Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Can the Penguins strike against the Lightning?

Episode Date: November 30, 2023

It's another game night for the Penguins as they continue their road trip to Tampa Bay to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning. To start the show, Hunter and Pat preview the matchup and discuss how the Lightning have continued to stay in the playoff race this season, despite not having Andrei Vasilevskiy for a good chunk of it (and yes, he's back now). They dive into the play of Nikita Kucherov and how he continues to kick butt while also discussing Brayden Point and how he continues to be one of the best players in the league, too. They give their keys to the Penguins to win this game before diving into players to watch on both sides. Finally, the two have another discussion on the power play since it's still continuing to be terrible.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.Collective.comCollective is the number one financial solution for freelancers, contractors, and self-employed entrepreneurs that lets you focus on your passion, not your paperwork. Right now, Collective is offering 1 month free and no onboarding fee when you go to Collective.com/lockedonnhl and tell them LOCKEDONNHL sent you. 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 are bolting down to Tampa Bay, looking for two points and to get back on track. Hunter and I are going to preview the Penguins Lightning game 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, Penguins fans, to yet another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Patrick Damp.

You can follow me on Twitter at Synonym 4Wet, joined as always by the illustrious, the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can follow the show's Twitter at L0 underscore Penguins. And you can get this podcast on YouTube or wherever you else you get your podcast. We thank you for making this your first listen of the day. And today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on NHH.

for $20 off your first purchase. So big one tonight, Hunter, in a place where, as you have said, and I have said the penguins have seen some pretty solid success as of late. And really, for the past five or six years, they're heading down to Tampa Bay to play a team that, well, despite missing arguably one of, if not the best goaltender in the world, has somehow managed to find themselves in a tie for third place in the Atlantic Division. and if they can weather that storm missing that guy,

tonight's going to be a challenge. So I'm going to ask you this. What do the penguins have to do tonight in order to pull off a clean two points? Honestly, I feel like a lot of the things they did against the predators on Tuesday night. They were really good for those first 45 to 50 minutes. But you just can't let that slide in the final 10 minutes because I think a better team in that situation, like at Tampa Bay would make the penguins pay. So you can't just slack off in the final 10, 15 minutes.

minutes of the third period. But just going off their success last year, the Penguins need to continue limiting the Tampa Bay's top players. Nikita Kucharov, despite getting a little older, he has not slowed down at all. 37 points in 22 games, a bona fide contender for the Hart Trophy this season. They already have Andre Vasselowski back. The fact that Vasselovsky is back and they're in the race, considering the bad goaltending that they got from the two goalies, other goalies that they have, excuse me, other than Vasilevsky, is honestly stunning, to be honest, because you had Matt Tompkins, who only played in three games. He gave up more than two goals above expected.

And then you had Jonas Johansson. He played 18 games with Vasilevsky hurt. He gave up over five goals more than expected. They both had sub-900, say, percentage. And, oh, they're tied for third in the Atlantic Division. Vaselpsi's been back for two games. That just goes to show the level of talent that the lightning have on this team. So continuing to build off what they did against Nashville outside of those final 10 to 15 minutes.

Simplify their game. Take away the center of the ice and the defense. You do not want to be giving up high danger chances to the lightning with the talent that they have. And we can just go through Kuturov, Braden Point, Steven Stamco's, Braden Hagel, Victor Hed, at the point. Mikkel Sorgachev at the point. I can keep going, honestly, if you want me to. But they have so much talent up front and on their back end,

they will make the Penguins pay if needed. that's going to be big for this one as well. And again, I also want to see the depth continue to be east a bit better. I want to see Lars Eller continue to play well. Once we get to Who to Watch where I have a couple depth players who I'm looking for in this one. I want to see the second line, build off what they did against Nashville. If any Malkin got back on the score sheet, if they can get a big game from Riley Smith, that would be massive as well because he's been a bit quiet as a way to you.

That's also what I'm looking forward to when it comes to this game. And then, of course, Tristan Jari, I want to see him. continue this consistency that we've seen for him from his last few starts. Yeah, we'll get more into who we're going to keep an eye on tonight in this game. But the biggest thing I want to point out, you talked about the goaltending. I want to take a step back on that to kind of bring this full circle on what kind of team Tampa Bay is. You look at Jonas Johansson's top line numbers.

