Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - FAN TAKE FRIDAY: The BEST Penguins games, no more shootout curses, and more!

Episode Date: September 11, 2026

It’s a Fan Take Friday edition of Locked On Penguins, and we’re going over the best games of all time, breaking the shootout curse, and much more! Hunter and Patrick begin the Friday edition of Locked On Penguins by discussing a question from a listener: What are some of the best Penguins regular-season games they wish they could have been in the building for? (1:00) Then, they talk about the shootout curse and how the Penguins can break it this year, whether the Penguins will return to the playoffs, and who they’ll play on a hypothetical playoff run. (11:30) Finally, they talk about Sergei Murashov’s expectations and some needs on the trade market! (20:15)Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!OdooGreat organizations win because operations matter. And that’s why you should get Odoo. Try for free today at https://Odoo.com/lockedon. IndeedNow, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to https://indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelGet three hundred fifty dollars in Bonus Bets — GUARANTEED — when you bet five dollars every day for seven days. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COM 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.

Which Penguins regular season game do Pat and I wish we could have attended? We're going to discuss that, plus a lot more topics on this edition of Fansake Friday on the Locked-on Penguins podcast. You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome to the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunters, Hotties. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunser Hodes. Joined by my co-st, Patrick Damp, you can follow him on most social media platforms at Sendem for Wet. You can also follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins.

And you can find us on Instagram at Locked-on underscore Penguins. And of course, thank you all so much for making this your first lesson slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms a bit later on the show. We're going to answer a couple of questions slash react to a couple of takes about the Penguins and some shootouts for the upcoming season. But to start things off, Pat, we got a really cool question from a listener. We got a DM on our page,

and this comes from Kira, who says, a question for you and Pat tomorrow for Fan Take Friday. If you could have attended any regular season Penguins game in history, which game would you choose and why? I feel like there are so many valid answers here. Pat, I know you have a couple, and we're going to get to that in just a second. One for me, definitely Crosby's comeback game

against the Islanders, just seeing how insane the building was. It felt like just when I was watching it on TV, it was absolutely shaking. The way that he scored the goal and the comeback, the celebration. I could watch the whole game because I had to go to hockey practice halfway through, but I had like the biggest smile on my face during it.

But I wish I could have attended that game just because of the magnitude of it and just the way that Crosby played, the performance that he put up, I think, reminding everyone, oh yeah, I'm still that guy. And then one more for me, and this one's also during the Crosby era, I know you have a really good one during the Lemieux era that you're going to get to. November 16th, 2005, when Crosby had his teeth knocked out by Dary and Hatcher in Philadelphia. And that was kind of the start of the fine Philadelphia crowd hating him for literally the rest of his career.

I wish I could have been in that building just to see Cid's score and then just react to all the Flyers fans. come on man it really would not get much better than that now i would want to be the age i am right now because at the time i was only in elementary school so not at that age but if i would have been like a little bit older like around the age i am right now inject those reactions right into my veins after sid scores in that game please i'm not sure you'd have made it out of the then mochaovia center alive because that was an irate crowd and understandably so That OT game winner, I mean, just seeing the look on all the Flyers faces and all their fans, when I watch it back all the time, if I could have been in there for that, oh,

they, they got the blood that they wanted, but they didn't get the result that they wanted, which makes it even sweeter. I'm also with you on the Crosby comeback game in 2011. Fun story. I was on, I believe, Thanksgiving break from college at that point. and one of the last of my college friends was finally turning 21, and he lived in New Jersey, and hilariously also a Flyers fan, and we all went out to New Jersey because for his 21st birthday,

we were going to Atlantic City, which was a lot of fun, so I got to see that, and then jet over to Atlantic City. Not literally jet. We drove. We weren't those kind of people, but we did get to go to Atlantic City right after, so that was a lot of fun. The one that came to mind for me, New Year's Eve, 1988, Mario Lemieux, five goals, five ways at the old civic arena, scores an even strength goal, a power play goal, a short-handed goal, a penalty shot goal, and an empty net goal. I mean, we, both of us are a little too young and in Hunter's case, definitely too young to really have been around for, like, prime Mario Lemieux, like late 80s, early 90s. But the dominance of Mario Lemieux was on display that night when he just absolutely went off.

