Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - How the Penguins can get an opening-night victory against a Stanley Cup Contender tonight!

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

There's no better way to kick off the regular season than with a heated rival, right? Hunter and Patrick get you ready for the home and season opener against the New York Rangers tonight. They discuss what makes the Rangers such a dangerous threat in the Eastern Conference and give some keys to victory for the Penguins. They also discuss a couple more keys to victory, including getting a lot of traffic in front of Igor Shesterkin. After that, they analyze the lines that the Penguins are expected to roll out and who needs to make a difference to help bring home a win. Finally, they discuss the rivalry as a whole and how it continues to heat up with no end in sight.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelPlace your first FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - guaranteed ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. IndeedStill searching for a great candidate for your company? Don’t search, just match–with Indeed.Claim your SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT now at Indeed.com/LOCKEDON. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed.  FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, everyone, we've made it to the regular season, and the Pittsburgh Penguins are set to open the 24-25 season at home against the New York Rangers on Wednesday. And Pat and I are going to preview that game for you all 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 back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hohie. joined by my co-host Patrick Damp. You can follow him on Twitter at Send him for Wet,

and you can follow the show's Twitter at L.O underscore Penguins. 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 finally, this episode is brought to you by GameTime, down the GameTime app, grant account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.

And Pat Buddy, welcome to the Thunderdome, my friend. We have made it to the regular. season, the 24-25 season started on Tuesday with a bang. The Blues came back to beat the Seattle Cracken in the first game. We're actually recording this during the Bruins-Panthers game, so that'll end well after this episode is done recording. But we wanted to have this preview out for you all. First thing on Wednesday to get you all set for Penguins Rangers opening night for

the Penguins at PBG Paints Arena, 7.30 p.m. start time on TNT. And I'm fired up for this one. It's always fun when you get to go up against a divisional rival to start the season, especially one in the Rangers where I think that is the Penguins top rival right now. It's been going kind of in circles these last few years. There's times where the capitals have been at the top. There's been times where the Flyers have been at the top. I would even argue the Islanders at times as well.

But these last few years, it very much has been the New York Rangers. And speaking of the Rangers, this is a team that is very much in it to win it this year. Bonafide Stanley Cup contender, they are the number one seat in the Eastern Conference last year before falling to the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference final. And this team, I really think it might be cup or butts for them. This is, I think, the last year where they're truly all in with this court. I think they would make some changes if they don't go all the way this year. I think they'll keep the main guys intact.

But with this group, I feel like because they brought basically everyone back, this is really the last year for this one, I would say. And they have a contract situation right now with Igor, Sturkin, Kevin Weeks reported on Tuesday that he had declined eight times 11. In other words, eight years, $88 million. In my opinion, I think he's looking for $12 to $12.5 million, and he deserves it, considering he's the best goaltender in the league, but they have that to deal with. You look at the Rangers lines heading into this game, Artemian with Vince Trocheck,

Alexei Lafranier, Chris Kreider, Penguin, by the way, Mika Zabenejad, Riley Smith, former penguin, and if you are a betting person, you can probably pencil him in for maybe a goal against his former team because it feels like every former penguin scores against the penguins at some point in their careers. Will Cooley, Philip Heidel and Capocco in the third line. And then Sam Carrick, Matt Renpe, and Adam Endstrom on the fourth line. And defensively, Kiannoyler, Adam Fox, Braden Schneider, Jacob Truba, Zach Jones, and then Victor Mancini on the bottom pairing.