We're not even going into the analytics. He started 18 games. And in those 18 games, he gave up 61. goals. But when you go back to the top line stats and you look at how Tampa Bay is doing as a team, their goal differential is a minus one. Despite getting this bad of goal tending, they right now have, let's see, they have Nikita Kutrov with 37 points, Braden point with 30, Brandon Hagle with 23, Stamcoast with 23, headman with 23, and Surgachev with 15. So, So if there is one thing this Tampa Bay team can do, it is score.

So for the Penguins tonight, they are going to have to play almost to perfection, the system they played against Colorado and that they have played for the last couple of weeks. They have to be extremely disciplined. They have to be extremely responsible in their defensive zone. And they cannot, like you said, give up high danger chances. because if they do against a Tampa Bay team this good, they are not going to miss. So tonight is going to be a big test for this Penguins team

because the way I look at it is when you go on this little mini southern road trip that they go on a couple of times a year where they swing through Nashville, they swing through sometimes. I know this isn't really southern, but Nashville, Chicago, Tampa Bay, Florida, Carolina. They do that little trip, you know, where they're gone for two, three days. I do kind of look at it as the, a little bit like the West Coast swing where you're going to either a couple of different time zones or you're going to face extremely good opponents. So they've done the first half of this where they snatched a point out of Nashville.

but it would have been more ideal had they gotten two points last or Tuesday night against Nashville. Now they have to set themselves up to get two points tonight. And because it's an Atlantic division opponent, not a metro opponent, not a big deal if this goes to overtime. But if I'm looking at this game tonight in importance, I think they have to clean two points out of tonight's game. You got to have that same blueprint out there. that beat Colorado and Vegas. And I know both those games aren't home,

but now you've got to take that on the road. Simplify your game. You don't want to get into a track meet with the Tampa Bay Frickin Lightning. They have a ton of high-end talent. You've seen that on display this year. You've seen that on display going back the last several years. They can go at you in numerous ways if you want to turn this into a track meet. The Penguins cannot do that if they want to win this game.

They've had success against Vasilevsky. He's still coming back from his injuries. only played two games so far. Yeah, his same percentage is a bit low, but honestly, Pat, do you expect that to remain the case for the rest of the season? No, he's one of the three best goaltenders on the planet. He's an absolute workhorse. And the lightning, they're going to continue to figure this out. Yeah, maybe it's been a little bit of a slow start, but that was expected because Vasilevsky was out. Now that he's back, Penguins are going to have to be prepared for someone who, again, he can make all the saves. He's very lengthy. He can do anything in the net.

and that means you've got to get bodies in front of them, toward the side of them. You've got to make his life a living hell in this game. That's one of the biggest keys again. And then defensively, just use that same blueprint. Keep the chances to the outside. And when you want to counterattack, make sure you're putting the puck past Vasilevsky or else again,

it could be a long night. You don't want to have this be a vintage Vasilevsky game. That's for sure. We've seen him do that numerous times. But, you know, the Penguins, they've had success against us. the lightning over the past couple of years. They've four and two overall in their last six games.

They've also beat the lightning four times in a row heading into this game. They swept the season series last year. The last game, I believe, was when Tampa Bay. That was the overtime Jason Zucker winner, which was one heck of a game last year. We'll probably dive into that a little bit more in the second segment, excuse me. But these games are always fun. Two highly skilled teams, excuse me, going at it. I'm super excited for it.

And to, again, build off the goaltending point. Yeah, Andre Vazolevsky is not going to remain at this level for the rest of the season. He's just too good of a goaltender. He's eventually going to find his groove and get back to being one of maybe the top three goalies in the National Hockey League, if not the world. Here's the thing, though. You can make it so tonight is not that night. He's coming back from back surgery. He's not the youngest goalie in the world anymore.

And no matter what position you play, but especially if you play, leg goalie coming back from back surgery really tough to come back from so if you're the penguins tonight again and you can call me simple damp or whatever you want to call me again this is another night to simplify anybody who has the puck on their stick tonight for the penguins as soon as you cross into the offensive zone it it needs to be a shoot first mentality you need to make this guy work. You need to make this guy uncomfortable and not let him get into a groove whatsoever tonight because again, back surgery. And Andre Vazolevsky is not a spring chicken anymore. This isn't the 2016 playoffs where he's coming in for Ben Bishop and we're all going.

