Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - A bit of payback, plus thoughts on the extra stuff!

Episode Date: May 5, 2021

There's never a boring day with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Hunter recaps their bounce-back win against the Flyers as they got some payback. He starts with the play of Sidney Crosby and why he needs to stop criticizing him, even if it's only a little bit. He terrorized the FLyers again last night and led the way with the bounce-back. He also touches on Geno's game and why even though he was a bit hesitant, he settled in nicely and banked a couple more points. The big discussion comes after this as people have started to compare the Crosby/Konency incident to the Wilson situation. Hunter tells the listeners why this isn't even close to the case, while also advocating that both Sid and TK deserve to be fined for what happened. Finally, what's the potential reason as to why Mark Friedman is hated so much by the Flyers?Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.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.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.WealthfrontTo get your first $5,000 managed for FREE, for life, go to wealthfront.com/LockedOnNHL. 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.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello, everyone and welcome to this Wednesday afternoon episode of the Blockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L-O-1-Square Penguins.

Today's episode is brought to you by Lockroom. You can download the app and join me tomorrow night at around 9-930. get in on the action, locker room, changing the way we talk sports. So, as always, a lot to get to for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. It has been a banner week for the NHL. I mean, this one we're going to obviously recap the Penguins' monstrous win against the Flyers on Tuesday. We're going to go over the play. So Travis Kineckney and Cindy Crosby and then the Kine Knoosloofood on Rales.

And yes, Shane Gosser Spears play. But, you know, we're also going to look at how the power play looked with Afghani Malkin having a three-point night. Cindy Crosby as well, terrorizing the flyers. Tristan Jari coming up with some huge save. and I'm also going to take a look at what is probably going to happen tonight. And, you know, call out a lot of people for, you know, their hypocrisy. As I've seen a lot of that in the last 24 hours. But, you know, let's start on some positives.

A big win last night for the Penguins. They get a little bit of payback of their own, as I said, in the Lockdown Now video. They gave up seven goals on Monday. They score seven goals of their own on Tuesday. I think the game overall was not indicative of the final score. You know, it probably should have been a lot tighter. but the Penguins were able to pull away when it matter most. It was really weird to see Ellen Vigno pull the goalie down two goals with like five minutes left.

I mean, that was basically a full Patrick Waugh moment. I mean, I never really understand why teams do that. I think if you want to wait until the three-minute mark, I think that's okay. But the five-minute mark, that's just too much time. And you're just asking for the opposition to score an Mdney goal, and that's exactly what the Penguins did to make a six-three, courtesy of Mark Friedman. So now both of his goals this season have come against the Philadelphia Flyers.

I thought I would point that out because that is honestly just funniest shit as he used to play there. Do you get things started though? Marcus Pedersen, I think gets his second or third. I think it's his second goal of the season. His first goal, I believe, since the third game of the season. So really nice to see Pedersen get back on this score sheet. What a pass it was from Jared McCann. And then Pedersen goes a forehand, backhand five hole on Brian Elliott.

And of course, in case anyone did not know, Brian Elliott was playing in his 500th game last night. So it was nice to see the Penguins honor his 500th game by putting up six goals on them. Of course, the other one was an empty netter. So, you know, congrats to Brian Elliott in 500 games. But, you know, I know you probably won't be remembering this one as he got torched all game long. But that's the play that they're going to need from Pedersen down the stretch here. Well, I shouldn't even really say down the stretch.

I mean, there's two games left. Mattisn is obviously not going to play in those. But I think that's the play from Pedersen that the Penguins are going to need to see in the playoffs when Matheson hopefully comes back. Just much more offensively engaged last night. It was good in the defensive zone. And I've talked about this a lot on the podcast this year. I understand that he's become a little bit of the Penguins whipping boy.

But him playing next to John Marino, that is the Penguins' best shutdown pair with the shot suppression. I've said that a lot in recent episodes. You can put them out there against any opposition, and they will get the job done. We just want him to put, you know, have more a bit of an offensive bite to his game, and we saw that last night. So very nice to see him open the scoring.

