Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Giving our Stanley Cup Playoffs PICKS, including the Penguins series!

Episode Date: April 17, 2026

The Playoffs are officially here, and it’s time to predict the winner of the Battle of Pennsylvania! Hunter and Patrick begin the show by looking at the full schedule for the first-round matchup between the Penguins and Flyers and whether the Penguins will make a jersey change for their home games. (2:20) Then, they break down the series, look at X-Factors, key matchups, and then give their predictions for who will win the series. (13:15) Finally, they take a look at the rest of the playoff field and give their picks for each series! (25:30) Join our Locked On Penguins Bracket Challenge! It’s free, all you have to do is sign up, submit your bracket, and the winner can hold bragging rights! https://bracketchallenge.nhl.com/en/leagues/37463 Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Indeed Now, 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. Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get two-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game.   Rugiet Get 15% off your treatment → https://rugiet.com/lockedonnhl Rugiet. Performance medicine for men. Rocket MoneyLet Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join athttp://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDON     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.

We finally have the full schedule for the first round series between the Penguins and the Flyers, and Pat and I are going to break that down. Plus give our predictions for the series coming up right after this. You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, and welcome to the Friday edition 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 co-st, Patrick Gamp, you can follow him on all social media platforms at Send him for Wet. You can also follow the show whose Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. And you can find this on Instagram at Lockdown 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. And if you haven't already, please go check out our crossover edition for today that we posted at midnight, us and locked on flyers, breaking down the series. Yes, we do give our predictions on there, but if you haven't listened to it, we're still going to give our predictions for the series coming up a bit later on in the show.

And we're going to predict the entire first round. And Pat has a surprise for everyone as well. He's going to share that here coming up in a few minutes. Pat, you haven't done it yet. I have shaved my regular season beard going into the playoffs. Everyone, if you haven't already, please shave your beard if you haven't. If you're listening to the show and you still have your regular season beard, We don't want that bad karma going into the playoffs.

So anyone that has a regular season beard that listens to the show, if you haven't already, go shave it. Can't bring that into the playoffs. Just bad juju, bad karma. My ability to grow a beard is a little bit more advanced than yours. So you say regular season beard. For me, it's just normal everyday facial hair. And I'm due for a shave here.

So good timing with the penguins start in their series against the Flyers on Saturday night. Well, you better go do it after we're done recording here. You can't bring that into the playoffs because, again, we're all superstitious about this. You have to start the playoff beard right before the team plays, whether it's the day before or the day of just because that's how the players do it. So we're going to do that. Also, Pat, we did get the full schedule finally from the NHL. They had to wait until that Seattle, Colorado game wrapped up for whatever reason.

I don't know why they have to wait that long. But game one, as you all know, Saturday 8 p.m. Prime Time, the main event inside PPGP's Arena on ESPN and Sportsnet Pittsburgh. Game two will be Monday, April 20th in Pittsburgh. 7 p.m. start on ESPN and Sportsnet Pittsburgh. Game three, the series shifts back to Philadelphia on Wednesday, April 22nd. Also a 7 o'clock start. This is on TNT, True TV and HBO Max for all the national people. And then if you're local here in Pittsburgh, it is still on Sportsnet Pittsburgh. I should say that every game in the first round, if you are local, is on Sportsnet, Pittsburgh. But if you're not here, you still have the national TV networks.

And then game four, we get the two-day break. We'll be on Saturday, April 25th at 8 p.m. Eastern in Philadelphia, TBS, True TV, and HBO max. It's so funny. I keep seeing these tweets, Pat, that there's apparently a concert scheduled in Philadelphia that same night. We'll have to deal with that because the NHL scheduled game four at 8 o'clock for Saturday, April 25th. And then Monday, April 27th would be game 5. TBD start time in Pittsburgh. Wednesday would be game 6, April 29th. And then finally another two-day break before a potential game 7 on May 2nd. And then obviously the second round would start probably just a couple of days

after that. But there is the full schedule, Pat. Do you have any thoughts? Honestly, this looks pretty standard. I know some people are not going to like a couple of the two-day breaks. I'm okay with it, gets them a little bit more rest. I know it probably gets everyone's anxiety just because you're waiting for that game to just happen. But I'm honestly okay with a couple of two day breaks on this schedule. Well, we're in an interesting time of year because we're playing a city that has a basketball team that made the NBA playoffs.

