Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - What needs to stop for the Penguins to start winning again? Well... A LOT

Episode Date: November 2, 2021

It's 3 losses in a row and the sky is burning for the Pittsburgh Penguins. At least that's what some folks are saying. In this episode, Hunter goes over a few big moments from the game against the Devils, including the horrendous officiating which gave NJ the game. He also goes over how Sid was not great, to say the least, though that's likely going to regress in the future. Are POJ and Marino going to be paired up together soon? Based on line rushes during Monday's practice, it seems that way, though Hunter explains some pros and cons to that pairing. Also, discussed: When will Kris Letang make his return? Is it right of Sullivan to demote Kapanen? When is the dam finally going to burst?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.ShopifyGo to Shopify.com/lockedonnhl for a FREE fourteen-day trial and get full access to Shopify’s entire suite of features. 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. Hello, everyone, and welcome to this Monday evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Follow the shows Twitter at L.O.N.4 Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this episode of Locked on Penguins, your first listen of the podcast. the day. Obviously, you all know what happened on Saturday. I would assume most people would know by now what happened for that game. The Penguins fall four to two to the New Jersey Devils. They are now three and three and three and three and two on the season. And they have lost three straight home games as well, PPP's Paterino, which is something that don't really see too often. I know they've run into some pretty hot goalies, but usually the Penguins have still been able to win at least

one of those home games during that stretch. But the fact that they've lost three in a row, basically all in regulation. Yeah, it's not something that we have seen in the last few years. BBC Bing Serena has usually been a very kind home to the Penguins. Obviously, it was Sidney Crosby's debut game. Finally, he was a long time coming. I'll be the first to say it. He did not look good, just wasn't comfortable.

I don't think. And, you know, I guess that's kind of expected. You know, I talked about it on the crossover that I thought you would see Sid do something magical because usually he does when he comes back from an injury. Obviously, we all know what happened with the concussion against the Islanders, comes back, just scores two goals. He's had a couple other injuries where he's come back and made his mark right away. I definitely thought it would be the same here,

but with no training camp and no preseason games, and only just having to practice for about a couple weeks. You can definitely tell that some rust was still there. You know, the power play that led to, I think, to Jimmy V.C. short-handed goal, that was the first one that the Penguins have given up all season. That's a pass that usually Sid makes. it was a bit too soft in the Marino with the really ill-advised pinch there. You know, if that's Chris Latang, you probably don't see that happening.

And again, I will say this as well. Imagine the outcry from the anti-Latang crowd of the Penguins fan base if he made that mistake and it was not John Marino. I mean, they would just be clamoring for him to be traded and, you know, saying he stinks and that he shouldn't have been here this long and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But, you know, again, usually Sid makes those kind of good passes to the point and the fact that he didn't. there. Just to show that he's rusty. I'm sure he'll be fine for Thursday's game against Philadelphia. If anyone has prop bets for that one, I would definitely take it just because he always does

something crazy against the Philadelphia Flyers. But yeah, definitely not the best performance from him. I thought, you know, he's just lacking overall with his playmaking ability. Again, it's probably going to improve. But I wanted to get that out of the way. I'm not going to do a full game recap. I mean, you all know what happened with that performance. I did want to touch on a few things, though, before.

we get to what's going on this week with practice today and COVID updates and all that. I thought the officiating in that game was, I'm not, I'm not allowed to cuss anymore. You know, I think it's the same with all locked on hosts. I thought it was a bunch of crap. The way that just the game overall was officiated, I think both sides. It was just total garbage. You know, I think one of the penalty calls in the third period on New Jersey, nothing happened. I don't know how the penguin's got a power play out of that.

And then, you know, everyone's going to remember this game because, you know, with three minutes remaining. Jasper Bratt is awarded with a penalty shot for some weird reason. My thoughts on that, just an absolute disgrace of a call. I mean, we've seen people been hauled down on actual breakaways that don't get called for penalty shots. And it's just like, where is the consistency here? How are you going to not call penalty shot on an actual breakaway and then just give

them a power play, but you're going to call a penalty shot when Cindy Crosby was right with him and he barely even fell over. I just don't understand that. Yes, I know Jari is kind of meh and shootouts and penalty shots. You want to see him improve there. But that's a call you just can't make. And there's three freaking minutes left in the game. I mean, both teams are playing their butts off.

