Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - How the Penguins NEED these four points this weekend...

Episode Date: January 26, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins are back in action on Friday night against the Florida Panthers and it's an opportunity to get two massive points. Hunter and Pat start the show by recapping the small AHL trade that Kyle Dubas made on Thursday and what it means for the team before previewing Friday night's game against the Panthers. They look at how they can get these two points and slow down Florida's top players since they've been red hot this year. After that, they preview Saturday night's game against the Montreal Canadiens and slam the NHL's Department of Player Safety for being too soft on Brendan Gallagher after his dirty hit on Thursday night. They discuss why this is a problem that's not going away anytime soon before giving the keys to beating the Canadiens. Finally, they analyze whether this is the biggest weekend of the season and the opportunity this team has with the games in hand.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.IndeedIndeed knows when you’re growing your own business, you have to make every dollar count. Visit Indeed.com/LOCKEDON to start hiring now.SleeperDownload the Sleeper App and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelRight now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED when you place a FIVE DOLLAR BET. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Pat and I are going on another field trip to PBG Paints Arena on Friday night for Penguins Panthers. But before that, we have to preview the game, and that's 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, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes.

You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. joined by my co-s, Patrick Damp. You can follow him on Twitter at Center for Wet, and you can follow the shows, Twitter at L.O.R.S. for 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, today's episode is brought to you by Fandul, make every moment more. Right now, new customers get $150 bucks and bonus bets. Guarantee when you place a $5 bet. Visit fandul.com slash locked on to get started. So the penguins are back in action. After four days off, they've had plenty of time to think about that. Embarrassing loss to the Arizona Coyotes. And they will be back in action, 7 o'clock tonight against the red hot Florida Panthers,

one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. But before Pat and I have preview that game, we do have to take a couple of minutes to discuss the trade that Kyle Dubas made on Thursday. And it wasn't much, just an ACHO trade. And at least it shows that Kyle Dubus so has a pulse. I know he's been kind of quiet recently, but he did make this trade sending Will Butcher to the Minnesota Wild for Maxime Kajokovic. I apologize if I mispronounce his last name, but I believe that is how you pronounce it.

And I saw a lot of takes about this deal, but it's really kind of a nothing burger. Wilkesbury had too many veterans down there, and Butcher was in and out of the lineup all year. So they're sending him to a place where he can get more playing time. It's a win-win situation all around. And honestly, Butcher was never going to leapfrog anyone on the penguin's main roster right now. I'm totally fine with that move. You're saying this isn't a sign that the rebuild has begun, that we're getting into the post-Crosby era already.

Is this the blockbuster we were all looking for? No, you're right. It's just, it's a simple AHL deal. It's to get a guy like Butcher some more playing time with Iowa, who is Minnesota's HL affiliate. And I mean, just on the other end of it, just a tough ball from Grace for Butcher, man. He was he was in the devil's lineup just a couple of years ago.

and looked like he was going to be a pretty big staple on their back end. Wasn't he a bona fide top four defenseman for them at one point? He was playing in the top four role. And it wasn't when, you know, the devils were crap. It was when they were starting to really show some signs of improvement. And he looked like he was going to be a staple in their top four for quite some time. So you hate to see that for a guy.

But end of the day, for the penguins, for the penguins end of it, it's just, it's an HL trade to get a guy some more time and maybe see if a younger defense or younger guy in Kajokovic can be something here with the penguins. Right. You said it best. There's really nothing else we really need to say on that, but we do wish we'll butcher

best of luck in the Minnesota system. But now turning our attention to Penguins Panthers on Friday night. I know I've said a lot on this podcast and on social media that I don't think the Eastern Conference is that good this season. There's not too many juggernauts. But I do think the Panthers are one of the three best teams in this conference and they have shown that time after time. They actually just finished whooping the Arizona Coyotes.

