Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Breaking the seal of Carey Price with Scott and Laura of Locked On Canadiens

Episode Date: July 28, 2020

In part 2 of the crossover series preview, Hunter once again has Scott and Laura of Locked On Canadiens join him to talk about some of the biggest storylines heading into the series and what's at stake for each team. The three touch on the Penguins goaltending situation and who's going to most likely start for them, plus was Carey Price as bad as people say he was this season? Scott and Laura dive into that, while also talking about what the Canadiens can do to expose some of Pittsburgh's weaknesses. They also touch on head coach Mike Sullivan, and how he most likely would be the greatest head coach in Penguins history if he's able to win a third cup in five years with the team. All that and more, on this special episode of Locked On Penguins. 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.

Hello, welcome to this Tuesday morning episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. Today we have part two of our three-part preview crossover with Scott and Laura of Locked-on Canadians. And on today's episode, we're basically talking about the biggest storylines heading into the series for each team. You know, expectations, what's at stake. We talk a lot about the goaltending situation for both teams, especially Carrie Price and how you can stand on his head.

But also with Matt Murray, interest and Jari, it looks like Murray's going to start, but you never know. But we also touch on Mike Sullivan and what this cup would mean to Mike Sullivan as he would get his third cup in five years. But all that and more, starting right now on locked on penguins. We're talking about all the narratives and the stories and everything that are going through this. And Hunter, I got to ask, for the penguins, just how bad is the meltdown if they lose to Montreal in any amount of games in this series because everyone's kind of expecting the penguins to come in and Sidney Crosby and like his robot hockey mind are going to kick Montreal out of the bubble almost immediately. What happens if that's not the case or even if they struggle a lot more

than expected? I think you'll see some pretty hot flaming takes on Twitter.com for one, Scott. That will be a lot of fun to read. But I honestly think I do want to pick. the brains of more fans. I've seen some fans say, you know what, if they lose, it's not that big of deal. We get a shot at the number one overall pick. I've also seen fans say, yeah, I'll be pretty pissed off because you really shouldn't lose to a team like this. I'd be pretty disappointed because the Penguins are just vastly superior, more deep than the Canadians and just, I think, all around a better team. But, I mean, I do think you will see a lot of people, I mean, the Penguins fan base is very known for being very reactive with a lot of hot takes.

It doesn't take a fool to see that on Twitter or Facebook or ever. You want to check. Just look at whenever Matt Murray just gives up a goal in a game and you just see people wanting some of the other guy back in there. So Penguins Twitter will meltdown. It will happen regardless. But if they lose and if they struggle, it'll just be basically 10 times that.

And you mentioned Matt Marie struggling. And I guess one of the big storylines is because when they were announcing the playing rounds, it's like the Canadians are set with their goalie. They're going with Kerry Price, ride or die for the next 10 million years of his contract. Who the hell is starting for Pittsburgh? Because I saw somewhere that it said, Matt Murray is our guy. He's going to be the one we start with. And then Tristan Jari's the better goalie?

Like, what is going on with all of this? Yeah, it's an interesting situation. Rutherford came out to the athletic and said, yeah, I think Matt Murray is going to start, but you know what? It's up to Mike Sullivan. Tristan Jari has had a pretty good training camp. I think he's probably played a little bit better than Matt Murray, but I also thought Matt Murray played pretty good for the second week and the couple of the scrimmages that

I was watching. I think Matt Murray is going to go game one. I think it's going to be a shorter leash. Some people have been saying, well, how do you start Matt Murray game one when Trish and Jari's been the better goaltender? It's like, well, I think it's pretty obvious the reason. while you start him. He's won U2 Stanley Cups.

He was 937 and one of them. He has the experience. And, I mean, there's another kind of a little bit of reason this is a contract year for him, and also for Jari too. So we're not really sure what's going to happen with them. But Matt Murray just elevates his game in the postseason. He's done it constantly over the years. I know he had his struggles, but I really did think by the time the season was coming to a pause,

he was starting to really turn it around. Tristan Jari's numbers were kind of. of tanking a little bit. But if Matt Murray does struggle in game one and let's say maybe say the Canadians blow them out four, one, five, nothing, whatever. I do think Mike Sullivan will be like, you know what? I'm making a change just like he did with Mark Andre Fleury. And I will take out Matt Murray and put interest in Jarring in.