Who's this guy? We don't know this guy. This series is over. We know who he is now, but we've known for quite a few years. And he has played a lot of hockey since then. So if you You're the Penguins. Every chance you get, every opportunity you have, put the puck on net, make Vasilevsky make a save, and really put him under duress from the time the game starts until it ends. I agree. And just to go in a different direction before we had to break here, this is going to be also a big test for the Penguins penalty kill. The Penguins right now on the penalty kill, they rank six in the league. They're going up against a Tampa Bay Lightning Power Play.

they're at 32% this season. That is second in the league, only behind the New Jersey Devils. And everyone knows the talent that the lighting can put out there on the PowerPlay. I've already said the big name players. Those are the players who won the first unit. This is a massive test for the Penguins P-K. You've got to bring the success that you've had in all your other games into this one. Don't be too aggressive, but be aggressive enough where you're disrupting them,

limiting the chances, especially to the outside. and it's making sure that, especially their big guns, are not beating you. This is not a game where you want to take a lot of penalties, you know, like they did in Nashville. The Lightning's power play is, once again, very, and I mean very good. They just have to do what they've been doing for the past month or so on the penalty kill. And the biggest thing I've noticed on the penalty kill is they do one of two things really well. One, they either do not let the opposing power play get set up. They meet them at the point of attack, disrupt their entrances, disrupt their entrances,

disrupt their setup and just clear the puck down the ice. Or if they do let the opposing power play get set up, they are very positionally sound and do not take too many risks, which keeps these power plays to the outside, does not let them get good looks, and almost makes the opposing power play look like the penguin's power play. So that is going to do it for this segment. When we come back, Hunter and I are going to talk about a couple of players

on both teams that we're going to have our eyes on tonight in this Penguins and Lightning matchup. But before we do, we have to tell you about Game Time. This episode is brought to you by GameTime and listen. We have all had frustrating moments trying to get tickets to games. Whether it's going on the secondary market, whether it's any other ticketing app, you know. If you guys have listened to an episode that I have hosted,

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We're back here on another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Patrick Damp, joined as always by the one and only, the illustrious Hunter Hodes. And as we said in the first segment, big one tonight, it is a matchup of a team. It's a matchup of two teams who, when you go up and down these rosters, it's just, it's an embarrassment of riches. It's just Hall of Fame or Hall of Fame or Hall of Fame or Hall of Fame or, Hall of Fame,

famer. Stanley Cup champion, Stanley Cup champion, Stanley Cup champion. So huge one tonight, hockey fans, even if you're not a Penguins or Bolts fan, got a feeling this is going to be one of those games that you do not want to miss. And I'm going to start us off here with players to watch, and it's a very obvious one for me. Should he be named the starter tonight? Because full transparency here, we are recording this on Wednesday night. So if there are any changes, bear with us. We wanted to make sure we got a preview out for you guys this morning rather than after you already know everything. So if he is the starter tonight, all eyes are on Tristan Jari. He has been really good as Blake. I gave him the warrior helmet in our last episode because I think he's

had a great week. I think he has really rebounded from a pretty tough start. And all things considered. This is a great test for him. He was great against Toronto. He was great against the Rangers. And despite a couple of hiccups against Nashville, he was pretty solid there as well. So tonight is maybe his biggest test so far, because as I said in the first segment, this is a team with a ton of firepower. And in no world, like I've said all the time, I'm not expecting him to come in and pitch a 45 save shutout, though I wouldn't complain, because this is a team. with so much firepower and so much offensive talent that they are going to get theirs. They are going to get their cookies.

They're going to score. And for Tristan Jari tonight, if he can do what he has done for the last week and average just one or two goals against, keep this team in a position to win, that's all we're going to need from them. Again, you just need that consistency from someone who's making $5 million. And, you know, we've talked about that a lot on the show this year. That's been the biggest thing that we've harved on him for is just, you know, he has a couple starts in a road that are really good.

And then he has one bad start. Then he's had a few really good starts more. Then he has a bad start. You want to have a bad start maybe, I don't know, eight, nine, ten games. And all the other ones are very good. Obviously, you want to limit the bad start. Everybody's going to have a stinker. Everybody's going to have a stinker.

Gino said it in his interview with Rossi, where he was like, even Connor McDavid has a couple bad games. Right, yeah, of course. I mean, McDavid was struggling during the season. And now, look, Pat, he has 12 points in his last three games. So, I mean. Oh, no big deal. Yeah, no big deal.

