Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Feelin good about that regular season finale

Episode Date: May 8, 2021

Today marks the last regular season episode for the Locked On Penguins podcast which makes it extra special. Hunter dives into how the Penguins can really win the division as he messed up on Thursday,... plus how realistic it is. He also talks about the Pens starting their third-string goaltender tomorrow and whether it might be best to go with D'Orio for the start. Also: Does it make sense to scratch Tanev? Who should the Penguins WANT to see in the first round of the playoffs? Don't forget to also stick around for the Penguins team awards for this season and some other goodies!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.WealthfrontTo get your first $5,000 managed for FREE, for life, go to wealthfront.com/LockedOnNHL. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Starting point is 00:00:02 Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello, everyone. Welcome to this Friday evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.
Starting point is 00:00:28 Follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. Today's episode is brought to you by a locker room, download the app, and join me sometime next week. I have no idea when I'm going to do something next week to get on the action locker room changing the way we talk sports. So this episode will rack up. This will be the final regular season episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast for season two of this podcast with yours truly. I just want to say thank you all so much for listening to this podcast, whether it's one episode, whether it's 10, 20, 30, 40, or all 276 episodes that I have now produced.
Starting point is 00:01:03 If you have listened to all 276 episodes of the Lockdown Penguins podcast, one, I don't know what you're doing with your life. And two, I don't know how you could listen to me talk about this team for 276 days. But I applaud you for doing that. Not just messing around. But I really do appreciate it if someone out there or funny people have listened to every episode of this podcast for all 276 episodes that I have done it. The grind does not stop here. Episode listenership, not just doubled this season, but it tripled. So I thank you all so much for supporting this podcast and listening to me, blabber about this team and shit on this team and compliment this team.
Starting point is 00:01:46 And just honestly, really just covered this team on an everyday basis for the weekdays. I mean, it's been a lot of fun. And I really do think that this team has what it takes to potentially go deep into these Stanley Cup playoffs. And let's get into that to start. I was the biggest Philadelphia Flyers fan tonight, and they actually did the thing. They beat the Washington Capitals in regulation 4 to 2. The Penguins will remain in first place, and there is a clinching scenario for the Penguins tomorrow. We will have to be Philadelphia Flyers fans for another day.
Starting point is 00:02:13 If the Penguins win tomorrow in any form, actually, well, I think it's in regulation. If they win in regulation tomorrow against Buffalo, which should be very doable, and the capitals lose in any fashion to the Flyers tomorrow, Pittsburgh will clinch. the East Division. So yes, we will have to be Philadelphia Flyers fans for at least one more day, but just watching that game tonight, the Capitals really did not look
Starting point is 00:02:38 like they wanted the division. I don't really know what it was. I know, obviously, they're banged up, Kuznetsov's out there due to COVID, Ovechkin, Samsonov is also on the COVID list. I think Justin Schultz had to miss the game as well, and I think Connor Sherry ended up getting hurt a little halfway through it too, but just they didn't look like they really wanted this game a lot,
Starting point is 00:02:58 But, you know, that's good news for the Penguins, and obviously Penguins fans. I know the Capitals still have one game in hand. After tomorrow, if it doesn't go their way tomorrow, they will play Boston on Monday. No, not Monday, excuse me, Tuesday. So say the Penguins win tomorrow and the Capitals win tomorrow. They would need Boston, I believe, to beat Washington on Tuesday for the Penguins to overall clinch the Mass Mutual East Division and have their first division championship since 2014. So I finally have all the clinching scenarios here.
Starting point is 00:03:29 I got them wrong last night, so I really do apologize for that. The easiest one for tomorrow is, in case anyone did not know this, if the penguins do win tomorrow in any form and the capitals lose in regulation. Oh, actually, no. If the capitals lose in any fashion tomorrow and the penguins win in any fashion tomorrow, the penguins will clinch the East Division. Now, if both the capitals and the penguins do win tomorrow and say the penguins, it's in regulation, and the capitals, it's in regulation.
Starting point is 00:03:55 the capitals can then still clinch the East Division on Tuesday against Boston with a regulation win. So basically, this is in easy terms. If penguins win tomorrow, the Capitals have to win both of their games in regulation to clinch the East Division. If they do not do that, your Pittsburgh Penguins will be Mass Mutual East Division champions and most likely face the New York Islanders in the first. I'm hoping also that not only Pittsburgh wins tomorrow, but Boston does, so that they have to potentially play for home ice against the Capitals on Tuesday because that's likely a playoff review.
