Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Can the Penguins right themselves against the Wild after getting thumped?

Episode Date: December 18, 2023

It's a Monday and a lot is happening with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Hunter and Pat start the show by recapping Saturday's blowout loss against the Maple Leafs. They discuss how the Penguins tried to trade chances with the Maple Leafs and how it didn't work out. They then crush the Penguins for how poor they were defensively and how that needs to change going forward if they want to make a run for a playoff spot. After that, they preview Monday night's game against the Minnesota Wild and how the Penguins can try and bounce back. They also discuss Marc-Andre Fleury and how this could be his final time in Pittsburgh before ending the show with some lineup changes that may be coming.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.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.

The Penguins got blasted by the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. And on today's episode, The Locked on Penguins podcast, Pat and I are going to briefly recap that game, plus get you all set for Monday night showdown against the wild. You're locked on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes, joined by the best co-hosts.

in the world, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hode. You can also follow on Twitter at Senderfrewette. And you can follow these shows, Twitter, at Elo, underscore Penguins, of course. Thank you all so much for making this your first lesson 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, great an account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first

purchase. So, Penguins got absolutely destroyed by the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. a game that was over by the end of the first period. 7-0 was the final. Everyone that watched the game knows that. And if you watch that entire game, I commend you. I really do. If you stayed up to watch that entire ass kicking,

because that's what this was. And I kind of felt like from the opening puck drop, the Penguins did not have it. They gave up that first goal, not even two minutes in the game to Matthew Nyes. And Ryan Graves got absolutely toasted by Nyes on that play. And he's had another really bad game. We'll get to that a little bit later.

but this was not an acceptable effort by the Penguins, especially after the way they played against Arizona and Montreal, with where they are in the standings, you cannot afford to have duds like this at this point in the season. You can't afford to do win-win loss or loss, two-and-two, like for example, four-game stretch. You can't do win-loss, win-loss in general there too. You need to be able to string together some big winning streaks,

and the Penguins are not doing that right now. They had a golden opportunity going into the game. this game. Austin Matthews was hurt. Excuse me, he's not hurt. He was sick with the flu. Other members of the Maple Leafs also were sick with the flu. And that didn't matter. The Penguins still got their butts whooped in this game. Not a good performance at all. And it's just at this point in the year with where they are in the standings, you can't have games like this. You can't be thrown away points and not showing up for games, even if it's against a Maple Leafs team. That's still one of the best teams in the league. I want to start here because I,

don't want what I'm about to say to get misconstrued. The penguins got their asses kicked on Saturday night. 7-0 no matter which way you cut it, no matter which type of copium you cut that drug with, it's a 7-0 loss, and it's an ass-kicking. But it should be a wake-up call. And it's not the wake-up call. I think everybody wants me to say it should be where everybody needs fired

and everybody needs traded and you need to start over again because it's not that bad. because if you go look at all of the stats, both the top line, basic statistics, and then dive into the analytics, it was a fairly evenly played game. Penguins out shot them, penguins out hit them,

penguins did pretty well on the PK, penguins, if you go into the actual analytics of it, the possession numbers are fairly even. If you look at the way the game was played at five on five, again, fairly even game. The wake-up call that they need is to understand, understand exactly what I said on this show on Friday.

This is not a team in the Toronto Maple Leafs that you can trade chances with. You cannot play firewagon hockey against the Toronto Maple Leafs because you will lose. And as an aside, I get it. I am a fan. I always have been. I always will be. I'm not going to put the blue and red lights on and be the fan police here. but genuinely hilarious to me that the Toronto crowd started chanting at Dubus.

He's responsible for 85% of that team that boat race the penguins on Saturday night. So, you know, jeer at your own peril because the guy you have now has signed Ryan Reeves and Klingberg, who have kind of stunk. But anyway, I digress. Here's the problem. All those stats and all those things. things aside. The worst stat, five on five for this team in this game was that the Penguins surrendered 15 high danger chances at even strength. The Toronto Maple Leafs are a team of

finishers and the Penguins aren't anymore. And that's not an indictment on the Penguins, which is not how this roster is built half because who Kyle Dubus brought in in the offseason, half because we're still dealing with the fallout from the Ron Hextall era. So this is a wake-up call to this that when Mike Sullivan tells you to play a more disciplined system, you have to play it, or these results are going to continue. And I know a bunch of people hear me say that and they think, oh, you got to get rid of the coach. They're out list to them. They're not listening to them.

