Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Answering your Penguins-related mailbag questions!

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

We put out the call for mailbag questions once again and the Locked On Penguins community answered. Hunter and Patrick have plenty of questions to go through, including which players need to have a bounce-back season in 2024-25. They also discuss who has the higher ceiling between Blomqvist and Murashov, plus which younger players they could still trade for this offseason. They also discuss when Brayden Yager could sign his ELC and who has the best shot of making the team out of development camp from a couple of weeks ago. Finally, Hunter recommends an Italian restaurant for all the fans of Italian food out there. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!IndeedStill searching for a great candidate for your company? Don’t search, just match–with Indeed.Claim your SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT now at Indeed.com/LOCKEDON. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotors.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COM and add a big win to your summer bucket list!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.

You brought the questions, and now Pat and I are going to deliver you the answers. 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, Hunts or Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunser Hodes, joined by my host Patrick Damp. You can follow him on Twitter at Center for Wet, and you can follow the show's account. at L.O. underscore Penguins, of course.

Thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by GameTime, down the GameTime app, grant account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. So first off, thank you to everyone who sent in your mailbag questions for today's episode. There weren't as many this time as there were last time, but I also understand it is July 19th. The NHL is very dead right now.

All the GMs and coaches are probably on vacation. You yourself that are listening to this, you might be on vacation as well at the beach or somewhere else. So trust me, we totally understand that there's on as many questions this time. But I think we're going to be able to fit every single question that we got into this episode and not have to do a part two like we had to do last time and kicking things off. We kind of have a few similar questions. This first one comes from Lenny from YouTube. He asks, why hasn't Yeager signed his ELC yet?

I don't know that the only reason he hasn't signed is because he's too young to play in the HL if Pittsburgh wanted him to start there. This also goes with King Clarkie, who asks which prospect signs an ELC next. And Joshua Kahn said something very similar as well. The Penguins are now 50 contracts and have not signed Yeager or Miroshov to their ELCs yet. Who is the penguin to get moved? My take is Lars Eller. Okay.

So first things first. I do think Yeager is going to be the next player to sign his ELC. I think the Penguins just wanted to get the ELCs out of the way. for Tanner Howell and Harrison Brunick. And I understand it's been over a year since the Penguins drafted Yeager. But there really just hasn't been any rush to get it done just because he spent this last full season, junior. We think he's going to spend this next full season in junior unless he fully blows away

everyone at camp. So they just really haven't rushed into it. Now, a couple people are right. The Penguins are at 50 contracts right now. But according to Taylor Haas, if a contract is sliding, the Penguins are able to go over the 50 contract limit. in the offseason, a couple of teams are already over that limit right now because some of the contracts that slide. Taylor, very good with the CBA and that sort of stuff. Shout out to her

for the explanation. So the Penguins can still sign Braden Gager no matter what. But again, Pat, I think this is probably going to happen sooner rather than later. I think it would too. I mean, plus you remember they own his rights. So there's no deadline, at least not imminently to get this done. It's not like they have to have it done by August 1st or all. all of a sudden they don't have his rights anymore and he can go off and do whatever. So I just think at this point they're not in any rush to get it done. I think it will get done just because we're starting to see, especially the way that the coaching staff and management have talked about him,

especially after his performance in the Memorial Cup and the WHL playoffs, that they see a legitimate NHL player here. But again, you don't, because of the NHL, AHL, CHL, CHL, agreement, this is a tough spot for them to be in because either they sign him to an ELC, they give him training camp, preseason, and nine games, and then send him back, or they sign him to an ELC, he blows everybody away, and then they got to burn a year of his ELC because I've said it on the show before. You've said it on the show before.

Our listeners who are absolute sickos know this as well, you play a 10th game when you're still junior eligible. The clock starts ticking on your entry-level contract. I think at this point, they're just being strategic about it. They know that he's going to end up back with Moose Jaw. He's going to be in the WHL for another year. So they don't have to rush into this just yet. Right.

There really is no rush to getting this done. They can really do this anytime they want before training camp. Heck, they can even do this during training camp if they want to, for example. So I'm not really too concerned about it overall. Also, when he did ask a second question, he said, who needs a bounce back season for the Penguins the most this season. Could be anyone, but I'm thinking Tristan Jari and or Eric Carlson. I do agree a little bit with Carlson, though.