Overall, it was a good first period, I thought, by the Penguins. The Flyers really didn't have a lot of good looks. Honestly, the Penguins played a outstanding first 30 minutes before the Flyers turned it on, I think, for the next 15 to 20 minutes, and then Pittsburgh dominated the last 10 minutes of regulation to get the win. But as for the second goal, great to see Jake Gensel get another goal. This is now four consecutive 20-plus goal seasons for him. He's on a steal of a contract right now, like I've said,

If he were to hit open market after this year, I think Gensel would get upwards of six and a half to potentially over $7 million per. He is that good. I'll continue to say that he's a top-five goal score in the league. And it was a bit of a weird power play at the start with Hvgeny Malkin looked very hesitant, I thought, a lot of times. It was a two-on-two going the other way. I think the Penguins had some good zone time. You know, Lattang is playing Drew perfectly fine. You know, he's playing up on him.

And then Drew has this awesome saucer pass right to Sean Gutier. I don't really know why Malkin stopped skating there. He was really lucky that Tristan Jari was able to slide across to his right and make that save. I really, like I said, I really don't understand what Gino was doing there. But after that play, he was able to rebound a bit, get that shot on goal, get, I think, the primary assist on it, and then Gensel was able to clean up the garbage to make it 2 to nothing in the second period. Pittsburgh is able to make it 3-0, just a few moments later as Cindy Crosby, with like 3 to 4 skaters around and one of them being Ivan Proverog,

redirects a shot in past Elliot. I still don't even know how he scored that, but it's just, it's Sid. And, you know, I know I kind of dumped a little bit on Sid on Tuesday's episode. You know, shame on me for doing that. I guess I'm not allowed to criticize Cindy Crosby ever again, even in the slightest criticism possibly. Because it wasn't even that bad.

I just was like, yeah, you know, I'm getting just about 5, 10% concerned. He's been off, I think, for the last week or two. Then, you know, last night has a three-point effort and looks like the Sidney Crosby that we have seen for most of the season. So I guess it serves as a lesson to me to never really go out at Cindy Crosby. But overall, I thought the top line as a whole was great. Brian Russ was really engaged. Jake Gensel, of course, had a goal.

I think you also had an assist. Overall, 14 of the Penguins' 18 skaters last night registered a point, so that's how good of a performance it was for the Penguins overall. But awesome performance from the top line, Cindy Crosby doing Cindy Crosby things. I know the Flyers were able to make it a game right after that. Justin Braun gets his first goal of the season. This was his first goal, I think, since last season, which came against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

So I guess he has a knack of scoring against the Penguins. And I also think he scored against Pittsburgh in the 2016 Stanley Cup final in game two, which tied the game. I think that was late in the third period, if I'm not mistaken, which sent it to overtime. I think he was the one that scored that goal. I'll have to double check that, but I'm pretty sure it was Braun that's scored that. Another goal, though, after that, just lucky bounces. Two of the Flyers three goals last night just came on very lucky bounces off skates

and in. I mean, that goes to show you with the night before how the penguins were very unlucky with puck luck as well. I mean, the puck was just bouncing Philadelphia's way almost every time in this two-game set. I mean, you saw it the night before with Alex Lyon sprawling back and making that save, but Jason Zucker had two cracks out of, in an empty net. Another one where Shane Gassas Bear reached back with his stick as the puck's about to go in. Another one during the night before where the puck makes a weird bounce off the board. It goes right to Claw Jure's stick and pass Casey to Smith. He basically had no chance. chance on that. And then last night, you know, one goes off Jeff Carter's skating past

Tristan Jari on an innocent looking pass. Another one goes off John Marino's skate. As Trishon Jari kicks out the slightest of rebounds, boom, it's in the back and then it's a three two, excuse me, it's a four three game. But also as well, awesome to see Jason Zulker get on the score sheet last night. That is what you want to see. And that all started, I'll break this down a little bit for you. When Capman was really forechecking in the offensive zone, really just hemming the flyers in for a bit, putting a lot of pressure on them. And then Gino is able to crawl a puck after Kaplan and lost it and fired that ridiculous pass to Zucker,

who's all alone in front of the net, goes backhand, forehand, top cheese on Brian Elliott. That's the kind of goal that you want to see from a player in Jason Zucker, who has really struggled to score. And I understand that he has two goals in back-to-back games, but the first one, the game was basically over. I know they made it four or two, and maybe there was a chance that they could come back,

but it likely wasn't going to happen. But last night, when the Penguins needed him most, and when the Penguins needed a goal at the worst time when they were getting a bit outplayed early on in the third period, it was awesome to see Zulker rediscover his scoring touch. It's actually crazy to me that according to CK-Four O'RowR Response Code on Twitter, that he has the highest 5V-5 goals per 60 on the team except for Kisbury Kaepin and Brandon Tanna this year.