So that is going to make arena availability an issue of itself when it comes to the series. And we're also in a time a year where the city of Pittsburgh is hosting the NFL draft next week. So as much as the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the NHL are the center of our universe. It's unfortunately not the center of everyone's universe. So you do have to deal with the rest of the world when scheduling the Stanley Cup playoffs. So that's kind of why we have the schedule that we have. The other thing I want to note is the games 5 through 7 still being TBD time, that is standard operating procedure. I know it's been a while since a few of us here in Penguinsland have been in the playoffs.

So we're not quite used to that. But that is pretty much standard operating procedure when the if necessary games are scheduled. They'll give you the date. The time is to be determined. But you look at the games that could happen five through seven. it's a Monday, a Wednesday, and then a Saturday. So all be primetime games. So good chance games five and six are primetime seven, eight o'clock, one of those two.

Depending upon what happens with the rest of the first round, I would imagine like we talked about with our friends at Locked on Flyers, this is probably the marquee matchup of the first round given the history, given the rivalry, that if there is a game seven on May 2nd, it would probably also be primetime Saturday night, but we'll see what happens with the rest of the first round. That's the only one that could potentially be a two, three, maybe even a noon game, just depending on what happens throughout the rest of the first round. But just wanted to add the point that now that we're back in the playoffs for the first time and a while, games five through seven are very often TBD, even when you have the date. Right. And Monday, just because I feel like

usually a lot of Monday games are on ESPN. So I feel like for anyone wondering what the TV network would be for Game 5, probably ESPN. Wednesday, it's kind of hit or miss. It feels like there's some TNT, some ESPN. I'll guess TNT, HBO Max and all that for Game 6. And then Game 7, I'll just assume ESPN for prime time. I don't think you could start a Game 7 at like 1230 in the afternoon on a Saturday,

3 p.m. I just think that's not wise. They got to do it at 8 p.m. but that's if we get to a game seven in this series. So there's the full schedule. Thank God the NHL decided to finally release it. They should have released it, you know, well before then. But we all know it, Pat.

The NHL likes to delay a lot of these things. And one more thing before we do get to break and we give our predictions for this series, break things down a little bit more. The Penguins keep hinting that they might be going with their third jerseys in the playoffs. I don't know if you've noticed that, but every time they put out one of these, flip the script graphics. It's always that jersey that you're wearing. I'm going to ask you this question.

I'm curious to get your take because I've seen a lot of these takes on social media. Are you good with them wearing those third jerseys in the playoffs or would you rather them wear their regular home jerseys? What's your take? I want to see the regular home jerseys just because I think, like I know I'm wearing it right now. I got the Kindle jersey at the Caps game over last weekend

just because I will be at game two. So you know that they're probably going to do the gold out like they always do in the playoffs. So I wanted to be prepared because I didn't want to wear the cursed yellow jersey from that Godfors series a few years back. But I want to see the regular home jerseys, man. Because here's the thing. I really like these third jerseys. I think they knocked it out of the park with these.

The different font, the shoulder patches we got here are really cool. It's a rare moment where I actually kind of like the logo without the golden triangle behind it, just because the way it fits in with the rest of the jersey. But here's the thing, a penguin's flyers matchup, especially with the primary jerseys that both teams have, this is an elite jersey matchup in this series. You don't need to mess with it. You don't need to change anything. Let these two teams wearing two iconic jerseys battle it out in them.

I get that they love to do their whole marketing and selling the jerseys. But come on, we're Pittsburgh Penguins fans. We will buy any slop you put in front of us. You don't need to wear it on the ice for us to be enticed to buy it. Here I am wearing one. You got me. You don't need to wear it during the playoffs. Wear your primary jerseys.

You have won multiple Stanley Cups in those jerseys. with them. I do love those home jerseys. I think they're some of the best in the league. I think they're some of the best jerseys they've ever had for as long as they've been a franchise in Pittsburgh. My wonder is, are they trying to change things up? Because they did wear those home jerseys, the regular ones.

