Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Worst loss of the year for the Pittsburgh Penguins...

Episode Date: March 26, 2022

The Pittsburgh Penguins were flat-out not ready to play tonight and that's being kind. In this episode, Hunter rips the team a little bit for this unacceptable effort while also focusing on the big picture. Sometimes, good teams beat good teams and you have a crappy night. He goes into what went wrong during those first five minutes of the first period and when he really knew the game was over. Was it after the third goal? Was it when the Penguins couldn't score on a double minor penalty late in the first? He also touches on some of the power play failures during that time, and why dumping the puck in on Shesterkin wasn't the greatest idea, especially with how good he is at playing the puck. He does give two positives to this game though: Kasperi Kapanen and Jeff Carter! Kapanen continues his stellar play the last couple of weeks and if he can keep that up down the stretch, that's another weapon that can be used for the Penguins. He also praises Carter for getting a goal when his legs weren't there and makes a promise to the listeners that the Pens will unlikely have a game like that again. He also gives some perspective on why the team is still fine and will have to respond on Sunday before previewing that game against Detroit.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.Athletic GreensAthletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORK. 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.

Well, we are somehow going to have a recap episode for this Pittsburgh Penguins brutal loss to the New York Rangers. There was nothing pretty about that whatsoever. I have a full game recap coming up right after this drop. We're going to get into the good. Well, maybe there's a little bit of good, mostly the bad. And then, of course, all of the ugly parts that came with this one. So stick around for that coming up right after this little 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 to another episode of the Locked On Mengrins podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hodes. You're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow the show's Twitter at L.O underscore penguins. So let's have some fun.

Why don't we? Penguins, of course, get blown to hell. on Friday night. 5 to 1 loss to the New York Rangers of a brutal five-minute stretch. And that first period, and boom, the game was over. Just an awful start by the Penguins. They kind of started to play a little bit better after.

It looked like Dan Hynum was able to make it 3-1. If that goal stands, who knows what happens. That did not. And then the Rangers able to make it 4-0 before the Penguins make it 4-1. And then, of course, Andrew Kopp gets, I believe that was his versus Ranger, 5-1 in the 3rd. period. Really, there was nothing to like about this. And I saw some really weird takes from some

weird, really interesting people on social media. I really did not understand why people were just saying that, if I can fix my camera here, I'll move it a little bit. There we go. There we go. Almost like now it's like centered a little bit. Sorry about that. I really don't understand why so many people say, well, you know, tired of watching this team. This happens on an every week basis. And the take that I'm talking about, I'm not going to say what account or which account this is if my phone wants to unlock here. But this person said, you know, the penguins are so hard to watch. They're sloppy and careless game after game. If they were half as disciplined as they were talented, they would be a true contender.

But they are not, you can't play this careless every week and be a true contender. That is spoken by someone who has only watched about four to five penguins games this year. This was a stinker. I'll go out and say it. the penguins sucked. I mean, if you disagree with me, go back and watch the game. This was probably the worst game they've had easily since that New Jersey game, probably before then, honestly. I mean, the penguins just do not have these kind of stinkers very often.

I'm sure Mike Sullivan grilled into them after the game. I'm sure they're going to come out flying on Sunday against the Red Wings. You know, it's a Red Wings team that's also not good. but I really am sick and tired of the overreactions that I see on Penguins Twitter every single time they lose a game. You know, coming into tonight, they were nine and two and two in their last 13 games. In other words, they had won nine of their last 13 games. You know, before that lost to Buffalo, they were nine and two and one in their last 12 games.

They were three and O and one in their last four games heading into 10. night. There are six wins away from getting 100 points this season. There are what, 16, 17 games left. The Penguins could literally go six and 10 down the stretch and hit 100 points and make the playoffs. I understand. The goal is to be a lot higher than making the playoffs. Right now, they have a 20-point-plus lead on a playoff spot. The Islanders are, they have games in hand, but they have to go basically 20 and 0, you know, to even have a realistic shot of getting into the playoffs. You know, Washington won again tonight. The blue jackets, I know, dropped a point. But at the end of the day, you know, this team is fine.

Was it a bad loss? Yes. Did they get blown out? Yes. Is it the end of the world and the sky is falling? No. I think people just need to, you know, grasp the reality of the situation. I know, we know the penguins have been playing lights out hockey for the most part

since, you know, early December, all of the January, obviously. February, cooled off a little bit, but started heat up. March has been a mostly pre-year-old. pretty good month by the Penguins. But, you know, after every loss, you see some weird people come out of the woodworks. That really looks like they haven't watched a lot of games. And it's just the same old crap that, you know, that we've heard so many times. Oh, wow, they're undisciplined.

Oh, wow. They're careless with the puck. There's a lot of giveaways. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's just like if you people could, like, actually watch more than maybe one game a week or one game every couple weeks, you would see that, you know, mostly what you were saying is trash.

