Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Canada survives against Finland, will Penguins captain Sidney Crosby play on Sunday?

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

Canada is heading to gold medal game on Sunday, but will they have the services of Sidney Crosby? Hunter and Patrick begin the show by recapping Canada’s thrilling win over Finland in the semifinals, including how unfair the Canada’s top line is (1:10). Then, with Canada set to play for gold, will Sidney Crosby return to game action, and should he risk it? (11:42) Finally, it’s Fan Take Friday, and they get a great question about whether some of the Olympic teams in the second tier could play in the NHL, and if the international hockey community should start its own champions league. (19:10)Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Indeed Now, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to https://indeed.com/podcastright now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuel Use your Profit Boost on an NBA future and get entered for your chance to win a trip to the NBA Finals.Play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Visit https://FANDUEL.COMto 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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Team Canada is set to play for another gold medal in men's hockey. And Pat and I are going to recap that game against Finland, plus discuss if Sidney Crosby is going to suit up for Team Canada coming up right after this. You're Locked on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunzer Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunts.

or Hodes, joined by my co-host, Patrick Damp. You can follow him on all social media platforms at Cendon-Pruet. You can also follow this show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. And you can find this on Instagram at Lockdown 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 platforms. Pat, we are recording this right as Team USA is taking the ice over Slovakia. So if you see me glance to my screen to the left,

I am watching the game while doing this show with you. But let's first discuss Team Canada, another comeback win this time over Team Finland. I thought Finland started this game really well. I felt they were the better team for at least a period. Wouldn't go as far as say a period and a half, but I would say at least the first period. And then Team Canada really took over because you saw them get really desperate. John Cooper was double shifting the McDavid line basically every five seconds. and it was only a matter of time before Canada was at least going to tie it,

and then they obviously won it late in regulation, thanks to Nathan McKinnon's power play goal. And I guess we'll start there. When you have a big moment, you want your star players to perform. That is exactly what happened today for Team Canada. Connor McDavid was once again on Bath salts. That passed to McKinnon, by the way, was a thing of beauty.

Macklin Celebrini was arguably the second best player on the ice out of anyone. He was unbelievable for Team Canada, and he is going to be a stud in this league for a very, very long time. McKinnon, you can tell that he's fighting through something. He gets the game winner, but I also, Pat, feel awful for UC Soros for Team Finland. He did everything in his power to get this game to overtime. He was standing on his head throughout the third period. there's just not much you can do when Canada is just throwing the kitchen sink at you.

And we'll get to another point I have about that third period coming up after you give your thoughts, Pat. But, you know, what a comeback it was for Canada and they will now play for gold. We'll see if also if Sid comes back, which we'll touch on a little later on the show too. I continue to be thoroughly impressed by Macklin Celebrini. And don't get me wrong, I am not someone who is like, oh, this Macklin Celebrini, kid, who's that? He's, this is sure a surprise. Like, you and I are hockey sickos. Like, if hockey's on in one way or another, we are going to put it on our phone, our laptops, our TVs. This is what we live in breathe. So we have known for a while that Macklin Celebrini is the real deal,

but this kid is so far ahead of the schedule, I think anybody would have had for him. And the sharks, man, they got a really, really good one. He does not seem at all. out of place. He does not seem like a kid that is going to shrink when the moment gets bigger. He has consistently been one of Canada's three or four best players. And it may not have been the flashiest game for him today against Finland. But man, he was everywhere once again. And I just continue to be blown away by how good this kid is. He was getting countless chance after countless chance. He was skating beautifully through the neutral zone,

into the offensive zone with control, making a lot of Finland's players who are pretty good, by the way, just look really foolish. Like, it's crazy how young he is, but he's already one of the best players we have in the league. And, I mean, Pat, going forward, like, overall, he's going to be a top five player in the NHL.

Easily. Very soon. Like, he's not going to be the best player in the world, like Connor McDavid for me, Nathan McKinnon, but as he continues to mature, he is going to be a mainstay in the top five in this league. This kid is a stud. I love watching him play.

Touch on McKinnon, Touch on McDavid. This next point, I saw a lot of this on social media and a couple other places. Finland parked the bus. They sat back. I don't see it that way, man. I mean,

I thought they were trying to push for that extra goal when they did get a chance. Bennington shut them down. But there's only so much you can do when Canada is throwing the kitchen sink at you. They were literally putting the David McKinnon and Celebrini out there like I said, every five seconds.

You're not really going to get the puck that often when those three guys are out there against you. So I felt Finland was pushing as much as they could. I didn't see a team that was playing pre-vent defense, sitting back. They were trying to take the fight to them. And I felt like they were doing a solid job of defending in the first part of that third period.

