Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Evgeni Malkin's hot start for the Penguins continues in Montreal!

Episode Date: October 15, 2024

It's Evgeni Malkin's world and we're just living in it. Malkin has turned back the clock to start the 2024=25 season and it continued on Monday night in Montreal. Hunter and Patrick discuss the Penguins win over the Canadiens and how Geno played a huge part in that victory. They also discuss how this season feels different early on as the Penguins are getting something they have so sorely missed the last couple of seasons - depth scoring! They look at how the depth is helping out the stars this year before  discussing Tristan Jarry and his mixed performance. They look at the goals he gave up before he gave them a solid 20 minutes in the third period. Finally, they dive into Jesse Puljujarvi's game and how he should never come out of the lineup before doing a look ahead for the rest of the week.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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.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. HimsVisit Hims.com/LOCKEDON to start your free online visit. 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 Penguins finished their three-game road trip in a very strong way on Monday, and Pat and I are going to discuss that win against the Canadians right after this. Your Locked-on Penguin. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguin. 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, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, joined by my host, Patrick Damp.

you can follow him on Twitter at Center for Wet, and you can follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O. UnderSore Penguins, of course, thank you so much for making this your first lesson slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. Place your first $5 bet, and you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets. Guaranteed visit fandul.com to get started. So, Pat, I know you remember the shirt I was wearing yesterday for the Monday episode, the Poison shirt, one of my favorite bands from the 80s and they have so many great songs, including nothing but a good time off the album, open up and say, ah, and speaking of that song, nothing but a good time, that's exactly

what the Penguins had in Montreal on Monday night, getting that 6 to 3 win, getting the 2 and 2 overall in the season, and now they have four points overall, heading back to Pittsburgh for a Wednesday matchup against the Buffalo Sabres. We'll preview that matchup for you all on Wednesday before recapping that game for you all later in the week. But speaking of this game, we have to start. with Evgeny Fricken Malkin, with the way that he is playing right now, seven points in four games to open the season.

And heck, if you take out that game against the Rangers where virtually no one played well, he has seven points in three games to open the season. And he is now tied for the league lead in points, four games into the season. This is something special, what we're witnessing right now with Fgeny Malkin. He looks like he's 28 compared to 38.

And yes, people, I know it's only four games, but he is playing at such a high level right now that it's crazy. I mean, his skating looks like he's 10 years younger. His playmaking looks like he was back in 2016. I mean, that pass to Raquel to get the goal was tremendous. And heck, he's getting defensive zone starts on a six on five, which Mike Sullivan never does. That's crazy. You also saw him get another assist on that Chris Latangal.

And it looked like he was lining up for the one-timer. and I would not have faulted him at all if he decided to take that one timer. But he's like, no, I'm going to slow it down just a little bit. Find Chris Letang for that pass. And San Montemot, there's no chance for him on that goal. And Latang just fires that in the back of the net. Just a beautiful all-around play from Matt Grizzly to Abgeny Malkin to Chris Latang. But Malkin is very much, at least in my opinion, the best player on the Penguins right now.

And he has been carrying them through these first four games. there's a lot of good performances that we can discuss for the Penguins, not just in this game, but overall to start this season, but Evgeny Malkin, to me, by far the Penguins best player to start this season. And it's like we said for a lot of last season, if you give him competent linemates, he is going to cook. He was producing quite a few scoring chances throughout last season, but no one was there to finish them. Riley Smith wasn't playing well. He had Colin White on his line at times, but now you have Michael Bunting, even though he hasn't scored this season, he is still a very competent line mate. And you have Ricard Raquel, who is starting to bounce back,

which I think is going to be a big deal for this team if he continues down this path. You give him these linemates, it's no wonder what he can do overall. But shout out to Gino, man. He's had one heck of a start. And again, he's looking like he's 10 years younger at this point. One goal away from 500 career goals. So he's still on milestone. own watch despite already getting two of them this year already. It's really something to watch because one thing I wanted to keep my eye on with Hvgeny Malkin going into this season was how he adapted his game because you could see the last few years. He was frustrated. He could tell that father time was catching up with him. He didn't have the same ability to