But I really do think it is Matt Murray's net to start. So my question here is kind of did, you know, there's been so much talk about this like the entire season, you know, for whatever. whatever, whenever I was checking in on the Penguins, either one of two things was happening. One, a major injury or two, goaltending crap. And so I'm wondering, like, does anyone know what the deal was with Matt Murray? Like, I know he, you know, was it an injury kind of thing? Was it, like, in his head?

Like, was something going on in his life? Like, does anyone know what the deal was there? Because he really did stink at points. I think it was just struggles with his own game. He just wasn't seeing the puck as well as he's used to. wasn't squaring up to shooters. When Matt Murray is on his game, you know, he's playing big in his net. He's squaring up to shooters.

There's not a lot of room when he, like I said, when he's on his game, but he was just not that this season. I was reading, you know, before the qualifying round was announced. Apparently he's been working with someone to fine-tune his game. We're going to get to see those changes firsthand when this qualifying round starts on Saturday to really see if anything changed. A lot of people have been clamoring, oh, my God, his glove hand stinks and blah, blah, blah. but his whole all-around game was just not bad.

It's not just one area. He just was not playing the way that we're accustomed to seeing him play. And I'm going to be really interested to see how he comes out in that game one, because I would be shocked if Jari goes game one. And he just, he has a lot riding on him for this series. It must be nice that, oh, well, if Tristan Jari doesn't work out, we can go to the guy who won two Stanley Cups back to back, or, hey, if Matt Murray falters, we can go to the guy who is an NHL All-Star this year.

For the Canadians, the whole thing is we don't really know who his back, who Carey Price's backup is going to be in that you look at it, it's Carey Price, and then a bunch of unproving guys. You have Charlie Lindgren, who is backing him up at the end of the season. You have Caden Primo, who is their top goaltending prospect. Then you have Michael McNiven, who spent most of the year in the ECHL. And you'll notice I left out Keith Kincaid because they literally just told him to stay home and don't. even bother, which is never a good sign. It feels like it's almost kind of reassuring that even if one of the Penguins goalies is bad, that there's someone else capable of backing up behind that.

And in a series where anything can happen and you have to make strong decisions, that has to have some peace of mind for the fan base, I would imagine, though, right? Yeah, it does. 100% does. We're no strangers to goalie controversy in this town. There's still a lot of people that have, don't like Matt Murray because he took Mark Andre Fleury's job. You see he was so beloved.

I think if Tristan Jari does take over for Matt Murray, and there's a shot of that happening, I can see those people, you know, blocking right over to Jari because they hate Murray for what happens. So, yeah, it is a very nice luxury to have. Penguins, they've done this before. Mike Sullivan has done this before. He's no strangers to making a very, very tough decision.

I just, I would be curious to see if he did and when he did because I know Matt, I think I know Matt Murray is his guy. He's done it multiple times with him over the years in the playoffs. But it's just, I just want to know how long his leash is. Is it one game where he stinks or you put him back in or one game and then you're out? So that's what I, that's one of the biggest storylines I think going into this series, to be honest. And like obviously we're talking different storylines.

we talk about the goaltending and everything. I guess the biggest question is, what has to go wrong for the penguins to lose to the Canadians in this? Because it doesn't seem possible on paper a team that can run Sidney Crosby and Evgeny Malkin as their one, two, with a very good third center and Jared McCann behind that. And we'll talk, you know, about all those players. But what has to go astronomically wrong for the penguins to just straight up,

you know, trip over their shoelaces and not even win a game and just get embarrassed by Montreal on this. They would have to pull an Islander series like they did last year where basically they would have to be horrendous in their own zone and in their neutral zone. The reason they got swept by the Islanders was basically that entire reason. Two on ones, basically every ship, the Islanders score. Three on twos, they would just score. And it was just a cycle of bad hinges and then turnovers and everything like that. That's the stuff that has to go wrong, I think, for the Penguins.