But the dam was eventually going to break as you continue to put the, you know, the super weapon out there. Exactly. The thing, the thing that you touched on that is the most truth about it is that there is a difference. And we were talking about this briefly before we hit record that compare this to the U.S. Canada women's game yesterday. Canada parked the bus.

Oh, they sure did. United States. And, you know, until Hillary Knight scored, the United States was like, middle of the ice, never heard of it. We're just going to hang out on the United States. on the perimeter, but I digress. This was a case today of Canada was putting that top line out every second or third shift. And they were a team that was watching their metal hopes slip through their fingers.

So this was a team that pushed. And you watch the first period or so of that game, Finland was doing what I said they needed to do yesterday when we previewed the game. They were getting big saves. they were playing very disciplined defensively, and they were taking advantage of Canada's mistakes. Canada cleaned up their game. They cleaned up their game,

and then Soros continued to make some big saves, but then Canada just took it to another level. And the disparity between the rosters essentially ended up being the big difference. Because at the same time, the reason I won't buy into the Finland Park the Bus narrative, they were basically just playing the same game they had been playing all afternoon. And Canada was just too damn good. So it sucks to see because Finland was a really good story.

I thought they started the game really well. But when Canada puts out that super weapon every few shifts, I don't, I don't care what team you are. That is borderline impossible to defend. And especially also when you take that type of penalty against them with about two and a half minutes to go. You can't be doing that when you're just trying to get that game to overtime.

That was a blatant penalty, by the way. Yeah, like, Finland could have challenged that one for goaltender interference. I'm not sure if it's going to come off the board. They could have, but I also think, Pat, they were scared that if they didn't get it, obviously they would have had to pay the price. They tried the offside challenge, which you got to do in that situation. It was really, really close. I felt the play was on side, in my opinion, ever so slightly.

I looked at it as a tie goes to the runner kind of moment where like it was close it was millimeters away and if you're the review the review crew or you're the officiating crew you look at that and go you just use common sense and go come on did a millimeter really impact this play and the same thing for the potential goaltender interference I looked at it as by the time Theodore made the, or took the shot, it, Marciaun was well out of the crease and gone at that point. If Marciaan would have been a little bit closer, I think they might have had a case. But in that instance, he had left the crease in enough time that Soros had a chance to get himself set. Yeah, he was looking to the ref trying to buy that call like, hey, what the hell?

Did you see what happened there? And he kind of had a couple pointed comments to the media about it after the game. It was also hilarious that Canada decided to load up the total rattle. line, Pat, with Marshan, Bennett and Tom Wilson. That's the line. You said it to me before we started recording. You love it if it's on your team. You hate it if it's not.

Again, just the peak of the peak rat line. And Sam Bennett very much made his presence felt early in the game when he ran over to U.S. Sos and then Finland opened the scoring with Miko Ransan. He was really good. You saw Eric Hala, Andres Bennington, but then, especially from then on Pat, it was all Canada. And they will play for another gold medal in this one.

also as we go into our second segment, Team USA officially up 1-0. Dylan Larkin opens the scoring. I didn't like his play in the preliminaries, but he has been really good in the knockout rounds like he was in the Four Nations last year. I thought he had a really good Four Nations, and he is really playing well. It's coming up big when it matters,

and that's kind of going to be the way that Team USA is going to find its way either to the gold medal game or hopefully winning a gold medal, is players like Larkin are going to have to step up in these big moments. As good as this team is with the talent that they have, obviously in a tournament like this, you want to lean on your top talent, but we know if this goes the way we want it to,

they get past Slovakia today and play Canada in the gold medal game on Sunday. You know that for the most part, those top lines are going to play to even and try to cancel one another out. It's going to be those bottom six lines, that bottom defensive pairing that is going to have to win you the day. That and I still do think that Cooper is going to keep throwing out the super weapon with McDavid-McPenon, even if Crosby is able to play.

And speaking of that, that's coming up here in our second segment. Will Sidney Crosby return for the gold medal game? That's coming up right after this. But before we discuss that, we have to get into our first sponsor, which is Fandall. Ever wanted to experience the NBA finals live and in person, Fandle is giving you the chance to turn that dream into reality with their NBA sweepstakes. Here's how it works. Use your profit boost on any NBA future and you'll automatically be entered for a shot to win an NBA final strip for two.

That's right. Flights, tickets, the whole experience. If you're already looking at the board and thinking about which team can make a deep run, this is the perfect time to lock it in. I love futures this time of year, whether it's picking a team to win the championship or grabbing a conference title. It adds an extra layer of excitement to every game down the stretch.