So he's playing well, but the results have not backed up the process as much as it has with other players. Like I said, great to see him get on the score. I've even Salson takes early on in this game that he's going to be a healthy scratch at some point in the playoffs. You know, don't listen to those people. I mean, a lot of those people have really good takes about the team as well. But I completely disagree with some people who think that Zucker is going to be a healthy scratch in the playoffs. I really don't think Sullivan has it in him to do that.

And, I mean, I would maybe understand a little bit playing Freddie Goodrow over him. But at the same time, I would rather have someone like Jason Zucker in my top six in playing there. than Freddie Goodrow, who is just basically a bottom six players. So no, everyone. Jason Zucker is probably not going to be a healthy scratch. And then before we do its commercial break, I'll touch on this goal. Sidney Crosby with his second of the night, when he goes down to one knee, it is over.

Like, no goalie in the world is going to make a save when Sid is down on one knee firing a slap shot top cheese. It is not going to happen. We've seen plenty of goals over the years try to make you save in that situation. That was a vengeance of Sidney Crosby goal. And now I believe he's only two goals away. from tying Mario Lemieux for the most goals ever scored against

the Philadelphia Flyers franchise all time no matter the player and yes everyone that will be a record that Sidney Crosby breaks by the time his career ends and also if you look at that list for the most goals scored ever against the Flyers franchise the top three goes Mary Louonieu at 51

Sidney Crosby I believe at 49 and then Yarmier Yager I think at 47 so the top three players that have scored the most goals of all time against the flyers are not only three of the best players to ever live, but all three Penguins. So the Penguins franchise has just been tormenting the Flyers franchise ever since the late 80s and early 90s until now, which I find absolutely hilarious.

But we still have a lot more to get to when it comes to this game and the league overall coming up in the next step. I am going to touch on the Travis Kineckney stuff, especially with Sidney Crosby and the Slewfoot on Brian Rust and, yes, the Mark Friedman stuff as well, and why Capitals fans really just need to shut the fuck up when it comes to trying to compare this to Tom Wilson. But that's coming up in the next segment.

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That's promo code locked for 15 for 15% off your first order at Bilbar.com. We also cannot forget about Lockroom is the perfect place to start or join conversations about the league. you'll find fans just like you on locker room for watch parties, debates, post-game breakdowns, and of course reacting to big news or rumors. You will have a chance to chat with me and might even have a chance to be featured on the Locked on Penguins podcast throughout our locker room conversations. Be sure to join me this week tomorrow night on Thursday. I'll be hosting a room.

I might even do a live watch party for the Sabres, Penguins game. I know it doesn't mean a lot. I mean, I obviously know that Penguins are still trying to win the division, but I do want to try to do a live watch party. I think that's what I'm going to do tomorrow evening. Go download the free Lockroom app right now, currently available on all iOS devices. Remember, there's also a beta out right now for Android.

Be sure to create a profile, link your Twitter, and join the NHL group for the latest league updates. Follow me at Hunter Hodes to be notified when my room goes live. I know you won't want to miss it. Like I said, I'm planning to be live tomorrow night around maybe 8, 8.30. I can't wait to hear everyone's thoughts on the Penguins. See you there, Lockroom, changing the way we talk sports. All right, welcome back to this episode.

of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. In order to follow you on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow this show's Twitter at L-O-R-N-Swar Penguins. So there was a lot of nastiness that we saw in last night's game, and that's not typical for, you know, the Flyers, Penguins' rivalry these last few years. Remember when they play them in 2018?

Definitely not going to live up to the hype that it was in 2012 with how ugly it was to, you know, with James Neal, basically just running around with his head off and just taking head shots at Sean Couturee and stuff. But, you know, these last few years, the Penguins Flyers rivalry has really gone down here. I think it's kind of taking a back seat to Penguins Capitals. You know, I really think Penn's Caps has been the premier rivalry over the last few years over the Penguins Flyers won. But last night, you know, it took us bad a bit.