Starting point is 00:04:27 If the Penguins do clinch the division tomorrow, like I said, Washington will play Boston in both of their regular season finale. So that could be a really good playoff preview to determine who gets home ice in that series. As Boston is right now, only two points behind them. They have the Rangers tomorrow starting at 3 o'clock, same time as the Penguins. Then they have the Islanders on Monday, and then they go have Washington on Tuesday to end their season. So that basically is it for the division. We'll see what happens tomorrow.
Starting point is 00:04:55 I really do hope that Pittsburgh can finish this off tomorrow because I really don't have to want to wait until Tuesday to find out who this team will be going up against in the playoffs. I did ask some of you on the Lockdown Penguins' Twitter account. And also, before I get to this, I understand that there's been a lot of problems with Apple. It's not just for the Locked On podcast network with any of the Locked On shows. It's for any podcast. If you're not subscribed to this podcast, I mean, one, what the hell are you doing?
Starting point is 00:05:22 but if you're actually not subscribed to it, I don't think it shows up in the feed, which I think is cucking a lot of people. But I've also gotten some messages from some listeners saying that even if they are subscribed, it's not showing up. It is an ongoing problem with Apple. One of the managers for the company is trying to take care of it. I mean, I think David, who runs the whole locked-on podcast network, he's been basically sub-tweeting Apple every day to find out what's going on. As soon as I have more information, I will pass it on to you. but you can also download Spotify. It's free to download.
Starting point is 00:05:54 You can listen to not only podcasts on there, but music as well. The Audacity app also has the podcast. So I just wanted to let you all know that if Apple is not working, I'm download Spotify and Audacity. But I did ask a question for today's episode. Who would you rather have the Penguins play in the playoffs? Give me your reasoning and I'll talk about it. So Thomas Nevitt says,
Starting point is 00:06:13 The Islanders, let's be honest, any playoff series will be difficult, but between the Islanders and Capitals, the Islanders, was the easier of the series that ended six games to two in our favor. honestly Thomas I think I would agree with that now both Penguins went six and two against both Washington and the Islanders this season but if I had to pick one of those two I think I would go with the Islanders and that's no slouch to the Islanders you know this is not 2019 where I'm underestimating them and being like
Starting point is 00:06:39 oh my God you know who's really going to score for this team they have basically one line you know of course the Islanders made the Penguins look like fools and they swept them out of both buildings but I don't think that's going to happened this time. The Penguins are much more equipped to play though. I think Mike Sullivan has definitely taught this team a lesson in the last couple of seasons that you have to take these defensive teams seriously. You saw what happened in the return to play when, you know, at times they weren't taking the Canadians seriously and they just had a lot of trouble playing against that type of team that doesn't have all that running gun talent like the Capitals do or like the
Starting point is 00:07:11 Bruins do or like Colorado does, but they can slow the game down and that's given the Penguins fits over the years. Sure, it might give them fits a little bit in this series. And sure, it's going to be Dole Hockey, Barry Trots. A Barry Trots coach team is probably one of the most boring teams in the league. But it's still something that I want to see the Penguins exercise a demon in some capacity because they've gotten on the last couple of seasons going up against this kind of system. But I really don't think that would happen this time. I mean, also, you look at the Islanders' Deadlight acquisitions.
