C., Marino, Latang, Joseph, and Ruehedo. I really think they may just have to do that moving forward. I mean, sure, they can play Yanuk Weber, but Yanuk Weber, I mean, his underlying numbers are god-awful.

You may as well just make a trade at this point. I think 404 response code, who is a great follow? on Penguins' Twitter, goes by CK, just has a lot of great tweets during the game, and I'll always look at underlying numbers and all that. He had a great tweet. They have the next two second rounders available still. Just deal those tonight for Vince Dunn.

And honestly, I agree with him. I mean, Vince Dunn is one of the better defenders that is available for a trade, I think. He's obviously fallen out of favor in St. Louis. I don't think Craig Rurubi's been playing him a lot lately. And his underlying numbers are good. He's good in the offensive zone. he's good in the defensive zone. And if you plug him in on the second or third pairing,

it's a great fit. I mean, you really just don't have time to waste. I mean, Churchman should, he should just not be playing another NHL game. Like, what I saw from him tonight,

he's just not an NHL level defenseman. I mean, I said the same thing about Zach Trotman. I guess I was proven right about that. He's not an in at an actual defenseman either, but Kevin Churchman tonight, he was just so far out of his element, just getting burned all the time. It's just like,

I mean, you got to, like, just not play him again. You got to make a trade. If Patrick Alvin wants to be the general, manager. He wants to add something to his resume, spice it up a little bit, making a trade for Vince Dunn or Travis Dermott, like I talked about a couple episodes ago. That would go, I think, a really long wait to him potentially getting this job full time. I mean, you know, fuck it. Just show that you're aggressive and trade a second rounder for Vince Dunn. I think I did see from Elliot Freeman

that they won a first rounder back for him. I mean, I don't know why a team would trade a first rounder for Vince Dunn. I mean, that's just stupid. I mean, he's a second pair, bottom pairing defenseman at this point in his career and the blues are going to want a first rounder for him back? I think that's kind of ridiculous in my opinion. But I mean, if they're asking for a second round pick, I mean, I obviously do that. I think they just have to make a trade. Yannick Weber is not going to cut it for this team. They're way too banged up on the blue line. Something has to give. You just can't keep playing Kevin Churchman meaningful minutes. I mean, he's just, like I say, he's so far out of his element. I mean, Cody C.C.

playing top four minutes. And for as much as good, how good Cody Cici was tonight, that's just not going to continue every game. I mean, it's just really not. And, you know, I've been seeing the takes now about, you know, firing Mike Sullivan, you know, oh, just, well, the penguins could use a coaching change and, you know, you could hire Bruce Boudreau. Yeah, no. I mean, like, is Darren, honestly, from Penguin's Twitter, Dean Asty Zero-2, had a great tweet about this. Is the next coach going to make three defensemen healthy and stop the goaltending from being sub-replacement level?

And I apologize if someone heard a little bark in the background. My dog is sitting right next to me, so she's definitely not pleased with this result either. But, I mean, really, is he just going to magically heal the three defensemen that are out, magically make Tristan Jari and Casey to Smith play at league average, which I mean, they should be doing anyway. But, I mean, I really can't even blame Tristan Jari for the game tonight. I really can. I mean, that second goal was such a fluky goal. The Penguins got right back in it. And then just right after that second goal, it was just their play deteriorated.

I mean, I know everyone's going to talk about, oh, my God, yeah, those eight minutes in the second period were great. And yeah, they did play well in those eight minutes. but I think they honestly had two shots. Like all that zone time, I remember I tweeted out that they had like that top five shift of the season or something. And yet they only had like one shot to show for it. And it's like, yeah, it was a great shift, but like you got to bring pucks to the net. I mean, they got the power plays during it too. They had some good passes, some good zone time for that.

But it's like, get the puck to the net. I mean, the same issues just keep showing themselves, the overpassing. It's just get back to basics. It's never a bad idea to fire the puck on net and hope for good results. You know, we're going to touch on Navigini Malkin in the next segment. He was doing so much more overpassing, and we're going to go into some other issues with his game that still are plaguing him. But it's just for the team in general. I mean, I think they had with 55 minutes into the game, they had, what, 13 shots on net?

