Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Who stood out in the Penguins first two preseason games?

Episode Date: September 26, 2022

Penguins hockey is back, baby (even though it's only preseason). Hunter starts the show off by recapping the team's first preseason game and who stood out the most to him. He looks at Jason Zucker's goal and how he was able to pull that off, while also hoping that the team gets more of that during the regular season. He also assesses Drew O'Connor's performance, as well as Sam Poulin's. Has Poulin been more noticeable as of late? What does that mean for his chances of making the team? How was Ty Smith in his Penguins debut? He also assesses him and then looks at how Casey DeSmith played in his first game since he got hurt in the playoffs. Following that, he recaps the second preseason game, and yeah, it went the way everyone expected. Was Danton Heinen the best player on the ice? How was Ryan Poehling's debut? Does Josh Archibald need to do a bit more to secure his spot on the team? He then breaks some news about a couple of roster cuts before giving his thoughts on the players that will be playing on Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings. All that, plus much more on this episode of Locked On Penguins.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! 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, everyone. Happy Monday, September 26th, especially two and a half weeks away now from the start of the regular season. And we actually finally have some hockey games to get into the Penguins did kind of a split squad, two preseason games against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday, won the first one, lost second one. I'm going to get into both of those, my takeaways from what I saw, and all that good stuff coming up for today's episode of Lock On England's podcast. We're also getting into a couple of roster cuts that were made on Monday. We're also going to go over the lineup that the Penguins just announced for the Tuesday game that was just announced actually about 10, 15 minutes ago. So that's all coming up right after

this drop. You're locked on penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honour Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter. on our hoodies. You can also follow the show's Twitter at Ellenmore Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this share first to listen of the day. So let's jump right into it. Penguins played their first two games with the preseason on Sunday. It was actually kind of cool, you know, have the preseason game I'll out to help and also watching some football. It's definitely tough just because, you know, from the people I follow on Penguins Twitter,

not a lot of people were tweeting about it. I mean, it's a preseason game, you know, not a lot of the regulars are playing. Of course, some people aren't going to be as interested. but, you know, there were some of the regulars playing in both games. And, you know, I think for the first game yesterday, I watched that one a lot more than the second one, just because for the second one, the Blue Jackets were basically playing almost their entire full roster while the Penguins were playing basically a Wilkesbury version of their game. Like one of the only regulars that was playing in that game was Dan Hinen.

And, of course, he had the lone primary assist on the Hemingman's lone goal. So that game kind of went out, I think you all would expect. I'll get to that one a little later on. But for the first one, you know, I noticed some good things in the first period. You know, one player that really should out to me, I thought, I'm not just in the first period, but I think for the entire game was Drew O'Connor. He looked to be a lot faster than he was last season. He was also getting to the net a lot more than I, you know, I'd usually seen him get to the net,

whether it's down in Wilkesbury or in the short sample size of the Penguins last year. I know the numbers didn't paint it that way. You look at some of the underlines and it looks kind of rough. I guess my eye test was a little bit different. Maybe mine sucks. I don't think it does. But it's interesting that the numbers don't stack up to what I saw. Sam Poulan, I thought he was pretty engaged, especially in the offensive zone.

He had a couple of really nice scoring chances against Columbus that they were able to turn away. He also got some power play time, which I liked. You know, I'm actually starting to notice him a lot more on ice. Usually when I've watched the preseason games, like last year, year before that, wasn't noticing him at all, just was kind of gliding around the ice. But, you know, for this game, and especially in that first period, you know, looked pretty engaged to me. And I was kind of surprised that, you know, he didn't really score in this game considering the chances that he did have. Kaspian, you know, he looks fine, but the biggest thing for me right now with him, he needs to start being selfish. And I know that's usually not a good fate for a person to have.

But when it comes to, you know, the sport of hockey and how he played last season, he needs to start, you know, just when he has the puck on an odd man rush, just take a shot. You know, you need to be selfish. You're the player that struggled last year. The team also just rewarded you with a pretty nice contract extension. You need to show them that they were right to extend you. There were multiple times yesterday.

