Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - How the Penguins can stay hot going into 2024!

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Penguins have two games left in 2023. And on today's episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast, Pat and I are going to preview both of them and see if the Penguins can enter 2024 red hot. You're locked on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes.

Starting point is 00:00:40 You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodge. joined by the best coast on the planet, Patrick Damp. You can follow him on Twitter at Sinfrew Wet, and you can follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O. underscore Penguins, of course. Thank you all so much for making this your first lesson slash watch the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Sleeper,

Starting point is 00:01:00 down the Sleeper app and use promo code locked on NHL, to be up to a $100 match on your first deposit, terms and conditions apply, sleepers, terms of use for details. So Pat, the Penguin have a massive back-to-back on tap this Saturday and Sunday at P.BCH-Painz Arena, starting with the St. Louis Blues. You know, I don't want this to be a potential sleeper game for the Penguins because I know they have the Islanders on Sunday. That's the bigger of the two games, but the Blues have been playing some pretty decent hockey as of late.

Starting point is 00:01:33 Ever since they fired Craig Barubei a few weeks ago, this team has won five of six, and three of those wins have come against some of the best teams in the league. Two of them are against the Dallas Stars, and one of them is against the Florida Panthers. The new head coach has the Blues believing in themselves, and the Blues are also in the playoff hunt right now. If you look at the Central Division standings, they're 18 and 15 and 1, 37 points, one point behind the Nashville Predators and the Arizona Coyotes for fourth place in that division. I don't think they're going to get a top three spot, but definitely a potential fourth place spot

Starting point is 00:02:06 and potentially a spot in the playoffs is available for the Blues. This is a team that the Penguins already lost to once this year. They lost back on October 21st, a 4-2 loss in St. Louis where the Penguins really didn't play that well, especially in their own zone. They were out to lunch on quite a few of the Blues goals. This is still quite a big game for the Penguins, even though they have the Islanders on New Year's Eve the next night. Yeah, it's really easy to, I don't want to say, like you, I don't want to say overlook this, you know, in a similar way to what you're trying to say as well.

Starting point is 00:02:39 I don't want to say that they can overlook this game because like you said, since firing Barube, they've started to pick up a little momentum. Now, we'll find out if that's just the firing the head coach bump that a lot of teams get where for five to 10 games, they get their act together and then they regress back to the mean and show who they really are. And you're right. They're probably not going to get a top three spot in the central because you look at the teams that are up top in the central. now, the avalanche, the Jets who are surprising everybody this year and looking like a wagon, and then the Dallas Stars. So that's a very good division. And those three spots are probably locked up by those three teams. But yeah, they're a team that you look at the way they play, right? It's not anything spectacular. It's not anything that you're going to worry about

Starting point is 00:03:35 and say that you need to model your team after. But in the last few games since they got rid of Barube, they're playing the best way I can describe it, they're playing efficient hockey. They're taking, they're essentially doing what we want the penguins to do. They're taking what the game gives them and playing to the strengths of their roster,

Starting point is 00:03:54 rather than trying to be something they're not, which a lot of what they did right before Baroube got fired is they tried to be a team they were a few years ago, which they just aren't anymore. So are we kind of looking in the mirror here with St. Louis a little bit. But the big difference here is that the penguins have better top end talent than the St. Louis Blues. So hopefully that can help them win the day. And then you just compare the rosters as well.

Starting point is 00:04:24 And I think, again, this is another night where you can say the penguins have the advantage and goal, regardless of who they start, whether they start Jari or Nadelcovich. You know, Jordan Bennington, all the memes and jokes about him aside, he's a pretty average to below average goaltender at this point in his career. I don't think Bennington is worth the cap hit that he has, but he's at least playing in decent this season. He's not nearly as bad as he was last year, to say the least. I mean, he saved almost one goal of up expected this year, 900, say a percentage, 3.28, goals against average. those are average to a little below average numbers. But again, he's better this year compared to last year,

Starting point is 00:05:09 which is one of the reasons I think why the Blues are a bit better this year compared to last year. I think the best way to describe the Blues, at least this year, they play sound hockey. They don't need to play running gun hockey like some of the other best teams in the league do like the Maple Leafs or the Panthers or the Bruins or some of the top teams out west, like Dallas, Colorado, or Vegas. They can just play a sound game where, you know, they can get enough offensive.

