Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - What was your favorite Lundqvist moment?

Episode Date: August 21, 2021

Hunter starts off today's show with an ode to Henri Lundqvist as he's not only the best goaltender of the generation but a top 5 goaltender of all time. He discusses all the great moments between him and the Penguins and how the tables turned on that night in 2016 when the "Baby Stuff" happened. Hunter also goes into a sort of "What If?" scenario for the Penguins as that series in 2014 would qualify. How different would the franchise be if Hank didn't steal that game? After that, he goes into Danton Heinen a bit more and why he seems like someone who could break out this offseason. What is Hunter's prediction for him? Will he get time on Malkin's wing? Will he produce more than McGinn? Finally, we go around the league with some news on the Arizona Coyotes, EA NHL 22, Jake Guentzel's marriage, and much 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.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.StatHeroStatHero, the FIRST Ever Daily Fantasy Sportsbook that gives the PLAYER the ADVANTAGE. Go to StatHero.com/LockedOn for 300% back on your first play. 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. Hey, everyone, welcome to this Friday evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Honor Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Honor Hohotie's.

Follow this show, his Twitter, at L.O. underscore Penguins. Today's episode is brought to you by Rock Auto. Amazing Selection. Right below prices, all the parts of car we ever need. You can visit rock auto.com and tell them locked on sent you. I mean, this is basically, you know, we are in the Sahara Desert in terms of content this offseason for the Penguins. I mean, there's absolutely nothing going on.

Yes, I know there's less than a couple months until the season this time. Next month, you're probably looking at training camp for this organization. But right now, it is an absolute barren wasteland. There's no news coming. I don't think you're going to hear anything from this team until training camp starts. So when players start trickling their way back into Pittsburgh, and it's just that there's nothing there right now. Though we did have a little bit of news around the week today.

I mean, it does, you know, involve the Penguins a little bit. But Henrik Lunkwist, former goaltender of the New York Rangers, and I guess a little bit of the Washington Capitals. I mean, he didn't really get to play due to his condition. He has officially announced his retirement from the NHL and all hockey-related. Playing days, you know, even with international competition with Sweden, He is done with his career And I said it on my Twitter

I'm going to say it on this podcast He is a top five goaltender Of all time And he is the best goaltender Of this generation It's not really close I've been thinking about this take for a while too I think he is a better goalie than Marty Broder ever was

If you had to have me rank the top goalies ever I have Patrick Wall one Dominic Hasick 2 It's tough You can make a strong argument to put Lungquist at three, Broder at four. I mean, Tony Esposito obviously is up there as well. But I definitely think that Lungquist is the better goalie. I mean, Broder played on all these better teams.

And I think Hank had better numbers than him. And the Rangers were never stacked. He literally carried that team deep into the playoffs multiple times. and people really didn't care. This was the tweet from Demetra Fulberovich that I tweeted today. So he had a four-year playoff peak from 2011 to 2015, obviously to those years. He knocked out our Pittsburgh Penguins. Alunquist played in 76 games, had a 930 say percentage, six shutouts.

In 19 elimination games, he had a 953% stopping 607 of 637 shots. In game sevens alone, he had a 967 save percentage, made it to two conference. conference finals and won Stanley Cup final. And as Adam Betts even said, and I retweeted this as well, you know, those Rangers teams were not nearly as good enough to go as far as they did, and they only did so because of Henrik Lundquist. I remember that game seven when Hank just basically stole it from Pittsburgh in 2014. I remember going it in that game.

I was like, okay, if they win, this is awesome. You know, they're going to the conference final. They'll probably get to the final. But if they lose, I wasn't going to be mad because I knew changes were coming. And, I mean, well, you know, I don't want to sound like a profit here, but I knew changes to the front office and the coaching staff will tell me because this was not going to continue for another year, especially with how they got swept by Boston, got embarrassed by Philadelphia, you know, the year before against Tampa Bay. No one's really going on a bad night of that. They're both without, you know, the franchise is without their two best players. But a third consecutive year of going out with a whimper, basically, that was not going to fly.

obviously the latter happened but you know i think a lot about that series to this day and you know and what if the penguins actually would have won that game and gotten to the conference final or the san lincoln final i mean jermutherford's probably not here the phil kessel trade probably doesn't happen same with carl hagglin nick benino so many other moves that have transpired probably do not happen i mean is ron hextall even the general manager of this team in 2021 if the penguins win that game probably not you know there's that whole what if series going on in Marvel right now in case anyone

does not watch Marvel there's basically like a what if series detailing a bunch of events that have happened in the Marvel universe you know what if basically you know Steve Rogers was in Captain America something like that this is probably the first time

I brought up the MCU on a Penguins podcast episode but I would love for you know the Penguins organization to make like a TV show And like, what if throughout franchise history, you know, like the biggest ones, you know, what if freaking Vod like doesn't happen in 93? You know, what if they don't lose in 96 to the Panthers?