One of them was a three-on-one that I saw. I believe Zucker was on the left side. and other players behind him. And he has a clear shot to the net where he could probably beat this goaltender, whoever it was. It was not Merzleekins for the jackets. It was, I think it was like the four-string guy. And he's just deferring for a pass.

And it's just like, no, you know, that's not the play there, especially on a three-on-one. The blue jacket is able to break it up and then go back down the other way. Scoring chance was, you know, averted. And again, I want him to be better in those situations. There's also a two-on-oh. captain was Zooker, you know, he defers to Zulker, who puts the puck on net, nice save. But, you know, again, even in that situation, I know it's a two on O, I know you want the goalie to move. But I still want, you know, I still want him to shoot in that situation.

And maybe he passes to Zulker, who passes it back and then he puts the buck on net. That's also fine with me. But if he's only making one pass, and he's not getting the puck back, excuse me, that's not good enough for me. you know, this was a problem for him last year. It's still a problem right now, you know, looked fine otherwise defensively, you know, didn't really make any mistakes. I like that the Penguins are finally giving him some penalty killing opportunities. Mike Belucci usually runs that unit.

That was something that I've been preaching a lot throughout the off season. He did a really good job of it in Toronto. The underlying numbers back that up. If he can get more PK time, that could help him, you know, use his speed to his advantage, potentially get more goals and assists. You know, they really need to try anything at this point to get him going because, you know, how he played last season and how he played last night, for the most part, you know, it's just it's not good enough for me.

I know it's only the preseason, but, you know, I just, I want to see him be more consistent overall. And the last thing I noticed for, especially in the first period during the afternoon, Ty Smith skating is so smooth. I mean, it is a joy. to watch him skate with the puck up the ice. He was quarterbacking the top power play unit, doing a really nice job with it.

I thought the underlines, not going to paint the best picture, but to me, at least from the eye test, even though I didn't really look at the numbers that much, I was impressed with how he played. Again, I really do think the penguins are just going to take him to school, basically put him in the video room and show him, okay, this is what you did, Rogge in New Jersey.

We got to get you to doing this. And, you know, Ta Rere, didn't, especially with what they did with, Mike Matheson. I think this is going to work really well. It's going to pay huge dividends for them. And I'm really excited for the future for his future with the team. I thought it was a good start for him. I know he didn't, you know, he didn't like wow me with some stuff. But overall, at least for the first preseason game, I liked what I saw overall. John LaZot was able to get one of the Penguins goals. You know, nice player down in Wilkesbury. You know, he plays some minutes

defensively he'll probably be a roster cut at some point. And then also really nice pass from Sam Pouland set up the tying goal to Andonovsky. Also another player that's probably going to start the season in Wilkesbury came with just under a minute left in the third period. And then the goal of the day, no props to Jason Zucker. We'll do some clapping here. Just a beautiful goal by him.

He comes around the net. basically the penguins are just swarming Columbus in the offensive zone, comes around the net and goes on his backhand around a defender, goes to the front of the net, and is able to push the puck, shoots it, then kind of goes off him and in the net. But that's the kind of rush I want to see from Zucker more often. If you all watch the game, then you all know what I'm talking about.

I'm trying to describe it the best I could, but he's coming in on his backhand, protecting the puck really well, coes around this defender, was able to get it to his forehand, shoots it to save, but it's able to bounce back. The rebound's able to bounce back off him and into the net. And, you know, again, that's something that we really didn't see a lot from him last year. You know, part of that is obviously due to injury. But even when he was healthy, he just wasn't crashing the net super often and wasn't

