DK's Daily Shot of Penguins: 'Total team effort'

0:00Tell you what, anybody still bummed out about what went down in New York, or the weekend you're well within your rights. Ha ha, give it up for what you saw yesterday. Good morning to you. Good. Monday morning, I'm Dan College, which of DK Pittsburgh Sports, this is Daily Shot of Penguins. It comes your way right and early every weekday. If you're into football and or baseball, I also offer daily shots of Steelers and Pirates in the same place that you found this Penguins 5 Golden Knights Nell, like Asin Zero. Like Asin, they cashed all their chips and their chips were none. Ben Kindle, Yegor Chinakov, Brian Rust, Ricardo Raquel, Justin Berzo, with the goals, Eric

1:03Carlson with two wonderful primary assists on both of the Penguins power play. Goals, Arter Shilov's with a 22 save shutout, and I'm not really coming close to scratching the surface of how thorough all this was. At least I would say thorough from about the ten minute mark of the first period and onward, maybe a little bit later. And you want to know something? That's how it's got to go. That's how it's got to go. I covered that game at Madison Square Garden, and I left there feeling like that group had earned a molligan and a half given how they played in particular, since the NHL's Christmas break, a record that now by the way is 16-3 and 4, 16-3 and 4.

2:08And I thought, man, I mean, just go easy on them, they'll bounce right back, they've been super crazy and insanely resilient the entire season, and this won't be an exception. And then the next thought like this would enter my head that, wait a second, Vegas is next. And the Golden Knights have been sitting in Pittsburgh for a day, that was Saturday, they had played Friday night, but they were idle and had a chance to all heal up and all that other stuff. So the penguins coming home from New York, no morning skate the next day, one o'clock face off these things, and they're not friendly environments for the teams going through them. And the game begins, and I saw a lot of why the Golden Knights are atop the Pacific Division. Notably, does everyone talks about, you know, who their forwards are and their bigger

3:09names and so forth, Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner, Mark Stone, but it didn't take much to see that this was a lot more about, no, Hanuffin and Rasmus Anderson, Shay Theodore, the guys that they have on the back end, the super fast, seal you up completely, defenseman. And that's what was happening. And it was ugly, penguins were trying to get through the neutral zone, they were trying to skate their way through, they were trying to pass their way through, never, unless it's the end of the world, will dump it or chip and chase, but it looked like that was going to have to at least become an option, persistence, persistence. So Kendall picks up a puck along the, the right wall, this was out at center red, chipped to him by Anthony Manta, but he just goes like one on four, really into the Vegas zone, and he's coming with enough speed, and we've seen him do this at times in his wonderful,

4:11wonderful 18 year old rookie season, where he just has heck with it. If they're just going to pack it in back there, I'm just going to fly at them and see what comes of it. And in general, teams that do that don't like it when you skate at them full force. They're used to being able to dissuade you from doing that. They'll discourage you pretty good. Kendall didn't give a crap. Skates right into Hanuffin and Anderson, doesn't really see any other options, including other linemates, and just fires it, just releases a rister that beats Aiden Hill to the block or side. One nothing Pittsburgh, the whole game changes, Bruce Cassidy, Golden Knight's coach said afterward, that goal changed everything, that early, crazy, right? But he wasn't exaggerating because that was the goal that showed the panel was, hey, listen, just skate. Don't worry what they're doing, just skate, just play your game, be your best selves.

5:11I asked the kid about all of this afterward. Ben, as you're entering the Vegas zone, you looked like you were almost looking around for options and just didn't have any, is that what caused you to shoot there? Yeah, I think it was kind of tight to the fence, and there wasn't much of a play, so just trying to get a shot off, and if not, pukching it up in the corner, and a good spot to get it back. So, yeah. They had given you some trouble, the neutrals on early on here. Was that just part of, you know, going ahead, do you just want to just skate right into them, basically? Yeah, I think so. You know what I mean? Yeah, obviously, they're a good team, they've got good structures, so it's going to be hard to make them down on the neutral zone, but, yeah, just trying to find ways to get through that pressure sometimes, just maybe getting it low instead of turning over, but we can learn from that and move on to the next game. He's funny too, you know, he'd tell me afterward that some of his teammates were ribboning because the shot wasn't all that hard or whatever, it's like, later on, the goal that he

