Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Can the Penguins young prospects make their marks out west?

Episode Date: October 14, 2025

The Penguins begin their California swing tonight in Anaheim, and it’s the start of a big test for two of their young prospects. Patrick and Hunter begin the show by discussing a young, exciting Anaheim team that comes into the season with some expectations (2:00). Who do you have to keep an eye on tonight, and who are the Penguin-killers in the lineup? (4:35) Then, it’s time to take a look at the Penguins' lineup after Monday’s practice (11:23). Could this be a big night for Harrison Brunicke, or was it just some practice fun? They also give their keys to the Penguins' victory. (Timestamp) Finally, a west coast swing could be a chance for Benjamin Kindel and Harrison Brunicke to solidify their spot in the NHL this season (27:15). Here’s what they have to do against three very different opponents.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHLfor $20 off your first purchase. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelDownload the FanDuel app now by visiting FanDuel.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Quack, quack, quack, Mr. Ducksworth, the Pittsburgh Penguins are out west and they begin their California road trip against the young and exciting Anaheim ducks. We'll get you ready for 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 in to the Tuesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4Wet. Joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

You can give our show's Twitter account a follow at L-O-U-U-Square-Penguins. And you can also find us on Instagram at Locked-on underscore Penguins. Of course, as always, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcast as well as YouTube. And if you're following us on YouTube, be sure to hit the notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. Before we get started, today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. Download the Fandul app now by heading to Fandul.com.

and if your first $5 bet wins, you can win $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. More on them later. Hunter, it's your favorite time of the year when the Pittsburgh Penguins head out to California and you get a little bit of that Penguins after dark action going. And it all begins very late tonight when the Penguins take on the Anaheim Ducks. face off is set for 1044 because it is the Anaheim Ducks home opener. So it's going to be a little bit later than normal. But this is going to be a bit of a challenge for the Penguins tonight because you don't often think of the ducks lately as one of the better teams in the NHL. And while they are still on their way to becoming a good team, there is a lot of young talent on the Anaheim duck.

you look at their lineup and you see some names like Leo Carlson, Cutter Godier, Mason McTavish, Bennett Seneca, and then on defense, Jackson Lacombe. And it is just a pretty good team that is on their, or a good young team, I should say, and on their way up. And obviously the goaltender who made me look very, very stupid in Lucas Dostall. But for the Penguins tonight, one of the things that will start, with the ducks and then we'll move on to what the penguins have to do. But that's kind of going to be one in the same either way.

With the ducks, they are averaging about 30 shots a game. And I know that it's early, but this is a team that shoots from everywhere, plays fast and has a lot of young talent. So the penguins, we're going to need to see a lot more of the defensive effort we saw in the first two games than we saw against the Rangers in the third game. Right. And I just want to see how they defend against the duck speed in this game. The ducks, as you mentioned, they have a lot of young players. You didn't even mention players like, you know, Zellweger, Mentecov.

Again, they have young players up and down the slide. I don't really want to call Troy Terry that much of a young player anymore. He's still very good. He's not as young as he used to be, but he's still really good. You know, Mason McTavish, he's still young. He just signed a big contract extension after being, you know, one of the last standing RFAs. There was rumors that a team or two was looking to offer sheet him,

but the ducks and him were finally able to come to a deal. You know, considering that the penguins are still one of the slower teams in the league, how are they able to match up against the speed of a lot of these ducks younger players? That's going to be something that you should really watch for tonight. And the ducks, they're one in one on the year. They lost three to one to the Seattle Cracking. Then Pat, they played that crazy seven to six game against the San Jose Sharks. which ended in overtime.