just decide to dominate a game. You don't. see those plays from him anymore, at least not as often, where he just picks the puck up, gallops, beats everybody, goes in and scores. They still happen from time to time. He still possesses that ability, but he doesn't possess the ability to just flip the switch anymore. The biggest thing I'm noticing from Evgeny Malkin is that he's playing a much more efficient game. He's not trying to do too much. He's not trying to play outside of his abilities anymore or try to beat back his limitations. You watch the game, you watch the game last night and everything he did was done with a purpose. It wasn't just, I'm going to freestyle here and pick up the puck and see what happens.

Everything had a purpose. You mentioned the Chris Latang goal. He knew that he had Latang come in late, and he knew that Montembo had gotten over by the time that pass got there. So he sells out shot to freeze everybody and slips it over to Latang, and Latang's got an entire net to shoot at. And then to your other point with when it comes to his line, when it comes to Raquel, when it comes to bunting and Malkin himself, the skating is back. That's the biggest thing.

Raquel has his legs once again. He is looking like an absolute maniac on the forecheck. Michael Bunting, we know what Michael Bunting does. We have been praising it forever. So the fact that you have, Evgeny Malkin playing within his own game, playing a much more mature game, and putting him with two players who suddenly have a bunch of juice,

if Gennie Malkin is leading the NHL in points now. Yeah. And he has, at least when you compare his linemates to compare to Crosby's, he finally has the go-to linemates over SIG. He's usually Sid was getting the first dibs, right? especially with Gensel all those years and even before that, obviously with Kunitz. Koonitz was mostly hog by Crosby, but he was sometimes playing with Gino as well.

Gino was kind of getting the second fiddlings, I would say there. But this year, he has the big line mates compared to Crosby. And Rust, obviously, him and Crosby, been together for a while, Anthony Bavillier, he's only four games into his Penguins tenure, but let's be honest with you, people. I think Bavillier definitely serves his team better and a bottom six role. But it's just nice to see Gino getting the big line. mates this year compared to previous years where that would go to Crosby and Malkin would kind of go again second fiddle with that in my opinion but again just a great start from him and I really think

he's going to keep this up especially if Raquel continues to bounce back you said it he's been a menace on the forecheck all year he has his legs he has his shot back he does not look anything like the player that we saw to start last season where he was just nowhere to be found and obviously he was a bit banged up with his injury but he looks healthy and getting him back to being a 20 to 25 goal score next to Malkin, I think would be a massive deal for this team. Moving on a little bit from Muggan, another player that I do want to shout out for his efforts in this game as well. And honestly, the entire season, Pat, Eric Carlson. He has had a great start to this season. He was all over the ice in this one. Hit the post on one of the shots.

Offensively, though, he finished with an assist. But he's been great in his own zone. He's been great offensively. His skating has been beautiful. Underline numbers really matched the eye test. When he was on the ice, almost 19 minutes of five-on-five ice time last night. When he was on there, Penguins had 61% of the shot attempts, four goals for, two goals against, 76% expected goals for rate, 62% scoring chances for rate. He has been by far the Penguins best defenseman to start the season, at least in my opinion. And this is looking like the Eric Carlson that we saw to end last season.

He's very much bringing that mojo into this season and looking like the Carlson that I think we all expected to see at the start last season. Again, it was nice seeing that version of them come out in the final month of last year. And it's even better to see it to start this full season. It is. One thing I want to make sure is clear here. He has to produce. He has to put up points.

But I would implore our listeners to more so keep an eye on what he brings to the table away from that and it's everything you're talking about. His skating is very good. He's doing enough defensively that you're not too worried about him being a liability on the back end. And he's doing things that lead to offense. He's willing to shoot the puck a lot more this year, which we've talked about. And that is huge for him.

