Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Evgeni Malkin puts on a show for the Penguins in Hockeyville!

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby shined for the Penguins in Sudbury on Sunday with five goals between them! In this episode, Hunter and Patrick give their analysis of the Penguins' third preseason game, this time against the Ottawa Senators. They discuss who stood out, who still has something to prove, and how there is a very difficult decision brewing for President of Hockey Operations Kyle Dubas and Head Coach Mike Sullivan. Also, there is no rest for these Penguins as they'll play their second of three straight games tonight in Detroit after the initial game was postponed this weekend. They get you set for what is a huge week for a lot of players and tonight's preseason matchup. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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.PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNHL and get $50 instantly when you play $5. PrizePicks. Run Your Game. FanDuelPlace your first FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - guaranteed !Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. 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. 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.

The Penguin stars put on a show in Sudbury on Sunday night, and Pat and I are going to discuss that 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, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, joined by my host, Patrick Damp. You can follow him on Twitter at Sinan Furwet.

And you can follow the show's Twitter at LO underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Fandual. Place your first $5 bet and you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets. Guaranteed, visit fandual.com to get started. So, Pat the Penguins get their first win in the preseason on Sunday, a 5-2 win over the Autolo Senators. And yeah, the big guns still very much.

elite in the National Hockey League. Cindy Crosby and Ivgeny Malkin put on a show for the fans in Sudbury on Sunday night. Evgeny Malkin gets the hat trick. Cindy Crosby gets two more goals. And it's just, it doesn't get old seeing these two put the team on their backs. Even if it's just the preseason, they put on one hell of a performance. And that's where I really want to start. Evgeny Malkin in particular was fantastic.

I thought he was very patient with a puck on his stick. He was very methodical. with the way he was playing in the offensive zone. He kind of just took what the senators were giving him, but he also had a couple very nifty moves, especially on one of the goals that he scored, to get around a defender, put the puck to the net.

That was kind of like a vintage Gino move, to be honest with you there overall. Gets a little bit of the lucky goal on the power flight. Let's admit that balance was very lucky, and I hope they get more of those balances during the regular season, and then he finishes it off with the hatchet with the empty net goal. But really fun game from Malkin last night,

Crosby, too also very, very, vintage Crosby goals right around the net mouth. And Chris Lattang, that's a hell of a pass to Crosby. And then Brian Russ, kind of the same deal there as well. And Crosby just, you know, cleans in the loose change right around the net front. Two great performances from Crosby and Malkin. Again, that's where I want to start for this one. What did you take away from their games in here?

Am I allowed to say that at age 38, we saw Evgeny Malkin make his game a little bit more mature because what you saw last night and what you have seen for the past couple of years is a frustrated of Genie Malkin where you can kind of tell he knows that he doesn't have the same pop that he used to have. He can't really be the Russian bear, the Russian bully, whatever you want to call him, because just father time and the way he plays the game has caught up with him. And you watched the way he played last night. Yeah, he had a ton of jump in his game.

He was on top of puck's all night long. He was making great decisions. But like you said, it was a lot more methodical than we've seen from Vgeny Malkin. With Vgeny Malkin, when he was at his absolute peak, when he was at his prime in the mid-2010s, he was just a bully and a force of nature. It was, I'm going to take the puck, I'm going to run over everybody, and then I'm going to make an unrealistic move to beat the goalie.

And it's going to be on TSN and ESPN and YouTube and it's going to be viral because it's going to be a goal you'd never expect to see from a guy this big. The last couple years, he's tried to do it and failed. There's been some successes. Let's not pretend like he's stunk the last couple years because he absolutely has not. But you could kind of see it last night where he was like, you know what, I'm a little bit older. I can't do the things I used to do, but I still have a really good vision. I've still got great hands and I'm still huge. So he picked and chose his spots to be that big guy.

He didn't try to do it on everything. And the other thing I noticed, and I always, I'm glad that our pal Josh Yohi is back with 10 thoughts after games because it always validates. if I'm seeing the same thing. If Josh sees it, putting Evgeny Malkin low on the power play, brilliant, brilliant move because the shot is still there. He's still very much a threat, but you don't have to worry about him hanging out the defenseman to dry. So overall, loved his game last night.

And if we see that kind of of Gennie Malkin throughout the season, it's not only going to be a bounce back for him. It's going to be a bounce back for the Penguins. I was about to say that as well, because if they get that level from Malkin and his linemates are also able to have big years, aka Michael Bunting, aka Ricard Raquel, I think you're going to see a great season from McGinney Malkin. I mean, remember last year still 67 points in 81 games, despite a good chunk of his linemates not playing well throughout the season. Ricard Raquel was obviously not that good for most of last season.