And you look at some of their players starts to the year. McTavish, four assists, four points in two games. Leo Carlson's overall point per game. Seneca has three points. Two of those are goals in the two games. Penguins killer Chris Kreider is still in the lineup. There's also a good amount of veterans in this lineup. So you have the young talent,

but you have a veteran player like Alex Korn on the top line. You have a veteran like Chris Kreider, who was traded during the offseason. He loves killing the penguins. Also, speaking of the young, that Frank Vatrono is still on this team. Another Penguins killer. So if you are a betting person, maybe you should put down an anytime goal score for

Frank Matrono or Chris Kreider because they always seem to score against the penguins. You have Mikhail Granlin. He is a veteran. He signed a deal there. Ryan Payling. So I actually like this Ducks team more this year and compared to recent years where there's a good amount of young talent that the penguins will have to be on high alert for. But there's also some veterans who can make them pay that are still pretty quick,

especially Kreider. He's still a really good skater despite being a bit up there and age. So there's a lot of players here that the penguins are going to have to be careful here. And then also Lucas Dostol, I mean, they moved on from John Gibson for a reason. Dostall was ready to be the starter. And, you know, he's going to, I think, be the starter for the long term. He's really, really good. And I know I joke about I did the whole thing last year. Maybe it was two years ago.

I'm losing track of time these days. but where I was like, who is this guy? You can't just let this no name young goalie come in and stop everything. Well, it turns out that's just what he does. But to your point about the Ducks, you look at this team and they are doing a good job of supplanting their young talent with proven veterans who, while those proven veterans may not be stars, Chris Kreider, very, very good player has been for quite a while. Same thing with Alex Coulorne.

Not a superstar, but has that winning pedigree. He's been on some very good teams, been very productive with them. And as much as it may not have worked out with the penguins, a guy like Mikhail Granlin has always been, for the most part, a productive depth piece. You look at their defense, Radco Gudis, Jacob Truba, two guys that everybody's got opinions on. but with the way the NHL is trending now, they are going to show those guys that, especially some of these young defensemen like Zellweger,

like Lecombe, like Mintakov, that you have to play with a certain kind of edge in today's NHL. They aren't doing the thing that teams like the Buffalo Sabres did or before Edmonton got all their crap together where they just put a mishmash of young potential superstars together. and say, go figure it out. It's all on your shoulders. They've brought in some good veteran talent to supplant these potential young stars.

And obviously, it's still very early. We have to keep putting that caveat in because you don't want to make too much out of two to three games. But you look at how much better this Ducks team can be this year. They could make a little noise in the Western Conference. I do think they're going to be more in the race this year. They do have Quinville as the coach now, brand new coaching staff in place. I just think it's still a year early for them to make a true push for the playoffs.

I think the Western Conference, it's a lot deeper than the East. And when I look at the West teams that made it last year, I'm like, okay, who are you subbing out? I subbed out the Blues because I think the Utah Mammoth are closer to make the playoffs of the Ducks. But the Ducks are getting closer. Like, if they can take another step this year, that is a win, in my opinion. It might not be a win for Ducks fans, but I think it's a win for me.

And you potentially make the playoffs next year. okay, that's what I'm thinking of, at least right now. But they could also blow all this away, but does you make the playoffs this year? Again, I don't see it. I think it's a year early, but that's just my opinion. It's only been a couple of games for them. I understand very small sample. They do have the second best power play in the league right now, Pat, at 40%.

They are clicking pretty nicely right now. Penguins P.K. coming off a really struggle fest against the Rangers on Saturday. That's going to be something to watch in this one. I want to see if the penalty kill can bounce back. Also for the penguins, there could be a couple potential lineup changes in this one. You saw Harrison Brunick skating with Chris Latang at practice on Monday. Damienes did say that Latang being on the left side was just a one-time practicing.

