Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - What could the Penguins lines look like when healthy?

Episode Date: January 8, 2022

It's Friday but that still means another episode of Locked On Penguins. For this episode, Hunter is welcomed back by Doug Glattke and there are no shortages of topics to discuss. They first discuss Kris Letang and what a season he's having. Could he get Norris consideration? Is his contract price only going up? Is he the most important player to re-sign during the season? The conversation then shifts to Evgeni Malkin and his impending return. Who should be his linemates? They also discuss how he's not going to mess up the "structure" while also bringing up the PP. With Geno coming aboard, who comes off the top unit? They also preview the game against Dallas on Saturday while doing a quick look ahead to next week's schedule, and a whole lot more.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. Welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Honor Hodys. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the shows, Twitter, L.O.

Ernstool Penguins. And, of course, thank you so much for making the Locked-on Penguins podcast, your first listen of the day. The listenership this month is already up 35 percent. compared to where we were early December. So that definitely probably coincides with how the team is doing.

But, no, I'm just glad that the content is crushing it this month, that's for sure. Special episode today. We have Doug Glacky here of the Four Checking TV. He just had his podcast episode today

with one of the Knicks from the Nick and Nick show, Nick Borelanski, of course, that is. Doug, how we doing, man? First of all, thank you for having me on. And with how I'm doing, I'll be honest with you, man. With how the team's doing, I'm just living my best life right now.

Like, I am just straight-vibing. It's a fun time, you know, 10 in a row, they haven't done this. And quite a long time, it's the tie for the fifth longest winning streak in franchise history. Don't think they'll reach 17, but that would be pretty cool if they did. But, I mean, yeah, man, we can start at so many places. I'll probably start with Chris LaTang. this is a Norris caliber season except for the fact that

Adam Fox, Victor Headman, and Cal McCar exists because they've been even better than him this year. And that's no slouch. I mean, those are three of the best defensemen in the league. Devon Taves has been awesome. But outside of those three or four, no one's been as good as 58. No, this player is not made of glass

as I've heard before from some weird people on social media, message boards, radio, live streams, don't know where that started. He's been fully healthy the last three years, was magnificent last year. And both ends of the rank, honestly, Doug, this is probably the best hockey I've seen Crystal Tang play in five, in six years. Definitely. I'll go as far back as, you know, this might be the best hockey that he's played since he's

had the stroke. You know, there's just something about it. I feel like he simplified his game. a little bit. You've heard Mike Sullivan talk about it in some of the postgame press conferences where he's been working with him on just letting him be more cerebral with it and having him pick up on when there's a chance to be made rather than just forcing it. And I feel like that's caused the point production to spike up a little bit more than what we're used to with him. And you know, he's been just a revelation on the back end.

amongst several other guys that have just been absolutely crushing it. I mean, we could say some more things on a more reduced scale with Matheson and Brewil. They've been unreal, too. But like you said about the Crystal Tang thing leading into it, I also just want to say he should not be traded yet as, you know, we began to welcome in some of our Steelers fans back into the fan base. It's a great point because the Steelers season is most likely going to end on Sunday. For more on the Steelers, you can go check out Chris Carter.

He does a magnificent job with Lockdown Steelers and DK and everyone. But yes, a lot more people are going to start to watch this team. I've been telling the listeners on here, on my social media pages wherever, on the YouTube page as well, this is one hell of a hockey team. and I think more people in this city should start paying attention to it. Letang, though, he's been on the ice for 52% of the shot attempts for. This is VF5B5 for the Penguins. 60% of the actual goals for this season,

expected goals for percentages at 55.7%. He's been on the ice for 56% of the scoring chances. 55% of the high danger chances. It is ridiculous what he's been doing, you know, both ends of the rank. And, you know, that answer he gave DK. after the game against Philadelphia. Just he's in another world right now. And Doug, I wanted to get your thoughts on this as well.

My contract, if they can somehow get him below seven, be nice. But the way he's playing right now, might have to go four times eight if you want to keep him. And honestly, I'll give him whatever he wants. You know, he's earned the right to ask for almost whatever. I mean, not maybe not nine or ten million over here. That's a little much. But core player, I'm not here to entertain trading him or letting him walk or, you know,

you can get a lot back for him. I don't really give a crap about that kind of stuff. I mean, you're not going to get back equal value. And you take him off this team. He leaves via free agency. There's no one there that can replace what he does. So just what would be your ideal contract you think? I mean, I think you could do four or five and try to work him.

in between the $6.5 to $7 million threshold. You know, and honestly, like, there's no reason to hardball him. I think that everybody in this fan base knows that the team goes as he goes. Well, outside of Penn's Monocles over here, but, you know, we don't talk about him. Yeah, we don't talk about him. But, like, the team goes as he goes, you know. There's not a single defenseman in the pipeline, right now that can replace what he does.