He is at his best when he has a shot first mentality rather than looking to dish the puck off. But with that said, he also does have incredible vision. So everything he's doing right now looks a lot more like the Eric Carlson we expected. And if he continues to play this way, the goals, the points, they're going to come. It's, again, we talked about this yesterday. We're still very much in the portion of the season where I'm more concerned with the process than I am the result just yet. Again, you want to stack points.

You don't want to put yourself behind the eight ball. but when you're watching the way this team is playing games, when you're watching the way they're running their systems and the way players are performing, you look at it and think, okay, if they're continuing to do this into December, January, February, these are things that are going to lead to wins.

On a much more micro level, you look at the way Eric Carlson is playing right now, and you think, okay, the way he's playing, it's going to lead to offense, it's going to lead to power play opportunities, and it's going to lead to goals. So very happy with his game right now. And you kind of beat me to it.

This is the Eric Carlson we were expecting to get at the start of last year and we didn't. And now to start this year, even despite missing training camp, he looks very motivated and similar to Gino and similar to even a guy like Ricard Raquel. It looks like whatever was ailing him last year is not ailing him this year. Right. And speaking of his production, he does have three points in four games to open the season, which is very good. I expect him to keep producing as the season goes on, but it's just nice to see him really

contributing on a nightly basis to open the season compared to last year, where it took him a little bit to get going. But speaking of someone who still needs to get going, we'll just end the first segment here. I do want to see more from Cindy Crosby. I felt like last night was his worst game of the season so far. And again, people, I'm not concerned about 87. I'll put that right out there for everyone.

I think Crosby is going to be totally fine. I expect him to be at least a point for game player this year. but he is starting the season a bit slow. And the fact that they are two and two, despite Crosby, willing having not done too much, I mean, he has three points in four games, which again is good, but he hasn't scored yet.

He didn't play that well against Montreal last night. The fact that they're two and two, and again, he hasn't taken over a game, it feels like yet, that can only be good news for this team moving forward because you are going to see a lot of vintage performances from him this year. It's just they haven't come just yet. It hasn't been the best start for Sid, but by no stretch of the imagination, has he been bad?

No. It's just, it's, it's been an uncharacteristically slow start. But like it is with a guy like Sidney Crosby all the time, you are seeing flashes of it. We, in the Toronto game, he has that deflection that hits the post 99 times out of 100 that goes in the net. And same thing in the Toronto game. the decision to let the puck go to Marcus Pedersen, which led to Marner's goal, that's something he rarely ever does.

So he's, I don't want to say struggling early because that's not the right word, but it's just, it's a slow start, but I'm seeing parts of his game that have always been there. And once it all clicks together, which I think it's going to over the next week, especially as this team gets ready to go to Western Canada,

where he historically feasts on teams up there, we're going to be okay. But it's something to keep in the back of your head right now because while it's not concerning, it's something to keep an eye on. Now watching Guaweil on Wednesday and get that 1600th point and then also maybe get Evgeny Malkins 500th goal, a couple big milestones coming up for both of those players and they'll have a chance to do it tomorrow. But that'll do it for this opening segment.

Coming up in the second segment, we're going to discuss something that's also been back, at least to start the season. And that is depth scoring something that the Penguins really didn't have a lot of last year. Pat and I are going to discuss that. Plus Tristan Jari's play coming up here in the second segment. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor, and that is Fandul. Hey, NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on Fandle, 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 live, play-by-play,

and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 and bonus bets, guarantee where 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, Huns or Hodes, joined by my host, Patrick Dam. So, Pat, something that we harped on this team a lot last season, depth scoring. Well, at least to start the season, the Penguins are getting quite a bit of depth scoring. Kevin Hayes gets the game winner on Monday night.

Really nice goal in front of the net. Really nice job by Carlson to get that puck to the front of the net on a shot rebound. And then Hayes is right there to pounce on it. Nice job from him. I mean, he's also, I feel like, had a really nice start to his Penguins tenure as well. And Lars Eller, two insane rockets of shots. I mean, those were gorgeous releases. Yassi Poo-Yarvi gets the assist on one of them.

