Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Was this Penguins win the win of the season?

Episode Date: January 19, 2022

The Penguins finished their road trip in style on Monday night with a massive 5-3 comeback over the Golden Knights. Hunter is back for a full recap of that contest and he starts with how the Penguins continue to find new ways to win. He touches on how Tristan Jarry played his worst game of the season but still made some big saves later in the game. Is that performance a cause for concern? he also touches on Jason Zucker and his return to the lineup. Could more goals be coming from him? How much does playing with Malkin benefit him? He also speaks about Sidney Crosby and why he needs to shoot more, Kris Letang's performance, plus how Dominik Simon may have had the best game of his season. 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. 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. Happy Tuesday. Welcome to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am, of course, your host, Hunter Hoadies. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

You can also follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. What a Monday evening it was for Pittsburgh. It looked like. They did not have it. and trust me, they did not have it after the first 20 minutes. And then they just absolutely took it to Vegas. Those last 40 minutes, they scored five unanswered goals. They get that five to three win.

Four and two overall road trip. Most of it was on the West Coast. Of course, they had that one in Philadelphia as well. They now come home for seven of their next eight at PVJ Paints Arena, starting on Thursday against Matt Murray and the Ottawa Senators. He will be returning to Pittsburgh for that game. just overall, I think my first biggest takeaway from this is, you know, the Penguins, they continue to find new ways to win.

And what I mean by that for this one, this was probably Tristan Jari's worst performance of the season, right? And, you know, he really hasn't given up a lot of bad goals. That first one to Chandler-Stevenson, that can't go in. Bad angle, five-hole, he usually swallows that up, nine-point. out of it 10 times. That one he doesn't. It's won nothing right then. The second one with Mark Stone, it was a slot shot from the point, but it was deflected. I'm not really going to give him, you know, too much for that one. The third one, though, I definitely thought he could have

saved that one. There really wasn't too much of a screen, you know, it was just a bad goal to allow, but credit to him because he played well in the second and third periods. Well, he did try to to do a mini reincarnation of Josh Bailey from the playoffs where he goes out of the net, basically turns it over, but then has a hell of a poke check to poke it off. I believe it was Stone who had the pup at that time. But, you know, he made some really great saves those last two periods. Outside of that, obviously, that horrific play. But, you know, that's what you want to see, you know, from a goaltender that, you know,

he's struggling a little bit, he's fighting the puck, he comes back, plays a lot better. But, you know, overall that said, it wasn't that good of a performance just because of a couple of the goals that he allowed. I know the penguins were able to come back and score four on Lennar. Obviously, the last one of the last one was the empty netter. But for a good portion of that game, Lennar was out playing Jari. But, you know, at the end, it didn't matter because the penguins really turned up their play. And I think another big one is, you know, not going to often dictate play against a team like Vegas for a full 60 minutes.

I'm having trouble, like, breathing almost, just because I think I ate dinner like 40 minutes ago. I don't know what's going on. You know, you're in the Sin City. Vegas is usually one of the toughest places to play, though their home record is a bit middling the season. If I recall correctly, it's around 12 and 10 and 2. So right around 500, which is weird because, you know, the atmosphere there is incredible.

I saw a lot. I just watching the game last night. They do a terrific job with just, you know, with the pregame ceremony to the intermission stuff, just to, you know, how loud the chance get and everything. Just watch a playoff game in Vegas, whether on TV or in person. It's one of the best, you know, arenas, I think, in the NHL. But, you know, they, I love what Jeff Carter said after the game. He said in the first intermission, a couple of the last.

leaders spoke up and he's like we got our shit together and boy did they ever because in the second period the penguins absolutely took it um to the golden nights i know 50% of the shot attempts is nothing to scoff at but you know the penguins overall from that second period they had 72% of the scoring chances they had a high danger advantage of nine to one nine high danger chances in one period. Some teams don't even get nine hundred danger chances in the same game. Like that just goes to show how dominant that period was. I know Vegas pushed back a little bit in those final five minutes.

It looked like Pittsburgh could not even get the fuck out of their own zone. And all, I really liked how Vegas was cycling down low. Just their four check was ferocious. Their defense were getting some good shots on net. But, you know, I said to myself going into the third, they needed to just be down when. You can't give up a goal in the final fight. minutes because, you know, if it's four-two, does the comeback even happen? Probably not, right?