I'm trying to play in the playoffs, lost in seven games to the Rangers. So I'm wondering if the penguins are kind of being like, okay, try to spice things up, change it up for this time since we haven't made the playoffs in four years. I like these third jerseys quite a bit. I think there are some of the better third jerseys they've had. It is leaps and bounds better than the jerseys they wore in the Islander series. You brought those up. I did not like those jerseys at all.

I felt like they weren't even that good during the regular season. And we all know what happened in that Islander series. We don't need to repeat it here. So I will say though. You're not wearing those. Go ahead. Looking at the Penguin's social media accounts, it is a little hit and miss. A couple of them do have the yellows.

A couple of them have the normal black and gold jerseys. So I'm wondering if this is more just a graphic design choice than it is a hint that they're going to wear these jerseys in the first round. Obviously, time will tell we got them Saturday night. So we'll find out what jerseys they come out in. Agreed. And either way, I'm good with both those jerseys. I love the home jerseys. I actually like these third jerseys this year.

And they actually had a pretty good record in those jerseys this year, Pat. So if they wanted to wear them, I'm good with that as well. I respect your take. I just think for me, they're both pretty good. I like the home jersey a bit more, but I would not be mad at the sight. I say they decided to wear their third jersey at home. At least their road jerseys, never change those.

Those are elite of the elite. But that's going to do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to break down the series even more, give a couple Penguins X factors for this series. And, of course, give our predictions before giving our full playoff predictions in the final segment on the show. And that's coming up right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about one of our sponsors, which is game time.

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the description for everyone that wants to read it but for me i have two x factors for the penguins number one steward skinner if he plays up to his standard like gives them average goaltending i think the penguins should keywords should be fine in this series He just can't lose them this series. We've seen him play in big games a lot of the last couple of seasons. These helpful Oilers get to back-to-backed semin-lac at finals. He's played exceptionally well in back-to-back Western Conference Finals to win those two Western Conference trophies. If that version of Stewart Skinner in those Western Conference Finals, especially Pat,

if that version shows up here for the Penguins, I like their chances even more to win this series in advance of the second round. Big X factor for me. Number two, Eric Carlson, hasn't played in the playoffs since 20. He has been awesome in the playoffs throughout his career, eight goals, 53 points in 67 playoffs games. We've seen him go nuclear a couple of times. He has carried this team at times this season, especially in March when they were playing without at least one of Crosby Malkin, if not both.

He was putting the team on his back. He's done everything at five on five, the power play, and on the penalty kill. I think if he goes off this series, it's going to be also really tough for the Flyers to slow the rest of the team down. So those are just two of my X factors. I could easily put a couple other players in there, Pat. But those are the two I really wanted to highlight. At the risk of repeating myself from our crossover edition,

the key matchup in this series, everyone will talk about Crosby, everyone will talk about Malkin and Littang and Carlson, as well as Porter Martone, and Trevor Ziegress, Tyson Forrester, all of the big names that are in this series, Because an underrated part of this Penguins Flyers series, there's some star power, man. Like it's not to the level as it was in the late 2000s and early 2010s, but there are some good young players on the flyers that are going to blossom into stars.

And you've obviously got a constellation of stars on the Pittsburgh Penguins roster as it's been for the last 20 years. But the biggest matchup in this series is Stuart Skinner versus Dan Vladar. It is genuinely crazy to me as a Penguins fan who has been a big time hater of the Philadelphia Flyers my entire life to say that they have goaltending because Dan Vladar has been great for them. And Stuart Skinner doesn't have to outdule him. Stuart Skinner does not have to win this series, but he can't lose it. That is the biggest thing with Stuart Skinner. He doesn't have to be a Vezna candidate. Just play well enough to give your team.

chance. And I know that he's been to two straight Stanley Cup finals with the Edmonton Oilers, but that was how he got them there. He gave them good enough goal tending to let the rest of the team carry it the rest of the way. If he can do that for the penguins, it's huge for them. The biggest X factor for me, more than anything. And I know that in a playoff series, the top six is going to do their best to play to a draw. Biggest X factor for me is Igor Chinikov. This kid's game, I know it doesn't seem that way. It's built for the playoffs. And I'm going to make a crazy comparison here because I think it's appropriate.