this week. And they've won two in a row. The Panthers, that is. They've also won six of their last 10 games. If you look at the standings right now, they're in second place in the Atlantic. 29 and 14 and 4, good for 62 points there, going to make the playoffs. And a big reason for that is Sam Reinhardt, 35 goals, 60 points in 47 games. I personally would not have him on my Hart Trophy ballot, but I know he's going to get Hart Trophy votes. And I'm honestly not going to be mad when that happens because he deserves to be kind of in that dark horse conversation to be on people's ballots. He has been a freak for the Panthers this year. And this game tonight, it's going to take a massive effort for the Penguins to win this game. They've already lost to this team once through

one. The Penguins actually had the lead in that game. They're actually playing pretty well against the Panthers on Patrick Cornquist night before the wheels started to fall off a little later on in that game. If they can sustain what they were doing for that first 20 minutes, Even those first 30 minutes, I should say, against the Panthers for the rest of that game, they'll have a chance to win this one. They just really have to figure out a way to stop the Panthers' high-end talent because their high-end players are playing it like this year. It's not even just San Ryanhardt people.

Carter Verheghi has 24 goals and 49 points. Matthew Kachuk is always a beast, 15 goals, 48 points. Sasha Barkov is one of the best two-way centers in the league, and I think should be the favorite to win the Selke this year. It's those four guys you really got to pay attention to. this is a tall order for the penguins tonight. It is. And it looks like the,

the Panthers have actually got their feet back under them because while they have won six of their last 10, they were in a little bit of a mini slump there for about a week. They lost four straight. They lost to the devils, the ducks, the red wings, and then the Minnesota Wild.

And then, but they have followed that up with a 4-1 win over the Nashville predators and then a 6-2 win over the Arizona coyotes must be nice. And you're right. Here's the thing that we have. have to keep in mind, though. You've got to, you've got to be able to slow down that top end talent that they have in Reinhart for Hagee, Kachuk, and Barkov, because we were talking before we hit record on this one, that after Barkov, it's a 20 point drop in production on their roster.

And that's everybody, not just forwards. It's just all their skaters, because then, you know, Barkov has 47 points, and then it's a drop off to Evan Rodriguez, our old pal, with 27, and then Sam Bennett and OEL with 22. So this is a team that gets its pretty. production mainly from four people. So you really have to be able to neutralize those four for most of the game. And as we know, we're in an era now of hockey where the top end guys, you're not going to shut them down very rarely. They're going to get their points. They're going to get their cookies, so to speak. But you have to be able to maximize what you do, encounter what they do effectively. And that's going to be the challenge for the penguins tonight. They have to get back to the kind of game we saw against, say, Seattle,

where they don't give you anything in the defensive zone and they sustain some pressure in the offensive zone through all four lines because we saw that when we were in attendance against Seattle. All four lines were getting opportunities. And if they weren't getting opportunities, they were at the very least letting it or making it so Seattle had won and duns in their zone. It was never any sort of real sustained pressure. they'd get a shot on net, the Penguins would go the other way.

And when they were on the ice, they kept possession in the defensive zone. And that's what you want to do against a team like Florida, especially when you have a goaltender like Bobrovsky, who again is starting to look like one of the better goalies in the league. He's not up there with the elites, but he is playing pretty well in doing what he needs to do to keep this Florida Panthers team in the race for the Atlantic Division. Yeah, he's playing the way he played in the playoffs for them last year.