I mean, I personally don't think so. But, you know, they're able to have it at 3-2. They tie it early on in the third at 3-3. They then take the lead, and then they hold that lead for the rest of the game. You know, they clinch it with a Cindy Crosby empty-knitter with about a minute left. But, you know, that was the period where the Penguins really made their move. I didn't see that coming just because of how poorly they played in the first 20 minutes. that honestly looked like the worst period of the season just because the penguins were getting boat raced. Their skating was horrendous.

They were not forechecking with any authority. Their defensive work left a lot to be desired. For some reason, Afghani Malkin was down low in a one-on-one battle in front of the net when he should have been at the front of the point. It was funny. For the second goal for Vegas, it was Mike Matheson was at the top of the point,

defending when he should be down low. And if he any Malkin, when he's supposed to be at the point, he was down low trying to box out this defender. I box out, I'm trying to remember which player it was. It wasn't Stone that scored. It was a deflection. It'll come to me. I'm probably just being a moron.

But, you know, Malkin was trying to outbox him and he couldn't. And, you know, that's not who you want down there, you know, just trying to play defense situation. You know, Malkin's never been known for his defense. He's never going to be known for his defense. We all know what he's great at. But, you know, just a really unfortunate situation I thought there. But again, after that, you know, even in the third period, Pittsburgh continued to take it to Vegas.

They tie the game with another Jason Zucker goal. And I'll just get into him, you know, before we get to the second segment here, what a performance from Zucker last night, returns from a few weeks off, gets two goals. And it's almost like, I mean, just breathe for a second here. Wow, he has his second line centerback in Afghanistan, Malkin, and hint, hint, he did not mess up the chemistry or structure. And what do you know? Jason Zucker is back to scoring goals. Now, is that going to continue for the rest of the season?

Who knows, it might not be just because of his luck. I mean, I'm looking like a complete moron predicting him to score 20 to 25 this year. But, you know, that was a good stepping. A good starting step, excuse me, for Zucker. That first one gets the monkey off his back a little bit, was potentially going to get called back. I know Robin Leonard was kind of whining about it postgame. I don't think Zoker made a lot of contact with him.

That was a goal. The second one, awesome deflection off of a set play. It was the James Neal play that Malkin and him did so many times when Neil was here. And Malkin would win the face off back, and then Neil would wrist it in, boom, goal. The same thing happened here. Malkin won it back, happened and he shot it. It looked like it was his goal at first, but Zulker tipped it in, and he got credit for the

goal, and that was his second of the night. That was the other goal that tied the game. The second goal before that, just a hell of a move from Brian Boyle, the body positioning on Shea Theodore, I think is the big one there, right? You know, he comes in on the breakaway. He's shielding Theodore from the puck. He's on his backhand with it. He's also kind of thinking in his head, okay,

if I don't score here, I want to make sure that I leave a bit of a juicy rebound because I know Teddy Bluger is right behind me. Well, Boyle accomplished that and then some. He put the puck on net. He obviously tried to score. It was saved by Leonard's pad. It kicks out a little bit. And then Bluger has a wide open net, makes it three, two. The Penguins are right back in the game.

They continue to push on in the second period before they had a really nice third. That is the kind of really great hockey IQ play from someone like Boyle. I know he's probably not going to be in the lineup full-time, especially once Hinen and Ashton-Rees come back here. I would assume they'll be good to go for one of these two games this week against Ottawa or Columbus. We'll have to see, you know, I think they'll be eligible because of the five-day quarantine, excuse me, but, you know, we'll just, you know,

we'll also have to see at that point, but, you know, I really have liked Boyle's game this year a lot more than I thought I would. He's just, you know, I think he's the really perfect 13th forward. for this team. I know people like Redeems the Hornah, you know, all this other stuff. But I personally really liked Boyle's game this year. It's nothing flashy. He's a bit older. He hasn't played a lot of hockey recently. But, you know, if he's coming in when there has to be a player that comes out for a game or two due to an injury, I'm perfectly fine with that. But, you know, those are just my analysis of a few of the first three goals, I should say.

