Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Crosby gets goal number 600 but the Penguins struggles continue

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

Sidney Crosby's historic career continued on Saturday night, scoring his 600th career goal but the Penguins are unable to break out of their funk. Hunter and Patrick take the first segment to discuss all things Sidney Crosby after his first-ever goal against the Utah Hockey Club was also his 600th career goal. They talk about what a career Crosby has had up to this point, how it was at one time in doubt, and everything he's been able to accomplish in 20 years. Then it's time for the hard truth - this is not a good hockey team and that was likely by design. However, despite not being a good team, their effort and execution this year are completely unacceptable to this point. Finally, they close out the show getting you ready for the week ahead where the Penguins will face some daunting opponents. Link to Taylor Haase's work on DK Pittsburgh Sports: https://dkpittsburghsports.com/penguins-kyle-dubas-trade-rumors-press-conference-tlhSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!IndeedStill searching for a great candidate for your company? Don’t search, just match–with Indeed. Claim your SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT now at Indeed.com/LOCKEDON. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. PrizePicksDownload the app or go to https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNHL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM 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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Even though the penguins got destroyed in both games this weekend, there were still some big history as Sydney Crosby became the 21st player in NHL history to score 600 goals. Pat and I are going to discuss that accomplishment, plus discuss some hard truths about this team right after this. Your 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 am one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-s, Patrick Dampe. You can follow him on all social media platforms at Syndrome for Wet, and you can follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O. underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first list and slash watch of the day.

We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, this episode is brought to you by Fandle. You can start the season with a big return on Fandul. New customers can place a $5 bet, and you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet. Visit fiendool.com to get started. So one piece of housekeeping news to get out of the way.

We usually have Jesse Marshall on for Marshall Monday today, but he had a swath of meetings added to his calendar for today. So sadly, he will not be on today's edition of Marshall Monday. We will hope to get him back for next week. Due to the short work week with Thanksgiving on Thursday, he's having all the meetings again added to his calendar. So we'll have Jesse on next Monday, assuming he doesn't have all those meetings added for next week as well. But starting the show, we're going to start on a positive note because I'm sure the final two segments are going to be us ranting about how poor this team played these last two games, how poor they've been all season.

But we've got to start with the big milestone of this weekend. Congratulations to Sydney Crosby getting his 600th goal, the 21st player in NHL history to score 600 goals. that is such a great accomplishment considering everything he's been through throughout his career. He missed all that time with a concussion and he's still able to get 600 goals. He has more than lived up to the hype since coming into the league. He is a top five player of all time. He can score from virtually anywhere on the ice. It doesn't matter if it's from the slot, right in for the net,

behind the net, from the point, it doesn't matter. He is one of the best scores in initial history. He's one of the best players in actual history, very much a top five player ball. time, in my opinion. And that was just a great goal all around. I was hoping that that was going to get the Penguins right back into the game. It came on a five on three. Really nice dish from Eric Carlson, by the way, Krause was able to finish that off with a one-timer. But seeing his family get a little bit emotional in the crowd, seeing all of his teammates pour off the bench to come support him, seeing his celebration as well. You could tell how much that goal meant to him,

even though the Penguins eventually got blown out in that game. It was all a great spectacle. and I know they're bad this year, but I will always cherish those milestone memories. I'm with you, man. I mean, I wrote about this a couple weeks ago with the penguins where, and we're going to get into the state of the franchise and the state of the team this season. But I basically said that this season, you want to root for good stories. You want to root for history and milestones because we know this team is not going to be lifting the Stanley Cup above their heads come June. And this is one of them because we are very much in the legacy cementing era of these guys' careers,

including Sidney Crosby of Gennie Malkin, Chris Latang, and yes, even Eric Carlson as well, because these guys have already put together Hall of Fame resumes with everything that they have done in their respective careers. And it's only now that they're going to keep adding to those resumes. And what a classic Sydney Crosby. goal this was because he didn't take the puck and go 200 feet, dance around 500 guys or five guys, 500. Geez, it really is Monday, isn't it? Five guys. And then, uh, deek the goalie out of his pads and go top shelf. No, this was a goal that was born of hard work. This was a goal that was born of

him being the best grinder in the history of the game because it's a five on three. They're getting some looks. Then the puck goes into the corner. They have to work. dig it out. He's part of that effort. They get the puck up to Eric Carlson. And where does Sidney Crosby score from? The side of the net. He takes and then to really, really make it a classic Sidney Crosby goal, basically down to one knee gets all the torque he can behind that shot and puts it in past Vamelka to give the penguins a one goal deficit at the time. So it was just such a perfect Sidney Crosby goal. And you look at the totality of everything that he's done.