And honestly, I thought that was kind of a flash in the pan for him just because he wasn't that good during the regular season. But he's been pretty solid for the Panthers this year. Now, I'm not saying that he's playing up to the massive cap hit that he has, but he's still giving them pretty solid goaltending. And that's obviously big for their chances to potentially go back to the Stanley Cup final. And you were mentioning the Seattle game. Honestly, you could say the same for the first 40 minutes of the Vegas game, because they were doing exactly what they did to Seattle in the first two periods in that game. they just went away from it in the third period. So if you can play like you did for like five of those six periods, I should say,

you should be aligned to potentially steal two pretty big points here in this one. But another thing about the Panthers, you mentioned those four guys. The Panthers do a great job of spreading them out throughout their lineup. Sasha Barkov centers the top line with Evan Rodriguez. But then you have Verhege and Kachuk on the second line. And then you have Sam Reinhart, their leading point. producer on the third line. That's going to make it that much tougher for the penguins to defend tonight because

they have a superstar on every single line. And I mean, let's face it, the Pedersen-Latang pairing, they can go out there and do their job, I think, against the Barkov line or maybe even the Chuck Cuck line. But I think it's asking a lot potentially from the Graves pairing or especially the third pairing to go out there and shut down the Sam Reinhart line. That's the matchup that really worried. reason me the most, I think, in this one. Yeah, and to your point about them being able to do it up and down the lineup,

especially at forward, that gets bared out when you pop up the hood, pop open the hood and look at the analytics. This is the second best team when it comes to controlling a shot attempts, according to natural statric. They're just a shade under 57% at five on five. And then when you look at expected goals, they're right up there, too, is the third best team in the league at 55% expected goals. So I know I'm not trying.

to become a total spreadsheet hockey nerd here. But, you know, that is kind of confirming what you see with your eyes there that this team spreads it out across all four lines. And while all four lines may not be a gargantuan scoring threat, they are going to have the puck on their sticks more often than you do. So you have to counter that. Otherwise, you are going to be in a world of hurt against this Panthers team. And they have defensemen that can move the puck up the ice at will.

Aaron Eckblood's one of the best in the league. Gustav Forsling, I think, is really underrated. Brandon Montor has really turned things around in Florida. They have a really nice defensive group overall. Heck, Dimitri Kulikov is getting third pair of minutes for the former penguin, of course. So overall, this is a very good hockey team, and the penguins are going to have to bring nothing short of their best if they want to take these two points tonight and start gaining back in the playoff race. Because it's funny, the penguins got some help over these last four days. The Islanders have dropped some gains. The Capitals have dropped some games.

The Flyers have even dropped some games. And the Devils, they've been kind of up and down. We'll get into it later on. The opportunity continues to be there with the games in hand, but I'm going to say it right now. Those games in hand only matter if you win them. And it has to start tonight against the Panthers. But that will do it for this first segment.

Coming up in the second segment, we're going to preview Saturday nights game against the Montreal Canadiens and how the Penguins could potentially go two for two, of course, if they do win Friday night's game against the Florida Panthers. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about Indeed. If you need to hire, you need Indeed. Indeed, use your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors according to Indeed data and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast. Ditch the busy work, use Indeed for scheduling, screening, and messaging so you can connect with candidates

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All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes. Join by my host, Patrick Gamp. I should note to everyone, Alex Ndilkevich is getting this start on Friday night for the Penguins, so we're not going to be getting the goaltending matchups wrong on this podcast. And that means Tristan Jari will start on Saturday against Montreal. I don't mind that at all. I think they're giving Jari the easier game just because it's a back-to-back at home.

And the Penguins should be expected to win that game, trying to get at least a split for the back-to-back, especially if they lose this game against the Panthers. So starting out this segment with Bat-Pat, I got no issue with Mike Sullivan going to Delkevich tonight and then Jari on Saturday. No, not at all. I will say let's hedge though, because you never know they might throw us a curveball and start Nadelcovich tomorrow just to spite us.

We know you're listening. Mike Sullivan, stop doing this to us. Mike Sullivan did announce that Nadelcovich is starting tonight. So if you go back on that, Mike, I'm going to come forward. I was going more for tomorrow, but yeah. Oh, if he goes back to back, yeah, I will find you, Mike. I will find you. I'm going to your walls, Mike.

