Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Two wins in a row? Is that allowed?

Episode Date: November 12, 2022

The Pittsburgh Penguins are fully back...maybe? They got their second win in a row on Friday night and Hunter is here to recap it. He starts the show with how this was another complete team performance by the Penguins and how well they did to respond to adversity. He looks at how they were able to recover from a down second period to dominate the Leafs in the third fully and how that third period was the best he's seen them defend all year. He also praises Casey DeSmith for another strong performance as Mike Sullivan continues giving him more starts since he may not be happy with Jarry's play. He even eats more crow on Brock McGinn after he got his second goal in as many games and now has five points in his last five games. In the second segment, he praises the second line as they were hounding the puck all night. Was this Malkin's best game of the season? How is Jason Zucker's redemption going? After that, he goes into how Brian Dumoulin had a strong game as he continues to get fewer minutes than usual. Finally, he previews the game on Saturday in Montreal as the Penguins try to go for three in a row.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.Athletic GreensTo make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORK 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's up, Yins? Happy Friday, Hunter Hodes here with the Locked-on Penguins podcast. The Pittsburgh Penguins have now won two games in a row, a 4-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs, a really solid victory, I think, for this hockey team. In today's episode, we're going to go into everything regarding this win. We're also going to preview Saturday nights game against the Montreal Canadiens. I will be in Pittsburgh watching it somewhere. Maybe it'll be at Howl at the Moon downtown or somewhere else. I don't know, but I will be in Titspur watching that game. But yeah, so for today's episode,

we're going to fully recap this game, going to a Gennie Malkins' brilliant performance, going to do Brian Dumwin, having a really strong game, Brock McGinn, playing better, Casey to Smith, so much more, plus that preview against the Canadians. That's all coming up right after this. You're Locked-on Penguins,

your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow the shows, Twitter, at Eleanor Hodge. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day.

Today's episode is brought to you by Bed Online. Ben Online has you covered this season with more prompts, Ones and Lines than ever before. That has been online where the game starts. And once again, if I can hide this for the YouTube audience, wonderful, the Grand Admiral is laying on my bed celebrating. the Penguins win. Tonight I'll put that my beautiful graphic backup now

for the video audience. But yes, he is very fired up. I just want to say, I know I did say I was supposed to have an episode for you all on Thursday going into a preview for the game against Toronto.

I apologize about that. You know, I've been, yesterday was just a really bad mental health day for just a couple of reasons. And, you know, when my anxiety like really hits, I just, I cannot focus

on anything else. And that's that's my, that's my fault. You know, I live with it every day. But, you know, today, obviously, you know, much better that I'm able to come to you after this. Even if they lost this game, I was still going to have an episode. But, you know, don't think I was just not going to ever do an episode. That was my plan that just, you know, woke up and had the worst anxiety in the world. But I just wanted to clear that up for you all.

If you thought there was an episode coming and I didn't deliver, I apologize about that. That's hopefully, you know, as I continue to get better with it, you know, I think that's It's not going to happen as much. Anyways, enough about my wonderful mental health issues. 4-2 win for the Penguins tonight. I thought that came out firing in the first period. Shot total was a little, it was inflated, I guess. You watch the game, if you were watching that game,

you knew that the Penguins were outplaying the lease, even though they were being outshot. And then the second period comes, tables get, you know, the reverse happens. Toronto brutally outplays them. Third period, penguins win. that obviously the most important period of the game when the game is really tight and they absolutely shut things down in that third period.

I will say this again. I think this was a great team performance from the Penguins. You can really see that they built off that win on Wednesday against the Washington Capitals. And it showed tonight. You know, you got production from the top six. You got production from the bottom six. You know, all the defensemen played well. Casey DeSmith was good.

Mike Sullivan made some good lineup decisions. even when POJ was not hurt. I really thought just overall a collective great effort from the Penguins Night. A little bit boring at times, sure. Did they not look good at times? Yes, but you know, when you're playing a team like Toronto who is very skilled, you know, you're going to have, you know, lulls. You're going to have maybe even a period off sometimes even more than just a period off.

But all of that matters in the end is the win. I thought the process for the most part was there. You look at natural statuary at 5.5. Toronto had 52% of the shot attempts. They led in scoring chances as well, but high danger was a 50-50 split. Expected goals was 55-45-45 in favor of Toronto. If you go to all situations,

they led in shot attempts, they led in scoring chances. High danger was 50-50. But all situations, the Penguins actually had 61% of the expected goals. So this wasn't just like a weird, you know, drubbing, I don't think. You know, Toronto, they did have their fair share of chances, but when they did, it was Casey DeSmith there who was able to shut the door. And yeah, you know, I'll say this. I was a little surprised that they went back to back for him.