And we are now more than a decade removed from it, but it's still very much in my mind that there was a time when we were talking about this could have been a guy who we talk about as what could have been, as how good he could have been, what his legacy could have been, because it's in the past now, but that concussion in broken neck saga went on for basically a year and a half. And it felt like we were never going to see Sidney Crosby play hockey again to the point where, and this goes under the radar now because of everything that's happened since, they had to call a press conference basically to shut down the rumors of he's going to retire

because it wasn't just social media chatter and you talking to your friends at the bar. There was a lot of reporting that he might just call it quits because he could not recover from that concussion. And they had to come out with Sidney Crosby and Ray Schiro and the medical staff and say, no, he's not retiring. We're working through this. He is going to come back and play hockey to the point where I believe it was Rob Rossi asked like, do you think this is it for your career? And his response was simple and perfect. I wouldn't bet on that.

So it's great to see him get this milestone. And one last thing on it, I think we're going to see a better version of Sidney Crosby moving forward here because I think you could tell the last couple of weeks. He was gripping his stick a little bit tighter. He was playing a little bit more of a reserved game. He wanted to get that 600th goal out of the way and just in the rearview mirror.

And now that he has, I think we're going to get back to seeing the Sydney Crosby we saw to start the year. Right. And I was at that Sharks game a little over a week ago, and he was getting chance after chance. But it felt like to me he wasn't getting the right amount of wood on those shots. And yes,

they were great saves by McKenzie Blackwood, but I'm like, I feel like if Sid wasn't one goal away from milestone, he would have been able to finish on one of these. He was definitely, it felt like a little bit nervous. And then against Winnipeg, it felt like he was, passing in obvious shoot-first situations.

I think, again, he was definitely a bit nervous for me. And another thing is, Pat, he's going to make more history here. He's going to keep climbing up the ranks in terms of most goals of all time. No, he's not going to catch Wayne Gretzky. No, he's not going to catch Alex Ovechkin, Gordy, Howe, probably Yager, anything like that. But he's only one goal away from tying Yari Curry for 20th all time. Dino Cicarelli is at 608, 19th all time. And then Bobby Hole is at 610, 18th all time.

at 15th all time is Dave Andruchat at 640. So Crosby only needs 40 goals to crack into the top 15 for most goals in NHL history. I say he does that before he retires. Oh, I agree with you. I think that we have seen with him this season that there is still a lot of gas left in the tank. He's certainly not what he was even five years ago, but he is still a genuinely great player. And he still has the tools to continue to be a goal.

score at a high level. And with three more years to go at the very least, well, two and change with the rest of this season, there you can see a world where he scores, you know, 25, 30 this year, 25, 30 next year and 20, 25 the year after that. So I do think he's going to continue to climb up the ranks. And another thing I wanted to add, it fits into, yeah, no, he's not going to catch Wayne Gretzky, Alex Ovechkin, Yarmir Yager, and goals. But I also think about all the time lost from him, from Alex Ovechkin, whether it was the

pandemic, two lockouts for Sid's case injuries, because again, going back to that concussion saga, we kind of memory hold the fact that in the lead up to that winter classic, he went on a 25 game point streak and it wasn't just Sidney Crosby racking up assists. He put up 50 points and it was 25 goals and 25 assists and he was on pace to just completely obliterate a scoring record in a regular season in the salary cap era. And then you couple that with the concussion, two lockouts and then the pandemic, these guys have lost so much time that they would be, I think at this point if you don't have those. Alex Ovechkin has already caught Wayne Gretzky and Sidney Crosby might be knocking on the door for top 10. I mean, we also probably have said at what, 1,800 points right now if he doesn't

miss all that time with a concussion too, right around there, I had to say. So again, congratulations, Sid. Another amazing accomplishment. And I can't wait for more great milestones to end your career in Pittsburgh. But that will do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to dissect these two losses against Winnipeg and Utah and go into some pretty hard truths about this team heading into Thanksgiving week this week. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about our first sponsor and that is Fandul. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with Fandul, America's number one sportsbook, because right now new customers can bet $5 and get

$150 and bonus bets if you win. The Fandul Sportsbook app gives you everything you need to place on the NFL all in one place. So when you're going to hunch in the middle of the game. You can check out the latest stats, view line, play by play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. Just visit fandwell.com join today, and you'll get started with 150 bucks in bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet. That is fandle.com, never waste a hunch and make every moment more with Fandual and official sportsbook betting partner of the NFL. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. Join by my co-host.

