Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Worst loss of the season for the Penguins? You bet...

Episode Date: February 25, 2022

Woof! The Pittsburgh Penguins got blasted by the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night as nothing positive came from the game. Hunter starts off the show with a message to the fanbase since it was the time of overreactions. He touches on how the team is just in a slump and why it should turn around sooner or later. That said, he does get into what went wrong for the Penguins and he starts with the defensive zone coverage. He lays into Marcus Pettersson and John Marino, plus Evan Rodrigues for how bad they were during that span in the first period. Hunter also discusses how the Penguins weren't forechecking at all and how Tristan Jarry not standing on his head is oftentimes the norm since that's how goaltending is. 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 “LOCKED15,” 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!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.

Worst loss of the season? Yep, you bet. The Penguins got dismantled by the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night. Six to one. That's their tied for their worst margin of loss of the season. They lost six to one to the Washington Capitals on November 14th, way back a few months ago. But I have a full game recap coming up for you all right after this stop.

We're getting into everything. And, you know, if a lot of these criticisms I saw tonight are warranted. You're locked on Penguin. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, welcome to this another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. Understall Penguins, and, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. Yeah, I mean, the Penguins Stung tonight. Thank you all so much for listening. a great one.

Now, I have to, you know, there's a lot to get into for this game. But, you know, I do want, this is the first thing I want to bring up. And it's just certain portions of the fan base need to chill the F out. I understand that the team was awful tonight. You know, you all expect better. I expect better, you know, as a fan and as someone who covers the team for this network. And I'm sure, you know, the players themselves, they know they expect better. Osby said as such after the game when he was like, you know, we're not on our A game right now,

and we need to find it quick. You know, there's only two months left in the regular season. But some of the takes that I was seeing during this game and even after the game was just ridiculous. I mean, I have people saying on social media that the penguins are bad now and that, you know, they've been playing bad for two months. And I mean, that you, that couldn't even be further from the truth. Their top five unexpected goals for per 60. They're top five and expected goals against per 60. They've been top five and goals saved above expected almost all year. I mean, what more do you want?

I mean, sure, they're finishing needs to be better. I mean, I've been talking about that a lot on this podcast. And, you know, once that regresses a little bit, then they'll be cooking, I think. But other than that, I mean, I really don't understand why so many people just have to have this doom and gloom thing every time this team goes through a little slump. They've played what? 53, 54 games this year. They only have 14 losses in regulation.

I mean, only 14 times out of those 50-plus games, they have not gotten a point. They are one point out of second place right now, and that's a massive matchup coming up on Saturday against the Rangers. I have a full preview for that coming up tomorrow with Nick Zararis. So look for that on either Friday morning or Friday afternoon. Getting back to my original point, though. I mean, we're really going to sit here

call this team bad when, you know, maybe they're not a Stanley Cup contender and, well, at the top of the contenders. And that's fine. But, you know, they're on that outer fringe of, you know, those, that top five to top six, top seven range. I mean, the numbers back that up. Their players back that up. For people that are saying they haven't played well for two months, I don't know what, I think we're watching two different teams. Like, I understand as well that they have slumped. But before this three game, winning, losing streak, they had won four in a row. There was a time where they had won basically 16 of the last 20 games. Heck, even 16 of the last 21 games or something like that. And we're going to sit here and say that they haven't played

a good game or something since mid-January or even, you know, the last three to four weeks. I just don't understand this. And, you know, it's the same kind of people that I see on social media and other places where it's like you've got to act like you've been here before. I mean, this is an 82 game regular season. MLB, they have 162 game regular seasons, usually. It may not happen this year. It's going to maybe be a shortened season. NBA, they have 82 game seasons.

Heck, even the NFL season of 17 games, it's not nearly as long as these other seasons, but with how it's stretched out with how teams can go on heaters, you know, after losing a couple of games, it's still kind of the same thing. people just need to, you know, just do a small little detox and all this stuff. Was this the worst loss of the season for the Penguins? Yes, they started out the game pathetic. They gave up that goal a minute and there was an awful defensive zone coverage. A couple minutes later, it's two to nothing.

