Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Yinz ready for the regular season?!

Episode Date: October 8, 2022

The preseason is finally over! The Pittsburgh Penguins dismantled the Buffalo Sabres, 7-1 on Friday night to end the preseason as the regular season is only a few days away! Hunter goes into who stood out in this game and he has to start with Ty Smith. He marvels at how good he was with the puck and how he looked to be in rookie form in this one. He makes the argument that if the Penguins can get this level from Ty Smith during the season, they'll win the Marino trade. Oh yeah, if he's not in the top six to start the season, there's a BIG problem. He then looks at how well Jake Guentzel and Sidney Crosby played (water is wet) before addressing Danton Heinen's beautiful goal. He breaks it down and shows how flashy he is with the puck. Is he going to score 18-20 this season or will he be closer to 12-15? Hunter gives his prediction for that before going into POJ's performance. Was this his last gasp? Did he do enough to earn a spot on this year's team? Could both he and Mark Friedman get waived before the season starts? 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!SimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnNHL to learn more. 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, happy Friday, October 7th, the final preseason game, has ended in the Penguins, get the 7-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres. And we are now, when you're probably listening to this, five days away from regular season, hockey in the Bergerna go over the full game tonight against the Sabres, a lot of good stuff to get to. Ty Smith's brilliance, POJ coming into the lineup, Cindy Crosby and Jake Ensel, flashing their brilliance behind the net and on the power play tristan jari's performance all that plus so much more that's coming up right after this drop your locked on penguins your daily podcast on the pittsburgh penguins

part of the locked on podcast network your team every day hello welcome back to another episode of the locked on penguins podcast i'm your host hunter hodes remember follow me on twitter hunter hodes can also follow all the shows, Twitter at Eleanor for Penguins. And, of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day. Today's episode is brought to you by Ben Online. Has we covered this season with more props, odds, and lines than ever before. But it has been online where the game starts. Apologies for this episode.

Being so late, you know, had a really tough mental health thing with just a couple of things going on in my life. But one main thing, I'm not going to really get any winning. But, you know, the hockey game tonight definitely, you know, put me in a better mood. And I'm really glad to be doing this podcast time right now. Quick PSA to everyone. If you are going to the game against Tampa Bay next Saturday, eight days from now, maybe seven when you're listening to this, let me know. I actually secured a ticket for that game.

I will be in Pittsburgh at PPG-Paints Arena for the first time in quite a while. I'll be sitting, I think, section 200-something. I have to look at a ticket, but it's a little high up. But if you're going, let me know. We can meet up, you know, have a drink or something at the game. And we'll just talk, Penguins Hockey. I'd love to meet some of you all that listen to the show. show and, you know, that would be awesome.

But, you know, getting into tonight's game against the Buffalo Sabres, a 7-1 thrashing by the Penguins. I guess the first big takeaway, they are definitely ready for the regular season. They outclass the Sabres every way possible, even strength at least. The Penguins controlled 51% of the shot attempts in the offensive zone. They also controlled 61% of the scoring chances compared to 39% for Buffalo. High danger was about 50-50. Sabres actually controlled.

the expected goals, funny enough, but they were also outscored at even strength. If you go to all situations, the Penguins controlled 51% of the shot attempts. They also controlled 60% of the schooling chances, lost a high danger battle, lost the expected goals battle, but, you know, mostly they dominated the underlying numbers. And then Tristan Jari, of course, was able to slam the door on numerous occasions. Outside of that, from an individual perspective, if Ty's based on on this team, next week to start the season against Arizona Coyotes, there is something seriously wrong with the evaluations of the front office and the coaching staff.

He was electric tonight against the Sabres. Had a really nice goal, kind of a harmless shot through a lot of traffic. But still, you know, I like when he's firing the puck through there. Had a couple gorgeous dishes for assists. He was just a one-man wrecking crew with the puck. That version of Ty Smith that you saw tonight, that is what he did his entire rookie year in New Jersey. Jersey before he stunk last year.