Patrick Damp. So, Pat, I'm going to kind of combine the stats for these couple of blowout losses. So the Penguins, they get utterly destroyed by Utah, 6 to 1 on Saturday. Before that, they get destroyed by the Winnipeg Jets, 4 to 1 on Friday. Penguins were outscored 10 to 2 in those two games, only 12 high danger chances for the penguins in those two games, 24 high danger chances combined for both Utah and Winnipeg, 35 scoring chances for the Penguins in those two games. all these numbers are at five on five, 50 scoring chances allowed for both Winnipeg and Utah combined over those two games. It's a joke, it's pathetic, it's whatever word you want to call it. And I think the biggest gripe I have with this team is how uninterested they look when they

are on the ice. You see other bad teams around the league, they at least play with some semblance of a structure or they at least push back, but this team doesn't do any of those two things. And when I say pushback people, I'm not talking about throwing a dirty hit to get the crowd riled up. I'm not talking about, you know, getting into a fight or anything like that, though, I will say for Cindy Crosby to get into a fight with Kyle Connor and for that to wake up the bench, that goes to show how uninterested this team looked for the first, basically 50 minutes of that game. Before that, they weren't doing anything, but it takes Cindy Crosby getting into a fight with Kyle Conner, which is something Sid really never does to wait this team up a little bit.

That's also kind of pathetic for me. But again, when I say pushback, I mean playing hard, being hard to play against, excuse me. I mean, at least showing effort, showing some pride, showing some heart. I don't see any of that from this team on most nights. And I think for a lot of these players, they know that this team stinks. And it feels like to me, and I hate saying this on the show, it feels like some of the guys on this team are here to just collect a paycheck and that's it. That's how I see it, Pat. And it's excruciating to watch. This team stinks. They do. There is no two ways about this. This is a bad hockey team.

This is not a good hockey team at all. And to your point about Sidney Crosby fighting Kyle Connor, if I'm a role player on this team and I see Sidney Crosby getting to and getting into a fight, I'm embarrassed. I'm absolutely embarrassed. I have no issue with Sidney Crosby fighting. I never have. Occasionally, I have said this for years. Part of the things that made this team so good when they were winning championships, and it's the same thing that made Florida a champion, it's the same thing that made Tampa Bay a champion. You go back and look at the cup winning teams of the modern era. They have one thing in common. Yeah, their superstars can burn you on the score sheet, but they've got a mean streak.

There's a very good chance that they are going to kick your ass both physically and through their skill. Because there is a chance that, oh, if I get Sidney Crosby of Gennie Malkin, if I get Nikita Kucharov or Stephen Stamkos, if I get named the entire Panthers roster upset, there's a chance that I might be getting my face caved in. And you can have your takes on whether that's necessary or not in today's NHL. that's a whole different discussion, but it is something that makes champions champions, that they are extremely hard to play against in every facet of the game.

Now, here's where I want to go with this. I'm going to begin it with this caveat. It's not excuse making, and it's not me saying that you shouldn't be upset because this team was not built to win this year. This team was not built to be a contender this year. However, this level of play is inexcusable because you can control a number of things as an individual player. You can't control the other team. You can't control the way the rest of the roster has been built.

But you can control your effort. You can control the way you play. You can go out there and play your ass off. And I understand that these guys are professionals. these guys can see the writing on the wall. They're not dumb. They can understand, hey, I'm on a team that's not a winner. What's the point?

But for a lot of the players who are here right now, for all intents and purposes, you were brought here to be an individual. You weren't here to be part of a team. You were here to be traded. You were brought here to be moved, to go to a team that could win a Stanley Cup this year. and if you're putting forth this kind of effort,

no Stanley Cup contender is going to touch you. If I'm Matt Grizzlick right now, I know that I was signed to a one-year deal to be traded at the deadline. And I'm playing like crap. Now, I don't think that he is intentionally tanking his game. I don't think he signed his contract and went, well, here's one year of paychecks and then next year I'll go somewhere else and get paid. But if I, if my intention is,

to go play for a more competitive team. The way I'm playing right now, I'm not going to that team. If I'm a number of players on this roster, you're not going to a competitive team. They're looking at the way you're playing and going, yeah, I mean, the name's nice, but look at the stats and look at the film.

