Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Can the Penguins continue their recent dominance over the Lightning?

Episode Date: December 6, 2023

The Pittsburgh Penguins are set to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night again and this game provides another opportunity for the team to "get right." Hunter and Pat preview the game against the Bolts and how the Penguins can get back on track after a few bad losses to the Philadelphia Flyers. They give their keys to the game while also analyzing what the Penguins have to do to shut down Nikita Kucherov, who continues to light the league on fire. Should there be any lineup changes? Hunter goes into one that he'd want to see since a player on the backend continues to struggle. After that, the two dive into their picks for Warrior Helmet Wednesday before ending the show with a shoutout to Brayden Yager.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.Jase MedicalGet $20 off these lifesaving antibiotics with Jase Medical by using code LOCKEDON at checkout on jasemedical.com.SleeperDownload the Sleeper App and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime.Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelScore early this NFL season with FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your team wins! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.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) 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.

Less than a week after making history, the penguins are back in Tampa Bay and they need to get a big two points tonight. Hunter and I are going to break down that and more on this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Welcome back hockey fans to the Wednesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Patrick Damp.

You can follow me on Twitter at Synonym 4Wet. Joined as always by the one and only, the illustrious Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can also follow the show's Twitter at L.O underscore Penguins. You can catch us on YouTube Monday through Friday, as well as wherever you get your podcasts. And today's episode is brought to you by GameTime.

Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first. purchase. So Hunter, around this time last week, we were talking about how the penguins needed to get back on track as they headed down to Tampa Bay. And, oh, look, just like the movie Groundhog Day, we're right back here again. The penguins are heading down to Tampa Bay tonight, and they need to get back on track. So history repeats itself, man. Isn't it funny how, and we said heading into this game, this will be a big win for the penguins because they played Tampa Bay well over the last couple of years. They're able to get that win. And then we're like,

hmm, is this really going to get them into a big winning streak? Got two games against the Flyers coming up, a team that's definitely not been as good as they were earlier in the season. Oh, they get two points, but they lose both those games. And now we're back to Square One where the Penguins need another big win here down in Tampa Bay to hopefully, and yes, I mean hopefully get something going for the rest this week against the Panthers on Friday, then of course in the next week playing the Arizona Coyotes and a few other team. So isn't it funny how we're saying basically the exact same thing one week later.

Yeah, we find ourselves with a schedule oddity where less than a week after going to Tampa Bay and we all know what happened in that game. Penguins take the first period off. Then they roar back and dominate the lightning for 40 minutes culminating with the first goalie goal in Penguins history from Tristan Jari. And it's kind of. have been a tale of two teams since that game. At first it looked like Tristan Jari and the Penguins broke the lightning because they would follow up that effort with an 8-1 loss to Dallas, which then they would turn around and beat Dallas for nothing.

And it was essentially the last dance, Michael Jordan meme of Tampa going, and I took that personally. Yes. Because they went from getting beat up by Dallas to beating up on Dallas. So then you flip the coin. And while the Penguins lost in a shootout and overtime to the Flyers and salvaged a point out of both games, nobody is saying good effort to get back, to stay alive, to pull a point out.

It's the exact opposite. Everybody's saying that they blew those games, that they should have had more. They should have gotten a clean two points out of both. come out with four and come into Tampa on a winning streak. And the fact of the matter is, penguins are reeling going into Tampa Bay. But the good news, and you and I have talked about this multiple times,

they do pretty well against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the last few years. Yeah, again, this is a Penguins team that has played the Lightning really well over the past few years. They have points in 11 or the last 15 games overall, but against the Lightning, they've won six of the last seven against them. And they've also won four straight games. down in Tampa Bay.

This is a building, Emily Arena, where the Penguins have played really well in over the last few years and they're trying to win also their sixth game in a row overall against Tampa.

For whatever reason, the Lightning, just don't like playing against the Penguins. And it's funny because the Penguins, they have success against that kind of team, right?