It reminds me a lot of Phil Kessel when Phil Kessel was a penguin. Chinikov is a more complete player than Phil Kessel ever was. We've seen that in his time as a penguin. He's been really good in all zones. But Igor Chinikov has the speed and the shot to break a game open. If he gets loose a couple of times against the flyers and is able to get that shot off, as good as Dan Vladar has been, there are not many goalies who are able to handle the speed, velocity, and sheer power behind his snapshot and wrist shot.

So that to me is a huge X factor. I want to see how he looks in playoff action. I'm excited. I think he has a big goal in him in the playoffs, if not more than that considering the level that he has played at throughout the round. regular season with the penguins again 18 goals and 36 points just with them yes he finished with more production overall when you look at his total sample size between the penguins and the jackets but still had 18 of his 21 goals with the penguins this year he was absolutely unbelievable you know

he plays in the top six pants so he doesn't play on the third line like phil kessel did i'm sure if dmuse really wanted to he could probably put chenikov on the third line but he has fit like a glove next to both Crosby and Malkin, there's just no reason to take him out of the top six. I would like to see him get a little bit more power play minutes just because of his release and just the way that he can, you know, kind of draw shooters a bit towards him, but also he has that disguise on the shot where some of them really won't see it coming. So I'd like to see him get more power play time, but I like that you brought up Chino Kov. And I brought that up during the crossover that we published at midnight as well.

You know, that's someone that Rick Talk and the rest of their staff are going to really have to zero when considering the level, excuse me, that he has played at. And, you know, again, going back to Skinner, it is funny, remember how bad he struggled in that first round against L.A. last year, but they went back to him a bit later on in the playoffs, and he upped his game, especially in the Western Conference final. And the Penguins, last couple of times they've been in the postseason, they have not gotten good goaltending.

You go back to the Rangers, Louis Deming, after coming in for Casey to Smith, wasn't good enough. They weren't able to close that series out, and Deming did not have, you know, the Penguins just did not get good enough goaltending. The series before, we don't need to talk about how much of a disaster Tristan Jari was. He was awful. So, again, if they can get at least average to a little bit above average goal tending,

this team should be fine enough, I think, to win this series. My biggest matchup, though, it's honestly the Penguins' potent offense versus the Flyers' Stingy Defense. You got two forces meeting. The Flyers, their third in expected goals against per 60, they've only allowed 2.19 expected goals against Penguins, their third and goals for. this year, 3.54. How does this go when a top goal scoring team plays one of these stingier defensive teams,

especially down the stretch where the Flyers have been a lot even better defensively, I should say, too. So I'm excited to see how that goes. Overall, though, prediction-wise, we'll just get to that here before we have the segment, Pat. I'm going to go Penguins in Six. I think their forward depth will outshine the Flyers forward depth. And I think Stuart Skinner will do enough in this series to get to,

give the penguins a win. And yes, people, I expect Sidney Crosby to have at least one moment, if not multiple, against the team that he loves to torment. Give me the penguins in six hard fought games. I'm just going to run it back from what I did on our crossover edition because I was that proud of it, doing my Shannon Sharp impression for this series. I don't care if it's the Philadelphia Flyers, the Dayton Flyers, or a campaign flyer, penguins in five. But as I said on that show, I don't want people to misconstrue that prediction.

It's not me saying the flyers are terrible, the penguins are great, this is going to be a gentleman's sweep where they dominate four games and drop one that you don't expect them to drop. This is going to be a Razor's Edge series. I just look at the matchups that matter the most when it comes to this series. The Flyers are good defensively, and I know that production drops in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but the Penguins offense, let me get my notebook here so I can make sure I got these numbers right. This season, the Penguins were ninth, according to Natural Satrick and expected goals percentage at 51.2, and they scored 290 actual goals. Obviously, that's not all five on five, but as you know, they were able to put the puck in the back of the net. The Flyers were 13th at 5 on 5 at 50.7%, but their actual goals were 240. So the Penguins have a net plus 50 for the for actual goals over this season. And then there's the special teams battle, which the Penguins win by a country mile.