He was dominant all night long. And if he plays like that for the entire regular season and is okay defensively, you know, the Penguins are going to look a okay in that Marino trade. In my opinion, he definitely secured his spot in the opening night lineup with this game. I know they have salary cap concerns. I totally get that. But I think right now, if he's not in your top six, there is something wrong with you.

They're going to have to be creative to keep. Smith in there just because of their cap situation right now. You've been sending, even I think just waiving Mark Friedman is not going to do it. And it's the same thing with POJ. And they may have to lose 2D. You know, maybe they're going 13 forward, seven defensemen, two goalies. You know, maybe they're putting Ryan Paling on waivers, but I don't think they're going to do that. I think that would make little sense after they just acquired him.

Excuse me. And the Jeff Petrie trade. But they are going to have to get creative. But that said, Smith is very deserving of a roster spot. excuse me, geez. And he showed that in a big way tonight. Outside of him, P.O.J did get into the lineup tonight, played with Jeff Petrie. And this was something I talked about on my episode on Thursday.

I thought he was going to get in as kind of like a last gas, like, okay, show us who you can do. It's time to, you know, it's not up or shut up time as you know, from zombie land and all that stuff. but I just don't think he did enough tonight to warrant a roster spot on this team. That said, I tweeted about this after the game. I think, I don't think the coaching staff wants to lose him for nothing. If they put him on waivers, there's a chance that another team could take him. But again, there's just, there's so many fringe NHL players that are on waivers on an everyday basis. But I don't really know if a team will take a chance on him.

So I think that, you know, they have a really tough decision. with him there. That said, I think he did struggle a little bit playing next to Beach. I just don't like that pairing as a whole. I mean, I don't really like Petrie's performance either. Kind of looked a step slow. And I know he hasn't had like the best preseason in rookie, well, rookie training camp, excuse me,

but it's preseason in training camp. Give it 20, 25 games if he's still looking bad, then, you know, you all can come to me with that discussion. But as for POJ, just did not see enough from him to warrant a top six spot during the season. And now, again, could he still make the team and be like that number eight guy? Sure, you know, definitely could. But as of right now, I just don't see it. I don't know.

Something, they're going to have to do something there. That's for sure. You know, maybe they do keep him. But, you know, I think there's a very distinct possibility that they dump him and Friedman. I think Freeman, I talked about this in my Thursday episode as well. he is someone that I don't think is that well known around the league. I think he would definitely be, you know, between him and someone like Chabarad I would trust way more that he would go unclean than someone like Rarito.

And I've seen some people on Penguin's Twitter 20% saying like, oh, they should, they should wave Roodle. Why would you do that? He is a perfect depth defense. I know he played a lot of minutes last year. He doesn't deserve to probably be demoted to a number seven or number eight role. but if you lose him, your depth takes a hit. I would much rather have him in the lineup than Freeman.

And I mean no offense to Freeman. I think he's a fine player. But Ruudel, in my eyes, better puck mover, better defender, cheap. They got him for basically nothing, you know, when they originally got him a few years ago. And they've turned, they've turned him, angelate competent, bottom pairing initial defenseman. Why would you want to get rid of that for no reason? I just, I don't really understand that. I mean, also he makes so little.

He makes barely above the league minimum. I don't even think that puts them under the cap if I can, if I, I mean, so I don't get that move at all. Also, great to see, just moving on a little bit. Jake Gensel, Cindy, Crosby, they are very much ready for the regular season. After the first couple goals tonight, I was kind of just ready to be like, okay, you know, you can just bench them now, Mike. I don't need to see that potentially get hurt or anything just because the penguin's injury curse knows no better. pounds. First goal from Yacht Gensel, great pass behind the goal line from Sid. I mean, Jake was wide open in front of the net. He's going to bury that 10 out of 10 times. So it wasn't a

spiseria. Then, you know, Sid, he was able to get a really nice goal on the power play. Just rip that top cheese past the Sabres netminder. Both had really strong games. They are going to be absolute monsters this year for the Penguins. So that wraps up some thoughts from tonight's game. up the second side, we're going to get into some more thoughts, especially Tristan Jari's performance, also going to get into Dayton Hinen's goal and how great that was, and so much more coming up vertically soon on this episode. But before I get to that,