But for Penguins, Canadians, another big game for this weekend before the All-Star break. This is a Canadians team that, let's face it, that this Canadians team stinks. I know they just beat the Islanders, though. They did blow it three-nothing lead in that game. They're 20 and 21 and 7, 47 points. They've lost six of their last 10 games. if you want to get back into the race, this is the team you got to be.

And the Penguins have already beaten them once this season. They started out that game looking pretty sluggish in Montreal, but it took that massive shootout from Jansson Harkins, funny enough that gets the game-winning shootout goal to get the win over Montreal earlier this season. Got to win this one overall. But the Canyons won't have the services of Brendan Gallagher in this game, assuming he does get suspended.

And right now it looks like he's going to. That was a nasty, vicious hit by him on Adam Pelich, on Thursday. For those that have not seen it, Gallagher delivered a blatant elbow to Pellick's head. Pellick was down on the ice for quite a while. He has a phone hearing, so the suspension is going to be one to five games. In my opinion, that's a disgrace. I'm sorry, the National Department of Player Safety doesn't care about NHL safety. They never have cared, to be honest. If you were a seriously, you would be giving this player at least a 10 to 15 game suspension. I don't care that he doesn't have any history. That is a dirty play and it should be punished as such. And I know Brendan Gallagher is not

that good anymore so that he probably wouldn't have done anything in this game. But still, the fact that the league is being so soft on these obvious headshots, just a joke in my opinion. It's bad. And I can't blame Brendan Shanahan for taking the Leaf's job as president because that's an extremely high profile coveted job. But the department, Department of Player Safety has not been worth a damn since he left. No. Because we saw it in the Shanahan era. He of the Department of Player Safety.

He had no issue with suspending players for dirty hits. He had no issue throwing the books at players. It didn't matter if you were an All-Star or if you were a fourth-liner. It didn't matter to him. And then they have gone through a couple different people and now they have George Perros. And I say this about George Peros all the time. If you don't know who George Peros is, if you're a newer hockey fan and you don't know who George Paris is. He's a former enforcer. His entire job was to go out

and fight. He didn't play like a third line grinder role. He was a guy who would play three to five minutes a night, go out, get in a fight, and then be stapled to the bench. And I understand the appeal. I do. I get it. The guy who is in the gutter, so to speak, of the NHL, and I don't mean that as a negative way. I mean, he's a guy who gets dirty. He's a guy who fights. I get the appeal of that. A guy who plays that kind of game, he might be a good, good person to put it in place of player safety. But I also say this about it. If you give an outlaw, a badge, he's still an outlaw.

This is who, these are his people, people who play like this. And he, whether consciously or subconsciously, is going to have a bias towards them because that's how he made his money and he made his name in the National Hockey League. And I get weirdos in my mentions all the time when I bring this up. he was the founder and long time owner of a clothing brand called Violent Gentlemen. That's right. Its entire thing is about violence in hockey. They took the Donald Trump hat that said,

Make America Great Again and made it to say make hockey violent again. And if that's the guy you have running player safety, he's not going to look at the macho man Randy Savage elbow that Gallagher threw and say, oh yeah, that's unacceptable. We got to get rid of that. He's going to go light on him. And this is something that has bothered me, especially recently, about the NHL when it comes to player safety. And I know this is supposed to be the Penguins Canadians preview, but this is way more important of a topic, is they stay intentionally vague on player safety matters.

You know, I saw people today talking about the gambling suspension of Shane Pinto. And it's a fair point. But they have concrete rules for that. And it's easy to suspend. And I understand fast-paced game like hockey. really hard to police things that happen at that high of a speed and put a concrete kind of punishment in place. But they stay intentionally vague on this. So they don't have to be held to sort of any kind of account. Because for the Pinto thing, if somebody gets caught gambling

and they suspend them, it's going to go to the same level as Shane Pinto because it's laid out in the rules in the CBA. But there's nothing in there for player safety. So you can look at a suspension and say, oh, this guy got two games for this. But then this guy got five games for this. So what's what's the standard? They don't want there to be a standard. So they don't have to be held to account for it. They're dinosaurs at the end of the day. That's what this league is run by. It's been like that since the NHL started. That's that bottom line. And it's not going to change until you get people like this out and newer people in that actually take headshots seriously. because I think this is the first time I've seen a bad hit like this,