But I think Mike Sullivan right now is just saying, hey, I'm not happy with Tristan's performance. He's supposed to be done number one, but he's kind of fallen into a rut. It's kind of open season right now. You want to take the net, go ahead. And I think these last couple of games, DeSmith, three goals allowed in those two games. he's starting to find his game a little bit again. Yeah, is he out of position at times? Sure, you know, does he not tracking the puck well at times?

Sure. But, you know, when you're only allowing three goals and 120 minutes of hockey, you are doing something right. And I thought he made some really nice saves tonight because if you go to money puck and you look at their predict to win meter, which, you know, usually that matches up with the eye test. You know, Toronto wins this game. I think it was like a 60, 40 amount of time.

And, you know, it matched up a little bit. I would maybe put it down like, you don't know, 55, 45, 45, or. or something like that. But, you know, it's nice when you're finally able to get those saves, especially in a tight game, I believe the expected goals against was 2.85 Ford of Smith per money puck, and he only allowed two goals. So, you know, he saved almost a goal above expected tonight. And that's what you want from your 1B goalie, who's, you know,

potentially going to be a little bit of a starter going for it. I mean, obviously Tristan's going to get the game in Montreal. You know, I think, you know, that will be his game to maybe redeem himself a little bit. but, you know, I really do think the message that Mike Sullivan is sending right now is, hey, you know, there's maybe not a full-fledged starter in net. You know, I'm going to shake things up. We lost seven games in a row. You go out there and try to get us some wins.

And so far, you know, just Neth has been able to do that. They've won two in a row. And he's looked really solid in those two games. Jake Gensel, he gets another goal. He continues to push 450. I'm going to get to the second line in the next segment. with Jason Zilker and Havgeny Malkin and how brilliant they play. But to end this segment, Brock McGinn, five points in his last five games, goals in

back-to-back games. Sell high, guys. You know, I hate saying that, but he's only going to be playing like this for a select number of games where, you know, the regression is probably going to come like you saw in the early part of this season. And then the second half last season where he's just kind of a ghost and he just turned back into a pumpkin again. So obviously I am going to enjoy this from again. I will gladly eat the pro. And honestly, I don't really expect him to get traded. The sell high is just me kind of

screwing around a little bit just because he makes almost three million. And at times he just hasn't been that best of a player. But these last few games, I will say he has been playing a lot better. And, you know, I want to see more of that from him going forward. You know, again, outside of, you know, really Josh Archibald at this one, you know, he's, you know, he's, really one of the only bottom six players who has scored in the last nine games. And, you know, he had that really nice shot, the game winner tonight to make it 3-2 Shelgrin. You know, maybe he could have had a save on that, but I'm also, I also think it was a nice release from, again, he's been playing on the third line.

So Sullivan's been giving him ample minutes with City Bluegarout. So, again, really like this performance. I thought he was solid on the PK as well. I think, obviously, in a perfect world, you would, want to have him on your fourth line, but I thought he played pretty well tonight, and you know, hopefully he can continue that moving forward. So good job, you know, good stuff for McGinn. You know, I've said this a lot of times. There's been a lot of passengers on this team for the last two and a half weeks. These last few games, though, he's definitely not been

one of those, to say least. It is absolutely pouring outside my house right now. That's what happens when Hurricane Nicole comes through. Now, coming up in the second segment, we're getting to the second line and how great that line was tonight, especially of getting him and I think that was his best game of the season. We're also getting to miss some other players who I also thought played well tonight, namely Brian Dumlin. But before I get to that, Benline.net is your number one source for sports betting info, stats, news, and analysis.

And before I forget, there's your wonderful little promo for those that are watching on YouTube. you can get the latest odds and trends for every professional and amateur league out there from football to basketball to basketball to soccer and e-sports. We've got it all at that online.net. And if you love sports podcasts, you can also find those that been online as well. We're always the fastest and easiest way to get your betting fix. You can head to the website today or use your phones more and more.