And also, speaking of Yassie Poole-R-V, we'll talk about him in a second. There's no reason to take him out of the lineup. He is by far one of the Penguins 12 best forwards. He put that on display yet again on Monday. There is no reason to scratch him from this lineup. But speaking of Lars Eller, two big goals in a building where he scored quite a lot of goals, considering that he played for the Canadians earlier in his career. But again, the release on both those shots was tremendous.

And it's really nice to see the depth scoring returning this year. You get two goals from Lars Eller to start the year. Two from Kevin Hayes. You have two from Anthony Bavillier. And while he is playing on Crosby's line, I still think of him more as a depth forward overall, as I've said quite a few times on the show. You also have a goal from Drew O'Connor to start the year.

Marcus Pedersen has even scored a goal to start the year. you're getting goals from other places in the lineup, that's not the big guns. I'm heck, even Chris Lange has a couple of goals in his first four games. And it's, again, it's nice to see production from the bottom six returning this year, compared to last year where production was very few and far between. You, you kind of hinted at it there about Anthony Bavillier. I'm still counting him as a depth forward despite being on Crosby's line to start the year. Now, they've worked well together.

think that's a good sign in the sense that if Drew O'Connor goes back up and it doesn't work out or DOC gets hurt, you know that you have a guy who's got some chemistry with Sidney Crosby available on your lineup and who has shown he has the ability to play with him. What do I always say? Being able to play with elite talent is a skill within itself because it's not easy to do. But I think in the last couple years, especially the last two seasons, We talked ourselves into these penguins teams because the big guns were carrying the load. And when you looked under the hood and saw basically how useless the depth was, you could see the tsunami coming.

You were just trying to convince yourself it wasn't going to be that bad. This year, on the other hand, and again, four games in, it's hard to take any serious look at this team. But if you're going to look at it right now, in this exact moment, the depth is stepping up. And what did we finish the first segment with, talking about how it's been kind of an uncharacteristically slow start for Sidney Crosby.

The last two seasons, an uncharacteristically slow start for Sidney Crosby would have buried this team because there would have been nobody there to pick up the slack. This year, on the other hand, like you said, Kevin Hayes, two goals, Anthony Bavillet, two goals, Lars Eller, a two goal night. A couple other guys are stepping up in producing. So you can afford Sidney Crosby and the other guys some time to figure it out if your depth scoring is stepping up. And they are this year. And these guys, as we have said in the off season, they don't have to be 25, 30 goal scores.

But 10, 15 goals, you combine your bottom six to have 30, 40 goals in total. That's a team that makes the playoffs. So early returns from the penguin's depth is very good. And again, four games in. You can't make any grand statements or gestures about this team yet. But when the guys in the bottom six are playing this way, it's a good sign for the rest of the season. Right. I mean, you go back to the point you just made about Crosby, Pat.

Last season, the Penguins at least to start the year, it felt like they were a one-line team with Crosby, Jake. And then even though Riley Smith was on a Evgeny Malkins line on the second line, that line wasn't doing anything to start the year. And then the bottom six, they also weren't doing that much either. It felt like they were a one-line team. So this year, you have Evgeny Malkins line stepping up. And while Bavilla does have a couple of goals, Crosby has a few assists. Crosby, he hasn't had the start compared to last year. Now, this year, you have more depth, and that's been able to at least help out this team

compared to last year where, again, the depth just was nowhere to be found. And the team was relying, it felt like, on Crosby and Genssel to carry low. And don't get me wrong, this team definitely misses someone like a Jake Gensel. in the lineup. But this year, it's just nice, at least through four games. We're having the discussion that the depth scoring is starting to return at least a little bit. And I do want to get to YSie Poole Jarvie now. He came back into the lineup on Monday. And as I hinted at a few minutes ago, there is no reason to take him out. He passes the eye test. His underlying numbers were tremendously at again last night. And almost 12 minutes of five on five ice time. Pull Yarvey

was on the ice for 68% of the shot attempts, one goal for, no goals against 80% of the expected goals, 66% of the scoring chances. He was on the third line with Drew O'Connor and Lars Eller, and they were generating chances all night long, have the assist on Lars Ellery. First goal to open the scoring. Had a couple other really nice passes later in the game. He's seeing the ice so well right now. He again continues to look like a completely different player. I know that the depth is a bit better this year, but he is by far one of the Penguins 12 best forwards. There is no reason to scratch him. I understand that Rucker McGority was a scratch last night. And while I do want to see more out of him,

