Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Who stood out in Sunday's game?

Episode Date: October 4, 2021

Happy Monday! 8 days away now from the regular season and we're still just getting started with content for this podcast. On today's show, Hunter recaps the Penguins' 2nd preseason win against the Detroit Red Wings and names his standouts. Is Drew O'Connor continuing to make a push for the roster? What did Kris Letang's breakaways goal remind everyone of? He also goes into the performance of Danton Heinen and Kasperi Kapanen before previewing Tuesday's matchup against Buffalo. Who is Hunter looking for to have a big game? Is it a surprise to see Kasper Bjorkqvist still on the team? Who will POJ play with? All that, plus much more on this episode of Locked On Penguins.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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Welcome to this Monday episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes and follow the shows to our L.O. Understool Penguins.

And as always, thanks for making Locked-on Penguins your first listen to every day. Remember, we are free and available on all platforms. you all had a great weekend. You know, I finished up wedding season. You know, two of my cousins actually got married in a full month's span. So I am just beat from this. There's no more weddings going

on for a while, especially not me. I mean, I'm not really going to get married to my girlfriend for, I don't know, four to five years, something like that. But big news, we got eight more days till regular season, Penguins hockey. And I think this city needs especially after what happened with the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday.

Poor Big Ben, man. He just, I loved watching him for so many years but I think just his time has been up you know for more steward's coverage go over to chris carter of locked on stewarders he does a hell of a job over there this is of course the penguins podcast as for those penguins they had that five to one preseason win yesterday over the detroit weatherings it was kind of like a dress rehearsal you know basically everyone that is a regular on this team played there were a couple you know other prospects that played as well you know shish and jari got the full start but virtually almost all the regulars played

and I'll also give you all the lineup for tomorrow's game against, I think it's Buffalo again, but yes, confirmed, yeah, it is Buffalo, IPBG Paints Arena. It'll be full capacity, but also not really because they don't usually sell out preseason games. But, you know, as for the game yesterday, there was a lot of good that I saw from this team. I thought Danton Heinen looked really good in that game, was skating very crisply, had a nice goal to make it. I think that was the one that made it for it. one. Again, there are some weird people in this fan base that are not high on Heinen coming

over. I think he's going to be the next March, Genkalski, or something like that. I mean, he has had better numbers than Jankowski has had for his career. I mean, Jankowski never had a 40 to 45 points. He's in the league. Heinen has had that. Even last year, Heinen had 14 points with the freaking Anaheim Ducks. Seven of those are goals. And Jinnikowski couldn't even score five goals with Pittsburgh last season when he played. I mean, he had that first good game against Philadelphia, and then after that, two of his next three goals at his school with a team were empty-netters. So I don't really know where that's coming from. This is going to be a steal, at least in my opinion. He had two other apples yesterday with two really slick passes. This is

going to be a player that can play wherever in the lineup that Mike Sullivan wants to put him. I was really impressed with him yesterday. Casperi Kappan, you know, he was definitely, again, one of their best players in that preseason game, and he continues to be one of their best players, not only in preseason but in training camp as well. You know, again, I know Mike Sullivan has said that he's going to be an elite player. He thinks he has what it takes. I'm still a little bit scared just because of the shooting percentage from last year, but with how he's playing right now, that release, his passing right now, his skating,

even his work in the defensive zone, I think there could be another level to his game. I mean, you know, before last year, you know, Dom wrote in his preview, who was always seen as kind of like that middle tier player in Toronto, but he really turned it on for Pittsburgh last year and looked like the player that everyone thought he was going to be when he got drafted. So can he do that this year? It's a maybe at this point,

but from what I'm seeing right now, I'm leaning towards yes, that's for sure. Drew O'Connor. Again, I was able to watch most of it. I ended up going to sports bar in Philadelphia just with my uncle and stepdad to watch some of the football games. I also keep in track on the Penguins game. But from what I did watch,

O'Connor just looks faster. I think that's the one thing that jumps out at me when I watch him this year. He looked really slow last year when he played, but this year I think he definitely made some improvements with his skating over the off season. He was making some nice passes as well. I think his hockey IQ is definitely improved as well. I know that may seem weird to say, but his hockey IQ last year was not the greatest. So it definitely seems like he's smartened up.

as a player. And, you know, this is going to be a difficult decision for Mike Sullivan. I mean, what is he going to do with this player? Does he want him to start the season in Wilkesbury? Or is he going to be that 13th forward that can come in at times when there's injuries? I mean, we don't know if he's going to be in the opening night roster, despite Evgeny Malkin and Cindy Crosby going to be out. And yes, Jake Gensel, there's a chance that he might be out for the first game as well.