And, you know, that's the biggest thing. There's not a single defenseman in the pipeline that can replace what he does. And if you're going to look on the open market to replace him, you're going to end up paying a guy 10 or 11 million. And the team doesn't have the ability to do that. And if it were me right now going into the off season, he's the number of. one on the highest priority list out of all the free agents you have. I think I'd agree with that. I love Gino.

What he's done here is remarkable. He's easily atop, what, 30 player of all time. Doug, I think that's probably fair to say. I know there's a lot of great players that have played, but not much of a, not a lot of accomplished what he has accomplished and, you know, put up the points that he is and all that stuff. But, you know, he's probably next in line after that. You know, he's just, Lattang just means.

It's weird to say that he means more to the team than Gino, but, you know, it actually, it's not that really far-fetched of a hot take. They both mean so much, but, you know, you take Chris Latang off the team and you take Gennie Malkin off the team. I think they would feel the difference more with Latang than Malkin. Good Lord. With that, I pay out apologies. There's some background noise anyways. But would you say that's accurate? I would say that's accurate.

And I think that it's probably best that we leave it at that because there's really no way to describe it outside of the team just plays better or the team is more explosive when Latang's in the lineup. You know, I think we could like dive into a Pandora's box of like why we think this. But like we could all, I feel like if we do that, that could make us look bad. potentially. So, you know, honestly, I think Retang is the highest priority guy. Saw I tweet last night from one of my

favorite fellows on Penn's Twitter, Chad Nolan. Shout out to him. We show over there with him in it. I can't recommend them enough. Yeah. Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic stuff. He's on pace for like 69 assists,

which is beyond nice. He's on pace for 73 points. which is I think that I think that's a career high for him if he hits that. I think his career high is like between 65 and 68.

I just don't remember the exact number. It's right around. It's close to 70 if I recall correctly. But it's not, if he would hit 73, that would be the most he's ever had. And, you know, I've been saying on here,

Doug, the older he gets, the better he plays. That's just the crazy thing about. I think a lot of that is because he has to simplify his game in order to keep up. And that's perfectly fine with me. Do whatever you got to do because it's working. And it's really, really working.

And I think a lot of credit is probably due in part to Todd Reardon being back in the organization. And, you know, being able to work with him because they had such a great relationship during Reardon's first stint in Pittsburgh. and he had him looking like one of those upper echelon top-tiered Norris Caliburte defenseman, and then he left. And then things got a little bleak for a couple years, but now we're back in the train's role. They have a very close relationship.

It sounds like just from what and dead and everything. So I'm not actually surprised that he's playing some of his best hockey done right now. Well, we'll get to another player coming up after this commercial break, Doug, as you know, Gino is also new in his return as well as Jeff Carter are going to get into some. what the lines could look like, all that stuff. If my beautiful built bar copy could load up right here, that would be amazing. We're just going to ad libid it. And, you know, we're going to, for some reason, it is in the owners.

I'm not how to edit this out, but you know what? For some reason, it is in, I don't know. Okay, there we go. I think we got it. Well, maybe not. for some reason my ad my my my talking points are just i've never had this problem before okay we officially have it now well that's just that's that's that's going to be some for some fun podcast radio right there um it is the new year so that means new year's resolutions if yours is about

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Blackie is also with me here. Doug, Evgeny Malkin, he is also nearing his return. No, he does not need to be traded. No, they will not get equal value back for him if he does somehow get traded. And no, he's not going to mess up the team structure, as we have seen from weird radio talking heads in the city of Pittsburgh, mainly just one, but I said, I called him a bigot.

I called him an idiot yesterday on the show here. Everyone knows who that is, I think, at this point. I think if you have that same opinion, maybe hockey is just not the sport for you. But Gino is going to be making his return in the next day or a few days. And I'm excited, man. You know, he brings so much to this lineup. The guy played on a bum knee in the playoffs, put up six points in four games.

And he brings an element to this team that is unquestioned. So with that, Doug, who would you put next to him? Cappin in with Rodriguez, Hinen with Rodriguez. Heinz, Heine with Rodriguez, you know, what are you thinking at right now as the penguins have quite a bit of options? So I have two ideas that I like. Now, before we start this, we preface the Teddy Bluger line doesn't get touched. Sid's line doesn't get touched. We're tinkering with the second and the third lines now.

