Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - What was the best Penguins game from this past regular season?

Episode Date: November 10, 2020

We're back with more episodes this week and the player season reviews continue today with defenseman Marcus Pettersson. Was there a bit of a sophomore slump for him? Was he their best defenseman in the players numbers wise? What are some reasonable expectations for him going into next season? Hunter discusses that with his pairing of John Marino and then looks back at the Penguins best game of the regular season. It ended up being that wild game against the Vancouver Canucks when the Penguins were down 6-3 in the third period and won 8-6. Hunter discusses that game, plus ponders some other thoughts: Would Jake Guentzel have been a 45-50 goal scorer had he not been hurt and without the pandemic? Just how good was Geno during that run? He then ends the show with a new mask from Tristan Jarry and an imminent announcement coming from Adidas on the Penguins reverse retro jersey. 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.

Hello, welcome to this Tuesday afternoon episode of the Lockdown and Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L0 underscore Penguins. Today's episode is brought to you by BiltBar. You can go to Biltbar.com and use promo code locked on and you'll get 20% off your next order. A few things before we do get to our episode today. Please go check out Lockdown Steelers this week.

What a win it was for the Pittsburgh Steelers this last weekend, getting to 8 and 0 for the first time in franchise history. Chris Carter does a great job. on that podcast, I'm sure he's going to have a preview of the game this coming week against the Cincinnati Bengals, who they've beaten 10 times in a row. Hopefully Ben Rathsberger is good to go, and he keeps testing negative after he was put on the reserve list, and it's going to have McDonald tested positive for it. But definitely go check that all.

Also, guys, the Locked-on NBA mock draft, that's going to be happening. I think it starts Wednesday, runs through next Tuesday. There's six picks per day. Definitely go check that out on Locked-on NBA. That's going to be really fun to listen to. And then lastly, before we do get into today's episode, coming up on tomorrow's episode of Lockdown Penguins, we will have Rob Rossi, Penguin's Beat Writer of the Athletic,

joining the Locked on Penguins podcast, talk about the Penguins offseason, the moves, where he thinks the team stands going to next season, if he thinks they're a contender, and a whole bunch of other stuff that we will get to. It'll probably be a bit of a longer episode, but he will be coming on tomorrow afternoon. Just wanted to let you guys know.

I'm really, really excited to bring him on and share his perspective on the team and the moves they have made. Without all that out of the way, let's get into today's episode. We're going to be continuing our player season evaluations. We're going to be doing Marcus Pedersen today, who was pretty good this season, though. It was kind of a bit of a tail-off, I would say, from his rookie season where he was just absolutely outstanding. And then we're also going to be starting a new series, which we'll do for the next couple of weeks for some episodes, talking about some of the games of the year for the Penguins.

And the one game that we'll be doing today is that crazy game between them and the Canucks on November 21st. that was just, I think it was a couple days after Thanksgiving. So that will basically cover today's show. So let's get right into it. So Marcus Pedersen played in 69 games this past season. So very nice number. You know, played over 1,100 minutes on the ice. His possession was around 51.8%.

So basically 52%. His goals for, goals against, 53 to 45. His goals for percentage, 54%, which is, you know, that was honestly better than Chris LaTang's number this season. So, you know, him playing with Marino helps a lot, but, I mean, he was in the offensive zone quite a bit. His expected goals score percentage, 53%. Again, that's better than Chris LaTang's at 51.6%. His scoring chances 4 percentage, 52.5%. This is all courtesy of Natural Stattrick.com. High danger chances for 209, high danger chances against 183.

Hell, his high danger chances, 4 percentage, 53%. So he was on the ice force. a lot of offense. Like I said, John Marino is a big part of that. But, you know, he still had a very good season. I mean,

the big thing that I do want to see from Marcus Pedersen is the offense. You know, he's still young enough where it can come into his game. He's not Brian Dumlin where I think what's,

Dumlin is what, like 20, I'm trying to look up how old he is. I think he's, what, 28 now, 29. So, Dumlin's almost out of his prime years.