And it shows a little bit both how great Mario Lemieux was and how different the game used to be. Because think about everything that I just said, even strength, understandable. Lemieux is probably going to lead the team and even strength ice time. Power play. Of course, Mario Lemieux is going to be on your top power play. Why wouldn't he? Short-handed goal, they have Mario Lemieux on their penalty kill because he was a really good penalty killer. Empty net goal, penguins up by a goal late in the game. Who do they throw over the boards? Mario Lemieux. So it shows just how utterly dominant 66 was and just how different the game was in the late 80s.

that one would have been really cool to be at the other one and this is one that i was actually in the building for crosbie's 500th goal against yes it yeah the flyers and no i don't mean his 500th goal against the pliers though i'd understand if you thought he had 500 against them because he forchers them but i remember this was really coming out of the pandemic I know it was 2022, but things were really starting to ramp up and we were basically entirely back to normal. And I was sitting at home and reading like the game preview and getting ready to maybe go to bed because I had to work early the next day.

And something in my brain went, it's the Flyers. It's at home. Sidney Crosby is going to score his 500 goal. Because if you remember in the lead up to that, you kind of went goalless for a few games and sat at 499 and we were all kind of like, when is 500 going to get here? When is 500 going to get here? And then you saw Philly on the calendar at home, at EPG.

And I was like, I pulled out my credit card. I went on to GameTime or Subhub or Seatheek, whichever one it was and went, I'm buying a single ticket. I'm going. I'm sitting in the building. And I am going to see him score number 500. And sure enough, off of the feed from a Benny Mall, and on the power play, he gets number five.

Yeah, I remember watching that game when I was living in Virginia at the time. And you just kind of knew once the game started, this was probably going to happen just because he has tortured the Flyers so much throughout his career. If there was another one I could have picked, it's actually even more recent, Pat, the game this past season when he passed Mary Lemieux for the all-time points record in franchise history against the Canadians. that one. Also, they won that game in a shootout. So even better, but still, just being in the building for that, I think would have been cool. And I'm going to cheat a little bit here. I'm going to go a little bit beyond the regular season.

I wish I could have been in the building for the 91 Cup final against the North Stars when Mario had his signature goal. Just seeing that live, seeing the crowd react to it, inject that into my veins. I really wish I could have been in the building for that goal in 19th. that's a really good one there's another one that i was just that just came to mind i got to look up to make sure i get the right date on this um but it is another penguin's flyers game yep this this is the game it was april 18th 2012 and i do believe it was in pittsburgh if i am correct here but either way this was the game when we am immediately knew that it was going to be penguins versus flyers in the first round.

And it was little did we know the precursor to that series. It was when there was the massive hit on Breyer at Center Ice in the game just completely devolved from there. You had Bilesma and La Violette sniping at one another on the bench. The entire game devolved into nothing but fighting. And listen, I know that series in that season was a circus, but that to me was the absolute and total peak of the modern Penguins Flyers rivalry because it took a clean hit on Breyer. I know that Flyers fans don't like it because it was Breyer and you never want to see your star player get hit. But all it took was one hit and those guys were ready to. kill one another. Being a building for that had to have been insane.

Oh, 100%. That would have been crazy to be at even though the Penguins lost that game. And we saw what happened at the end. We knew the series was going to happen. To this day, that is still the most chaotic Penguin Playoff series that I've watched throughout my lifetime. No defense, no goaltending, just pure chaos. Every single game, high-scoring games. I know the Penguins lost that series, but some of those games were insanely entertaining. I think especially

for a neutral viewer, they were probably eating up that series every single time those two teams played. Still, most chaotic series out there, but some really cool memories there, and I think that's going to do it for our first segment. Coming up in the second segment, we got a couple of comments about the shootout in the Penguins for

the upcoming 26-27 season, and we're going to discuss that coming up right after this. But before we get to that, we have to get to our first sponsor, which is Indeed. Support for today's episode comes from Indeed's sponsor jobs. When Workplace Chaos hits and you need the right hire, Indeed, sponsor jobs helps connect employers with candidates who match specific needs like skills, certifications, and locations. So less time gets spent searching and more time gets spent finding the right fit. People are finding quality hires on Indeed right now. And in the minute that I've been talking you, companies like yours have made 27 hires on Indeed, according to Indeed data worldwide.