I really don't understand why you're going to have the game be decided by a 50-50 penalty shot. I mean, a power play, sure. You know, I get it. You know, maybe it's a bit of a penalty, though I would argue that I think there is not much there to even call that a penalty, to be honest. But a penalty shot there, that has to be one of the worst penalty shot calls I've ever seen for as long as I've been watching this for. There was just no reason to call that a penalty shot because it wasn't a breakaway. Because

that's the criteria, right? It basically has to be a breakaway. He was really not in alone. Cindy Cronzie was right next to him. And you're calling a penalty shot because you just don't know what you're doing. So I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in that locker room when Mike Sullivan was probably just pretty pissed off, but overall, I did not think the Penguins were good enough to win that game. Those first, you know, 25, 30, 35 minutes were, it was pretty disgusting hockey. I mean, you know, you have a power play. You're giving up a short-handed goal to freaking Jimmy V.C., of all people.

I mean, he's not even that good of a player. I think VC had another short-handed breakaway in that game. It was just very sloppy from the Penguins. That first period, especially, probably the worst period I thought of this season. They were not doing anything right offensively or defensively. will be giving up way too many chances. I liked how they responded in the third period. I thought they were dominating play.

Jonathan Bernier had to come up with some really big saves. But, you know, as that period, you know, it got down to the lower numbers. I thought New Jersey started to push again. And then obviously we all know what happened with the penalty shot. But you got to play 60 minutes to win. I mean, I know that sounds like a total Booger McFarland thing to say from ESPN. But just a really piss poor performance from the Penguins and Cindy Crosby's debut. It was nice to see Danton Heiden's score goal.

going to the front of the neck, getting that past Bernier. That's now his fourth goal at eight games. He had seven all last year. And yes, Jeff, that is six more until I get my free cocky barbecue. Brock McGinn gets another goal this season. It was really nice to see that. I like the shot that he used on that goal. He's starting to slowly but surely get used to playing here.

You know, those first couple games, he kind of got bagged on and rightfully so. Didn't look comfortable, both offensively and defensively. now you're starting to see Brock coming together a little bit he's playing with Teddy Brueger and Zach Ashton Rees filling that brand intentive role so I really like what I've been seeing there and last but not least I mean I touch on this a few minutes ago it is crazy that these last few games for the Penguins they have just been goalied and it's weird

and you know Andre Voselvesky I mean you kind of expect that for a lot of games I thought the penguins played stride for stride of the lightning that game and he was the difference and then you look at the game against the Calgary Flames Pittsburgh was clearly the better team. Jacob Markstrom comes in and it's just God. And then Jonathan Bernier makes probably five to ten huge saves in that third period on almost near certain goals that it's just like, I mean, when is this damn going to burst? I mean, poor Jake Gensel, he's getting a lot of really good quality chances

and he's just not being rewarded. I mean, there was one, I think it was on the power play in the third, where Bernier made this ridiculous glove save on him. Jake elevates that just an inch higher. It's probably in the back of the net, even though he did elevate it quite a bit. And it's just like, you know it's not going your way right now when it's the third straight game where a goalie has played off his ass.

It's honestly ridiculous at this point. But, you know, that's what happens in the NHL. You get goalied in some games. Sometimes it's three in a row. Hell, sometimes it's five games in a row. You can only hope or probably more so know that the dam is going to burst at some point and this team will be rewarded with a lot of goals.

There are definitely some audibles shouted at the television during that game. I mean, you know, and how could you not? It was definitely a really frustrating game to watch for whatever reason. This team always struggles against the devils. I really don't know what it is. But, you know, those are my main takeaways from that game. You know, Kisbury Kappan, again, getting more chances, but he's just not putting the puck in the back of the net.