The offense is never really going to come with him. But for Peterson, it still can he's 24 years old had 22 points this past season the season before that with his rookie year two goals 25 points I mean so hopefully

maybe we can get him to be a 30 35 point defenseman next season maybe get his goals up to five maybe six per season gets some more assist I mean he plays on the power play at times he's been playing on the second power play unit I mean obviously he's not going to play on the top unit because that's Chris LaTang's job

but when John Marino is hurt you know Pedersen is usually next in line to play on that second powerplay, or sometimes they'll just put both Pedersen and Reno in that power play because the Penguins will be afraid of some short-handed chances it counts. But still, you know, Pedersen's defensive game, it's always rock solid. He suppresses shots at a pretty elite level. I don't know what percentile that he ranks in, though when I looked at it last time, it was pretty high up there. You know, there was some inconsistencies in his game this past season. He was burned on the ice in quite a few games. I remember the game, I think, against Washington,

where they lost in DC. They won that first game in DC. Then in the next game, they were winning the game or it was tired or something like that. He gives up the go-ahead or game-time goal. I can't remember which one it was. It was just because he made a very bad play in the neutral zone. And one of the capitals just snuck behind them and got an easy goal on a breakaway. So he needs to clean that up.

It was just sloppy play from him at times. But overall, I mean, he's still only 24. He is signed for quite a few more years. He's only getting better. He's still in the peak years of his. career and I expect him to be even better next season at suppression shots and you know there were some times last season where he was stable to jack johnson because for some reason they wanted to play jack johnson in the top war he finally realized that wasn't going to work so when they put marino next to

peterson he thrive i mean that's also because marino just is so damn good as we talked about last week with his player season review with peterson is also great defensively as well and i think that has this pairing has the potential to be one of the best second pairings in the league, especially if it gets a lot more offense, especially from Pedersen. You know, 18 of his assists, 18 of his 20 assists last year came at even strength. So he had two power play assists. And then both of his goals came at even strength. So yeah, he's going to get most of his damage done at even strength. Like I said, he's not really going to be on the power play unless they just want to put two defensemen on there. But I'm just going to keep saying, I just want to see more production of me, more consistency also,

defensively in his own zone. We all know how great he is at moving the puck up the ice. That trade for Daniel Sprawling just continues to look better and better each and every day. I mean, I remember when the Penguins got him, it was like, who the hell is this guy? I mean, it almost just almost looked like a throw-in, basically. But I think we all realized pretty quickly that that was not the case and that he was well on his way to being a rock-solid defenseman for this team. And I expect him to continue to do that now in his third season in the league. Quickly, just going over his playoff numbers before we get to. to have a commercial break. So 68 minutes played

C4C4-58. His possession was 56%. That's, I think, tops among all Penguin defensemen in this series. I mean, that's even better than John Reno, everyone, which is, that says on that's also better than Crystal Tang. So he was great offensively in that series. Goals for, goals again. So 1-0, that's not five. His expected goals for 2.55, expected goals against 1.79 on the ice. his expected goals for percentage. 58.7% again, that's one of the top marks on the team.

Scoring chances for 38 scoring chances against 21. So he was a rock defensively in that series. His scoring chances for percentage. 64.4%. I'm looking on natural statuary right now. That is the highest number on the team among any of the penguin skaters. So, yeah, he definitely was, I think, their best defenseman in that series, even better than Crystal Tang. So that's saying something to me.

high danger chances for, high danger changes against 1212, so that kind of washes out. And I know it's a very small sample size, I mean, only four games, but still the fact that he was that good in that series, he put up those kind of numbers. You know, if that carries over to this regular season and two next year's playoffs, you know, we could be looking at a much improved and much better Marcus Petters. So I'm really excited to see how he does for next season. He's going to be paired with Marino full time on that second pairing. If injuries happen, he'll get promoted up to the top pairing.

That's not where I want him to be. He can eat 18 to 20 minutes a night. But if you're going to ask him to eat 24 to 26 minutes a night with someone like Chris La Tang, I mean, you're just going to have a bad time with that. So he's in a perfectly great role with the Penguins with an outstanding defensive partner. So I just can't wait to see how he does on the ice this season. I really think this could be the big breakout season that we're waiting for for Marcus Pedersen on this team. But before we do get to our next seven, we're going to talk about one of the games of the year. It is time to talk about Bill Bar.

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4 grams of sugar, 4 grams of neck carbs. They've reset the promo code for this relaunch. You go to Billbar.com and use promo code. locked on and you'll get 20% off your next order that has promo code locked on for 20% off at built bar.com. All right, welcome back to this episode of the locked on penguins podcast. So let's get into one of the, I think this is my favorite game of the year from the penguins. And that's regular season, of course. I mean, they really didn't play any good game in the playoffs outside of game too. And we're not going to count that game too just because that series was such a disaster.

