Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - A MAJOR standout from the Penguins third preseason game emerges!

Episode Date: September 27, 2023

The Penguins played a fun game against the Red Wings on Tuesday night and Hunter, along with Pat, are here to break it down. They discuss who their biggest standout was and how he is giving it all he ...has to make the team. They then discuss a couple of the other standouts, including Sam Poulin and Alex Nedeljkovic. After that, they dive into how PO Joseph has likely done enough to hold off Ty Smith before getting into the practice lines that we saw on Wednesday. What stood out to both hosts? They then look at the power play deployment and what Mike Sullivan has in store before breaking down the latest news on Brayden Yager. Did the Penguins get it right with this decision? After that, they look at which players to keep an eye on for Thursday's matchup against the Buffalo Sabres. All that, plus much more is on this episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!DoorDashGet fifty percent off your first DoorDash order up to a twenty-dollar value when you use code locked at checkout. Limited time offer, terms apply.Jase MedicalSave more than $360 by getting these lifesaving antibiotics with Jase Medical plus an additional $20 off by using code LOCKEDON at checkout on jasemedical.com.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS - GUARANTEED. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable free bets that expire in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) 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.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Who stood out during the Penguins 4 to 3 loss on Tuesday night to the Detroit Red Wings? Pat and I are going to discuss that right after this. You're 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 am one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes.
Starting point is 00:00:36 To my right, as always is my co-host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on Twitter at Pontrah Hodes. You can follow the shows Twitter at L.O. Armstrong for Penguins. And you can follow Pat on Twitter at Send Them for Wet. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first lesson slash watch of the day. So quite a few things happened during that game against the Red Wings. Yes, the Penguins lost, but I really don't care if they lose preseason games.
Starting point is 00:01:03 And neither should you, whether you are listening to the show or watching the show on YouTube. But my biggest standout jumping into it now, I'm going to channel the inner shack meme from social media here with Redeem Zahorna. I owe you an apology. I wasn't familiar with your game. Well, I am now because he was awesome on Tuesday night. Scored the first goal off of a beautiful pass from Voltairee Pustin. That was an NHL caliber level pass right there.
Starting point is 00:01:36 And then Zohorna was a. forechecking menace in the Red Wing zone sets up that second goal to Pustin in, getting the puck away from a couple of Red Wings players, using that big body of his to get the pass to Pustin in. He was a forechecking menace, that whole game, really responsible in his own zone, showed off his finishing ability. He still may not make the team out of camp, but damn, he's making quite a big push.
Starting point is 00:02:06 And at the very least, he should be, the first player called up from Wilkesbury if he does not make the team. He was flawless on Tuesday night. Oh, yeah. We got a channel plankton from the SpongeBob movie here and pull out Plan Z because my God did he look good last night. It was exactly what we've talked about on this show for the last week or so about this training camp with guys at the fringe of the roster and some of the younger players.
Starting point is 00:02:36 While they're not going to get penciled in for a spot. on the opening night roster, their biggest challenge is to make management in the coaching staff's decisions difficult. And last night, Zahorna did that. And it wasn't just the numbers. It wasn't just the top line numbers. He did a lot of things really well, especially for a guy who's angling for a bottom six job on this team.
Starting point is 00:03:00 He played with speed. He played aggressive. He went to the net. He wasn't afraid to shoot. He did all those little things that you want to see out of a bottom six player. And, you know, we said it yesterday and I said it yesterday, yeah, you're not expecting to see a transcendent performance in a preseason game. And while this certainly wasn't a transcendent performance, it was a damn good one. Absolutely. And I even tweeted during
Starting point is 00:03:28 the game that I want to see more than because his five-on-five underlines in a very small sample are pretty good. Now, I don't know if those can hold up for a full season, but his points per 60 was around 1.2, 1.3 when he was with the Penguins. That's solid, especially for a bottom six winger. And he's going to get an even bigger look on Thursday, Pat, when the big guns come out to play the savers. The lineup was just released before we started recording. We're going to dive into that a little later on in this episode. But the fact that he's getting a big look there shows how serious the coaching staff is considering him for a spot in the every night lineup. I was just so impressed by him last night. Yeah, he had a great game.