Just the best player in the world lighting it up again after our coaching change was made with Jay Woodcroft on. But, you know, that's just, that's what happens with some of the best players. And I know, Tristan Jari is, you know, not one of the best goaltenders in the league. But he's still, I think, in the average to above average range where he can have, obviously, a lot more good starts compared to bad starts. And I want to see that continue in this one. I also have my eyes on Jake Ensel.

He has 18 points in his last 16 games. He's been starting to really, I think, cook a little bit more as of late. I want to see him have a big game in this one. And this is just a depth player that I'll put in here as well. I have my eye on Drew O'Connor as well. He had one of the goals of the year for the Penguins last year in that game down in Tampa Bay, the one where Jason Zucker won it in overtime. It was honestly shades of the Jordan Stahl goal in the 2009 Stanley Cup final against the Detroit Red Wings

when he came in short-handed and beat Chris Osgood, except this time O'Connor went to the opposite side that solid. But it was still a beautiful backhand, forehand move. And I think O'Connor's highlight of his initial career so far. And he just played a really great game against the Lightning and that one. And with how he's played the last two games, he's getting the opportunity to play on that again, he Malkin's wing. I want to see him continue to build authors last year.

And maybe he's the one that provides a big spark for some more depth scoring for the Penguins. I've already been praising Lars Elmore, excuse me. He's really been great. But last month he's been scoring a bit more. But O'Connor, I want to see him really do some more as well. I have my eye on him for this one. I got to go with somebody who's playing on Tampa's top line for them as well. Brandon Hagel, man.

A lot of us really kind of laughed. at the contract that he got. I mean, I do. Like, I laughed at it with like an asterisk because I was like, yeah, guys, on the surface, this contract is not great. But it's also that Tampa voodoo wizardry where everybody who goes there turns into a star, apparently. If the penguins have Mark Donk and Buzz Flibit,

the Tampa Bay Lightning have whatever their version of it is because it seems like everybody that they signed to a big deal, everybody laughs. and goes, ha ha, that's never going to work. And what do you know it works? And with Hagle, 23 points and 23 games, and 10 of those are goals. So this guy is a balanced score, a good winger, and if you want to shut the Tampa Bay Lightning down, that's a guy you got to shut down. Because I said it already with the Jari thing.

You know your kujerovs, your points, and even your stamcoases. They're going to get theirs. it's just inevitable. They're that good. They've been that good forever. And they're going to score. It's just, it's what they do. It's those guys around them,

the Brandon Hagels, the Sergachev's, the Nick Pauls, Anthony Sorrelli's. Those are the guys that you truly need to keep from being a factor. So for the Penguins tonight, keeping Brandon Hagel off the score sheet and not being that effective, huge, huge,

must for them. I kind of already said this one, too. This is going to be a quick one, and then I got one more penguin for the Tampa Bay Lightning. It's Vasilevsky. I want to see is he bouncing back or is he still kind of getting himself together after an offseason surgery? And lastly, but not leastly, I got to go Brian Rust. I swear this guy loves playing the Tampa Bay Lightning. If you can think of a big goal in Brian Rust's career, it probably came against the Tampa Bay Lightning at some point. And think of darn tweet, everyone. Who the hell is Brian Rust back in 2016?

Just think of that tweet when you think about Ryan Rush and the Lightning. And I'm telling you, like, it seems like every single time he plays the Lightning, he plays a big game. So he's back and I'm expecting a big game out of him tonight. That would make sense to you. And just to go off what you said for the Lightning, I was actually going to have Stevens Danco's as one of mine. And it feels like he is also one of the age.

wonders in the NHL, one of the best goal scores of this generation. Nine goals, 23 points in 21 games this season. His 23 points are second on the team to Braden Point and Nikita Kutrov. Stamcoast just doesn't age at all. And he continues to be, ho-hum, still one of the best goals scores on the planet. You want to win this game, you got a shot him down. And then for Braden Point, he's one of the best centers in the league. I think he's also a great two-way center overall too.

I wanted to add another one to that. I think Anthony Sorrelli has also been pretty decent this year for the Lightning. He's started a little slow, I mean, nine points in 22 games, but his two-way work, especially in the defensive zone, is really, and I mean, really good. I'm curious to see who John Cooper puts him out there against when it comes to it. Is it the Crosby line? Is it the Malkin line? Is it one of the bottom six lines?