So maybe Pat, you see Latang on the right, Brunick on the left. I would be down for it even though he'd be playing on his offside. I think through three games, the players that Latang has played with have not played very well next time, especially Ryan Shea. So if you want to try Bruning next to him on his offside, that's fine. And then on the bottom pair, you saw Matt Dumba come in with Ryan Shay. She was moved down. So it looks like Caleb Jones might be coming out of the lineup, which makes sense. And then Fordwise, you saw Hollander and Achari rotating on the fourth line. One of those two could be coming out. Obviously, if I had to pick one, it would be Achari. I don't think you should be taking

Philip Hollander out of the lineup, considering how he has played since coming in. But that's what we might be looking at right now in terms of a lineup change or two for this one. And that's a good place to leave our opening segment because we do have quite a bit to get to from Penguins practice. But again, Penguins Ducks tonight, NHL after dark, true sicko hours for our boy Hunter. He gets to stay up late. I'll get to watch this tomorrow morning with a cup of coffee before I go to work. But that'll do it for this opening segment. When we come back, we will talk about the notes from practice, as well as some keys to victory for the penguins. So stick with us.

We'll get into that right after this. Before we do that, though, we've got to tell you about today's first sponsor, and that is Fandul. The NFL season is in full swing, and Fandul has an offer you don't want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. That's right, pick a bet, put down five bucks. and if it hits, you'll unlock $300 to use across the app. Fandul makes watching football even more exciting when you've got a little something riding on the action.

Whether you're a casual fan or you love diving into the stats, Fandual makes game day so much better. So what are you waiting for? Visit fandul.com to download the Fandul app today and get started. Back here on the Tuesday edition of Locked on Penguins, I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes and a lot of good tidbits coming out of Penguins practice the other day. They are not having a morning skate today Tuesday before the game.

So we won't get much out of that. So we got to dive into practice. And let's start with the defense, which you got a little bit into in the first segment, Hunter. The Carlson pairing, rightfully so, untouched. Witherspoon through three games has actually been a nice little surprise working alongside Eric Carlson. It's actually seemed to be the right thing for Eric Carlson. He's a very responsible defenseman.

He's giving Carlson that room to operate. And what do you know? Carlson through most of the first three games has not looked like the Eric Carlson. We have seen the past couple of years. So that's a positive development. We talked about the Latang Brunich thing. I'm skeptical on that. I think even with Mews saying it,

I don't think Brunich is quite ready to do that just yet, maybe sometime in the future, but right now I don't think you need to put them there. I see your point, but also Latang and Shea have not worked out to start the season. Caleb Jones, it looks like, is coming out of the lineup. You don't really have too much of another choice if you're putting Shea with Dumba on the third pairing.

I don't need to see Jones with Letang. I saw that a lot during training camp and even during the preseason. I was just like, no thanks. Because you got to get Lettang's partner right. Like I want him to have another really strong season after how poor he was last season. I want him to really bounce back and have a good year. I just don't think you're going to get that while putting Shea or Jones with him. So if you want to at least try it with Brunick, I'd be down.

I think Brunette continues to get better in each game he's played. He plays in, excuse me, first game, first period. He definitely had the yips, was very nervous, settled in the last two periods, came together for an average performance. Next couple of games, obviously he gets the goal. Third game against Rangers, I think he was still good, probably one of the better players that was on the ice. But still, if you want to reward him for these last two games,

you can put him on the second pair with Letang, even though it would be on his offside, at least see how it goes. I would want to check out the numbers. Obviously, you know, use my eye test to see how it's going. And if you want to make an in-game adjustment, you can do that. You know, we've seen Demews already do that times, you know, when Billy Coyvenin was up on top line. It wasn't working.