I'm sorry I did not mention that at the start in case anyone somehow missed it. He tested positive for COVID-19 to last. by being fully vaccinated. No, I'm not going to go in or rant on it. You know, that happens sometimes when people are fully vaccinated. I think he just has to test negative a few days in a row in order to be taken off the COVID-lust. I believe if he does not have two out of symptoms and test negative a few days in a row,

he should be good to go for that opener. But we'll have to see. I'm wishing him a fast and a speedy recovery because he is also a player that this team cannot afford to lose, even if it's just for the first one to two games of the season. Because remember, right after they play Tampa next Tuesday, they go to Florida or Sunrise to play the Panthers who are, you know, they're no slouch either. So, again, wishing a fast and speedy recovery to Gensel.

I thought Jeff Carter looked strong yesterday as well. He had that nice Cole Pasadilkevich on a one-timer on his forehand. I know I put out the tweet jokingly. He's going to score 16 points in his first 20 games again this season. But I liked his game. You know, this is he's stepping in. for the two centers, and he definitely did not look out of place in that game yesterday, that's for sure. I'll even shout out Tristan Jari.

I thought he made some nice saves yesterday. I think there was one to two breakways that he had to be really sharp on. That first goal that the Red Wing scored, the only goal that they scored, he really had no chance on it. I think Brock McGinn ended up tipping it past his own netminder, so that's just really unfortunate. But, you know, I thought it was a small step in the right direction for Jari, and hopefully he can build off that going into his next preseason star. Casey DeSmith will be getting that next preseason start for Pittsburgh. I also will eat a little bit of crow

on this one. I thought the Matheson Marino pairing looked a lot better. They were skating more crisply. They weren't getting burned in the defensive zone like they did a lot during the regular season. I understand why Mike Sullivan wants to give it another shot just because they're two good players

even though their skill sets probably don't complement each other that much. But you know, this is why you have the training camp in the preseason games. You can see what works. You can see what doesn't work. If he doesn't doesn't like what he sees, he can just put Petterson back with Marino and then Matheson with whoever wins at number six spot. So again, I liked what I saw, but at the end of the day, it is only really one game. We'll see if they stick with that going into the next preseason game or the one after that as well. And of course, we cannot forget, Chrysla Tang's amazing Slapshot

goal, which brought us back all the way to 2008 when I was at that time 10 years old. So if anyone that is a lot older than me listens to this podcast. I have probably just aged you by telling you I was 10 years old when when Fgeny Malkin did the big, excuse my language, the fuck you slap shot to the Philadelphia Flyers after he got hit behind the net by Mike Richards. Again, I apologize for the language, but whenever I see that play, that is the only thing that pops into my mind. You know, basically it's a nice little payback.

It's probably the first time I've said that word on the podcast in a while, and that'll probably be the last time I say that word on. my podcast for a while. But he came streaking out of the penalty box, got that passed, and then ripped it past Alex And Delkevich, and he hit the showers pretty quick in that game, gave up five goals, and I want to say,

32, 33 minutes, he was not sharp at all in that game. I just, you know, again, loved that shot from LaTang. And I even tweeted out when I first saw, you know, just brought us back 13 years when Evgeny Malkin did it to Marty Barron and had that legendary celebration right after. So those are the players that I thought played well in the preseason

game again Tristanjari, Dantan, Kisperi Kappan, Drew O'Connor, Jeff Carter, and Chris Littang. I know most of these are expected, but I'll say this again. I can't get over how good Drew O'Connor looks. It really is night and day from what we saw in the regular season last year. I think this is going to be one of the toughest, if not the toughest decisions for Mike Sullivan as the roster gets trimmed even more. You know, there were some cuts.

For the weekend, in case anyone missed it, they trimmed their roster down to 35, Philip Lindberg, Mitch Ranky, Will Riley, Camley, Taylor Fadone, Nicholas Almorlie, Felix Robert, Rale Tery, Pustin, and Kyle Olson, Jonathan Gruden, and Jordy Bellarvie, and then Matt Barkowski, excuse me, was released from his PTO, but then signed an AHL contract with a Penguin.