Listeners of the show, you will get a $75 sponsor job credit to help your job get your post. The premium status it deserves at Indeed.com slash podcast. Just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash podcast terms and conditions apply need to hire. this is a job for Indeed's sponsor jobs. All right, we're back here on the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunterser Hodes, joined by my co-Cost, Patrick Damp and Pat. Let's get to a couple other comments here, and there's a couple good ones about the shootout.

This first one comes from Jordan. The shootout curse will be lifted this season and the Penguins will finish the regular season with 100 or more points. I love the confidence for 100 or more points that they had obviously great season last year. We'd love to see them go over 100 points this year. And I am hoping that you are right about the shootouters because it's been fly out bad for these last several seasons. We've complained quite a lot about it, how they haven't gotten saves. None of the moves are original. And speaking of that, another really cool comment here from Jonathan Campbell, Damues will win a goaltender interference call this year, God willing. Oh, and Cindy

Crosby will try a new shootout move. I really hope he does because I can only take so much of him just skating in. Again, I love the guy, and I know everyone loves the guy, but I can only take so much of him just skating in and firing off a low percentage shot that is just not going to go in the back of the net. Give me a deak, Sid. Like, I know you're a bit older now. I know you probably hate the shootout.

Not many players, probably like the shootout anyway. But give me a deke. So got a couple people here who are a bit more confident about the shootout this upcoming season, Though I will say, I hope we get less shootouts this year than we did last year. You and me both, man, just in general, because we know they stunk at them and have stunk at them for the past few years and we're just over them overall. But it's ironic that the last few years, SIDS only move has been to just skate wide and look to shoot across the grain. When you think about one of his most famous moments being that goal against the Canadians at Mellon Arena when he does. does the fake shot kick and deeks the goalie out of his pads and breaks the water bottle.

Nowadays, he's not doing anything like that, which is wild. The other part of this, though, that I do think kind of goes under the radar. And it is part and parcel with most players just being over the shootout. There is a snowball effect to this, in my opinion, where they haven't been getting saves, they haven't been scoring, they haven't been winning them. so they just kind of go into them like, well, here we go, another shootout, I guess. You win a couple of them.

You kind of get that thrill back. You kind of get that excitement back of, all right, we can do this. Because if you remember, especially in the early 2010s, they were automatic at these. If the game went to a shootout, you could almost bet the house that the penguins were going to win. And a big part of that, by the way,

is of course, having Mark Andre Fleury, who let's face it, Pat, he's the best shootout goaltender in the league. league's history with the way that he can make saves. Well, and along with having Flurry, you also had, and this obviously reaches back to the 2000s, you had guys like Eric Christensen who was automatic in a shootout. Letang in his early days would not miss. Sid underratedly was pretty damn good at him early on.

And then you had just a cavalcade of guys like UC Yokinan and others who were just money in the shootout. And that to me connects everything to where. you had that positive mentality and that snowball effect of like, all right, we've done this a million times. We can do this. We're fine. We're going to be all right.

So whether it's Sergei Murshov, Arder She-Lov, Yowell Blumquist, whomever they have in between the pipes, they win a game or two in a shootout. And Sid, LaTang, Gino, Kindle, etc., etc., go out and score some goals in a shootout win. Suddenly, you get to that shootout and you think, again, yeah, we've done this. we can do this, we got this, it's no big deal. And then there's the other side of it, which has been the last few years where they haven't been getting saves, haven't been scoring, and you get to that point in the game. And these guys just go, well, here we go again, I guess.