But my favorite game of the year personally was that crazy game against Vancouver right after Thanksgiving. remember like it was yesterday, the Penguins jumped out to that pretty early lead over Vancouver. I think it was 2-0. I think Brian Russ was able to make it 2-1. 2-1, 2-0-0-0-0. And then Vancouver gets one, and then they pop 3 in the 3 to make it 4-2. Then it was, I mean, basically like 6 to 3 in the 3 period. In that point, I'm like, okay, this game's over. Matt Murray got pulled. That was one of Matt Murray's worst games of the season.

I think, I'm not sure what goal. I'm actually trying to find a year. So, yeah, they pulled him after the fourth goal that made it 4 to 2 going into the third period. So Murray had a 714 save percentage that evening. Jari wasn't much better, but still 6 of 8 for 750. Again, you know, kept them in the game, but still 750 to 714. I'm not much of a difference. But, I mean, Matt Murray, yeah, just a lot of bad goals given up in that game. And then, like I said, 6 to 3 in the third period.

So at that point, I was like, okay, I'm just going to turn this off. I'll go do other things. I honestly was about to start recording the episode because I'm like, this game's over. Then all of a sudden, you know, the penguins just start roaring back. Six to four. I'm not sure who cut it to six to four. I think it was Gino that did it. I'm not positive.

Six, five, I think that goal was Aston Reese. Asthmae's either cut it to six to five or he was the tying goal. Let me look that up real quick. So I think I have it right here on ESPN. I'm just trying to figure it out. Yeah, so after it was 6 to 3, Adam Godette got his, that was, I think, his second goal of the game. Okay, it was Dominic Cahoon that had his seventh of the season, 6-4. Then it was Gino's 6-5, then it was Airston-Rees 6-6.

I thought it was one of the two, like I said, for Austin Reese, I thought more it was the time goal for him. Thank God I was right on that. And then the game winner I know, remember who that one was. That was Chris LaTang with, I think it was three minutes left in the third period. So basically, so they scored four goals. goals in a span of 10 minutes after the 6-4 goal, well, the three time goals that was scored in a matter of four minutes in 14 seconds. That's got to be one of the records in franchise history, three goals in four minutes and

14 seconds. I'll actually have to look that up. And I believe this was the game where Jacob Markstrom was sick. And Factor Demko, who was almost the hero of the Canucks series against the Vegas Golden Knights, he just had a terrible outing of seven goals allowed, 32 saves on 39 shots for 821 save percentage, which. which is just God off. And then the empty netter in this game,

I'm trying to remember who that was. That was, oh, so Gino. So Gino gets to, Gensel opened up the scoring with 229 in the first period. Then it was Brian Rust in the PowerPlay. I remember that because that was kind of like a rebound. That just he potted top shelf over Demko. And then J-Tamler scores just a few minutes later.

And then Elias Pedersen, Jake Gertan, and Adam Goddard. I remember the Verchanan and Goddek goals because they were very late in the second period, Channing and Goddek goals were actually, I think it was two goals in 41 seconds to, you know, piss off a lot of Pemans fans with Matt Murray. I remember the Matt Murray takes route in full force that night. He was just, like I said, that was one of his worst games of the season. But, you know, for the Penguins to battle back in that game the way they did, you know, you're down 6 to 3 with like, like, what, 13 minutes to play in the game. Not many people are expecting you to come back.

You score three goals in a little over four minutes just to tie the game. and then you break that tie when it looks like it's about to go with our overtime with Crystal Tang's bomb from the point, the assist on that goal were from Jake Gensel and the beginning of Malkin. That was just nothing short of extraordinary. That was, I think, the comeback of the season.

I know the big other one was the Islanders game which snapped their long point streak. That's going to, I think, come up in the Friday episode where we talk about some of the games of the season that I think was my second favorite game of the year when they came back from 3-0-0-down in the third period to tie the game

and then winning an overtime courtesy of Brian Russ, but still, you know, this comeback was something else. You know, they've done this time and time again under Mike Sullivan. It's nothing short of extraordinary. PBG paints arena was pretty dead during that third period. But, you know, the war that they let out on that tying goal and then the go-ahead goal, it's probably one of the loudest times I've ever heard PPG paints arena during the regular season.