I'm sorry. That's pathetic. The word for that is pathetic. I mean, I know it's Boston, but they're banged up. They don't even have Tuka Rask in there. Yes, I know Yarslav Halak is a gold goaltender. He's given this team fits in the past. but you should be able to fire more than 13 shots on a Bruins defensive core

that does not even have Zendano Char from last year. It doesn't even have Tori Crude from last year. I mean, their best defenseman obviously is trying McAvoy. He's a great defenseman. But after that, they have what? I mean, Brandon Carlo, I mean, I think Grizzlic, but he ended up leaving the game anyway because I think he's had that injury. But there's just not a lot after McAvoy,

and it's just like that was embarrassing for the Penguins to barely even put up, what, 20 shots for this game? I don't know, man. That's just sad. But I don't want to see before we do get to the commercial break. I expected this result tonight with how injured they are, with three, of course, like three starting defensemen, the forwards are obviously not playing up to par. You're getting subpar goaltending.

This is what happens when you want to do a really good team like Boston. And, you know, with two games against the Rangers coming up, you just swept them in your own building, there's going to be time to rebound. I don't think the Rangers are that good this year. Obviously, they're young and up and coming, and they have some good talent, but I do think those are very winnable games for the Penguins. and we'll see what response they have. They're still trying to get their first road win of the year.

We are eight games into this season, the Penguins do not have a road win. I don't even remember the last time we were eight games into a season and the Penguins do not have their first road win. I'm actually going to have to do some research on that to talk about in the next episode. But with that said, before we do get to the next segment and talk about some other stuff from this game,

it is time to talk about Bet Online. There's only one place that has you covered in one place we trust. That is BetOnline.org. We send up today for a free account and use that promo code locked on if you're 50% off, Welcome bonus. Don't just send on the sidelines anymore, guys. Get in on the action. Don't forget to use that promo code locked on to receive a 50% off. Welcome bonus with your first deposit. That's Bet Online, your online sports book experts. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Honora Hodeus. All this show is Twitter at L.O. Hunter Penguin. So let's just do the annual. Let's talk about Evgeny Malkin. Because, you know, as for as much as we want his play to get better and we want. We want. want him to break out.

It's just not happening right now, guys. He played even worse than he did last game when he became the walking meme. I was watching that power play. I think it was in the first period. I think LaTang basically passed it to him. Well, it was basically just passed him to try to get a Gino bomb, which is why I like to call his big one-timers. Fanned on the one-timer.

And then after he fanned on it, he passed it right to a Boston penalty killer. And then they just cleared the puck. And it's like, he is just so in his head right now. I think there is another one in the second period where they were down. I'm not sure if it was 2-1 or 3-1. Gets the puck, has a perfectly wide-open shooting lane, potentially could beat Hulak right there, and it just tries to force a pass.

And it's like, man, like, he's just in his own head right now, nothing about his game and his son to watch. He just needs to start shooting the puck more. If he starts to shoot the puck more, eventually the puck is going to go in. I say that for every shooter. The more you shoot it, the more likely it is that you are going to, going to score. And I just, he's overthinking it right now, overpassing, just his skating tonight

was terrible. His all-around game right now is just not there. And I'm going to keep saying that and I'm going to keep shitting on him until this turns around. I don't know when this will turn around. I'm not going to entertain people saying they should trade him. And you know, we're going to get to Crystal Tang in a second. But, you know, it would just be foolish to trade up getting him. We all know the organization wants to sign him long term. I mean, we've heard that from Rob Rossi and Josh Yewian all that on the athletic. They want to sign him to a contract extension this summer. And it's going to happen.

So, I mean, I know it's a really bad eight-game stretches. This might be one of his worst eight-game stretches for his career, but they're just, they're not going to trade him. So please stop saying that on Twitter. It's just, it's really not going to happen. But, you know, let's get to Chris Latang. Again, you know, some of those turnovers I thought were evident tonight. His skating wasn't up to par.

Just his play in the defensive zone was poor. Not a last good couple games for Latang. These are probably two of the worst of his career, I would say too. And yeah, you know, I call it how it is, guys. I love these two players to death. I am a huge Krista Tang simp. I am a huge simp for Evgeny Malkin. But, you know, when they play like shit as they have been for the last few games last week,

honestly, for Malkin the whole season, I am going to call it out. I'm going to be fair. I'm not going to be a homer. They're playing like absolute garbage. And that has, I think, been the main reason why the penguins are four and three and one. I know they've had their self-replacement goal tending. I know they've had their defensive breakdowns. I know they've had other players in their top six not performed.

But, you know, it's just when your number one defender who has been a rock their whole career here and your number two center, who is one of the 10 best players in the world, are playing below replacement level. You are not going to go anywhere. And that is where this team is right now. It is actually a miracle that this team going into tonight was tied for second place in the division and we're in a playoff spot. It is truly a miracle that they've won first. four games this year because they've hardly led at all during these games. Again, tonight, they were hardly even tied during this game.