And now not only can you pick cash, but it could also send you to the finals. Visit fandul.com to get, started, use your profit boost on an NBA future, and get entered for your chance to win a trip to the NBA finals. Play your game with Fandul, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host Patrick Damp and Pat. Crosby gave it a go today. He even had a private skate before the game, wasn't able to go. He sat out today. John Cooper was asked about

Cindy Crosby status for the gold medal game after Canada came from behind. to win this one against Finland. And he said, we got a couple of days to figure this out. And he has a much better shot of playing in that one than he did today. So my read on that is, I think Crosby's going to give it everything in his power to go. It's obvious.

And you and I talked about this the last 24 hours, that the injury, it's not worst case scenario, not a season ender. The fact that he's already been on the ice, that's really, really good news. Will he play? TBD, I'm not sure.

but all I know is is that he's going to give this everything in this power. I know you have on a rundown. Should he play? I think if he can play, Pat, he's going to play. Come on now. They are going to have to handcuff him to his stall in the locker room if there's even the slightest possibility that he can't play. Because this is the ultimate competitor.

This is the most, maybe the most competitive human being that is, ever existed in our species. Oh, yeah. And this is maybe going to be his final chance to play for Canada at the Olympics. And this is the gold medal game, whether it's the United States, whether it's Slovakia, whether it's the little sisters of the poor. Sidney Crosby will be playing in this game if he even has a chance. So all the things you said, I'm right there with you on.

He gets a pregame skate before the team does their morning skate before the semi-final game. They continue to talk about it as if it's an injury that they're going to keep an eye on and are consistently monitoring. Tells me that, again, like I said yesterday, if this was a long-term or potentially season-ending injury, Cooper would have come out right away and said, listen, 87's done. He's not playing. The other thing that we didn't really touch on that also tells me that I think at some point he's going to be good to go is the fact that Cooper told the team after he got hurt against Chequia do not make this Sidney Crosby's final game. Even if he would have been, I think he probably would have said that even if it was a tournament ending injury. But that also kind of puts another piece of the puzzle in place to me that says there's an opportunity Crosby can play.

Right. Another thing we haven't really discussed yet is he was in the locker room between periods today, dissecting Finland, trying to help his team win, talking to the players, you know, giving them, you know, pet talks and all that good stuff, you know, really trying to make sure that they come back to win this game and play for gold on Sunday. And again, that's just the type of player that he is, the type of person that he is. He's Captain Canada for a reason. I loved what Connor McDavid said after the game pass. because per IHF rules, a player has to wear the sea no matter what. And today you saw it was Connor McDavid. I can't lie, man. It looked really weird seeing him wear the sea for Canada just because Crosby has worn it so many times over the last decade plus. But McDavid even said, hey, I'm keeping that C warm for him, warm for him, excuse me. And he knows that Crosby is captain Canada. Like this is his team, even though he's a bit older.

And yeah, in the future, McDavid is going to be the captain of this team. especially when Sid eventually retires, but he's giving Sid the respect that he deserves. And, you know, if Sid is ready to go, he's going to have that C on his chest. He's going to go out there and try to give it 100% effort. So, again, if he has the slightest chance of going, I think you will see him out there. Now, again, will he TBD? Let's just see how the next two days go. But you know that he's gunning for that game.

Can I also say this? It's a slightly different topic than what we've got on the rundown here. I've always said, and we have the evidence of it across multiple sports, that the most elite players never end up being good coaches. I think Sidney Crosby is going to end up being the exception to the rule. If he wants to go into coaching, I think he might be pretty damn good at it, just because not only is he naturally gifted and naturally talented, you listen to the way people, whether it's his teammates,

whether it's players he goes up against, whether it's people or whether it's coaches who have had him on their teams. This dude is such a hockey nerd and such a dork when it comes to everything hockey, that he isn't the naturally gifted athlete. who, because the example I always use is Gretzky. We saw Gretzky try to coach. And yeah, I know. At the time, the Phoenix Coyotes, even back then,

they were still a dumpster fire. But you know Gretzky's coaching ability was probably limited because there was a lot of things he did just because he could do them and nobody else could. Crosby thinks the game on such a crazy high level that I do think he might actually turn out to be a, solid coach. If he wants to do it, it's funny. I've always seen him as someone who goes into management rather than coaching. I could be dead wrong on that. I agree. I kind of say more of this as a manager, to be