I want to see Rodriguez with Malkin and Capitan. I think that that would give them the perfect combination of a great play to tributer who's also very defensively sound and would give both Malkin and cap and more freedom to do what they do best, and that is generate offense and just be pure shooters. But that being said, I also like the idea of Evan Rodriguez just playing third line center and keeping that Zooker Rodriguez-Capin-line that we had going early in the year with all the COVID outbreaks and the injuries. That is one of the best lines at 5V5 this year.

And that had Cappanin playing some of his best hockey as a penguin. But I think the more logical one is to run Rodriguez, Malkin, and Cappin, and then let your third line be a line that I really, really liked in a small sample size this year, which is Jason Zooker, Jeff Carter, and Dan Hinen. Um, those three were crushing it, um, together, especially going into that Seattle game before Jake

got went down and they had to, um, mix all the lines again. Um, I really, really, really liked what they were, um, doing. And I really liked what they were getting out of Danton Hinen and specifically during that, um, little stretch where those three were together. Um, but honestly, Hunter, like, I'm, I'm just going to come out and say it. This might be the, um, um, a little stretch where the, um, um, deepest forward group and most talented forward group that they've had since the 16th cup. It's up there. You can 100% make that comparison. This is the deepest team they've had, at least in this 2017.

Doug, I thought last year's team was deep and rightfully so. They could roll four lines with anyone. And the fourth line they had was one of the best fourth lines in the league. I'd argue this year's fourth line is even better, especially with how Rock is scoring right now. I said this the other day, Doug, credit to Ron Hextall for finding, Brock McGinn, and then for Mike Sullivan to plug him into that same TANF role and to get equal, or in my opinion, better results than what they got last season at that fourth line. And that's going to make some of the TANF fans a little upset. You know what?

Whatever. I wish him the best with his recovery from his ACL, by the way. That's an awful injury. But I still think this year's fourth line is a lot better. I think you have to have Rodriguez with Kaepernan no matter the cost. Yes. It's just he brings. Cappin, for as much as he has struggled this year,

he brings out the best in Rodriguez. They have great numbers together. I think right now, for a lot of this year, they've been riding at 80 to 90% expected goals. You saw Cappanin's pass last night to spring Rodriguez when he just caught a hot soul to another dimension. And that's just the chemistry that these two players have. And if you want to put a Viani Malkin on that,

center them. That's fine by me. Now, Do you think Carter could be the player that moves to wing? I've seen a lot of that thrown around as well. I mean, if you do what I alluded to earlier of having Rodriguez play center and him centers, Zuckerman Kappan. That makes your second line, Danton Heinen, Evgeny Malkin, and Jeff Carter. Which is something that we saw teased in like a little like,

practice lineup. I saw that those three were doing line rushes together. And that was like right before Carter went back into the COVID protocol. So who knows, maybe we're gearing up for that. But like I said earlier, I really want to see the Rodriguez Malkin-Capin in line before we go to that because Rodriguez has earned a top six role. He's earned that. I think I also like the idea of him playing a left wing too because that opens up the one-timer side. And with the confidence that that dude has right now, just shooting the puck. Like, it's literally, you know, some nights you see some shades of Ovi and some nights you see him running the half wall and you're like, basically you're just like, holy shit, this guy's running it like Phil Kessel right now. Yeah, the shot that he had against the Blues, that was Ovi.

like I mean, we've seen that many times just to get the greatest goal score to ever live. But it was fun to see that shot kind of go in the penguin's favor. It's like, wow, you know, I'm not watching Alex Webetch. You can just beat Mark Andre Fleury 5,000 times from that spot or whoever other goalie, every other goalie he's done it to throughout his career just because, you know, that's his office. Now, Doug, do you think Rodriguez should stay on the top power play when Malkin comes back? And do you think Brian Rush should come off of it? because I think that's where I'm leaning right now.

We talked about this earlier today, and I think that that's where I'm leaning as well. You know, it's just a matter of, do you keep Rodriguez up top on the power play and let Malkin play that bumper? You know, they might have to completely re-thread their power play. If they keep Malkin up there, they might have to completely, like,

re-thread how they do it in order to keep Rodriguez. Tom Rodriguez's spot if I'm sometimes if I'm not mistaken he usually runs one of the points but he'll slide down there and take shots from there. So why not just keep them there? Yeah. Rather than, you know, because here's my thing, you know, Jake has his own, his own little office going right now in the front of the net. Like he's really crushing it there. We all know that Sid loves working it down low. Tanger's going to cue be it and just let, let Erod and Gino be the guys that.