A couple minutes later after that, it's three nothing. They gave up three goals in a span of six minutes and 44 seconds tonight to one of the worst teams in the league. Point Blint, that's awful. It's unacceptable. That's not Penguins hockey. I know for the fans that went to the game, I feel bad that you bought tickets for that. But you know what?

At the end of the day, it is also a Thursday night game in February. This team also has a 15-point lead over the Columbus Blue Jackets for the ninth place. I mean, I really don't know why people just have to be doom and gloom about sports all the time. You know, maybe that was cool to do when you are 14, 15, 16 years old.

But, and I know we're in a results, you know, business here. But, you know, teams go through the crapper every once in a while. You know, it's not going to be sunshine and roses from October all the way to April. That is not how any sport works for any freaking team. And, you know, the Penguins had that beautiful high, you know, late November. they started playing well all through December. Parts of January, they were really good. They went on a little bit of a slump after that.

They regained their form going into last week's game against Toronto. They had one four in a row. They were in first place. You know, that Carolina game was huge, and they played pretty well for about a little over half that game before, you know, their mistakes cut up to them. And then tonight, it all just discombobulated because the team got off to another bad start. And yes, that is becoming a problem.

You know, that's now a couple consecutive games. where the team just looks flat for whatever reason. I don't know why. I think Mike Sullivan is going to have some words for them to practice on Friday about that. I think they're hopefully going to come out guns of blazing on Saturday against the Rangers because New York is now at one point up on them.

And they basically have played the same amount of games this year. I mean, that's a huge game for what very well could be a playoff preview a couple months down the line. But overall, just, you know, with this first segment, I wanted to just take the time to just, you know, calm everyone down a bit, you know, give some people, you know, some peace and Zen, you know, the way some people were talking about the team tonight that I saw, you'd think that they were right around where the Montreal Canadians are. Last place in the NHL, hell, even the Arizona

coyotes for that matter. This team is one of the five to seven best teams in hockey. Do they have issues? Yes, I'm going to get to those issues coming up in the next segment from what I saw tonight, what needs to change moving forward. you know do they need to change some lines or defensive combinations and all that jazz you know tristan jari stuff again i'm going to get to all that but overall i know how good this team is anyone saying that they're bad you're just you're lying out of your butt and it's just you know you're you're reaching for engagement you're trying to use hot takes and you know i'm not going to do that on this podcast you know i i am not someone who just throws stuff at a wall and and hope it sticks you know i i i'm not someone who just throws stuff at a wall and

hope it sticks. You know, I try to be as objective as I can be. You know, I know a lot of you that listen to this podcast have been through numerous 82 game regular seasons. I know, and I kind of joke about sometimes, I'm a little bit on the younger side. I haven't, you know, been through, obviously, as many as some of the listeners. But I feel like I know enough to know that, you know, sometimes the team doesn't have it. The team is struggling. But, you know, I think at the end of the day, a good team figures this out. And I know how good. the penguins are. And once they do, everything is going to be okay.

The Capitol is also lost tonight. That was massive. They have a five-point lead on them. Boston didn't play tonight. That's fine too. Again, this team, for the most part, is fine, though they are missing a couple of very important players right now, especially in Teddy Bluger and Jason Zucker.

Bluger more so. He wasn't ready to come back tonight. Hopefully, maybe he'll be ready to come back later this. weekend. But I just really had to take the time to just, you know, hopefully try to calm you all down after this game, you know, this is what happens for every team, every year in sports. There's times where they don't have it and they play like crap. Tonight was one of those nights. It was an unacceptable performance. They don't have to see this team for the rest of the year. Now they can actually have a massive game coming up now against the Rangers where, you know,

If they lose that game, they're not three points behind. And, you know, even a three-point deficit is sometimes decently hard to make up. These are the game, especially against the playoff teams that you want to win. So had to talk about that to open up this podcast. Coming over in the next segment, we are going to go into what went wrong for the Penguins tonight if they need to make some changes, you know, lineup-wise and all that stuff. But before we get to that, football might be over for this season. The basketball is in full steam from Brofrow and College Hoops.