Starting point is 00:04:14 Another player we've talked about on this show also stood out really well, and that's Sam Poulan. I thought he started really making a strong case to, if not make this roster be right behind Zahorna as the next call up because he, we talk, this is what we've been talking about with these younger players, especially, is you have to make the decision difficult. But not only do you have to do that, you have to be able to put together consistently good games because we've seen it forever and ever as long as this sports existed. A guy can have a good game and then disappear for three or four and then pop back up again. So the challenge for a lot of the younger players in this camp was to string together a couple good performances. And after the first split squad games and then last night in Detroit, Sam Poulan is put together two very very,
Starting point is 00:05:08 solid performances. So he's making his case to either make this roster or be right in line to be called up as soon as it's needed. And the goal that he scored was beautiful, too. The way that he was able to protect the puck, find a little bit of a soft spot between the Red Wings goalie and the net and just fire the puck in there. Beautiful stuff. I think he's playing some of the finest hockey that he's played. And we saw it last year at camp in the preseason. He got down right to the final day of cuts. And I expect that to be the case here as well as I don't know what the heck just happened there. Something came in my eye for some reason there. But hey, we're all good. We're just going to roll with it. Overall, though, really liked his performance, as well as Dalteri Puston's, another player who
Starting point is 00:05:53 I think, I guess, is a mini dark horse to make the team a player who I don't expect to get on it. But he is also making the coaching staff think about this pretty hard, that pass that he had to Zohorna to get things going for the penguins. It's a thing of beauty. And his vision is very good. I love it. He has a great shot as well. I thought he also played well in his own zone, things that Mike Sullivan really likes to see from some of those younger players. Again, I think he's going to start the season in Wilkesbury, but maybe he does get more of a sample this year when there are injuries. He only has one game of NHL experience. Maybe that changes here at some point this season. But I really liked what I saw from him. And overall, just generally speaking here, Penguins have a lot of these players that may be down at Wilkesbury, but are potentially ready for full-time NHL gigs. And when someone goes down this year, especially if it's like a bottom six player, that player could be replaced for a little bit.
Starting point is 00:06:56 And it'll be like, I guess fine, because some of these Wilkesbury kids are ready to go into the way. Here's the question that I think Mike Sullivan has to ask himself. does he want to put together a defensively accountable defense first bottom six? Or does he want to roll the dice a little bit? Because there is some young offensive talent in Wilkes-Barre that could make up this bottom six. And they could also fill in when there are injuries in the top six. So this is going to become kind of the narrative, kind of the decision coming out of the preseason, is what direction do they want to go with the ball?
Starting point is 00:07:35 bottom six because you can see a world where Pustinen, Poulan, Zahornah, make the team and play on a third or fourth line along with guys like Drew O'Connor and Matt Nietto and Lars Eller and Nolachari. And maybe you all of a sudden have a little bit more of an offensive push in your offensive lineup rather than kind of a steep drop-off between the top six and the bottom six. Now, you'd still have a drop-off. but maybe there's a way to mitigate that drop off if you decide to go with some of these younger guys with offensive upside. It would be a big risk just because a lot of these players don't have a lot of NHL experience.
Starting point is 00:08:16 But I think it's also one where I would kind of like to see where it goes. Pustin has that offensive upside. Sam Poulan also has a little bit of that offensive upside. Radeemes the Hornet definitely has that offensive upside. We just saw it on Tuesday night. it all comes down to, though, how does Mike Sullivan feel about those younger players compared to some of those vets
Starting point is 00:08:39 that Kyle Dubas brought in, Vinnie Hino, Andreas Yonson, Matt Nietto, Lars Eller, all those guys. I mean, we know Eller is going to be in the lineup full-time. Nietto probably, too. But the other players I named before, that's who I think these guys are mainly competing with.
Starting point is 00:08:57 And again, it's going to come down to maybe Sullivan going out of his car, comfort zone a little bit because he usually does trust a lot of the vets. I mean, and heck, Pat, a lot of these coaches do that. They love her veteran players. They don't take as many risks with younger players. But I do hope Sullivan, I guess, changes in that regard because there are players in the penguin system right now who are probably ready for the NHL.
Starting point is 00:09:25 And it sucks that maybe a couple of them won't make the roster at least in a couple weeks, but they've at least shown to everyone here that they're more than ready. Agreed. And lastly, but not leastly, we do have to bring up a guy whose name I've been getting incorrect, apparently, all offseason. That's Alec Nadalcovic. I've been not putting an H at the end of it and just say, I thought he was great last night.