Just because he has a unique ability to really shut down some of the opposition's best, he's a very underrated center and I think he could have a big game in this one on both ends of the rank. Yeah, it's weird to say that is Braden point underrated even though I don't think he hits. He's just on a team with so many stars

that you kind of forget about him. So yeah, those are who those are the players we're watching for tonight. When we come back, have the Penguins made some power play changes? Not really, but We'll let you know what they did in practice the other day. So we'll get to that right after this.

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We're back for this final segment of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm Patrick Damp, joined, as always, by Hunter Hodes. And, yeah, the Penguins made some changes on the powerplay, but they're kind of at the margins. The intrepid, incredible Taylor Haas was at practice from D.K. Pittsburgh Sports. And the Penguins' top powerplay was Eric Carlson, Sidney Crosby, Jake Gensel, Evgeny Malkin and Brian Rust. Same unit. Second unit, Chris LaTang, Jansen Harkins, Jeff Carter, Riley Smith, and Lars Eller.

So, yeah, I'm going to let you cook because that's a face I haven't seen in a while. Why is Jansen Harkins on the second powerplay unit, Pat? Can you answer that question for me? What has he done in any game this season to warrant him going on the second unit? And I know second power pole unit, we really shouldn't be caring that much about it. But when your power play is over their last, what is it now, 20, 21, it might be 22 pretty soon. I understand you've got to try anything, but I feel like in this one, you probably shouldn't try that, considering Harkins hasn't done anything the season.

And I'll say ditto for Jeff Carter as well. I understand there are injuries for the Penguins, but he hasn't done anything at five-on-five or on the power play. I guess one can make an argument that you could park his butt in front of the net and maybe just have him deflect pucks in, but I also don't know how good he is at that at this stage in his career. But I don't know, man. This unit, it's still so freaking broken. I love how we continue to talk about the unit on our show.

And honestly, nothing changes. I really hope that it does change. And we have something more positive to talk about when it comes to the power play on our show. But right now, it's still not getting the job done. It was terrible in Nashville, terrible in Buffalo, terrible against the Maple Leafs. It's been terrible all year, and it needs to change overall. Here's the thing. One of the other things Taylor said is that Eller on the second unit is a change,

and he replaced Zahornah. Here's the thing I would say. I like Elr on there at least. He's been good for the last month, and he's been scoring at least a little bit. So if you want to put him on there, I'm totally okay with that. Just a couple of other players, I'm just like, really? I would definitely have Zahornah on there over Harkins.

At this point, I would like to see Dio, see on the top unit just to park them in front just to say sit there and get beat up sit there to flak puck sit there take away the goalie's eyes you're not there to shoot you're not there to pass you're not there to play make you are there to be a human shield because again what else has worked at this point like we have seen that this power play unit it seems to be allergic to the front of the net. And if you want to be a successful power play in the National Hockey League, you got to go to the front of the net. You have to go to those dirty areas. You have to be willing to take a goaltender's eyes away. And if you don't, you're going to end up with a power play

like they have right now. I'm guessing you would put DOC in over Ryan Rust on the top power play because I don't think they're going to take any of the other four players off. That's for sure. See, here's the thing, man. Like, at this point, take them, completely put these lines in a blender. Because one of my, one of my all-time favorite stories about Mike Sullivan

was when he first came in in 2015, there were reports that he had a meeting with Crosby, Malkin, and Latang. And he sat them down and said, tell me why the three of you should be on the same powerplay unit with the power play looking this poorly. and they said whatever they said, and he said, okay, you know what? You got five games to prove to me,

you belong on the same power play unit, or I'm splitting it up. And what did they do? They went out, and they didn't light the world on fire just yet. Because if you remember, the start of the Sullivan tenure wasn't great. Yeah, the power play was better. They started getting chances. They started scoring a couple of goals.

And I'm not saying Sullivan needs to play that card again, because you can only play the intimidation card so many times before you become Charlie Brown's teacher and the players just hear wamp, but you have to do something here. And you can kind of do the, you know, Herb Brooks and Miracle thing where, you know, they just scored 10 goals, Jim, it's everybody's net. You can look at them and go, you guys haven't scored in three weeks. So no, I'm putting the lines in a blender. Everybody's changing.

