Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - A NEW candidate emerges in the Penguins head coaching search!

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

While the Penguins have kept their head coaching search mostly quiet, a new name has come up in their quest for a new bench boss. Hunter and Patrick discuss the reports that the Penguins have interviewed former Ottawa Senators Head Coach DJ Smith and how he might not be the right fit for the organization after a disastrous couple of seasons in Ottawa. Then, the season in review series continues as they look back on another mostly disappointing season for goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic. Finally, with one team having already punched their ticket to the conference final, they check back in with the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin' and get crackin' with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires 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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Another name has emerged in the Penguins coaching search, and it's not as good as Mitch Love. Pat and now you're 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, and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host. Patrick Damping, follow him on all.

social media platforms at Sendin Nverwet. And you can follow the shows, Twitter at L.O. Underscore Penguins, of course, thank you all so much for making this, your first listen slash watch today. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Fandall. Right now, new Fandall customers can get $200 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. So it's funny, Pat.

We finish up our episode on Mitch Love on Wednesday. Right after we finish recording, David Pagnoda of the fourth period reports that the Penguins have also interviewed DJ Smith. At the time, I'm like, should we go back to record this? I'm like, nah, let's just save this for Thursday. It's a little bit slow right now anyway, mid-May. The playoffs are still going around, but there's not too much regarding the Penguins. So we figured we would save this for today.

So with that, again, David Pagnoda of the fourth period reported on Wednesday that the Penguins have interviewed former Ottawa Senators head coach DJ Smith. So he was the former head coach from 2019-20 until, partway through the 23-24 season. He was there for basically four and a half seasons and really didn't do that good of a job. Here's where the senators finished in their respective division throughout his time there.

7th, 6th, 7th again, 6th again, 6th again, and then 7th. They were at the bottom of their division every single year that he was the head coach. And towards the late stages of his tenure, they started to have playoff expectations. I mean, they definitely had playoff expectations. this year and credit to the senators, they finally broke through and made the playoffs. But even last year, this was a team that was expected to take a step and they never did. Like he was fired after 26 games last season when they were 11 and 15. So I get it.

They're looking for someone who at least has some NHL coaching experience here as a head coach. But for me, I'll pass. I really, I'm not really that interested in him at this juncture. I think you can find other coaches who may not have. have an HL head coaching experience, but are ready for this type of role. Again, what I saw from him in Ottawa, I don't think is really going to be a lot different here where he's just going to turn the page and have this team be a lot better than expected. I think they should go in a different direction.

Again, only one report, Pat, but I'm good. I'll pass. It's very similar to me in a way that I looked at Rick Tockeet to where I said, He was a part of a lot of dysfunction. I said this with Tocke. You look at where he's been, the coyotes, then the Canucks, and we saw what a tire fire, the Canucks devolved into the last two years.

You look at DJ Smith, and he was part of the last years of not to speak ill of the dead, Eugene Melnick owning the senators. And that team was by all reporting a complete mess. And you don't know how. much you can put on DJ Smith's shoulders. The thing I will say, though, on the opposite side of it, is that the senators were in a spot in a way to where the penguins are right now.

They were moving on from a different era, post Eric Carlson, post Jason Spetsa, post a few guys, and they were going to have to reset. And you brought up where they finished in the stand. Sandings. There wasn't a lot of progress. And it wasn't just that, oh, okay, this is a team on the rise. Sometimes you're in a tough division. And when you're on a rise, you kind of go from last to first or last to the top three.

That never really happened. You didn't see a lot of progress with these players. They all kind of plateaued it a certain way. And now you look at Ottawa and they're right back in the mix. They look like a team that is going to be on the rise for quite a few years now. So on one hand, I'm fine with, I'm definitely in the pass category on this. On the other, I look at it as he was the head coach of a pretty dysfunctional organization at the time. And that's always the first person to go when things like that happened.