And you can really see that he's getting frustrated. I thought that was also kind of the piss-poor performance from Marino, it's not good when he's playing top pairing minutes. You know what you're going to get from him in a second or third pairing role. He's just, he's not going to fill Crystal Tanks shoes. I mean, it's a lot different when Tanger's in the lineup, for obvious reasons. He's the number one defenseman. He can do it all.

But seeing Marino on the top power play and him making these bad pinches on there shows that he's not ready for that kind of role. And don't get me wrong. I love John Marino. I think he's a great player. I think he's had a really good start of the season. but, you know, he's just playing too many minutes at this point, but they also have had no choice because Latang has been in COVID protocol.

But overall, not much really else to say about that one other than let's see what happens on Thursday when this team hosts the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday. I mean, yeah, these five-day breaks suck. I mean, I don't know why that happened in the schedule, but, I mean, I guess it helps some of the Penguins because you'll probably get to see some injured players slash sick players back at practice this week. We're going to touch on that coming up here in this next segment. Before we do that, though, I do want to tell you about a simple way to get all the entertainment. You love without the hassle.

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I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O. underscore Penguins. The big news that came out today for this team, Krista Tang is out of COVID protocol. So that is just ginormous. Thank God that he is okay with all the health issues

that he has gone through throughout his career, you know, with the stroke and all the very, the bat, the herniated disc, concussions. You know, he has a hole in his heart. Thank God that COVID. really did not ravage him as much as it has some other athletes in the world who have really that. I think Jonathan Taves went through something that involved COVID.

Obviously, the Marco Rossi story was just really frightening to read. So the fact that Crystal Tang is out of COVID protocol, that's just huge. I'm not really sure if he is going to play on Thursday. He was back on the ice day for the first time. I would assume he will be back practicing with the team tomorrow. And then probably Wednesday as well. we will see if his conditioning will be up to par. I'm sure it will be,

knowing Tanger, because he's one of the most conditioned hockey players in the league. He's been riding the bike for the last few days. So if he's not in the lineup on Thursday, I would have to assume probably around Saturday at the latest, or potentially could even stretch in the next week. But the fact that he is back just big, that allows John Marino's slide back down to being paired with, I actually almost said Marcus Pedersen.

Again, it's a soul for a soul kind of thing. Marcus Pedersen also. is in COVID protocol as is Chad Roodle. I believe that news came out during the Stewards game, if I'm not mistaken. One of them has symptoms. The other one does not. I want to say, let me just double check this real quick. Okay, this comes true to see if West Crosby.

Pedersen has shown signs of symptoms. Ruudel has not. So it looks like Chad Ruehle is asymptomatic, but Pedersen is not asymptomatic. So I wanted to update you all with that. Obviously, not good news. that there continues to be a COVID bug surrounding this team. Sullivan said to the media say that he thinks it's more bad luck than anything else. Honestly, that's probably what it is.

I mean, you know, when so many players are spending so much time around each other, you know, this is bound to happen for, you know, teams across North American sports as a whole, even if the entire team is fully vaccinated. And yes, I understand the fact that it's happening when everyone is fully vaccinated compared to last year when no one was vaccinated. It's definitely a little bit frustrating. but you know this is the world we live in. COVID, it's not going away for a long time.

You know, we just, we got to get through it, and hopefully that this team can start stringing together some more wins just like they were at the beginning of the season. What does this mean for the defensive corps? Dumlin-Lateng will be the top pair if Latang is able to play on Thursday. I think you'll see John Marino slide down in the second pairing. Probably with either Mike Matheson or Yuselika, I'm hoping that Rikala continues to get a good look.

He had a great power. on that goal would set up Danton Hinen. I thought that was just a great play by him. And he always makes these kind of plays whenever he's in the lineup. I'll never understand why Mike Sullivan does not want to play him.

I think he's probably just as good as Mike Matheson, if not a little better. And you saw that on display in the game against New Jersey. Whenever he comes in, he just always shows that offensive flash and is honestly fine in the defensive zone as well. So hopefully he continues to get a bit more of a look

as the Penguins battle, this COVID issue. And then I think you're going to see P.O. Joseph in the lineup, as well. I was pretty telling that, you know, Freeman came out for Rikola. I guess Sullivan was not pleased with how Freeman was playing. I'm not particularly too high on him. I think Chad Ruehdle is better.