Do they go on to win that final? You know, same thing with 2008. With Marion Hosa scoring that goal right as the time expires. Do the penguins win that game in overtime? Obviously, what I just said with Lundquist? You know, what if the penguins win that game? How does their future alter? And, you know, it's just, I couldn't stand Hank a lot.

when I was a kid. I mean, he backstopped the Rangers to both those series wins when I was 16, 17 years old. I couldn't stand him at the time. But, you know, as I grew older and, you know, just my hatred for him, obviously went away because, you know, I had to be more objective with covering the team, especially when I started doing the podcast. It's just my respect for him kept growing and growing. I still think, you know, in 2016, when he flipped that net over and Mark Andre Florey, of course, called that baby stuff. after the game, that changed the penguin season, and you can't convince me otherwise, because the penguins looked dead in that game before that. I think they were losing one-nothing, and I think this happened in the second period, if I'm not mistaken, you know, his own guy runs into him, Hank's just crying to the ref, and then we all know what happens next. He throws the net off its moorings. Everyone's laughing out and giving him a bunch of stuff.

And then the penguins, I think, go on to score three or four goals on him. and then they win that game, and then they buzz saw all the rest of the conference, and then go on to win this down like a final in June. And then, you know, the Rangers, I think they were ahead of them at the time in the standings, and then Pittsburgh was able to leapfrog them. And obviously, you know, they have home ice advantage. They beat them in five games in the first round of the 2016 series. But, you know, that Rangers season, it went backwards after the night,

and the Penguin season went more forward than ever. Another, I think, cool Rangers moment with the Penguins when Hank was there. I don't know if some of you all remember this. I remember this clear as day because it happened on my birthday. November 15th, 2014, I turned 17. And that was the night. Dan Boyle scored in quotation marks the game winning goal. But then it was called back due to it was a double touch on his stick blade.

And then the penguins were able to score on the next one. And then the Rangers were stopped by Flurry. And then Pittsburgh was able to win the game. I don't think I've ever seen a sheet out. victory be reversed in NHL history before and that I think is I think that's the only one that I've ever seen or I think the only one that's ever

happened um as well so that was another incredible moment that happened uh with the Rangers when Henrik was there against the penguins but there was always so many big battles uh between Hank and Pittsburgh and you know after that 2016 series I mean the penguins I will always be forever thankful that you know they got some good karma on him for just, they let him up like a Christmas tree as some sort of payback for what he did

the previous two years. I mean, in 2015, Pittsburgh was just, they weren't going to go anywhere that year. The Rangers were the top seed for a reason. But also, Chris Latang was out for that series due to that really dirty hit from Shane Don. I'm sure a lot of you remember that. I think there was that Latang clears the puck out of his zone and not like three or four seconds later, Shane Don just sends his head flying into the boards.

Latang does not return in the game and then he's out for the rest of the playoffs. It's just a really dirty hit by, I think, one of the more underrated dirty players to ever play the game. But, you know, that's beside the point. But Hank had Pittsburgh's number at that point. I know Pittsburgh beat him in 2008, but, you know, it's just, you know, for seven straight years, he would just give the Penguins and all of this fan base a bunch of fits. And then 2016, 2017, 2018, Pittsburgh just took it to him every single time he was on the ice. he was just a different goalie when he was playing the penguins those few years.

I think the Penguins finally figured him out after all those years. But, you know, just I wish him well in retirement. It was always so fun to watch him backstop those Rangers teams to victories that they probably didn't deserve. I mean, during a lot of those years, who was their best player? I mean, a prime Derek Step-on, Chris Kreider, Ryan McDonough. I mean, sure they had good talent, but. what elite player did they have during that time? I mean, Marion Gabrick, I guess, maybe before he had battled his injury problems,

Rick Nash before he kind of started getting washed. But there really wasn't that elite player on the Rangers that you could say, oh, he's going to take over the game and bail out Henrik Lundquist when Hank doesn't need to do that. And in those 2014 and 2015 series, you know, the Rangers, they didn't have those guys, but they just, they had four solid lines of forwards and their D was close. okay. And the roster, it was just good enough where a goalie like Hank could just go God mode and carry them to the Stanley Cup final and the Eastern Conference final. And he did that very, very well. I mean, his playoff numbers overall are just ridiculous. I mean, an overall