The thing I wanted to kind of toss to you about Hunter is we've seen a lot of second chance coaches, the guy who starts in one place doesn't work out but then goes to another and figures it out. I'm skeptical, but if it does come down to Smith, do you think that could be this situation? There's always a chance, but I don't think it's going to be like, what's the word I'm looking for here? Maybe like a Paul-Marie situation in Florida. Because remember before Paul Maurice went to Florida, he was fine,

but he didn't he's turned this team into a juggernaut and this team looks like they might go back to their third straight Stanley Cup final and that was one of the most

meh hires you could ever say like it was just kind of like meh like oh you're hiring Paul Maurice to coach your team couldn't have done any better and then he just laughs in everyone's faces

he's taking the Panthers to two straight cup finals they've won one of them and they might go back to a third straight one because this team is a juggernaut right now so there's always a slim chance that happening but

it's low. I don't think you're going to see that happen here. I do, I will say this as well when it when it comes to DJ Smith. Cal Dubis is familiar with him. He was an assistant coach with the Maple Leafs when Dubis was there. So to me, this also could be like a courtesy interview like, hey, you've done good work throughout your NHL coaching career. We're going to give you an interview here impress me, just kind of that stuff. And maybe he's not a finalist, something like that. But Kyle Dubus is familiar with him. Right now, by the way, DJ Smith, he is on the King's staff right now with Jim Hillary. He was hired as an assistant, and right now he is the associate coach for the Kings.

But again, he was with the Maple Leaf starting in 1516 as an assistant, went through 1819 as an assistant before being hired as Ottawa's head coach in 1920. And, you know, Travis Green, he took over that Ottawa Senators team after DJ Smith got let go. He turned them into a playoff team this year. And they pushed Toronto at least to a six game after being down three. nothing in that series. But again, I think they can do better here. It's the same thing kind of like Drew Bannister, Pat,

like what you mentioned like with a second chance. Bannister didn't do a good job with the St. Louis Blues. He gets fired. Jim Montgomery comes in. He turns that team into a bona fide playoff team. And let's be real, they probably should have won that series against the Winnipeg Jets. They're less than two minutes away from going to the second round to play the Dallas

Stars. But it's kind of in that same logic. There's a slim chance that a coach like that can turn around. in their second tenure, but would I be the one making that risk? No, I wouldn't want to. Probably not. And I will say the banister thing, that's the other side of it for me is because his name has been floated. It hasn't been reported that he's been interviewed or that he's even really in the mix, but there has been talk that there might be interest. That's a different. That's the other side of the coin for me because St. Louis is a pretty middle of the road franchise.

They don't constantly impress, but they're stable. You don't hear about bad ownership. You don't hear about bad management. Doug Armstrong's a killer. He's one of the best in the business. But Bannister goes out and all of a sudden this team figures it out and turns it around. So that tells me a lot more about Drew Bannister than say your DJ Smiths, who were with a team that was just in complete disarray.

The one thing I will say in his favor, though, is it fits the mold of what they're looking for when you just go down the checklist because he was very successful as a coach in the OHL with the Oscewa generals did very well, won a lot of games, won a Memorial Cup in his third season. So the work with younger players, that's there. He has proven he can do that. He also, the other thing that I do think works in his favor, and this is where I'll leave it on DJ Smith, is when he was an assistant coach with the Maple Leafs, that's when regardless, and we're going to talk about them later in the show, regardless what you think about the Maple Leafs right now, he was pretty instrumental in developing those young three in Austin Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Neelander. And again, regardless of what they're doing in the playoffs, they did develop into pretty phenomenal players.

So there are pros and cons. He's not high on my list. But if, say, a Mitch Love passes, somebody else does as well, there are worse coaches out there that you could end up with. Yeah, for me, he's pretty far down on my list. I think the top three to four finalists on my list would have to say no. But again, I'm just a guy on a podcast with a microphone in front of my face. So I'm not Kyle Dubus.

But for me, Mitch Love, very good candidate, DJ Smith, Drew Bannister, not so. good for me and I know for you as well. But I think that I will do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, we're going to continue our season and review series with goaltender Alex Nadelkevich. Before we get to that, though, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor, and that is Fandall. The NBA playoffs are in full swing and every night delivers highly worthy performances, major momentum shifts, and can't miss moments. Whether it's a game-winning shot or a breakout player, there has never been a better time to get in on the action than right now. Fandul makes it easy.

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I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. joined by my co-host Patrick Dampen. Pat, it was another so-so season for Alex Nadelcovich. He had some good moments, some bad moments, and then some stuff all in between. He finished the season with a 14 and 15 and 5 record, 3.1-2 goals against average 8.94, say, percentage. He was 57th in the league in goal state above expected with minus one. So kind of eh for Ned this year. He had a really good stretch. right around the end of January into early February, where he was giving the penguins some really good starts.