A lot of speed, a lot of skill. They're deep. And yeah, they're not having that good of a year right now. That can certainly change late in December

and January and February, but they still have quite a bit of speed and skill. but then you look at a team like, for example, the Islanders last year, the Penguins couldn't even beat them. It's just, it's funny how they're having success against a team that has a lot more skill in the Lightning compared to the Islanders who really just don't do much of anything.

And I mean, yeah, they've been a thorn on the penguin side for a long time. But it's still, it kind of makes me, I guess, laugh a little bit. But, you know, for this game, honestly, I think we would kind of have the same keys like last week, stopping Nikita Kutrov. he's been one of, if not the best player in hockey this year. I think right now... First player to 40 points. Yeah.

I mean, I think right now, if you're asking me, he is one of two favorites for the heart. I think it's him and Artemi Piner as like that 1A, 1B for the heart. Kutrov has been awesome for the lightning. You have to key in on him, whether it's 5 on 5 or the power play. He was dazzling with the puck on his stick in that game last week. And the Penguins, even though they did,

a decent job on him in the final two periods. They got to do that for a full 60 minutes in this one because he can strike, no pun intended at any time. Yeah, he is probably one of the top five players in the world right now. And I'm one of the people who I don't give that crown out. I let it rotate depending on who's playing well at that moment because just like sports, everybody goes up and down. Here's real quick, though, before we go, before we go back to this game,

I just want to ask you this is a fun question real quick. And it's not related to the Penguins or bolts because you brought up the heart trophy. Would you put Connor Bedard in that conversation at all right now? Because I think I might put him at the fringe of it. No, I don't. I mean, it might be a little unfair just because the Blackhawks are so bad. And I just think with how many players are off to such good starts this season, I know, Badard is one of them.

I don't think he should be in the hard conversation for this year. I mean, he'll win the Calder. Don't get me wrong. By landslide. I don't think he should be in the heart conversation. Just a tick I had there. Yeah, but I agree with you on the whole. Tonight, the biggest focus for the penguins is playing a full 60.

And honestly, having a quick start because I've brought this up on the podcast before about certain teams and certain players that the penguins go up against. This is a team in Tampa Bay that we might not, because the amount of success that the lightning organization has had over the past five years. This might not be a team that they consider the penguins to be a boogeyman, but there is always a seat of doubt. There's always a, oh, man, every time we play this team, they find a way to beat us.

Kind of like how it was with the penguins and the Islanders last year. Because you remember the Penguin Islanders games last year. They weren't blowouts. The penguins didn't get dominated. No. Bounces would end up going the Islanders way, or there would be like momentary lapses in those games where you could tell there was that seat of doubt of like, oh my God, every time we play this team, something goes against us.

And the same thing is with the Carolina games, I feel like, as well, because those are 50-50s. And I think some of the Penguins out of those games last year were 50-50s, though the Penguins, one of them, they had a two-goal lead with less than six minutes ago. They couldn't even hold that, which is just peak Islanders, penguin stuff when you look at their history. But it honestly also feels like in a way of Penguins-Kains where over the last couple of years, they have been 50-50s, but they haven't gone.

penguins way. Right. Yeah, go ahead. And it's been the opposite for Tampa with the penguins. So for the penguins tonight, one of the keys away from needing to play a full 60, get out to a fast start, plant that not only plant that seat of doubt in Tampa's head, make it grow. Make this Tampa Bay team just think, oh my God, again, what is it about the penguins

that we can't beat them? So tonight, you know, you have Jari and N, who, again, played very, very well against them and has been playing very well for the past month or so. And listen, you got a chance to really get your team in this season, maybe not this season. I want to go that sweeping yet because we got a long way to go here. But you got a chance to get back on track here. You got a chance to take a season that seems to be wobbling a little bit or at least a couple, last couple weeks wobbly a little bit and get it back going the right direction.

and that is what we are going to talk about when we come back for the second segment of the locked on penguins podcast. But first, we have to tell you about today's sponsor and that is game time. Now, you guys know the story I always tell when the game time ads come up. When I was in high school, me and my best friend, we tried to go to a penguins game at Old Mellon Arena, bought two tickets off of a scalper. They scanned and worked and we got in and everything. But then we come to find out, it's for a row in a section that, simply don't exist.