Starting point is 00:05:33 and play well in their own zone, and they're comfortable, you know, winning these two, one, three, two games, even four three games, something like that. For them, it starts with Robert Thomas in 34 games, 37 points, 13 of those are goals. He's their top playmaker as well. Paolo Bucenevich, who they got for a flat-out steal. He has been also awesome this year, 12 goals, 28 points, and 32 games. He's day-to-day right now, has been kind of labeled as a game-time decision. We'll have to see if he plays in this one for the blue. lose. If he doesn't, that is a massive loss for them. And then during Cairo, 25 points and 34 games, he's been very good this year outside of that whole drama situation with Ruby.

Starting point is 00:06:13 You know what happened with that. I don't think we need to really dissect that on this show. Brandon Sade, the Pittsburgh kid. He played really well in the last game against the Penguins. Funny enough, two of his nine goals came against the Penguins in that game on October 21st. You have Braden Shen, who's there too, Kevin Hayes, Justin Fult. even though this team has a similar record to what the penguins kind of have right now, there is still some pretty good talent on this team. The penguins are going to have to be aware of that. And I still want them to play that game that we saw them play,

Starting point is 00:06:44 at least defensively against the Islanders or some of these other teams. You can't play the way you did in that game against October or you'll lose in this one for sure. Right. And that would kind of be my biggest thing for the preview for this matchup is don't focus so much on your opponent as you should focus on yourself. Don't try to force anything. Just because the blues are very sound and they're very efficient at what they do. But go ahead.

Starting point is 00:07:09 Yeah. And that's the biggest thing. I think Sullivan and the coaching staff is going to tell this team ahead of the blues game, because it's going to be human nature to look forward to a rematch with the Islanders, especially after you absolutely boat race them in the previous game. But, you know, you go back to those miced up segments. in the 2016 and 2017 Stanley Cup runs where Mike Sullivan was in the locker room prior to the game. And you just play Penguins hockey, play the type of hockey that you have been trying to play

Starting point is 00:07:39 when you've been successful this year. Be accountable in the defensive zone, be efficient on the forecheck. Don't be, you know, to make the quote, don't be too cautious, but don't be too risky when you're doing your pinches as defense in the offensive zone. And I know I say this a lot about goalies and just offense in general, but especially if Jordan Bennington is in the net tomorrow night, get to the blue paint, get in front of him, because he is a very easily rattled, very easy to rattle goaltender. Yeah, get in his kitchen, get in front of him, take his space away a little bit because he is the type of goalie who once he's rattled, he stops worrying about stopping the puck and he starts worrying about getting

Starting point is 00:08:26 back at the person who pissed him off. So if you're the penguins, you know, your third and fourth lines, regardless of who you play on them, get in front of them and get them off his game, rattle him a little bit and let that be one of your roads to success against the St. Louis Blues. And it's funny you say that, Pat, because that's exactly what the penguins did to Jordan Bennington in the last matchup at home last year when it felt like Bennington was going after Jason Zucker anytime he could. And once that happened, and the penguins let them up like a Christmas tree, and there was just no coming back from that for Bennington. So I agree with you on that.

Starting point is 00:09:03 Another big key before we wrap up this first segment is special teams. I think the Penguins penalty kill should be able to feast on the Blues power play, and that's a unit that's dead last in the NHL at 11.1%. It's even worse than the Flyers power play, which is at 11.2% right now. The Penguins should be able to win that battle. And in turn, you would hope that the Penguins Power Play can win a battle against the 18th ranked penalty kill in the lake. I know they went a combined one for nine against the Islanders and the Senators,

Starting point is 00:09:34 the league's two worst penalty kills before this game. I know. It was really bad. But if you can improve upon that against a penalty kill that's below average as well, that would go a long way towards winning this. Excuse me. I think the penguins have a edge, at least on the penalty kill, but they could potentially have an edge on the power play

Starting point is 00:09:54 if it can revert back to form that we saw. all a couple weeks ago when it went six for 16. Yeah. And this is very much because we're still in Steelers season here in Pittsburgh. It's very much look at the special teams battle like the turnover battle in football. You don't have to beat them up to a wild extent. Yes, it would be nice. You don't have to kill off every single penalty and score on every single power play.

Starting point is 00:10:22 If you go one for three, two for five on the power. play and kill off all four of five or even five of five if it gets to that point. And you're just plus one in that special team's battle. You scored a power play goal, didn't give up a penalty, didn't give up a, didn't give up a short-handed goal. And if you do that, then you have a, you put yourself in a better chance, a better position to win. So it doesn't need to be three or four power play goals in the game.