I mean, Riley Smith didn't live up to expectations. But once Michael Bunting came around, boom, he just took off. watching Gino's game last night, even though he wasn't really with Bunting for a large portion of the evening. I will say this. Well, he kind of was because Lazzat got hurt. Bunting was after Lazzat got hurt. But you could tell that, and we were trying to figure out, why does Evgeny Malkin have such great chemistry with Michael Bunting? And we were kind of just like, wow, this is just this supernatural, these guys get along.

after watching the way Gino played last night and putting the pieces together from last season, it's because Bunting gets to be that bowl in the China shop. He's the guy who can go out and wreak absolute havoc. And Hvgeny Malkin can be a little bit more cerebral. He can pick and choose his spots. He can see the vision. And Michael Bunting can be his attack dog where Mike Sullivan and Hvgeny Malkin can go, sick him, boy.

And then, oh, damn, we forgot about of Gennie Malkin on this line. What are we going to do? Right. And with how great Gino was it setting up chances last year, he's going to have someone like bunting there to clean up a garbage around the net. He's going to hopefully have Raquel there to use his great release and score a lot more this upcoming season. That's why I, again, am super excited about that second line heading into the season, moving to Sydney Crosby a little bit. Again, two more goals. And I don't think I need to see Crosby again for the preseason as well.

Same with Malkin. Same with Lettang. Crosby was his typical usual self. And even outside of the goals, he was fighting for every loose puck, even though it's a preseason game. He was making diving plays on the ice, just using his body as a physical presence along the boards as well. It looked like, honestly, like game 50 of 82 for Crosby. Just ho-hum, I'm going to do the same thing I do in the regular season in the preseason. And he was a total bully out there on the ice. Gets those two goals.

Really nice setups from Brian Russ and Crystal Tang. Also, shout out to Anthony Bavillier for getting that puck to look. And I thought Bovillier also had another good game last night. I think Bo Villiers has had a pretty sound preseason as well. It didn't score last night. He had a couple of chances. But his game is starting around into form as well before the regular season. But Crosby, just another stupendous performance, excuse me.

And yeah, I don't need to see him again in the preseason at this point. It speaks to the kind of person and hockey player that Sidney Crosby is because we talked about it last week in the lead up to Hockeyville that this is a special game. It's a special moment. Yeah, it's a preseason game. There's nothing on the line. There's no points. This isn't going to work in the standings. There's a handful of guys who will play on both sides who are trying to make their case to make an NHL roster. But for the most part, this is a glorified scrimmage between two NHL teams. And it happens in a town that's not going to see a game like this. Yeah, Sudbury has their junior teams and they get that kind of hockey, but they don't get

this level of hockey. And because it's preseason, it'd be really easy for both teams to just go throw it in the tank and play at half speed and say, oh, this is a fun little event and a fun little occasion. But no, they understood and Sydney Crosby understood and pretty much everybody on the ice last night understood this means a lot to the community that we're playing in tonight. So let's go out there and treat this like it's a regular season game. Let's throw some hits. Let's get chippy. Let's play actual hockey here.

And you can hem and haunt at that about, oh, it's preseason. You guys, this doesn't mean anything. Don't get hurt for the regular season. But we forget the thing I remind people on this show all the time is that sports or entertainment at the end of the day. And all those people bought tickets and put their hat in the ring to become Hockeyville, Canada. They were owed a great game. They were owed an entertaining game. They got their money's worth, that's for sure.

The penguins and senators gave them one hell of a hockey game because even I, you know, someone who believes in the whole sports or entertainment, they got to be fun. I clicked on last night's game after a great day of football at 1 and 4 o'clock and then waiting for Bills and Ravens for Sunday night football thinking, man, am I really going to sit here and watch preseason hockey game? Five minutes into it, I was like, yeah, I'm watching a hockey game. Like this is a great hockey game. Yeah, it was a ton of fun to watch.

watch. It also was great to watch it because the Buffalo Baltimore game was such a blowout, but still, I wanted to watch the game because I want to see how the big guns play for the Penguins. I want to see how some of these other debt players play as that competition continues to grow even more fierce. I feel like this week, because since the regular season is next week, and we're going to discuss that in the second segment here in just a couple of minutes. But my final thought, definitely a bit of a chippy game. You saw a couple of fights, Boko Imamma, stepping up for one of his players. you saw Brady Kachuk for some reason barking at penguin players on the bench during a preseason game calling someone Megamine. It's like, okay, pot me kettle there, Brady with your head.