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Once again, I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp, joined as always by the Incredible Hunter Hodies. And let's ask the million dollar questions, shall we? Can the Penguins get back on track? It's been a mixed bag so far this season. Let's call it what it is. For all intents and purposes, you look at their record right now, they are, I believe, if I've got it right in front of me here, They are 11, 10, and 3, which I'd say that means they're a pretty average hockey team at this point. So while you look at that record and you think, okay, it's early December, they're 11, 10, and 3.

They're in the hunt. The Metropolitan Division is separated by four or five points depending on which direction you go. This isn't that big of a deal because we talked about this before the start of the season with Josh Yohe. They don't care about the division. They only care about making it into the Stanley Cup playoffs. Winning the division is the Penguin's version of a participation trophy. They're not worried about it. So at the same time, though, you look at the record, you look at the results,

you look at a lot of the statistics, 11, 10, and 3, they're an average hockey team. And that was not the expectation this year, especially with a lot of the moves. You replace all of your front office after a nightmare, a couple of seasons with Ron Hextall. and Brian Burke. You bring in Kyle Dubis, Jason Spets,

a more forward-thinking front office. You go get Eric Carlson. You sign some guys to fill out the depth, and here we are. So let's just get right back to it. Hunter, can the Penguins get back on track? I mean, that's the hope, right? I mean, in this game,

it should be one where you can get back on track, heading down to sunrise for the Patrick Hornquist night, and then you head back home. And this is a team that, again, they've played really well against. I probably said that 10,000 times, or the last week, but I'll continue to say it until I'm blue in the face. Your point about the division is very true.

And honestly, let's face it, the Penguins are not going to win the Metropolitan Division this year. It's probably going to be the New York Rangers. They continue to be red hot. They're seven and three in their last 10 games. But after that, from Carolina down to Pittsburgh, and I don't even go down to Columbus, second through eighth in that division is separated by eight points. Second through seventh, I'll tell you right now, separated through four.

four points. The Penguins, despite their inconsistencies, and there have been a lot this year, and as the kids like to say, this team is mid, that that is what this team is right now. Despite all that, they are still within striking distance in this division. All they have to do, and it seems so tough right now when you look at this team, is go on a four to five, a six game winning streak. Boom, Pat. You're in the top three, potentially top two of this division behind only the New York Ranger. The opportunity is right in front of them. You get the two points against the flyers.

Yeah, they're both losses. If you want to maybe imagine that one of them is a win and then you lost in regulation, okay, you can do that too. But of course, they lost both games and the vibes are definitely not good right now. But there is still room for them to make them move in the standings. There are only a couple of points out of the playoffs. I was listening to the GM show with Kyle Dubus and Josh gets off on Tuesday. And I thought, Kyle, you know, he did a good job not fully crushing the team.

Jim Rutherford probably would have said some other different things if he were still the GM. He's still trying to be patient with the team and he understands that there have been a lot of struggles so far, but he also gets that, you know, we still have a lot of hockey in front of front of them and he knows that there are only a couple points out of a playoff spot. He's still curious to see how they get out of this. I really liked his answer on that. But it's got to start tonight against the lightning and you have to continue it against the Panthers, against the coyotes, against other teams next week, Montreal, Toronto with a

dubous ball up in Toronto, you know, he's going to get booed up there. You've got to really start stringing together some winning streaks here, and it's got to start tonight against the Tampa Bay team that, you know, is also fighting right now, too. I mean, they have a pretty similar record. If you look at the standings, 11 and 10 and 5, they only have two more points compared to the penguins. They're one point behind Toronto for fourth in the Atlantic, three points at a third, four points at a second. They're kind of in a similar boat right now, like, the penguins. Right. And the point you made that I brought that up yesterday is that they string together some wins here and they find themselves in the driver's seat. Maybe not first place,

but second place maybe in the metro because the saving grace for the penguins being mid, as the kids say these days, is that every other team is doing what they're doing right now. They're doing win loss, win, loss, or win, win, win, loss, or win, win, loss, loss, loss, loss, win, loss. So, like, nobody in the Metro, save for the Rangers, has been able to put together multiple wins at a time. They have been winning two at most, maybe three. And then the only reason the penguins are back in it is because they went on a five-game win streak last month. So I agree with you. This is one of the games that you need to highlight as this is a get-right game. And then you got to play on a motion come Friday because you're going to Florida. Florida's had a

