Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - What do the Penguins have to do on Tuesday to come out on top?

Episode Date: April 5, 2022

The Pittsburgh Penguins dropped a tough one on Saturday to the Colorado Avalanche over the weekend but there was still A LOT to like from a Penguins perspective. Hunter goes into what impressed him about how the team played, plus how the Penguins can fix their mistakes on Tuesday when these two teams meet again. He then goes into some of the missed chances that the Penguins had and how those affected the game in a big way. After that, he touches on how Tristan Jarry could've played the second goal a bit better, even though it's being a little bit picky. He then sends a message to a part of the Penguins fanbase as they were freaking out over this loss like they just lost to the Arizona Coyotes. He covers a lot of topics in that message, including how this "championship or bust" mentality is too much at times considering what the Penguins have already accomplished in the salary cap era. Finally, he ends the show with some practice and injury notes and details how the Penguins can clinch a playoff spot as early as this coming weekend.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!HelloFreshGo to HelloFresh.com/lockedon16 and use code lockedon16 for up to 16 free meals AND 3 free gifts.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.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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 for everyone? We've got a jam-packed show for you all. Today, going over what I noticed for the Penguins in their loss on Saturday against Colorado, I've Lynch, and what they can carry over to that game on Tuesday. Also going to have a message for some of the fan base because there have just been some wild takes

being thrown around in a whole, you know, a bunch of platforms, I leave, so just want to touch on that. And also, again, we'll do a small preview, I guess, for the game on Tuesday, even though there really shouldn't be a preview, but, you know, we're still going to go into, you know what the penguins need to do this time in order to be the Colorado

avalanche, excuse me, and get into some practice updates from Monday. That's all coming up right after this drop. 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 to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes.

I'm not going to follow me on Twitter. Hunter Hodes. follow the show who's Twitter at L.O. Arnoldson Pankland says episode is brought to you by Bet Online. Ben Online has covered this season with more props, odds, and lines than at a real board that has been online where the game starts. So, of course, you know, two days old, I know Pittsburgh Penguins fall to the Colorado Abilins, three to two in what was perhaps one of the best games.

I think I've watched all season, no matter what team was on my television. I even put this on my social media. If we could just fast forward to mid-June, wherever the final starts this year, and have these two teams play a best of seven series, I would absolutely love it. I mean, this was incredible hockey, and the fact that Colorado was missing, Codry, Landis Cog,

Bowen, Byram, Sam Gerard, a couple other players, and they're still chugging along, just goes to show how good they are. You know, this was a, again, just a hell of a game. I'm the Penguins. I really think they played their butts off. And, you know, I really have no problem just overall with their performance.

in some areas, it can be better, you know, just responding after you score. I think that's going to be a big key for the Penguins. Going into the game on Tuesday, I didn't like, you know, both times the Penguins scored. Colorado scores 25 to 30 seconds later, you know, the last of which, you know, Mike Matheson ties it less than five minutes left, gets a double digit goals. We're like, okay, Penguins are going to try to get a point out of this at least, and it looks like they were going to do that. 30 seconds later, Nathan McKinnon, an intentional shot off the board.

goes right to Devon Taves or the side of the net. No one even in the vicinity of Devon Taves empty net. Nothing Tristan Jari can do there. And the avalanche go on to win. The Penguins were not able to score on the power play or on the six on five. So I guess, you know, the attention to detail was lacking a couple times. I think in the goals that the avalanche scored after the Penguins, not at the game up both times.

But, you know, this game could also have been a lot different. had Jake Gensel buried that chance in the second period. Remember, he gets that puck right on his stick, right in front of the net, goes forehand, backhand. Has Darcy Kemper beat, who is playing a hell of a game? He's one of the best goals. Penguins have gone up against this year. But the puck rolls off his stick.