You know, there was some bad blood. I mean, you saw what Travis Connecting did to Brian Russ. I really don't understand Travis Connectney at times. I mean, he talks up this tough game and, you know, calls Jake Gensel a fucking nerd on the stadium series. And, you know, talked about Evgeny Malkin with his earmone. but it's like, please just stop chirping. These chirps are just really, really bad for a professional hockey player. And then you saw last night with the Sydney Crosby-Travel's Kinnakini situation.

Here are my overall thoughts on this. I think both players should be fined. I mean, the people out there are calling for both players to be suspended. Shut the hell up. That's just such a laughable take. And then here's another one. Sports talk radio in the DC area and just sports talk Twitter for DC sports has been so bad. the last 24 to 36 hours.

And for obvious reasons, a lot of the fans around here really don't know a lick when it comes to hockey. I said this on my episode yesterday, in case you all did not listen. I've been in this area for 18 years. I know I was born in Philadelphia, but I've spent most of my time here. I've grown up here. I went to elementary school, middle school, high school. I've listened to D.C. Sports Talk Radio way too much. Most of these people that are Capitol fans here, a lot of them really just don't know what they're talking about when it comes to the sport.

I'm sorry. That is how I have seen it in the 18 years that I have been here. I mean, and I wouldn't just, you know, make stuff up about that. If I were in Philadelphia and it were the opposite, I would say as such, or Buffalo or Boston or wherever other city where there's a rival team. Columbus even, where the Penguins, of course, arrivals with the blue jackets. But it is especially bad in D.C. And to see people comparing the Sidney Crosby, Travis Kineckney stuff to what Tom Wilson did and just this what about isn't bullshit. it's just a fucking joke and I'm really sick and tired

of watching these homers just try to compare it to something when it's not there. It's an apples to dinosaurs comparison. Again, if you really think it's the same kind of play and you're trying to absolve Wilson for what he did by looking at Cindy Crosby,

I don't want to talk hockey with you. You know nothing about the sport and it's probably best for everyone that you stop watching the sport and making yourself look like an idiot. I think I can't be more clear than that. And, you know, obviously a lot of caps fans are not going to stop doing that because that is how they are. They are some of the biggest homers that I have ever seen in my life. I'm sorry I'm spending a lot of time on this podcast talking about this last couple of days, but it just really infuriates me to see so many people around this area not know a lick about hockey. And, you know, I kind of expect it. You know, they really didn't know anything before Ovecchen came here. And, you know, of course they jump all on the bandwagon. And, you know, that's not necessarily a bad thing. But you should probably educate yourself.

on the sport as much as you can before throwing out some of the stupidest takes I have ever seen in my life. Sidney Crosby and Travis Cognacne, that play I can describe as this. Connectney literally has a headlock on Crosby. And of course, when Cid is going to get up, he's not just going to take it. He's going to do something about it. And what he did was wrong. You know, he put his head on the ice a bit. You know, that can cause concussions.

That is not right. And he deserves a fine for that. But also, Travis Conecton deserves a fine for not being able to take a hit when Crosby went after him for what he did to Brian West with his sleuth with and then putting him into a headlock and not letting him go. You know, no player is just going to skate away when someone has them in a headlock. That's just not how the sport of hockey works. But I also put a lot of this on the league because a ref is just sitting there watching it unfold

five feet away and they're not calling penalties. It's like this is why the league is such a garage league and why everyone is stuck in the stone age with all this shit. They don't police it. They don't call penalties. and it's open season right now with this stuff. That is, I think, my biggest takeaway from all these plays from the last 24 to 36 hours, including the Sydney Crosby, Travis Connectney stuff.

It is open season, and the refs don't care because they're not going to call it. You saw last night, the game is over. Mark Freeman makes it 6 to 3. He's going to the corner. Shane Gosses Fair just cross-checks him into the boards. He's lucky Freeman didn't break his collarbone or just give him a concussion or something like that. Because remember, Friedman was concussed earlier in the season, had and missed, I think, over a month.

I know he wasn't going to get a lot of playing time after coming back because the Penguins' defense was getting healthy, but he still was concussed. So that was just a chicken shit play by Shane Gosper. In a well-run league, that is at least a five-minute major or a 10-minute misconduct with a suspension coming. I know he's getting a hearing today. But also, you know, again, this goes back to the league. Where is the consistency?