I'm going to get to Jake Gensel's goal coming up here in the second segment as well. But, you know, it was just really nice to see Zulker have a bit of a pulse. He had a two-on-one earlier in the game. Made the right play. A lot of the Penguins in those situations would just force the pass and all this other crap. But he actually shot it, had a really good chance. Leonard just made a better say, but, you know,

Zulker did have the last laugh in sport two goals. Again, really hoping that this can be, you know, the start of something, I guess, you know, special in a way. I am rooting for him. He plays his ass off every shift. He's a fun player to watch. And I know he's also frustrating. I get that.

But, you know, this is a player that gives it his all every single night. I would rather be rooting for someone like that to score over someone that it looks like they don't really give a crap out there. So I was really appreciative of what Zulker did last night. Coming up in the second second segment, we're going to go into Cindy Crosby's performance. I thought it was a bit of a mixed bag. We're going to go into why I thought that was a mixed bag. We're also going to get into Jake Denzel's 20th goal of the year.

We're not even at the halfway point. It's ridiculous what he's doing. We're going to get into some thoughts on Crystal Tang and why he had a couple of shifts to forget about, I would say, for his NHL career. And also have a couple of other things to touch on as well. Before we do that, Betelaine would like to wish you a happy new betting years. We continue our march to the playoffs and beyond. Ben-Line remains the number one spot for all the best sports action, sports betting action for 2022. It's a new year, and that means a new updated desktop and mobile website to sign up today

and receive your 50% off on your first deposit. Just use our promo code locked on to get started from football, basketball, hockey, boxing, and UFC, write your favorite Vegas casino games. Don't wait to take advantage of all the amazing operas available for 2022. Beteline is the fastest easiest way to bet on all of your favorite sports. that is bit online where the game starts. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honour Hodes.

I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Honor Hodes, follow the show's Twitter at L-O-Nscore Penguins. I should say before we get into a couple of other player performances, and I'll give you all my thoughts on those. I did see a couple takes out there, just, you know, everywhere, you know, message boards, social media, all that, that this was the win of the season for the Penguins. I'm honestly not there personally. I think the Washington one about a month, month and a half ago was a bit better just because, you know, it was a full 60 minutes. They dominated them in basically every capacity.

I know it got a little close at the end, but, you know, territorially, Pittsburgh definitely had the better of the play. And that game, you know, and it translated the scoreboard as well. And I thought their defensive work was top match. And, of course, Tristan Jory was excellent. I thought in this one, for 40 of the 60 minutes, the Penguins did play some outstanding hockey. And, you know, beating a really good Vegas team on the road, especially on the last game of a long road trip,

that's a tall order. Don't get me wrong. But I still don't think it compares to the Washington game overall. If I had to rank it, I would have this game probably as the second best win of the season. You know, there have been obviously a couple other ones. The St. Louis one comes to my. that's probably right below this one. But I think if we're talking like a win of the season for the Penguins so far,

it was that one in Washington because they got embarrassed that first time. What was it, five one, six one, something like that? They were just bullied off the ice and the capitals are continuing to struggle. Last I checked they were down two to one to the Winnipeg Jets. But, you know, this was, I mean, that doesn't take away from the fact that this was a gigantic win for the Pittsburgh Penguins. I mean, don't get me wrong. you know, coming back from 3-0 down in Vegas against one of the best teams in the league, you don't see that too often.

And, you know, this is per Bob Grove. Coming in, going into that second period, when they were down 3-0 after the first, the Penguins had actually come back in three of the last 10, in three of their last 10 games where they have trailed 0-3 going in the second. Let's make it for their last 11. They have now come back in one. So I'll give you all that stat as well. Now, going into some more player performances,

Chris LaTang, there was a couple shifts in that first period that he definitely does not want to watch, I would say, on the film room again. One of them was on the power play. So the Penguins, they come into the zone. Brian Russ, of course, is still on the top powerplay for Edron Rieges. I personally disagree with that. What are you going to do?

But so they have everything set up. You know, Latang is running it from the point. you know, he obviously sees one of the Vegas penalty killer sticks pointing out, and he still likes to pass it cross-ice to have Gunny Malkin, gets intercepted, gets intercepted, and then he's skating back, is not even really making an effort to play defense, and then Vegas almost scores on that opportunity. Don't get wrong.

I love Chris Tang. I think he's had a phenomenal season. This is probably his best season in six years. that said, I mean, I don't know what he was doing there. That's probably not going to happen again, but, you know, I got to be fair. When I praise him, I praise him. But when I call him out, you know, it's usually warranted. And that was warranted.