Penguins are not able to score there. And that's a play that Jake buries 99% of the time. He has over 30 goals this year. He is. best pure goal score. It is very rare for him to miss that kind of chance. And when you think about it, the fact that they lost, it kind of makes sense. If Jake is able to bury that, you know, the Penguins definitely could go on to win that game. Poor Evan Rodriguez, he had chance after chance after chance, a couple of mini

breakaways. Dusty Kemper was able to shrug those aside. He's now basically at the point, two goals in his last 34 games. And I don't think it's a lack of trying. He definitely is playing his tail off, I just, you know, is he going to be a healthy scratch if this team ever gets healthy? But also, should he be a healthy scratch, even though the team right now is without McGinn and Zucker, I'm going to get to them a little later on in this episode. And honestly, you could argue just because he's not producing right now. And, you know, I get it. he's definitely a tricky player to evaluate just because he was legitimately really good

at the beginning of the year. I mean, this was not just a fluke. But I don't think any of us saw him basically taking a nosedive through the second half of the season. Is he going to stay in the lineup? I would think so. But again, I'm also not going to be super upset if he does come out of the lineup. Again, I've seen some takes on around that, you know, some of these players down in Wilkes-Ber, could replace something like Pustin'an I've seen thrown around or Angela or whatever.

I'm like, I don't particularly see that. If you want to maybe make the case that Brian Boyle should be over him in the lineup and then Jason Zulker and Brock McGinn didn't come back for the playoffs. Okay, that's maybe a little more reasonable. Redeems O'H already. But none of these other kids in Wilkesbury who have played fine this year are ready to take over someone who has double-digit goals this year and is honestly closing in on 20 goals.

If he can hopefully score 4. few more here down the stretch. I just, those kind of takes make no sense to me. But, you know, I know I've been on a little bit of a tangent here. I apologize for that. But, you know, overall, I do feel like the penguins, you know, just play better defense after those goals going into Tuesday. The second one, though, I will say this.

I didn't like it from Tristan Jari's standpoint. I think that's a save that he needs to make that it really wasn't too much traffic in front of him. Yes, I know it's a rocket from Albi Kubel, but he had a pretty good sight of it. I mean, it would be them, I think, low glove. If I have my notes here, yep. So that's a save he has to make at the end of the day. The first and third goals, I'm not really going to blame him. Too much, you know, maybe you like to see him catch the first one from Arborra, from, not Perkovsky, yeah, Ranssen and excuse me. The third one, you know, Devon Taves, he's standing on the doorstep, no goalie, is going to make that safe. So I thought he was.

it's fine. But if he cuts back on that second goal that he allows, some of the Penguins, I think, will definitely be able to win the game, that's for sure. And, you know, also the Penguins just have to stay the course. I mean, they fired over 40 shots on Kemper. He was really good. I mean, he's been one of the best goals in the league the last few months.

And, you know, when he's at that level, Colorado is almost unbeatable. And that's been why I think one of their biggest weaknesses these last couple of years is that Philip Gruberauer has not been able to rise up to the level we're seeing right now from Darcy Kemper. If Kemper can keep this up into the playoffs, I do not know who was going to beat that team in the Western Conference, maybe outside of Calgary. And honestly, in the NHL or in the Eastern Conference, too. I just, they're so loaded both at Ford and on defense. And, you know, the fact that the Penguins played as well as they did in a building that the

avalanche have hardly lost in this year, I believe the record coming into this game on Saturday. They were 27 and 4 and 3 at home. And the fact that the penguins were, you know, five minutes away from taking it to basically a 50-50 at that point in overtime and a shootout, you know, kudos down here. They can unquestionably play with the top teams in the league. And again, you know, I know that's not good enough for some people. You know, a lot of these fans have championship or bust mindsets. But, you know, I'm going to say this right now. And some people aren't going to like it.

But, you know, whatever. The penguins for as good as they are, the only one team wins the Stanley Cup. Right now, it's unlikely that they will just because of the odds against them. And I think people, you know, when they probably do get eliminated at some point in the playoffs, even though I hope that does not happen. And I hope that the other fans that listen to the show and Alvan Penguins Nation, that does not happen.

You know, when it does, I don't need to see the takes that, oh, my God, this guy stinks, or oh, my God, Mike Sullivan is bad, or oh, my God, same old Penguins of that. It's just like, you know, the East. is so loaded this year that almost no result, maybe outside of Washington win a series against Florida, would particularly surprise me. So I loved what the Penguins did in that game. They should have gotten a point.