Starting point is 00:09:53 He was the entire reason that they got out of that first period tied and not down 4-5-1. But like we said on the show, that was a lot of Detroit's regulars playing last night, whereas it was the Penguins B or C squad. So you kind of expected at some point that Detroit would kind of take over the game a little bit and get some consistent sustained pressure. And they did right out of the gate. And if it wasn't for Nadelcovic, that game would have gotten out of hand real quick. He was fantastic.
Starting point is 00:10:25 I mean, at one point the Penguins were being outshot 15, 4, 16 to 4. they were getting pretty outplayed by the Red Wings regulars, and he was standing on his head in the crease, the one big save that I'll point out here. Puck goes off the end boards. Dukovitch is in perfect positioning. Snags it with the glove when it came back to a Red Wings player. Really nice save there.
Starting point is 00:10:44 If he can play at that level during the regular season, I think he can be a pretty consistent backup for Tristan Jari. A couple of the goals last night. I know he'll maybe want back, the one where, I believe it was the Nate Danielson one, goes off his blocker and he got a piece of it. Not enough. That's one you would want back during a regular season game,
Starting point is 00:11:03 but he's still working out the kinks. It's preseason. I was pretty happy with how he performed in that game. Just to end the segment here, we do have a little bit of breaking news, as the Penguins have just tweeted, that Braden Yeager has been assigned to the Moose Jaw Warriors of the Western Hockey League.
Starting point is 00:11:18 So he is going back down to his junior team. Pat, I think we all saw that coming after what happened on Tuesday night. It was fine. He just didn't stand out. the way he did in the first couple of preseason games mainly. Yeah, and that's what I said about him yesterday was the challenge for him was to put together more than one consistent, really good game. Right.
Starting point is 00:11:42 And he wasn't bad last night, but he just, it looked like, okay, this guy is an 18, 19, 19 year old junior prospect who has a lot of upside. So this was time. He got some looks with the big boys during the scrimmages and the practices. and then looked pretty good in the first split squad game against Columbus. So I think we've got a prospect here who has a lot of upside and could be NHL ready sooner rather than later. But I thought he stood out well. He made a good first impression.
Starting point is 00:12:13 And here's the hope and he develops well enough in juniors. And if his team doesn't go very far, maybe we see him again near the end of the year to get some reps and Wilkes or even with the big club. Right. I agree with that. And here's hoping that he has a great junior season, makes the last. the World Junior Canada team, excuse me, and lights it up there as well. But really excited about him. He showed a lot of flashes during this training camp.
Starting point is 00:12:36 But I think that will do it for this first. I mean, I will say as well, Ty Smith didn't really impress me that much last time. I think at this point, Pat, P.O. Joseph has that job locked up. Smith was fine. It just didn't do anything to really blow me away or anything like that. But that would do it for this first. I mean, coming up in the second segment, how about those line combinations from practice on Wednesday? The quote unquote 18 had their practice and it looked pretty awesome to say the least,
Starting point is 00:13:06 seeing some of the line combinations that were out there. But before we jump into that, are you missing the syrup for your pancakes or did you just run out of your favorite coffee creamer? With DoorDash grocery delivery, you can get what you want right when you need it. You've trusted DoorDash to deliver your restaurant favorites and now you can get grocery delivery. that actually delivers as well. You will get exactly what you ordered or they will make it right. So sit back and enjoy quality groceries just like you pick them yourself. With easy substitutions writing the app and best in case customer support,
Starting point is 00:13:39 DoorDash delivers groceries exactly how you want it. You can get 50% off your first DoorDash order up to $20 value when you use code locked at checkout. It's a limited time offer and terms apply. Remember, that's 50% off up to $20. no minimum sub-total and zero delivery fees on your first order from DoorDash when you download the app and enter code locked. Don't forget, that's code locked for 50% off your first order with DoorDash. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am Hunter Hodey's joined as always by Michael's Patrick Dam. So as usual, Mike Sullivan,
Starting point is 00:14:19 Pat and I are going to read into the line combinations today. And they're pretty awesome to say at least. I was pretty excited when I saw him. Seeing Raquel on his off wing with Cindy Crosby and Brian Rust, that should not be a surprise, considering what Mike Sullivan just said to the media. He actually likes his wingers playing on their offside. And I think you maybe could see that with someone like a Riley Smith later this year, where maybe he plays on the right side next to Gennie Malkin. And sure enough, he was there during practice today.