honest. That's where my mind has always been. Is that after his playing days, he's going to go into a front office role of some capacity, whether it's a manager or sneakly, you know what he would probably be incredibly good at? Player development. I bet he would be an unbelievable player development coach. But it's just funny because it speaks to what a special athlete he is. And I know we're glazing him. We're pumping his tires, all the words that the kids use these days. But it's just crazy to me that like he could have easily just sat in the locker room or in the stands or the press box and on the, let's go boys. Here we go boys. Go get them boys out of way, boys. He's in there dissecting film. He's in there telling guys what he sees. Like he's such a

nerd. He is such a nerd. One of the reasons why he's a great captain, great person, great player, everything else. That's Cindy Crosby for y'all. But I think that's going to do it for this second segment. Time will tell again that Frazby is able to suit up for the gold medal game, 8 o'clock Eastern time on Sunday. So yes, people, set your alarms. If you want to wake up for that game, if you're on the West Coast, feel bad for you guys.

5 a.m. wake up call for that one. But hey, I did 6 a.m. for Finland, Sweden. I don't want to hear it. And that was a preliminary game, Pat. But that's going to do it for this second segment. Coming up to end the show, it's Friday. Yins know what that means we're reacting to your takes. Fan Take Friday returns coming up right after this.

All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my host, Patrick Damp and Pat. Your question was pretty simple today. Who's winning the gold and why? Only got a few responses. Drake said USA. Penn's fan for life, 1986 says, Canada. We did get a really good question, though, from my favorite Chelsea fan that listens

to this podcast. And yes, man, Arsenal is kind of bottling it right now. I'm not happy with the way that they're playing in the Premier League. We'll have to see if that changes. And he goes, hear me out. Obviously, the top three or four Olympic teams are overpowered. When I look at the next tier of teams like Czechia and Switzerland, they seem comparable to NHL rosters. They're solid top tier talent like Posternak and Roman Yosi. And then there's good debt below them. How do you think teams in that second year would perform if they competed in the NHL? That's a really fascinating question. I mean, it's hard because like these teams, like, you know, they're the best of the best for the respective countries. So it's hard to like try

to, you know, NHL teams that. I mean, again, I like Czechos four group quite a bit. There's plenty of players in here that have played in the NHL for a while. Again, you know, Pavel Zaka, David Posternak, Marty Nachis, Tomas Hurtle, Philippe, you know, David Kamp's been in the league a long time, Andre Pallot, Rodaik Thaksa, you know, even Chervanca has played in the NHL before, and he's been on the top line for Chakia. They have defensemen that are obviously still in the NHL.

You know, same with Switzerland. You know, they got Tim Omeyer, Nico Hescher, I mean, he mentioned Roman Yose, Philip Kourushchev, Pew Suter, Dennis Malgan, Nina Ryder, of course. So it's just, it's hard to answer because, like, like a national team doing an NHL team, I'm trying to like come up with my best answer like they would compete but it's also like this is the

hardest team you know this is the hardest league in the world so it's really tough at the same time so I'm going to take this question and I'm going to kind of flip it into a different idea of rather than putting these teams into the NHL like say if you dropped Slovakia and you kept some of the NHLers on Sabaki and pulled them away from their NHL clubs. And here's something I think that would be interesting. It would

obviously never happen. The NHL would never allow this. Is, I would say what if you did like say we lived in a world where the Olympics didn't exist. The world championships didn't exist. And every four years

you basically had an international season. It wouldn't be 82 games in four playoff rounds. It would be a little bit more condensed. I'm thinking like 50-ish games and then like a two or three round playoff rather than the Stanley Cup playoffs. I would be really interested to see that because here's the way I see it is like we're

we're recording this while the US plays Slovakia, right? Like beginning of the tournament, none of us were thinking about Slovakia. We had them as a second, maybe third tier team where it was like, hey, you know, if a couple things go right or a couple teams find themselves locked up at the top, Slovakia could sneak in, they got hot in this tournament. And they continue to be hot in this tournament. That's kind of the downside of a tournament like the Olympics is a team catches a stride. And you go, wow, they were really good in that tournament.

but I would be really interested to see what would happen, say, if you play across a couple of months, you play 40-ish games, and then you have like a three-round playoff, how that would differ from two weeks at the Olympics. Maybe like an all-star type league when you bring everyone together, like, I don't know, over the summer, something like that. This is not going to happen, of course,

but like hypothetically, like an all-star type little mini-season where you bring all this together, that would be kind of fun. Almost like how soccer does the Champions League in a way, where like you get the best teams from all around into one pool. But instead of doing that, it's like the NHL will send some of their best Americans, Canadians, some of their best Czechoslovakian players, some of their best, well, we'll see with Russia, but you get my point is where.