That has been online where the game starts. All right, I'm back in this episode of the Locktown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. If you're going to follow me on Twitter or Hunter Hodes, you can also follow the shows, Twitter at Amazon, and of course, thank you all so much for making this year first listen. of the day. So let's get into the second line tonight. By far the best line on the ice, in my opinion. I think the Crosby-Gensel-Russ line had some good shifts, but you know,

didn't really have a lot of, you know, really good schooling chances. I thought they were fine, but, you know, fine is, you know, it's not good. But the second line was just an absolute menace. And trust me, I am someone who wants regard Raquel back up on the top line. I want Brian Russ to go back down. But the way Zulker Malkin Raquel played tonight, you know, I think you're going to have a hard time convincing Mike Sullivan to do that anytime soon. They were just hounding the puck all night long. We'll start with Evgeny Malkin here. Just an absolute terror on the ice night. I mean, he took those silly penalties. I had the funny tweet where I said, he's going to break the all-time, he's going to break the franchise all-time record for penalty minutes by the end to this game.

and he made the the tripping motion on his way to the box. He was not happy about it. And what does he do after? In typical of getting Malkin fashion, he comes back, scores a beautiful goal, basically an empty net goal, but still really nice shot to tie the game at one.

And his sally was a thing of beauty. He does the tripping motion, points at the rev. I'm like, dude, I hope you don't get teed up, as they say in basketball, or just sent to the box for unsportsmanic conduct. But he was definitely still,

miffed about that call and he gave it to the ref with that celebration and that's just Pete Gino. That is who he is at this point. I mean, he's honestly been that that way throughout his career. But, you know, he was an absolute menace on the puck. Heck, that assist that he had for the Jason Zucker goal to make it two to one, just a blind pass to the opposite end of the rink. And then Jason Zucker, opposite end of the ice, excuse me. And Zucker is able to bury it glove side over Sheldgren.

The Zucker redemption door continues. Nice, sally. and just a beautiful shot as well. They were humming all night long. And then even Ricard Raquel. He said he had a couple of really nice going chances. Heck, he also almost set up Gensel, I believe, to make it almost 4-2 later on in the third period. Not Gensel.

Gensel, excuse me, Zucker, excuse me, had a beautiful, threaded a beautiful pass right through the crease. Zerker was able to get a little bit on it, just slightly hits the posting, goes wide. obviously if it's like two feet to the left that goes in but it looks like it might and maybe would have been saved because it was going a little slow but it would have been really close to say the least but that line was just unbelievable for things and I can if I can find the ship now that's not nope I don't want the shift chart I want the forward lines and you know it It's really no surprise. Every penguin's line outside the second line was below 36% in shot attempts.

The Malkin line was, when they were on the ice, they had 80% of the shot attempts. They had obviously 100% of the goals. They had 78% of the expected goals. They had 78% of the scoring chances, 54% of the scoring chances relative to the situation, also had four high danger chances for zero high danger chances against. by far the best line on the ice, it was not close. That line is absolutely cooking right now. It's really a sight to behold.

And, you know, Malkin, you know, ever since he came back last year, you know, I mean, I saw this stat from, if I can find that here. Yeah, I mean, Ryan Wilson of HockeyBuzz, you know, he even said, he's played in 62 games, including the playoffs, 29 goals, 62 points. Well, you can add that the Zucker says, you know, 29 goal is 63 points. That's over an 82 game season. That's a 38 goal, basically 82, 83 game pace,

and he's only making $6 million per season. Yet there were some people telling me on the offseason that they should get rid of him and go sign Vincent Trokechak. So, you know, I don't know. I hope those people right now that, you know, watch this team, they probably don't listen to my show. I hope those people are eating some nice crow right now. I think, you know,

Evgeny Malkin gets a lot of crap talked on him. that's honestly not that justified. Like obviously he frustrates you with the penalties. Okay, he looks lazy at times, but, you know, look at what he does in the game like tonight. I mean, he's owned the least throughout his career, yes, but he was all over the ice, making great decisions with the puck. I really don't care about his occasional turnover or two at times. I thought he was absolutely tremendous tonight for the penguins.

And again, I thought that whole second mile was great. other individual performances who I thought were great I already mentioned Casey to Smith I mentioned Brockham again Brian Duman that's now two straight games that you know ever since Mike Sullivan demoted him off the top hearing he's actually looked competent he's not really making that many mistakes yeah he was on the ice for the Zach Asson Rees School and of course you all knew Aston race was going to score against the penguins he had been pretty bad up until this point with the Leafs but in typical ex-P penguin fashion you know he has to score because that is how the laws work when it comes to this hockey team.