going to the dirty areas. If he's able to add that to his repertoire this year, that I think only, you know, helps the case, especially with my bowl prediction of him scoring. 20 or 25 goals. It's just a goal that, you know, I really enjoyed. And he definitely looked like he enjoyed it too. It was a nice, even though it was a preseason game, he had a nice celebration there. That's for sure. So that was a nice win for the Penguins, even though it's just for the preseason, liked a lot of the players, a lot of the players' performances. Also, Casey to Smith in goal, I guess I'll say that looked fine, didn't really give up any bad goals or anything. He only

gave up one goal. Anyway, nice to see him back in the net. It's his first game action since obviously the pooled groin in the playoffs and the Philadelphia Lindbergh came in a little bit rusty. I didn't like really one of the goals that kind of just like, you know, slid in pretty slowly. I think he should have had that. But he's also coming off a long-term injury as well. So I'm not really too worried about him right now. He's going to get the start in Wilkesbury when that season begins. So overall, like that performance for the Penguins, like some of the regulars, like some of the Wilkesbury players that played, and especially that Jason Zarker goal was awesome, say the least. Coming up in the next segment, we're going to get into the second preseason game.

What I liked about that, what I didn't like about that. And then, of course, later on for the show, we're going to get to a couple of roster cuts. And we'll also do, I guess, a small preview for the matchup against Detroit Red Wings and go over the roster that was just announced a few minutes ago. But before we get to that, our next partner has a product I use literally at day. I just started taking athletic means because, you know, didn't have time for some stuff in the morning, wanted better gut health, more energy, optimized immune system. So what is this stuff? With one delicious scoop of athletic means, you're absorbing 75 high-quality vitamins, minerals,

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I am your host, Hunter Hodes. You know, to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow the shows Twitter at L owners for Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. So Penguins played their second preseason game on Sunday night, and it kind of went the way you would expect when a very baby version of the Penguins is going up against basically the A version of the Clubbiz Blue Jackets.

To put those in a perspective, the Blue Jackets had Patrick Lonei playing, Jacob Voracek, Jack Roslovich, Johnny Goddrow, Elvis versus Leakins, and basically almost all the regulars playing. Well, the Penguins basically only had Dan. Hinen. I'm not kidding. That is basically one of their only regulars that they had in the lineup. You could look at the lines last night. Dent and Hainting with Ryan Payling and Josh Archibald, Trey Cajula with Radibza Horta and Alex Nealander, Nathan Ligory, you know, Cefowski, Frasco, who scored the goal last night, Zavriolet, Jack St.

Ivy, Taylor Fadune, P.O. Joseph, Dustin Tokarski was starting. It was literally the Wilkes-Vary Scranton version of the Penguins. one's last night. And Penguins lost 5 to 1. Probably should have been a worse blowout. I don't think the Penguins played very well. That said, you know, who stood out to me in this game. Hyman looked good. And, you know, he should. He's the only, basically, the only regular playing. He got a primary assist on the Frasca goals. A nice shot from Al Frasca, by the way, to make it four to one for a brief time. He's probably going to start the season in Wilkesbury. He's not going to make this team, at least in my opinion. I also like the chances that Ryan Paling,

was getting. He had a couple of really nice shots on that that Merzleekins had to be careful with. I think if he had a little bit of an off night, I definitely could have seen him scoring a goal or two. I was, you know, that was a good first impression, at least for me on Palin. I don't think he's going to be like the team's third line center or anything, but, you know, he definitely has the potential to win at least that fourth line left wing spot. I liked how he played. Radeems O'Hourna. Thought it was fine. Didn't really do anything to stand out. at least to me, obviously he has a big frame, long reach. I think right now he probably is a bit of a long shot to make the team out of

campus because there's a few players above him on the depth chart, but obviously he'll be one of the top call-ups if he does get sent down to Wilkesbury. P.O.J thought he looked fine, but he's also playing with Taylor Ferdune, so I really can't evaluate that. Too much, Justin Dukarski, you know, I'm not really going to sit here and evaluate his performance too much he's going up against the blue jacket. top players. There's only really so much he can do, you know, with a team in front of them. And I know some people are saying, well, you know, how can you really evaluate these kind of