I do think a send down to Wilkesbury might be coming for him just to get him, you know, top line minutes, top power play times, just because Kyle Dubas even said before the season, if he's going to get scratched, I don't want that to happen. I want him to be playing meaningful games and getting playing time. So I do think that could be coming for McGrady at this point, which I don't think is going to be the worst thing in the world for him. But to sum this all up,

Jesse Pooyarvey needs to be in the lineup on a nightly basis. He does. Just like the way he ended last season where he was one of their 12 best forwards, he was making an impact in one way or another down the stretch. He has started this season the same way. And I've been saying this about him for quite a while now. You need to, in me included, to an extent, have to change your thinking about Jesse Pooeyerby.

Yes, he was a fourth overall pick. But his ceiling at this point is good second line winger. But he is going to thrive in a bottom six role because he plays a game tailored to the bottom six. He has a, he completely has his legs back. He has been moving every game he's been in this season. He has shown flashes of speed we didn't see last year, which I think we can chalk up to the double hip surgery. He does not care what player you are on the opposing team.

If you are between him and the puck, he is going to hit you in one way or another. And the vision is there. That's the most underrated part of his game is he has really good vision. He can see the ice very well. And we saw that with his assist last night. He is playing some of the best hockey we've ever seen him play as a penguin. And I agree with you. there is absolutely no reason to take him out of the lineup until he goes into a funk,

which not seeing a lot of signs of him going into a funk anytime soon. Agreed, 100%. And one more player to discuss before we go to the final segment of today's show. And that is, of course, number 35, Tristan Jari, a very mixed game, I feel like from him. Pat and I disagree a little bit on Jari's performance, so I'll go first. I think with Jari, you definitely can't blame him for the second goal. Letang lost Slavkovsky in front on the penalty kill. Jari's not going to save that.

The first goal, this is where Pat and I disagree. I blame Jari a lot more for that goal because he bit on the fake from the point and then his movement going from right to left was so slow. I feel like had his movement been better, he would have been able to get over to the other side a bit more quicker and get the save. Again, I understand he bit on the fake, but I feel like he has enough time to slide to the left. and make that save. Again, that's just my opinion. The third goal, I chalked that up. I don't think that's a bad goal to allow, but I think that's a situation where you need a timely save. You're giving up an on-man rush. It's the second period. You're not really playing that well in that period. You need a save there. You need a save from your goalie and for him to be like, okay, guys,

I made the save. I got you. How about all you settled down? Get back into this. I'm going to be here whenever you need me to make more saves. And two jari's, credit, his third period was tremendous. He made a lot of very good timely saves in that period, especially on Montreal's power play, and on the six on five where it felt like all five skaters were out there for an eternity. He made some really nice saves there. That was the best 20 minutes of hockey. I've seen Tristan Jari play all year. And that came after, I even tweeted this during the game. It felt like those first two periods, he was playing like someone who was broken. He was playing like someone who literally had no confidence in his game at all. But whatever was said during

the second intermission. He took it and ran with it for the third period because he did play well in the third, made some good saves. I will say, I am still concerned about him for this season, but I still want to see if he can maybe build on those final 20 minutes and take that for a full 60 for his next start. Pat, those are my thoughts on number 35 for this game. What say you? Yeah, my concerns on him have not been solved. I'm still, I'm still very worried about him. However, the disagreement we have because we're running a little long here. I'll just get right to that is I understand your point. I understand he bites on the fake. He doesn't get to side to side fast enough. However, there's an underrated part of that that I think a lot of people missed in trying to assign blame to