Two things on that. One, there's really nobody else out there who's going to do better. Two, if you want this team to become the 2010s New York Islanders, the early 2000s, New Jersey Devils, that's what they're going to become with a new coach. there is always and forever an overcorrection when you fire a coach. And the overcorrection should they fire Sullivan and his staff will be somebody who tells them to play defense first. And this will not be a good hockey team nor a fun hockey team to watch.

So just keep that in mind. And we've seen them kind of be like a hybrid at times this year. The Colorado game. They were able to get offense and, oh, play good defensively in their own zone. Sam against Washington, Sam against Vegas. We can keep going down the list a little bit. just the three that come to mind right away. We've seen them play really good defensively this year, but then it'll just go away in a game against the Maple Leafies, especially without Austin Matthews.

And here's another stat for you from this game. The Pengasalada season high, 13 odd man rushes in this game against Toronto and 11 rush chances. That comes courtesy of Mike Kelly. That's not acceptable. It's not. That's not good defensive hockey. You are not going to win playing that way against honestly any team in the league, even the worst team in the league right now. The sharks, the ducks, even the Blackhawks, who have the Penguins obviously lost to start the year. You're not going to win games if you're giving up double-digit odd man rushes in games. And here's another step. They didn't allow double-digit rush chances once in their first 17 games.

They've allowed double-digit rush chances in five times in their last 12 games. That also comes courtesy of Mike Kelly. He's a great follow by the way. on hockey Twitter. That's not acceptable, Pat. It's not. And you know what that is? That's not a system or coaching problem.

That's a hockey IQ problem. That is a thing that you put squarely on the player. And I get it. In moments like that, everybody wants to blame a coach. I totally understand. But that is, there is no coach out there who is going to tell defensemen to take reckless pinches. Aside from when you are frailing late in a game and they go with the mentality of

losing by two is the same as losing by one. So take your chances and do what you've got to do to try to get this game back to even. But that's a hockey IQ problem. You have to be smarter. You have to be better situationally. And you have to understand a pinch in those situations or going too deep on the forecheck in those situations is going to lead to bad outcomes. You have to play smarter. Right.

I honestly don't think I have too much else to add about this game. The Penguins got their butts guy people. I mean, this was a stinker. You knew right away that this was not going to be a game with the way the Maple Leafs came out, and especially the way Penguins came out. Tristan Jari stood no chance starting this game. He got pulled to Delta Vitch didn't do much better. No one had a good game here.

Everyone, if you look at the hockey stats cards, everyone was in the negative differential except for John Ludwig and P.O. Joseph. And speaking of P.O. Joseph, it looks like he may not be playing on Monday night, which is a joke, in my opinion. I don't know why he's coming off the bottom pairing. I don't try to get mad about that, but I think it's kind of dumb a little bit. and we're going to be discussing that game on Monday against the wild coming up in the second segment and why John Hines, I will see you, or I'll send you to the Shadow Realm, actually,

from the move that you just pulled for not starting Mark Andre Fleury in this game. That's coming up in the second segment. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about game time. You shouldn't have to worry when you're buying tickets to your next big event. Game time is the fastest and easiest way to buy tickets for all the sports, music, comedy, and theater events near you. With killer last minute deals, all in prices, is viewers from receipt and their best price guarantee.

Game time takes the guesswork out of buying tickets. You can see the view from receipt before you buy, so you know exactly what to expect when you arrive, all in prices show your toll up front, so you know you're getting a great deal without the hidden fees. You can also buy tickets in seconds with just two taps. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time, dial the game time app,

playing account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Turn supply. Again, train account and redeem code locked on NHL for $20. off download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, join on my co-host Patrick Dam. So, Pac-P Penguins Wild Monday night at PBG Paints Arena. This is a wild team that has really struggled this season, though they have won three in a row in seven or the last 10, but still, look at their record right now, seventh in the central, 12 and 12 and 4. They're behind the blues

who just fired their head coach in the Wilder also a team that fired their coach. Dean Eveson is no longer your head coach. John Hines is now the head coach there and he plays a more defensive-minded system compared to Everson, I would say. Hines did the same thing in New Jersey. He also did the same thing in Nashville. Despite the Wilds, not good start to the season, similar to the Penguins, this is still a team that has quite a bad talent. Matt Zoucarell has had a really good year, six goals, 28 points in 28 games, really strong playmaker, Karil Kaprisov, who is a deadly sniper and playmaker, 24 points in 28 games. Joe Erick, he's one of their best centers, if not their best center, I should say.