So the roster, as of right now, Monday at 6.07 p.m. Eastern Time, is down to 35 players. I would assume after tomorrow, you'll probably see another round of cuts before the weekend, which is when I think you'll see the last round of cuts. So I think two more rounds,

one at the very minimum, but I think there will be two more rounds, in my opinion. But all in all, a very good effort by the Penguins yesterday. I liked what I saw from all of the regulars that are going to be in the lineup this year. And hopefully Tristan Jari continues that and do his next preseason star whenever that is, and I think it'll probably be this weekend. Now, you still have a lot more to get to for this episode of Lockdown Penguins, including a little preview of tomorrow night's matchup against the Buffalo Sabres.

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the free Get Upside app and use the promo code Hockey for NHL. Remember that's code hockey for NHL for Get Upside. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hon. Trujahodes. In order to follow me on Twitter at Hon. Hon.R. HONROTies, and again, Thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. So the Penguins officially released their roster for tomorrow's game against the Buffalo Sabres. Also, I wanted to remind everyone we will be having Danny Shirey of the Penns blog on either tomorrow or Wednesday. I think something came up from me on Wednesday, so I'm going to have to move that. But it should be tomorrow at the earliest.

I can't wait to have him on. I don't think I've had Danny on in over a year. So can't wait to get his thoughts on the team and some select players and just who he has breaking out and all that great stuff. So excited to bring him back on to Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm excited for you all to listen to it as well. Coming up a little later, I'm going to go over a little bit of Dom's preview from the Athletic on the Penguins as he has them getting second in the Metroazzo right now. And I wanted to touch on a quote that I saw about Marcus Peders in there and why I think some people do need to back off on him going into this season. But here is the Penguins lineup for tomorrow's exhibition against Buffalo Sabers.

This is at PBG Paints Arena and another reminder that masks are recommended for everyone that goes to the game. Drew O'Connor, Jason Zulker, Brian Russ, Caspier-Brework-Moggyn, Philip Hollander, Kasperi Kappenden, Danton, Teddy Bluger, Anthony Angelo, Redeems O'Horna, and Jeff Carter for the forwards.

Defenseman, Brian Dumlin, Chris Lattang, Marcus Pedersin, Mark Friedman, Yucericla, and P.O. Joseph, and then the goaltenders, Casey DeSmith, and Louis Dominique. I would guess that Casey de Smith will get the full start in this one. Remember, Tristan Jari did that against the Red Wings on Sunday.

I'm sure Mike Sullivan is going to do the same thing here with DeSmith. I liked what I saw from DeSmith in the last preseason match. I think if he plays like that going into the regular season and then starts playing like that in the regular season, he's going to take away some starts from Trish and Jari. You know, I've seen some takes already that he could be the better option already. You can certainly argue that. You know, he's had the better numbers over the last year. This team is going to give Jari as much of a chance as they can to get him back and rolling as he was in 2019-20 when he made the All-Star game and then looked really good against the Montreal Canadiens and the return to play.

So just wanted to share that with you all. And here's what I'll be watching for with this one. Can Redeem Zohorna actually make the top 12 going into the season? Remember, this year he's signed to not a one-way contract, but a two-way contract. The one-way kicks in after this season so they can just send. him down whenever they want. So it'll be curious to see how he plays in this game. Drew O'Connor, can he continue his push as well?

And let's see what Yuselika can do. I understand that a lot of people like him. People think that he should be higher on the depth chart than POJ. But, you know, we're going to get to see this firsthand with both POJ and Rikula in the lineup. And I would not be surprised if they are on a pair. Well, actually, I don't know why I'm saying that. They're both lefties. So I think you're probably going to see Jumel and the Tang.

Peterson with Well, Pederson, well, someone is going to have to play on their offside, I think. That's definitely a bit weird because, yeah, you have Dumlin Pedersen and POJ and you have Regla. So that's four lefties in this lineup.

So are they going to do Regula Joseph? I don't really think that would make any sense, but someone is probably going to have to play on their off side if they do Dumlin Letang. If I had to guess right now, it's probably Peterson with Ricola and then maybe Friedman with POJ. That's just my guess.