I think he was better than some people gave him credit for this past year. But again, I still think very much that he can be better this upcoming season. But I am going to think that Tristan Jari needs a big bounce back this year. Start out the season, a bit rough, woke up November, December, a little bit of January, but fell apart after February. needs to show that he can play at a consistent level for a full 82 game season for the first time in a few years. He really hasn't done it since, I would say, what, the 2021, 2021-22 season, when he was actually performing really well that year before Andres Lee broke his foot late

in the season, and then he had to miss the rest of the season and basically the entire first round against the Rangers as well. So I think of all the players on this team that need a big bounce back, I got to say it's Jari. I'm right there with you of those two. I think classifying next year as a bounce back for Eric Carlson is a little bit of a misnomer because he wasn't bad. Was he great? No.

He was decidedly good enough, I think is the best way to describe him. But he has to be better because of the position he holds the money he makes and his career history. So he needs to be better next year. but I don't think he was bad. Same goes for Tristan Jari. That with me agreeing with you, excuse me. He started off strong, fell apart at the end.

So the way he has, the way he performed last year, especially down the stretch, he's got to bounce back from that. We've discussed that into the ground at this point. Another player that comes to mind for me, and I think this is not so much of a need to have a bounce back, but should have a bounce back. is Raquel. You look at the way his season went. Injury hampers him early. He never really recovers. He's unable to really produce while still injured and trying to work his way back. In all of that just spiraled for him into a bad season. Now, no idea if he can live up to a $5 million

deal that still has four more years, including this one on it. But I do think there's a better game for him to play going into next season. Similarly what I said about Carlson, where you've got the history there of the way he's played in the past, the way he's performed in the past, there's a better effort to be had for him barring if he's healthy or not.

Yeah, I can see him getting back to being a 20 to 22 goal score for the Penguins next year just because, especially if he stays healthy and plays next to a Gennie Malkin for a full season, I think just overall he should be better. compared to how he was this past year. Moving on, one more question before we do head to break. This comes from Blake V.

Kyle Dubas obviously wanted to make a swing at someone younger via trade earlier this all season, who was someone that could be realistic and who would be going the other way. So I think a couple of options here. We've talked about him a few times on this show, someone like Trevor Zagris from the Ducks. I do think that is still a realistic option.

I think the Ducks, they're still very much rebuilding, but I think they could see Zegris as someone who needs a fresh start overall, who could be going back to the ducks in that situation. I think the Penguins may want to send some salary back. Overall, if you can somehow get them to, you know, take a Ryan Graves back. I would obviously take that, someone like a Ricard Raquel, for example. I can see that happening as well. You might have to part with one of your better prospects now in the system,

but I don't think you're going to have to be giving up quite a bit to get this player. You know, Ziegress. Again, I think he's one of the better, more underrated players in this league. I know some people will disagree on that, but I think I see him as an option there. You've also discussed Patrick Lainey as an option, and that, I think, would be more of a pure salary dump, per se, from the Blue Jackets, just because they want to get out of that contract. I think you're definitely looking at a very much exchange of salaries type deal in that one. With Anaheim, I know I brought up in a perfect world losing graves, maybe losing Raquel,

but I think you'd have to maybe ditch one of your top prospects and also a high pick if you want to get someone like Zegris compared to line A where I'm not sure you're going to have to give up a lot of prospects and picks to get him. No, I think I'm not as optimistic as you are about the prospect of being able to get Trevor Zegris just because I think that the Anaheim ducks know that they can get a king's ransom for him. they can get a lot for him. And the penguins just don't really have a lot to offer in that way for Anaheim. So you color me skeptical on that one. But at the same time, I do think if they were just looking to get rid of him and to send him to a new situation to get him a fresh start,

this would be a good landing spot for him. And to build off what you're saying, it's a trade if they could make it. I wouldn't be against. getting rid of a pick or a prospect because as much as they want to get more draft picks and build up that prospect pipeline, you can give up a draft pick and a prospect for a young talented player like Trevor Zegris because you're getting a lot younger. You're getting a very talented player who hopefully you can have for the long haul.