And then, of course, you have Shasturkin and net. So again, very strong forward group. They were fine defensively last year. but I think the main thing here with this game, my big key to victory, stay out of the box. You do not want to give the Rangers power plays. They were third in the NHL last year

in power play percentage. We saw them kind of cook the penguins in those three games, at least on the power play at times. Their movement is so crisp. They have a very good shoot first mentality. Chris Kreider lives around the net mouth and he loves scoring on those deflections,

not even just against the penguins, but against everyone in the NHL. First, key to victory, my man, stay out of the box. Absolutely. Like you said it already, that third best power play in the National Hockey League last season, and they have an absurd amount of talent up front on this roster. I know that you look at their forward group, right? And obviously, Artemi Panarin leads the way he is one of the best wingers in hockey,

one of the best goals scores around. He's just such a dynamic player. But while a lot of those names in their forward group may not jump off the page at you, you don't sit there and think, oh, superstar, superstar, these are just guys who produce just consistently. They put up points. They score goals. You don't think of a workman-like mentality when you think of the New York Rangers.

The New York Rangers, very similar. to the Pittsburgh Penguins are a franchise that when you think about them, you think star power. But this current iteration for the last few years of the New York Rangers have been borderline workman-like. They just go out, take care of business, beat you, and move on. So, you know, you joked about it a little bit at the start. We're like, welcome to Thunderdome. Well, guess what? no tougher way to start the penguin season this year than to open up with the New York Rangers,

because this is a damn good team. If you listen to our episode on Tuesday, you heard my take at the end that I think this is a team that's going to come out of the east in the playoffs this year. And you also hinted at it again. So thank you, Hunter, for being a listener of the locked on penguins podcast. We appreciate that. But this is a team where you can see, aside from just the Igor Shisterkin contract drama right now. This is a team that knows this is probably it for this group. Yeah, the big names are going to stick around just like most franchises where your mainstays will be here.

But everybody around them, there's going to be very tough decisions for Chris Drury coming up, especially with whatever contract they signed Shisterkin to and how they can fill out the roster around him, who they can keep, who they're going to get rid of. So this team, along with getting to the Eastern Conference final last year, knows that this is probably the last shot for this group together. So they're going to be highly motivated, mix that with having that much talent to put a fine point on what you said. Don't take stupid penalties tonight. If you take dumb penalties, the New York Rangers are going to make you pay.

And while the penguins have consistently had a solid penalty kill for the last decade or so under Mike Sullivan, when you play a team like the Rangers, it doesn't matter how good your penalty kill is. Like Thanos, the New York Rangers power play is inevitable. Right. And Fox is so great at walking the blue line. You have Zabenejad's one-timer from the circle, which is also deadly. It's not at obviously Ovechkin's level, but it's still very good. It's not Ovechkin's level, but I'll say this much. if there's a comparable, it's Sabinajad because when he sets up in that office, when he gets open and gets those looks, you can try your best to stop it, but it's going to happen.

The comp is either him or Stamco's. I'll throw definitely for Stamco's in there. His one-timer is also. They're in that second tier. It's not obviously Ovechkin rules. He is the top guy. He sits in his office. He scores those one-timers. But guys like Stamcoast, guys like Sabinajad, they're leveled down. but you give them time, you give them space, they will make you pay. Not a level down by that much, that's for sure. Then you have Panera and he's going all over the ice, hell of a playmaker, great sniper, Vince Trochec, great in front of the net area. And he's also really good in the slot area too.

Honestly, both Kreider and Trochecich are great in front of the net. Crider is definitely more of the net front guy, but Troche can also go there too, but he's also great in the slot too. You do not want to play into, you know, whatever. For example, if Truba does something dumb tomorrow, don't play into that. Matt Rampay, he'll obviously throw the body around as well. Just don't play into that at all. We'll get into some more keys to victory coming up in the second segment,

but I just really wanted to start with that. You got to keep this game, I feel like, to five on five, because the Rangers, they're pretty pedestrian at five on five. These last few years, their five-on-five numbers are kind of just okay overall. So if you can keep the game to that while the Penguins may be getting the special teams advantage with the new little power play. Again, I'll like their chances at least a little bit more in this game, even though they will be an underdog overall. And you said it about also this kind of being, you know, the last hurrah for this group. I mean, you look at, you know, Puckpedia now,

Panarin only has a year left on his contract after this year. He's a free agent 26, 27. You have Capocco. He's an RFA after this year. Lafranier, he's going to probably get a big pay raise on his contract as well after this season. And then defensively, Kiannoy Miller, you have Ryan Lingren as well. They have a ton of decisions to make on a lot of other players even outside of Shasturkin salary cap wise. So if they don't do it this year, I do think you're going to see quite a few new faces for the Rangers next year overall. You really will. And I think and this is more just a broad comment, not just Rangers specific, but we can take it back to the Rangers simply because of who Lafranier is.