But I think you'll probably see Joseph with, you know, it's interesting. You know, do they do a P.O. Joseph John Marino pairing? I would think it's unlikely, considering that both are so young. And, you know, are you really going to count on Marino to carry him? but, you know, on the other hand, does Joseph really need carrying, you know, considering how good he was in his stint last year? I know he didn't have the strongest preseason slash camp. It was good at the start, but then faded a bit as the preseason went on. So I'm going to be curious to see what Sullivan does with these pairs.

You know, the ones that you saw today, Matheson was up on the top pairing with Brian Dumlin. Obviously, that's probably not going to happen with Crystal Teng coming back. Freeman was with Rekyllah, and then Joseph was with Marino. So it's potentially going to happen with POJ in John Marino. And then I'm guessing it would be Matheson Wicola and then Dum Latang. I wouldn't really mind Matheson Wicola, to be honest. You know what you're going to get with that pairing. One guy who is really good offensively and another guy who is decent offensively

provides a flash with that. But then, you know, he's more known for his defensive capability. I guess if that makes sense. But Sullivan has a lot of options to explore while both Ruehito. and Pedersen Road. Hopefully, it's not long for both of them, and the Penguins can get both of them back ASAP because they both, I think, have had really strong starts to the season, at least in my opinion. Especially Pedersen, you know, he's always been the whipping boy for a certain segment of this fan base, but he's been good in both zones of the ice this season. Actually, I should

say all three zones of the ice this season. I've really enjoyed watching him play. Four lines, Gensel, Crosby, Rodriguez, Jason Zooker with Jeff Carter and Denton Hinen, Zach Ashton Reese with Teddy Blugrin and Brock McGinn, Drew O'Connor with Brian Boyle and Kasperi Kaepin. So yes. Sullivan has definitely noticed that Kaepin has been struggling and he has demoted him. Rightfully so. I mean, he's just, I don't know what's going on.

I mean, I also wouldn't mind if he did see a shift or two with Sid, but does he really deserve that right now with how many chances that he's been getting and the puck has not been finding the back of the net? I mean, you know, other games, he's also not really had any chances. But, you know, I could obviously see the effort is there from him. It's just he's been too inconsistent And I also think Unlucky as well

So hopefully that starts to turn around You know now that we're almost at the 10th game Of the 82 game season But it's not been the greatest start to say the least For Kappi Other injury updates of Gennie Malkin continues to skate With Brian Rust He's also really skating

I would not be surprised if Brian is back on the ice At practice this week Wouldn't be surprising if he started practicing with the team as early as tomorrow or Wednesday. It looks like he's been really ramping up his workouts. I think his return of the lineup is coming sooner rather than later than for Evgeny Malkin. I can tell he's starting to ramp up his on-ice workouts as well.

That return is still probably four to five weeks away, I would say, though, in the videos that I've been watching, it looks like it could be sooner rather than later, but they're not going to rush him. I mean, there's no reason to. I mean, he's just, they probably want to do the same thing they did with Crosby. Just make sure he's 100. and 10% coming back because they will need him for the playoff push and then eventually the playoffs if this team does make it. So that'll do it for this segment. We're talking about some practice

lines, injury updates and all that. We still have a little more to get to for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. But, you know, we can't have an episode by not mentioning Bulpart. I've said this on Twitter many times. I love Thanksgiving. You know, there's so much good food and treats, but maybe you want a yummy dessert that isn't so full. of calories and sugar. That means it's the perfect time. There are Bill-Bars. They are a new holiday dessert. You can feast on something delicious and feel good about it. One slice of pie has upwards of 300 calories, and that's on the low end. Most built bars are only 130 calories and only 4 grams of sugar with plenty of protein. You can replace the coconut cream pie

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Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow those shows, Twitter, L.O. Russell Penguins. And thank you all so much for making the Locked on Penguins podcast, your first listen of the day. I wanted to spend a few minutes talking about Tristan Jari from that performance on Saturday. I thought he was mostly pretty good. I know a lot of people were only going to remember just the penalty shot. And yeah, you know, he probably could not have gotten faked out that bad.