I could be dead wrong, but I'm curious to see what combinations they do there. Also, don't sleep on Casper Borkwist. I was definitely surprised that he was not included in that latest round of cuts, as the roster is now trimmed down to 35. I guess they want to see more of him and see how he does in his preseason debut.

I don't think he's going to make the team out of camp. I think he will be included in the next round of cuts. But let's see how he does in this preseason game, Philip Hollander. he will be making his preseason debut and as Clark, King Clark he told me in my DMs, you know, him getting into a lineup that's about as close to full strength as

you can without 71, 87 and 59. That's definitely a big deal. So I'm curious to see where they slot him. There's no Palin or Nathan Legerri. I think they'll probably put Hollander in the top six. You know, Mike Sullivan was doing that with Pulan and Ligari. I think he'll continue

that trip went with Hollander. Let's see what the kid has playing next to the best players in this lineup. And you know, That's going to be Kisbury Kappan, maybe up there. That's definitely going to be Jeff Carter on that top line. So I'm really looking forward to seeing where Hollander slots in to line up there. And again, you know, I will always be of the opinion that I couldn't give to craps about the results of preseason games. I want to see who is playing well rather than if they get a win or loss.

Because these games don't mean anything. You know, sure, it's nice. Okay, you know, you get to celebrate your Sunday with a win. You know, you get to watch the Steelers and go embarrass themselves. But, you know, at the end of the day, I just want to see progress. from the young players. And I also want to see how the regulars are doing on a nightly basis when they play in their

preseason games as well. And I think you're going to see most these regulars play the rest of the preseason now that the roster is down to 35 players. And especially by this weekend when they make the cuts probably down, I would guess to 29 to 28. Remember, they have to make 12 more cuts to get down to the 23-man roster.

I would assume that of Gennig Malcon is going to go on the long-term injury reserve by the time they have to be set by next Monday or Tuesday. do when the Penguins make the regular season debut in Tampa Bay for that banner raising. But I guess I don't think I can really comment that much more on this preseason game. I mean, I'll have thoughts on it after they play it and just do a little mini recap, who I thought played well, who I thought did not stand out.

And I'll definitely be watching some of those young players closely as I watched the game tomorrow. Let me know who you are looking forward to watching in that game. You can tweet me at Hunter Hodes or the show's Twitter at Ellen Score Penguins. Coming up again in that next segment, we're going to go over Dom's previous. on the Penguins and the Athletic and why. Some people still need to lay off Marcus Pedersen a little bit. Before we do that, though, I do have to touch on everyone's favorite protein bar, which is Bill Bar.

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Indeed.com slash locked on. Offer valid through December 31st. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire. You need indeed. All right. Welcome back to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes.

I'm going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguin. So this was the quote, well, the paragraph, excuse me, from Dom's preview about Marcus Pedersen. Brian Juneer remains his partner, a consistent, steady presence on the left side, who doesn't get as due as a defensive defender. He's talking about Chris Littang there. Surprisingly, though, he wasn't the best on the team last season with cleaning

on messes and defending the blue line. That honor went to Marcus Pedersen, a sometimes maligned figure on the back end. He's better than many give him credit for. I'm not quite sure whether they're. the hate stems from. I agree, Dom. I've never really understood why so many people hate Marcus Pedersen. As Don writes, he's not a great puck mover and is in the most physical, but he puts up great defensive numbers. He consistently allows fewer chances relative to teammates, which brings them to a consistent 53% expected goals rate, and here's the kicker. And even higher actual goal rate,

last year, no one allowed fewer expected goals against than Marcus Pedersen. That right there should get all the Patterson haters to shut the heck up. I don't understand. I don't understand. understand why he gets so much hate. Again, you know, the physical stuff just needs to be put in the garbage. I don't really care if he loses a net front battle once in a while. But the fact that no one allowed fewer expected goals against last season in Perison goes to show that he is doing his job, right? Obviously, he is not going to be that great of a puck mover,

but he doesn't need to be because he's partnered with John Marino, who is a really good puck mover up the ice. In fact, he was actually the team's best defenseman at 3rd. I find this here on Dom's preview. He was the team's best puck mover off the breakout. And even though he's probably not going to be a top-peering guy, that's fine with me because you have Chris Littang still eating up a big chunk of minutes despite being 34 years old.