Yeah. And we all know that Artie was especially bad in shootouts last year. I'm sure he'll be working on that throughout this season. If Sergey Mureshov comes in for a shootout, that will be something I'd be curious to see, considering the success that he has had in every single level of hockey, just in general, and I'd be curious to see, okay, how would he do in a shootout situation? But I like that you brought up a player like UC Yoken in during those early 2010s because you're like that, you know, when he had breakaways or just when he was using shootouts,

even though his penguin's tenure was pretty brief, felt like he was Mr. Automatic in those situations. He would always know what to do there. And heck, even Gino earlier in his career as well, he was also pretty solid in shootouts during that time. But I think, you know, I've talked about it as time as. gone on. They've gotten a little bit older and I think they've also just been like, we hate shootouts. We're just going to keep going with what works. I mean,

we've seen Crystal Tang do it. Like he has his one vintage move and he doesn't really want to go away from it other than maybe a couple off the wall type moves, but we all know his move. And even as recently as last season, he was still using it. So in the end, I still don't want to play too many shootouts this upcoming season. I'd actually prefer that. get better at three on three over time rather than having these games go to shootouts. But that's just my opinion on that. You and me both, brother. Yeah.

One more comment. This has nothing to do with shootouts, but I want to get to this comment. This one comes from G. Todd's. I will be watching Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final in Pittsburgh versus the Sabres. I will also enjoy my sister's tears afterwards. You know what? I love that comment. Penguin Sabers and Eastern Conference Final would be a massive rating.

hit and I think you'd see both fan bases invade each other's buildings because Pittsburgh and Buffalo is not a far drive. I'd be a blast. Excuse me. And the fun thing about that is it's two fun fan bases. Yeah. Penguins fans are fun. Sabers fans are fun. It would be a really fun rivalry. It wouldn't be like a Pittsburgh, Philly or even a Pittsburgh, Washington. It would be just two fan bases that are really passionate, really fun and really like hockey so like that would be a ton of fun and if you are listening to this show you probably in next week week or two should check out the national show locked on NHL because they are doing a royal rumble style this is why my team is going to win the stanley cup and your boy over here

is the representative from locked on penguins and i may have kind of talked about how there might be an conference that just kind of forgets about the team at the confluence of three rivers and well everybody else is beating up on one another and would might be the benefactor just saying Pat's got all the hopium and we haven't even started training camp yet but hey that's what we want this time of year give us all the hopium going into the season which is set to start in a little less than three weeks now but that's going to do it for our second segment coming up to end the show we're going to get to the rest of your takes and questions for fan take friday that's coming up right after this but

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and that's true in sports, just like it is in business. How do you think the Penguins come together to make trades? They have the scouting staff, the analytics staff, Kyle Dubas and the rest of the front office, and oh yeah, the coaching staff as well, and they have hit on quite a few trades over the last couple of years. Now, again, great organizations win, because operations and that's why you should get O-Doo. O-D-O-D-Row and scale your business, and you can try for free today at O-D-O-D-com slash Locked-On. That's O-D-O-O-O-O-O-D-O-O-D-O-O-D-O-D-O-W-W-W-W-W-E.

All right, we're back here to close out the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Damp and Pat. This one comes from Harrison Baldwin, who comments quite a bit for our fan-take Friday episodes, and he says, I do think the Penguins will be in the mix this year again, but how far out of the mix do you think they need to be for Dubus to sell? Or is it more about what value they get?

If Dubus finds the value he wants, will he move people? I think in terms of how far out of the mix, I'd say at least five points somewhere around there. If he's five plus points out of the playoffs of the trade deadline, I think he's 100% selling. I think if he's a point or two, maybe three points out, I think he's going to sell potentially a little bit, but I don't think it's going to be a huge fire sale. But I think if they're five plus points out, you could see more of like a major fire sale where more players go out.

Obviously, they'll try to get prospects and younger players to come in, but I think that's where you'd see more of like the actual big fire sale. If you're one to three points out, I think you might see a rent or two go out, but don't think it would be anything more than that. If they're in a playoff spot, I think you see a small addition, like they kind of did last year with Elmore's Littlebum.

I just don't think they're, I know they keep saying they want to do that big swing for that big young player that can be here for a while. I just don't think you're going to do that at the trade deadline. I think you have a better success of doing that next off season. But, you know, I kind of said that around this time last year, then it didn't work out the way they wanted it to. But I'm going to say it again this year. But that's kind of how I feel about it right now.