I mean, we were talking about this on the show at the time. It started in Buffalo where he was 952. Then he played L.A. He was 962. He had the game against the sharks where he was 929. He had the game against Utah, which is now the mammoth, 931. Then he had a shout out against the predators. And then he had that crazy start against the Rangers, 917. But then right after that, Patty goes, has three really bad starts in row,

6, 15, 842, 786. state percentage respectfully. You know, he has two at least okay starts to end the season, especially against Washington, 5-2 win, 900 save percentage. He has that 933 save percentage against the Chicago Blackhawks. But still, a lot of a mixed bag this year, if I had to give a grade for him, C-minus around there, kind of a D-range, I still feel like looking back at that contract that was signed, you probably didn't have to give him that two-year term.

I think you probably just could have rolled with Yowell Blumquist coming into the year with Tristan Jari and had him be the backup. Yeah, I know. Blumquist struggled in his second stint in the NHL, but this is still someone right now that is blocking some of these younger goaltenders going into next season, and I still will maintain my take that I had when we discussed Tristan Jari. I think the penguins have to find a way to move on from one of these two goaltenders during the offseason. Both, I think I would be fine with that too.

but I think you got to get rid of one of them at this rate. Ned, though, he kind of is who he is at this rate, below average goalie, who will give you some good starts, but also a lot of starts where you're kind of itching for more. I will, I'll just give my grade right off the jump. I'm just going to give him a straight middle of the road, see. Because I look at Alex Nadelcovich, and I look at him not so much as a penguins goalie, as I do just a goalie in the NHL. And hear me out on this.

If he was on a contending team, I think he would be better. Because you look at the way he played, you went through that stretch in early 2024, where he gave the penguins a chance. And if he's on a team with a reliable starting goaltender, where you can use him as a way to, rest and reset your starting caliber goaltender, he's a great security blanket to have to where

you can start him every fifth or sixth game to make sure that your starter does not get worn down. But the minute he has to start taking over starter duties, he starts to fall apart. We've seen it the last two years. He'll go on a heater for a couple of weeks and then fall off of a cliff. but if he was on a team where there was a legitimate starting goaltender, great value to have. I agree on the whole that they got to move on from these guys. What I disagree with you on, though, is the Blumquist part of it. Because that's what I'm going to start bringing this into the Penguins specifically

is they want Yoel Blumquist to become a starting goaltender in the organization. And if you would have had him right out of the jump, injuries notwithstanding as the penguin's backup, it's going to blunt his development. So they wanted him to play in Wilkes-Barre and play meaningful hockey, get the lion's share. Now obviously some of that changed because of the emergence of Sergey Murashav.

But they didn't want to have him play behind a bad defensive team that wasn't going anywhere. where they wanted him to learn how to be the guy. Now, circumstances dictated he had to get some NHL action. He faltered in the second half of it, but that's part of the development process. You want to see where he is and see what he needs to get done. And I know people were upset that Jari came back up,

but you're looking long term with Blumquist. You're trying to find a way to get rid of these two goaltenders. So at the end of the day, I think, and this is the question I want to pose to you, Hunter, is I know that we want them to move on from both goalies to open up the market for these young guys to take the next step. But I do think the easier of the two to move on from is going to be Alex Nadelcovic because easy to move contract. Jari, on the other hand, complete boat anchor. So I've liked his body of work for the most part as a penguin.

There's those falterings in there. But I do think if you're looking at one of the two, the one you, have to move on from is obviously Alex Nadalcovic, right? Yeah, he's the easier one just because when you look at the contract, a team will be able to absorb that fairly easily. Obviously, with Jari's, there's a lot of money and B still a lot of term on that contract. So I think a lot of teams are going to be like, nope, even with the cap going up, we still don't want anything to do with that contract.

And he kind of is also what he is at this point in his career. I will say this about Ned, too. He does command a lot of respect in that locker room. I remember I was at the game when he stormed off the ice. He threw his stick and he slammed the door and barked at the whole team to wake the hell up because he got pulled. And to their credit, they did wake up. That was that game against the Flyers. And again, you can tell how well liked he is in the locker room.