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catching up a couple of the other goals that were scored tonight that danton hyman goal was chef's kiss as i like to say um just also shout out to jeff carter great pass while falling to the ice at the right corner um right by it's not really the goal line but kind of like the red line about behind the net great path to the center hiding is able to corral it with his back hand go forehand tuck it under the pad of the savers net minder um just really nice hands for behind in there and you know i can't say enough how underpaid he is i think he's going to have another good season now is he going to score 18 to 20 this year kind of a little pes i'm kind of being a little pessimistic with that i'm going to say no but should he be good to 12 to fit for 12 to 15 goals this

year absolutely yes i mean he is one of their best at forwards he can play on the second line if needed finally he's probably going to start on the third line with gisbury capon and jeff carter um and i think that's a totally fine place for him really nice goal from him tonight i think he's going have another good year. Brian Russ was also able to get on the score sheet tonight. I thought he also played a pretty solid game. And, you know, you all know what you're going to get from Rust. Probably 20, 25 goals, 50, 55 points.

You know, sure he's going to get up the air and age at some point, but, you know, you know what he's good for. He's a good top six winger on this team. I would kind of be surprised if he got 60, 65 points. Wouldn't put it past him just because he's one of their better goal scores. but I think at least this year he's probably good for like a 20, 25, 45, 45 stat line or 2030, 50 stat line, 2035 or 25 like 30 style line, something like that. Really nice goal from him tonight as well.

From a lineup perspective, nothing really, I guess, surprised me. I mean, I know Danny Shari put out the lines. And I thought for a second, I was like, wait, is Teddy Bluger playing tonight? Because he just joined the team for the skate this morning. I think he was full contact. but no, Ryan Paling took his place. Gensel-Kroxby-Richael, that is going to be your first line when the penguins play the coyotes next week. Zucker Malkin-Rust, Hyman and Carter Capit.

That is going to be your top nine next week when the Penguins open the season. That's just experimenting that in training camp for a long time now. Well, I shouldn't really say a long time. I think for the last week, week and a half. That is going to be your top nine when the Penguins opened the season against the Kempens. Coyotes. Fourth line, it gets a little bit interesting, but I'm sure Megan and Bluger are going to be on that line. I know Paling was taking Blugher's place tonight. That leads me to believe that Archibald has the, I guess, the inside track. And honestly, I think I was reading a tweet really. I wasn't

around much today if I can find this tweet here real quick. Mike Sullivan was talking about charge of all today during his press conference and he goes, I think he's one of those guys that can help us build and sustain momentum with the way he plays. He's on the puck. He's tenacious and he's hard to play against. This is a very typical Mike Sullivan kind of player. And, you know, Jeff with a know, who has been on this show before, he ran the Penn's blog. I know he changed his out so many times. And he's a great follow on Penguin's Twitter. He made a great point with his tweet saying, like, you know, Sully loves guys on the wings that can skate hard in a straight line to attack the puck. You know, will someone like Archibald score?

Probably not, but they're little rats to play against and it's worked for his entire tenure. Honestly, I hadn't really thought about that at this point, but it does make sense. Someone like Dominic Simone comes to mind, for example, he drove a lot of the fan base crazy. I understand that just because he did not score a lot. But, you know, he was a very Mike Sullivan player because, you know, he would drive play, good playmaker, someone who can basically do it all on any line. And I'm not saying Archibald can do it all just because he's never really been that good of a score.

I mean, he's a couple seasons with double-digit goals, but that's it. But he's the kind of player that, you know, Mike Sullivan likes to throw out there on his bottom six that, you know, can cause havoc, you know, make a couple of big checks. I mean, I'm not, he's not, Kyle Clutterbuck over here or something like that.

But, you know, he can be hard on the puck, steal possession time in the offensive zone and, you know, just skate a straight line and play his system to a T. And I think that's what Sullivan has been looking for for him. And I think that's what he's really noticed throughout training camp and on the preseason. And even Jeff has said this. He goes to go back and watch video of even Dom Simone.