And yeah, he was on the ice for it. It adds to his ugly total. But I'm not really blaming him for that goal just because it was just a weird bounce to Aston Reese. I think a little bit of a maybe a weak goal in quotation marks, if that. But I'm not really going to blame Duman for that. Outside of that, though, really solid. I thought he was defending hard, making smart choices with Puck, really doing a good job,

care going from defense to offense. Heck even had a couple of, you know, decent shots, excuse me, from the point, excuse me, you can really tell that this demotion is helping him find his game again. And is he going to be on my top pairing at some point of the season? Yeah, maybe. But also, you know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And yes, he got second pairing minutes with Jeff Petrie tonight because P.O. Joseph was hurt. But, you know, that didn't really seem to matter because the Penguins did a great job.

job bottling up the leaf stars. You know, John Tavaris, he didn't really do much. Austin Matthews didn't really do a lot tonight. Munch Marner. I mean, Willie Nealander had the goal, but, you know, Morgan Riley didn't do much. They did a really nice job locking up those core players. Because you knew that Duman and Peachier were going to see a good amount of at least that's the second line that consists of Nielander and Tavares. And they also did see a little bit of the Matthews-Marner line at the top. And they made more than held their own. So I liked how Dumlin played out. I'll even say that for Petrie too. I thought he had another good game. You're starting to see him turn around a little bit as well.

Jake Ansel, what more can you say about him? Basically has eight goals in his last 10 games. He's absolutely ridiculous. The way, how consistent he is, it's nothing short of extraordinary. Those are the main players that I think jumped out at me. You know, Sid, kind of a little bit of an off game for him. I will say Chris LaTang is not playing up to par right now. I don't know what it is. I don't think it's an age thing. I don't think he's all of a sudden washed just after he signed that massive contract. I think he's just in a little bit of a rut.

And I think he needs to dig himself out of it. You know, I mean, I have no problem, you know, saying when a player, even as good as Chris is playing bad. And I thought tonight, you know, wasn't bad per se, but, you know, just wasn't noticeable like normal. It's just kind of a me. performance. I will say though, Marcus Pedersen, he has more than played well enough with Lettang. I think that's going to be a pairing that you do see stick for the foreseeable future. Again, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So I personally think that you will see that pairing

for a while. And then, you know, Ruudel and Ruta, nice to see Chauda Ruitle come in off the bench. And I thought, you know, he was as steady as every. He's not going to really blow you away with a lot of offense or anything. But, you know, he is going to be steady in his back end. And I thought you saw that tonight. Other than that, you know, I don't really have any, I guess, standout performances. Fourth Line was fine. Hinen had a, again, you know, Hinen had that nice play to him again to set up that goal for him.

Jeff Carter, fine, you know, didn't really notice him that much. And, you know, again, he didn't have a bad game or anything. I just didn't really notice him that much. But again, really good overall performance from the Penguins. They get at least two out of four points on this road trip, and they'll try to get four out of four. or when they head to Montreal or try to get some revenge on the Canadians on Saturday night. So that wraps up this segment.

Coming up in the final segment, we are going to do a full preview of that game against Montreal. And, you know, just look at the results lately and why, you know, this is a team. Again, I said early on in the season, they are not going to be a push over the season. So far they are proving me right. So stick around for that coming up after these messages. All right, I'm back on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

You can also follow the shows Twitter at LNR for Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. So the Canadians, you know, they come into this game. Reba, just making sure I have it here on my notes. Yeah, I mean, they absolutely, they crush the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday, 5'2. Before that, they beat the Detroit Red Wings. You know, this is a Canadian team. They've won two out of their last four games.

Actually, I should say, yeah. They've been an even 500 team in their last six. Yeah, they're three and three in their last six games, but they have won a couple in a row. They beat the Red Wings in a shootout. They crush the Canucks at home. And, you know, the Penguins, they'll be looking to get some revenge here after remember.

You know, they blew that 2-0 third period lead against them early on the season in the game that, you know, in my opinion, the Penguins should have won. They should have been able to defend that lead in the final couple of minutes. But, you know, for this game, at the top of the, flying Cole Caulfield, Nick Suzuki, Kirby Doc. Caulfield was a menace against him in the first matchup. Chris Teng and Marcus Pedersen,

they're going to see a very healthy dose of him. And he's just, what a talent he is. I mean, he'll score well over 20 goals this season. Suzuki, obviously a really good player. Kirby Doc had the overtime winner. And the last game, Christian Dvorich, Brendan Gallagher, Mike Hoffman on the second line. Jonathan Drewann, Sean Monaghan of getting to Downov on the third line. and then Yuel Armea, Jake Evans and Michael Posetta on the fourth line.