But I mean, it's like me calling someone short. Like, come on, man. Exactly. It's like telling someone also, you have a big nose. Like, yeah, I have a massive schnaz, people. That's how it is here for me overall on this show. But I just found like him calling that. I mean, I won't say this. I was saying this to you before the show and we may have to talk to our pals over at locked on senators about this. But in Brady Chuck's case, he's got to decide what kind of player he wants to be. Do you want to be this playmaking goal scoring forward? Or do you want to be more like your brother? Do you want to be a power forward kind of rat player?

And I think that's it that that that's kind of indicative of the Ottawa senators. They don't really know what kind of team they want to be. pick a direction and go with it because if you want to be a chippy team, we just saw Florida win the Stanley Cup. And that's a team that you know you're going through 60 minutes of hell, playing them every night. And we saw on the other side of it, the Edmonton Oilers,

who are one of the fastest, most finesse teams in the league, come within just a couple goals of winning the Stanley Cup. So if Ottawa can pick a direction and go with it, there's a lot of talent on that team. And they could be one of the better teams in the league. they just got to find that direction and go with it. Right. And I do think they're going to try to push for a playoff spot this year.

If I had to guess they're going to be more of the former, trying to be like a chippier team like the Panthers were. And, you know, Brady tries playing definitely like his brother does, obviously, with the Panthers. But I think that would do it for this segment. Coming up in the second segment, we're going to discuss the power play last night, how I continued to see signs of progress with that unit and also a couple of other players who stood out to me during this game. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about our first sponsor, and that is Game Time. Game Time has a new feature called Game Time Picks that makes getting tickets for your favorite live events even easier. Game Time Picks filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets.

You have on pricing. Toggling this feature shows the total up front with no surprise fees at checkout. There's also Game Time Picks. Creation makes it easier to save more on sports, concerts, comedy theater, etc. There's also seat views. You can get a full view from your seat in the app before you buy a ticket. They also have the lowest price guarantee or gain time or credit you 110% of the difference. Take the guestwork out of buying tickets with game time.

Down my game time app. Create an account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code locked on NHL for $20 off. Download game time today. What time is it? It's game time. All right, we're back here in this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

I'm one of your hosts, Hunts or Hodes, joined by my co-host Patrick Dam. So, Pat, let's discuss the power play. So what I really noticed from this unit is just the willingness to have a lot more net front play. It felt like the Penguins were getting away from that during a large portion of the 23, 24 season under Todd Reardon when he was the power play coach, just because the team was so stagnant. They really weren't moving the puck. there were just really no net front presence at all until Michael Bunton came into the into the Friday.

But now under David Quinn, you're seeing more of a net front emphasis. You're seeing a lot more movement. And I saw both on full display last night. Crosby gets two garbage goals right down in the net front. You saw the movement with Crystal Tang, really crisp, really precise, the zone injuries I felt like were a bit of an improvement last night. I understand it's only preseason, but I continue to see at least signs of progress with this power play heading into the regular season.

If they can get this type of power play during the regular season with the movement, with the emphasis on the net front, they're going to score a lot more goals on that man advantage just here and at least hopefully be an average power play. I continue to like what I'm seeing from David Quinn's new look power play. I just hope it translates to the regular season and I'm not just being a fool right now. The key word for the Penguins power play so far in this. preseason is urgency. Yeah.

They didn't have any urgency last year. It was a very slow, very stagnant power play. And I understand when you have that much talent on a unit that you don't want to be rushed. You don't want to force anything. You want to let that talent shine through. But you don't want to overcorrect with that. You don't want to make it so, oh, okay, like, let's not do anything crazy here.

Let's get to where we need to go, do what we need to do, and the goals will come. There has to be an urgency. There has to be a, we have two minutes here to attack. We have two minutes to put this team on their heels. And if we do that, we will score goals. Combine it with the talent that you have available. And that should be an easy thing to do. And so far in this preseason, up until last night,

obviously you didn't have any of the real big guns at your disposal for the power play. And what had I had been saying since the start of the preseason, I want to see what this looks like with the regulars. I want to see what this power play looks like when the staples get in. And they did last night. And it remained. There was puck movement. There was body movement. They were willing to shoot the puck.