I get that. It would have been a hell of a three-on-three session. But they can go out on Tuesday and go get the two points because I know the Penguins can beat this team. You know, they proved that, you know, they can, I mean, they obviously came that close on Saturday. but, you know, I was really impressed with what I saw. You know, Sidney Crosby is just a one-man wrecking food right now.

72 points in 58 games got his 26th goal of the season. He is, this is probably the best hockey. I've seen him play, and probably since the pandemic started, I would think. This is some special stuff. And I know a lot of people take Cindy Crosby for granted. It's the regular season. I get it. But, you know, this is still a top five player in NHL history.

and he is putting on a show night after night after night, and I don't think a lot of the national media is paying attention to it. That's whatever, you know, hopefully Sid can have a run for the ages at this year's playoffs. But, you know, obviously I'm definitely noticing it. And, you know, his hand-eye coordination with the puck on that first goal with tie in the game was superb, to say the least. Coming up in the next segment, I am going to have a message to, you know, some of the fans. Just what I've been seeing on social media and a couple other platforms for those that are not on social media. I will explain everything, what's going on. But before I get to that, this is the time of year that I pretty much given up all of my New Year's resolutions, but not this year. I'm sticking to resolution, eat right, thanks to Bill Pard. Almost feels like it's not ready of resolution because I actually enjoy eating them. Have you tried the puffs? They're the first ever protein-infused marshmallow, though. They're fluffy. They are marshmallow. They're not just a protein bar. They are a treat. And they're covered in 100% real chocolate. Heck, all Bill Pohs are covered in 100% real chocolate. And yes, the Puffalo is.

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We agreed immediately one of the biggest hits I have ever seen. Mattress Factory also says Kunitz is just pure power and he has the championship and Olympic hardware to prove it, that is art, totally art. All of this comes from Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh's premier site-specific contemporary art installations from museum. That's just a fancy way of basically saying, actually immersive art. Remember, you can visit mattress.org slash go pens to get a free one-year membership to Mattress Factory when you buy tickets for the Penguins game against the Boston Bruins on April 21st. That's two and a half weeks away. So remember, visit mattress. org slash go pens to get a free one-year membership to Mattress Factory when you buy tickets to

the Penns Bruin game on April 21st. All right. We're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins Podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow this show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. So, you know, Penguins' Twitter and a whole bunch of other places have just been wild in lately. You know, I saw when the Penguins lost the game against Colorado,

it's like they just lost the Arizona Coyotes or something. And, you know, I posted a tweet, you know, on my Twitter account. I quote tweeted, you know, Josh Yoey's tweet, you know, obviously does great work with the Penguins for the athletic, if I can find this here real quickly. Josh Yoey first tweet, you know, the Penguins are having a terrific regular season. They're on pace for 108 points.

They dealt with more injuries and illnesses as most of the teams. they just lost three to two on the road against NHL's best team. And all I see is people, excuse my language, bitching about them. It is a tough ground. And then I quote tweeted and I said, we're this fan base in the world. They played their butts off and carried play against the best team in the league. But all you see is people saying first on exit again.

And that's true. I mean, I've lost count of the, my mentions have been blowing up on my social media of saying, well, the opinions haven't won a series since 2018. And oh my God, you know, the faults are really showing again with the team. and I'm like, I understand that team has faults. Don't get me wrong. I think every team in the league has false.

But if that is your immediate reaction to the Penguins losing a thriller of a game to the best team in the league, I think people need to get their priorities straight. These last two games, even going back to the game against Minnesota, was absolutely incredible hockey. The Penguins easily could have gotten four out of four points during these last two games against two of the three best teams in the Western Conference. And the fact that, you know, some of the, I'm just going to read some of the takes I'm getting in my mentions, you know, right now. You know, someone said they're an easy team to figure out.

Every rush is the same. They have a weak defense. I don't know how someone can watch this team and actually say all that and, you know, and mean it. You know, some guys said ping was all goals every game, the very next shift after scoring five games straight. I mean, that's just not accurate because other than the car, Colorado game, I can't figure out the last time the Penguins allowed a goal within 30 seconds of scoring one. Was it the game against Carolina about a month ago when they scored twice within the first 11 seconds of the period? I can't think of any other game.