So it kind of replaces what that draft pick or that prospect could be. I still think there's a very real world they can go get Patrick Line. just because at this point, this isn't an asset that has a lot of potential like Trevor Zegris does. This is an asset that says they want out of Columbus. They want to move on. So there's not a lot of teams lining up to pay a big price, at least not that I've seen. So it can be a little bit easier to pry that guy out of Columbus than it would be Zegris out of Anheim. I also do think the longer this goes potentially with Linae and Columbus kind of being at this dealmate,

I think the better it is for a team like the Penguins where, again, I don't think the asking price is going to be that big anyway, but I think it's going to go down even more, I think, as the month of July goes on and potentially August as well. I feel like honestly, this could be an August move overall anyway. But that would do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, we're going to dive into more of your mailback questions, including one about who has the higher ceiling, Joel Blumquist, or, Sergei Murashav. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor, and that is eBay Motors. Passion Drive and Patience, the formula for winning championships is also

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Exclusions apply. eBay guaranteed fit is only available to US customers. All right. We're back here on this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my host, Patrick Dam. So, Pat, this is a very fascinating question. This comes from, I believe it's Cool A Hawk on YouTube. He asked Blumquist or Murashav, who has a higher ceiling? I've been really going back and forth on this because Blumquist, he had amazing numbers before coming over to North America. He was great in Wilkesbury best past season.

And with Murashav, he's been lighting it up in the MHL. Over in Russia, he played really well in the KHL as well. well. If you're asking me, it might be Murashav just because he's a bit younger, but I still want to see what Murashov can do in North America once he comes over full time. That could be this year if he gets some playing time and willing if he signs his ELC. But man, it is really close to say the least. I'm going to lean Muroshov, but Blumquist is also right there.

Yeah, this is really tough. And you're talking about two very young goaltenders with Blumquist being. 22, Murashov only being 20. The thing that I would say right now is you have to almost by default, give it to Blumquist, because we've got some track record of him playing in North America in the American hockey league where he was very good. We don't really know what Murashav is going to look like when he comes to North America. Yes, he put on a great performance at Penguin's development camp, But remember, that is glorified practice. That's all it is.

It's not simulating the speed of professional North American hockey. It's a bunch of guys who hope to one day become NHL players. And the unfortunate fact is a vast majority of the guys at that camp probably aren't going to be consistent NHL players. The handful of them might get to the NHL and remain there for a while or bounce around. A lot of those guys are going to be A HL players, ECHL players, European players, semi-pro across North America. So it's really hard to say.

So like almost by default, I have to give it to Blumquist, just looking at his performance with the baby penguins last season. Now, if Murashav comes over to North America this year and starts to really light it up, I think there's a world you can say that Murashav has the higher ceiling. because his track record, as I've said before, plays in a very talented league, did not look out a place in the KHL's version of the AHL, and in his limited time in the KHL also did very well. So there's clearly a very talented goaltender here, but until I see him putting up some consistent play in North America, I almost have to give it to Blumquist just by default.

Don't get me wrong. I wasn't trying to slight Blumquist at all. He was very good at Wilkes-Roy. this past season with a 921 say percentage. But maybe it's just me having the copium. But I do think Muroshov is going to bring this really strong play over to North America. It may not be some of the numbers you've seen over in Russia before, like a 948 say percentage in 37 games.

But I could see him being a 925 to 930 goaltender in North America if he starts getting playing time and wheeling this year if he signs his ELC. So again, I think it's really close, but I'm just glad that the penguins have two really stout goalies like this in their system overall. And this kind of leads into our next question. Overall, this comes from the rotten egg on YouTube. And the goalie ladder, where do you guys feel Taylor Gaudier fits in? Yeah. So I don't think he has anything left to learn wheeling for this upcoming season.

There's going to be a big log jam in Wilkesbury. And I think Gaudier is going to be there along with Blumquist, along with Lerner. along with Larson, something's going to have to give there. You can't send Gaudier back to again, Wheeling, it just really doesn't make any sense considering the level that he played at this past year. So again, something's going to have to give in the HL. And right now, it looks like we're going to have three guys fighting for playing time. We really will.

I also look at this as a good problem to have because it fits into two separate categories. One, something you and I have discussed a lot, since Kyle Dubas took over, they want Wheeling and Wokes Bear to be competitive. They don't want them just to be a place you have as an incubator for your biggest prospects. They want it to be a place where you play winning competitive hockey. So you're going to need good goaltenders, especially in the ECHL and AHL, because it's not the national hockey league. Everywhere you go for the most part, unless you've got a trip out west, which a couple teams do every now and then, you're traveling by bus. You're playing two to three games in three to four day spans consistently.