They were trailing the whole game. I mean, they've probably led, I think, this season for a total, I think Adam Gretz had it in my last episode, they've led for a total of like 25, 30 minutes out of in eight games, a combined 25 minutes. That's not going to win new games. It's just not. And, you know, it's just two of your top three players are playing like garbage. it's just you're up a creek.

I think that's the best way for me to say it. You really are up a creek. Even Sidney Crosby didn't even play that well tonight. And this is a really interesting tweet. Again, I saw it from 404 Response Code, CK, on Penguins' Twitter that I wanted to include in this episode. So there's Penguins with two plus points per 60 at 5V5 so far this year. You guys want to take any guesses?

There's only one player from the top six that has a two plus points per 60, 5E5. That is Kaspari Kappan. Drew O'Connor is one of the others. Jared McCann, Teddy Blugher, Mark Jankowski, who really has not looked good at all these last few games, Colton Severe and Brandon Teneff. Normally, if a lot of your bottom six is playing like this, you're in good hands, especially if your top six is actually producing a little bit. But with Sidney Crosby going cold, Evgeny Malkin off to a terrible start,

Jason Zalker hasn't found his way yet. Jake Gensel has been good at times, but still not up to the par like we're usually seeing. Brian West, obviously, I think, has been one of the better players, but he's not even in that stratosphere yet. You know, normally, that's, if you're, if you have a lot of your bottom six playing like that with a two plus points for 60, you probably have what?

One or two losses, especially with how good the Penguins' top six is. But note, the Penguins top six for a lot of portions of this season has just been a ghost town. And that's one of the main reasons as to why this team is four and three and one right now. I mean, obviously, like I said,

the number one reason is because of Gennie Malkin and Krista Tang have been mostly pretty bad to start this season. And as I looked in another one of 404 response codes tweets, and I'm looking at just the deployment for some of these players that have the 2 plus points per 60s, I mean, Bluger, McCann, Jankalski, Siever, and Brandon Tanna, they're mostly being deployed in the defensive zone. It looks like on hockey biz,

and they're still contributing almost all of the offense this year. It's just like, that just blows my mind. I never thought I would be saying it's eight games in the season that the bottom six has basically outplayed the top six this season. I just, I can't believe I'm honestly saying that, but that is how it has gone. I mean, we obviously knew what the big question marks were for this team, but I did not see the bottom six actually outplaying players in the top six almost 10 games in the season.

I just, I really didn't. You know, we can talk about the goaltending all we want. Tristan Jari, I'm not going to blame him for this performance. Do I want to see it mostly average goaltending from him? Yes, but he was also basically what, almost 9, 10 last game, he was 920 the game before that. He's been fine the last week, and I'm sure he'll get the next start moving forward. I mean, Malkin did talk to the media after the game. He said he needs to look himself in the mirror right now.

I'm not happy with my game for sure right now. Yeah, Gino, no one's happy with your game right now. Maybe you do need to take maybe a 10 to 15 minute look in the mirror every single day until your game just gets back to normal. But, yeah, I mean, those are mostly my thoughts on this game. I mean, it really is just not much to talk about. I mean, they're lucky they're still in fourth place after tonight. Yes, guys, the Penguins would be in the playoffs right now,

even with these last two losses at 4 and 3 and 1. That just goes to show how big those four. those last four wins were for this team. But I think that we'll do it for this segment. I'm coming up with the next seven. We are going to get to the listener takeaways for this game. I still love doing that for all of these games, no matter how bad the game is or just, even in a blowout win, I'll still do it. I just, I love doing it. But before we do get to that, it is time to talk about rockado.com. It's a family business starting auto park customers online for 20 years. You go to rockadoadot.com to shop for auto and body parts of hundreds of manufacturers. The catalog is unique

remarkably easy to navigate. You can quickly see all the parts available for your vehicle and choose the brands, specifications, the prices you prefer. You can go to rockado.com right now and see all the parts available for your car truck. You can write locked on another how did you hear about us box and then we sent you. Amazing selection, reliability low prices. All the parts of car will ever need. That is rock auto.com. And also lastly, we have to talk about Bill Bar, 18 amazing flavors, six new flavors. Caramel brownie cookies and cream, lemon old and cheesecake are a few of the new ones for the originals, mint brownie, salty caramel, double chocolate. The bars are low calorie, low sugar, high protein, high fiber.

One of my favorite flavors is still big cookies and cream, 17 grams of protein, 130 calories, 4 grams of sugar, 4 grams of nut cards. You can go to BiltBar.com right now and use promo code locked on and it'll get a 20% off your next order. That's promo code locked on for 20% off at BiltBar.com. All right, welcome back to this episode 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. and Square Panglingland. So let us now get to the listener takeaways for this game. Got a couple here from Frytime. I know they're shorthanded on defense, but their zone coverage is so bad at times as this personnel are coaching at this point. Honestly, man, I would chalk it up to more towards personnel.