From all the latest odds, totals, play performance prompts to where the next fired coach is going to land. Betonline.net is the number one spot for all of your sports betting needs. Betonline remains the best spot for all of your sports scores, podcasts, and news this season. You can head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends and action. That is BetOnline, where the game starts. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast.

I am your host, Hunter Hode. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. follow the show's Twitter at LO underscore Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much, and for making this your first listen of the day. Okay. So what went wrong for the Penguins tonight? I think it was mainly,

I'm not going to really blame Tristan Najari for this. I think he could have been better in some areas, but I also mainly think that the defense and the forwards left him out to dry on basically every goal. You know, Marcus Petters, had a couple really egregious turnovers that resulted in the goal. Evan Rodriguez fired a pass to no one for no particular

reason. It gets intercepted by New Jersey. There's another one that's in the back of the net. It was just really sloppy defensive play. And I know that's been coming up a lot these last three games. Don't get me wrong. The team's defensive play needs work. It's bad. They've got to clean up what they're doing in front of the net.

They're not making good decisions in their defensive zone. that needs better. I'm sure Mike Sullivan is going to get on them for that. You know, just at practice on Friday. But, you know, I really think that's, you know, that's where their big issues have been during this mini slump. You know, again, you know, Pederson, I think, was a minus four tonight. And, you know, I'm not someone to look at plus minus as the end all be. I hardly even use it on this podcast.

But when you are a minus four, you're doing something bad. he was not good tonight to say the least. This was probably one of his worst games of the year. In fact, I'll say this right now. I think everyone on the team deserves an F tonight. I'll put that out there. I don't think any player, okay, maybe on the sign of him getting Malkin who scored the goal

deserves a good grade. It was that bad of a performance from everyone involved. You know, Chris LaTang, he really struggled after a pretty good game against Carolina. I know two out of his last three, he's not played well. He's going to turn it around. I'm not concerned with him and the slightest.

But, you know, it's just when you have so many porous turnovers and, you know, in that first five to six minutes stretch where they're not passing the vibe check, you know, you can't spot any team a three nothing league. Heck, even the New Jersey Devils. And I know they're not good, but, you know, even if you give bad teams chances like that. And those were a great high danger chances. and just that can't happen. And, you know, the Penguins went down into the first intermission,

three nothing. I'm sure Mike Sullivan had a lot to say to them. I thought at the time, like, hey, you know, this team's never really out of the game. Let's see if they can turn it on. You know, they were playing really well to open the second period. They were out shooting New Jersey around 9-0. And then, of course, the first shot they get,

it's more nothing in the back of the net before of getting them all made a 4-1. And it's like, you know, that's just hockey. You know, the penguins actually out of 10. attempting New Jersey in that second period. They had 77% of the shot attempts, 24 to 7. They had 65% of the scoring chances for that period as well. And they also had four high danger chances. And they were only able to get one goal out of that.

But, you know, that was the bad thing. You know, if you don't spot them, those three early goals and you start out that second period, guns of blazing, you know, maybe this game could have been a lot different. But when you have so many turnovers right in front of your net front, Marcus Pederson again had two really horrific ones. You know, Jasper Brat was able to just poke that first one home. And it was like, wow, you know, just another terrible start.

You know, Brad was able to get that second one a couple moments later. I believe that was the one when Evan Rodriguez just basically passed it right to him. And then he just picks jari top cheese. And it's like, you know, there's only so much he can do in that situation. You know, this is what it looks like to me. when the Vesna caliber goaltender is not bailing them out time after time again. Imagine what Saturday's game would have looked like if Tristan didn't have those amazing saves, you know, on those breakaways and, you know, during the first half of that game.

You know, he gave the Penguins a chance in that. And, you know, defensively, they weren't good. You know, again, I have no problem saying that. But, you know, he was at least standing on his head. you're not going to get that every game. And the Penguins learned that the hard way tonight. He was less than average. I'll say that.

You give up five goals. You're not getting a good grade for me again. I know most of them he really had no chance on because it was just really bad defensive errors. But in a perfect world, he would have hopefully come up with at least two or three of them. But that didn't happen. Now, in terms of I've seen this take thrown on as well. Well, the penguin should have to change up the defensive pairings.