That's for sure. It's just, I don't understand it. You know, people need to stop being so negative all the freaking time when it comes to this team. I mean, this team is really, really good. And the fact that, you know, it inspires such little confidence in the fan base is truly just odd. Like, I don't get it. And I know, you know, Twitter is not the end-all be-all for stopping a message boards or whatever. Because obviously there's hundreds of thousands of fans out here, Brian, obviously probably in the millions, too.

but the fact that I keep seeing these weird takes from people where it looks like they only jumped on the team when they were just pretty good. You know, it's just, it's, it's, it reeks of people who are like they watch five to ten games a year and not, you know, the 70 or so that, you know, I and I think all of you that listen to this podcast watch. And I think a lot of other fans obviously out there too. I don't understand it. It makes no sense to me. You know, this is, again, this is one of the best teams and hockey outside of Tampa, Carolina, and Florida. I would have the Penguins at that number four or number five spot.

I saw last week, too, what people were saying, well, you know, the Rangers are a matchup nightmare and all this. And, you know, I look back and I rewatch parts of the three games again. It's like, okay, the Penguins played them really good in the first one. That was basically a 50-50 because of the going battle. Penguins won it. They got blown out on the second one because they didn't show up. Okay.

They also had some tired legs. Whatever. Third one. Basically a 50-50, Shasturkin played really well. The penguins were not getting the bounces. And the Rangers won. Okay, that was a game that the Penguins easily could have won as well. So I'm like, I'm not really seeing people's points when they say,

well, you know, they would get crushed by the Rangers in a series. are this team is prime for our first-on exit. I think too many people have a championship or bust mentality with this team. And I understand that to a degree because they have won the Stanley Cup three times in the Sydney Crosby of Kenny Malkin era. They are probably the most successful team of the salary cap era outside of the Chicago Blackhawks. But I would argue the Penguins are more successful than Chicago because the Blackhawks have

been total trash since 2016. So I would put the Penguins and that. But, you know, these are some of the last few years that we're going to get from Sid Gino and Latang. Just appreciate what you're getting. Appreciate that this team is getting close to almost 20 years in a row of being in the Stanley Cup playoffs. One of the teams that actually has a shot at another championship. Appreciate the fact that Sidney Crosby has a point per game for what, a 16th, 17th straight season. season, excuse me, 72 points in 58 games.

Appreciate the fact that Chris LaTang is playing some of the finest hockey of his career. Genni Malkin is closing it on 20 goals and he's basically played for only three months of this season at this point. You have a Hall of Fame worthy head coach behind the bench and Mike Sullivan, the best coach, I would argue, in this franchise's history right up there with Badger Bob. And yet I still see so much pessimism when it comes to this team. I don't get it. You know, people need to chill out. I think it's really not that serious.

Yes, I know I get mad when they lose, you know, two times, but at least, you know, I try to, you know, when I come on on this podcast, when the team does lose, I try to take positives out of those losses and how that can be applied moving forward with the penguins so that what happened does not happen again. So I just wanted to send that message to some of the fans out there just because, you know, my mention has just been blowing up on social media.

And I think there needs to be more fans in this fan base that, you know, are confident in this team going to the playoffs because this team is really special. And again, this is probably the best assembled roster, hopefully fully healthy, if they ever get there since 2017. So I just, I had to say that for everyone. Now, coming up in the next day, we're going to get to some practice notes from the day on Monday. and a couple other things as well. Before I get to that, though,

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You can head the website today or use your mobile device and learn more about the trends and action. That is bet online where the game starts. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host. Hunter Hodes. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

You can also have all the shows Twitter. Hello. First of what Penguins. So I already touched on the first segment how the Penguins can beat Colorado in Tuesday a little bit. I already said that, you know, they just, they got to pay more attention to detail after they score goals. Make sure Colorado doesn't get them on the counterattack. But, you know, it's really a simple. It's just, you know, if you play the way you did on Saturday, you know, more times than not,

you're going to beat any team in the league. Heck, even Colorado. You know, Adam Gretz was making that point online. Twitter on Saturday, you probably beat 30 teams in the league with that kind of performance. And heck, even times Colorado, who's just that good. So if Penguins play like that again, they will be fine. And they just got to, you know, get more of a timely say from Tristan Jari, especially on that second goal. Special teams have to be a bit better, especially when you get a chance to score on the power play late in the game.