If you look at three consecutive drafts, 2019, 2020, and 2021, we do have to factor in what an absolute wrench in the machine the pandemic was because we were all ready to toss Alexei Lafranier into the trash bin and say he's a bust, he's terrible. But when you think about a lot of the guys who were drafted in that three-year window, their developments got completely derailed, whether it was not getting time to play in the pros, in the American League or the NHL or even the ECHL. And then the same thing with juniors where the junior leagues shut down as well or they were

playing these very bizarre like home at home schedules. It threw a lot of guys' developments into flux. And it was going to take them a little bit longer to get up to speed. and as we saw last year, Lafranier turned into a player who we kind of all expected he would be, but it took a little bit longer just because of how messed up development became. And now he is one of their better players and looking very much like a guy that you want to lock up long term, keep him in your franchise, and he will continue to be an absolute menace in a thorn in the side of the penguins for years to come. So similarly to what you were saying about the power play, him and Panarin are two guys.

You cannot let take over this game tonight because if you do, they are going to absolutely make you pay and it's going to be a nightmare if you can't neutralize them. And same thing with Quider. I mean, again, we all know he's crushed the Penguins so many times start his career. So you got to also shot him down too if the Penguins want to win this game. But I think I'll do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, we're going to look at some more keys to victory for penguins and also look at the lines of the penguins it looks like will be debuting for this game

against the Rangers. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor, and that is Game Time. Game Time has a new feature called GameTime Picks that makes getting tickets for your favorite live events even easier. They filter out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats. You don't even have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets. There's all in pricing that toggles that feature shows the toll up front with no surprise fees at checkout. Also, seat views, you can get a full view from your seat in the app before you buy. They also have the lowest price guarantee or gains time or credit you, 110% of the difference. One more thing, they have game time ticket coverage. Your purchase is covered with the most

flexible customer service policy in the ticketing industry. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time down the game time app. Grant account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Turns a fly again, grand account and redeem code locked on NHL for $20 off. Downloading time today. What time is it? It's game time. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Huntser Hodes. Joined by my co-st, Patrick Damon. Speaking of game time, it very much is game time for the Penguins and the Rangers. One more key to victory, at least that I have, Pat, before I throw this over to you for your keys, got to get net traffic in front of Shisterkin. The Penguins, they are usually very good at getting traffic in front of them

and also kind of rattling Shisterken. I know Shisterkin definitely has moments. moments where you see him get mad at certain players, certain teams. Penguins are definitely one of those teams that he gets routed at. I mean, we've seen him and Sidney Crosby go at it quite a few times of these last few years. I'm sure that's going to be no different in this game tonight. But they want to win this game. They got to make it a living hell in front of the net. You saw that during the playoffs series a couple of years ago.

Yes, I know the Penguins lost that series, but when they were playing their best in that series, they had him rattle. They had him seeing ghosts. They chased him. You got to get that type of net front traffic if you want to win this game. And that means big game from Michael Bunting with how much of a rat he is.

And I'll throw Yassie Poolyarfi in there with what we saw during the preseason. I want to see him go to the net and make it a living hell in front of Shasturkin as well. So that's another big key for me for the Penguins that they want to win this game. Right. And you kind of hook away

what I was going to start with. with, and that is to, like you said, make life a living hell for Igor Shisterkin tonight. And I look at players like the two you brought up, Michael Bunting, Yassi Poo-Yarvey, get in his kitchen, make life annoying for him. Another guy I'd watch for do that, and he's going to be in a top line role likely tonight. And that's Anthony Bavillier. He is a speed player. He is a little bit more of a gritty player.