The Penguins PK this season was 6th. It just a shade over 81%. Their power play, seventh in the league, a shade over 24%. And then you go to the fly. Their power play dead last in the NHL at 15.7% and their PK 22nd at 77.6. So between the fact that the penguins were able to convert the chances that they got at a higher rate than the flyers and the fact that the penguins have been really good on both the power play and the penalty kill, though there is room for improvement after the way the season ended, those are. some of the biggest key matchups. And I do feel like when you have that set up going into a series like this,

it sets up for the penguins to win some really hard fought games. And I do still think that Flyers team, this is the last point of it. This is a young, hungry Flyers team. And I don't totally subscribe to the whole, oh, you got to be there and learn how to lose to learn how to win because this isn't 20 years ago. This is the here and now. The NHL has skewed younger and young teams have seen a lot of success. But when you compare the two rosters, you have a young, hungry team that is getting really excited and really amped up.

And then you have a very veteran savvy penguins team on the other side that knows that if you completely exhaust yourself trying to win the first round, you're probably not going to win it. And even if you do, by the time you get to the second round, your lambs for the slaughter. I agree. But at the end of the day, man, you finally got the battle of PA back. It's going to be a lot of fun, a lot of great storylines. It's time for this rivalry to get reignited a little bit. I've seen a lot of the trash talk on social media. A lot of these jokes that I keep seeing from both sides are so old. Let's just get some new material in there for some smack talk between the two sides.

But I'm excited, man. This is going to be a lot of fun. Keep it right here on Locked on Penguins. We have full coverage for this entire series over the next potential two weeks. then hopefully deeper into May as well, Pat at this team, keeps advancing throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs. But that's going to do it for the second segment. Coming up to end the show, it's time for Pat and I to give our full first round predictions. And Pat has a surprise for everyone. So that's coming up right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about one final sponsor, which is five-hour energy cotton candy.

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It's become my go-to and I want something sweet without going overboard. Bringing on this sweetness with cotton candy, five-hour energy shots available online right now at five-hour energy.com or on Amazon. All right, we're back here on the Friday edition of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my host, Patrick Damp. And Pat, honestly, I'm going to let you lead off with a surprise before we get into our picks because this is something pretty cool. So to celebrate the Penguins being back in the Stanley Cup playoffs,

meaning us Penguins fans are paying a lot more attention to the Stanley Cup playoffs, I decided it's time for us as a community to have a little bit of fun. So today we launched the Locked-on Penguins NHL Bracket Challenge. Just go to bracketchallenge.com, go to the leagues tab and search Lockedon. on penguins. It's a public league. All you have to do is click join, put your bracket in there. You can join me and Hunter, make your predictions, submit your bracket. And we'll see what we can do throughout the playoffs for maybe some sort of prize or reward for the winner. But for right

now, it is just going to be bragging rights, but Hunter and I are going to work on coming up with some kind of prize for whoever wins. So I've got my bracket in there. Once Hunter, Hunter gets done with going to practice today. He's going to get his bracket in there. We will put the link in the show notes wherever you're listening as well as YouTube. So you can click through. Put your bracket in there. You'll have bragging rights if you win.

And like I said, Hunter and I will figure out some kind of a prize, hopefully, to give to whoever wins. But definitely join us on that. Let us know your picks in the comments on social media. Show us who you're picking. and let's have some fun this Stanley Cup season. I agree. I'm really excited for that. And I'll put the link to it in the episode description as well,

both for audio and for video on YouTube. Let's get to the series that. Let's start. Tampa Bay, Montreal, this might be elite puck. Two outstanding teams. A lot of great high-end talent. Tampa Bay plays all defensively. Montreal plays fire wagon hockey.

It is a lot of fun to watch. I think this series goes the distance. I think you're going to see the Sorrelli line matched up against the Habs top six, especially with Caughtfield and Suzuki. Give me Tampa Bay in seven, mainly due to playoff Kutrov. And I'm taking Andre Basilemsky, man. He is a big game goalie for a reason. One of the best we have in the NHL. I think Tampa Bay does just enough to get over the finish line in this series, Tampa Bay in seven.