14 goals, 21 points in 28 games. Matt Boldy's had a solid year. Marco Rossi's been really solid. Ryan Hartman. This is still a team that has quite a bit talent. In my opinion, it starts with Capresov, Zuccarello, all the other players I mentioned. This is still a game that the Penguins cannot take lightly, especially when they need to start stringing some results together here.

But still, this is a game that the Penguins can definitely have against a wild team that I expected more out of this year. I thought they would be a surefire top three team in the Central, but it has been anything but an ease for them this year. Yeah, it's been a tough start to the season. I think a lot of that too is that when you have a guy like Joel Erickson Eck with 14 goals in 28 games, and it's a surprise that he's your leading goal score, it should be a compliment to the Matt Zuccarello.

and Carrillo Caprizov's of the world. He should be keeping pace with them, if not beating them a little bit. But then you compare it in Zuccarello and Caprizov in the same amount of games played. Caprizov has eight goals. Zucrello has six. And this is a case of a team that's not getting the great, the kind of effort it needs from its top players. Now, that's not to say that they've been bad because like you said, 28 and 24 points respectively for Zuccarello and Caprizo, which is pretty good because, you

For Zougarola, it's a point per game. But you know, you want to see those guys scoring more. You want to see them putting up more goals. And then you go to the standings and you look at where they are. They're five or four points out of a playoff spot compared to the penguins who are five points out. But I digress. You know, it's a team of the minus five goal differential. They're struggling to score and they're not doing the best of keeping them out of the net.

And it's, and it doesn't even get into that they're having, off-ice issues right now. They fired a coach, Bill Garon's under investigation, and I'm not going to dive into any of that if there's been playing reporting, but, you know, that also doesn't even talk about the fact that this team has nearly $15 million in dead cap space because they bought out Paris and sewer, which was totally understandable. They were past their prime. It was time to move on. It was time to hit the reset button as a franchise, but they never really bottomed out. They never really did anything to truly rebuild, and they're stuck in this mushy middle right now.

They definitely could use that caps. If they were able to have it to improve and get some more talent to surround Zuccarello and Capri Soff. I just don't think Billy Garan has done as good of a job as maybe he could have by now to improve this team even with the Capri captures because of Suter and Parise. But it's just been a struggle all year for this hockey team. And it looks like it's going to be Philip Gustavson and Net for the Wild tonight. You know what, John Hines?

Screw you, man. Screw you for that. I don't know. He said to the media, this was the plan all along. They played Boston coming up right after this game. I get it. But you know what? This would have been a perfect storybook final game for Flower in Pittsburgh.

maybe he doesn't like playing against his former teammates, something like that. At least he's going to be in the building, which will be great. But man, I wanted to see him start one last time. If this is it, one last time in Pittsburgh with everything he has accomplished for the Penguins. They obviously don't win those Stanley Cups without him. Even though he barely started a game in the 2016 run, he was great during the regular season. They don't get to the playoffs without him, especially with the way they started that earlier that season before Mike Sullivan took over. It just stinks that he's not going to be starting this game and it will be Gustafson.

Yeah, but again, you know, this is the other thing is, uh, one, outside of his first return when he was with Vegas, he, he has gotten lit up by the penguins. Whether, whether it's just circumstance or he just has that mental block of not being able to play against his former team. Yeah. If he doesn't like it, I don't blame him because he's not good in Pittsburgh. So it makes sense. The other thing is he hasn't been great this year. He's started 10 games. He's got a 4-5-and-2 record.

Well, 4-5-2 because he started and came in in relief for one game. But he's got a 3-29 goals against average and 886 save percentage. He's struggling this year. And like we were saying prior to the idea of him starting, this is a wild team that has to do something. They have to win because, like we said, not only did they never really bottom out, they made moves that showed they want to contend.

They fired a coach. And that's the other thing. They fired a coach and brought in John Hines. And that's usually the last bullet a general manager gets to fire before they're on the hot seat. So now Bill Guerrins team needs to at least make the playoffs. I don't think anybody's penciling the Minnesota Wilden to come out of the West. in North should.

But this is a team that's got to make it to the postseason. And playing a Pittsburgh team that for all its warts and faults can still play some solid offense, you have to play your better goalie. And just real quick, before we get into some of the things the Penguins need to do tonight, you know, the topic of Garron and this team needing to rebuild but not doing it, just go look at their cap friendly right now, man. Aside from the dead cap space, they handed out a $4.125 million extension. to Matt Zucarrollo, a $4 million extension to Marcus Felino, a $4 million extension to Ryan Hartman.