921 say percentage, 2.30 goals against average and 10 shutouts. And again, his game 7 stats are just that much better. I think I saw this stat from a vault. thing wild. I'm pretty sure who tweeted out. I think during the 2014-2015 runs, Lundquist saved 9.9 goals above expected. So that just goes to show how amazing he was for the Rangers, and he will go down as one of the five-bated as goalies to ever do. I think the Rangers already tweeted out that his jersey will be retired next season, and for good reason. I think right now he is probably one of the, easily one of the 10 best players to never win a cup while they played an argument could definitely be made for five, that's for sure. But it is a crime that Hank never won a cup

while being with the Rangers. But I wish him all the best in retirement. You know with New York right now, it's Igor Shisterkin's time. I'm sure he's going to be pretty good, but obviously, you know, it's very hard to replace a legend in Hank. But before we do get to our next segment, we do have to touch on rock auto.com. You can save time and money when using Rock Auto, why should you choose to spend 30% and 50% or even 100% more for the same parts from a chain store car dealership? Rock Auto is a family business serving doing yourself or over 20 years. The prices are very low for every customer. They have everything you can need from brake parts, tail lamps, myrtle oil, and even new carpet.

You can go explore. They're easy to use website today to find a solution to your auto part needs. You can go to rock auto.com right now and see all the parts available for your car truck. you can write Lockdown in their how do you hear about us box so they know we sent you amazing selection right below prices all parts you cover ever need that is rock auto dot com. All right, welcome back to this episode of the locked on penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. You know what to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow this show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins.

And I wanted to spend this episode talking about Danton Hine and a bit. I don't really think I've touched on him a lot this off season. I did write about him this week, and that's honestly the biggest reason why I wanted to touch on him for today's episode, because I really think he can be a big breakout candidate for Pittsburgh this season. Yes, I understand the underlying numbers were not that good this last season for him. You know, with Hayden on the ice, the ducks, 528 minutes. The Anaheim's expected goals for per 60 was 2.26. A lot of blue around the net.

There's a little bit of red right between the face offs, maybe a little bit in front of the net. but most of it is just a lot of blue. But if you go back the season prior and only 117 minutes of 5E5 ice time, the ducks expected goals for per 60 with hiding on the ice, 2.81 plus 13%. He had better counting stats that season as well. And he goes to the prime scoring entries. If you go to evolving hockey stuff, all of his goals and chances come from the front of the net. I looked at his skater chart from 2020, and there is just a whole lot of shots 10, 15, maybe 16, 17 feet out.

And that's exactly what you want from someone who has been a 47 point player in the league before. And someone who's come close to 40 points again as well. You want them to go to the dirty areas and the high danger areas. Okay, that's basically the same thing. I don't even know why I'm saying those two things. but you want someone that can go to those areas and score the greasy goal. But you know, you also do want someone who can take shots from, you know, the circles, you know, even above the circles. And he did his fair share of that as well.

But most of his goals from the last couple of seasons have come, again, 10 to 15 feet down. And if that's what he's doing for Pittsburgh, I am all for that. I really think that he could be someone who really surprises a lot of people this season. Yes, I understand that this is, I guess people are thinking this. could be another Mark Jankowski situation. I get it. You know, I was maybe a bit higher than some on Jankowski, but I didn't expect him to be that freaking bad. I mean, the guy had, what, four goals during the regular season, two or three of them were empty netters. I mean, I think he had that one goal in the first game of the season

against the Philadelphia Flyers, and then wasn't heard of it again because he scored his next few goals just basically on empty nets. I don't think you're going to see that from Hinen. Another big thing with Danton is that you can play him. up and down the lineup, it doesn't really matter. If you want to play him on the fourth line, he'll play them. If you want to play him on the third line, you know, with maybe Jeff Carter, Jason Zucker. He can do that too, excuse me. Heck, if you want to put him on a Genie Malkin's line whenever he comes back,

I'm sure he would have no problem doing that. And I think he would put up some pretty damn good numbers next to him. I would love to see a Heinen, Malkin, Kappenin, second line to go with Gensel Krosby-Ross, because then, you know, you can go Zucker with Carter, maybe Brock McGinn down there, and then, you know, Ashton Reese with Bluger, maybe Evan Rodriguez. I mean, I think that the team, it's definitely not as deep as the 2020-2020 team, but I still think it's one of the deeper penguins teams that we've seen through the years. I mean, it's definitely a deeper team than what we saw in 2018, just because Derek Brassar was playing so bad.