You know, his stick is always hacking and whacking his opponents try to force turnovers. You know, that's basically what Josh Archibald is going to be this year. And, you know, I guess I haven't noticed that as much. I guess I didn't really make that comparison when I've watched Archibald during the preseason. but it's definitely, I'll say this, it's not hard to see why Sullivan likes him, and it's not hard to see why he is probably going to be in the starting lineup against the Arizona coyotes. It's definitely going to be a battle between him and paling for the entire season.

If the team is healthy for a lot of the season, not on wood, of course. But, you know, right now, the charts of a bald spot to lose. We can gripe about it. You all know my thoughts on that. I've talked about that at length on this show. numerous times I'm not going to waste any more time. But for better or worse, he's going to be in this lineup, I think, for a lot of games. And I think everyone is just going to have to, you know, live with it, basically.

It was interesting to see Marcus Pedersen scratched for this game moving on a little bit. But, you know, I think for anyone that thinks he's going to get traded in the next week or something like that, no, no. If he's getting scratched, he's just basically being rusted. I'm at this point. And, you know, I know for POJ, you know, he was in there as a last gas. but, you know, he also could have been showcased to some teams and that kind of stuff. Duman Lattang, they looked fine. I thought Duman skating looked a lot better in this game compared to a couple preseason games

ago, Letang, you all know what you're going to get in with him. Jan Ruta, steady as ever, excited to watch him this year on the bottom pairing. And then Tristan Jarring, really nice tuna performance, only allowed the one goal, I believe, was a short-handed breakaway. I think it was what, Hina Stroza that scored it. Do want that stuff cleaned up. I don't want to be seeing a lot of shorthand breakaway goals during the season. It was just a couple seasons ago, funny enough.

The Penguins were like top five in the league and short-handed goals against, like least shorthanded goals against you. This is usually not really a problem for them, but then last year, the issue crept up a little bit, and they were kind of like in the middle of the pack. But, you know, the last couple years before that, you know, usually have one of the best numbers. in the league when it comes to at least shohannock goals against.

So I'm definitely looking forward to see how that is this year. It all comes down to, for me at least, painless just can't be careless with the puck. You got to make sure, you know, your passes are crisp. You know, they're on point. You're not making these high-risk plays, which leads to two-on-ones. You know, when the power play is not right,

you know, you're seeing them make a lot of high-risk plays. And then that turns into a lot of short-handed rushes. and then you're just seeing them play, you know, hot potato with the puck, basically. So outside of that shorthand-old night, power play was totally fine. Again, they even had a power play golden night. I'm totally fine with that unit going into this season. Now if they struggle, you all are going to hear it from me, that's for sure. But right now, I'm totally fine with it to say the least.

But that wraps up the second segment for the episode. Coming up in the final segment, we're going to get into a couple of other things regarding the penguins and just how fired up I am now that the preseason is over and you know when I think the final full cuts are going to be made so stick around for that coming up in the final segment all right I'm back in this episode of the locked on penguins podcast I am your host honer hodys run up follow me on twitter at hunter hoddy's follow the shows twitter at l oarsore penguins and of course thank you all so much for making this your first listen of the day um funny just noticing that there apparently was an initial trade tonight as I'm recording this um and it

looks like, if I can find this here. Oh, so the Blackhawks traded for Jason Dickinson in the second round pick and the Canucks get Riley Stilman. So nice little late night trade action there. The Blackhawks have been very open about them being open to taking on some money. You know, they basically need anything at this point. I could honestly see them being as like a Friedman POJ destination just because we all know that they're tanking.

And if they trade for one of them and they play. good under them, they can flip them at the trade deadline and get an asset or two for them. So do not be surprised when the Penguins, they figure out what they want to do on defense. If the Black Cox potentially come calling and then they maybe make a trade for one of those two players or, you know, they potentially claim one off waivers because I think that would be a really, both of them would be really easy flip candidates at the deadline next March. That's a team that everyone knows it's going to be bad. They're taking on Jason Dickinson's contract.