And then you also are going to be plucking from the European leagues, from the KHL, from everywhere else. I think, and then the other way I think you could make this interesting is you could also include some of the junior leagues in Canada, some of the junior leagues in Europe. And you're getting talent from age 16 and up. And you could really see how this all works out when you've got a big talent pool from all these countries.

Because, again, you look at tournaments like the world championships, like the Olympics, hell, I'll even include four nations, where if you get hot for a week, you're suddenly looking like one of the best teams on the planet. But if you've got to do this for an extended period of time, you're really going to have to dig in, make adjustments. Like you could look at the last couple games for Canada, whether it's Czechia, whether it's Finland.

Yeah, Canada might end up beating them in the first game, but they play again in two weeks. Teams make adjustments, guys get hurt, guys go cold, guys get hot, guys get hot, could be way different. I think that would be a really, really interesting way of approaching it. Yeah, your come to the Champions League is interesting.

Obviously, you know, those are champions of Europe. Like it's all the European teams and they come together. And we're kind of basically in the round of 16 for that. We're going to get to the quarterfinals a bit later on. And then you have the championship, which I believe is around late May again this year.

But yeah, maybe something like that for hockey. You know, again, hypothetically, it would be fun to at least, you know, talk about do and maybe a couple of teams that this, you know, could work. But still. I also wouldn't mind seeing some kind of a Champions League style tournament for the entire world for hockey where that would be a lot of where you get the best team in the NHL, whether it's your president's trophy winner, your Stanley Cup winner, if not both. You get a couple teams from the K, a couple teams from Europe. and over like a three or four week period in the summer,

they all go, they go at it to see who's the quote, unquote, world champion. Almost like, you know, soccer did the club World Cup this past summer. And yeah,

you know, a lot of memes about it. I joked about it a bunch. But, you know, at least for hockey, I think that would be kind of fun. Almost like a,

not like a club world cup, but like a team real cup. Obviously, the World Cup of hockey is coming up in a couple years and all the respective countries are going to be in there and all that good stuff. Maybe like a team. team role cup in terms of, you know, not international, but, you know,

NHL, KHL, other leagues, that would be really fun. And I do think, you know, players from, you know, both those teams that, you know, are Chelsea fan mentioned, you know, Switzerland and Czechia, they would obviously be there, not even the players that are, you know, in the NHL, for example. But I do like that idea quite a bit, Pat. That was really good. Other than that, do you have anything else to add to close out this week? Team USA is still up 1-0 as we get closer to the end of the first

intermission here. I'll say this, regardless of how this USA Slovakia game goes, I'll bury this at the end of the show. As much as we want to see the United States get their first gold since 1980, between the way Canada has been playing and now the added motivation of maybe trying to win it for Sid, I think Canada has taken home the gold on Sunday. Again, I will keep saying it, man, until someone makes down Canada, I will take them to win gold. I think teams have shown that Canada is mortal, that they are beatable, but no one has beaten them yet over a full game. Until that happens, I'm going to take Canada.

So I think the U.S. is going to finish off Slovakia today so far in the first period. Slovakia looks a bit overmatched to me. Still a long way to go. I could look like a complete moron by the end of this game, depending on when you're listening to slash watching this episode. So we'll see. again gold medal game Sunday 8 o'clock Eastern time in the morning I know a lot of us want it later but the closing ceremony for the Olympics is a bit later on in the day so that's why they're doing

it a bit early and who is the United States is flag bearer at the closing ceremonies hunter actually I'm going to take a good guess here is it Hillary Knight or Megan Keller it is Captain America okay Hillary Knight who is the U.S. flag bear to close out the Olympics. So huge, huge couple days for her, gets engaged, wins the gold in her final Olympic games. Yeah. And she's the country's flag bear. We love to see it. Oh, for sure. And you know, Megan Keller, just a banger of a golden goal in overtime. That was fantastic. And then Hillary Knight, a great deflection in front. Man, that was sweet. So again, yeah, congratulations to the U.S. women's team. And hey, maybe the men will go two for two. We will have to see. But that's going to do

it for the Friday edition of the locked on penguins podcast. Pat and I will be back to recap this entire tournament for you all on Monday. Plus get you all set on a whole bunch of penguins news because yes, people, the Pittsburgh Penguins do return to play this upcoming Thursday, less than a week away against the New Jersey Devils. So for Patrick Damp, I am Huntersor Hodes. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We appreciate it. We'll be back on Monday. Enjoy the bronze and the gold medal games.