And all those kick in next year. Yeah. And listen, they got Caprizov locked up for the next two years, but they've got Matthew Boldy locked up for several more years. And I look at this team and I think, yeah, there's some talent there, but I don't know if there's anybody aside from Caprizov that you really build around. He's the main game breaker. would say for the wild. But outside of him, I don't feel like that team truly has a game-breaking

superstar. They need another big-time player to surround it with. And don't get me wrong, I think Zucarillo is a good player. Boldie is good. Eric Sinek is a really solid two-way center. But are those guys game breakers or superstars? No. And that's where I think the wow need to find one at some point over the next year or two to help out Caprice Sullivan. And just going back to Mark Andre Fleury in all series this year. I understand them wanting to go to Gustafson for this game. They need the two points. And he's been the better goal.

He has saved about three goals above expected this year. 908% of a percentage of 2.84 goals against average. Fine average numbers compared to what you said for Flory. But I will say this for Florey. If this is his last game in Pittsburgh, his last time being in this building, I hope everyone that goes tonight gives him a standing ovation that he deserves. Because everything that he accomplished while he was a member of the

Penguins was extraordinary. I think he's the best goaltender in franchise history. I will die on that hill. It's close. But I will die on that hill for Mark Andre Fleury for him to be the best goaltender in this franchise's history. And everything he did in 2008 with how great he took them to the final that year. 09 with the Save on Lidgitrim and everything else that year. I know he had his struggles after that. Don't get me wrong. He cost the Penguins, I think, multiple times from 2010 to about 2013, 14, was great in 2016. I'll always say in 2017, he started that run. Murray finished it.

It was the right call to go to Murray at the perfectly right time. And I know it ended after that, but overall, his tenure here was a beautiful success. I think he's the best golden to franchise history. And if this is it for Flower, in terms of coming to PBG Paints Arena, I hope everyone gives him a rocking ovation because he deserves it. I mean, I have to disagree with you. I don't think it's close. I think he is the greatest goalie to play for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the team history.

Just, and I'll say this. I mean, if you followed Tom Barrasso because of everything he did, but go ahead. I mean, if you follow, if you followed me on social media, if you followed my work, you know that I've been labeled and branded a hater of Mark Andre Fleury. And it's totally a fair, it's a fair label to put upon me just because of the way I talked about them post expansion draft. this is how I look at it. It is a great history that has complications. You're spot on.

They do not win the Stanley Cup in 2017 without Mark Andre Fleury. More specifically, they don't beat Washington with Mark Andre Fleury. They got their asses. Wow. They got their asses handed to them more often than not in that series. Yes. He was the difference. So, and again, I say this phrase on the podcast all the time because it's one of my favorites.

beachfront property in my heart because he was the first piece for this era of penguins hockey. He got it started. And he, I think he had a legitimate case in 2008 to win the cons smith a la Sebastian Jaguerre in 2003 because again, the penguins got their asses handed to them by Detroit in the 2008 final. He was the only reason they didn't get swept. But then, you know, I say this about them all the time. and I think it's a fair critique. From about 2011 until 2016, he was not the reason they did not win a Stanley Cup in that period,

but he certainly did not help. Now, I love the guy. He is one of the better characters in the history of this franchise, and it's a franchise that has had some characters in its day. And he's just a genuinely great human being. And I agree. This is probably his last. stop in Pittsburgh before he signs a one-day contract and retires as a Pittsburgh penguin.

And 29 is going to be up in the rafters with 87, 66, 68, 58, and 71 one day. You think he'll be, you think his number will be retired? Absolutely. He wins three Stanley Cups with the franchise. And two of them, he was- I know people are very stingy about that. And I am too. I don't like to have too many numbers retired.

I would probably lean towards doing it considering what he's accomplished, but I also will understand arguments from the other side just because of how stingy people are. But go ahead. Last two things on that. One, I think 29 is also informally retired because nobody has worn it since he left. And it's been quite a few years. And speaking of, you got me last episode with the World Juniors trivia question.

I've got a Mark Andre Fleury-related trivia question. Speaking of number 29, can you name the last player to wear number 29 before Mark Andre Fleary did? Wow. I'll give you this hint. It was a skater. It was not a goalie. Skater. I feel like I should know this, but I'm probably not going to get it. Thinking here, though. Last hint you get. It was not Phil Bork. I actually don't know.