They're not going to help us win a Stanley Cup. But again, I'm not going to play fan police. I'm not going to tell you not to get upset when they play like this. God knows I'm upset. I had struggled. to watch both games this weekend because they just laid down and died to both teams. They put a little bit of effort in the early parts of the Utah game, and then as soon as Utah started pushing back,

they rolled over, showed their bellies, and just got walked all over. But shout out to Taylor Haas, and I will make sure that when I edit this episode, I put a link to her work in this so you can go read it yourself. But she put together a compilation. I'm not going to read them all of quotes from Kyle Dubus this off-season. about what this team is doing. They are not being built to be a contender this year or maybe even next year.

This is going to be a couple years in the making. This is the one that I want to, the two that I want to highlight. And they are both from right before free agency open. They are from June. Quote, I understand it would be nice to be in the playoffs, but we want to be a contender. And so we have to put the work in and accrue the assets that are going to allow us to get there and do that. But for me, the major focus is trying to bring in players that are younger, hungrier,

and that can be on our club for a long time and help us long term. End quote. And then, quote, we won't be involved in the long term free agency stuff, end quote. This team is doing what they are setting out to do. They're assigning guys to one-year deals. They're acquiring guys who, like Kevin Hayes, who may be on two-year deals. but they're getting draft picks to go along with it. They traded Jake Gensel for one player, a myriad of prospects, and a couple draft picks.

They have a bunch of players right now who are in Wilkes-Bair that I imagine will be on this roster by the trade deadline because they're going to move a lot of guys out. So this is a process that is going to take more than a year. But at the end of the day, the way they are playing is inexcusable. It just doesn't compute. You cannot put forth this kind of effort and expect to get moved to a contender. You cannot put forth this kind of effort and be seen as somebody who's going to help going forward. There are a lot of guys who they had one of two options this year.

Play well enough to get flipped at the deadline and go to a contender or play well enough that management goes, you know what? In the next few years, this guy's going to help us. We're going to keep him here. And nobody on this roster saved for the big names are passing that test. Agreed. And there's just no excuse for playing this poorly on a nightly basis. I said this before. You want to lose games this year? That's fine. I didn't pick them to make the playoffs. You cannot keep getting your butts kicked on a nightly basis,

especially at home, and keep getting booed off the ice and not doing anything about it. How were you as a front office, as a ownership group, sitting up there and still not doing anything about it. Your season ticket sales, at least when I was at the game on Friday, that arena was not close to full. And it's going to continue to get worse if you keep seeing performances like these throughout the season and while also potentially still keeping this head coach. The time to do it was definitely, I felt like on Sunday after those back-to-back losses. It feels like they've totally stopped listening to Mike Sullivan at this juncture. I mean, there's just no, again, pushback at all. There's no pride. It doesn't look like they are listening to anything he is saying.

but if I were betting, man, I'd say that he's probably not going to get canned until mid to late April, just because if you're not going to do it after those back-to-back awful losses, then when are you going to do it this year? And when are you going to start making some more big changes? And I hear you about your point with the players they brought in,

but I also will say this about Kyle Davis. While I have liked some of the things he has done with some of his moves, I do feel like player evaluation needs to be better. if I as a podcast host and you as a podcast host can see flaws in someone's game heading into this season, then what are you looking at to say that, oh, he's going to be a good fit on a one-year deal? And this example I'm using is Matt Grizzly. There were a couple years of data that show that he wasn't good.

So what are you as a GM and as a scouting staff looking at to say, oh, this guy's going to be a great fit, especially on the top pairing, and we think gave him some of the top minutes among defense on this team. That's what I want to know. I just feel like some of the player evaluation is pretty lacking right now. And, you know, we can say the same about Ryan Graves as well. I think they missed the e-vail on that. Again, I think he's made some decent moves.

You know, the Carlson trade, they saved cap space there. I don't think anyone saw him playing this poorly two seasons into his tenure. I was totally fine with that move. You know, even the Gensel trade, I've come around a little bit on a little bit on I still feel like they could have maybe gotten a little bit more. But again, I've come around a little bit on it. I like the Kevin Hayes move. I like the Cody Glass move.