You don't think of Anthony Bavillier as your classic gritty guy, but he's not afraid to go where you got to go to score goals. We saw that in all those years he was a thorn in the penguin's side with the islanders. A lot of his goals weren't finesse goals. He was four, five, six, seven feet in front of the net. He was a pest in front. That's what you have to do against them. And you said it as well.

The penguins have a great history, especially against the New York Rangers. at torturing their goalies. We think back to Henrik Lundquist. We think all the way back for people of a certain vintage. Mike Richter, they have made a living. Making these great New York Rangers goalies look human. So that is a huge factor tonight. And I do think if you get to him early,

whether it's just peppering him with a few shots, getting in front of them, hacking at a couple rebounds, you're going to get in his head a little bit because the penguins kind of are his kryptonite. Yeah, they won that series two years ago, but this is a guy who seemingly is able to be a brick wall and unbeatable against 30 other NHL teams. But he comes to Pittsburgh and for whatever reason, they have his number. So if you can get to him early, a lot of shots, some traffic,

poke at him a little bit. That seed of doubt is planted in his head of what is it about this Pittsburgh team that every time I come here, they're always in my face and it gets them off his game. So that is a huge thing for me. We have been talking, and another thing, we have been talking about this for about a week now. It looks like it's going to happen tonight. Rutger McGrady, Lars Eller, yes, he, Pooey, Ravie. You showed some great chemistry. in the preseason. It looked like there is some real potential there with that line. I want to see them put their mark in the regular season now.

Do they have to go out and light it up? No, but have effective shifts, spend some extended time in the offensive zone. If you manage to pop in a goal or two, I'm certainly not going to complain. But start building something here. Start showing that the chemistry we saw in the preseason, the effectiveness we saw, we saw out of you the last couple of games of the preseason wasn't just hey we're playing against jv teams and we're trying to get to the end of training camp make this a thing and by all accounts rucker mcgrorety's ready you look at his quote today when he got asked about what's it

like to make the team as much as i want nch l players to start showing personality there is a soft spot in my heart for a guy like Rucker McRourty who has a lot of hype, a lot of potential, treating it like he's been there before. He basically said, yeah, it's exciting. This is where you want to be. This is, I want to be an NHL player, but at the end of the day, it's hockey. That's right. You've been doing this all your life, man.

This is where you expected to be. This is where you want to be. Do I expect a huge game out of them? No, but just like the preseason, don't look overwhelmed, look like you belong there, and make it a great first building block for hopefully an effective and fantastic NHL career. Now that you said that, watch him go out there and score the first goal this season for the Penguins,

just because, again, you said that on the show, right? But yeah, speaking of that line, it looks like that is going to be the third line. And I agree with you. After what they did in the preseason, I know very small sample and you're doing it against, I feel like a lot of backups. Now it's time to see what you can do against the Rangers varsy squad when the games are for real now.

And I'm curious to see how it does. The other lines, Drew O'Connor with Cindy Crosby and Anthony Bavillier. It was surprise there, especially with Brian Rust out, though. Good news. Brian Rust returned to practice on Tuesday. No contact capacity. So he's probably going to start taking some contact here at some point. I would imagine, and this is just a guest to your people, I would imagine that he'll be back within the next week, week and a half overall.

I don't think this is going to be too long. So he'll be back pretty soon. But that's the top line right now. Third line, we already discussed. Second line, bunting with Malkin and Raquel. And then the fourth line, Kevin Hayes with Cody Glass and Noll Achari. It looks like at least based off practice on Tuesday and then heading into Wednesday that Cody Glass is going to be taking the reps of fourth line center.

But I also had to guess, I think they're going to kind of rotate Glass and Hayes throughout this game just because they both can play center and wing. But again, good to see Achari getting some time on the wing. And then defensively, Matt Grizzlick, Crystal Tang, Marcus Pedersen, Eric Carlson, and then Ryan Graves and Jack Seine. No surprise there with the defensive pairings. And, you know, this is, at least for Ryan Graves, he's thinking this. We're not thinking this, but he's thinking this.