to lose the series. Or, oh, yeah, Matt Maria, Tristan Jari, just like being below replacement level and going full Mark Andre Fleury mode like he did against the Flyers in 2012. But, I mean, I don't know if that's going to happen. But it's just, I was talking about this on one of my episodes last week of Jesse Marshall. You know, the penguin struggles, they come against teams like this. And Claudio, it is a bit scary because I know what happened in 2013 when he had the Bruins. And they absolutely embarrass the penguins. I'm still salty that I was supposed to go to game five of that series, but it's just

the penguin just have to play well in the neutral zone. They cannot do these little dumb pinches that they've done. They have to play well defensively because that's when they don't do that, that's when they get into trouble, and then you force the goaltenders to just make a ton of

saves, just bail you out, and sometimes they can't do that. Matt Murray didn't do that a lot of the season. Tristan Jari had to at times, but that's just the big thing, I think just bad defensive play and just bad pinches which lead to goals i think it's my big thing so looking at the canadians it's like that's their whole game is they made a living this year is that they got a lot of shots and that they could you know sustain pressure but they didn't lack they didn't have the high-end finishing ability of other teams would montreal's pressure style

where you have someone like brending galliger or yole armiah who just does not quit on the puck, make it more difficult for some of Pittsburgh's, you know, bottom six players or, you know, bottom four defenders kind of handling that pressure. Is there a way for Montreal, like if they're going to hone in on something to focus on, obviously you're talking about the pinches and the little plays and not being decisive, is there something else Montreal can do to kind of put Pittsburgh off their game, even if it's like just getting under their skin more than usual? That's an interesting question.

I mean, I think maybe try to target the Johnson-Schultz pairing as much as possible, though I do think Mike Sullivan is going to shelter them as much as he can. We all know Jack Johnson struggles. He's very bad. Justin Schultz is just trying. He's struggle. He's very bad. That's a struggle.

Do not get me started on Jack Johnson. I could spend a whole episode talking about all of him. his bad plays these last couple of years, but I mean, I'll say, I'll save you guys that. But also, Justin Schultz was just, he's just been bad the last couple of seasons. Ever since that ankle injury in 2017, 18, just has not been the same player. His contract's up after this season. Probably not going to get a raise after that $5.5 million per he made for the last couple seasons. But they should target that pairing because they make a lot of bad decisions with the puck.

The Penguins don't allow too many teams to get like under their. skin, I would say, if there's one team that does, it's the Bruins because they just, for whatever reason, they just cannot stand them. But I just, Mike Selman just hasn't really allowed teams to just get under the Penguins' skin, so to speak. I know it was very evident under Dan Boswell, but, you know, just targeting that bottom pairing, you know, also hoping that the Tanna, Bluger-Aston-Rees line has a off-series because when Mike Selman puts them on the ice and he will put them on the ice.

and he will put them on the ice against whatever line he wants, the Gallagher line, domi, whatever you want, they usually get the job done. But, you know, I think a big thing is if that line struggles really bad, they're not winning face-offs, that could be a line that could be targeted. I'm shocked that there's anybody that can't stand the Bruins. I mean, really.

Yeah, it's just so rare for someone to not like such a lovable team. like the Bruins who are known for hitting you in the head or licking you or doing other kindly things that, you know, other teams definitely do. Sports in general, like, hating any Boston sports team is just, wow. I just thought of it because, like, Scott was listing them and I'm like, they also spear you in the balls with a stick. So, like, it's definitely not. We could make a seven-part podcast of all.

all the dumb ass hattery that Brad Marchand alone has done, not including everyone else who's been a Bruin in the past, like, decade that I've really been watching hockey, we could do like the last dance, but just about Brad Marchand being an asshole. Well, I think we have our off-season content then, Scott. Write that down. I was going to say 30 for 30,

the time Brad Marchand was a dick. The wheel of excuses, is the whatever that gift that they have, that never gets old. I did want to ask you guys this question, though, is, what do you think is the biggest way the penguins, you, I'm not the Penguins, good Lord, what is the biggest way that the Canadians can beat the Penguins in this series? Carrie Price. Yeah. Yes, or if Shea Weber, you know, regains the, Shayweber.

you know, regains the Shea Weber or the talent level or the skill level or whatever you want to call it of 10 years ago because he's just,

he's declining. Like he's been declining for a long time. He's a great guy. He's a great defenseman, whatever. But he just, he doesn't have it in the tank. And so this year,

you could argue that Jeff Petrie really became the Canadians most, I mean, Scott has actually argued that in writing. Several times. You know, so like for the, I guess what should happen or what could happen is Carrie Price will stand on his head. And for whatever reason, the penguins have their hands full with the Shea Weber defensive pairing.