players going up against an A team, you know, it's kind of simple, you know, even though they're going up against NHL regulars, you can still look to see, you know, okay, how are they stacking up to them, you know, are they moving the puck well? Are they getting some chances, all that stuff? And, you know, for the players that I did mention, you know, those players did get chances. And, you know, I thought they did play pretty well, at least to me. You know, again, there's really not too much else talk about when it comes to that game. You know, just because, you know, it's, again, it's the Wilkesbury-scrant version of the Penguins. Going up against, you know, a really good version of a little boojacks.

Well, I shouldn't even say a really good version in them. just they're 18. But, you know, I think those were the players that really shout to me. I thought Anson's, he also had a couple of good chances. Leggerie thought he was fine. Nealander. Now, he didn't really do too much to stand out, but, you know, was still fine. I guess, Shevkovsky, you know, he's also a pretty interesting player,

a player that's definitely going to, I think, start the season in Wilkesbury. As for Josh Archibald, he was on the top line. He had a couple of chances, but he also fired them way over the net. That's not going to work, especially if he wants to win that 12 forward spot. I do want to see more from him, you know, just from, you know, getting those chances and finishing those chances if he actually wants to get a spot, you know, in the lineup on an every night basis. I think right now a little bit of a slow start for him, he's also not going to be playing in the basically the Penguin's Dress rehearsal game on Tuesday.

I'm going to have more on that coming up in the final segment. but, you know, not much from him. Again, had a couple good chances, but, you know, he's got to be able to at least hit the net on those to say the least. Making sure I got everything here. One last thing, though, Penguins, they did make a couple of roster cuts on Monday afternoon. Defenseman Isaac Bellevue has been reassigned to his QMJHL team, and Ryan McLeary has been assigned to the Portland Winterhawks of the West. Western Hockey League, B'LW, appeared in I believe, in the first game against the Blue Jackets on Sunday was a plus two.

According to the Penguins' press police, did not know that. The Penguins' training camp roster is down to 56 players. So that is the first round of cuts, again, down to 56 players, a couple of defense. Yeah, a couple of defensemen have been reassigned their junior teams. I'm sure there will probably be more cuts following the game against the Red Wings, or their other preseason game a little later on this week. So that does it for this second segment for today's episode. Coming up in the final segment,

we're going to do, I guess, a small little preview of that matchup against Strait Red Wings and look at the lineup that you all will see tomorrow night against the Red Wings at PBG. So it's all coming up right after this commercial break. All right, I'm back here on this episode of the Lockdown-Phinglins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hode. You know, follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hode. You can also follow the show's Twitter.

at Eleanorstall Penguins, and of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. So let's get right on into it here. The Penguins, they released the lineup at about 2.30 Eastern Time. And, you know, this is, again, this is a dress rehearsal game. On defense, Brian Dumolin, Ty Smith, Jeff Petrie, Marcus Pedersen, Yon, Rood took Bristol Teng. I would be pretty surprised if those are not your starting six defensemen when the regular

season kicks off on October 13th. I would be pretty stunned, especially with how I like Ty Smith's performance. Petrie's going to be in the lineup, Dumlin, Pedersen, Routelotang. The only one that I think is questionable at this point is Smith. Looks like Casey DeSmith is going to get the start in this game. I mean, it says, well, maybe not because I think they go like top number to a bottom number. But if that's the case, Jari might get the start, and then DeSmith will come in to or leave him. So both goals are going to be in the game.

And then Drew O'Connor, Jason Zulker. Brian Rush, Drake, Cajula, Brock McGinn, Ryan Paling, Causeberry Captain, Teddy Bluger, Jake Gensel, Sohorner, Ricard, Raquel, Gennie Malkins, and Sennon, Crosby, will all be playing. Though almost all those forwards are regulars, the only ones that I believe are not playing. Jeff Carter, just making sure I got this right here.