The other one as well comes back basically does the same thing again and then doesn't try to play defense. It's just like, okay, get him off the ice there, let him recoup. They did that and he was fine for the rest of the game. But it's like, you know, I don't need to see Crystal Tang, you know, just making dumb cross-ice passes and not even attempting to play defense when there's a one-on-one situation the other way. So those are my thoughts on that.

Sidney Crosby, a bit of the mixed bag. There was a prime power play chance in the first, no, no, this was in the second period, excuse me, and wide open lane to shoot. It's almost like a mini two-on-one situation. He has the puck, and this has been a player that's not been shooting the puck a lot lately. has not been scoring a lot of goals, you would think, oh, Cindy Crosby's going to let this one rip. Nope.

Tries to force a pass, gets intercepted, it's cleared. And it's just like, I mean, that was probably one of the most obvious shooting situations that I could ever see him be in because, you know, again, there was no one in front of him. But he's still, you know, deferring for a pass when he hasn't been scoring on that lately. And I understand him, he isn't a bit of a slump in terms of his goal scornability. I know he scored an empty netter later on in the game. But in that kind of situation, I want to see Sid rip it. He's been struggling in that department, as I just said about 3,000 times.

Rip as many puck as you can. Eventually, the regression to the mean is going to happen, and he is going to start to score more and more goals. I mean, that's just how it works in hockey. The more chances you get, the more likely it is that you are going to score. It's not rocket science here. I want to see Sid actually attempt to shoot it more moving forward here because I did not like that at all.

Otherwise, I thought he played a mostly okay game. It's just, you know, something still is not right with him, goals scoring-wise. Again, he Malkin, you know, outside of that first game against Anaheim, you can definitely see he doesn't have his legs fully yet, but that's fine. You know, he didn't practice in training camp. He's only had a handful of practices, you know,

coming back from this very major knee surgery. It's going to take him at least a little while to get back in the game action. He's only been playing for four games. I mean, let's just, let's give the guy a break here. But, you know, he's already had a positive impact on Jason Zulker. He had two goals in that game. Kesperi Kappen also had the assist on one or two of those. He's having a great impact on those two players.

You can really see, you know, how much Zulker and Kappin mean, or how much Malkin means, excuse me, to Zulker and Kavana just because, you know, I think they turn into different players, you know, when they have him in the lineup. So those are my overall thoughts. And just some of the core players, though, I do want to say one thing about a player that I think not a lot of people notice that tonight, but you know, I definitely did. Dominic Simone. There was a reason why he got the little warrior helmet after the game, you know, whatever that, the fucking, the bold penguin

helmet, excuse me, I don't know why I totally forgot that. There's a reason why he got that after the game because his defensive work was incredible. He was creating a swing chances left and right. I know the big knock on him is that he's not. scoring, but, you know, he's also 13th or 14th forward. He's not a regular in this lineup, especially when they're not healthy. He's probably going to be behind Brian Boyle on the depth chart. That said, there were multiple instances in this game where he had amazing backchecks to break up chances, and the puck went the other way in favor of the Penguins.

And, you know, the players definitely took notice of that. And that is why he got the helmet after the game, you know, DK of DK Pittsburgh Sports. You know, he had a great segment on this, you know, in his daily shot at Penguin. On Tuesday morning, if you haven't gotten to listen to that, definitely go do that. He does a great job with that stuff every day as well, you know, just like me. I'd like to think that we have the two best daily podcasts on the penguins out there. So overall, though, I thought he was tremendous.

Again, he's not going to score, but he does the little things really well. That's what it is. It's the little things with a player like that. So, you know, all of the Dom Simone haters, get out of here. I don't really care what they think. You know, and honestly,

he really hasn't come up a lot lately, which is fine, because he's in the bottom six role. He's not playing with Sidney Crosby, because if he was, but what would be happening? Everyone would be coming for him. So,

whatever on that. But still have a little more to get to for this episode of Locked on Penguins. Might do a little preview for the game against Ottawa. You know, just touch on Matt Murray in a couple things. I don't really think,

well, actually, I almost was about to say the worst thing you could ever see on a podcast, but that's just not happening here. But I also have some thoughts on Jake Gensel's goal in just the season that he is having and a whole lot more coming up here in this next segment. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes.