Starting point is 00:10:52 One or two and kill most of the penalties and you're in good shape. Yeah, I agree with you on that. They should be fine overall, again, especially on the penalty kill, but crazier things have happened, especially when it comes to this team. But that'll wrap up this first segment. That blues matchup will begin at 7 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday night. But coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to preview round two of Penguins Islanders this week. Islanders will be coming to town on New Year's Eve on Sunday.

Starting point is 00:11:19 That's a 6 o'clock start time. We're going to preview what the Penguins can do to win that game. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about. AG1, which is the daily foundational nutrition supplement that supports whole body health. I drink it literally every day, usually around when I get up in the morning, 8.30, 9 o'clock, I drink it around honestly right after I have my coffee. And I gave it a try because I was tired of taking too many supplements. I wanted something that supports my entire body and just covers my nutritional basis every

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Starting point is 00:12:55 the Penguins absolutely smack the Islanders from Long Island on Wednesday night, 7-0-0 final score. And this one, it's bigger than that one on Wednesday night. Because if you can win this game in regulation and potentially have the islanders lose to the capitals on Friday night in regulation, at that point, Pat, you're only three points behind the islanders for second in the Metropolitan Division. that's a pretty big deal considering where the penguins were after the first month of the season. This is just a massive game for this team. Yeah, and this is also a huge stretch run for the New York Islanders, because if you look at their schedule right now, they're in the midst of a five-game run against Metro opponents.

Starting point is 00:13:45 They had the caps last week and lost three, two, and overtime. They beat the Hurricanes 5-4 last weekend in regulation, then the 7-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-1-5-1. They have the Cepuins tonight, and then the Penguins again on Sunday. So along with needing to get these two clean points from the Islanders, if they take a loss to the capitals tonight, they're going to start really falling out of favor here in the wildcard race and the metro race. So you set yourself up to potentially overtake them sooner rather than later. and really put yourself in a position to not just get into the wild card, but climb up the metro standings.

Starting point is 00:14:27 And also, if it comes down to it, have a tiebreaker over the Islanders, which the way the Metro is setting up this year, where nobody except for the Rangers really seems to want to run away with any spot, you need every point you can get within the division. and if the islanders are starting to slide, no better time than now for the penguins to make a move. Absolutely. I told you with you on that.

Starting point is 00:14:53 And I should say it would be three points out of third considering the hurricanes and the flyers won on Thursday night and they are one point ahead of the islanders right now. But the islanders could leapfrog them if they win on Friday against the Capitol. Just want to put that out there for all the listeners and watchers of this episode. But in terms of a game plan for the penguins, it's funny, I don't want to sound too obvious. but if they can just repeat what they did on Wednesday, they really should be fine for this game.

Starting point is 00:15:19 But now, like, outside of that, defensively have the same game plan. Offensively, be patient, I feel like. With how the Islanders aren't as good defensively this year compared to in years past, you are going to get your chances. You just have to wait for them to come. The Islanders are going to make mistakes in their own zone, especially without the services of Ryan Poulon, Adam Pelick and Scott Mayfield.

Starting point is 00:15:47 It looks like all three are not going to be in the lineup for this game on Sunday. Yet again, those are three of their top six defensemen. They are going to make mistakes, and the penguins are going to have to be able to capitalize on them. Now, that said, do I expect Ilyos Seroquen to play that bad again on Sunday? No, absolutely not. He's one of the three best goals in the league. I expect him to be a lot better in this one.

Starting point is 00:16:06 I expect the Islanders as a whole to be a lot better because that was a flat-out, embarrassing performance of them. But if they can be patient, wait for the game. the game to come to them a little bit and then convert on their chances while being stout in their own zone, they should be able to walk away with this one. Because again, I don't think the islanders are that good this season. They have a lot of loser points because they play a lot of close games. That's just the way they play. But when you combine all their losses, this is a sub 500 team without, you know, that 16 and 8 and 9 or whatever the heck their record is. But

Starting point is 00:16:40 overall, that's how I see this game at least. There's two keys for the penguins in this game, and you kind of already hinted at them. It's patience and discipline. 16 and 9. The 5,500 right now, I guess. Yeah, the two biggest keys are patience and discipline. You already said it about patience. Ilius Roken probably not going to play that poorly again.