And, you know, the person that I quoted on Twitter, he got ratioed, and rightfully so. And if you know me for as long as I've been doing this podcast, I don't usually like to call people out like that. You know, I'll sometimes call people out on the podcast without really doing it. But this one really deserves it.

It's just an account that really follows the Steelers, but, you know, maybe follows the Penguins a little bit. But it's just, it's those kind of accounts that, you know, spew out nonsense for the sake of spewing out nonsense. And, you know, honestly, I'm just, I'm tired of it. People just need to grasp, you know, the whole reality. The team is fine. They're coming off three games and four nights.

They were obviously gassed against Buffalo. And having Evgeny Malkin out with the stomach bug stinks a lot because, you know, it looked like he was finally going to get Ricard Raquel on his line. And who knows how the game is played. If Gino is on the ice tonight with, you know, his regular line mates, you know, Mike Sullivan had to do 11, forwards in seven defense because they didn't even have another forward on the team. I'm sure they may recall someone just in case Gino can't go on Sunday.

It sounds like he has the subject. This is, I think, the second or third player that's also been sick on the Penguins these last couple of weeks. I'm pretty sure Dumlin was out sick a couple of times. And then obviously, Zach Ashton Reese had it before he was traded as well. So, you know, at least he's not injured there to say the least. But again, you know, also just for the game itself, those first five minutes, doom them. Obviously, I would love a save for that first one from Tristan Jari.

I thought that that puck can't squeak through from Lefranier. That's usually a save that Tristan makes nine out of ten times this year. I'll give him, I guess, a molligan on it because this is one of his worst starts of the year. I'm sure he's going to bounce back just fine on Sunday or, you know, obviously next week when the Penguins play the Rangers again, this time, it'll be at PPG Paints Arena. But, you know, it's just that's the one where, you know, if that doesn't go in, I mean, honestly, who knows? If Tristan does come up with a couple of big saves early and keeps the team in it like he has done for a lot of this year, you know, maybe we're talking about something else right now.

But overall, I thought it was a pretty lackluster effort. You go to natural statrick. Penguins only had 44% of the shot attempts, 41% of the scoring chances, high danger. They only had 33% of those. 37% of the expected goals for just a truly gross performance from basically everyone on the team. If there is a positive, I guess it's Jeff Carter scoring. Honestly, I'll say Cusbury Cap then. So I'm going to get to them a little bit in the next segment.

But, you know, those are the only two big positives tonight. And, you know, good teams beat good teams. That's what happens in the other day. Remember, a few weeks ago, Pittsburgh goes into Tampa Bay and absolutely lights them up. John Cooper gets kicked out. Penguins absolutely destroy them like they did in opening night. So teams have bad games sometimes. So the Penguins also just whooped Columbus's butts the other night, five to one.

And that's a team that's, you know, for, you know, give them a little bit of credit. They've stayed kind of outside the fence of the playoff picture, but, you know, there has to be at least one-night-place team. But they've exceeded a little bit of their expectations this year. So the Penguins, they just kicked their butts. And now, of course, they just got their butts kick. Season series is 1-1 right now. Penguins are obviously going to have that game next week circled on the calendar against the Rangers,

and rightfully so. They will not play that way again against that team this year. I will guarantee that on this podcast right now. Sullivan is going to have it instilled in them somehow, some way. And he said it best, you know, we were out-coached, out-played, basically everything we did, they did better. And I'm glad that he was able to say it. like that. Coming up in the next segment, I will get to a couple of the positives that I touched on briefly about a few seconds ago, namely Jeff Carter and Caspera and a couple of other things.

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underscore Penguins. So getting into at least two positive players. from tonight. I think that's the only thing I can say. I'll even put Tristan Jari. Maybe somewhat in the pause. He had a couple of beautiful saves, I should say,

towards the end of the game. It would have been a lot worse, to be honest. And those two players are Jeff Carter and Kisbury Kappan. Kappan's played some really good hockey these last couple of weeks, and it's great to see.

You know, I'll keep saying it. For those that have not listened to this podcast before you're just tuning in, about a week and a half ago, almost two weeks at this point. Kisbury Kappanin was obviously in a rut. He's been in a rut for most of the season. After he missed this breakaway in Nashville, he's basically putting his head down,

you know, like screaming to himself. And Jeff Carter, you know, puts his hand on his thigh and says, you know what, I know you're going to be better here moving forward. And he's been exactly that, you know, got the goal against Arizona last weekend. has been skating really well lately. It looked like he had a second goal tonight, but it was originally credited to Jeff Carter, who deflected the puck game,

but that was still a ridiculous shot from captain and from the slot area. And, you know, this continues his really, really strong play. And I'm excited about it. You know, this is the best hockey, you know, I think I've seen him play since last season. And, you know, if the Penguins can continue, continually get this level of Casperi Kampinen, I think they're going to win more games down the stretch. That's for sure.