Starting point is 00:07:40 Kyle Palmeri only has three points in 15, 16 games. Travis Ajax is really struggling to stay in the lineup. I mean, is he even their 12th forward right now? I mean, this is also a team that's been putting Leo Kamarov on the top line. You can really tell that they're missing Anders Lee. I mean, he's one of the best net from presidents in the league. He gives the penguins fits every time they go up against him. I'm pretty sure every time the penguins go up against the Islanders,
Starting point is 00:08:05 it's either him or more so Jordan Eberley that scores against them. You can probably count on each game in that series, Jordan Eberley is scoring either the lone goal or, you know, however many goals of the Islander's score, he'll probably have at least half of them. He's just become a Penguins killer at this point. But overall, I still like the matchup for the Penguins. I think they're deeper than New York. I think they're more structured than the owners,
Starting point is 00:08:27 and I think they'll have better goal-attending with Tristan Jari and Net than Simeon Barlamo than Ilya. Siroken. Lock-on Pirates says, Ethan of Lockdown Pirates, excuse me, says, does a great job over there. If you're not subscribed to Lockdown Pirates, who, you know, the Pirates have been a bit better than I thought they would be this year, you know, then what are you doing? Because, you know, when you play Pittsburgh, you play the whole city,
Starting point is 00:08:47 he did say anyone except the Bruins. Again, I expected that to be. be a more popular answer because just going up against the Bruins, that should be the second round series. In a perfect world, I want the Penguins to play the Islanders. And it's not because that, oh my God, it's the best match of the Penguins. I mean, it is in a way, but it's just a matter of avoiding Boston in the first round and having them in Washington go at it in the first round so that they can just kill each other
Starting point is 00:09:12 before the winner hopefully goes and plays Pittsburgh. And, you know, I really don't have to want to go up against Tukarask in the first round. That's just not happening in my book. Fiona says, Washington, because we recently play them and know that the penguins can dominate against them, plus no Ovechkin. I understand Ovechkin is out right now, Fiona, but I would expect OV to be ready for the playoffs.
Starting point is 00:09:32 I was listening to Elliot Freeman's 31 Thoughts podcast today, and he didn't really say that there was too much concern that it could linger into the playoffs, but this is also a player that does not miss much time with injury. So how will he be coming back? It's definitely a big question, but I expect him back for whatever series that the Capitals will have in the first round. And finally, Alan Teodor says, not the Capitals, let someone else players get suspended for knocking out Tom Wilson.
Starting point is 00:09:57 Hey, you know, I think that's totally a fine reason for wanting to avoid the Capitals in the first round. Though I will say if they don't get the Islanders in the first round, I would be fine with playing Washington. Though I think of the possible matchups right now between the three teams, I think Washington sits at a very low probability. I would honestly think it's around 10 to 15 percent that Pittsburgh will play Washington in the first round. He also says besides playing Washington in round two usually leads to some good things. Of course, he's talking about the last three times the Penguins won the Stanley Cup. They have beaten Washington in the second round of the playoffs. So, and for me personally, before we do get to a commercial break, it is Islanders.
Starting point is 00:10:33 Then it's the capitals a little lower to that. Then there's probably 50 feet of crap. And then there's the Boston Bruins. But I'm excited for tomorrow. Three o'clock game on NBC against Buffalo. I'm going to preview that game a little bit coming up in the next segment. Look at some lines and all that. It basically will be the same lineup, I would think, for Buffalo,
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Starting point is 00:11:46 and get started today. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L-O- underscore Penguins. So finally, we have made it to the end of the regular season. Game 56 out of 56 will indeed be played tomorrow. No, it's not going to be postponed for COVID or anything like that.
Starting point is 00:12:11 It is kind of remarkable that the Penguins really did not face a lot of COVID problems this year. I think they should consider themselves very lucky considering I think, you know, Washington had a COVID problem. I think Philadelphia had a COVID problem. Vancouver, obviously, with their really bad one. New Jersey had a bad COVID scare. I think even Nashville had one. Obviously, Dallas had their really bad COVID problem earlier in the season
Starting point is 00:12:33 where I think they had to start about a week, week and a half late. I mean, Vancouver still has seven to eight games left to be played. So, yeah, I mean, the Penguins have definitely been very, very lucky when it comes to COVID-19 this year. I think they've only really placed a couple players. on the COVID list all year. I know Cindy Crosby had to miss a game due to being on the COVID list, though he did test negative, but he was a close contact at the time.
Starting point is 00:12:54 But other than that, I really can't recall other penguin players really missing a game due to COVID-19 protocol. I think John Marino went on there for a brief stint, but he was still able to play the next day because he tested negative and then wasn't deemed a close contact. So kudos to not only the Penguins, but the city of Pittsburgh, the staff at PPG-Paints Serena and everyone else that kept them safe. And of course, you know, the coaching staff and the players, you know, for being safe and taking every precaution.