just fire it, you know. Gino loves to fire. I mean, Tanger will give him the puck on the other circle, and he'll just rip what we call, called Gino bombs from there all the time. So I would be fine with that. And I like what Brian Russ has been doing. He has seven goals in his last three games. He'll still get good minutes on the second power play unit,

and he has been part of one of the best first lines in hockey right now. So I don't really think he should be too upset, considering he's still going to play quite a few minutes. every game. And if you know what, and if Rodriguez goes a little cold, what's the worst guy can happen? Mike Sullivan will just put Brian Russ back on the top power play. And at the end of the day, you still got two really strong units, I think. Yeah. And putting rust on the second unit would also be kind of nice because it would be cool to have it not be burning out one of your top six forwards on the top power play unit. So like, let's say they keep the entire top power play unit out

for like the entire two minutes and they're gassed. They could throw, Rust out there for a shift with Dan and Heinen and Jeff Carter and Rust would be able to hold his head above water for that and potentially they could potentially generate offense doing that that's the nice thing about having a guy like Brian Rust

who can in my opinion play on all four lines and still be uberly productive yeah you know Brian Russ has been ridiculous the last three years 27 goals two years ago 22 last year on pace for another their 20 this year. I never want to hear that that player is like just a pure depth player ever again.

I mean, he's been awesome ever since, you know, he was a one-trick pony, but the way he was able to develop his game into what he is now just rock solid. And, you know, he's going to, whether it's the Penguins or someone else, Doug, money talks this offseason. He's going to get a King's Ransom, I think, from some team. Still have a little more to get to for this episode. We're going to preview the game against Dallas and just, you know, looking forward, you know, how Doug feels about the team overall for the season.

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That is Bet Online, where the game starts. All right, welcome back here to this episode of Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Toner Hodes. Of course, I'm still with Doug Blackie. Doug, big game against Dallas. You know, the Stars actually won a wild one on Thursday against the Panthers. That was just a back and forth affair. Dallas's lines, the Penguins played them earlier on in the season,

lost in the shootout when they were having their really bad shootout struggles. Hins with Pavelski and Robertson on the top line. Jamie Ben, who famously does not go down. Tyler Sagan with Dennis Garianov. And yes, I had to do the Jamie Ben. Oh, to the Jimmy Ben because, well, that is my gamer tag on Xbox Live. And I have no shame in saying that on this podcast. Radulov is on the third line, which is interesting because he's usually one of their best players.

Keevi Ransa is down there, Radic Faxa, Luke Glenn Denning, who is apparently still in the NHL. and then Michael Raffle, former flyer, John Klingberg, with a Ryan Suter, that's one of the best top hearings in hockey. And just so you would know, apparently DeWon and David Pagnona, John Klingberg has asked out of Dallas. I think it might be due to contracts. If Chris Teng would somehow walk, that's the guy I would pay, though I think he's probably going to be looking for a bit more money than Lattang is,

that's for sure, at least in my opinion. You know, Haiskenen with S. Lendell on the second pairing. and then goal tending wise, Jake Audinger is going to start for Dallas in that game. It will not be Braden Holpey, who had a return to 2016 the last time these two teams played. Overall, Dallas, middle of the pack underlying numbers, 50% of the expected goals, 47% of the actual goals, 48% of the shot attempts. What do you make of this game, you think, Doug, just been going up against the Dallas team that, you know, they're still in it, and, you know,

they're only a couple years removed from the final, but just been hard to be consistent this year. They've just coming off a two-week layoff due to COVID. I think that this is a good challenge for the penguins in the sense of Dallas was so hot going into their COVID shutdown. And obviously having that wild win against Panthers, that's nothing to sneeze at. And, you know, I'm a goalie guy. Like I like my goalies. Jake Ottinger, in my opinion, is very, very underrated.

He has a seven, I think he has a seven, two, and two record this year, and he has a 922 save percentage. That's pretty solid for a young goalie of his caliber. And, I mean, he's single-handedly chased Anton Hudobin out of the picture there in Dallas. That's a backup for Casey Smith, if they want to go that route, but keep going. 100%. But, yeah, I think that, I think this is another. a good measuring stick game for the penguins.

And, you know, the fact that it's also at 2 o'clock is also going to be a challenge for them as well because they never really play well in afternoon games. Except last week. Yeah, except last week. That was an awesome game to be at, by the way. I was there. It was great. But, yeah, I think that this is going to be a good kickoff to the Western Road Trip that they're on.

There's a couple good games on the road trip that are going to be important to, follow and watch as we slowly start to dictate like, okay, is this for real or are they just on this good of a hot streak? Yeah. That's a great point. You know, this is a big road trip for them. You know, Dallas, the full California trip. Vegas is going to be one hell of a game.