You've got to deliver there. The zone entries weren't good. And, you know, they just, they weren't shooting enough. I don't think, and especially on the six on five situation there. And just, you know, better defensive hockey, you know, better awareness, I think, you know, in a late game situation such as there, where you're fighting to get a point and take the game into the 50-50 session for three-on-three. You just got you better and you got to help out your goaltender a little bit.

So I think if the Penguins do all those things, hopefully they don't have to work on the six-on-five because they'll be winning. I think the Penguins will be able to come out victorious and get points 93 and 94. So there were some practice. So Jason Zucker was back skating. So this injury does not seem to be nearly as serious as the her. there was still no update from Mike Sullivan. He said he's hopefully going to have something tomorrow.

Definitely a bit weird that we're closing in almost a week now at this point, and they just do not have an update on his injury. The fact that he's already back on the ice, I know he didn't practice today, but the fact that he's already skating, that's really good news. I would have to think it's probably going to be a day-to-day situation, maybe week to week.

But it definitely seems that we have not seen the last of Zolver this season. And rightfully so. I mean, this team needs him back. He was so great in that game against Smith. Minnesota before he got hurt with that nasty check from Kevin Fiala. Staley's Brockman game. He skated before practice. The earliest he can return is this Saturday.

So he will not be playing on Tuesday against Colorado. I doubt he'll play on Thursday against the Rangers either. Maybe he'll play this weekend. We have to see if he gets into a practice on at this point. And for those know that don't pay attention to magic numbers or anything. The Penguins Magic number right now is nine. So the Islanders have a pretty tough schedule coming up. they have Dallas stars tomorrow night

at the same night the Penguins play the avalanche. Then they go to Carolina on Friday. Then they have St. Louis on Saturday. So if the Penguins are able to win tomorrow night against Colorado and the Islanders lose in regulation to Dallas, the match number goes down a little bit of it gets down to five. Then if the Islanders lose on Friday to Carolina, all the Penguins have to do

is win one of those last two games on one of those two games this weekend against Washington or Nashville, and they will clinch their spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs. So, you know, if everything goes their way, which who knows if it will, probably not knowing this team's luck, Higgins can clinch a playoff spot as soon as this Saturday or Sunday. It'll be another record-breaking. Straitas, we're closing in almost 20 years at this point, which is just hard to believe.

I mean, the first year of the Penguins paid the playoffs. During that streak, I was like, yeah, I was nine years old, and I'm 24 right now. I'll be 25 this year. So it's just pretty crazy to think about. But that would do it for this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm excited to see how the team responds for a night in, I'm about to say in Colorado, in Pittsburgh. Obviously, the Penguins, three of their next four games are in Pittsburgh.

Again, they go to New York on Thursday. They may play Washington on Saturday, who's really struggling. And then Sunday, they will play the national. Predators before two more games against the Islanders, and then they'll play the Boston Ruins. A couple more time. So this is a pretty big stretch of games here coming up for the Penguins. I know, if they can go like four and three or something like that throughout this

stretch, that that would be, I think, a job well done. Am I actually four and four, something like that, you know, five and three. That I think would be a job well done in my opinion. So thank you all so much for listening to this episode. Oh, I didn't leave out one thing. shout out to Mike Matheson, probably the best hockey. I've seen him play ever. You know, he's in double-digit goals.

He's just, I think, transforming into a star before our very eyes. You know, maybe he's not going to ever be good enough to play on the top pairing and maybe even the second pairing. But, man, has he been electric for the Penguins this year? And I really hope that that continues down the stretch and into the Stanley Cup playoffs. So again, thank you all so much for listening to this episode. I'll be back on Tuesday. I'll outline the week for you all right now.

Tuesday, full game episode for the Colorado Avalanche game. Wednesday, we're going to preview the massive game on Thursday with John Chek of Locked on New York Rangers. Thursday, I'm going to have a full game recap with Rachel Noons of the hockey writers. And then Friday, I'm going to try to bring on Adam Gretz from Pro Hockey Talk and Pennsberg talk about this team, a multitude of topics surrounding the payments. So that's what you can look forward to for this week's worth of episodes. And you can catch the next episode of the.

podcast on Tuesday evening. Have a great rest of your day.