Starting point is 00:13:22 And obviously, I'm hoping beyond hope that it stays that way for the playoffs and that no playoff games get postponed due to COVID-19. But still, awesome that the Penguins really went through this season unscathed when it comes to COVID-19. And like I said, consider them very, very lucky. They didn't really have a big COVID shutdown unlike some other teams. But for the Sabres lines, Anders Bork, Sam Reinhard, Victor, Olofsson, That's basically the same line up as last,
Starting point is 00:13:47 top line as last night, excuse me. Aspline, meddle stat, Tage Thompson on the second line, Dylan Cousins with Jeff Skinner, and Roussela, and then Drake Cajula, Riley, Shannon, Brett Murray. I couldn't believe Drake Cajula had two goals last night for the Buffalo Sabres. It was actually kind of crazy because he's not really a player that scores a lot. I mean, obviously he plays on the fourth line for Buffalo,
Starting point is 00:14:06 but he has never been a good goal score in this league. So the fact that the Penguins allowed him to score two that night, it definitely goes to show you that really anything. is possible in the sport. And then defensively, Ross Nostal Lane with Henry Yoki Haru, Ristel Leyen with Samuelson, and then Jacob Bryson with Colin Miller. And yes, Michael Hauser will be starting again against the Penguins tomorrow. I'm not really sure how much family and friends he will have at the game.
Starting point is 00:14:30 Probably won't be 20 people since it is Fan Appreciation Day for Pittsburgh. But I would still assume that he will have some family and friends there. Obviously, he probably wants to do a lot better than what he did on Thursday when he gave up eight goals to the team that he grew up rooting for. like I said, he played for the Pittsburgh hornets, and also a fun fact, he was at 2008 game six against the Red Wings, where the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup against them in Pittsburgh as the Penguins come back just fell short. Whenever I go to watch that clip with Marion Hosa, just getting to the goal line with 0.1 second to go or something like that, I think the puck is going to cross the line and that they're going to beat the buzzer and it's going to go to overtime,
Starting point is 00:15:08 and the Penguins are going to win, and then I wake up out of that fallacy. And, you know, the Red Wings, obviously, they won the Stanley Cup, but they were just, so close to time that came so many times in those final couple minutes. But anyway, you know, getting a little bit carried away there. But this is still a game that I would expect the Penguins to win. As for the Penguins lineup, Tristan Jari will be out tomorrow. He is day-to-day with a lower body injury. And before, I scare a lot of you out of not listening for the rest of this episode
Starting point is 00:15:32 or the rest of the segment potentially, Mike Sullivan did say after practice that he expects both Jari and DeSmith to be ready for game one of the Stanley Cup playoffs and said that there probably will not be any setback as regards to both those injuries. Well, for DeSmith, he's been hurt for a while now, so there's really no point in playing him tomorrow. As for Tristan Jari, I think this is a very minor, minor injury in quotation marks. He has a minor injury, again, in quotation marks,
Starting point is 00:15:58 that they really just don't want him to get any more hurt, and I think it's just them basically saying, hey, you know, just rest up tomorrow. We can throw our third string goalie out there and most likely beat the Sabres. I mean, they're also going up against a six-string goal, that the savers have. So if the Penguins really can't win against him again,
Starting point is 00:16:16 even while having a third-string goalie in there who's played an AHL all year, I mean, you know, do you really deserve to win the division anyway? And also for the forwards and the defense, it's going to be mostly the same lineup except for one change. No, it does not involve Brandon Tann. Brandon Tannib will be out tomorrow to not take line rushes. Took full contact, but no wine rushes,
Starting point is 00:16:34 no special teams work at practice. That was actually the final regular season practice for the Penguins. And it wrapped, I think, in only 22 minutes from what I read today. And that's for obvious reasons. They're not going to play Brandon Tanniff in the regular season finale. I understand that Hulmice, at least in the first round,
Starting point is 00:16:49 and the division are very much up for grabs. But, I mean, do you really want to risk Tanneth getting hurt for this game? I doubt it. If this were game one of the playoffs tomorrow, he would 100% be playing. But with a likely full week of a low coming up for the Penguins and a bunch of practice days, get him a couple more practices, get him doing some line rush, some PK work, get him back to a full 100%.