So you can't just have, it's not like the NHL where you can have your starter play five straight games and that takes a week. If you have your starter play five games, that could happen over six days, five, six days. And they'll be worn out. So you have to have goaltending depth. It also fits into the category that they now have a strength at goal. And if they're looking to get different types of prospects or fill out the NHL roster with hockey trades, you can move one of these guys and you can get a good return because there's always teams that need goal tending in one way or another.

Now, there's not a lot of teams out there that need bona fide starters. We know how goofy trades with goalies can be. But if you have a young, productive with a high ceiling goalie that you can move, that can entice a team to send you something you might need? I mean, the Penguins did just that a couple of years ago in the recurred Raquel trade, remember? They traded Cali Kling, one of their top goaltending prospects because they saw a need for Raquel in their lineup.

And they were able to do it just because of how deep they were at the goaltender position in the organization. Well, they're even deeper now when you look at again, Larson, Blomquist, Gaudier, Murashav, Hecchi of Jari, Anadilkevich at the NHL level. there's a pretty strong pipeline right now overall in the system and it's really good to see moving on we got one more question before we head to break this is from chicken i believe it's a la king from youtube i hope i did not mispronounce that he said how soon will they bring back the vegas gold jerseys i am going to potentially deliver a hot take here hopefully never i'm sorry i don't like the vegas gold jerseys

anymore. I love their new jerseys now, both home and away. I don't want to see the Vegas school jerseys come back. I'm sorry. Don't mess with perfection. The current Penguins jerseys should have always been their jerseys. I know you're a fan of the Robo Penguin Hunter. I know a lot of people are. I've softened my stance on it. I don't hate it as much as I once did. Good man. But the Penguins came off winning back to back Stanley Cups in absolutely gorgeous uniforms. And they traded them for whatever those 93, 92-93 jerseys were.

The blatant rip-off of the Rangers with the diagonal Pittsburgh and the Robo Penguin. And the Vegas Gold was fun. And I think it's all because we wanted the skating penguin back and it gave us the skating penguin. But the Vegas Gold is terrible. Don't do it. Don't go back to it.

If they go back to Vegas Gold, I'm going to become an LA Kings fan because they brought the Chevy jerseys back. and those are the cleanest jerseys in the NHL right now. I still have a couple of very old Vegas gold jerseys back at my mom's house, but there's just no way I'm ever wearing those ever again. A, they don't fit and B, I just don't like the color design. It's just not for me overall.

I'm sorry, but I think that'll do it for the second segment. Coming up in the final segment, we're going to get to more of your questions. But before we get to that, we have to discuss our second sponsor, and that is game time. It's an authorized ticket marketplace of Major League Baseball, which makes getting tickets faster and easier. Prices on the game time app actually go down the closer gets to the first pitch. And with killer last minute deals, all in prices, views from your seat in their lowest price guarantee, game time takes the guesswork out of buying MLP tickets. You can do priority last minute deals, save up to 60% off buying last minute tickets for sports, concerts, comedy theater, etc.

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Pittsburgh in September so I can hopefully try to see Paul Skeen's pitch that weekend. But again, terms apply. Again, great account and Medina code locked on NHL for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, we're back here in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Huntsor Hodes, joined by my co-host, Patrick Dam. So just a few more questions to get to before we close out this mailbag edition of the show.

This comes from CJ from YouTube. Do you guys think that any of the young players who were at rookie minicamp a few weeks ago have a legitimate shot of making the big club this season? Okay. I think if there's one player that has a better shot above all the others, it's Braden Yeager. We've talked about that a lot throughout the offseason. If there's another that has an outside shot, it's Owen Pickering. I think outside of that, I really don't see any of these other players pushing for a full-time spot this year.