And he also gives them, you know, a more deadly offensive weapon. That's for sure. So really liked his game tonight. I've really been impressed with him ever since that national game. It's been night and day, I think. And, you know, also I'll say Jeff Carter, you know, obviously got the goal. That's huge for him. He's been definitely, I think, struggling a bit lately.

The legs have might be catching up to him. The same I think can be said for Brian Boyle. I'll get to him in just a second. but I did like how he was playing towards the end of the game. And yes, I somehow was still watching towards the end of that game. And yes, I also am a sicko and part of the sickos committee. I'm not sure if for all you are on social media, you follow that account. I am an absolute sicko.

I will watch no matter what when it comes to this team. I am just that, I don't know, even when it's 4-0-5-1, hell even 6-0. I'll still hate watch, I think, at that point. but, you know, nice to see Carter get on the board, you know, especially because, you know, he's, I think his foot speed has definitely been lacking a bit lately. Maybe he might be benched a couple times down the stretch if the team gets McGinn. And, Zooker back, you know, Jason Zooker was at the morning's gate this morning in a non-contact capacity. Not sure if the team is practicing on Saturday.

I would assume they are, but don't quote me on that. If he, if they are, I would assume Zooker will be on the ice of practice. It looks like he's closing in on a return, which will be here. huge for, I think, this entire team, in my opinion. But, you know, those two players, again, were the only really main positives, I think, from this game. And also the fact that the Penguins are still very comfortable in a playoff position. And they're still in second place in the Metro right now.

So, you know, they are totally fine, six more wins to get 100 points, which will no doubt clinching the playoffs. The Penguins, they literally can go six in ten down the stretch and probably make the playoffs. That is how, you know, it's afforded at this point. Obviously, hopefully that doesn't happen. I'm not gone with them it doesn't. Penguins do have a gauntlet schedule coming up. But, you know, with how they just fared in the first one,

hopefully it can be similar to that, you know, to say the least. Power special teams, my notes right here. It was good, you know, good to see the power play get another goal. That's the second straight game now that the power play has cashed in. That's just huge. It's been an rod. You know, I know it was the second unit that was able to come on. I know the first unit tonight was definitely struggling.

I think a lot of that was due to of getting Malcon being out. He's obviously been a big presence on that union. And, you know, the fact that most of the team found out like 30 minutes for the game story that he's not going to play due to being sick. No, I think it's got to like send him like a weird feeling through your, you know, through your head and brain and everything. It's like, oh, well, shit. Looks like we're obviously not going to have one of our main weapons,

especially on that power play. And, you know, I like Evan Rodriguez. I think he's had a fine year. But, you know, going from Malkin to him on that top unit, That's just, that's not good. And, you know, the Penguins, there was a golden opportunity in this game. They're down 3-0, 1st period, about 4 or 5 minutes left. They get a double minor.

So in theory, you could score two power play goals and cut it to within 3 to 2 going into the second brand new ball game. I know it's Igor Shusurkin, best goal tender and hockey this year. But the fact that they didn't even really get anything going on those two power plays, I knew right then. I'm like, yeah, it's not their night. I was like, okay, maybe if you can get one back going into the second, it's definitely a game.

Hell, if you get two back, that's even better. But the fact that they couldn't even get one and the fact that they barely even got three to four shots off for what I was counting here on my notes, that was just unacceptable. I thought the penguins were being a little too cautious, I think. They kept dumping the puck around, and Shasturkin is very aggressive with handling the puck.

One of the times he shut up, he set up a short-handed breakaway. I think it was Sir Barclay, really just launched the puck deep and pick up a penguins by surprise. That's not going to work against a footballer, like, just circling. You either got to dump it around ridiculously hard, or you just can't dump it in at all. You got to just have a zone entry with one of your players. That just carries it.

You have a man that damage for God's sake. But, you know, those little soft dump-ins, that's just that's no dice right there, at least for me. So I think that was definitely an unenforced error for the Penguins. The Penguins did give up also a short-heated goal. I believe that was Chris Kreider that got it. He had two more goals tonight. I cannot believe that guy is nearing 50 goals. If you would have said that he would be six away from scoring 50 this year,

I would not have believed you. That's for sure. P.K. I guess that's at the lone bright spot as well. The Rangers Power Play didn't really do anything in this game, but they also didn't need to because they scored most of their goals at even strength. So that's basically a mute point at this point. I did see, though, Casey DeSmith ended up coming in for

Tristan Jari and then he came out. I think he hit his head against the post from where I remember. I was not in the locker room, did not come back to the bench. Hopefully he is okay. If he is not, I'm sure Louis de Ming will get a call from Wilkesbury. He is now fully healthy.