not defended by really anyone on social media, no matter where you go. I think everyone is in agreement that this hit was bad and it should be punished as such. But it's unfortunate that the league just doesn't really care about it. And they're going to continue to just do slaps on the wrist for players, whether it's one to five games and not just throw the book at someone or go full Rafi Torres or Tom Wilson after he threw all his hits

and then they finally threw the book at him, you got to start that right away. I don't care that someone hasn't been suspended before. It needs to start on the first offense, especially when it's a hit like this. And before the comment section comes at us, I don't want to take physicality out of hockey. I don't. We saw it in the Seattle game. I'm blanking on who it was on the Penguins, but they threw a classic, perfect hip check. And it was beautiful.

It was a beautiful. I think it was D.O.C. But he lined them up perfectly. He hit him hip to hip and flipped them. And that is a clean hit. And listen, as much as I understand how bad fighting is for the health of the players, I'm not going to sit and pretend like I don't enjoy a good hockey fight. I'm not going to sit and pretend I don't love a good chippy hockey game.

But what Gallagher did isn't hockey. He flew an elbow into the temple of the opposing. player. And it's just, that is not hockey. And he also didn't even have the puck, that was. It was just a bad hit all around. Yeah. And hitting's never going to leave hockey. It's too fast of a game. It's too unpredictable. One stride, one second, too late is the difference between skate and by a guy and staring up at the lights. But it has to be better coached. It has to be better policed. And it has to be better punished. And if you look at games that end in line brawls and end in dirty hits and cheap shots, it's because there is no true deterrent from the

league. If you're a fourth line HL guy and you see something, what happened with Gallagher? What's going to stop you from doing it next time? Because you're not going to get a long suspension that hits you in the wallet and keeps you in the press box for a while. You're going to go, that's three games. Who cares? Right. No, I hear you. We could probably go on about this for 40, 45 more minutes. But outside of that really bad hit, you know, this Canadian scene, they still do have at least some good talent. Nick Suzuki is really good. 13 goals, 41 points in 48 games. Cole Cawfield, who I think is their best goals, score, 38 points in 48 games. Sean Monaghan, who I know Pat has been driving the bus

for if the Penguins do acquire, but not if it's for a first-round pick. I'm not going to be paying a first for Sean Monaghan. He does have 13 goals this season and 34 points in 48 games. Mike Matheson, an old friend. He's been playing well as well. He has a 33 points. Penguins in this one, man, they got to have a better start outside of what they did in Montreal about a month ago. And obviously, you're going to be playing less than 24 hours later. Your legs are going to be a little bit tired. So you've got to keep your shift short. Got to make sure you're defending well. And also, again, just peppering a lot of shots on Jake Allen. It doesn't look like it's going to be San Montembow in this one, according to a couple of Montreal

Canadian supporters. It's going to be Jake Allen in this one who has been fine this year. But no matter who the penguins have in net, it looks like it's going to be true. and Jari, they'll have the edge and goal for this one. So teams that, a team like the Penguins that is very much on the bubble right now, you're trying to really clog your way back into this. You can't drop two points to a team like this, a team that is not really trying to make the playoffs here, that team that is obviously rebuilding, a team that wants to make the dance wins this type of game and honestly wins it kind of convincingly. Yeah, you can't leave any doubt in this one. And I would,

We'll say, you know, you look at this Canadian's team. They're on the come up. They're going to be good in a couple of years. Kent Hughes has done a tremendous job in building this team and getting it ready to, at least in the next couple of years, make the next step from a basement dweller to a playoff contender. So it's a young-ish team. They're not, it's not like Arizona where you have a ton of young guns who are coming up, but this is a team that you have to beat.