It was the man that we called Free Candy, rooks or pick before he switched to 44 he wore 29 i can't believe i i should have had that i brain farted there oh that makes me bad that i didn't get that man that's a great that's a great trivia question though because i almost forgot that he used to wear 20 i mean i basically did forget that he used to wear 29 but that's that's good i mean overall again man back to the overall point i'm super excited that he's back here it just stinks that he's not going to be starting overall but Again, I get the decision from John Hines with where their season is at, but hopefully everyone met his in attendance tonight, give him the ovation that he very much deserves.

But that'll do it for this second segment. Coming up to end the show, Pat and I are going to get into some of the roster moves of the Penguins made heading into this game, a few players that could come back from injury, plus some changes to the defense appearance that we saw during practice on Sunday. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about fanned as the weather gets colder, the NFL offers stay hot on Fandle. Right now, new customers get $150 of bonus bets with any winning $5 money line bet. That's $150 if your team wins.

If you've been thinking about joining Fandall, there's no better time to get in on the action than right now. The app is so easy to use as a wide range of betting options, including spreads, player props, over unders, and so much more. So visit fandle.com slash locked on and kick off the NFL season. That's Fandle, the official partner of the NFN. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts on our hoodies. Join on my co-host, Patrick Dam. So Penguins practiced briefly on Sunday after they came back from Toronto on Saturday night into Sunday morning.

And Mike Sullivan made some changes to some of the lines and especially the defensive pairings. Marcus Pedersen was with Chris Leng. And Ryan Graves was with Eric Carlson. And also, P.O. Joseph comes out for Chatter-Reedle. And he was with John Ludwig. I don't understand these changes. It honestly seems like Mike Sullivan. is making changes for the sake of making changes.

It's funny. Before the season, I was all about Pedersen being paired up with what's hanging because I think he's better than Graves. But based on how Pedersen is done with Carlson, now I don't like that move. And especially with how Ryan Graves has played this year, I don't like this either because he's not going to be that defensive presence that Carlson needs on his pairing. In my opinion, I think what the Penguin should do here is send Graves down to the bottom pairing and move POJ up to play with Chris Tang and keep Peders and Carlson. That's what I would do.

Mike Sullivan doesn't agree with me. I'm not the head coach. I'm not qualified to be the head coach of this team here, people. But that's just me for my opinion, for what I would do for the defensive pairings. But I don't get why Graves is with Carlson. That has the makings of a disastrous pairing. Yeah, that's my biggest problem is Graves Carlson, because I don't think Graves has been as big of a disaster as a lot of people do, but I acknowledge that he has not been good.

And if you are going to. Yeah. And if you are going to play with Eric Carlson, it is playing with Chris LaTang on steroids because he is going to jump into the play. He is going to pinch. He is going to take risks. And his partner, damn well, better be rock solid. And Marcus Pedersen has been rock solid this year. That doesn't even. get into the chemistry that those two have created together as a pairing, which has been tremendous. I all in the one other thing I, you know, before people pull out the tank of gasoline and pour it all over themselves and light their hair on fire, listen, Ludwig, Ruudel, P.O.J. Ryan Shea, put them in a blender, shake it up. They're, there are different flavors of the same thing. Like, I don't understand why Mike Sullivan has such a short leash on POJ. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. But what I don't understand.

What I also acknowledge is that he has been thoroughly unimpressive. It's not like they're losing a lot by taking him out of the lineup. I would like to see him get the chance to do it. But overall, he hasn't exactly blown anybody away this year. I agree with that idea of just do graves and. POJ on the bottom pairing because it's again I just said it it's different flavors of the same thing these are two guys who have underwhelmed and unimpressed been unimpressive with the penguins so far this year so why not figure it out between them and if they stink change it but

doing this in the top four defense for the top four defenseman is absurd because peterson carlson has been one of the best defensive pairings in the league this year and you just broke it up and gave one of your most overwhelming and unimpressive defenseman to the guy who's probably been your best defenseman all year. And he's not a Mr. Fixit. Eric Carlson never has been. And I try not to get too upset about the third pairing.

It's the pairing that plays the least out of all the pairings in your lineup. But still, I mean, my opinion, I would rather have Graves and Ludwig on that third pairing and then move POJ up, honestly, just because I think he's been playing better than Graves recently. Now, that might be a hot take to some people. I get it. If you want a ratio of me for that, you can go right ahead.