pretty damn good start this season. They're 14, 8 and 2. They lost their last one, but. Fully healthy now too, for the most part. Fully healthy, looking very much like the Eastern Conference champions, which they currently are. But you're going to see a guy who embodied the entire team that won back-to-back Stanley Cups on Friday in Patrick Hornquist, who they're going to honor it now that he's

retired. And lastly, the Kyle Duvus thing, I have seen a lot of people say, he's got to make a move, he's got to do something, he's got to do ABC. And I brought it up yesterday. It's really hard to make a move right now with salary cap because every team is up against it. And the teams you would trade for that aren't don't really have anything of value or use to you. I also want to say this. Guys, we lived through the post Stanley Cup Jim Rutherford era where he would make,

shake it up, panic trade moves. And I'm not saying that. They should never happen. I'm not saying that there haven't been instances where they don't work. But we watched Jim Rutherford dismantle a really good hockey team, a championship hockey team because of tough starts to the season. We saw him go in the complete opposite direction because a team that had just won two Stanley Cups and another playoff round to go along with it finally hit that wall and be tired.

And he thought, okay, we got to switch everything up. So this isn't me saying this current Penguins roster is perfect. Don't touch it. It doesn't need changed because it's clearly not. But the last thing that they need is to get somebody who's liked, well respected, whatever, traded from the roster because on December 6th, they're not in the top three of the Metro Division. Now, if we get to 2024 and we're still a mid team, we're still fighting to find a spot in a wild card, and some other teams are starting to pull away. Yeah, it's time to maybe shuffle the deck and move a name.

You might not want to move to get this, to shake this team out of its slumber or fire a coach to shake this team out of its slumber. But we're not there just yet. You have to let this play out because you look at the penguins right now. They have played 24 games. That's not a whole lot of hockey yet. About a quarter of the season. So we've got three quarters or so of the season to go.

So tonight has to be the jumping off. point and Friday has to be the springboard. They have to string these two together. Yeah, something has to give, I think, at this point. And I'll keep saying it. You can't keep going into these same games. I sing the same lineup every single time. It's just, it hasn't worked throughout the season.

And I know they're a bit hindered right now just because of the injury situation. Though, no, if you want to, you can make lineup decisions, you know, move someone up and down, all that good stuff. And speaking of that, I do think they should make at least one move for this game. and that involves Ryan Graves coming off the top pairing down to the bottom pairing and promoting John Ludwig. I've actually really liked John Ludovic's performance since he came back from his concussion. He's gotten some minutes with Crystal Tame.

The underlines are pretty decent. I test-wise, I like the way he moves the puck. He also brings that, I guess, that bite element that I know some fans definitely enjoy. He can lay the body for sure. And he's also responsible in his own zone, which is something that I don't think Graves has been that much this season. Pat, I know you've been, you know, beating that drumline. on Twitter about Graves, you know, maybe this is like a Paul Martin 2.0 situation.

I'll say I haven't seen it yet with him, but while he continues to struggle, I would put him down on the bottom pairing to ease his minutes because he hasn't been a top pairing defender throughout his career. And I think he's getting a little too exposed right now playing with Chris LaTang. I'm honestly at the point where I think they might have missed that e-val over the offseason, but I'm not ready to fully say it just yet. I'm on my way to saying that. That's for sure.