Starting point is 00:14:52 Alex Nielander was actually on Malkin's left wing, even though he's. or righty. And for all you Nealander fans out there, if he wants to make the team, well, he's getting a shot at it playing on Hedney Malkins left wing right now. Top six looks pretty cool, but I think someone like Nealander might be, I guess, a quote-unquote placeholder for Jake Gensel, at least for now, because Jake Gensel's not healthy enough yet. The third line has some intrigue, which Roe Conner,
Starting point is 00:15:17 Matt Nietto, and Lars Eller, but I don't know if Eller can be the long-term answer at 3C, but I love that O'Connor is the left-winger there. And then Hinnis Joseph with O'Chari and Carter, as we've been saying, Jeff Carter is going to make this team no matter what. And then on defense, seeing that top four, Ryan Graves with Crystal Tang, Eric Carlson with Marcus Pedersen, and P.O. Joseph with Chad Riedel, that looks like the top two favorites for the bottom pairing. What were your overall reactions when you saw the lines today? You're a Marvel fan, right?
Starting point is 00:15:50 Yes, I am. So you know that Dave Bautista played Drax and Guardians of the Galaxy. right the wrestler of course i felt like him in w wwee monday night raw when i saw rakel on crosbie's wing just going give me what i want give me what i want because i have been calling for that for so long and man seeing that go out today i was so pumped because those two can play together really well and wow like here's the thing also looking at these lines right yes the nis the nis the nis Lander fan club is going to be excited about this. And they should be because he has been a force so far throughout this camp. So he has absolutely earned a look in the top six. So let's see what he does with it. On the other end of it, I look at this defense and I think we now know what our opening night defensive core is going to be. We know the top four, Graves LaTang, Pedersen, Carlson. And then it was who's going to come play with poor PO. And right now it looks like it's, It's going to be Chad Rooeedle, especially after we talked about the injury yesterday to Pissick,
Starting point is 00:17:00 but it does sound like a guy who they want to keep around. So we'll see what happens there. Who be Mark Freeman? I haven't fully decided yet, but he'll get some time in the preseason. And we talked about this off mic. I don't know who Ryan and Shay is. I just don't. Like, you're going to have to forgive me on that one, listeners.
Starting point is 00:17:19 I saw that name. And again, it was another Marvel reference. I just went, who? So, but I'm excited for this game, man, because I have no doubts that a Buffalo team that is greatly improved over the past couple of years and is right there on the cusp of playoff contention is probably going to play a lot of their regulars tomorrow too. So this could be a really good preseason hockey game we have ahead of us. Agreed. And it also just be great to see the regulars in the lineup for the first time in quite a while. and of course seeing Eric Carlson and Chrisletang on the ice ever so often.
Starting point is 00:18:00 And speaking of that, we saw the power play lineup today. I'm going to give myself a pat on the back. Because I called it, being in the Phil Kessel's spot. I got something right, people, breaking news. I know. It's rare when that happens. But he was in the Kessel spot. Carlson was running it from the point,
Starting point is 00:18:18 stayed at his normal spot, Chino in the right half wall. And then Raquel was in the bumper spot, or I guess the quote unquote T.J. Oshy spot in Washington, which is where because he scored all of his goals against the penguins there. But that is a mint power play setup. It's a mint unit, if you want to say that too. And we need to get a glimpse of this on Thursday because I think fans are going to lose their absolute minds.
Starting point is 00:18:43 Here's the best thing about this power play is that it is going to find a way once it clicks to beat you. in a variety of ways because the amount of skill on that unit is probably unmatched. You're probably not going to find a better skill in top power play. But having Latang and Malkin on the wings, if the tic-tac-toe mismatches aren't working, it's just going to be bombs away. Set up Malkin for a one-timer, set up Latang for a one-timer. Okay, that didn't want. work, let's do it again.
Starting point is 00:19:24 And just whatever poor goaltenders sitting in net that night is going to be under siege. And then once Jake Gensel comes back, low-key, one of the best parts of Jake Gensel's games, he can clean up the front of the net in the offensive zone. So after one of Carlson, Malkin, or the Tang, blast one on net, oh, look, there's Jake Gensel, a casual 40 goal score just sitting right in your kitchen. And that doesn't even get into talking about how Cindy Crosby is on this unit, too. Right. How? How are we this spoiled?