Starting point is 00:17:04 So don't try to do too much against this team. You know how the Islanders play. They play very, very boring hockey. even with Lane Lambert behind the bench now, it's still an Islander's team that is not built to play track meet hockey. They don't do it. They are extremely disciplined. And that's the kind of game you have to play against them.

Starting point is 00:17:26 If we have another scoreless tie after one period or even after two periods, you don't need to push the envelope. You just need to keep battling because the minute you try to do too much against this Islander's team is the minute they strike. the other thing I'm saying is discipline. And I don't mean this in the sense of the system. I don't mean this in the sense of be accountable in the defensive zone and be smart in the offensive zone. You know how this Islander's team plays away from being a defensively accountable team.

Starting point is 00:17:57 They try to be tough. And you just beat the crap out of them seven nothing. You wounded their ego. You wounded their pride. And you know the cow clutter bucks and Robert Bortuzos and Anders Lee is, of the league are going to try to get under your skin. They are going to take some shots at you. Don't take the bait.

Starting point is 00:18:20 Do not get sucked into that kind of game because if you do, you're going to lose. Not only you're going to lose physically because the penguins aren't built to play that kind of game. They have a couple guys who can mix it up a little bit, but that's not the penguin style. And that's the kind of game the Islanders are going to try to bait you into playing. So whether it's been doing that for years, man.

Starting point is 00:18:42 The Islanders have been doing that to the penguins for, I want to say the last four to five years, especially when they had their identity line on the ice. That's what they called it on Long Island, Martin Sazicus Clutterbuck. They would always try to get under the penguin skin. And it felt like a good chunk of times it worked just because with how tough all three of those players are.

Starting point is 00:19:03 You can't allow that to happen in this game. As you said, now with Bartuzzo in the fold, Andersly is a tough customer, especially in front of the net. He's been one of the best net front presences in the league. The Penguins are going to have to really control their emotions in this one. And also, I don't know why I said 16 and 9 and 9 earlier is 500. That's 16 and 18.

Starting point is 00:19:21 Math is hard here. This is why I didn't measure in math in college. I apologize about that. But we're not math majors. You're a Marvel person just like I am. It's like Loki, man. We are in the Citadel at the end of time. This is the week between Christmas and New Year's.

Starting point is 00:19:37 nothing counts, nothing matters, this isn't real. But yeah, don't get sucked into that kind of game because that's, that is what the islanders are going to want to do to you both just because that's how they play and because you just embarrass them on their home ice. So you take those two clean points and you keep your eyes on the prize on Sunday night. Just get out of the year, get out of this game with two clean points. Let their idiots be idiots, laugh them off and say, hey, you guys enjoy the couch while we're playing in the playoffs later this year.

Starting point is 00:20:11 Well, that's if they can kick them out of the playoffs a little later on in 2024, at least. And if the penguins are able to have a clean sweep of this weekend, they'll be seven and one in one heading into 2024. Winners are seven of nine games, points in eight of nine games. You're talking about a nice streak at that point and a team that could be real dangerous for the new year. So these are two big matchups. We'll have to see if the penguins can sweep. this back to back. If I had to guess for goaltending, I'm just, this is a strict guess on my part, Pat.

Starting point is 00:20:43 We'll see if I'm right. I think they're going to go Ndilkevich against the blues on Saturday, Jari against the Islanders on Sunday, especially with how Jari just played against the Islanders on Wednesday. That's my guess. I would agree. And I think it's just, that's the rotation now, just because Nadelcovich got his handful of starts right before the holiday break and looked good. And you want to put, regardless of the workload, you want to give. Kristen Jari this year. These are the games you want to give to Jari. You want to give him the big divisional games just because he hasn't really since 2021 had the opportunity to exercise those playoff demons. So give him these big games and see how he plays. Yep, agree with you on that.