And Jeff Petrie gets a little room to move and create chances, get the puck out of the zone because that's something that the Canadians really, really struggle with. Once they're up sort of like, you know, the neutral and in the offensive zone, they're okay. Like they can generate shots. Like I've seen them time and, you know, night in and night out. We would see them even through the losing streaks. We'd see them absolutely like hem their opponents in their own end for long stretches. It's just that the pucks would not end up in the net. So there's a couple of other things that they would have to do.

They'd have to get a little bit more creative and unpredictable on their power play, which, you know, everybody's kind of like defending against Shea Weber and that's everybody knows what's going to happen. Is that anybody who's out there is going to pass to Shea Weber? he's going to do a one-timer and it might go in, but usually if it does go in, it's because it, like, injured somebody on the way. So everybody kind of knows what's going to happen. And so they need to have a little bit more creativity because, you know, when you are the Canadians and you're matching up against teams like the Penguins, like, you really have

to capitalize on the mistakes the opponent makes because the opponent is, like, it's far out matched both in coaching and, in my opinion, in coaching. I don't know, like that. that one, it could be a story for another day. It's kind of like, you know, are you driving a Ferrari or are you a good driver or whatever? Like that whole argument that they make all the time. But in terms of talent level, you know, like the penguins are just, they're so much better. And they've just, they've been playing this kind of hockey for so many years, like in the recent years.

So the Canadians really, they have to capitalize on mistakes. They have to be able to put out, you know, like they've like their third line is decent. And I wouldn't say that it's like, you know, none of their lines of superstars on them. That's not something that I would describe. But, you know, they've got enough people on there that if they're able to spread it out throughout the lineup that like they might be able, like their third or fourth, like their bottom six might be able to step up really. It depends. And so I think they have their work cut out for them. But it really depends on how many mistakes the penguins make, how carry price plays and how predictable the Canadians are.

Yeah, I think the biggest thing for it is, what can this team do when their lines are away from Crosby and Malkin? And that's kind of where it is. We know Philip Deno and Brendan Gallagher and Thomas Dutark can go head to head with pretty much any line in the NHL and compete because that's what they did all year. And then after that, it kind of gets jumbled up. It was Yisperi Kotkinemi back to like the best he can possibly be. Where does Max Domi slot into the lineup? What does playoff Arturi Lekinen or Yol, our Yol, Mea look like, where do all these pieces kind of fit in the puzzle here?

Because there's so many combinations. Everything outside the first line is a mystery at this point. It could change tomorrow the next day after game one, after game two. Because Kludgelian loves to bring out the blender, but he's got options. It's just can they get special teams working and can they find the line combinations that click? And I've talked about how I think Yol Armiya is a good. good person to have with someone who needs space to create, someone like Jonathan Drouin or

Arturi Lackinen or Yaspari Kotkinemi. It's all about can he get them away from Crosby and Malkin long enough to let them have their best possible impact on the ice. And I think it's possible. It's just a matter of how long and can they do that for long enough to give this team the lead that they need because any time they try to sit back on a lead, it goes terribly. So they just need to tighten up and take advantage of when the superstars are not on the ice against them, using that to their advantage. Yeah, that's, I like that.

That's probably honestly going to be the Hav's best strategy for that, in all honesty, because for the Penguins' bottom six, the Tanna-Bluger-Ast and Reese line is not going to be out there to produce offense. Mike Sullivan puts that line out there to shut the other line down. and I was talking about this earlier. He will put that line out there against the Tomas Tatar line. He will put that line out there against whatever line Max Domey on because he trusts them. His trust only just gains momentum just as they continue to play well because they did miss all season. Their underlying numbers are just ridiculous defensively. The way they limit the shots on the ice, they're just not in the defensive zone that often.

So I'm just going to be really curious to see, like, if Montreal can get a lot of chances against that line. And then for the third line, that's going to be Patrick Marlowe, Jared McCann, and Patrick Hornquist. I think that's going to be the line that Montreal is probably going to really target because there's not a lot of really defensive specialists on that line for the penguins. It's the three players that can produce offense pretty good, but they're just not very too good defensively. So I'm to be curious to see what Claude Julian does when that line is out there, what line he puts out there for that. He's just going to, like, throw out all kinds of combinations and just, you know, change them every 10 seconds. And we call it the line blender, you know, like hockey fans call that kind of thing, the line blender.