He just hasn't been that good this season. I'm not saying it. Until he improves his play, I would put him down on the bottom hearing with Ryan Jay or, you know, when P.O. Joseph comes back next week, maybe down there. And I know one of them will have to play on their offside, but that's a problem you cross next week when P.O.J. is probably ready to come back,

at least according to Kyle Dubus, because he's down in Wilkesburg right now. But that's at least one roster decision I would make for tonight's game. Can't we do much with the top six. You're going to keep Gensel Crossy and bus together, of course. O'Connor's going to stay with Smith and Malkin. I'm hoping that Riley Smith and of Guinea Malkin have some big games tonight just because they've been really quiet as of late, the bottom six. You can only do so much right now just because of the injuries and say what you want about Ricard Raquel with his start to the season. Oh, they're missing

him right now because there are players playing in this lineup that probably should not be in this lineup right now. And hopefully, of course, Raquel is able to come back. He's skating right now and play at the level that we saw last year. But that's what I'm looking for for the lineup for tonight. At least one change defensively, moving someone up, moving someone down. And then for the forwards, you're probably not going to be able to do too too much overall.

Yeah, real quick, before we head to our final segment here, I agree with the Ryan Graves thing. And I'm actually going to, excuse me, I'm going to amend it a little bit from Paul Martin and actually move it to Justin Schultz. because I think putting him on the bottom pairing and sheltering him a little bit and putting him in more advantageous situations will actually be the get right thing that he needs. Right. Put him in less high risk opportunities, more offensive zone starts, less defensive zone starts, sheltered minutes of when he gets deployed.

And it will help him get his confidence back because the one thing I said to our pal Jesse Marshall on Twitter was I think it's more likely that a defenseman of. his caliber, goes to a new team, gets the big deal, and struggles in a new system. I think that's a likelyer explanation than he forgot how to play hockey. I think it's a crisis of confidence. I think if he gets that back in a lessened role, you can start slowly but surely moving him up the lineup, get him back to Chris LaTang's flank, and he'll be just fine. So I agree with that. And like you said, with the injuries and everything, there's not a ton that you.

you can really do right now to shake the lineup up just because of injury. So it's got to come from within. And lastly, but not leastly, Malkin and Smith got to wake up. They absolutely have to wake up because they drove the bus early on and now hard to find them. So that's going to do it for this segment. When we come back, it is Wednesday. So you know what that means. We are giving out the warrior helmet.

And I bet some of you could guess at least one of the people who's going to go home with a warrior helmet from the Lockdown Penguins podcast. But you're going to have to stay tuned for that. Because first we have to tell you about today's other sponsor, and that is Indeed. When you're drafting your fantasy team, do you ever wish you could do the same thing with your business team? If you're building a roster to win the league, you need Indeed. Indeed is the hiring platform where you can attract, interview, and hire all in one place. Don't spend hours on multiple job sites looking for candidates with the right skills when you could do it all with Indeed.

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Welcome back to the Wednesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. One more time, I'm Patrick Damp, joined as always by the illustrious Hunter Hodes. And it's Warrior Helmut Wednesday. I think I've got mine. I think you've got yours. So Hunter, go ahead and take that helmet off and hand it over to whoever you're handing it to. So I'm going to do something a little bit different. I'm going to do a combination.

I'm going to give it to the goalie room for. my warrior helmet. Both Alex Indelkevich and Tristan Jari get my warrior helmets for this one. I guess the warrior helmet, excuse me, for this one. Alex Ndilkevich continues to play really well as a backup. He was tremendous against Philadelphia on Monday night. One of the biggest reasons why the penguins got a point in that game. The penguins continue to have or get, excuse me, great goaltending this season. All of a sudden, this position has become one of strength for the penguins, even though we had a lot of questions about it, heading into this year. Then, of course, Tristan Jari scored the goal down in Tampa Bay last week. He continued his strong play into the weekend as well. Both goaltenders get my warrior helmet

for this one. And honestly, I don't think it's really close. Maybe you could argue Sid for scoring against the Flyers on Monday. But other than that, I think it's Jari and Adelkevich, and it's not really close. So they are both getting the warrior helmet. They'll share half of it for today's episode. I pretty much figured you were going to do Tristan Jari for the goalie goal. So I was actually going to go with Alex Nadelcovic just because he deserved such a better fate when they played the Flyers the other night. It was just he played outside of his mind. He was the main reason that they didn't lose that game. That's ball and save. I believe he was in the second period. That was unbelievable.