I thought POJ has been fine these last few games. I just don't see why he's coming out of the lineup for Chad Riedel, who, let's face it, I don't think he's been good this year. John Ludwig, he's been fine. I mean, he was probably one of the better defensive in that game against Toronto, but that's not saying much because the whole team stunk in that game. At least he brings a physical element. I have the team lacks a little bit.

He can move the puck up the ice a little bit, but it's funny. POJ has better underlying numbers than both him and Riedl this year. So taking him out of the lineup, again, I'm not like, too mad online about it if that's what you want to call it, but it's just still a little bit of a puzzling decision from Mike Sullivan if he ends up doing that. Other injury news for tonight, it looks like Ricard Raquel is going to play.

I know we probably teased it a little too early for that game against Toronto, but Raquel is a game time decision in this one, had another full practice, practiced in the top six, was on the power play. I think he's going to play in this one, but we'll have to see. Noel Chari is also a game time decision. We'll have to see if he goes.

That will be big for the penalty kill. And then Chabar-Reedle, he's a game-time decision, based on these last couple of practices. It looks like he might be in over POJ and can be playing with John Ludwig. So at least team is getting a bit healthier right now. And with Raquel, we discussed on Friday, hopefully his return sparks some confidence for him

and he can start putting a few pucks in the back of the net to get back to the level that we saw him play at last year. Yeah, I also, you know, I think Valteri Pustin has made his way into the lineup. I don't know if he's quite a regular. yet. I don't know if he's somebody that you're going to keep here for a while, but I've been fairly impressed by the way he's played just because he hasn't made any big young guy mistakes yet. And he seems very comfortable in a top six role. Do I think he's going to be the next big thing?

Probably not. But he has not looked at all out of place in the top six. And I think he may have won himself a spot over the last couple weeks. He may have, I only caution you and everyone else on this just because you see this, I feel like decently often with players from Wilkesbury. They come up, have four to five, six really strong games with the penguins, and then they kind of trail off. For example, redeems the Hornet, right? He came up, gave the third line of spark, those first four to five to six games.

But where has he been the last month to five weeks? he's been invisible and honestly in my opinion i don't think he's looked like an nchl player at times that play that he had early in that game against toronto he had two opportunities to clear the puck and just didn't and then he went for a skate around the net when there was no need to do that that's not a play than an hl player makes in this day and age it was just not drew o'connor i mean i think he's been improving these last couple weeks but he had a really bad game against Toronto on Saturday. I still think he's an NHL player, but again, with Zohorna, he just hasn't been there for the last month to five weeks. And I want to see him get back to that,

but it's just, it's hard to, I guess, keep that consistency when you come from Wilkesbury. You know, you can talk about Jonathan Good and all these other guys that have come from Wilkesbury as well. I just want to see more of it on a consistent basis. I don't need to see someone be like Brian Russ, who lights the league on fire coming from Wilkesbury or even Jake Gensel. but maybe somewhere in between that and what we've seen maybe from Zahorna or the typical HL call up where you're not just coming up and provided a spark for a week. I also think it's a bit of a tough comparison to disagree with you a little bit. Like the type of games Zahorna needed to play, he hasn't been playing.

He has not been good on the forecheck. He has not been very physical. He hasn't done very well defensively. Meanwhile, Valteri Pustin is more of a goal score. playmaking type of player. And he's fit in pretty well in the top six. Now, that's the rub, though, is that he's fit in pretty well. He hasn't come in and made a huge case to be full time.

I think he's earned himself an extended look is what I'm saying. I don't think he is an answer yet. He could very well be if he starts producing and continues to play well. But I think there's a little bit of apples to oranges here because it's two different styles of play for two different parts of the lineup. Yeah, I wasn't trying to compare their styles of play, just to the point where you come from Wilkesbury, provide a spark, but then you're nowhere to be seen. I just don't want that same situation to happen to Puston, who, again, I know is a completely

different player. He brings more offense than I think Zohorna does defensively, though. Maybe Zohor brings more value there. But just wanted to make that overall comparison. But I totally get what you're saying, though. I get it for sure. But I think that I'll do it for this episode of Locked on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for listening to slash watching this one.

Pat and I will be back with another episode for you all on Tuesday to recap this game against Minnesota, plus get you all set for the action later this week, especially on Thursday against the Carolina hurricane. That is a massive game for this team. But until then, thank you so much for tuning in. We'll talk with you all on Tuesday.