And voila, they go two for four. They go 50%. and I will take that because one, it's more progress. We are now seeing more progress with this power play in the preseason. And two, there was buy-in from, we obviously don't know with Eric Carlson yet, still a mystery, still working through whatever's going on with him. But Latang, Crosby, Malkin, Bunting, Rust. They were all willing to do the things that they needed to do to have some urgency,

to move the puck to get to different places and to exploit those mismatches. And what do you know? They go two for four. So very encouraged by it last night. And if this, like I've been saying, if this kind of system,

the way they're playing it, they buy in and play this way into the season, it's going to be a problem for a lot of teams. Right. Again, if they can get that type of production from the power play or just again, better production overall,

you're going to see them get more points in the standings because of it. You know, last season, there were so many games that stood out because the powerplay was so bad. And if they had just scored one power play in one of those games, like that game against the ducks, for example, earlier last season, if you just scored one power play, you know, it's a potentially completely different look in the standings at the end of the season.

There's a few other games I can obviously mention as well, where one power play goal would have made the difference points-wise at the end of this past season. But also, speaking of progress, Cody Glass, I continue to be very fascinated, very intrigued by him. He has a nice set of wheels out there. He was very quick out there on his skates. He also had a couple of really good scoring chances. One of them was short-handed.

I thought he was actually going to score on a little mini-breakaway, nice save by Forsberg, the senator's goalie. But in a depth role, he continues to outshine some of the other players that are buying for those spots. I think at least right now, with nine days to go until the regular season, right now he has a spot on the team. It's going to have to continue throughout this week in the preseason and the rest of camp. But right now, I think he deserves a spot on this team.

This is always the type of player that you want to take a chance on considering how young he is. Yeah, I know again, he wasn't that good last year, but he showed his, at least his potential a couple years ago, if you can even get close to that this year, it's definitely worth it overall. But I was super happy with his game last night. And just compared to some of the other players that are, buying for, you know, one of those fonts in the bottom in the bottom six, I think at least right now he's earned it. I remain fascinated by that three-person battle that's going on for one of these spots

between Cody Glass, Valteri Pustin, and Yessie Pouy-R-V. Because throughout this camp in this preseason, outside of Pustanin, Glass and Pouy-R-V have been making very serious cases to be on this roster. I think last night, Glass really improved his stock. I think in the lead up to this point, Poo Yarvi was in the pole position because he played so well. And this is going to be a really difficult choice for Mike Sullivan and Kyle Dubus for opening night. Because I can see upside in potential in all three of these choices if you go with them. I think right now it's still Poo Yardv's job to lose just because of how well he played down the stretch and how he's

looked so far into preseason. But you're absolutely right. The way Cody Glass played last night, that's planning a seat of doubt in the coaching staff and management's heads because if I'm sitting in their chairs up to this point, I'm going, all right, Pooey RV's got that spot. That's his. But then you see how Glass played last night and you think,

ooh, I don't know, maybe it's him. And we're going to get a chance to see, I believe, Pustin in tonight. It is Pustin and Pooley. the event play tonight, yes. So we'll get a chance to see them tonight, and if they continue to play well, this is going to be a really, really difficult decision. And also we do have to point out at least, Rock and McGority is also playing tonight. We'll get to the lines in the final segment, but he's also going to have a shot to maybe

have his quote unquote wow moment as well. One more thing before we head to break and preview that game against the Red Wings. I thought Owen Pickering and Harrison Brunich put on good performances last night. I thought Brunick started out a bit tough. That first goal, his play just around the net front was not good. But he settled in after I thought his puck moving was really strong. I thought his play in his own zone got a lot better after that. I thought with Pickering as well, I thought his offensive instincts really showed out last night.

Defensively, he was never really caught flat-footed or anything like that. I, again, don't think these two players are going to make the team. I think Brunick is going to go back to junior. I've been seeing some talk about maybe Brunick getting a nine-game trial, I don't think that's in the cards this year, people. I think he's just going to go back to junior. But it is at least very, very encouraging that he is giving the penguins this level of play, despite being drafted just a few months ago.

I definitely think he's at least well ahead of schedule to some people overall. And Pickering, again, I know that he's talked about wanting to make this team. I don't think it's in the cards right now, but he has at least shown that he can be an option this year if injuries arise on the back end since he'll be starting the season, at least in my opinion, Wilkesbury, but I thought last night both played a very solid two-way game. Yeah, this is what you wanted to see from both of them. Like you said, Pickering has been talking about wanting to become an NHL player, and I think he's just going to be a victim of a numbers game, unfortunately.