And then this will be a fun matchup. Caden Gouley versus Sidney Crosby Part 2. If you all remember in that first matchup, Gully gave Save Nothing. Just defended him beautifully. And forgive me, I had no idea who the kid was. I thought he was just a random, make-name defenseman. Boy, did I learn quickly who he is? because, you know, he looks like he's going to be a star in this league with how he's played this season,

especially with how he played against Sidney Crosby in that game. He plays on the top pairing with David Savard. That is going to be a really fun match up to watch. Joel Edmondson on the second pairing, Jordan Harris on the third pairing, and then in net you will see Sam Montembow or Jake Allen. I would assume they'll probably go with Jake Allen, but, you know, would not be surprised if they go with Montembow like they did last time, because, you know, I thought he played a really strong game.

His thing was, you know, for this game, for the keys, you know, keep your shift short. You know, you're coming in. It's on your on a back-to-back. The Canadians are a rested team for this one, so they're going to have all the juice. They're playing at the Bell Center. You know, keep your shift short, you know, smart plays with the Pock. Don't be trying to do too much. Also, don't be trying to overly rely on your goaltender to bail you out.

I know it's going to be a different goalie in net for the Penguins. I mean, it's 99.9.99% chance that it will be Tristanjari, but, you know, you don't also You don't want him to just be saving your butts on in every shift basis at this point. So, you know, those are my main keys. I would obviously love for the power play to be better. It is such a terrible unit right now. I really don't even know what the heck they practice when it comes. That unit is awful to watch.

You know, penalty kill. No, I think from then to now, it has improved at least a little bit. The Penguins have killed off 19 of their last 21 penalties. it would have been 20 out of 21, but, you know, the Lee Nealander scored with two seconds left on the main advantage on Friday night. So special teams always critical. But, you know, we'll see if the Penguins can get a jump on the Canadians again. You know, they jumped on them in that last matchup.

They were up to two nothing going into the third. The Canadians weren't doing much offensively. They were able to get that quick goal, make it two to one. And then, you know, they defended fine, I think, for the rest of that period. But they just, they couldn't defend that lead in the final two minutes. But, you know, the Penguins, they've made some decent strides, especially in the last couple of games, I think their defending has been great.

Playing games, especially against Toronto, to the least look absolutely gassed. And those final two minutes, the penguins were just hounding the puck from them the entire time. They had plenty of them to get into opportunities. They were playing aggressive, Mike Sullivan Hockey. That's what I want to see from this team when they're defending a six-on-five lead late in a game.

You know, you don't want to see them, you know, defendedly like they did against Montreal again on Saturday at the Bell Center when, you know, they were just sitting around like ducks. in the defensive zone and leaving Cole Cawfield wide open with two minutes left to Tyler Damon. Thank you, Tharney, for itching your ear while I am finishing up in this episode. But yeah, again, those are my main keys for this one. Keep your shift short.

Don't try to do too much. You'll try to rely on your goaltender that much. You know, see if you can get, again, obviously, see if you can get production from everyone in your lineup. But, you know, and also, it's hard enough to win on a back-to-exam. especially a road, a road back to back. Like, it's good to win the first game, obviously, because you've reversed. But to win that second game, that gets even tougher.

So I do think, you know, just due to that and the travel and just you're playing less than 24 hours later, I do think this is going to be a tough game for the Penguins to win. That said, they're playing a lot better right now. That's two wins in a row. And we'll see if they can make it three in a row when they play the Canadians. Always got to look out for their top six. I think their forward depth overall is also not bad.

you know this team plays really hard art of marty st louis there are seven and six and one so far they're you know staying in the playoff picture and yeah you know it's november 11th when i'm recording this so it's it's still early but you know they're playing well under him and you know this team it's they're definitely been fun to watch this year so that wraps up this episode of the locked on penguins podcast again i really appreciate all of you listening to this one and i really apologize what happened on thursday um you know trying to be better with all that but you know glad that I got to talk another Penguins win with you guys tonight. So I'll have another episode for you all on Monday.

We'll be recapping that game against Montreal. And then we'll be previewing the game on Tuesday against Toronto, the game that my birthday game and the game that I will be at PBG Paints Arena for. If you are going to that game, just let me know. So again, hope you all have a wonderful Friday night. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. And we'll see what the Penguins can do on Saturday. I'll be watching the game and I'll be live tweeting it with you guys.

So again, thank you so much for listening. I'll talk with you all in a few days.