I don't want this to come off as a non-answer. It's what I refer to as the calendar test. if they're a good week out of the playoffs like you know if they have a three or four game week coming up and they go three and one four and oh two and two and they're right back in the mix i do think they'll hold serve and maybe make some marginal moves whether it's sending a couple players out or bringing a couple small players in but if like you said they're five but if they're you know not a good week away from getting back in the mix or staying in the mix then yeah I do think that there will be moves made. I also think to the second point of it, if you get good value for some of these veterans,

whether it's Ricard Raquel, Eric Carlson, Cusmanco, and the price is right, and you're going to get what you want, you make the move. And I know that that's easy for us to say right now. I do think what we're seeing, especially in the wake of Chris Kreider, getting waived in having his contract terminated, there's not a large market for 30 plus wingers right now. So moving the likes of Ricard Raquel is going to be a lot harder than we

once thought it was, especially with a rising salary cap. And I know that's a tad contradictory, but you look at where the market is right now, the premium is young centers and young wingers and the penguins don't really have those. So we'll see how the market shifts once we get into the season and teams have injuries, teams underperform, teams overperform, however it goes. But right now that's going to be a little bit difficult. But I agree with the overall point that it's the same drum I have been beating since last season.

The predictions and thoughts that, oh, the penguins are going to be trash are just completely unmoored from reality. They'll be in the mix, barring injuries, barring regression. They're not going to be terrible. They'll be competitive. Yeah, I'm with you. And I'm allowed you about that about Crider because the Ducks were trying to unload him to a team. But I read reports that some of these teams, they were being asked to take or they were being asked for, you know,

futures along with Criter and the ducks are like, well, we're not going to do that for someone that scored 22 goals and 50 points. And the fact that these teams didn't want to pay any assets to get that type of player pat for someone who's in their 30s just goes to show that these teams really aren't going after these 30 plus year old forwards a lot right now. And I think, and that's another reason why Rust and Raquel are here just because they're not really teams probably aren't going that hard after them. And the offers that they have gotten are probably not very good to say. Plus the other thing that I said at the time when all of this drama with the ducks

happened over the summer was everybody was very. short-sighted about it. If the ducks are going to have some salary cap pain this year, but then over the next two years, they're going to have the majority of their big guys locked up and they're going to have salary cap space. So as much as it has been a weird offseason for Anaheim, they've actually done an okay job of eating a little bit of short-term pain for some long-term gain. So this idea that, oh, we need.

teams are saying we need this, that, and the other for Chris Kreider, and the ducks are going, no, you don't. Like, if we can just get rid of them, we'll be okay. Like, right. We don't need to move him now because we're going to have problems in three, four years. It was just kind of going to be this year. And then they were going to be okay. Yeah, because they're trying to pay Cutter Gautier and he probably wants,

I wouldn't say as much as Leo Carlson, but probably close to it. And so getting rid of this salary cap space opens that up to, get more money into pay cutter gochi which they're trying to do literally any time now curious to see where crider goes i assume it's going to be back east which annoying for the penguins because they'd have to see him another time and he always scores against them elli freeman said to watch the bruin's as long as it's not in the metro you can go to somewhere in the atll i really don't care just don't go back to a metro team where the penguins have to see him four times a year this one comes from zach the short n hl training camp will have a much larger effect on the nchel than most people anticipate i suspect excuse me

that there will be an uptick in injuries along with a lot of unexpected teams having a slug-a-start. I could see that 100%. Though the Penguins forward depth and excellent coaching will counteract this, allowing the penguins to get off to a very, very good start. I can see all of that as well. Heck, we saw some pretty bad injuries in camp last year. I mean, God forbid what happened to Sasha Barkov literally blew his knee out during a training camp practice, had to miss the entire regular season. I really hope we don't see that injury happened to anyone during training.

in camp or the preseason, but again, considering how shorten it is, it's not even two weeks for NHL teams. There's only four preseason games now. You know, you could see, you know, some injuries come up, but I feel like, you know, all these teams deal with injuries at some point. Heck, even during training camp last year, Pat Penguins had a couple of injuries literally right out of the gate. But that kind of happens because these practices are so competitive and these players are going pretty much full go, and they're trying to impress the coaching staffs. So I do agree with that second half of the statement

that it could allow the penguins to get out to a fast start, and I do have a lot of faith in Dammuz and the rest of this coaching staff. The schedule to start, it's interesting, but I think it's there for the taking for them to have a pretty solid start like it was last year. I do think that this is half right in a way. I think a team like the Penguins, where they're going to have, they've made some changes, but the main characters remain.