Okay. What would you choose that? I mean, I know Chris La Tangs had a couple, you know, porous outings, these last two of these last three games in the three game losing streak. Brian Dumond wasn't that good, excuse me, against Carolina. But who are you going to elevate in Jimlin's spot? Do you want to give Mike Mathes in those minutes? We've seen what happens when he does get those minutes, and it wasn't pretty.

I know he's playing better this year, But, I mean, I just, I don't see that. Okay, Pedersen Marino tonight. That was probably their worst pairing. They had probably their worst games of the season. Do you move Marino down to the bottom pairing with Chad Riedel? Probably not. I don't think.

Do you move Rarito up to the second pairing? I mean, I don't think so. You know, these people that keep saying, well, you know, you got to change something in the lineup, you got to change something in the lineup. What other defensemen do you want them to put in? I mean, Mark Friedman, I mean, he's a perfectly fine number seven, but who are you going to scratch? You know, I keep seeing this take as well that, you know, Mike Selman's not healthy scratching anyone or anything like that. Defensively, I don't really know who you want him to healthy scratch.

I mean, you know, sure, John Marino is not having a good year, but it's not bad enough where he needs to be benched for like two or three games in a row to send a message or anything like that. And, you know, I apologize for bringing you so much heat tonight. but I just I see some of these takes and some of the fans and I just I get confused because I think it's just it's a lot of reactionary stuff when you know when everything is cool and zen you know it's it's easier to have a debate you know or discussion with those things now forward wise okay I get it if people want to have Kisbury Kappen and benched you know I won't argue that I think that's totally fine he was not good again tonight a couple more times where he gets into the offensive's in the offense's in did the offensive zone, excuse me, and then button hooks back, tries to pass it, no one's there, devils are off the other way. And there's stuff like, well, you know, if I had a nickel for every time that happened, I probably have $5,000 by now. But, you know, until Teddy Bluger or Jason's and Jason's Zilker come back, he's probably going to have to stay in the lineup. And I know the answer is not for him to be on the Malkins line, which is another reason why this team has

to go out, I think, and get a top six winger for him. And I don't really care. they pay at this point they need another score but the fact of the matter is i will agree with this we have too many passengers in their lineup right now brockman game he's played really good this year though he only has what one goal in his last 10 11 to 12 games that's not good enough and i know part of that is probably not having teddy bluger as a center i get it but you still got to produce offense even without one player on your line um he had some great a chance this night um i think he's just stuck in a rut right now. Hopefully he's going to, you know, pot a couple here moving forward. But, you know, Carter, I shouldn't say he's really stuck in a rut, but, you know, I could,

I would like to see more out of him. Roderiggis, I thought that last game against Carolina, he was starting to turn a corner. I still want to see more out of him. Denton, Hein, heen, excuse me, is the same. There's just, there's a lot of passengers, I think. And, you know, if the team is able to go get a top six winger, I think that's going to take, you know, a lot of pressure off of some of these other players. But, you know, I'm finally people saying to healthy scratch captain, I don't really know who else you want them

to healthy scratch at this point. You know, they're still down two of their better players. And as I said on my Wednesday episode, everyone, I mean, this team is badly missing Teddy Bluger and Jason Zucker right now. You know, they miss Zulker on the forecheck. They miss Bluger defensively on the PK. Penguins gave up at least two power play goals tonight.

I mean, the PK has just really struggled. ever since he's gone out. And, you know, Bluger brings that calming presence in the bottom six. So responsible defensively. Even you can chip in offensively to, you know, Zulker, I know he doesn't score enough for some people. But, you know, again, he foreshacks his butt off. And, you know, he's a great playmaker.

And he's good defensively. So I think these two losses are really affecting the team a lot more than some people think. But that would do it for this segment of the Locktime Penguins podcast. Coming up in the next segment, when they go around the league a little bit, get to a couple other things that I saw for this game as well, so stick around coming up for the last segment.

All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow the show on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Well, actually, I just screwed that up and you know what, whatever. Follow my Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins.