And heck, I don't even think Pickering is going to make it. I think he's going to have to start the season in Wilkesbury in the HL. And even for Yeager, someone who I am very high on, I still don't think he makes the team out of camp. But if I had to pick two, that will try and push, it's those two. Those are good choices. I also look at a guy like Vili Covenin, who I think looked pretty good with Wilkes-Bair at the end of the year. He's 21 years old. He has, he played in the finish elite.

league, excuse me. I had to think of which country it was, but he looks like a guy who could make the jump. I think he could be a good up and down kind of guy this year. I don't think he makes it right out of camp, but he strikes me as a guy who might get a couple of call-ups this year. And if he plays well enough, he strikes me as a surprise guy that he gets one or two call-ups and all of a sudden you go, you know what? I could see this guy staying up here for an extent period of time and making a difference. Plus, he's got some, he's got some good speed. He's got some finish.

And we know what this team's been lacking in the last couple of years. Among several things they've been lacking is people who can score and people who can skate. I think for me with Kovinen, I definitely hear you, but I think he might need another full year in the HL for more seasoning before he comes up to the NHL full time. I know this player was in a developing camp, but Ponomerov, I think he's also in the be pushing for a spot at the NHL level. And of course, we all know this. Sam Poulan, he's still going to be pushing for a spot at the NHL level as well. Getting to our next question,

this comes from Alan T. Yoder. Did the time of the Jake Gensel trade affect the team's performance against the Capitals and would have made a difference if they waited until after the game or the next day to announce it? Number one, it definitely affected their performance. You can tell while watching that game, they looked so disinterested in playing it. They looked so upset. They knew it was going down because it was reported that it was going down right before the opening puck drop. And you could tell the crowd knew it was happening as well just because just based on watching the game at home, the arena sounded like a library. There was just nothing going on in there. The players knew it was going on. And yeah, to be honest, they were kind of pouty about it during

the game. And we said this on the show after as well. They were kind of pouty about the trade for the next week, maybe too. They were not happy about it. They kind of felt a little entitled is the word. Maybe I'm looking for there, but it absolutely affected their performance as to whether they should have announced it the next day or after. I really don't think it makes that big of a difference personally. No, you're right. It was, you could tell that affected their performance. It, it affected everything, like you said, from the mood in the arena to the game play. on the ice. That team just knew that they were, maybe if they, maybe if they didn't know that they were dead, they knew that they were on life support at that point, so to speak. And here's the

thing. The announcement's not the thing that did it. It's not that, you know, some insider, whoever it was, I can't remember, probably Friedman before the game basically said like, yeah, Gensel-Trade done, he's going to Carolina, we're waiting on the full details. That, when it gets to the insiders, somebody within the organization tells them that, which means Gensel knew he was getting traded. And it came out after that Kyle Dubus approached Jake to tell him he was trading him to Carolina. These guys, especially the core players, have been through so much together. You know the second Kyle Dubus walked out of the room, there was either a phone call or a text message or if it happened at PPG paints arena, he went down to the locker room.

to say goodbye to guys as he was getting ready to leave. So the announcement wasn't the problem. The problem was just that it happened in that players talk, players communicate, front offices communicate, coaching staffs communicate. So these guys knew it was happening before the game started more so than we did. So at that point, those guys were just probably like in a bad spot because by all accounts, he was a great teammate. He was a great friend.

He was a huge part of the organization. So that's not, I don't want to poopoo other things and pretend like pro sports are the most important thing in the world. But it's a lot like losing a loved one because all of a sudden you're in a new headspace and a new place in life where somebody who you took for granted was going to be there forever. It's no longer there. Right. He had been here for a very long time. He'd been one of their best players. He's someone that a lot of the younger players could go to outside of the core leadership group.

and yeah, it definitely stung them. It really, I think, hurt a lot of people on this scene just because I don't think they expected to be in that situation where they were having to sell a little bit and trade off Jake Gensel to another team. But just a couple more questions to get to before we end today's episode. This one comes from Flux. CC from YouTube.

He says, if Dubas is unable to acquire a winger for a Crosby's line, would you like to see him go after Nikita Gusev on a prove-it deal? So some of you all may remember Nikita Gusev. He played on the New Jersey Devils in the NHL for a couple of seasons, 2019-20-2020, 2021. He also played for the Florida Panthers. During one of the seasons with the Devils, 13 goals, 44 points in the 66 games.

So pretty solid as a playmaker can also put the puck in the back of the net. He then went back to the KHL in Russia. And this past season played pretty solid. 23 goals, 89 points in 68 games the season before that. He had 23 goals, 49 points in 37 games. And he's also been a point per game player in the playoffs these last two years. So while a proven contract for him could be interesting, I will say he is 32 years old, not really sure I'm too interested in that right now, considering where the team is going right now.