But Claude Julian is just, he has no patience at all, especially in such a short series. I think he's going to just be throwing everything out there and then seeing what sticks. And the unfortunate thing with Claude Julian is that he doesn't have patience to sort of to see how it works for a few shifts. He's like, that didn't work. All right, you're staple to the bench. and then now I'm going to double shift or triple shift this other guy. Like he's very much like he does not have the patience. He does not want to see, especially in an in-game situation,

he does not want to see what happens. He's just like, it didn't work. I'm going to change it right away. Yeah. Mike Sullivan is usually a bit more patient. He has done that at times, though. He will staple some players to the bench. But he usually when he like breaks up a line and puts someone else on that, like,

during a lot of the season, you know, Dominic Snow would be put down and then Patrick Hormquist would come back up. he would play with that a little bit but then he would honestly have games where he would just keep it going because he just he always likes to say trust the process as a bunch of other teams have in different sports he's just a very trust the process kind of coach during games I feel like we talked about the head-to-head matchup in this episode I do yeah so much of the narratives in this come from hey how does this work out I mean I know we didn't delve into like the actual lines as a whole

It's like the Canadian's entire advantage comes, or potential advantage comes from having to get away from Pittsburgh star power. That's the narrative is can Montreal's, you know, scrappy depth, I guess, combat Pittsburgh's overwhelming, you know, top-end star power. It's, you know, it's the oldest story in the book, especially in the playoffs, and it's going to play out again in this qualifying, playing round thing. And it's going to be really exciting. and hopefully as Laura and I, huge fans of Philip Deno, hope that it gives him another chance to shine as one of the best centers in the NHL because we're still not quite over him, not getting any Selky love for the second straight year. He is a phenomenal two-way player, and I will say that anytime you ask. Yeah, his matchup with Crosby is going to be fun. I'm actually excited to see how he goes out against him and Jake, and then whoever wants to go out against him.

Jason Zucker with with Hvgeny Malkin, you know, basically it's almost kind of like, that top six is honestly like kind of like a murderer's row. You pick your poison. I know Philip Duneo is going to go up against Crosby, but then you just have to deal with another top line on probably two-thirds of the NHL, to be honest.

So, yeah, I'm really excited to see that Deneau versus Crosby matchup, though. I think it'll be one of the most enjoyable storylines of the qualifying rounds, to be quite honest. that's another question that I have is that like there are a lot of a lot of things going on in the qualifying rounds and I don't know that I am and I know I'm obviously saying this is a Canadian fan but I don't know that I'm invested in the like in the fun of it as much as I am on this series like you know like Toronto Columbus I'm kind of like eh like who really cares and then it's like Carolina I like Carolina I like they're playing the Rangers and like I like you couldn't pay me to watch the Rangers. You know, like, there's a lot of that involved. Like, it just, it feels like, like, I'd rather just watch this and then only the round

Robin. But, but this is like a March madness kind of thing. And this just gives me the flashbacks of, like, being in high school, you just, you get your lunch from the cafeteria, the game starts at 12 o'clock. And then you just put your phones around the table and you have your brackets out. It's like, oh, what's going on here? What's going on here? And that's, like, what is going to.

going to be like, I think, really fun about it because you can just flip-flop between games. And yeah, I mean, Toronto Columbus, I don't really care. I am going to, the Carolina New York series is going to be fun just for the Brady Shea storyline because there's so many things on that pick that they sent them, which is just full-teen chaos. But like, it's just whenever like someone does something like a March Madness kind of thing, you have my interest. I'm just going to, yeah. this is a you do you situation just because I also like personally I was just prepared to like start

start looking at the draft picks right now and see who's available and asks Scott millions of questions because he's the prospect expert and all of that and now I'm like well now I got actually like I was thinking about I was like I'm making all these plans and then I'm like no wait that's August 1st I have to be home at 8 to watch the stupid ass play the stupid penguin um so but I I I am going to say like I am interested in this particular matchup because it's been 10 years since they last met in the playoffs and it's been you know like they the two teams have had such different trajectories over that time that I think it's going to be really cool to see and it's it's once again like

my team is extremely underestimated or not underestimated I don't even think you're underestiming the halves it's just that you they're not expected to do anything and it's like it's a prime sort of upset situation. And the really funny thing is that I saw somebody. I don't know if it was Elliot Friedman. He doesn't do this, but somebody had put up polls. And it was somebody like from SportsNet had put up polls and be like, you know, what is your expectation? Who's going to win? And they had like all the series. And then like the, I clicked on the Canadians Penguins one. And I, I'm going to fully admit that I clicked that the Penguins were going to win. And then I looked and the percentages where like 93% of people expected the penguins to win and 7%.