If you're going to give Shane Dosper a hearing, which he deserves to have on that player Mark Trebin. Why are you not giving a hearing to Tom Wilson for the antics that he pulled on Pavel Bouchenevich and Artami Pannier? It makes no sense to me. And again, you know, Colin Campbell is the one who calls the shots here. George Peros, you know, he's the one who is Colin Campbell's parrot, puppet, whatever you want to call. You know, Campbell is the real one that is stuck in the Stone Age. But it's like, wow, you know, imagine putting George Peros as the head of player safety when he literally had a shirt tagline that says,

make hockey violent again. Yes, he actually sold shirts that had that printed on it. So it's almost like, wow, that was a pretty bad idea. But going back to the stuff from last night, there's no place for what Connecting and Crosby did. Both of them deserve fines. But you can't just be absolving Wilson for what he did just because like, oh wow, you know, Cindy Crosby and Travis Coneckney, they engaged in a bit of a tussle and then a few noggins were hit a couple times. It just, it does not compare. And I'm really, really tired of seeing some people on Twitter saying, that it does because you couldn't be more wrong. That's not an opinion of yours. You are just flat out wrong in spewing nonsense when there's really no need to spew out nonsense. But like I said, I'm not surprised that it's Capitals fans that are doing this, especially because like I said, I have lived in Capitals country for 18 years. So I've seen how these people have acted firsthand. It's not going to get any better. They enable this stuff. They don't care what Tom Wilson does because they will always go defend him. As I said yesterday, I'm sorry, guys. He's not going to come over for a Shabbat dinner on Friday night.

He's not going to come kiss you good night every night before you go to sleep. It's really not that serious, people. You can think that one play was really bad and that a player should be suspended long term while also looking at another play and think that it was bad, but also not Asbury where they just deserve a fine. And that's exactly where that Crosby-Connectney play

is, at least for me. I will say, though, his slew foot on Rust was bad. I know Rust didn't return the game until the third period. Hopefully he's not out, and it's not a classic of, Oh, a penguin player returns in the game, finishes the game, and then he's like day-to-day or week-to-week with like a lower or upper-body injury. I'm really hoping that that is not the case with Brian Russ, but still not a good play there, I thought, from Travis Kine.

He should know better than that. And then I saw Kine and Krosby jarring at each other a little bit in the box. I think Kine was saying, like, yeah, I've tried to go after you for years to get you to go. Probably not the best idea to poke the bear, TK. I really think Sid would hand it to him in a fight, considering what we've seen him do to Claude Jure and other players in years past. with fighting. As for the Mark Friedman situation, I don't really know what he did to piss off so many of the Flyers players. You saw last night, which actually gave the Penguins a power play

in the second period and actually contributed to the Penguins winning the game. Frebin laid this really good open-ice hit. I think it was on Joel Farabee. Jacob Boracek comes over and cross-checks him, gets the instigator penalty, and then Farabee comes up and fights him. Both players go to the box, but Borchek gets the extra two for instigating in the cross-check. Penguins go on to score. And it's like, I don't really understand that. And then we get to the chain gossiper stuff. It's like it's a 6 to 3 game and you're cross-checking a player into the boards.

I know we played for your team prior to that, but the game is over and you're intentionally just trying to hurt him by cross-checking him into the boards. Like that is just loser mentality. You know, I really don't expect anything less from the Flyers franchise, though, considering what's happened since 1975 with that team. But, you know, I don't know if Mark Friedman bang someone's wife. I don't know if he cussed out a player. I don't know if he cussed out a coach.

I don't know what he did, but for some reason, the Flyers players do not like him. It was still really cool to see him get that extra goal last night. Like I said, that is now two goals on the season for him, and both of them have come against the Philadelphia Flyers. But, you know, that is mostly all my thoughts, I think, on the rough housing stuff from last night and the people comparing it to Tom Wilson when it really doesn't need to be compared to Tom Wilson. Coming up in the next segment, I'm going to talk a little bit more about what's probably going to come tonight. between the Capitals and about that Rangers statement while also looking ahead a little bit

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Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow this show's Twitter at LO underscore Penguins. So tonight is going to be a very interesting game between the Capitals and the Rangers. I'm totally expecting a fight night, maybe a little bit similar to what happened with Penguins Islanders from 2011. I think the Islanders were a bit more pissed babies than that one because they were just mad that Brent Johnson knocked out Rick DiPietro in one punch and that he had to miss the rest of the season. They literally called up all their HL goons for that and I would not be surprised if that's what the Rangers do for tonight. I'm really curious to see what happens, you know, but this is, the league has had this coming, I think, for a long time, and it's no one's fault but their own.