But again, he has had some pretty solid production in the KH all these last two years. But we all know, Pat, I mean, again, 89 points this past year in the KHL, he's not replicating that on the Penguins. No. And this is tough because, you. We all know that the KHL not a high-scoring league. So being able to put up 23 goals and 89 points in the KHL is nothing to sneeze at. That's good production at that level in that league.

But then you look at his NHL stats, and it's just, it's not that impressive. I mean, he's only got, he only had, if my math is correct, 17 goals across two seasons. And while that's fine enough, If you're looking for that guy to be your ProVit top six winger, you're probably going to be disappointed. I understand the thought. I don't think it's a bad one because there's a lot of guys who show up on a Prove It deal, play well in the Prove It season, and then once they get paid, they go in the tank. But you look at this guy's track record and then you add in his age,

I don't see him suddenly finding the Fountain of Youth on a one-year Prove-it deal. Right. And he did have that 13 goal season ones, but actually, after that, he just kind of struggled overall at the NHL level. So yeah, I think it's kind of a soft pass for me as well. Finally, one last question. This comes from Latang Colt, aka Jeff, on Twitter. He asks, are we doing muskerellas on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday?

Okay, so a lot of people are going to be wondering, Hunter, what the heck is muskarellas? And I'll tell you this. Muscarollas is one of the best Italian restaurants I've ever had. It's an hour and a half outside of Pittsburgh in Sharpsville, PA. So depending on where you are, you know, Pittsburgh related, you know, maybe if you're up near Cranberry, for example, it's maybe an hour. If you're by me, hour and a half, pat for you. It's probably hour 40, hour 45 because you live on, I know where you live overall. But Tuesday they have.

I live in the city limits. I know, yes. But you're about still 25, 30 minutes from me overall. But as for muskrella, on Tuesdays, they do $15 pasta nights. So you can get whatever pasta classic you want. They got their vodka sauce, which is out of this world. Their Alfredo sauce is great. Their chicken parmesan is insane.

Wednesdays, they just announced this outside of doing their chef features, which is their specials for the week. They have a three-course meal, appetizer, entree, and dessert for less than $40. And then Thursday, they just brought this back. You can create your own pasta. Choose the pasta. Choose the sauce. You can choose whatever meat you want on it, all that good stuff.

They weren't doing it for a while, but they brought. brought it back, thanks to popular demand. If you have not been up there, please go try it. You will not be disappointed. Jeff and I both think that place should honestly have a Michelin Star. I'm a very tough food critic overall. That place, even though it's an hour and a half drive from Pittsburgh, trust me, people, it is worth your while. That food there is awesome. All their sauces are homemade. I cannot recommend it enough. So there is your pasta and Italian food reference forward to state's episode of the locked on penguins podcast my only question hunter is are there hotels in the immediate area of this place because if it's an hour and a half hour 45 minute

drive for me and that italian food is that good and that feeling i'm not making that drive back i'm going to fall asleep at the wheel so i'm going to need a hotel room you know i'm able to but you know what i also do i get a ton of food and i'm able to eat you know a good chunk of it but i get it boxed up bring the rest home for lunch the next day. So I'm not as full as I could be on the drive home. You got to implement that strategy, buddy. That's very smart. But damn, that's a pretty good recommendation.

So I might have to carve some time out here before hockey season starts and make the drive up and check it out. Yeah, that place is tremendous. It's, again, if you haven't been there, please, if you're in the Pittsburgh area or even if you maybe live near that area and you haven't been to that restaurant yet, please go check it out. but I think that will do it for this edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I've talked about muskrells and Italian food probably long enough. Hopefully you all didn't tune me out about that. But again, thank you all so much for tuning in. We really appreciate it.

We'll be back with another episode for you all next week. Pat will be there for the first three episodes, but it's his turn to go on vacation. He'll be heading to, I believe it's the beach next weekend. Wildwood, New Jersey, heading to the beach. There it is. He'll be heading to the beach. It's his turn.

me for a beach trip, but don't worry, I'll have you all covered to end next week with fresh episodes as well on Thursday and Friday as well. But again, thank you all so much for tuning in. We really appreciate it. We'll be back with another episode for you all on Monday.