He's not even that good old player. I think they would potentially be down to take on one of those two contracts. But the Penguins, especially just because POJ and Mark Friedman, they don't make a lot of money, to say at least. But right now, the Penguins roster stands at 25 players, while Philip Lindberg was backing up tonight, but he will be sent down to Wilkesbury, I assume, really sorely. So 26, that's going to be 25. Sam Poulan did not play tonight.

I do not think he's going to make this team out of camp. I think he had a really strong camp and a good preseason. I think he's definitely worked his way up in the organizational depth chart, but I just don't think he's there yet. He's close. He's really close. And the fact that, you know, they were willing to put Zohorna on waivers and even lose him, I think that goes to show me, at least that they're really high on Poolean right now.

And it's been, you know, a 180 compared to last year when, you know, basically no one was talking about him as being a candidate to make the main roster coming out of this year's camp. So he definitely had a really good camp in a preseason. Don't think it's going to be enough. That said, I'm sure when the inevitable injury bug hits for the penguins, he's going to be one of the first call-ups. He did not make it to one of the final two to three cuts for no reason. They obviously saw something in him with the move to center,

his offensive ability, and even his improvement on defense and the others in the defensive zone that they liked and they were able to keep him all the way at the end. you know, stinks that he didn't get in the final preseason game. But, you know, to me that means he's not going to make the team. So then you're down to 24 players. And again, you know, I've rehashed this stuff so many times. It comes down to what they want to do with their defense. You know, do they want to carry a full 23-man roster in there with 13-4s,

eight defensemen two goalies? That's up to them. Do they want to do 13-7-2 to do 22-man roster? They could do that as well. It's honestly whatever they want. I just want, you know, again, they could easily, Send Ty Smith down because there's another cat problems. But I don't think if you do that,

I don't think you're dressing your best six defensemen when the season starts. So that's my thoughts on that. I think everything else tonight, again, really smooth performance. This team is ready for the regular season. And I will say this now. I saw a follower tweet this. I'll say this as well. I've been saying this all offseason.

I'm glad that he was able to agree with me. This team has constructed. they're a fringe cup contender. They're good for about 100 to 100, 100, 105 points this year. It all depends on the goaltending and the health of the big three and the supporting cast. If this team can be fully healthy going to a playoff run and actually get goaltending, I think they can make a lot of noise. I don't think a lot of people are, you know, what's the word I'm looking for?

I don't think enough people are taking the penguins seriously this season just because, you know, they made a lot of changes over the off season. They're maybe not as deep. I can tell you with that top sakes, the way it's constructed right now, with the improved defense and the goal tending from both Jari and DeSmith and the preseason and training camp, I think this is a team that people are sleeping on, and they should easily be a top three lock for the metropolitan division pending injuries. They also, of course, have Mike Sullivan behind the bench.

But, you know, I'm so happy that preseason is basically over with at this point. I'm sure they're going to have some more practices this weekend. just to wrap some things up. And then next week is when they'll really just get down to, you know, practicing for the regular season at this point. They'll have the 23, 22, 23-23-man roster all set at that point. So regular season begins when you're all listening to this in about five days. Can't come soon enough.

I am so ready to be back recapping regular season games, previewing games as well. I have a lot of fun stuff coming next week. I have a good episode coming on Monday. Tuesday, Nick Horwan, Nick Berland, Skip, Iepie Iceberger, going to be joining the show for the first time in quite a while. I love their show. I'm so glad that they're going to be coming on mine. Wednesday, we're going to have a full game preview for the game against Arizona. Thursday, full game week happened. Then Friday, I'll be previewing the game

against Sam Bay, which, excuse me, I will be in attendance for, and I'm so fired up to go to that game, too. So again, thank you all for listening to this episode. You know, we've made it to basically the regular season at this point. And, you know, just want to thank you all so much for sticking with me during the all season. But that would do for this one. Hope you have a great rest of your Friday and a great weekend. I'll talk to you all on Monday.