I mean, I don't think any coach is going to come in here and just coach this defense up as the way it is right now, man. I mean, you know, I've seen people talk about Bruce Boudreau. I talked about this earlier in this episode. I mean, is he really going to come up here and coach the defense and just make them all like dods or something like that? No, it's mostly personnel. You have John Marino playing on his offside, Cody C.C. playing top four minutes. Kevin Churchman getting meaningful NHL minutes when he hasn't played in the league in what, six, seven years now.

It's just, it's not a good recipe. I mean, for as good as P.O. Joseph has looked and he's been great. You really can't be having him playing top pairing minutes every night for the foreseeable future. Some of it probably also is coaching. you know, whoever coaches the defense, I know I think it's Tar reared in. He could probably do a little bit of a better job there, but I would say mostly, man, it's personnel. I mean, once the guys start getting healthier, the defense can go back to how it usually will run. I just hope that P.O. Joseph will actually get meaningful minutes on the third parent when that happens.

But thank you for that. Gilbert, the Go, the power play is embarrassing. Gino has been awful. The defense was awful tonight as expected with all the injuries. Yeah, I mean, the power play again was trash. I mean, it's the same few plays that they run on the power play. They just, you know, they'll dump it in and then the Bruins will clear it, or they'll just get it in, and then they'll just overpass,

and then the Bruins will still clear it. I mean, they still have that sky hook pass. That sucks. That's just so terrible. It's just not a fun power play to watch. I mean, like you said, the defense was bad. You know, stung. They need to wake up and get a lead and hold it,

playing for behind a story and kill them. The top six needs to wake up. Again, man, I agree with everything you're saying. If they can play with a lead for a whole game, it would be a shock at this point, you know, We're almost 10 games in the season, and the Penguins have not had a lead for a full 60 minutes yet. It's actually pretty pathetic, and like I said, I do agree the top six needs to wake up as a whole. I think that starts with Afghani Malkin. Alan T. Yoder, something needs to change.

I may have a potential hot take here. I don't want to say healthy scratch geneal and latang. Injuries will make this tough, but maybe to send a message, I really don't know what else to do. Something needs fixed like Saturday night. I mean, I understand your sentiment there, Alan, you know, but I just, I think a healthy scratch at this point. I mean, they're not going to do that. Mike Sullivan is just not going to do that. I understand your frustration, though.

They do stink right now. If this were obviously any other player, they would be healthy scratch. I mean, obviously, I don't think like a Jake Gensel or Brian Ross, but if this were like a bottom six player, a second pairing, third pairing, a defenseman, I think you would see Mike Sullivan scratch them. But with Malkin and Lentang's track record, he's not going to do that. You just have to hope that they get out of these ruts as soon as possible. Just a couple more, though,

before you do call it a podcast, John Tarbett. He is one of my favorite follows on Penguin's Twitter. Please go follow him, Jay Tarbet. He says, without C.C., the Penguins would be losing for nothing. Yes, John, that is true. Without Cody Cici, this team would be losing four to nothing to the Bruins. They would have lost four nothing to the Bruins, I guess is what I should say. So yes, Cody Cici, great job tonight.

And then King Clarkie, how is Cousman actually pronounced because I refuse to believe it's churchman? Clark, I can honestly tell you, man, it's churchman. It is 100% churchman. I still can't believe they pronounce it churchmen. It should be Coosman or whatever the hell I just said. But the fact that it's pronounced churchman a little weird. I mean, for God's sakes, we went like two full seasons with pronouncing Connor Sherry, and then he sounded like, oh yeah, it's Connor Sherry.

It's like, why didn't she tell us that before? So it's just kind of funny to me. But that will do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I really appreciate you guys listening to this one, even though the team just played terrible tonight. We'll be back in action on Saturday, but we'll still have another episode tomorrow. Rob Rossi of the Athletic will be joining the Locked on Penguins podcast again to discuss everything that went on with the Rutherford fire with Rutherford resigning. Excuse me. And we'll try to get some answers as to, you know, why he resigned and just what's the real

reason as to why he actually resigned. And, you know, if they've already interviewed some candidates scored in the position and who he also thinks they could interview in the future if they have not had any interviews yet. But that will do it for this episode. We'll be back tomorrow with that interview with Rossi. And then I will see you all next week after that. Talk to you all tomorrow.