Starting point is 00:19:54 And he's in his office behind the net. He's going to be making things happen from there, as he always does. I can't wait to see the plays that he makes with the buck on his stick, just because of the vision that he has on the ice is absolutely absurd. I love what Chris Lange said, by the way, today. I saw a couple tweets on social media saying, like, yeah, I played the point for quite a long time. It's a little bit of a change. Okay, he's not going to care that much.
Starting point is 00:20:19 He'll get used to it. he has a great ability to see the ice from anywhere on it, even in the Kessel spot. He is deadly both passing wise and shooting wise from there. And saying it all along, you put him there. That's the biggest thing the Penguins have been lacking on this power play since Phil left. They have not found a true replacement for him. And while Latang's release is nothing like Kessels, trust me, I know that. Phil has a one in a million release and you can't replace it.
Starting point is 00:20:50 No. Well, Tangs is still very good. And his playmaking ability from there, I would argue, is better than Kessels. And I think that's why you're going to see this unit light up a lot of teams this year. Yeah, it's, sorry, Sully. I'm overreacting to this one, man. Like, I, at this point, this is also something that could actually, like, when, you know, old school hockey fans love to talk about deterrence. this might be a deterrent in general just for teams to play more conservative against the penguins
Starting point is 00:21:22 because do you really want that power play to trot out against you? I sure wouldn't. So this might be a case where they just have that nuclear bomb sitting in the bench and just going, go ahead, take a penalty. We'll drop this thing. Teams are going to be super careful about taking penalties against this team this year. And again, just hope those own entries are also cleaned up. He's gone.
Starting point is 00:21:47 First time I see that stupid drop pass going up the ice on the power play, I'm going to throw something out my window probably. But I had to throw that out there too. But that would do it, I think, for this second segment. Coming up to end the show, Pat and I are going to go over the lineup that was announced for the preseason game on Thursday and going to a little bit of what we're looking for before we preview the game on Thursday. We'll be going a little earlier on Thursday of episode up before the usual time.
Starting point is 00:22:14 but stick around for that coming up right after this. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am Hunter Hodes. That is Patrick. So we kind of hinted at it during the second segment. All of the big guns are basically going to be playing in this game. But you'll also have other players like Drew O'Connor. Can he cement himself with this game?
Starting point is 00:22:37 Alex Neelander, we assume he's going to be playing on Afghani Malkins left wing. How does he do in a top six role? Can he take advantage of this situation? Brian Rust, Riley Smith will make his debut, Lars Elliter will play. Austin Wagner, who I thought had a pretty good game a couple nights ago as well, he will be getting a look here. Could he cement himself as a player to get one of those open, bottom, six spots to start the season? I'm going to have my eye on him outside of some of the big guns.
Starting point is 00:23:05 Noel Charo redeems O'Hourna, we already discussed him a lot. Raquel, Malkin, Carter, Nietto Crosby, and of course, Riedel, Ryan Shea, Ryan Graves, Marcus Peders, Mark Friedman, the other regulars, Latang, Carlson Joseph, and then we assume that Tristan Jari will be getting most, if not all the game. Outside of the big guns, and maybe Solnick-Reeds-O-Hourna,
Starting point is 00:23:26 who we already discussed, who are you looking forward to really keeping your eye on for this one? Just like yesterday, I'm keeping my eye on P.O. Joseph again, because I want him to play definitively tomorrow night. By the looks of this lineup, he's going to be on the third pairing, obviously, but I want to see how he adapts or adjusts because if I'm him, don't do anything
Starting point is 00:23:53 different. You're going to get less ice time. You're going to get less opportunity. But rather than feeling like, okay, I'm on the third pair, I have to fit myself into this box, I have to play a certain way, don't do that. Because you know the kind of coach Mike Sullivan is. He said it when he first got hired. He doesn't want to take the stick out of his best player's hands. And while P.O. Joseph is not one of the best players on the roster, play to your strengths. Skate well, do very productive things in the offensive zone, make a good first pass, and use your speed.