And then even in 2018-19 as well, I mean, you had frickin Garrett Wilson eating up meaningful minutes for this penguin team. I don't even know what Garrett Wilson is doing these days. I don't know if he retired. I don't know if he's with an HL team. I'm going to have to double check on that because I can't even fathom why he was starting for the Penguins in a playoff game. Heck, I think he even had a

playoff goal against the Islanders in 2019. I think that was the goal that made it 1-0 in game 3. If I'm not mistaken, I'll have to look that up. But I'm pretty sure that was the one. But, you know, going back to Hinen, I'm really high on this guy, and I'm willing to die on the sword if he's not good.

I mean, he's defensive and penalty-killing impact. are also really good as well. This season was a bit of an outwire for that, plus 3.0 expected goals against while Heinen was on the ice. That's not good. If you go his previous three years before that, minus 8.8% expected goals against in 2018,

minus 7.6% expected goals against in 2019, then 2020 minus 0.7. A whole lot of blue right in the front of the net during those last three years. I think this last year, the ducks were just awful in all phases. I mean, they're one of the worst defensive. teams in the league, one of the worst offensive teams in the league. I think that really hit him hard. And now that he's going from a team that couldn't score and couldn't defend to a team

that actually can score and can defend because they have better defensemen and, of course, you know, a much better forward group, I think this will pay huge dividends for him. And, I mean, I was talking to a buddy of mine at my DMs the other day. I think the best case scenario would for him to be, you know, get him back to the level that we saw in 2018 where he was putting up half a point per game. say he gets 20 goals, 25 assists, you know, then it's all worth, especially if the Penguins somehow win a Stanley Cup, he can go out there cash out and free agency, he can go make Edmonton Oilers Cody Sisi money, he can go out and sign a three to 40 year deal, three and a half of four million per, get himself paid, and, you know, he would chalk this season up as a win. He would get himself a Stanley Cup, and then, you know, he can get the money that he's probably always wanted for his career. Is that likely to happen? Probably not, but, you know, I would absolutely love it. obviously if he did have a 20-25 type of season, of course, I mean 20 goals, 25 assists. But, you know, his P-K ability is also really good as well.

You know, with Hinen on the ice last season with the ducks, 50 minutes. So not that big of a sample size, but so the expected goals against was only 6.13 minus 11%. A whole blob of dark blue right around the high danger areas. Only a little bit of brown in between the dots. but you know minus 11% of parentheses that's exactly what you want to see from someone on the PK I know I have been quoting on this show

many times of saying I think anyone can kill penalties and I still stand by that but you still want someone who is actually pretty good at it and has been good at it for the last several years so I would expect Mike Sullivan to put him on the PK as kind of like a replacement to Brandon if they want to put him as the plus one in the wedge format that they do

you know look just obviously watching just see Marshall's video with that on his YouTube channel. You know, they can do that if they want to put him down low with two other guys. I'm sure he'll do that just fine as well. But I'm really high on him this season. I think he's going to score close to 30 to 35 points. I'm going to go out there and say that's my prediction right now. And, you know, I hope I'm right on it.

You know, that's for sure. But I think some people are sleeping on him a lot more than they should. And I think he might have a bigger impact this season than Brock will potentially. I think it's going to be close. But, you know, there's definitely a case to be made that Hein and they have a bigger impact counting stats-wise than begin will. That's all for this segment, though. We still have a couple more things to get to, though, to wrap up this episode.

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I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember, follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow this show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. Again, everyone, there is absolutely basically nothing going on here with the Penguins. I mean, congratulations to Jake Gensel with his marriage. You know, I saw that posted on the Penguins' Twitter account a couple days ago. I think a couple of the players were at the wedding. But, you know, congratulations to him.

I did see, you know, the EA NHL 2022 trailer is out. I don't really give a damn about that. I have not bought that game in five years. It is the same game over and over and over again, and it's not going to change until EA is no longer the company producing the game. That's just the reality of the situation. It's been the same game, honestly, going back to 2015. I stopped getting it, like I said, around 17, 18,

because I was fed up with it because they don't fix the bugs. There's two to three ways to score in it. Their graphics are kind of mad. If you play people online, all they do is the same damn thing to score. There's just basically no skill with playing people online because no one tries different things to beat you. It's just the same thing. You know, someone comes down on like a two on two on one. Up, center and pass the other side.