You can tell that a lot of the players respect him as a leader. And he really does seem like a great dude, both on and off the ice. Like the interviews that he's had, all those moments. Like, he's very easy to root for him. Stinks that he's a Cleveland Browns fan. But you know what? that's a different discussion. He's a great vibes guy. At the end of the day, he is a great vibes guy.

And it's a drum I'll continue to beat until this team starts to make the turn into being a contender again. Over the next few years, you are going to need great vibes guys because you do not want the locker room or the culture of the organization to spiral into any sort of toxicity. And sometimes you just need that golden retriever in the locker room who he could, he can spill his coffee in the morning. He could be crossing the street into the UPMC sports complex and the car passing by can hit a puddle and he can get covered in water and then he can step in a wet part of the locker room in his socks and nothing is going to bother him.

So you're going to need some of those vibes guys, but they're going to have to identify others because as much as I like Ned's work, they're eventually going to have to start making room for the young guys. and an easy way to do that is to move on from Alex Nadalcovic. Yeah. And then again, they'll probably have to figure out a way at some point to move on from Tristan Jari, even though, again, that contract is also really bad as well.

The free agent market for goalies this year, not great, not good. I think for teams that are looking for new goalies, it's going to have to be via the trade market. And hey, maybe that will benefit the Penguins, especially for someone like Ned, who, again, his contract is pretty absorbable, only has a year left on it. But I think that would do it for the second segment of today's show.

I didn't want to come off as too harsh on Ned. He just kind of is what he is at this point. I give him a round of C minus grade for this past year. Had some really good starts, went on that heater. But as a whole, he just leaves you wanting a little bit more. Wrong place, wrong time. I think if he's on a better team, he has a better, better outcome. But the penguins, it's just, it's wrong place, wrong time for him.

At best, he's just remembered to edit that. That's right, 5, 4, 3, 2.1. Yeah, at best, he's a 1B, but in a perfect world, it's probably just a backup to a better starter in this league. But I think that would do it for this second segment coming up to end the show. We got to talk about the Stanley Cup playoffs and how especially Toronto is very down bad and how Pat got absolutely worked by that Oilers prediction with the Vegas Golden Nights. I also got work a little bit as well.

We're going to discuss that right after this. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-coes, Patrick Dampe. And Pat, we can start with any of these series, but let's just throw that pie in your face for picking the Vegas golden nights to absolutely stomp the Ebbinton Oilers. And they told you to absolutely shove that where the sun doesn't shine. And hey, Almond, man, I took the Knights and Six.

I thought it would be like it was two years ago where Vegas would shut down Edmonton, Aden Hill would outplay Stewart Skinner and Cal Pickard. But none of that happened. A, the Oilers depth really shined. I mean, Trent Frederick was really good. Evander Cain was good. You had Matias Yamark having a good series. Connor Brown had a good series.

Kisbury Capon of all people got a goal. And hey, former Penguins this week, man, we got Kasperi Kempin in the game winning goal. Mikhail Grinlan gets a hat trick. Dmitri Kulikov gets a goal for the Panthers. 22, 23 Penguins are just heroes right now, man. Truly.

But, okay, so we're going to toss the revisionist history of the former penguins because let's be honest, they didn't fit here. It's fun to look at hindsight and say, why are they doing that here? Because they didn't fit here.

That's why. But the thing I will say about my Vegas take is they addressed the thing that I said was going to doom them. I said in the first round, they won on the backs of LA beating themselves and Connor and Leon just lifting the entire weight of the planet on their back and saying, we are not losing this series. And everybody else was a passenger. They flipped all of that against Vegas. they got like you said solid goal tending their depth really filled in when needed and if you if you have that combination you're in you're in good shape so i was looking at the series as this is how edmonton was coming into it in Vegas is Vegas Edmonton flipped the script man and all the

props in the world to them for that because I kept saying the way they were playing in the first round until they flipped it. They were playing with fire. And they took a big old fire extinguisher and said, yeah, we're going to get rid of that real quick because if we're serious about being contenders, everybody else has to show up. And boy, did they ever. 100%. I mean, they got contributions from everyone in that series.