You know to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. You know, what a goal last night by Jake. That was his 20th of the season. it is ridiculous that he is already at 20 goals this year, and the Penguins have played not even 41 games yet. In case you all are wondering, that is a 40-goal pace, or a little bit over a 40-goal pace, I should say.

He has goals in 17 of his last 20 games. He also has points in, I believe the number is now 20 of his last 21. This player also makes $6 million per year. I wonder what this guy would get on the open market if he were allowed. the chance would probably be well over eight and rightfully so. He is now also one of only five players to have 20 plus goals in each of the last five seasons. This guy is one of the most, if not the most underrated player in the NHL. He was never a product of Sidney Crosby.

He is an elite player in his own right. And it's about damn time. I think media and just fans as a whole that are not the Penguins start giving him the respect he deserves because he is a damn good player. You know, remember when this offseason, when, you know, there were some weird media hacks in the city saying, like, well, you know, you got to trade him for Matthew Kuchak. He's, his scorning is dried up in the playoffs, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I hope no one listened to those naysayers that really don't know what they're talking about.

Playoff scoring is hard. I will always die on that hell. There were years where Sidney Crosby. did not even score in the playoffs. Actually, multiple years where he doesn't. But, you know, are you going to trade Cindy Crosby? No, you're not going to trade Cindy Crosby. And no, you're not going to trade Jake Gensel.

He is just such an important player to this team. Great on the power play. Great at even strength. His defensive work is, you know, probably not that good, but you're not paying him $6 million per to play good defense. You're paying him $6 million per year to score your goals. That's exactly what he has done this season. The only thing that's gotten in the way of him scoring are injuries.

But, you know, knock on wood, as I just did right now on the YouTube, for the YouTube page, I should say. Hopefully he does not get hurt the season. God forbid do not. I do not want that coming to life. But, you know, the wraparound goal on Lennar, just, you know, he's able to corral the puck so well. And then go around the net. Lennar is obviously flopping around. And he just tucks it in, nice and easy.

Penguins have the lead four or three. MMA don't squander the rest of the game. He is on another level right now. I really don't know what else to say at this point about Jake. I'm glad that he got the last four-in for the All-Star game today. It was supposed to be as the manager-ed, but I think due to personal reasons, I think, was what the reasoning was. He's not able to go, so they put Jake in.

I'm so ecstatic that he is going to be going to the All-Star game. And he deserves it one of the best players in the league this year. And, you know, again, he is a top five pure goal score. in the NHL, and I will not hear otherwise. That's for sure. Later on this week, so the Penguins, they're playing Ottawa, and then they're also playing Columbus. So goal-tending-wise, I would expect Louis Deming to start against the senators. This is just me guessing and what I expect. Obviously, Mike Solomon has gone against what I've guessed numerous times, so, you know, let's see if I get a little takes exposed for this one. But I would then expect Jari to go in Columbus. This will be the Penguins' first

meeting against Columbus this season and the first time they'll play Columbus in about two years. So that should be interesting. The Blue Jackets have really fallen off the last few weeks. They started out hot. We're playing well. They were in a playoff spot. But, you know, they've fallen out so far versus like, yeah, they're toast, I think at this point. That's why I would expect, though, from the goaltending.

Goaltending circle. I think I just screwed up that word. Goaltending tandem, I should say. I don't even know what the heck is going on at this point. But, you know, the schedule coming up for the Penguins is actually really, you know, there's a big opportunity here. So, you know, Ottawa on Thursday, Columbus Friday, Winnipeg on Sunday, Arizona Tuesday next week, Seattle next Thursday, Detroit next Friday, L.A., January 30th, and then they may have Washington. And then we have that, well, that three-week break, at least for now. Elliot Freeman reported earlier on Tuesday

that it sounds like they're going to be announcing those postpone games as early as Wednesday so that means basically we'll be finding out when those postpone games with the Penguins will take place. It'll be during that stretch from, you know, February 2nd or about February 23rd, just don't know the exact dates just yet. But that'll do it for this segment

of the Locktime Penguins podcast and the episode as a whole. I know I said I was going to get to maybe a little. little Ottawa preview word I'm going to save that actually for Wednesday's episode that will be the main topic of discussion for that one and we'll also get into a couple other things as well that I have planned so thank you so much for listening to this episode and I'll talk to you all on Wednesday.