He's still kicking butt to this day. I don't really have a problem with that. And again, what I love to see more offense for Marcus Pedersen? Oh, absolutely. I mean, I would love for those numbers to go up. But he's always been steady ever since coming over in the trade for Daniel Sprong. For some reason, you know, the people that like hard-hitting hockey or just good physical hockey, I've never really seemed to mesh with Patterson, just because

he's not hitting people. But the thing is, peeps, with hitting, usually when a team is leading in the hitting department, it means that they're chasing the game and chasing the puck the entire freaking time. I don't really care if a team has 70 hits to 43. Usually the team with a lower amount of hits is winning the game because they're not chasing it all game long. So I just hope some of the people that love physical hockey keep that in the back of their mind when they're freaking out that the penguins are not pushing back or hitting back enough against a team like the Washington Capitals who are a lot heavier than them or maybe a team like the Newark Islanders who obviously have a fourth line made up of Matt Martin, cow clutterbuck in cases, Zizkas, who like to throw their bodies around as well. So I thought I should clarify that.

Honestly, Dom's preview, I mean, it makes a lot of sense. I think the penguins are vulnerable as well. I mean, it's not going to be easy to make the playoffs, especially without Evgeny Malkin for at least the first two months. Cindy Crosby is going to be out for at least the first week. Jake Gensel, hopefully he's back by the start of the season, you know, the Metro. There are some teams that got better. I know I think the division is overrated, but it's still going to be a dog fight to get to the playoffs this year just because, you know, you look over the Atlantic. Boston's still good.

Toronto's still good. Florida's really good. And Tampa Bay is, I mean, they're the two-time defending champions. So it's going to be a slog, I think, to get to the playoffs. I think Pittsburgh will get in, but I think it is going to be harder than what some people expect. I think there will be some sweating among Penguins fans for the first time since it went down to the wire in 2014-15 when they had to be one of the worst teams I've ever seen with the Sabres when I think Brandon Sutter had both lulls in that game to send the Penguins to the playoffs where of course they lost to the New York Rangers in five games. And lastly, I did like what Dom said about the goalies.

He says, I don't mind the strategy of bringing both of them back, give them a shot early on to find their groove. And if it fails, you can look for an external option afterward. It will be a little bit easier to know who's worth targeting once the season gets underway, and it leaves the option for one of the two guys on the roster to establish themselves. I don't mind that take. Again, I would have preferred that it would have gotten someone in the offseason, but after I saw some of those contracts that they gave out to middling and pretty similar goalways to the same ones, I'm fine with them giving in another shot to see how they do, at least to start the regular season for the first.

month or two. Then if they both struggle, Ron Haxdell can go out, maybe find someone from Dallas or another team and see if a couple teams struggling, he can give them a call and bring one over. But overall, going back to my original point with Marcus Pedersen, people need to lay off of him. He had a 53% expected

goals rate last year. No team allowed fewer expected goals against than him while he was on the ice and he is the perfect partner for John Marino. You know, 4 million per year for him is perfectly fine. I understand that he doesn't bring a lot offense and that's going to drive some people crazy but you know you don't need a bunch of offensive

defensemen in your defensive course that's you know you give the big bucks on your d to the players who drive offense you know chrysaint brian dumlin even though he hasn't have the fanciest offensive stats he can drive offense as well john marino hopefully this is the year he really breaks out mike matheson he also drives offense a lot i'll bet you know he is a bit overpaid and then you have the guys who can stand back in their own you know chabra we don't marcus peterson you know to a lesser or a extent, Brian Dumlin as well, who can clean up Crystal Tang's messes at times, too. So I really liked that paragraph from Dom, and I think I wanted to just bring them up to show people that listen to this podcast that Patterson is probably one of the most underappreciated players

on this team. I honestly think it is him and Zach Austin Reese, who are the two most underappreciated players on this team. No one gives them the credit that they deserve with how great defensively they are, and then, you know, sometimes they can also chip in some offense as well, especially Ashton Reese. his best season offensively for the team last year. But that'll do it for this episode of Lockdown Hanging's podcast. I appreciate all of you listening to this one.

And we'll be back tomorrow with another episode either before the game or after the game. And stick around as Danny Shire will be joining the show this week as well. So talk to you all then.