McDavid and Drysaddle great. Bouchard was really good. They got back to back shutouts from Stuart Skinner. If you get shut out back to back times by Stuart Skinner, you should forfeit your entire next season. But hey, shout to him. He played really well. in those two games in all series, since I can make jokes all I want about Seward Skinner and how bad he was against the Kings.

He answered the call when he was put back in due to injury with Cal Pickert and he was very good. And Edmondson now, back to back Western Conference finals and they are looking like the team to beat in this conference right now. I picked Vegas to come out of that series in six games. Jack Eagel did everything in his power to will the team to win in that series. But it wasn't close to enough. Mark Stone wasn't heard. I will say this about Vegas, though. that front office and that ownership group,

they are going to be pissed this summer. They will not take this lightly. They operate like an NBA team. They are going to be very aggressive. Don't be surprised that they are in on Mitch Marner, by the way, on July 1. As for the Maple Leafs, yeah,

that sure happened on Wednesday. Jersey's being thrown on the ice. Steve Dangal doing a Batman reference with Bain on his live stream, just screaming into the void. We got to get a wellness check on him if they lose this series. But that was an embarrassing effort in game five, in your home building.

None of the core four played well. And they are steering down the potential final game of that era in Sunrise. I said it on the national show today with my good friend Nick Suarez. I'll say it here. When you have a champion pinned down on the mat like that, you need to deliver the kill shot.

And they didn't. They let them get up, get off the mat. reset and that's the biggest mistake they ever made you're up to oh in this series three one in game three and you let them reset and this is what happens when you have a champion down you need to beat them and the panthers woke up and they are looking like right now the team to beat in this conference yeah the thing i have been saying and a lot of leifs fans have been saying this as well and you can make fun of leif's fans for this but i am fully in their corner on this one the Florida Panthers have broken the league.

And it's in the sense that they understand NHL officials are not going to call everything. So they put you in a position where they're going to cross the line a lot. And you can get mad at it. God knows I don't like it. But if that's the system, play it. The problem is in game five, the Maple Leafs didn't show up. And you can have that take about the Panthers. And if you go down swinging and the Panthers do their Panther thing, it's a lot easier to swallow.

The fact that they just no-showed game five is absolutely inexcusable. And all I could think of was this. I know this one, I know we don't have the same, we didn't have the same level of cup drought as Toronto does. But even in the years between 2009 and 2016, when the Penguins underachie, with the exception of the conference final against Boston in 2013, you looked at those series and went, it wasn't the big guys who failed. Crosby delivered, Malkin delivered,

Le Tang delivered. It was the team around them that didn't show up. Yeah. Right now for the Maple Leafs, outside of William Neelander, where's Austin Matthews? Where is Mitch Marner? Where is John Tavares?

you brought up Dangle. He has been saying this for quite a while now. That core four, they don't have the killer instinct, and it's really starting to show. If they lose this series, I will say this right now on this show. If they lose this series, I do not want to see a single least fan ever comment

anything about Kyle Dubus ever again. I will say it. I don't want to hear that if you lose this series. You have the core four. You've had them for a long time now. it's do or die put up or shut up time and I want to see it from Austin Matthews man he's it's their third general manager it is their third general manager in their third head coach eventually there's no one left to blame yep eventually it's on the players to put up or shut

up Austin Matthews needs to answer the call the core four needs to answer the call in sunrise but they looked cooked last night anything can happen and again I'm saying this right now. If they go out in six or seven, doesn't matter. I do not want to see a single lease fan ever comment anything about Kyle Dubus ever again. It is so tiring. Putting the dubus thing aside, I will say if they compete hard in the last two games and game five looks like an aberration, I can have the conversation. If they show up and they do their part and everybody else around them either doesn't or the Panthers just show why they're champions, little easier to swallow.

Still difficult because you had a two nothing lead in the series and you blew it. But if they show up in game six, they force a game seven and they have a really good game seven, but ultimately don't win, I can hear maybe not excuses, but at the very least, that buys them a little bit of wiggle room. But if they no show again, oh boy, heads got a roll in Toronto. I'm still going to be a little bit of a hater. care. That's just how I am with this podcast, at least sometimes. But real quickly to the couple of other series, Washington, Carolina, Carolina up three games to one. Washington has no show in a lot of

this series so far. They've started out games fairly well. But once Carolina gets going, good luck stopping it. Carolina's Fortrick has really worn Washington down. The longer this series has gone on. It feels like the caps are gassed right now. And sure, anything can happen. But Pat, Isn't it funny that the team that led the league in shooting percentages now having trouble scoring in the playoffs? Who couldn't have seen that coming? Again, I don't want to get reverse jinx this because anything can truly happen. But it feels like Carolina is going to be too much to overcome to beat them three games in a row. Freddie Anderson's 935.