Your Crosby's, Malkins, Latang, Carlson, etc., etc. So I do think those guys are going to be a little bit easier to get through camp just because, one, their long-term veterans. and then a lot of the guys who are in their second, third, or fourth years with the team that are expected to stay are going to be okay. I think on the other side of it, the risk is going to be those teams that made a bunch of changes, teams that brought in a bunch of new players, that overhauled rosters. When they have that kind of uncertainty, they're going to have to go a little bit harder

to earn spots to make their marks. It doesn't mean that I think the penguins are going to not have an intense camp. They will because there's, as we've talked about, about this past week, they pretty much have eight players vying for one forward spot. So there's going to be a lot of competition and there's going to be competition on the blue line. But it's not going, it's not as if we're talking about a team that has double digit open spots and a bunch of guys vying for them. So I do think that will play in the penguin's favor. And they probably will see some teams that made some big changes early on.

So that might be a little bit more difficult for those teams. to get off to a quick start, whereas the penguins will have some familiarity and consistency, so they should be okay. The biggest thing that I'm curious to see here, I know it's only a two-game increase, but the season's starting a little bit earlier. We know how big of a creature of habit hockey players are. So with an earlier start, a longer season, and just everything surrounding it, I want to see what happens to a lot of teams when we get into the dog days.

When we get into late December, early January, February, because you know that it's going to be a little bit more of a slog, and a lot of internal clocks are going to be knocked off to start the year. I'm also excited to see, you know, which team that we least expect is going to be bad. There's usually one or two of those every single season where, oh, you're pretty high on this team, but they end up being really bad. I want to see who that team is or potential teams, is this year.

That's what I'm looking forward to a couple more before we get out of here. This one comes from Thailand poetry song. Leadership is important. They still have Crosby, who is the ultimate leader among players, and Dan Hughes as a great coach. He uplists the team.

I think this year will be better than last year. Everyone will excel at their highest potential. The Penguins will lead the Metro division and go far in the playoffs. I love comments like this. Three weeks out from the season, give me all the Hopium out there. I think Caroline is probably going to win the Metro

if we're being all serious, But we ask for all your hot takes, all the hopium. So Pat, I love that comment through and through. I love it too simply because it reinforces my long time take that everybody who wants to jettison the veterans out of here for pennies on the dollar, I get it. I get that people want to do the rebuild. I get people want to hit the reset button,

especially when you see how much younger the league is getting. but I would rather have one of the sports greatest players and leaders in that room as long as I can to keep up a consistent culture rather than bringing in a bunch of reclamation projects, a bunch of young players, not having high standards, not having high expectations and just hoping it works out. So I'm totally on board with that. And then the other part of it, again, I mean, the game isn't played on. paper we looked at the penguins roster last year and thought they'll be competitive they'll be in it but they're probably not going anywhere and they pretty much stayed in a playoff position all year long and got home ice advantage in the first round like right this is why the games played this is why sports are awesome and then we we got that great tweet after the penguins made the

playoffs of them just dunking on literally everyone i'm surprised that we weren't in there because i'm just going to i'm shocked we didn't get clipped because we were all i almost wish we did. But I was like, you know what? We were marked safe from that video they put out. Vic says Sid gets 40 goals. Would love if that happened, but that'd be pretty sick. Another one here from Lenny. Sergey Muroshov takes over as the true starter at some point during the season. I love Arty, but the potential that Marishaw possesses is higher than Artie. She loves. Oh, and Pittsburgh is making the playoffs and getting to the Eastern Copprens final at the very least. Love both of these. I am still, we've talked about it,