Not a whole lot to add for me. I'm taking Tampa in six, but for all the same. reasons you had. I like that Montreal team. They are going to be a problem for years to come. But we kind of hinted at this in the crossover episode that it kind of feels almost like a last dance for the Penguins, though I don't think it is. This does kind of feel almost like a last dance for Tampa because a lot of these guys are aging out. A lot of these guys are starting to cycle out of the NHL and it's Tampa Bay. So I'm sure they're going to have some super secret weapon in Syracuse that we've never heard of and they'll just continue good but this does feel like

a Tampa team that's motivated to get one more and I think they just have higher end talent and they have the goaltender so it's going to be a damn fun series but give me Tampa and six yeah moving on just because we have a lot of series to get to or kind of getting close to running out of time but also at the same time we can go as long as we want but so we like to keep our episodes you know below that you know 35 to 40 minute mark here Boston buffalo buffalo buffalo and six for me. I am so thrilled that the Sabres are back in the playoffs. This organization deserves it. The fan base especially deserves it. They have been through hell and back

with this team for the last decade and a half. I like the Sabres high-end talent better. I think Boston is going to scare them. Swayman's been really good. Pasta, for as great as he is, at scoring goals, he's been an even better playmaker this year. That's even scarier. He is just an all-around elite talent. Morgan Geeky has had a great year. Pavl Zaka. Victor Arvid, has also had a great year, Charlie McAvoy, but Buffalo is deeper. I think they're better on their back end. And I think if they get fine enough, goaltending, they should win this series.

I think this is where Boston's Cinderella-esque run ends Pat. Give me Buffalo and Six. I'm also taking Buffalo in six. I look at them as they're just playing too well. They have been a wagon since the calendar flipped to 2026. The X factor for me, though, that could throw a wrench in the machine is Jeremy Swayman. He's a goaltender who has an ability to steal. series. And if he does that, I do think that's going to scare Buffalo a little bit.

But I do think Buffalo's talent and momentum wins out. Give me the Sabers in six to go to the second round. Obviously, we've already picked Penguins Flyers. You can just rerun and go back to our second segment. Now, the two teams of the Penguins could face in the second round, Ottawa versus Carolina. It's funny. I talked about this on the national show on Thursday. Everything Carolina does well, Ottawa can also do well. Oh, you want a four check card? Ottawa can do that. Oh, you want to turn games into a slog? Ottawa can also do that. They can put three guys in the blue line. They can clog up the neutral zone, just like Carolina can. In terms of the fun factor, I don't think this series is going to be quote unquote fun

when you look at a lot of the other series around the NHL. I think Ottawa is going to give Carolina a hell of a fight. If Allmark shows up, it's going to be even tougher for Carolina. However, I think Carolina's depth wins out. And I think they win this in seven very hard fought games. I know a lot of people are going to pick Ottawa as a, you know, sneaky upset. And I can definitely see them winning this series. If I were a Carolina fan, I would not want to play Ottawa. But I'm going to go Carolina in seven here.

It's really close. But give me the canes. I dug into my crown royal bag that has all my loose change, picked out a quarter, flipped it seven times. and I got Ottawa in seven, or not Ottawa in seven. Sorry, sorry, messed that up. Carolina in seven. I think this is,

this is going to be a difficult series to watch, man. It's going to be two teams that play boring ass hockey, but I think Carolina has just the slight edge on talent, and Carolina takes that in seven. Okay, so we're done with the Eastern Conference. Let's go to the West now, Dallas, Minnesota.

We have known this playoff series, basically since my birthday in mid-November, It's just because Colorado got off to such a great start to the season, barely losing in regulation. You know, Minnesota and Dallas were in the two, three spot ever since then. So we had known they were going to play in the playoffs for quite some time. The thing that scares me about Dallas is their injuries. Heskinin is hurt. Rupa Hins is hurt.