But at the end of the day, it was probably a penalty shot that should not have been called. But overall, he was the main reason why Pissor. Pittsburgh was in that game and he continues to have a pretty stellar season. I don't know what Mike Sullivan was doing with pulling the goalie with two minutes left down by one. He probably should have just waited about another 30 seconds. The biggest thing with that was, and usually Sullivan is really good about pulling the goaltender.

They didn't really have possession and it's in kind of the neutral zone. It's not even dumped down. Why are you pulling the goalie and just, I didn't really understand it. You know, Jari then, you know, just kind of puts his stick on the player. That was just kind of funny. But overall, he made a lot of really big saves when the game was either tied or when the Penguins were down by one going into the third to keep them in that game. And I think some people need to definitely cut him a little bit of slack

because he really is off to a great start. I would assume he'll start on Thursday against the Flyers against Carter Hart. But if we do go to the stats here with goals saved above expected Jari, has gone down a little bit, but he still saved. saving 2.5 goals above expected. I believe that is just outside the top 10. So a little bit of a dip in this play, but still, it's not as bad.

He's 8 percentage on unblocked shots, 9.57, expected 7 percentage on unblocked shots, 949. So he's outperforming that. He's just still playing really freaking well. And he needs to continue this if this team is going to win a lot of games this season. I know a lot of people are also just, you know, a bit on edge just because they've lost three in a row, and there's probably a little background noise there

because my Mastiff is just playing with this huge toy so I pardon me on that. But, you know, the team is going to be fine. I understand the emotions were high in that game. They've lost three in row at home ice. It never happens. But, you know, I would expect Sid to be a lot better in that game against Philadelphia.

I would expect some reinforcements to be back, as well as some other players making their debut, such as POJ. And I'm really looking forward to that debut because, you know, what if he plays his tail off while a couple of these guys are out, you know, could that potentially force Ron Hextall's hand and, you know, trading someone like Mike Matheson? Who knows? It's probably a bit of a long shot at this point considering that he didn't have, I guess, the greatest comments about POJ after camp in the

preseason. But, you know, let's see how he does coming up for Wilkesbury. I will also leave you all with this nugget to end today's show. Philip Lindberg has had a great start to his A HL career he was named the AHL goaltender of the month for October in his first four starts for Wilkesbury, 942 say percentage, 1.71 goals against average.

So he is, I mean, this kid's really good. I mean, if you look at his numbers throughout his career in junior, throughout his career in college with UMass, he's always been one of the best goalies in whatever league he's been in it, and he's on pace to do that right now as well. I know it's only four games.

It's been a month, very small sample size, but The fact that he's doing this now in the league before the NHL bodes really well. And if Casey to Smith falters this season, do not be surprised if Philip Lindbergh is called up to make a few starts. Just putting that out there. Let's see how he does for the month of November, December and onward. But again, I will say it one more time.

If Casey to Smith falters, Philip Lindberg will be up here, I think, pretty quick. Because the organization seems to really like him. I mean, but the numbers that he's put up, very respectable, they're just awesome. And this looks like to be quite the find from Ron Hextall. There's the potential that he could be the goaltender of the future for this team. So we will see what happens, but I want to lead that nugget with you all as I end this episode.

Thank you all so much for listening to this episode of Locktime Penguins podcast. We'll have another one for you all tomorrow. Wednesday will be the preview episode of the game against the Flyers. I'll potentially have a guest on for Tuesday's episode. and then Thursday we will have a full game recap of that game against Philly and then Friday we'll probably preview the next game on the schedule. I believe that's against the Minnesota while before the Penguins play the Chicago Blackhawks next Tuesday at 8.30 p.m. Eastern Time and then they'll play the Panthers at November 11.

But that'll do it for this episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast. Again, I appreciate everyone listening and we will do another one of these on Tuesday. Keep it right here on the Locktime Penguins podcast with the latest updates on anything Penguins.