6:13set up for Brazil with a drop pass and Brazil sent a really legitimately hard wrist shot past hill inside the far post. That was a, I mean, garbage time goes 5-0, but the kid has unreal, maturity, my ability to carry himself in any scenario on or off the ice, and then the rest of them took at the rest of the way, so yeah, maybe they borrowed one of those molligans, but then maybe they also just threw it right back at you, when we come back, J-1-Q. Today's J-1-Q comes from Adam, who says, arts or she loves in his last nine starts has now allowed 16 goals on 243 shots. A 934 save percentage and that's outstanding by any standard, while he still has some issues

7:19to overcome, he's been notably better at rebound control and not overplaying shots. In short, he's gotten a lot better. I would add that it seems obvious to me that the penguins want, she loves to be the number one, and are giving him every opportunity to do so. He was the one who started opening night. He was the one who started the first game after the Christmas break. He was the one who started the first game coming out of the Olympic break. He's been at times outplayed by both Tristan Jari and Stuart Skinner, but he never lost that status. Are the penguins telling us without words what they want to happen here? There are so many levels upon which I love this question. One of those happens to be that let's just say that this came up in a lively discussion slash debate I was having with a long time friend in the press box between the games

8:20Thursday and then the one yesterday, the home games. Let us just say Adam that this friend is totally with you on this, like 1 billion percent. He points out that I'm giving him all of the credit slash blame for this depending on how you feel about it. He stresses above all else that she loves is 24 years old. Can't be coached, can't be instructed, you are whatever age you are. She loves also is 6 foot 4, can't be coached, can't be instructed, you grow where you grow. And maybe most amusingly, my friend went out of his way to emphasize that if it weren't for shootouts, Pittsburgh would already have been in love with she loves, like not flower level, but he'd be getting adopted, he'd be one of us. People would be talking about how to have an already party after a big W like the one

9:23yesterday. As it is, he of course like the entire team is terrible at shootouts and even when the team loses a shootout, like the one in New York, when skinners in that, it just serves as a reminder of how bad everyone, but notably she loves is at that. Alright, so enough of laying this all on my friend. The way I see this is that she loves has the frame, the athleticism and an increasingly solidifying resume. I still see things that I don't like. I saw them in this game, I'm not going to share them with you because it's going to come like I'm piling on and I just won't let it go. And that's not the case, I'm wide open on this matter. It's way too important to the future of the franchise to just say this guy's not it, move on, bring up Sergei Murashov and that's that.

10:26And I do happen to agree with both you and my friend that how did you put it here? The penguins are telling us without words what they want to happen here. Yes, of course they would have wanted she loves to be their number one ahead of Jari. No one needs to revisit that. And of course they would want him to be their number one ahead of Skinner, who's an unrestricted free agent when this season ends. But does that mean because it's foretold or even sought that it's going to be the case? No, of course not. Does it mean that Murashov isn't going to get his chance when he's ready? No, of course not. But if there continues to be progress where he can make it through a boring game and actually help facilitate the boring game and my god, honestly, that game was really, really dull yesterday.

11:27That for me is an even bigger step than if he had made seven or eight super splashy saves and owned the nightly highlights and everything else. That's consistency. That and a few other traits are what he needs and what should be the most encouraging about what he needs is that unlike all those other categories I raised earlier, these are coachable. These are instructable. Andy Kyoto could conceivably spend an entire summer working with him on something as simple as handling the puck or when to go behind the net to play it. Or rebound control. It'll be interesting to watch to say the least. I'm trying to picture what this stretch here, this final stretch could mean to the penguins not just this season but for future seasons if it were to involve legit number one level

12:32goal tending because I'm not going to lie to you until recently. I thought they were going to have to just kind of ease all their way around that sort of thing. I appreciate the question. I appreciate everybody who listens to daily shot of penguins. Don't forget that we have a double shot of penguins coming your way today and that I'll be flying out to Boston tomorrow to cover the penguins game against the Bruins where I'll offer a whole lot more content for you from up there. I hope you can join us for the double shot of penguins today at 3.30pm.