Starting point is 00:24:27 And just because you're on the third pairing, doesn't mean you suddenly have to become Brooks Orpick. You don't have to suddenly become a big time hitter, stay at home defenseman who doesn't rock the boat a lot. Be a force out there because we talked about that yesterday. day. If there suddenly is a bunch of talent on this blue line outside of just the top four, that's another threat for this team moving forward. So that can really help raise his stock tomorrow night if he just goes out and plays the way he has the first two games on the
Starting point is 00:25:00 third pair. And he's got to just keep up that chemistry with Chattarweedle. It was building quite a bit last season. I want to see how it carries over to this season. And also during practice today, he was getting reps as the quarterback of the second powerplay unit. He hasn't really done it. I feel like that often is career. Usually last year, it was Jeff Petrie that was doing that. But if you want Carlson and Lettang on the same powerplate and Mike Sullivan, it looks like he does right now, which is good.
Starting point is 00:25:30 You need to have someone else that is good with the puck on his stick. And that someone is P.O. Joseph. He can be more active in the offensive zone. He can create some chances on the. man advance. You will have plenty of talent on that second unit, especially when Jake Gensel comes back. Because if Gensel comes back and replaces Raquel, Raquel goes to that second unit, you'll have him, Riley Smith, obviously, P.O. You want to throw out someone like a Drew Connor, if you want, Brian Rust, of course. That's a really good second unit. And P.O. will continue to play with strong
Starting point is 00:26:06 players, which will only make him better, I think. I think there's a unique ability. for him here to become a pretty, I guess, underappreciated power play quarterback. It's not going to be all the likes of Latang or Carlson or anything like that, but it's a new thing added to his game, and I'm intrigued to see it. Yeah, and then the last thing I want to see tomorrow more than anything is I want, and before I say it, I want to caution the listeners and fans here. This stuff isn't going to happen overnight. It's going to happen quickly, but it's not going to happen overnight.
Starting point is 00:26:39 I want to see the new guys. Riley Smith, Eric Carlson, Ryan Graves. I want to see, like Josh was telling us, it looks like there's a pretty good chemistry and connection coming with Riley Smith and of Gennie Malkin. I want to see what kind of fruit that bears. I want to see how Ryan Graves and Chris LaTang work together. I want to see how Marcus Pedersen and Eric Carlson work together.
Starting point is 00:27:01 So I want to see how these guys fit in because they're not being part of a newly built line. They're getting inserted into parts of the lineup that have been there for years. So I want to see how these guys mesh and how they play. You took the words right out of my mouth there, to be honest. I can't wait to see Pedersen with Carlson. Graves with Latang was pretty obvious. I think from right when training camp opened that they were going to try Graves with
Starting point is 00:27:28 Latang and it makes sense considering all the money. They just gave him. Outside of that, though, I mean, this is easy, though. Tristan Jari, let's see what he looks like. And I know it's preseason. It doesn't really mean that much. But I want to see what he looks like, fully healthy now, even though it's just preseasoning.
Starting point is 00:27:46 He's probably going to get the whole game. Let's see what he can do. And if the Sabres do play their full lineup and we'll have those details for Thursday's episode, this can be a good test for him, considering the talent that the Sabres have, especially up front, you know, Dylan Cousins, Jeff Skinner, Tage Thompson, even on the back end, Rasmus Dahlian, who came into his own last year, Owen Power, if all five of those guys play could be a really good test for him. And I'm excited to see how he does, if he does get the entire game on Thursday.
Starting point is 00:28:16 Outside of that, there's not only much that I have my eye on too much. I guess if you want to add something else, Lars Eller at 3C. I want to see how he handles those minutes for the first time. And I want to see if I can maybe eat some pro off that because, again, I'm not really fully sold on it for the long term for this season. But hey, maybe he proves me wrong. and he plays really well starting the preseason and then continues it during the regular season. But I think that will do it for this episode, the Locked-on Penguins podcast.
Starting point is 00:28:44 Pat and I will be back for another episode on Thursday where we will fully preview the game against the Sabres get into their lineup, other things that will be looking for and all that good stuff. And just as a reminder, we will be posting it a bit early, so won't be on your drive home tomorrow. Probably be around like two, three, three-thirty, somewhere in that ball. Yeah, something like that. A little before the game compared to Tuesday, where we posted it about two or three hours before. But again, that will do it for this one.
Starting point is 00:29:15 Thank you all so much for tuning in. We'll be back with another episode for you all on Thursday.

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