Yeah. I mean. And all the other ones that he made too. I felt awful for him when he was coming off the ice because he did everything possible to get the Penguins that win. And he has been great so far this season. I mean, think about it this way. In Philadelphia, loses the game two, the Flyers win two won and overtime. John Cotorier scores the game winner. He's the second star of the game. The first star of the game was Alex Nadelcovic. That's how good of a game he played on Monday in Philadelphia. And if you know anything about our two fair cities, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, we're not fans of one another.

And that extends from the ice to the press box. There is always animosity between the two cities, writers. So the fact that writers who picked the three stars in the building still gave Alex Nadelcovic the first star playing the way he played with a 939 save percentage on Monday. I mean, this guy has come back from a conditioning stint. and been just genuinely great. So he gets my warrior helmet. And, man, it's not, putting aside the struggles of the penguins right now,

it's nice to finally have the goaltending room be a strength again. Yes. It's been a long time since I feel like we've been able to say that about the Penguins goaltending. Again, all situations, 918, save percentage this season. Top five in the league. Who saw that coming, people? If you saw that coming, I hope you. I hope you win the lottery someday or something like that.

Because the way these two have played for most, if not the entire season, has been awesome. I don't think the Penguins Pat have had a backup goalie this good in quite some time. And I know it's funny me saying that because they've had Casey to Smith for the past few years. But even before that, I mean, Alex Dahlkevich, he is playing at a very, very high level.

It probably goes back to, I would say, what, you know, the Murray Flurry Days. That's what I was going to say since 2017. We had Murray Jari there as. well. And I know Murray was struggling a little bit at that point. Tristan was finally coming up from the HL. But it's probably been, I guess, the best tandem, you know, Sabresnage-wise, you know, play-wise, since that Murray-Furray tandem. If you wanted to argue Murray-Jari, I guess you could. But I would say Murray-Flurry, in my opinion, 2017. Yeah. Yeah, I mean,

that's the one I was going for. So one last thing we want to mention right before we go real quick at the bottom of the show. We want to give a shout out to the Penguins first round pick from this past year, Braden Yeager. He was officially invited by Hockey Canada to the World Junior Championship. So big moment for him. He's on those camp roster. He hasn't made the team just yet. The whole team will be announced, I believe, in the next week, week and a half,

but very well deserved from Braden Yeager. He has been electric on his junior team this year. I know we haven't been updating him that much on the show, and I apologize about that, but he has been awesome to start the year. He already has this season, Pat. 17 goals, 39 points in 25 games. He had played 67 games last year. He only scored 28 goals.

He only needs 12 more to break what he did last year. And I challenged him before this season. Go down there, get back to basics, show why you were worthy of being picked as high as you were. And he's done that to say, at least, he had a really good camp. And since going back to his junior team, he has been awesome, very deserving of being invited to the camp. do think and hope that he will make the roster for Hockey Canada. I know some people have asked on the YouTube comments, is he going to be brought up later on this year?

I don't think so. I think he's still, in my opinion, a year or two away from making an impact for this team. I would probably lean closer to two years, but he's playing awesome right now, and I'm really happy for him. And just on the flip side of that, Owen Pickering is also playing really well. And the fact that he wasn't invited to even the roster camp, that doesn't make any sense to me. He's also been pretty solid this year for his junior team,

14 points in 21 games. He's kind of like that typical defenseman that hockey Canada likes. He's big. He's lengthy. He can move the puck really well up ice. He's good along the boards. He's good in his own zone. Don't know why he didn't get a camp invite.

He's been pretty solid since coming back from injury. But it's just nice to see overall that both the Penguins top prospects are playing well for their junior teams, especially Yeager who got the invite. This will be huge for Yeager's development to go to the world juniors to he's gone down. he's been dominant with Moose Jaw and in the WHL. And to have a chance to go to the World Junior Championships and be hopefully a key contributor for Team Canada is only going to do wonders for his development. So congrats to him for getting the invite. Here's the hope and he makes the team.

As for us, we are going to be back tomorrow to recap this game and get you ready for the following night in Florida when they had to sunrise for Patrick Hornquist night. but that is going to do it for this one for Hunter Hodes. I am Patrick Damp. This has been the Wednesday edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast, and we will talk to you tomorrow.