They are one of the best teams in the league in this year. And they still have yet to get Jack Eigle back. I think he's expected to come back in a month or two from his surgery. So I'm a deep team is going to get that. that much deeper. You know, I'm excited to watch that. I know that stars play a really boring brand of hockey. That game was a snooze fest.

The last time those two teams played Brayton Holby was really good. But, I mean, they played that third period. I remember this, Doug. It was almost just like, okay, we're two teams from the opposite conferences. The game is tied. Let's just both get a point and then let's see where it goes from there. I would not be surprised if the same thing happened tomorrow just because, you know, with where the stars are at the standings,

the Penguins still a few points out of first. But I'm excited to watch that one, two o'clock start time on NHN Network and ESPN Plus. If you have that subscription, obviously it'll be on AT&T Sportsnet and Pittsburgh. Last one I got for you, though, Doug, before I let you go. With the 10-game winning streak, I'm of the opinion now.

Why not them? Just because I think they can speedbag a lot of these teams in this conference. Though it is, it's deep. Florida would be a heck of a fight. Tampa Bay, obviously. Washington, New York, Carolina. I've started to get a little bit of 2016 and 2017 vibes ever so slowly. You know, how are you feeling overall?

You know, I'll be honest with you, man, and I'm not trying to, you know, force the ball downfield in a sense, but like I'm starting to get those feelings again, you know? You get those you get those reminders of like things that you saw in 17 specific 17 specifically for me where okay like they're playing a random team who's low in the standings rather than undermining them. They're just going to absolutely destroy. Yeah. You know, and that's that's important. You know, some of the depth guys that they've had killing it for them, you know.

like the Brian Boyle Shorty just basically for fun at that point in that game, remind me of some stuff that Matt Cullen would do back in 16 and 17. And honestly, like I said to you, this forward group that they have right now, I would put it up against any forward group in the Crosby-Mulcan era, in my opinion. Like, they're that good. And, you know, you got to address the backup goal-tending situation sooner rather than later because I would hate for them to have to keep riding Jari as much as they are and him potentially burn out.

God forbid he on wood here gets hooked. God forbid. Yeah, knock on wood. You know, God forbid that happens because there's nothing else. You know, Mike Sullivan, you can tell Mike Sullivan doesn't trust Casey to Smith. And you could tell that he doesn't really trust Louis DeMang either. So we're basically down to the point of correct that one single issue you have with your entire roster through a trade. And if you do it well, we're cooking with gas because everything's going right for them.

You know, Evan Rodriguez having a coming out party was so important. for the team's success. And, you know, if he's able to get cappinan going again, this team is going to be a runaway train. And it's going to be very, very hard to beat them every single night. And it's going to be very hard to beat them in a seven-game playoff series. And like you alluded to, it's pretty much Florida and Tampa Bay right now. And that's it.

Those are the only teams that I'm truly, worried about and I don't want to old takes expose myself but like that's just how I feel. Well, you could, especially if the capitals and the hurricanes keep playing well. The Rangers are good, but their underlying numbers are really bad. And I think they honestly win in spite of Shasturkin and their three best players.

That's just my opinion. Yeah, Igor's just been that good this year. Oh, yeah. He's been, he's like on another planet. He'll be probably honestly a Vesna trophy finalist at the end of the year with how he's going.

So Tristan's right there, though. Probably top five, top six. You can't argue against it, but, you know, the big measuring stick, how's it going to be come April? And, you know, if he gives them this level of goaltending, good luck. He's been fantastic all year. But, Doug, where can everyone find you on the socials and what you got playing coming up for content-wise? All right. be sure to follow my personal Twitter at Doug underscore Galachie and then follow For Checking TV on Twitter

at For Checking TV. And in terms of like content, my goal for 2022 is just to get more guests, you know, I have, I have like a small circle of people that I'm really comfortable with having on and being able to have a conversation with. But I want to challenge myself more to like reach out to other people and see what I can, if I can get them on to offer their viewpoints that I really like and. respect as well. So that's that's really what my game plan is, at least for the early part of 2022. I can't wait to see it, man. I'm sure you're going to get plenty of great guests on your

show. We're back on Monday. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Let's see what the Steelers can do. The Jaguars win. Maybe I'll go out and get a Trevor Lawrence jersey. That's for sure. Or just a Trevor Lawrence tattoo. Who knows? But Penguins are back on action. Two o'clock Saturday. They're then off until Tuesday when they go to California. Make sure you have your coffee for those games in case you're just an early bird, but late night owl over here. I just, I love those games.

But thank you all so much for listening to this episode, and we will be back on Monday.