There are good moves in there. It's just the bad moves that he's made. It's just like where are these evals coming from? And that gets to my larger point. Where the penguins are today, it didn't have to be like this. But this is what happens when not one, not two, but three front offices contribute to the decline of this team. You have late stage Jim Rutherford, who's kind of.

trying to chase around Tom Wilson trying to beat him instead of just trying to go speed and skill. You then have Ron Hextall, who we know what he did during his tenure. It wasn't very good. And now you have Kyle Dubassu. Again, let's face it, his tenure has been at least for me, you may disagree. For me, it's been a bit of a mixed bad. I think he's had moves again that I've liked. Other moves where I've been like, okay, where is the player evaluation here? I think the amateur scouting staff has been better. His drafting, I feel like has been fairly good so far. I think trades wise, he's been a bit better, but some of those free agency signings, let's face it, some of them have not been very good.

And that was a little bit of an issue for him in Toronto as well. So I think he's not even two full years into his tenure. I'm sure, you know, GMs, they learn, you know, even, you know, Jim Rutherford's first year here in Pittsburgh. He didn't go that well, but then he went on that massive heater. So again, I just wanted to make that point that where they are today, it's the failure of three front offices. And of course, you know, the head coach hasn't been that good these last couple of years.

I know that. But I feel like the main failure with where they are today, why they're starting to pay the piper a little bit here is because of three front offices who, at least at the end of the Rutherford era, the most of Hextall regime, and then some of the Dubois regime have not been able to put this team in the best possible position to succeed. And you're seeing that right now. we're going to pump that conversation for now because we're going to discuss that a little bit more in the final segment. Get Pat's thoughts on that.

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One more time down the app today and use code Locked-on NHL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. That's Price Picks, run your game. All right, we're back here in this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, join by my co-host Patrick. So Pat, I'm just going to throw this right over to you because I know you have a lot of thoughts. I know I went in a couple of big directions there just because I know this season has been

so frustrating, but what do you have to say to everything I pointed out? So I know this is something that a lot of people really don't want to hear because it does feel like passing the buck to an extent, but it really can't be understated the amount a damage that was done between the end of Jim Rutherford's tenure and all of the Hextall-Birk tenure because they mortgaged a lot of the future. And rightfully so, this team was coming off to consecutive championships. They were constantly near the top of the standings. And when you're in go-for-it mode, you're in go-for-it mode. But then you get into the Hextall-Birk era. And it was just letting good talent leave without offers, bringing in underwhelming replacement.

signing a lot of really bad long-term deals that handcuff your ability to get away from them. So that really screws it up. As for Kyle Dubus, I will say this. I agree to an extent that the professional talent evaluation has been lackluster. But you can also tell that when you compare his first offseason as the Penguins president and general manager to this past offseason, and he has clearly learned from some of his mistakes. He was a lot better this offseason. I would get him that, yes.

Because the Ryan Graves contract, holy crap, that is bad. That is really bad. I understood the bet, but I didn't understand the term. Giving him that much term did not make any sense to me, but I could totally understand the player evaluation given the way he played in both Colorado and New Jersey, but that much term was insane. And then the Tristan Jari re-signing, again, I understand. understand the logic. The goalie market that summer was absolutely terrible. So he was kind of your

best or worst option. But again, the term, the term made no sense. Then you compare it to this, this summer. And the biggest contract he hands out is Blake was on. And that's a perfectly fine two-year deal because even if it doesn't work out, that will not be difficult to move. Everybody else, one-year deals, not a lot of money. He understood where this team's positioning was. So you see a lot of lower money, lower term deals that are easy to move or at the very least if they don't work out. You can shake their hands in April and say, hey, thanks for everything. Good luck out there. We'll see you around.

So you can very much tell that he learned from the mistakes he made in his first year. And you have to give him credit for that because if there is one thing that is a through line in the national hockey league and not just the national hockey league, all professional sports, is that coaches and managers are extremely stubborn. They are extremely set in their ways and they will keep doing the same things they've constantly done. And Kyle Dubus made a lot of improvements in learning from what he did in his first off season. So you have to give him credit for that.

End of the day, though, this was realistically outside of just completely throwing it in the tank and saying it's over. the only option for the penguins to go. They were going to have to part with a lot of players that you like. They were going to have to make underwhelming trades that bring you back, nothing but prospects and picks. And there's no guarantee this works out, but at the very least, I understand the logic behind it and I can see where they're

trying to go. I will say when I look at Macau Duba's tenure so far, first off season, definitely worse than the second one, the second off season at least. While the Grizzlic contract is not good, he's not going to be on this team, past a trade deadline, I don't think so. That'll be nice.