Goal. Or it's just like it's not fun to play. I mean, Austin Matthews was on the cover. You know, I'm not going to sit here and, you know, whine and whine about it. But it is a pretty weird decision that they did that two out of the last three years. And Cindy Crosby has never gone on one. So really don't understand that decision by EA. I did see the Arizona Coyote situation.

For more info on that, go check out Robin with Locked on Coyotes. He does a great job over there. I do feel bad for him and their fans just because they can never really get their foot off the ground there in the desert. Obviously, you're going to hear a lot of rumors about maybe going back to Quebec City, maybe Houston going to be getting a team. I'm not really sure what's going to happen. They're going to have to find a way to build a new arena or just playing a different arena or they are SOL. I mean, I think that's basically the best way to put it. You either find a new arena or you build a new arena or you're going to move.

You know, the coyotes can say, oh, you know, we're not going to abandon the desert or we're not going anywhere. But, you know, if you can't find a place to play or if you can't find an area to start digging an arena, you're going to have to move sooner rather than later. I just feel really bad for that franchise and their fan just because it's just been very tumultuous there for basically the last decade. I apologize for not a bunch of Penguins' content for this final segment. I guess that people, there is just not a lot going on. I think next week I'm going to start getting back to some of my season reviews that I started doing before the offseason. But I did see this question posed on Twitter last night that I did want to touch on just to end the episode. I want to hopefully hear yours either in my DMs or to the show's Twitter account or my Twitter account.

Jason Schettler asked, what would you consider the most underrated game or moment in Pittsburgh sports history? Obviously, I'm going to give a Penguins one here. But I honestly think it's definitely the Chris Let's Hang overtime goal, game three, 2009. They don't score that goal. They do not win the Stanley Cup that year. I mean, it was looking bad there during that overtime. I remember that overtime like it was yesterday, just because I snuck into my mom's room when I was. what 12 years old i had to go to she put me to bed in quotation marks um so i i wasn't able to

watch some of the overtime but i was able to sneak in there while she was watching it um downstairs with my stepdad and then when letang scored the game winner um i heard her scream a millisecond before i did and then she stopped immediately and then ran upstairs and i guess kind of put me in trouble but not really because she obviously knew right then how big of a fan i had to come But, yeah, I mean, just that moment, how loud Mellon Arena got, how the Penguins just took over that series right after that goal went in. I think it's the most underrated moment, not only in Penguins history, but in Pittsburgh sports history as well. I think right after that, if we're talking strictly Penguins, though, Jordan Stahl's short-handed goal against the Red Wings. Pittsburgh does not win the Cup that year if that doesn't happen.

I mean, that was just such a, I was just such an underrated moment just because you didn't see. see it coming, but Stahl was able to just bully himself around Brian Rolfsky, who was one of the best defensemen in the game at that time. You know, everyone likes to focus on Nicholas Iletstrom in 2009, and I know he's obviously one of the best defensemen to never do it, and was probably the best defenseman in the game at that time anyway. But Rofalski was also really freaking good, and the way that Stahl just bullied him in that sequence just goes to show how amazing he was at that time. And now, I'll always miss Pete Jordan Saw, man. He was just incredible here as a penguin.

So I think that would be definitely my second biggest underrated moment. Definitely in Penguins history. Pittsburgh sports history, it's a bit tougher. But I think overall Pittsburgh sports history, I would say it's the Crystal Tang overtime winner. Game 3, 2009 against Washington. Remember, game four, they blew them out right out of Mellon Arena. Game 5, they beat them in overtime with Evgeny Malkins' goal.

Game 6, Washington got lucky a little bit. and then game seven they just they took it right to send me on varlamo you know varlamov was just not the same after that chris latang goal in game three he just did not play like he did in games one and two but now i hand the question over to you all what do you think is the most underrated moment in pittsburgh sports history or penguins franchise history send me over those answers at the locked on penguins twitter account or my twitter account at honore hodes I will share some of those on an episode next week. Thank you all so much for listening to this one.

I know I understand, guys, this is the dog days of the summer for the off season, but we're probably about a month or a little less than a month away from training camp starting back up and getting back to five episodes a week. And then, of course, starting the season in less than a couple months, which I can't wait to do that, so to have a lot more to talk about. But again, thank you all so much for listening to this episode, and we'll do another one of these next week. Have a great weekend.