It's the potentially for him to start of a little bit of redemption after how bad he was last year. I know that he wants to go out there and prove, I think, to, you know, especially both of us in the entire fan base that last year wasn't him. And, well, he gets one hell of a test right out of the gate against a Stanley Cup juggernaut in the Rangers. But overall, no surprise. with any of those lines. Not at all. And to the Ryan Graves point of it,

we obviously on this show were not kind to Ryan Graves last year because he didn't deserve it. He was a disaster for this team. But I think we both acknowledged and noticed that at the end of the year, when paired with Jack St. Ivan, he was starting to look a little bit better. Now, was that far all that? Difficult to clear. No, because he struggled mightily last year. But similar to what Josh Yohe wrote about earlier this week, I want to see him build on that.

This is not going to be an overnight process. This is not going to be an overnight fix. He's not going to suddenly turn into the defenseman he was with the Devils or with the avalanche in a matter of a week. This is going to take a little while. It might take a month. It might take two. But again, building blocks. go out, make some solid plays, look like you're getting better, make smart decisions.

I don't want you to become, and I'm not expecting you to become the best defenseman on the team right away, but continue to show that that pairing has some juice. Make smart plays, make solid defensive plays, and just essentially be a bottom pairing. I barely want to notice you tonight. I barely want to talk about you. Unless you make a great play, I want to come on here. here on Thursday and go, they're fine. And I want them to start banking that every few games. Hey, you know what? They're playing well. They're playing solid. They're playing consistently.

And if they can do that starting tonight, again, I'm not ready to say Ryan Graves is back and all of a sudden he's fixed, but start putting that in the bank. Start having consistent performances and continue to build on it. And I'll be happy. Right. He's going to have to have quite a few performances, you know, back to back to back to back to back and then some for me to be fully saying, okay, we might have something here with Graves on the bottom pairing. But overall, I agree. If I don't really notice him in this game heading into the second game on Thursday against the Red Wings, I will take that as a win overall.

But I think that I'll do it for the second segment. Coming up in the final segment, we're going to discuss a couple more things relating to the Penguins Rangers matchup, including how the Penguins power play could potentially perform against the Rangers penalty kill, which was also a very very very important. a good unit last year. The Rangers penalty kill was third overall in the league last year. So the Penguins Power Play will be getting quite the test to open the season. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our last sponsor, and that is FanDuel. Hey, NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. So when you get

a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live, play by play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets, guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. That is fandul.com. All right here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast, I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host, Patrick Gam. So we've discussed it a little bit throughout the week just because the penguins are bringing in sort of a new look on the power play, and that is Chris LaTang with Eric Carlson together

on the same unit. And I know there are some people out there that really don't like it. People are going to say, okay, you should still split them up, blah, blah, blah. At this point, though, I'm willing to try anything to get the power play up to speed for this year, considering how awful it was last year. Mike Sullivan even said before last season, oh, we're ready to unleash Eric Carlson and Chris Lathang on the same power play unit, and they barely got any minutes together. It felt like throughout the season. So I am more than willing to at least try it out the season for several games. If it doesn't work, you can obviously switch back to Carlson running

one unit and Lattang running the other unit. But I am totally fine with the Penguins power play, as is, It's just player-wise on the top unit because, you know, you got to figure this out at some point. If I'm Mike Sullivan and then, I have Chris Letang running the point, and I have Carlson in the Kessel spot, both as a playmaker and as a one-time threat. The Penguins really haven't had a threat like Kessel in that spot, I mean, honestly, since he left, to be honest. So I am more than willing for this team to at least, you know, try to recapture that magic. I mean, Kessel, he didn't have a one-time threat per se, but his release from that spot was just so good when he would get the puck. His playmaking skills were so good when he got the puck.

Again, he didn't have that good of a one-timer. But as a threat in that spot, he was so deadly. And the Penguins haven't had a threat like that since he left. With Carlson, I want him to at least try to be a little bit of that on this power play. obviously, you know, get traffic to the net, more movement, shot first mentality, all that stuff. But this is still going to be a pretty big test against, at least from last year, to one of the top penalty killing units in the league. It will be.