Starting point is 00:21:25 And just one more thing before we head to break before we talk about the best moment of the year for this franchise on the ice. It's something that we both thought of today. This is going to be a pretty cool end to the show for 2023. Brian Russ had a full practice with the Penguins on Friday's eligible to come off with IR on January 2nd. During a scrimmage, he was on a line with Lars Eller and Dalai Pustin. That's a pretty intriguing line, to say the least. But it looks like Rust is getting closer to coming back, which is just massive news for

Starting point is 00:21:54 the team. And also, yes, he Paul Yarvey was back at practice for the first time. And it feels like a couple of weeks, we'll have to see where that goes. But major news on Brian Russ being a practical. of practice. He's probably only about if I had to guess maybe a week away from returning, and that's going to be very welcome news considering how good he's been this year. Yeah, and I'm curious to see what happens with Puy-R-V at this point. It's been well over 10 days for the free agent tryout. I think they like them. I think they want to sign them,

Starting point is 00:22:20 but I feel like there's got to be some captioning in a gannery that has to go down before they can put him on the roster. Yeah, I think so too, especially with some of the injured players that still have to come back, and what happens with Matt Nietto when he's ready to. return from his injury and all that good stuff. The Penguins will have to figure that out when the time comes. But that will do it for the second segment. Coming up to end the show, Pat and are we going to dive into what the best moment of 2023 was on the ice for the Penguins.

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Starting point is 00:23:59 of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. Join by my coes, Patrick Gamm. So Pat, what was the best moment of 2023 for the Pittsburgh Penguins? I have mine. I know it's different from yours and it actually just happened a little bit recently, but what is yours? See, this was a tough question when you asked me this before the show because I had a few ideas and then I didn't realize until we got here that the caveat was on the ice because I had some thoughts on Kyle Dubus being hired. I had some thoughts on the announcement that the team was

Starting point is 00:24:38 going to retire Yager's number and a couple other things that weren't really on ice game related. So when I went back in my memory banks to think about everything that happened in 2023, I went with a moment that both you and I saw in person. And that was the March game against the capitals where if Gennie Malkin stole the puck and scored a goal to give the penguins the lead, with under two minutes to go in what at the time was one of the biggest divisional games of the season because both the Penguins and Caps were fighting for playoff playoff position. And I love that moment for two reasons. One, the obvious, it was just a great fun moment to be in the building for.

Starting point is 00:25:23 That was the loudest I've heard that building outside of playoff games. So it was really cool to be a part of. I also wrote about that game for my KDCA column, Penguins Perspectives, but I didn't write about so much the goal in the game as I did the moment, because I went to that game with my girlfriend and her sister, who they're not the biggest of hockey fans. They didn't really grow up in a hockey family. Even though they're from Philly,

Starting point is 00:25:49 they weren't really big Flyers fans. They would go to games, but like they weren't really fans. And they, they enjoy watching it. and they enjoy letting me be a crazed lunatic about the sport. God bless them. But like they got there and they were in the stands. They're like, oh, this is fun. This is cool.

Starting point is 00:26:09 And then by that moment, they were all in, like jumping out of their seats, cheering, high-fiving people. And I'm just sitting there going, man, this is why I love hockey and why I love sports specifically because there aren't many things in life that can recreate those kind of moments. And I was just like so happy. And then I was like, man, not only did it happen with my all time favorite team.

Starting point is 00:26:37 It happened with one of my favorite players against one of the biggest rivals. And it was just an all encompassing great moment. That game was so fun as well just because you have that big lead against the Capitals. You feel like you're going to have an easy third period. And there were Capitals fans sitting in front of me at that. game and they were like, no, this is over, this is over. And I said, no, just you wait, this team's been blowing leads all year. Don't be surprised if that happens. Sure enough, 3-1, 3-2-33. The entire building fell silent on that time goal. And I think had they lost that

Starting point is 00:27:15 game, you might have seen Ron Hextall maybe fire the next day or something like that. But of Genie Malkin saves a day late in regulation, and you're right. I don't think I have ever heard PBG Paine's Arena that loud. And I know I haven't been to a playoff game yet. I would love to go hopefully this year or maybe next year, just sometime. I'd love to go to a playoff game. That's the loudest I've ever heard PBG Paints Arena. But for my personal favorite moment of the year, it's Tristan Jari's goal, the first one in the franchise's history. The stones that he had to attempt it in that situation where the Penguins are only up by one goal. A lot of times you see goalies try to attempt this when the other net is empty when you're up by two goals, but not when you're only

Starting point is 00:28:02 up by one goal. And with how Jalda is playing in that game, he's like, you know what, screw this. I'm going to try it. I know there's a chance that this could be batted down and potentially turn into a really dangerous scoring chance in my zone. Screw it. I'm going to fire that puck all the way down. And it was a picture perfect shot. And the celebration that ensued was actually absolutely amazing. And I think that was the best moment of the year for me. If I had to do a runner-up, I would say the four-goal comeback against the Columbus Blue Jackets, where the Penguins looked down and out heading into that third period. And then the Penguins were able to roar back and then win that game in overtime. That was also one of my favorite moments of this year. And then