He moved him down to be with Ben Kendall before they sent him down to Wilkesbury. And it looked like they had a little bit something there with Kendall before they sent him down. So I wouldn't mind if you at least started him up with Letang. and then if it doesn't work, okay, you can make some adjustments. You're not touching the Weatherstone. Carlson pairing, Weather spoon has been really good, a nice, steady presence for Carlson up there. But again, if we do get that third pairing of Shea and Dunba and Jones comes out,

and you kind of don't have a choice because you want to see as much as you can out of Brunich before you have to make a decision whether he stays up past the nine game trial or he goes back to junior. So honestly, I would not be mad in the slightest if they get. him those minutes. I think, especially if you're taking Jones out, you really don't have a choice because Shea has not been good on the second pair. I don't know if you were a member of high school debate club or not Hunter, but that was very good. And I think you've swayed me. I will, though I will say this, it's something that Dan Mews, if he wants to try it, has to keep an extremely close eye on it. Because don't get me wrong. I'm with you. I want to see a

Latang bounced back after last year. It was about as disastrous of a season as we've ever seen from Chris Latang. But we know who Chris Latang is. His legacy is extremely cemented. He could have another bad year and I don't think anybody's going to suddenly think, oh, actually, Chris LaTang was bad. But at the same time, I don't want to see Brunich's development harmed by being put in essentially what is a 1B pairing role because, yes, Carlson is the penguin's top defenseman.

You can argue with a wall about that. It's just how it works right now. But that second pairing with Chris LaTang, that's your one B pairing. You're going to eat up a lot of really tough minutes. I'm very heartened by what I've seen from Brunich early on. And I think the kid is an NHL defenseman at this point. But I do think you have to protect him a little bit. You don't want to throw him directly to the wolves yet. You want him to continue to build that confidence. You want him to continue to build that, that ability to play at this level and ramp him up. And if in game four, you're basically making him your third or fourth defenseman, it could be a problem. Now, the kid has continued to impress. He's continued to exceed all expectations.

So to put a bow on that for what I'm saying is, if you're musing, you're going to do this. keep an eye on it. If it's working, keep going with it. And maybe not at the first sign of trouble, you pull the rip cord, but you don't want it to continue to descend and hurt the way Brunich is developing. So I'm fine. Now after hearing what you said, I'm fine with seeing it. But I don't want them to hold on to it for too long because the future is very bright for

Harrison Brunich. I don't want that to get damaged. Meanwhile, at forward, not a ton of changes. Here's what I want to focus on for the forwards hunter. I hinted at this on our Monday episode. The fourth line of Hollander, Lazot, Achari, even though it's kind of in a blender a tad bit, whether it's between Novak and Hollander,

I do tend to like the Lazot Achari pairing. Now, everybody who's typing out their, comments right now. Just give me a minute. I think that if the penguins would have kept the effort together that they had in the first 25 minutes of the Rangers game through the whole game, the fourth line I thought was doing really well. They were forechecking well. They drew a couple of penalties. They were possessing the puck. If the penguins put together a 60 minute effort tonight against the ducks, I want to see what that line in that specific pairing of players can do, because it seemed like they had something going there.

This is the thing about the fourth line. So Josh Gats off tweeted this out, great play-by-play announcer in Sportsnet, Pittsburgh. You know, Connor Dewart, Blake Lazotte, Hollander slash Achari. If it's between Hollander and Achari, I would rather they play Hollander because he has been the better player to start the year. He's been generating scoring chances. Obviously, Pat, he had the primary assessment Harrison Brunex's first goal, had eyes in the back of his head for that feed. and he's been good on a shift-by-shift basis. I understand the need to have a chari on the team right now.

I think people that are looking for him to get traded right away, you're probably not going to get your wish. It's probably going to be a lot later in the season. That's just how these things work unless a team comes calling in the first couple weeks of the season saying, hey, we need some help it forward. What do you say about this? But again, I think it's going to happen a lot later in the year. I would rather have Hollander,

and they're not just because he is younger, but because he is more of a threat offensively. I'll say the same thing about Connor Dewar. I think Dewar on that line is probably their best four-checker. I don't want them taking him out of the lineup for that. And he's also, like Achari, he is physical along the boards, but he also brings that forechecking ability that I don't think Achari brings at this point.