lot about Sergei Marischov. I am very much going on a start-by-start basis if he keeps improving and he potentially outplay she loves. We can see a situation where he does take the net for a little bit and becomes the 1A and gets more of an opportunity. But I'm kind of going on a start-by-start basis. We're obviously love if he could take over the net in his first NHL season. But again, I don't want to put unfair expectations out there for someone who has only played a handful of games at the NHL level. But I do love that comment, too. I can't remember if I've said it on the show or not, and I'm sure I'm going to say it again when we get closer to the season

and start doing actual previews. But the thing I'm most curious with Sergei Murashov is what happens after he has a bad start because every goalie ever has had bad starts. I want to see what his bounce back ability is because it's easy to be in the Las Vegas movie TV show scene where the chips are piling up at the blackjack table and everybody's laughing and having a good time. But what happens when, say, he has a start where he lets in four or five and they lose the game and he has a sub 900 save percentage?

What does he do his next start out? Is he able to put it in the rear view and just have another solid game or does it begin a downward trend? That's my only real big question with Sergey Mureshov going into the season is I just want to know what his bounce back ability is because his talent, his mentality. his potential, it all is right there. I just need to see what happens when things get rough. Same.

And just the way that you see him act, the way that you see him talk, the confidence level that he has, I think that he's going to be fine after one rough start this season. That's just my prediction. Obviously, don't know that for a fact, but just the way that he carries himself, I think he's just going to let it be like, okay, had a bad start. I'm going to move on. I'm going to focus on the game in front of me, and I think he'll be having a better start after that once it most likely happens,

I should say. Last comment here, though, Pat, this one comes from Dan Mirdo on Twitter. Dubus will make a trade for a big-time defenseman, but it's going to be for a right-handed defenseman, not a left-handed defenseman. I think his moves this off-season show that they view the organization depth chart on the right side as the weak spot and on the team. So this was always going to be a work-in-progress,

fixing the blue line. I've been on record saying that I think the next big move is going to be on the left and I will still stay that way. Though there will be a big need on the right side coming here soon because Eric Carlson has one year left on his contract. Crystal Tang has only two years left. Yes, you do have Harrison Bruner coming, but I think he's probably going to top out as a second pair defenseman. If he becomes a top pair guy, great. That's a bonus, but I just don't see that as of right now. I'm looking at it objectively. There will come a time where they're going to have to really make a big move on the right side,

but I still think if they make a big move, it's going to be on the left, just because I still think they're a bit weaker over there right now. But they're still going to need one on the right, but that's how I view it. TLDR, they're going to need big moves on both sides here in short order. Left is the more pressing need right now because, Carlson-Latang, Corsac, it's not overly exciting. It's not overly sexy, but we know how good Carlson is. We know if they find a way to shelter La Tang and he gets some confidence back, he'll be okay.

Corsac, we're hoping, works out. I know hope is not a strategy, but you got to play the games. But then, like, you look at the rest of the roster. I mean, there is not a lot on either side. No. But if we're going in the immediate, if this team is pushing towards the playoffs, they more than likely will probably need to upgrade their left side because TVR is getting up there. He's 35.

He's a good two-way defenseman, but, or not even a two-way defenseman. He's a good defensive defenseman. Gerard, TBD, Carlisle, TBD. So you really do, if we're going short term, it's got to be left. But you're right, Hunter. if we're making moves on the blue line, there's a lot of work to be done in the long term. Yeah, and this was always going to be a multi-year project.

This wasn't going to be fixed in one off-season. It wasn't going to be fixed in two off-season. It's going to take a process to fix this whole thing, and you've seen that time and time again, and it's going to be worked on again next off-season as well, again, especially since Eric Carlson is a pending free agent on the blue line. But that's going to do it for this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much to take the time to listen to slash watch this one.

Pat and I will be back on Monday to recap the first game of the Prospects challenge. Who stood out, who needs to do more, and then we'll preview the next couple of games as well. And later on in the week, training camp officially starts on Thursday. I'll be there Thursday and Friday to give you all my takes, my reactions, who is standing out, who needs to do more really exciting time. So if you haven't subbed yet to audio or video, this is your time to do it. We are going full steam ahead in terms of the 26-27 season. But until Monday, thank you all so much for tuning in.

We appreciate it. Have a great weekend, and we'll talk to you all in a few days.