You know, they're going to get what they deserve tonight when they see this shit show that is about to go down between the capitals and the Rangers. It is going to be pretty bad. You know, I honestly think what's going to happen at the first stop of the Pockeys. Remember that Rangers Devils game from years ago where Torrello is kind of barking at the other bench. and three Rangers players and three Devils players would drop the goves right off the face off. I would not be surprised honestly if we saw that tonight between these two teams.

It is going to be bad. But like I said, the league, they have no one to blame but themselves for continuing to not police the game the way that they should in a well-run league. Tom Wilson is suspended for at least a round of the playoffs, if not more. And honestly, you can make the case

that he should be suspended for the rest of the season. I know in the NFL, that would probably be the case. I mean, this is the same NHL league that literally find Henrik Lungwist $5,000 for squirting a water bottle on Cindy Crosby during the 2014 playoffs. Yes, it was that pathetic that they actually find him for that. But yet, they're going to find Tom Wilson the same amount for grabbing someone's hair, throwing him to the ice, MMA style, and then also sucker punching Bucenevich in the back of the head while he's face down on the ice.

So they just, like I said, they've had this coming for a long time, and I don't think they're ready for the shit show that is about to come down tonight. And, you know, prompts to the New York Rangers for releasing that statement yesterday, calling for the head of George Perros. That was gutsy. It's something that I don't think we've ever seen before. I know I think we saw a scene was day back in 2013 when Rafi Torres got a pretty large suspension in the playoffs. They released a statement saying how they were displeased with the NHL for that. They got fined, I think, $100,000.

Really curious to see what happens here with that. I wonder if Betman's going to give them half a million or potentially even more, even though, Honestly, if I were the Penguins and other teams, I'd pony up money to the Rangers and say, hey, you know, what will help you pay this line? We've had Tom Wilson do shit to our franchises before. Here's $100,000 to help you pay this line. I mean, if I were the Penguins and Mario Lemieux, especially with what he said over the years with calling the League of Garage League and sitting down with Matt Cook and stuff, I wouldn't 1,000 percent send money to the New York Rangers if they do get fine. But, you know, that was just a great statement. And I'm sure that came from Jeff Gordon and John Davidson, maybe it came from David Quinn as well.

it took a lot of guts to say it and you know I loved how they said it was a horrific act of violence and that's exactly what it was I know Capbles fans are going to downplay that well you know what a bunch of babies you guys are a bunch of sack of shits or whatever it's like just stop talking

it really is just enough trying to defend Tom Wilson and calling out the Rangers for what they feel like was an absolute joke or horrific act of violence because in a way it actually was and you know a lot of the Caps people are just going to downplay it and you know you expect them to because they're going to defend Tom Wilson.

That's their guy. But overall, I love what the Rangers did with that statement. I wish they had a statement like that with what happened with Keandre Miller, I think, during the start of the season or during the off season, where there was a lot of racist people that went into his Zoom and called him a lot of racist names. Like I said, I really wish the Rangers would have made a statement after that. But it was still really nice to see the Rangers, again, make a statement.

Last night as no NHL team has ever called for the removal of someone in power, such as George Peros, and really sent a message to the NHL that this is not good enough and that the status quo needs to change. And 100% does. I mean, we can't just be doing the same thing every season and expecting different results. That is the definition of insanity in case anyone forgot.

But I think we'll end the episode on that note. Overall, great win for the Pittsburgh Penguins last night. They get back into first place and they only need one more win to at least clinch a spot in the top three for the division. But if they do win out these last couple of games against the ball, Buffalo Sabers. They will clinch home ice for at least a round in the Stanley Cup playoffs. And if they want to get first place, they will need the Capitals to lose at least one of their remaining four games in regulation, as well as the Penguins winning out to get their first division title since 2014. So they're on the cusp of it. We'll see what happens here in the next few days. I will have another episode tomorrow talking about the Buffalo Sabers game before another one on Friday to wrap up the week.

So I can't wait to talk to you all then. And I hope you all have a great rest of your win. day.