Yeah. I think he might be ready, but not 100%. He still, I think, needs some seasoning, but he checked the early box that he needs to check, which is have a solid preseason, make yourself an option for when this season begins to where when they're inevitably will be injuries, you're going to be a guy that they're going to call on. As for Brunich, same deal. He's checking the boxes he needs to check. And they have something, they have something real in this kid. There is something there. But very similar to a guy who we used to be really high on until he was traded. Just like Brayden Yeager, it's you make your mark

in your first camp and your first preseason to where they go, all right, we got something here. But for your development, now you go back to junior and you go back and you play extremely well and you be one of the best players on your team when you go back there. And then next year, we're going to give you a real look and we're going to see if we got something in you. And for both of them, they've done the things they need to do in preseason to show that they are going to be viable options in the future.

And one last thing for me on last night's game, just this is more of a personal thing for me and you. I texted you after the Tim Stutzler goal. And I was like, oh, man, Jari's got to have that. But then watching the highlights this morning, that was just a hell of a shot. Like Jari was right where he needed to be. He was squared up to it. Stutzla is just that good. And eventually, like at some points, you got to just go, oh, man, that's a hell of a player.

And other than that, I thought Jari was very solid. and he did, again, another player who checked the boxes needed to check. He looked good. He bounced back. He played well when he needed to play well. And a great player scored a great goal in, hey, guess what? Sometimes that happens. I think he would tell you that he probably wants that one back just because that's how all goalies are overall.

But yeah, I thought he was fine. I thought Philip Larson was great in relief for Jari. I really feel like the Penguins have something there, at least for their farm system, with this goaltender. Again, curious to see how that figures itself out. over the next week and change. But that'll do it for the second segment. Coming up to end the show,

we're going to preview the Penguins Red Wings matchup after it was postponed on Saturday because the Penguins plane had some mechanical issues. Overall, and they weren't able to get to Detroit on that day, but they will be playing on Monday. But before we get to that, we'll have to tell you all about our last sponsor, and that is Fandle.

Hey, NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on Fandul, America's number one sportsbook. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view life, play-by-play, so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 and bonus bets.

Guarantee when you place your first $5 bet. That's fandle.com. All right, we're back here in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunters, Hodes, joined by my co-host Patrick Dam. So, the Penguins will play another preseason game tonight, as I said, to tease this final segment because they could not get to Detroit on Saturday. They first delayed the start time from 7 to 8.30, and then they had to postpone the game because the Penguins couldn't get there because of mechanical issues with their plane.

You were joking that the Red Wings were scared. Scared. They weren't scared just because the Penguins playing is having issues, but they will play the game at Little Caesar's Arena on Monday night. And the lineup will be a lot different this time around. You'll have the lines here, Drew O'Connor with Lars Eller and Dalterrey Pustin. You'll also have Ponomerov with Tristan Rose and Emil Benstrom, Rucker McGrathie with Nola Chari and Yesi Poo-Yarvey.

And then Avery Hayes with Jimmy Huntington and Corey and a non-O-Mor. on the fourth line. The defense is rotating. You'll have Ryan Graves in there. Jackson, Ivony, Sebastianahou, Ryan Shea, John Ludwig, et cetera, et cetera. And then the two goalies tonight, Alex Nadelcovic and Joel Blumquist overall for the penguin. So I would assume Nadelcovich is going to get the start. I think he was actually scheduled to get the start on Saturday before the game was postponed to Monday. But I'm kind of looking for the same things here that I have been throughout the preseason. Who was going to stand out for those spots for the bottom six that are up for grabs. How is Yes, you pull Yard v.

going to play? How is Valtari Prustin going to play? This is going to be, I think, Prustin's big shot to have his wow moment as well. I already discussed Rock and McGority. I think he needs to be still a little bit better during the preseason, even though I still think he's been good for the Penguins. Also, someone who we really haven't discussed much, Emil Benstrom. He was obviously with the Penguins for a good chunk of games last year after the trade. How does he stand out? Because right now, I don't think there's a spot on the team for him as this moment. I want to see more from Tristan Bros. as well. I think he's going to start the season of Wilkesbury, but I still want to see what he can do in this game. No, O'Chari, he'll be at center.