Starting point is 00:17:11 and then he will be ready for game one of the playoffs. And I'm glad that Mike Selvin, I think, is going down that road. But as for the one lineup, change the fords. Perfectly good. But on defense, I think Mark Friedman will be coming out of the lineup. And we will see Chad Ruehiel played next to Cody Sisi. And I think that's like the first time they've played together this season. If I'm not mistaken, I don't really think we've seen a Ruehidel-C pairing,
Starting point is 00:17:32 especially as it goes for a third pairing this season. Obviously, we've seen a lot of Matheson Cici. We saw a lot of Matheson-Ruehiel. to start the season when C.C. was getting scratched for a few games because Mike Sullivan wasn't happy with his game. But I do not believe we've seen a C.C. Ruido pairing this season. So I'm excited to see that. Obviously, Chad Ruido has not played in, you know, whatever, 25, 30 games now. So he's going to be a bit rusty, but it'll be nice to see him get back in the lineup. He's always been that steady number seven, number eight defender when he's coming into the lineup. I think he'll
Starting point is 00:18:02 be perfectly fine playing next to Cody season, even though he will be on his offside. And like I said, Maxine Lagassee, I expect him to start tomorrow for Pittsburgh. though, I wouldn't also be surprised if it's Alex DeOrio who starts today, as I think he was called up to the taxi squad earlier on Friday. I don't expect Emil Warmi to start because his numbers in Wilkesbury the season are really bad. My buddy Marcus was telling me he would actually prefer DeOrio to start because he's had better numbers in Wilkesbury than any of the three that are potentially in line to start tomorrow. I would have to agree, though, I do think Sullivan is going to go to the goalie that was first off the ice today and the gase.
Starting point is 00:18:38 but they will announce starting goalie, I think a couple hours before the game tomorrow. I think that basically wraps up this segment of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Coming up the next segment, I'm going to go through a little bit of the team awards this season, you know, the Norris, the Selke, the MVP, and a couple others for this Penguins team. But before we do that, it's time to talk about a couple things, one of them being bed on line, the fastest and easiest way to bed on allure sports session. Baseball season is in full swing, and you can track all the action at Benin Online, get all the latest news, odds and info for all your sporting needs, including MLB, NBA, NHL, and your UFC action.
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Starting point is 00:20:23 That's promo code locked 15 for 15% off your force order at bill bar.com. All right, welcome back to this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hoey. You know to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hoagie, so all the show is to our at. L.O. underscore Penguins. So in terms of team awards this season for the regular season for the Penguins, the MVP, the Hart Trophy, goes to Sydney Crosby, 62.54 games. His possession is always through
Starting point is 00:20:50 the roof, 52.4% this year. I'm going to go, what, another 15th straight season, basically, of him being a point per game player or better, won the top five players to ever play the game. And if it weren't for Austin, Matthews, and Connor McDavid this season, he would 100% be, I think, the Hart Trophy favorite. I mean, it just, you know, obviously Connor McDavid's going to win it because he's probably going to have 100 points this season. And Matthews and any other year would have it if McDavid weren't at 100 points. But it's just, it's saved for the team MVP.
Starting point is 00:21:19 He's done so well, not just on the offensive side of the ice, but the defensive side of the ice as well. And he's just been awesome with Jake Gensel and Ryan Russ. And when Malkin went down, he really took command of the team. And as he always does, and he just put on a show that Penguin Sands will always expect him to. and he has just been a complete rock again for Pittsburgh this season. So the team MVP, Cindy Crosby, the team Norris goes to Chris LaTang. I mean, was there any doubt that it wouldn't go to Chris LaTang?
Starting point is 00:21:46 45 points in 54 games. He's basically, like I said, on another pace to potentially be almost a point-per-game defenseman in the NHL. You know, this is almost as good as the season from 2019, where he finished with 16 goals, 56 points, and 65 games for his possession this year, around 50.2. So a little off his number of 51.7. from last year and 53.5% from the year before, but he played some outstanding hockey for Pittsburgh this season as always a rock on the blue line.
Starting point is 00:22:15 And he also stayed relatively healthy. I think he only missed the season, if I'm looking at this right, one game. The fact that he only missed one game this season is nothing short of a miracle, because the season before that missed eight, and then in 2019, missed 17 games.
Starting point is 00:22:32 So he's obviously about a lot of injuries, he started to screw a lot of stuff that, you know, He's not in his control with the stroke and all that, and the herniated disc that he suffered. I don't really know if that was fully in his control enough. But this year, he said relatively healthy, and it weren't for Adam Fox and Charlie McAvoy. I think Krista Tang would 100% be a Norse favorite this season.