Yes, Jeff Carter and Danton Heinen, and obviously POJ is not playing either. But I believe the only two, the four regulars are not playing. Jeff Carter, and Hein. Remember, Carter is hurt with an injury. I've not heard any update on him. I'm sure he's still being evaluated. And then obviously, Hinen, you know, he just played on Sunday.

So they're just going to give him the night off. So lines-wise, I would assume you're going to see Gensel, Crosby, and Raquel on the top line. Second line, I think you're going to see Fgeny Malkin with Brian Ross and Jason Zucker. Third line, I would assume Teddy Bluger will pretext. probably be the third line center, would say with Kasperi Kappanin and maybe Brock McGinn or Ryan Payling. I think they might put McGinn on that line with Blue Gur and Capitin. And then the fourth line, I would probably say O'Connor with Paling and Cajula or So

there's 13 forwards on here. One of these guys is going to be scratched. But that's probably what you're looking at you. Your fourth line, O'Connor, Cajula, Zohorna. and, you know, the rest of those guys and, you know, Pangling or something or something like that. I think three of those four players are going to make up your fourth line. And then again, you know,

Bludger with Kaepinin on the third line. And again, I think is probably what you're looking at. It's how your top six defensive pairings. I do think you're probably going to see Dumont-Tang, Patterson Petrie. It definitely looks like they really want to try out that Pedersen-Petri pairing. And then the third pairing will be Ty Smith. and Jan Ruta, Tristanjari will probably get the start, and then DeSmith will come in for him. Really interesting to me that, you know, also, you know, Josh Harchibald, not getting in this game with a lot of the regulars.

You know, does that mean anything? I'm not really sure. You know, it's also could be just because he played on Sunday, so they kind of want to just give him an night off, probably the same with Danton Hinen. So I'm not really going to read too much into it, but, you know, it is interesting that, you know, some of these other No Bookspar tweeners, like, you know, was a Horna and Cajula paling. He's not really a tweener, but he's probably going to make the team. But some of those players, they're getting in the lineup, O'Connor as well, you know, as they're all continuing to really fight for a roster spot.

At this point, he's don't, they'll probably have Archibald in for the next game. After that, give him some rest. You know, maybe they'll do another dress rehearsal, and he'll be in it. I'm not sure. I know a couple people asked me today, like, you know, why are all the stars playing in this game? And I think it's pretty simple to me, at least in my opinion. They want to get them some reps together because honestly, I doubt you're going to see all six of Gensel Crosby, Raquel, Zoker, Malkin, Ross play another preseasoning game together. I doubt it.

I think they'll play, you know, some of them will play one game, some of them will play another game. But I don't think you're going to see them play like two or three more preseason games together. I think they want to manage their reps and all that, but they also want to, you know, at least get them, like, you know, in for one game and then they'll be able to practice and all that other stuff during camp and all that. So that's at least how I see it, in my opinion. But, yeah, that basically wraps up today's show.

That is a, I'm making us correct, I believe that is a 7 o'clock start time. I'm sure the penguins are going to, yeah, it's going to be streamed locally on the Penguins official website. You can also tune in to 105.9 the X if you are not in a new york computer and you can listen to Joss gets off and feel bored. They also will be doing the stream on the official website. So, again, that will do it for today's episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I really appreciate all of you listening to this one. I know it's preseason hockey.

Some of you may not care. But hey, we're back to talk about games. It's good to recap some stuff and give my thoughts and analysis on who looked good versus who didn't look good and also look ahead to the Penguins next preseason game. I'll have another episode for you all tomorrow. It'll either be during the day after training camp practice or it'll be following the preseason game on Tuesday. I haven't really decided yet to recap that game.

But we're back to five episodes a week. Really excited for, we're only a few days away from October at this point. So again, thank you all so much for listening. I appreciate everyone that listens to this podcast. And I'll be back on Tuesday. Thank you.