And I will say this for Mike Sullivan last year saying we're ready to unleash Carlson and Latang on the top power play. The injury to Latang in the way he was performing down the stretch, you didn't want to give them those moments. those minutes just because of everything else going on. So the opportunity really never actually presented itself. So this year, you get the opportunity to do it. And we kind of talked about this in the first segment. If you're the Penguins, the Rangers power play is one that you want to try to emulate because, yeah, they have all those threats.

But what have I been talking about for the entire preseason and training camp? the power play needs to have movement, it needs to have urgency, and it needs to be an attack mode for the entire time it's in the offensive zone. And that describes the Rangers power play to a T. They are constantly moving. They are constantly looking for mismatches. And they are attacking. Everything finishes at the net. Everything they do leads to, we want to get a shot in front with traffic and find those mismatches in front of the net.

So if you're the Penguins power play, just watch the tape of the Rangers power play from last year and just go, do that. So this is a huge challenge for them because we know how good the Rangers special teams were last year. So the Penguins, wow, yes, it's one of 82. It's not, you're not going to win the Stanley Cup tonight. You're not going to lose it tonight either. But if you can go out and win the special teams battle in your first game against a team that was in the top three of, of both last year, that sends a little bit of a message that, hey, we are starting to figure some things out here.

We're starting to turn that corner. So if they can go out and do that tonight, I will be extremely encouraged what this team could do this year. Agreed. 100%. And just for some history with Penguins and Rangers, of course. So Penguins have points in 17 of their last 26 games against the Rangers. They're 14 and 9 and 3 in those games.

And they're also 18 and 11 and 3 in their last 32 games against the range. Rangers. Also, this is only the third time the Penguins have ever opened this season against the Rangers the last time, October 2nd, 2009, a three to two penguins win after the Penguins won the Cup that year. But Pat, do you have anything else to add about this game overall before we let go? Well, you know, I watched that banner go up. See it? See it back there? Yeah. I see it. I see it. I was at that game against the Rangers. and that was a lot of fun just because seeing that Stanley Cup banner go up and seeing Crosby and Company get there first was awesome.

But my last thing for tonight's game against the Rangers, we kind of talked about it a little bit but didn't really touch on it. If you're the Penguins tonight, do not let Matt Rempey be a factor. Let him run around, let him be an idiot, let him take penalties. When he's trying to goad you into doing something stupid, just poke him back and just go, you're a flavor of the month kid, have your fun and let him go to the box and make them pay on the power play. So at the end of the day, I mean, we've talked it to death, all the things you've got to do with

Igor Shasturkin, everything else. So really excited because we finally made it. Hockey seasons here. And before we close out the show, I just want to give a quick shout out to my best friend, DJ and his two sons, Charlie and Henry. I'm wearing the Uncle Pat jersey they got me a couple years ago for Christmas because I started since they got me this jersey a couple years ago, every home opener, every season opener,

I tossed this on just because those guys mean so much to me and they are just the absolute best people in the world. So excited to get through another hockey season with everybody, including them. So here we are, man. It's hockey season.

We've made it, man. I'm so excited to finally watch regular season hockey for the first time in several months. And I'm excited to get this thing rolling at this point. And for those wondering, Warrior Helmet Wednesday will return this season.

It'll make its debut again next Wednesday. We're not going to do a Warrior Helmet for the preseason. We'll do a Warrior Helmet for the first time again for this season after a full week's worth of games. But again, that will do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with another episode for you all on Thursday to recap this game against the Rangers and get you all set for Penguins Red Wings, which is now at 8 p.m. start. because of the Tigers playoff game.

And then on Friday, we'll be recapping that game for you all and getting you guys set for Penguins' Maple Leafs on Saturday. So for Patrick Damp, I am Huntsor Hodes. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We appreciate it. We'll be back on Thursday.