And I know I wasn't at the game, but, you know, you could hear it, you know, through the stream on TV. It was just like the roof came off in that building. It was that good. And the penguins improved to 14 and 7. four. After that game, the Canucks fell to 12 and 10 and 4. So it looked at the time that the Canucks were not going to get into the playoffs. And I think that at this time, the Penguins were right around first place in the

Metropolitan Division, I think. This was when Sid, of course, was hurt with this sports hernia injury. He had, I think, was supposed to come back just a few weeks after this game, if I'm not mistaken. But, you know, this was also the Mundler of Gennie Malkin was really making his name out to be a Hart Trophy candidate. It was basically a point per game player, just scoring at will every single night. I think that was actually when Rossi and Yoe we were writing pieces about how, you know, if the season ended today, I think of Ganyi Malkin would have gotten their hard vote.

I mean, he would have gotten my hard vote if that was just a month, basically a month and a half of the season. He was just that good. And then, you know, I'll die on this hill as well. You know, Jake Gensel was also a point for game player at that point. I don't think he was at 20 goals just yet. I think for his total before he got her, was it 23 goals, 19 assists? I'm checking that out, a number out right now. No, 20 goals, 23, so 43 points, 39 games. I'll still die on the hill that if Jake Gensel plays a fully healthy season, you know, without even COVID, I think he gets 45, 50 goals. I mean, he was just on a roll during that stretch. I think it was actually almost a month to that day when he got hurt with that shoulder injury.

I think it was December 30th was the game. I remember that because, of course, I was there. I think it was, of course, it was against the Ottawa Senators. So basically a month before, like I said, I mean, I don't know if he would, win the Rocket Richard, but I really think he could have had at least 40 goals, but 45 to 50 with the pace he was on. And I know goal scoring, it's hot and cold during the season, but he was just on such a role that I don't think it would have mattered for him.

He was just playing so well throughout that season. And if there is mostly a full season, this coming season, maybe a 70-game schedule or some of that, I could still see him getting a 40-goal season. We're going to talk about that when we get to Jake Ensel's season review in the coming weeks. And, you know, this was also a game, you know, where Jared McCann was playing well. I think he had this game an assist on one of the goals. That first half of the season was just so great for him. And we're going to talk about Jared McCann a lot more coming up in the podcast in the future weeks as well. But, you know, he was just on a roll points-wise throughout that first half, you know, well before that one goal

and 25 to 30 game stretch during the second half of the season. I mean, he had to play second-line center for a lot of when Krazi was out because, of course, Chino had to be bumped up to the first-nine center. He really wasn't missing a beat. He was just playing that well. I still will always say that McCann's best position is center. You don't need to keep moving him around. But up until that point, you know, he was producing a lot, bunch of goals, bunch of assists, contributing a bit on the power play. You know, just just his all-around game was great. And I'm actually looking to see on the penguin schedule right here. Was there a letdown game after this game against the Canucks? I'm just trying to see what, who they played after they played Vancouver.

it was yeah that that was the um the road trip the back-to-back road trip they lost to columbus five to two where they looked pretty lifeless and then the same was in st louis i think jari started the game against uh columbus and then it was murray against the blues and he looked terrible in that game too so you know i think this was also the big breaking point you know when people were finally starting to realize that tristan jari may be the real deal i think that november his state percentage was i'm trying to remember the number i think it was 920 something but you know that was just that month and then the whole month of December just showcase, you know, his all-star ability. And, you know, if they can get that for a full season, next season of Jari, that would be absolutely

spectacular. So, yeah, there was a bunch of storylines going around for that Penguins team. So, yeah, that was a great game. I loved watching it. I somehow ended up turning it off. I know shame on me, but, you know, when I turned it back on after the 6-4 game, after the 6-4 goal, you know, I was pretty stoked to see them make it 6-5, and then Aston Reese tie it, and then Lantang win the game with just a few minutes left because I thought

the game was going to be. overtime. So we'll do another one of those on Friday after Rob Rossi comes on the podcast tomorrow. But coming up in this next little short segment, we have just up a couple little things to touch on, such as a potential announcement for these reverse retro jerseys in a few days. So don't go anywhere. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm of course your host, Hunter Hodey. So earlier today, I think it was Adidas Hockey that tweeted this out. I'm actually trying to find a tweet right here. Yeah, they basically put hashtag reverse retro coming soon. So I think each team is getting a reverse retro jersey.