Tristan Jari for that. And that was your Islavkovsky. He set just enough of a screen in front that you can see when you watch the way Jari moves. He gets just enough in front of Jari that Jari loses sight of where the puck is for a split second. And by the time he tracks it, he doesn't have time to get over for the shot. Now, I agree. Biting on that fake isn't great. And the movement wasn't awesome either. But you do have to take into account that a huge body like Slavkovsky is exactly

where he's supposed to be. And your defense has to be either ready to or able to move him out from the front to give Jari a chance to see it. as for the other two goals, the power play goal that Montreal scores, that's way too aggressive by Chris LaTang in the corner where he goes for the hit. It's fine to do that if you know you're going to get possession, but he didn't get possession and that completely frees up Slavkovsky for that tap in.

And then the other goal, the third goal, it's a rocket of a shot. It was a great play in the defensive zone by the Canadians to clear that puck out. This wasn't an odd man rush created by the penguins making a bad pinch. Montreal made a great play to spring that two on one. And like you said, rocket of a shot, great, great shot. However, far side, top shelf in that moment, defense plays it well, forces the got the puck carrier to shoot, completely takes away the cross crease pass.

You got to, when you're in the position Tristan Jari is in right now in his career, you have to make that save. He hasn't built up enough goodwill to go. You know, sometimes that shot just goes in. But yeah, I mean, that goal against from the point, I can understand why people want to blame him for it, but I'm not ready to completely blame it on him. Right.

No, I hear you, but I will say again, it was nice that he had a good 20 minutes with the game tied in the third period, and he was able to give the team a chance to take the lead with some timely saves during Montrose Power Play, and then was able to preserve the 5-3 lead with the five skaters on the ice who were just dead tired because the Canadians were really doing whatever they wanted in the offensive zone.

He was able to come up with a couple of big saves. Again, my hope is that he's able to carry that over for a full 60, but I agree with you that I'm still concerned about his overall game two starts from his end of the season. But that'll do it for the second, second thing. Coming up to end the show, Pat and I are going to discuss how great of a road trip this was, overall and how the penguins can carry this play into the rest of this week before they have

another massive road trip starting this weekend in Winnipeg and then into Western Canada next week. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about our last sponsor, and that is Hymns. Guys, sometimes intimate moments happen spontaneously, and we always want to be ready so we can perform in the bedroom. Hems provides access to treatments that can help you stay hard and last longer, giving you that boost of confidence so you can be ready whenever the mood strikes. Hems is charging men's health care by providing you with access to affordable, sexual, health treatments from the comfort of your couch. It also provides access to a ride of doctor-trusted ED treatments like Chewable Hardmints

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I thought the Penguins, as a whole on this three-game trip, played very well. You get that very good effort against Detroit, where you played, I would say, 45 to 50 minutes of very strong hockey in that game against the Red Wings against the Naples. You start out 20, very strong minutes. You kind of falter a little bit in the final 40, but I still. still don't think the Penguins played bad. The Leafs just played a bit better to end that game. And then in this game against the Canadians, the first period was even better than the first period

against the Maple Leafs. You slack off a little bit in the second period where the game opened up a bit. And then in the third period, the Penguins just took the Canadians to the woodshed overall. I mean, you look at the underlying numbers overall for that period. The Penguins led and Shahtam, 68% of those. They also had 13 scoring chances for, five scoring chances against, seven high danger chances for, three high danger chances against. And then again, you know, two goals for zero against that five on five. You also have the six on five goal. But again, I would say 45, also very strong minutes for the penguins in that game against Montreal,

still want to see the full 60. But they're playing mostly well these last three games. And that can hopefully only be good things heading into their second home game this Wednesday against the Sabres, a team that has also struggled to start the year. After that, you have the Carolina Hurricanes who they have struggled against. I think their defensive system just kind of gives. the Penguins fits overall, especially these last two years. And then you have that massive road trip next week, you know,

Winnipeg, you go to Edmonton, Vancouver, and Calgary. That's why a win like this is so important because the schedule, at least in October, is so daunting. And I understand we're only four games into the season, but it's important to bank these points when you can and show these teams that, you know, that are kind of around you in the standings, that you're better than them, you know, a team like Montreal, a team like Detroit.

and then, you know, heading into this game against Buffalo, it's the same thing. I want the Penguins to show that they're better than them, heading into a game against Carolina, a division rival that should be a playoff team this year with the Penguins. If things go better than expected, they could be competing with them for, you know, third, fourth in the Metro, all that good stuff.