He's recovered from that injury. We'll have to see. I don't think he'll start on Sunday, even if to Smith is hurt. I would assume they go back to Jari because I know he's also going to start against the Rangers next week to get some redemption. But I guess in a way I wouldn't.

to be too surprised if one of the backups starts. Hopefully Casey again, hopefully Casey to Smith is okay. But that wraps up the second segment of the show. Coming up in the next segment, I am going to do maybe a small preview of the game coming up on Sunday. I think I've basically talked enough about this absolute blowout loss. I'm actually surprised that I've been able to, you know, talk with you all for about 18 minutes on this podcast because there's just, there was basically nothing to like

from this game. But before I get to that, after months of playing, college basketball has determined the top teams for the final four. Well, almost, at least, we are at the elite eight. That will start on Saturday. And, you know, we're going to determine this year's national champion this coming week, it looks like. Venline.com is your number one source for all of your sports betting needs and sports info from all the latest odds, condens, and player props, you name it. VanLine remains the best spot also for all of this latest sports developments,

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and learn more about the trends and action that is been online where the game starts. All right, welcome back to this episode of Be Locked on Penguin Podcast. I am your host, Hunter Hoadies. You're not to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hoadies. Follow the shows Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguin. So Penguins do have a date

with the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday. second of three meetings against Red Wings this year, member of Detroit won in a shootout last time. That was when Casey DeSmith had the start of the year for his sake. He was just spectacular in that one. And the payments, of course, they end up losing the shootout just because, you know, the shootouts are absolutely terrible. But, you know, the Red Wings underlying numbers this year, only 47% of the expected goals, close to 45% of the actual goals, minus 30 goal differential. They only have 46% of the shot attempts at 5V5.

Goals 4 per 602.39. About three goals against expected goals for 602.37. So they're expecting an actual goal is right around the same. This is not a very high-scoring team. This is also a pretty bad defensive team, though I will say, Mo Sider is, he is not to be messed with. That's for sure. He is going to be, I think, well,

another, I think the Red Wings next franchise defenseman. I'm not going to sit here and say he's the next Nick Lidstrom or Brian Rolfski or something like that, but he is ridiculously good. The year he's having right now, I mean, personally, I would give him a colder. That's just my take, though. But, you know, he's probably the main reason why people are going out of their way a little bit more this year to actually watch on the Red Wings. So the goalies for Detroit, Nadelcovic, and Thomas Grice.

I do think the Red Wings will be playing on a back-to-back. I'm not mistaken the Red Wings, yeah. They play Tampa Bay tomorrow. So I would assume the Delkevich goes there and then Grice goes Sunday, but they also could flip-flop. I'm not really sure. This is a game of Penguins need to win. You're playing against a bad team that's on a back-to-back.

Tampa Bay is playing them in Detroit. The Red Wings have also been struggling a lot more lately. They're 26 and 31-7. For our time, it looked like they were going to challenge playoff spot, that is no longer the case. They just, they free fall way out. It is nice that Jacob Verona's back. He's been a penguin killer over the years.

He's on the second line right now with Pius Souter and Tyler Bertuzzi. Lucas Raymond with Dylan Larkin on the top line. Sam Gagne on the fourth line with Adam Ernie. Again, most siders eating up the top pair of minutes, Philip Heronik and Mark Stahl. So there are some good pieces here. You know, that's the thing. It's just there's not enough talent, you know, to make that playoff push just yet.

But, you know, their underlying numbers are poor. This is a team that's not been playing well as of late again. You know, they just got blown out by the Islanders. You know, the night they have a very tough game again on Saturday afternoon against the lighting, you know, before going to Pittsburgh to play them at 5 p.m. Eastern. That's, again, that's, I'm not going to say that it's a must-win game, but it's a game that the penguin should be able to win,

especially against a team that's, you know, they're on a back-to-back. I mean, come on here. A team like that should be gas. The Penguins will be, I shouldn't say relatively fresh, I guess, more fresh, you know, than they work tonight. Yeah, this was three games and four nights. But, you know, we'll have to see. That's the Night Panic Angels next game.

And then, of course, they'll be playing the Rangers next week before going to Minnesota to play the wild one more time and then going to Colorado to play the Red Hot Avalanche. So that will do it for this one on a locked-on-pay. Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for especially listening to this episode. And if you all may have been through this one, Godspeed. I love you all, to say the least. I am back on Monday for a fresh episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'll be recapping that Penguins hopefully win over the Detroit Red Wings and see if they can get up. 0.89 and 90 on Sunday. So thank you so much for listening. Better days will be ahead with this team.

They're not going to play like that. Again, I don't think this year. And I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful weekend. And I'll be back on Monday. Thank you.