Remember guys, the rumor, if you guys did not see, was that the Penguins would be getting the diagonal Pittsburgh jerseys back, but except these ones would be in white and not in black, you know, with the famous Snoop Dog video riding his bike, so the jerseys would now be in white. I've said on this podcast before, I'm not a fan of them going to the white jerseys. Just if you want to bring back those retro jerseys, those throwbacks,

which a lot of people love, but I know a lot of people hate it because you don't want them to be like the New York Rangers or something like that. Just bring them back in the actual color. You don't need to do these reverse little retro things to make it look different or whatever word you want to use for it. There's just no need for that. A ton of people would buy them in the regular color. I mean, I know a lot of people are going to buy them in the white color, but I mean, you would get a lot more sales if you just brought them back in their actual color. And I think actually the Penguins, the Penguins one was one of the first to leak.

So I'm not really sure when these are going to be announced. I would guess in maybe week or two. two, you know, maybe a month or something like that, definitely before the next season. I mean, that's a given at this point. So maybe in the next month, you know, but I'm guessing maybe in the next week or two or when, you know, the teams are going to start announcing when these reverse retro jerseys are coming out. And also, you know, how many games they'll wear them for. That's a big thing, too. I think for the penguins, you know, when they brought that third jersey, and before it went to their home jersey, of course, you know, they started wearing them. I think it

was like, what, 10 to 12 games a season or something like that? I don't know the exact number. It wasn't in a quarter of their games, but I think it was only 10 to 12, maybe 15 games during the season. So I'll be curious to see how many games they wear for this reverse retro one. If I had to guess, you're maybe looking at 10 to 12 similar to that. But I mean, this is never going to be the actual home jersey as that last one ended up be coming after the 2015-16 Stanley Cup playoffs when they ditched the Vegas goal that the Penguins had. And lastly, just a little bit of Penguins news today. I mean, just kind of funny news.

So it looks like Trishinjari has changed up his goalie mask for going. into this next season. And Tom and Jerry are going to be wearing face masks on his goalie mask. That is just absolutely awesome. I think the Penguins had a story on their website by Michelle Krakkeola, who does a great job when talking to her about this goalie mask. This is actually a pretty funny story. So he's actually, he got some inspiration from a few of his European teammates.

Apparently, he said they would always come in and say, Jerry, where's your cat, Tom? And he would have no idea what they were talking about for the longest time. He then says, I finally figured out that it was a cartoon. show, so I was like, that makes sense. They always called me Jerry. So I incorporated Tom and Jerry into my next helmet. So that is absolutely hilarious. It's going to be so cool to see that mask in action for this season whenever it starts. You know, he also said in this story, you know, he goes, I told him, the only time that really comes into mind is just honoring our frontline workers, do something with them with COVID, of course, you know, with Tom and Jerry. He said we could do

Tom and Jerry fighting COVID, which was perfect. And then I was like, well, everyone has to wear mask now. So let's put them wearing masks again. Outstanding stuff from Tristan Jari. That That's a hell of the story. And I think that's going to be one of the better goalie masks that you're going to see during the season. I always remember, you know, Thomas Grace, you know, he was here, I think, just for one season. He had one of the best goalie masks I'd ever seen. It was almost, I think, like, a zombie eating something or something like that. You know, Mark Andre Fleury's ones also comes to mind.

You know, he had, during his last season in Pittsburgh, he had a lot of his teammates on the back of his mask, just the ones that I think meant the most to him. Of course, you know, said in Gino, we're on there. I think, Don Char, Latang, a bunch of others. which was just awesome to see. That's also one of my favorite masks. So I'm always a big sucker for great goalie masks, and I thought I would share with you guys that on this podcast.

So thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. Reminder, guys, we will have Rob Rossi on the podcast here tomorrow. We'll talk all things about the off-season, get his thoughts on if he thinks the team has improved. We'll also maybe get an update on when he thinks the NHL season could start if they maybe may push back the timetable from January to February or potentially even later.

So stay tuned for that. I hope you all have a great rest of your day, and I will talk to you all tomorrow.