They play a style that is very stingy. Yes, is it boring? Uh-huh. It is Carolina of Hurricane fans are not going to care about that. but it works for them. I think it could be fine-tuned to play a team that has more high-end talent. That's where they've really run into issues like the Panthers, even like the Rangers, for example.

But it's working right now. And they are getting contributions from all over their lineup. The caps need a lot more from Alex Ovechkin. He has not been nearly good enough, it feels like to me in this series, John Carlson's had a really rotten series. Logan Thompson, it feels like, it's even not been nearly as good as he has been, the regular season in the first round in this series.

But the hurricanes, they got them on the ropes, and they are very frustrating to play against. And then finally, Dallas, I'm not too surprised. I felt like Winnipeg maybe could have kept this series a bit close because I did take the Stars in Seven, but Miko Ranson is playing his tail off. You get a hat trick from a Kyle Grambling, good for him,

wasn't going to work in Pittsburgh. I'm glad he's been playing really well since then. But the Stars, they feel like they are way too much right now, Dallas, not for Dallas, excuse me, for Winnipeg, they just got Hayeskin and back. If we get Dallas, Edmonton, again, it's going to be a really fun conference final, especially also if we get Carolina, Florida again. I think that's going to be two really fun matchups to watch if we get those in the conference final. Agreed.

I think the contrast in the West is, I think Winnipeg almost blew it in the first round. I think in the second round, Winnipeg's just playing a better team. I don't think the narratives are as outrageous. just Dallas is just that good. And sometimes that happens. I know everybody hasn't even been that bad in this. At least compared to the first round, he was just flat out awful.

He could still be better. They can't win a road game to save their lives. But he hasn't still been as bad, but he can still be better. Two teams play the game. Fans always want to blame it on one thing. And if you're going to talk about this series, Dallas has just been better.

That's really all there is to it. It's not a case of Winnipeg underachieving. Dallas is just that good. And then my flashing red warning sign for the caps, no pun intended, was their opening series against Montreal. Yeah, they won it pretty handily. But usually when you have the veteran team who's been there, done that up against the young up and coming team, the big team always ends up winning. And the young team will give them a little bit of a scare.

But there's always one game where the experienced team kind of brushes them aside and goes, get out of the way. didn't really happen against Montreal. And that was a big flashing red light for me. So I think Carolina is a better team. And I think Washington has regressed to the mean. And I think a lot of the momentum that they had this season was behind OV's goal chase. And since he got it, they've declined. So I don't know if they can pull this one out.

And I think they're just overmatched. I think so too. It also goes with a thought that I never felt like the caps were that good this season? Yeah, did they get the number one seed? Sure, but I still never felt like they were a top two team in this conference. I felt at best they were the third or fourth best team in the conference. I'm not trying to disrespect them. I just look at this team. It's like, there's a lot of players having career years. Logan Thompson has been awesome. Alex Ovec can obviously have the goal chase. But so when you look up and down this lineup, outside of OE, there's not a lot

of true game-breaking talent on this team. Like, that's what they're really missing as they go into this next era of caps hockey it feels like for me is once ovi's done and that might be as soon as after next season they still don't have like those game breakers well cole hudson might change that he's already disgusting in their system brother of lane hudson of course but i still feel like they need some more dudes like they're really good at developing players out of her sheet but it feels like they still need more elite talent but yeah they've been overmatch carolina's four check is really hemming them in and the way they play defensively it's been tough the caps have three five on five goals in this series and four games it's been really

tough to come by for offense so far. But I think that'll do it for today's episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for take the time to listen to slash watch this episode. Pat and I will be back with another show for you all on Friday to end the week before getting you all five more episodes starting next Monday. So for Patrick Damp, I am Hunter Hodes. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. We appreciate it. We'll be back on Friday.