So if it were up to me, I would actually scratch Achari tonight and run a fourth line of Dewar with Lazot in Hollander. Lazot has also been fairly good for these first three games, by the way. He's also been foreshacking really nicely. His skating's been pretty good. I wouldn't take him out of the lineup. But I would still have Dewar in there and Hollander.

It also looks like, Pat, that we might be getting Philip Thomasino back in the lineup. He was scanning on a line with Ben Kindle and Tommy Novak on that third line on Monday during practice. And this will be another big opportunity for Thomasino. He's been scratched a little bit. Can he get back to being a bit more consistent? and be a mainstay in this lineup. That's something that I'm going to be looking for tonight, especially against the Ducks.

I actually thought on opening night, he was totally fine against the Rangers. He had a couple of really nice scoring chances, including one from about 10 feet out. Now, I want to see him get back to doing that, but also finishing these changes, just because he's been inconsistent at times as a penguin. So that's something that I'm also going to be looking forward to.

And we talked about Atari. We don't think he needs to play all these games. You can scratch him for, you know, two, three games in a row. If the coach wants to put him back in, okay, sure. But in terms of tonight, especially just for this game, I would take him out because I haven't seen a lot from him to start the season. That I would agree with. I do think he would be better suited to play later this week against the Kings because that's not the fastest team in the league. And you probably could use his size a little bit better against the Kings than say a speedy town.

talented ducks team. But at the same time, I don't think he has been the liability to start the season that people have expected. Has he been good? He's been so-so. But at this point in his career with what they want to do with him ultimately, which you imagine is trade him closer to the deadline. All you can ask out of him is you don't have to be the most productive bottom six player. Just do not be an anchor. And so far, I would say that's been the way it's gone. So a couple quick keys for the game for the penguins tonight I want to jump into. First and foremost, we imagine it's probably going to be Jari in net. The penguins are going to have to play well defensively,

not just because of Tristan Jari being in net, but because as I said at the top of the show, this is an Anaheim team that shoots from everywhere. And we pretty much know at this point, every start for Jari, there's one, if not two, probably should have had that goals against. So you've got to be prepared to insulate him from a team that shoots from everywhere. And then the other thing that I think is a big key to victory for the penguins tonight,

Lucas Dostall is going to be in the net. It's their home opener. You got to get in his kitchen and you got to take a page out of, I can't believe I'm saying this, the Anaheim Ducks book and shoot the puck from everywhere. they did not do that against the Rangers. They only got 19 shots against the best goalie on Earth. And even when you're playing not the best goalie on earth, 19 shots in an NHL game,

it's not going to cut it. Pat's going to be one of those shoot it people from Section 214 tonight from his couch. That's what we're getting at here on the Locked on Penguins podcast for Tuesday. But no. And also in all seriousness, excuse me, I agree with both of your points.

I'll also add. And I mentioned this a little bit earlier. Special teams are once, again a key for me. The Penguins got absolutely blitzed for both the power play and the penalty kill in the last game against the Rangers. Both have to be so much better in this game against the Ducks. I thought both were really good in the first two games. Not so good in the third game. I got to see a bounce back from that tonight. And just their play in their own end. You know, you saw the blueprint opening night against the Rangers where they were especially flat with

the Penguins, Foreshank, was doing a great job disrupting them. The Islander game, especially in the third period, they were doing that again. Not as a very. much in the first few periods. So they got back to doing it a lot more in the third period. And then in the Rangers game, it looked like they were completely out of sync in those last 40-ish minutes where they couldn't get anything in the offensive zone. They were overpassing, not making good plays in their own zone.

So I think just really getting back to basics is one of my biggest keys tonight, really. Just getting back to basics, getting the special teams right. And if it is Jari, I want to see him. carry over that momentum from the third period against the Islanders into this game. I'll say it again on the show, Pat, and I know you'll disagree. The three goals that he allowed, I thought they were savable, but he did step up when it was needed in the third period, made a lot of big saves down the stretch.