Sam of Anthony Beauvillier, I don't really think they got that eval right. He's been a bit better this year, but he had to be better compared to last year, but he was just, again, flat out, awful. I understood the logic with signing him to flip him, but he's still, again, not that good of a player. But the trace,

You bring in Cody Glass. That's someone who I, you know, really liked coming out of the draft. And even though he hadn't pan out, you put him in a potential bottom six role to play his way out of that rut. He's a bit young. I like that move. You bring in Kevin Hayes, you get an extra picker to with it. Totally fine. I think when healthy, he's a good bottom six option.

You trade for Rucker McGority. I think he's going to be a good player down the line for the Penguins. Yes, did you start slow with Wilkesbury? He did. But I think he's going to be totally okay. The draft, I felt like went very well. I feel like his two drafts, he's done fairly well. His amateur scouting staff, I think, has been pretty good during his tenure here in Pittsburgh.

And there's a reality where we potentially have Harrison Brunick on this team next year and potentially Owen Pickering at the same time. I just hope that, you know, maybe Dubus is able to learn a bit more on the fly heading into his third off season and maybe just improve some of the areas with his pro scouting compared to the amateur scouting. just because I think some of his player evals, at least to start his tenure with the Penguins, are a bit lacking. And I can say the same thing, again, with Ron Hextall during his tenure, and I can say the same thing a little bit with late stage and rather than referred to, excuse me, with some of the player e-dails that he had. Moving on to the next point, Pat, a few more big games this week for the Penguins.

A look ahead to the schedule. They will play their annual Thanksgiving Eve game on Wednesday against the Canucks. It feels like they always play the Canucks in that game. They've played them several times in that game over the game. the years. It's going to be a lot of fun. That crowd will at least be pretty good. Even though the Penguins are bad this year, the Thanksgiving Eve crowd is easily one of the best crowds of the season. I think you'll see a good one for that. And then the post- Thanksgiving game on Friday, on Black Friday, November 29, that's a 630 start in Boston against the Bruins,

who they just fired Jim Montgomery. And then Montgomery, not even a week later, gets the job in St. Louis will be coaching the Blues for the foreseeable future. And then Saturday, the Penguins will return home for another back-to-back against the Red Hot Calgary Flames. The Flames have been pretty decent to start the year. And while I don't think they're going to be in the playoffs at the end of the season, they're definitely exceeding expectations of them, and they've already beat the Penguins once this year. So three more big games this week,

and we'll have to see if they can somehow get a win in any of these three. I think their best chance is probably Calgary. I would say Boston, but the Penguins, it's very rare when they win in Boston. They won last year in Boston, but again, it's a very rare occurrence. they'll have a chance in that one, but even the Vancouver game, that's going to be tough sledding as well, considering the amount of talent that they have as well. So that's a quick look at the week ahead here for the penguins.

Yeah, this is going to be a really tough week for the penguins. I mean, Vancouver 10, 6, and 3, they have a ton of talent. They're starting to figure it out and looking like the team, we expected them to be this season. Like you said, Boston, TD Gardens, a house of horror for them for whatever reason, And even when they were at their best, they struggled in Boston. So we'll see what happens there. But this season makes absolutely zero sense to me.

So there's a very real world where they come out of this two and one or something. And we're back next week talking about, oh, okay. So they decided to pull a rabbit out of the hat this week. But I mean, overall, again, we just need to see a little bit of pride. I'm not going into this week with high expectations. or demands that they get a bunch of wins and look like a world beating team. But if you go down 3-2, 4, 3, 2, 1, whatever it is in your battle, listen, I'm not going to be upset.

We have fully accepted what this team is this year. Just at the very least, play a brand of hockey that I can watch. Play a brand of hockey that shows you care. And if you get a few points out of it, great. But I'm not quite putting the Army helmet on yet to say we're going for the tank. but at the very least, just play a little bit of pride. I'm just about there in terms of going for the tank. I'm going to tweet out that gif of the tank going across the snow and almost falling.

If they lose all three games this week, I'm definitely tweeting that out because I think we're just about there at this rate with how bad they've been through the first month and change of the season. But that will do it for today's episode, the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with another show for you all on Tuesday to get you all set for he connects on Wednesday, also dive into practice notes as well. Then we'll record Wednesday night for a little bit of a recap. And then Friday, for sure, we're definitely recording Thursday.

We still got to see because it is American Thanksgiving this week. So we might take that day off. We might not. Pat and I'm going to talk about it. I'm going to Virginia today to spend time with my family. So I'll not be in my home office this week. I'm going to be recording from my mom's house on my wonderful little work laptop. But again, that will do it for this episode.

Thank you so much for tuning in. And we will talk with you all on Tuesday. Thank you.