But if they are both available for a good chunk of this series, and that's what I'm basing this off of, I will take Dallas and seven here. If not, kind of skews towards Minnesota, just because those are two. very hard players to replace. Hintz says everything at five on five, both in the offensive zone and the defensive zone. Haskinen logs all their tough minutes. He is a one-man breakout. He's great offensively, but he also is great at suppressing shots in his own zone. His pair with Esa Lindell is always a lot of fun to watch. Dallas does have the luxury of having Thomas Harley, who is also a number one defenseman on probably half the teams in the league, if we're being real. but I still think I'm basing this off of both players being healthy for most of the series. Give me Dallas and seven, especially if Jake Otenger goes gone mode because we have seen that before in the playoffs.

Give me Dallas. Let me a real boring segment because that's what I'm taking to is Dallas and seven. I have two things on this. One, I think Dallas just has a deeper roster, not by a lot, but they do have the deeper roster. and they've got the X-Factor in Jake Ottinger, who can screw around and decide to be one of the best goalies on the planet. And then the other, I feel bad for my friends in Minnesota, but until Minnesota does it, they haven't done it.

They got to do it for me to actually believe in them. And until that day, I won't. So give me Dallas in seven. Very fair. Colorado, L.A. Colorado in five. I think L.A. wins one of these games. I could easily see this being asleep, too, but I think L.A. is going to win one of them at home.

Otherwise, I think Colorado is going to do very Colorado things to this LA team. And I mean, they're just going to kick their ass. Hey, if I get all takes exposed on that, so be it. But I'm taking Colorado in five years. This is, in my opinion, the best team in hockey. This is a photo negative of what I said about Penguins Flyers. It's going to be five games for me for Colorado. But it's going to be the Colorado plays with their food for a game.

And then they go, oh, wait, no, hold on. We can't, we can't do this. and then they go on to beat L.A. and a gentleman's sweep. Yeah, and as for the two Pacific series, so we'll go Vegas, Utah. Again, Pat, I'll pat myself on the back here. I predicted Utah to make the playoffs going into the season. That's one of the probably, you know, one out of 30 things that I actually got right this year. I think Utah is going to give Vegas a good scare.

I don't trust Vegas as goaltending, but I think in the end, Ico and Stone and company are going to do enough to get that series over the finish line for Vegas. give me the Golden Knights in seven and then as for Edmonton, Anaheim. I also think Anaheim is going to scare Edmonton. I like a lot of their young talent. However, I don't like the way they've been playing here down the stretch. Edmonton, it looks like they're going to get Leon Drysodle back,

which is obviously huge for them, considering how elite of a player he is. I think Connor McDavid is going to have a lot of fun against that Ducks defense. Give me the Oilers in six. I don't think the Oilers are that good this year compared to the last couple of years, but I think they are going up to win this series, and I think they do.

So for the Pacific Pat, Vegas and seven, Edmonton and six. I'm taking six games for both of these series. I got Vegas and six. I just think that the way they've been playing under torts woke them up, and they kind of started to remember who they were. And I don't think that this is going to be like Vegas teams of the past couple of years, but I do think they get past Utah. I just think it's a better roster and they'll get a victory over the mammoth.

And then I don't really love Anaheim's defense as a whole. And I think when you compare it to the Edmonton forwards, that's going to be the big difference. So I'm taking the Oilers in six. But like you, I don't think this is as good of an Oilers team as it was in the past few years. But once again, this is going to be an Edmonton victory in six games. Someone has to come out of this specific division. So, I mean, I think it's going to be one of Vegas or Edmonton. I still think whoever comes out of the Pacific side still loses in the Western Conference

Final just because the Central has been insane this year when you look at Colorado, Dallas, and Minnesota. But hey, it's playoffs for a reason. Everyone gets reset to zero. Anything can happen. But I believe that's going to do it for the Friday edition of the Lockdown 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, breaking down game one, seeing if the Penguins get off to a one-nething series lead.

and then getting you all set for game two in Pittsburgh on Monday. Keep it right here on Locked on Penguins for all of your Pittsburgh Penguins content. So for Patrick Damp, I am Hunter Hodes. Thank you all so much for listening slash watching. We appreciate it. We'll be back on Monday.