Okay, carry that over into this game against the Ducks if you are the starter. Archer Sheelovs was not very good against the Rangers. So, you know, like it or not, people, this is an opportunity for Jari to be like, hey, I can also start taking away some starts from a goalie who had a better camp than me. So he's going to very much look at this as a major opportunity if he is named the starter tonight. So those are a few of my keys. And also, this is very obvious, but I got to say it. Got to see a lot more from Crosby and Malkin tonight.

I know Malkin has been sensational to start the year. So is Crosby. But they were not good against the Rangers to say the least. I got to see it from the top lines tonight. For sure. Big test against a very talented Anaheim Ducks team tonight. Again, 1044 puck drop. So grab your energy drinks, grab your coffees, because it's going to be a late one. But that is going to do it for our second segment. When we come back, we're going to talk a little bit more about the young guys and what we need to see from them as well as the rest of the team on this West Coast swing. we will do that when we get back right after this. But we got to tell you about today's second sponsor before we do that,

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pretty sunshine and rainbows for players like Benjamin Kindle and Harrison Brunick through three games. They have exceeded pretty much all expectations any of us had, especially Ben Kindle. You and I on this show basically said like, hey, listen, he's a talented kid. He's better than a lot of people thought, but he's going back to junior.

He's not going to make it out of camp. And he said, oh yeah, I'm not making out of camp. I'm actually making the opening night roster. And oh, yeah, I'm not only making the roster. I'm going to be put in some pretty prominent positions. And I'm going to score a goal for good measure. So.

And I'm going to make it really hard for the coaching staff and the management staff to send me back, even though it's only been three games. So Pat, we may really look like dummies, especially if he stays beyond the nine game trial. And I want to highlight this because they both were, they both talked to Josh, Oh, he, our good pal at the athletic earlier this week about their experiences so far in the NHL. And I know it's a cliche.

I know it gets overused by a lot of people when it comes to sports analysis, especially when it comes to young guys. But these guys are pretty mature for being 18 and 19 years old. This from Kindle really stood out to me. The nine game thing, it's so far in the future that I don't even think about it. Ben, it's six games away. That's not that far in the future. future, but he continued, I think it only hurts if you think about it. So I try not to.

My philosophy on this, it's like I was saying during rookie camp, same thing. I'm just living one day at a time. Each day, he has gotten better. I think that's pretty safe to say. But this is going to be to me his first big challenge because you're not just going up to New York City from Pittsburgh, which not that long of a flight, not that long of a bus ride, something that even the youngest of pros can make it work because it's a day trip. You're not throwing everything out of flux. And now you're on the West Coast. You are on Pacific time.

You are going to play against three teams who have some good young talent, a legitimate, maybe not contender, but close to contender in LA. this is going to really test how ready Ben Kindle and Harrison Brunek are for long time NHL action. Right. And I'm excited to see how Kindle stacks up against some of these young players, especially on the Ducks. I'm really stoked for that. You're going to get him still being the third line center tonight. Again, centering Tommy Novak and it looks like Philip Tomasino, which I've wanted to see more of. Like Novak and Tomasino together had some good underlying numbers in Nashville.

I want to see more of that. And I'm excited to see that Kindle can be that third. line center. I loved his release on that first goal, beating Igor Shusirk, and the fact that he was able to do it from that far out against the best goaltender on the planet, that says something to me, man. Like, that was absolutely unbelievable. And I just want to keep seeing him build. That's the biggest thing. The first game, he never looked out of place. He was fantastic against the Rangers. He carried that forward in that game against the Islanders where he had a crazy, no look pass for a good one time chance the player, I believe it was Justin Brzo.