I know we've been getting a lot of, you know, comments and tweets about, oh, they got a trade Achari to keep, you know, pull Yardby and Pustin in. And while I understand what people are saying, as of this moment, I don't think they're going to trade Achari just because of his versatility at center and wing and because of his penalty killability. I think they really value his PKK ability with how good he is on that unit and how he's able to block shots. I don't think as of this moment, he's going to be traded. But of course, I could be dead wrong as I have been many times, of course, on the show. But that's what I'm kind of looking for in this game. Also, Ryan Graves, I need to keep seeing the reps there. Overall, Pat, what are you looking for in

this game against the Red Wings? Well, it's not so much what I'm looking for in this game as what I'm looking for this week, because this is going to be a very big week for, for a lot of players who are in this training camp in this preseason because you play tonight, you play again tomorrow. Yeah. And then you play again on Thursday and Friday. So they're going to have four games over the next five days. And if you're the Pittsburgh Penguins right now and you're a player on the bubble, this is.

And not just, and I know this sounds silly because we pretty much end the preseason and training camp this weekend. but this is your last shot and you're going to get a lot of them because you've got Detroit tonight, you've got them again on Tuesday, and then you got the blue jackets Thursday and Friday. So these are four very massive games for a lot of these players. One of the guys I'm keeping an eye on again tonight and I know a lot of people got mad at me for saying this yesterday during the game is Sam Poulan. he's got to stand out here. And listen, I know that the penalty he took last night was kind of a BS call.

It wasn't the greatest call. But he shouldn't be putting himself in those positions. You know, we can not to step on our cohort Chris Carter's territory here with the Steelers, but everybody was complaining about calls yesterday. Don't put yourself in that position. Don't put yourself in the position where you, a bad call. might screw up your game. And while I don't think I'm ready to be 100% out on Sam Poulin, that was a bit of a

snap reaction by me last night. Eventually, he's got to stand out. And I understand he's not going to be a dominant player. He's not going to turn into a top six star. But I need to see a full 60 minute game from him where he's one of the better players on the roster. And that has yet to happen. And the thing is, you're going to be.

giving him chance after chance to do something. Like he's been playing in quite a few of these preseason games. They're giving him quite a few reps in camp. They're giving him chances. He just has to capitalize, I feel like, at this point. And I'm just not sure he's going to be able to. And you look at, you look at what's going to happen tonight. He might be put in a good position in whether it's power play, whether it's penalty kill,

whether it's big minutes. He has to show up tonight. and if he doesn't, this really might be it for him this training camp. I will say at least the lines at the morning skate, he wasn't in the top 12. But maybe one of those players comes out for pooling or something like that. But just wanted to throw that caveat out there to everyone that's listening to slash watching this show.

But if he does play and one of the fourth liners comes out like Jimmy Huntington, for example, he does have to show out tonight. Like that's the biggest thing here. No matter how many games he plays in this pretext, he's in how many more games, I should say. He's got to have one where it looks like we're seeing some legit progress with him because they are giving him chances and he hasn't been able to do just a lot with them yet. And if he's not able to, again, I feel like this is going to be his last shot with the team

overall. And then on the other side of the coin, the other player I want to keep an eye on is McGroity. And that's just because it fills in exactly what we have been looking for. He has been fine enough. He has not looked out of place. he, but he needs to look like he's ready to take the next step as a professional hockey player. Does he need to dominate tonight? No.

But it needs to be, if I can make a comparison, very similar to Poolyarvey to where he doesn't need to be the most dominant player on the ice, but be involved in everything, be good on the forecheck, get some scoring chances, look good in all three zones. He does that. And I think there's a world where it gets back to what I have been saying. about him where you go, all right, listen, you're going to start in the HL. And it's because we want you to play a lot. We want you to have top six minutes. You are better served to play than to be used in limited roles or even healthy scratched.

So go down to Wokes Bear, light it up. And then when we get to December, January, maybe even earlier, when we call you up, you're getting the call. You're not just getting called up to the NHL to play in limited minutes. You're getting the call up to play. Right. It's kind of just to cross sports a little bit. It's kind of like with the MLB, you know, with, I'm not trying to make an apples to apples comparison, but you know, Dylan Cruz, Paul Schen's just, you know, when you get the call, you're coming up for good and to play. Like, not you're not just going to be alternating from the minor leagues to the NHL, all that because of obviously, you know, Paul

is probably, you know, when rookie of the year for the Pirates and then Dylan Cruz had a really nice end of the season for the Nationals. But just wanted to make a little comparison there, even though, again, those two players, I think overall, you know, just at their respective sport are more talented than Grosity. But I still felt the comparison was at least a little bit cool overall to end the show. But I think with that said, that will end today's episode of the Locktime 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 episode for you all on Tuesday to recap this game. against the Red Wings and get you all set for Tuesday's preseason game as well. But again, thank you all so much for listening. We really appreciate it and we'll be back on Tuesday.