Starting point is 00:28:48 obviously the Afghani-Malkin goal. But to me, it's Tristan Jari's goalie goal just a few weeks ago. I thought that was just, I honestly still get chills thinking about it, to be honest. Another runner up for me, and this isn't totally Penguins specific, it is, but it's not strictly Penguins, was the 23 All-Star game,

Starting point is 00:29:13 because the whole All-Star game in 2023 was, and we can talk later on some other episode, talk about how absurd the NHL is, losing Adidas as a jersey sponsor. But like what a way for Adidas to go out as the NHL jersey sponsor because the all-star jerseys themselves were those 96 throwbacks for the Eastern and Western conferences. And then the skills competition were all the reverse retroes that teams were wearing. And then you had that awesome moment between Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin,

Starting point is 00:29:48 where Ovi's son comes out and they go down on the little three on no breakaway passing back. and forth the thumb and then Ove's kid goes and scores. And it was just like, we know that Crosby and Ovechkin, they're not imminent towards retirement. There's still going to be a good few years where these guys play. But like, it was just them saying like, man, we have been battling for 15 years. And now we're just like, yeah, we're not buddies. We're not friends. But we respect where each other have gone in our respective careers. And this is just a cool moment to celebrate the game, to celebrate hockey.

Starting point is 00:30:29 And it was really fun. They're definitely going to have multiple beers together, I think at some point after they're playing careers or over. One of them is going to go over to the other person's house, and they're just going to crack open a few cold ones. And they're just going to tell stories about their playing careers and just reminisce. I feel like that. That's why I think this is turning into.

Starting point is 00:30:50 I don't know. who the Washington capitals Paul Staggerwald is, but whoever he is, get him in concert with Paul Staggerwald and then have them go to OV or Sid's house, bring the two of them together, do a four-person like podcast retrospective where the four of them just sit down and talk about everything they did together in the league and have them talk about just how they brought this league back from the brink

Starting point is 00:31:19 and did so in incredible fashion. I would be all for that. And if you could just make it into some sort of documentary or something like that, I mean, I would watch it no matter what platform in the time. I think that I would do it for this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast and the final episode of 2023. Thank you all so much for listening to slash watching this show this year, whether it's one episode, whether it's five, 10, 50, 100, more than that. You all are the absolute best. This show grew in ways this year that I don't think. Pat and I ever imagined that it would.

Starting point is 00:31:54 And Pat, you came on about all over halfway through the year. And I'm so glad that you're able to come on through the rest of 2023. This show is only going to get better into 2024. We have a lot of goals for that year. But to everyone out there who has listened to this show, no matter how much, from Baltimore of our hearts, thank you all so much. You are the reason why we do this every single day. Yeah, and before we go, just to keep it on that train real quick, thank you, Hunter, for bringing me on the show. This has been an absolute blast. I'm honored to be here. And last, and certainly not leastly, thank all of you guys who watch and listen to this show every day in welcoming me into this community. I had been a listener and part of the community up until I joined. I know how passionate the people who watch and listen to this show are. And I can't.

Starting point is 00:32:49 not thank you guys enough for inviting me into your podcasting apps, your YouTube feeds. And I am just so appreciative that you guys have been both critical and complimentary, because you all know I say this all the time. I'm an adult. I can take criticism. If I have a bad take, I want you to hold me accountable. I did it on my solo episode. Somebody called me out for some bad takes and I called myself out for them. So I want to make sure I'm one of the best. podcast hosts and analysts I can be. And that starts with you guys who listen to this show and give us the feedback every single day. So thank you guys so much for everything this year. And I can't wait to keep doing it in 2024. You couldn't have said it any better. Pat, I wouldn't want to do this

Starting point is 00:33:35 with anyone else. So again, thank you so much. And again, to everyone who listens or watches the show, thank you from the bottom of my heart. But that would do it for this episode. We'll be back with another show for you all, either Monday or Tuesday of next day. We're going to decide if we're going to go on New Year's Day or not to recap both those games. If not, we'll be back on Tuesday. So one of Monday or Tuesday to start out the week next week. But again, that'll do it for this one. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We'll talk with you all in 2024.

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