If you guys think you can do this, go do it, but you haven't done it for three weeks. So if this means you've got to put Eric Carlson, Sidney Crosby, and whomever else on the top unit and just replace them with Lars Ellard, Radim Zahorna, DOC, and just say, we're playing an aggressive four check on the powerplay. We're not playing a one-three-one or an umbrella and overload. All we're doing is just playing aggressive. And if you guys can prove to me, you can do that, maybe we'll go back and play an actual power play. And they kind of did at least split up Crosby and Malkin for a couple of games and they threw the combinations into a blender. But then once that didn't work, they just went back to the same thing, which, I mean, I guess I understand a little bit. I do think Crosby and Malkin are better together on the power play.

I've always thought that. But outside of that, you know, I mean, you have Gensel there. But I think they've used him wrong. He's not a net front guy totally. If you want to put him, you know, in the bumper spot, that's where I think he's. he can really use on the powerplay. But outside of that, I mean, you can maybe switch power play quarterbacks if you want. You can put Latang back there, see if you can work that magic.

Or remember before the season started, there was an interview with Greg Wicenski, ESPN, and he was talking to Mike Sullivan. He said, yeah, we're ready to unleash Eric Carlson and Chris Latang on the same powerplay. Why did you go away from that just because they struggled in the preseason? At least give that an option. you can have Letang in the Kessel's spot, Carlson up front. And then if you want Crosby, Malkin, if you want to put Gensel, whatever, Brian Rust. But that's also an option too.

And they just went away from it because it didn't work in the preseason. You didn't really give it a chance to work in the regular season. Yet you're giving the same four players, Crosby, Malkin, Gensel, and Carlson a whole lot of leeway when the power play isn't an 0.420, 0421 slump. That also just kind of is confusing to me. You can, and I know Latang hasn't played in that spot in a very long time. There's a learning curve to it. But I think at this point, I would rather see them do that.

They continue to trot out this same unit and continue to get the same exact results. We can talk about zone entries all we want. We can talk about that stupid drop pass all we want. We can talk about all the perimeter play all we want. But, you know, there also needs to be at least a little bit of change to some personnel as well. If they don't want to make a coaching change, and it doesn't look like they want to right now with Tar Weird and running the show,

on the PowerPlay at least, then you've got to continue to explore new ways for a different personnel to work. Because the personnel they got right now, at least the main four guys, they can switch out one guy if they want. It's not working, and it hasn't worked all season. Hear me out on this one.

Before we go, I got a quick idea. What if instead of going disciplinary and punitive in saying, this up. I'm going to, you guys are stinking. I'm going to, what if you do this? What if you take rust off that first unit and replace them with Latang? And then you look at these guys and go, you know what? This is the last chance saloon for you. And here's what we're going to do. I'm going to let you guys go all gas, no breaks. Just go out there and do whatever you want. If you guys want to go out there and run a power play, you guys want to run out there and

just go be a five-man unit that tries to score, go do it. You got two, three games. Because here's the thing. I don't think there's ever been a history of skilled players in the NHL when you tell them, go out and do your thing, that they've gone, oh, no, coach, I could never do that. I bet if you gave them a chance to just, you know what, go do your thing. Go do it. Show me what you got.

And if it works, we'll figure something out. If not, I'm taking over. The old Denzel Washington, and remember the Titans, they score one more time. I'm taking over. So you know what? At this point, pull Rust off, put Latang on, go Carlson, Latang, Crosby, Gensel, Malkin, and just let them cook and see what happens. Why not?

Can't get much worse, right? And if that doesn't work, I mean, we already know how bad the power play is, but it'll have even worse problems if that doesn't work. I feel like at this way, and I feel like it's funny me saying that because it's hard to have worse problems when the power play is as bad as it is right now. But I feel like it may get even more. worse if this doesn't work with Let's hang. And maybe it's, I don't think, I shouldn't say it's really hitting him that hard that he's not on the top power play unit just because he's been

great on the PK. He's been great at five on five this year. But if you give him another shot to be on that top powerful, I'm at least a little hopeful that it'll get a bit better. But I promise fans, I hope and pray that this gets better. So you don't have to listen to Pat and I just absolutely crap on this unit almost every single show. We're at our wits end with this power. Our play, we're at our wits end. And we're also at the end of this episode. Thank you guys so much for tuning in and listening to us, wax poetic about everything that we wax poetic about.

We will be back on Friday to recap this game as well as get you ready for the Commonwealth Cold War with a back-to-back coming against the Philadelphia Flyers. So for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. This has been the Locked-on Penguins podcast, and we will talk to you on Friday. Thank you.