You know, like there is a, like, this is another one of those things where it's like, if this upset happens, it's going to happen because of goaltending. It's going to be a repeat of that whole thing. And it's just like, to me, I find that really compelling. But at the same time, like, we're, you know, we've been talking about like, what's at stake for the Canadians? Like, what's at stake is like, like, future greatness. You know, they've got a lot of really good prospects in the pipeline, but they don't have a superstar.

They've got a potential, like, elite score in the pipeline, but, like, that's a few years away. And they've got, like, they've got, it's not, it's not, it's not, you know, like, they've got, like, you know, prospects that we're really excited to see. But we don't have a superstar to watch. And so, like, for me, like, that's what's at stake is, like, getting that one superstar. And I don't think everything's magically going to fall into place. but he's going to be a key piece. You know, the Canadians are kind of, like, they'll be set. Like, they'll have a window.

Like, we'll be able to tangibly say they have a window. Whereas for the penguins, it's like, well, we could be one of the greatest dynasties. I don't know if you count it as a dynasty if it's been a couple years. But, I mean, you know, I feel like, I feel like it counts if they win the cup this year, no? Kind of, yeah, that makes it what I'm doing elementary school math here. Oh, three in, okay, that'll be three cups in five years, though. There you go. Great math there for me.

But it would be, I think it would kind of trump the Blackhawks dynasty when they had three and six. But, I mean, yeah, what's at stake for the Penguins? You know, you're getting that fourth cup for Sidney Crosby and the Evgeny Malkin. If Gany Malkin gets his fourth Stanley Cup, I believe that makes him the only Russian player, NHL player, to have four Stanley Cups. I think he's tied right now with a couple of people. I need to Google that to make sure. but I believe he would be the only Russian with four Stanley Cups.

I mean, yeah, and I talked about earlier. They would tie Gretzky and Messier for four as a duo. And, you know, that's almost into like, what's the word I'm looking for here? Kind of like the immortality stage, you know, all the articles started getting written about Cindy Grazby. Oh, yep, top five player of all time. Top five player of all time. Everyone keeps dumping on the NHL for not including Eviggeny Malcon in the top 100 players of all. Hello, welcome to this Tuesday morning episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast.

I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. Today we have part two of our three-part preview crossover with Scott and Laura of Locked-on Canadians. And on today's episode, we're basically talking about the biggest storylines heading into the series for each team, you know, expectations, what's at stake. We talk a lot about the goaltending situation for both teams, especially Carrie Price, and how you can stand on his head. But also with Matt Murray, interest in Jari, it looks like Murray is going to start, but you never know. But we also touch on Mike Sullivan and what this cup would mean to Mike Sullivan as he would get his third cup in five years.

But all that and more starting right now on locked on penguins. I mean, that happens every year. But for more. But it just gets them another Stanley Cup. It just continues the dynasty. And, you know, it probably cements Mike Sullivan as the greatest coach in Penguin's history. I know a lot of people say Badger Bob Johnson. I love Badger Bob.

I know I was not alive to see those Stanley Cups. Still a little young in over here. But, I mean, I think it would cement Mike Sullivan as the best Penguins coach to ever live and probably forever, to be honest. Which is amazing considering how he ended up there mid-season replacement for, you know, the previous guy that didn't work out. And then three and five would be absolutely bonkers for a guy who would. was a mid-year replacement as an head coach. Yeah, he's been unbelievable for this franchise. You know, some people at times have been kind of weird towards Mike Sullivan.

They sleep on him. Guys, the top five coach in the league, I won't really think a lot of people can name five coaches that are perhaps better than him. But this would really cement him as, like I said, the best coach of Penguin's history and probably honestly one of the best to ever do it if you can do this. And that concludes part two of our. big series crossover preview with Locked on Canadians. Tomorrow will be the third

and final installment of this big preview with Scott and Laura and that will be the big head-to-head breakdown and we'll also be making our predictions for the series. So stay tuned for that. Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and we will have Part 3 for you guys tomorrow. Talk to you then.