But that's why, again, a win like this is just very important, and a road trip like this is very important too. They got done what they needed to get done. I think it was Mike Sullivan who said it that they won the road trip. And they did. They come out of it over 500. You get you get two wins over teams that are essentially in the same spot as you are fighting for playoff bubble positioning. And you play really well against a very good Toronto Maple Leafs team, which is very encouraging. So then you take a look at this season so far as a whole and a four game rolling average right now.

You can kind of forget about the home opener at this point. But that's a team that you didn't expect most likely to get a win over because New York. is very, very good. You get the win over Detroit, which was very encouraging. You like the way they played against Toronto. You would have liked to have held on and won the game, but such is life. And then last night against Montreal, great bounce back from them after blowing the lead and then just taking the wood to Montreal from that point forward.

And now you've got a Buffalo team coming to town that they are in the barrel right now. They were supposed to be a lot better this year. And it's not looking like they are just yet. so you have to take advantage of that. And it's hard to get a bead on Carolina right now because they've played all of one game. They play the Devils tonight and we'll see how that goes for them. But they lose 4-1 to Tampa Bay in their opener. Then because of all of the hurricanes and everything,

they have another, they're supposed to have another game in Tampa that gets postponed. So it's hard to get a beat on them. But we know it's a team that gives them fits. But if you can get a point or two out of that game before you head to Western Canada, you have given yourself a little bit of a cushion to maybe drop a game or two in Western Canada because we know how daunting that trip is. And that's not just a penguin specific thing.

That is a very difficult swing. So right now I'm happy with where the penguins have started the season, but now the challenge is to build off of it and show that they can start putting points in the bank, unlike the last couple of years to where they gave themselves next to no margin of error, that can be the biggest difference this year, more so than anything else, is if they go into December, January, February with a little bit of a margin for error, this might be a better way to get back to the playoffs. Right. And that's why I feel like these next two games at home, especially are so important, because if you're able to get all four points, go four and two overall, it gives you at least

a small cushion heading into that four-game trip to Winnipeg, Edmonton, et cetera, et cetera. And also, I will say you might be getting some of these Western Canadian teams at the right time, especially the Oilers. They have had a really bad start to the season. They have not looked good in any of their games so far. So the Penguins, they could be getting them potentially at the right time, even though the Oilers have, let's face it, they've kind of dominated these last several matchups against the Penguins. It's still going to be a fun game. But I'd rather play them again right now compared to later in the season when I figure the Oilers are going to wake up. The flames have had a good start, but I feel like that's probably not going to last.

I don't think the flames are that good. Vancouver, that game in Vancouver last year was one of the games of the year I felt like for the Penguins, but that's still going to be a very hard game. And then Winnipeg, we all know how great Connor Hellebuck is and how great they were last year. That's still going to be a very tough game as well. But again, that's why it's important that if you're able to sweep these next two games at home, give yourself a bit of a cushion heading into that four-game trip. That would be pretty important overall.

but I think that will do it for today's episode of 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 if you all on Wednesday to preview that matchup against the Sabres and Warrior Helmet Wednesday returns, Pat. I wonder who we're going to give it to for the first week of the season. I think we're going to have the same pick for this one for the first four games overall. But that returns on Wednesday again, as well as previewing the matchup against the Buffalo Sabers. But for Patrick Camp, I'm Hunter.

hodies. Thank you so much for tuning in. We appreciate it and we'll be back on Wednesday.