He kind of just fanned on it. That's okay. Home, whatever, but it was still a great chance. He then gets his first goal in his third game. Tonight, I just want to keep seeing everything to come together, getting those goal scoring opportunities, you know, getting those really good playmaking opportunities in the offensive zone, showing off that hockey IQ, showing off that skating. Again, I'm just super stoked to see what he can do, not just in this game, not just on this

road trip, but for these next six games, because I feel like they are going to play him for all these nine games before coming to a consensus about what to do for his long-term development, whether sending him back to the Calgary Hitman or keeping him up for the full 82 game season. You're going up against the Ducks team that also Pat can be physical. Howell Ben Kindle adjust to that if some players decide to, you know, be physical with him tonight. It's not even just some of these young players, for example, you know, Alex Coulorne, he can be a bit physical. Chris Crider can be a bit physical on the back end, especially of Radco Gudis and Jacob Trububup hat. They love to lay the boom. So not only is this a fast

ducks team, this is a physical duck's team. This is probably the most physical team the Penguins will have faced so far. I know they've only played two teams in three games, but those teams are not exactly super physical anymore. The Islanders don't have a lot of those guys anymore. The Rangers, you know, they traded Jacob Truba, they traded Crider. I know they have Matt Rempe, but I don't really think he's that good anyway. But outside of that, there's not a lot of physicality in that lineup. The Ducks, there's a good bit of physicality there. So I'm also curious to see how he adjust to that for this game tonight, too.

But I'm excited for him. I want to see how he does. Same goes for Harrison Brunich. He's played three really strong games. Two, I should say strong games, one average game. If he's on the second pairing, how does he adjust to playing, you know, 19 plus minutes in this game? It's probably going to be 20 plus. minutes, honestly. How does he adjust to that at the initial level when you see all this really

good young talent coming at you? So it's a really big opportunity and a really good test for these two guys. And for Brunich, I'll say this, even putting aside what pairing he gets put on, this trip is going to be a big test for him because you've got two teams in Anaheim and San Jose who have a lot of young, fast talent that are going to forecheck and cause a problem in transition. with the way they play, how does he adapt to that? How does he play against that? Because as fast as the islanders may have played, I still would not categorize them as a fast team.

No. The Rangers, definitely not a fast team, but a talented-ish team. These two teams in Anaheim and San Jose have a lot of speed. Can he keep these talented forwards to the outside? And then with both Anaheim and L.A., there is a physicality element there. They are going to bring a heavy forecheck.

And that means he is going to take a bit of a punishing. He's going to take some hits in the corners. They're going to put the puck deep and he is probably going to get hit. Can he make the first move? Can he make the first pass? Those are going to be big, big tests for him as a young defenseman in the NHL. How he reacts to that, I think tells us quite a bit about where he is. as a defenseman.

Though I do believe he's got the better out of the two chance to stay here for the full season. He can really solidify that on this West Coast swing. I don't 100% agree with you. Kindle, I'm still very much on the fence about. Not really sure which way this is going to go. I've made my opinion on what I would do.

Very clear on the show multiple times. I probably don't need to repeat myself again. But he's at least making them think about keeping him up there for a full season. And, you know, we've already seen a whole bunch of Ws from him during camp preseason, the regular season. That's another W you can stack up there for Ben Kendall. But I'm still not fully sure which way that one is going to go, even though I've made my opinion on it pretty clear.

But Brunick, though, I'm in agreement with you. Yeah, it's a very good test for both of them. And we will see how they react to it. I don't want to overstate it because I don't think three games in California is going to make or break their position in the in the in the organization but it really can solidify where they are if not push them even further forward so we will keep a close eye on both of them in these three games but that is going to do it for our tuesday edition of the locked on penguins podcast hunter and i will be back on wednesday to recap this game and it's wednesday so you

guys know what that means. We're breaking out the warrior helmets once again to give our MVP's of the week. But for now, get your energy drinks, get your coffee, get your midday naps in because it's West Coast hockey, penguins and ducks tonight. Like I said, we'll be back to recap that tomorrow and give out our MVP's of the week. So for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always for tuning in. And we will be back on Wednesday.