That is actually the first time I think I've screwed that up since I started the show. But you know what? we're going to roll with it because, you know, that's, that's just how we do it at this point. And, you know, to back off my point about, you know, Tristan Jari, you know, sometimes he bails them out, sometimes he doesn't, you know, he gave up five goals tonight, but the expected goals against percentage was 1.26. And you know what? We have not seen a lot of that this season from Tristan. He's been awesome. He had a below average outing. Again, I'm not going to blame him

for a lot of those goals because they were mostly self-inflicted wounds. They're going to have to clean up their net front area defense and just their defense as a whole. But, you know, he didn't help the cost and he didn't give them, you know, much of a chance, you know, as he was, you all know what I'm saying. He just, he didn't give them as much of a chance as he did, you know, against Carolina. That's for sure. And he's probably going to get the start against the Rangers.

He's going to try, you know, to bounce back from this outing, obviously. So, you know, to Smith, I'm sure is going to go. on Sunday against Columbus and the Blue Jackets have been playing really well tonight. They actually just took down the Panthers six to three, which is pretty crazy to think about because, you know, I did not see them scoring even close to six on Florida. But you know what? This is why I don't bet too much here, everyone.

You know, I would probably lose a lot more than I would win. The power play, I think, really continue to struggle tonight too. Just the zone entries, they were okay, but the puck movement was really bad. And, you know, every time they would gain the zone, they would just fling around. They would always be a New Jersey devil right behind, you know, the net. You just send it out of the zone. And it's just like, that's not good enough. You either got to rip it hard around the net and your forwards, your forwards got to go chase it,

or you just got to, you know, come into the offensive zone, you know, stop a little bit. And then, you know, just set everything up. Make sure Littang is at the point. And then, you know, go through the motions, get your looks and all that. But, you know, tonight I just saw too many, I guess, slow passes around, you know, the net. And, you know, it was just easy pickings from New Jersey. You know, they were also pressuring the penguins skaters pretty heavily, you know, when Pittsburgh had better power plays.

So I think maybe that had some to do with it as well. But, I mean, at the end of the day, I think the power play still needs a bit of work. That's for sure. You know, as I said, you know, the capitals lost night. That's huge. The penguins are still five points up on Washington. They don't play them until April. So it's going to be hard, I think, for Washington to gain a lot of ground.

continue to struggle and if the penguins you know end up turning it around you know moving forward a little bit here um again you know i honestly don't have too much more to say about this game other than you know just bring it down here no i'm not going to say that you know the team is bad or anything i know they're playing bad and i know they're in a slump but i know how good this team is and we've seen it for most of the season good teams figure it out i know they will because i know how much they respect and care for Mike Sullivan. He has his footprints all over this team. And hopefully they will bounce back in a big way on Saturday against New York Rangers

and one of their biggest games of the season. I know it's at home the Penguins have not had that good of a home record this year, which is kind of surprising because these last few years, they've been one of the best teams at home. But if there ever was a time to show off home ice advantage, I think this will be the one for sure. but that'll do it for this episode of the locked on penguins podcast thank you all so much for listening to this i know i had a bit of a rant in beginning and i know maybe some people aren't used to me being

you know frustrated or you know but flustered or that kind of stuff but i just had to send a message to you know some of the fans that you know all you that listen to this podcast and you know everyone out there by saying you know what it's one game it's a thursday night at the end of february there's still two months left let's see how they look a week or two from now and You know what? If they're continuing to struggle, you know, I'll have a different take. That's for sure. But right now, I'm laying in this bed.

You know, we'll see if I have to just, you know, we'll see, I guess. I guess is what I'm trying to say, you know. But again, that I'll do it for this one. Thank you all so much for listening to this episode of the Lockton Penguins podcast. I'll be back with you all on Friday with Nick Zarrar's. We have a full preview of that game against the Rangers on Saturday. And then on Monday, I will have a full game weekend. for the Rangers and the Blue Jackets game because, of course,

the Penguins played Columbus for the second and last time this season, unless by some miracle Columbus gets into the playoffs. But now do it. Thank you all so much for listening, and I'll be back with you all for Friday.