Starting point is 00:22:51 He has been that good with the Penguins. In terms of the Selke, goes to Sidney Crosby. He's not just the best two-way forward on the Penguins, but he's the best, one of the top five best two-way forwards in the league. And I think he totally should finally be a Selke trophy finalist, for this season. His play away from the puck has just really grown these last few seasons and he's
Starting point is 00:23:12 obviously a great job against Patrice Berseran and that Super Line with Brad Marshall and David Poshanuck. He really held his own for a lot of those games. I mean, he obviously got caved in for a few of them, which you know that Super Line is going to do to every line that goes against them. But
Starting point is 00:23:28 overall, I think Sid did as good of the job as he could against them and overall did an outstanding job defensively against all competition in the season. So Sid definitely gets the vote for Selke in my book for Vezna. I am going to go to Tristan Jari. What a turnaround it was after, you know, that first month of the season where he was playing like an 850, 860 goalie. From around mid-February early March on, he has been a rock for the Penguins in that. I think you can really count the games of sub-900s, say, percentage for his game from the last two months on one hand.
Starting point is 00:24:01 I mean, I think it's only around five times that he's been below 900 for the last 8-1. weeks. Don't quote me on that, but it's right around there. He has been really good lately for Pittsburgh, and he 100% deserves to start game one for the Penguins. And obviously, you know, the Art Ross goes to Sidney Crosby as well. The Rocket Rashard is going to go to one of three players this year, but it looks like it is going to be Sidney Crosby. There's 24 goals. Jake Gensel, though, 23 goals this season than Brian Ross 22. So one of those three will get it, but I do think we are going to see Sidney Crosby get it. As for the rookie of the year, I don't really for the Calder Trophy, I really don't think we have a lot of good candidates for that.
Starting point is 00:24:41 I mean, I don't think I can really say Frederick Goodrope, because he's been in the league for a few years. I guess I could say Radine Zahorna, because four points in eight games, two of those being goals. I mean, I think that's basically the way or the best way that I could give the Calder Trophy out for the Penguins. And obviously, you know, the Jack Adams of all the coaches goes to Mike Sullivan, one of the five best coaches in the league. And the fact that they have a really good shot at winning the East Division with all the injuries that they have suffered this season goes to show how great of a coach he is and how if they do go on a deep playoff run this year, I think he will put himself alone at the top as the best coach
Starting point is 00:25:16 in Pittsburgh Penguins history. Yes, I would put him ahead of the great Badger Bob Johnson. GM the year, you know, I'll take Ron Hextall over Jim Rutherford, especially because of that Jeff Carter trade 10 points in the 13 games since he was acquired. And oh yeah, did I tell everyone that he was acquired for a conditional third and fourth round pick in next. year's draft. So what a trade that was for Ron Hextall. If I'm forgetting any other awards, please let me know. I think I guess for the Lady Bing, I think I would totally give it to Jason Zucker because he's been awesome this year. And even though his production is down, I mean, this award does go to the player who exhibits best sportsmanship and gentlemanly kind of
Starting point is 00:25:56 combined with a high standard of playing ability. So I think I would give it to Jason Zucker. Like I said, even though his production is not as good as it was last year and in the return to play, still think it would be good enough that he would deserve this award. And I don't think I'm missing any other awards for this Penguins team. I'm sure if we got the Ted Lindsay, it would go to Sydney Crosby as voted on by the players. But overall, that will wrap up this episode of Locked on Penguins podcast. Again, thank you all so much for listening during this ridiculous regular season. I know it's been very hard for not just the players and the coaches and the people around the arena
Starting point is 00:26:30 and the people that run the team. But you know, U.S. fans just because it's been so different, watching this team, you know, 25% capacity in the arenas and not being able to go to the games and not being able to go out to bars full capacity and watch the games with your friends. But I do see light at the end of the tunnel and I really hope
Starting point is 00:26:46 by the end, well, by the beginning of the fall when the season starts back up again with the regular season, that we can all go back to bars at full capacity and go back to PBG Payne's arena at full capacity so that we can watch the team. We all know in love. But that being said, the grind does not stop here. I'll be back with another
Starting point is 00:27:03 episode next Monday. to recap the Penguins game against the Sabres and see if they have indeed clinched the East Division and see if potentially their playoff opponent is locked up as well. And as for the rest of the week, I have some really exciting stuff down the pipeline. I can't wait to share it with you all. And you know, let's do this. I'm playoff ready. I hope you all are playoff ready too.
Starting point is 00:27:22 And like I said at the beginning, I think there's a really good shot that this team can play very deep into the Stanley Cup playoffs this year. This is the best I felt about the Penguins since 2017, 2017 and 2016. That would do it for this episode of Locked on Penguins podcast. Hope you all like listening to this one, and I will talk to you all again on Monday.

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