This is a team that is not in any sort of playoff conversation, regardless. of what the standings say, it's a team that you have to beat. And like you said, you have to beat them convincingly. And Cindy Crosby usually loves playing the Canadians. So I think I'll go ahead and make that prediction right now. I think that's going to be a pretty big sitting game because he always likes going against him. And yes, Pat, it is a vintage Sydney Crosby game. There it is.

I think for that one specifically, it's just because he loves playing the Canadians, no matter if it's in Pittsburgh or Montreal, I think he's going to go out there and have a big performance there. Is there anything else you want to say about the Canadians in this matchup before we get into this weekend as a whole? No, I think we kind of covered it all. It's a game that you don't want to say must win, but really at this point, every game is a must win for the penguins given their positioning and the standings. But it's a game that you should win. Right.

And speaking of the standings, we're going to discuss that in the final segment and how the penguins have a pretty massive opportunity over these next two, three weeks to at least claw their way back into the top four in the Metro, fault in the vision. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about eBay Motors. Passion Drive and Patience, what brings home the winning trophy is also what keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance from superchargers, roof racks, exhaust kits, LED headlights, and more, whether you're into speed, power or style. eBay Motors has got you covered. With over 122 million parts for your number one ride or die, you'll always find exactly what you're

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You look at the Metropolitan Division standings right now and the Eastern Conference standings as a whole. You look at the games played. The Penguins are tied right now with the Ottawa Senators for the least amount of games played in the conference at 44. And that's because Penguins have had two very long breaks in play these last couple weeks. And right now they're in 7th, 21 and 7th. 17 and 6, 48 points.

You have two games in hand on the Capitals who have not played well, to say the least at this point. They have four games in hand on the Islanders who just lost the Canadians, two games in hand on the Devils, five games in hand on the Flyers, three on the Hurricanes, and three on the Rangers.

As I said to start the show, these only matter if you win them. So these next two to three weeks, and especially in March, you have to make these next couple months. I honestly I should say this next couple of months. You need to make these the best of your season so far. You cannot afford any screw-ups.

The ball is in your court with all these games in hand. It's going to be your fault if you miss the playoffs. But if they're able to win these games in hand, they will be right back in the race for that busy stretch in March and into April. They just have to go out there and be your game. more consistent. Yeah. And, you know, we have kind of been sounding the alarm on this podcast by what they

have done over the past month or so because it hasn't looked great. Like the warning signs on the dashboard are flashing about this team possibly not making the playoffs for a second straight year. But what we have kind of failed to acknowledge until this moment is that they're right there with Ottawa and Edmonton as the two, as three. of the teams that have played the least amount of games going up to this point. You said it already. The Flyers have played 49 and the teams ahead of them, whether it's the Islanders,

Devils, hurricanes, Rangers, whomever, they all have played more games. So there is that opportunity that, yeah, they are right now, they are seven points back of a playoff spot, but they have four games in hand on the team they're chasing. in Detroit, who has played 48. So you really do have the opportunity just with games played to make up ground. You don't have to worry about, okay, we've played the same amount of games and now we're seven points back.

You have, that's eight points right there. So if you win four games theoretically to catch up to Detroit, you're ahead of them. But at the same time, like you said, you have to take advantage of this. And this weekend is where it starts. You have to, I don't want to say you have to get four points in win all, and win both games. Now, it won't be the end of the world if you go to overtime in both of them because it's two Atlantic division opponents, neither of whom you are chasing.

So it doesn't really matter if you give up a point. But at the same time, if you want to get back in the playoff race, going to an O this weekend is a huge. huge must because if you get out of it with two with four points you're up to 52 points and that gets you right at the cusp of the race after the all star break so and then not to mention the all star break is also their by week so after that you are if you can come out with four points you get a nice little break you're going to still have games in hand because you're on that break and then you can come out of the all star break refreshed and really start pushing towards the playoffs

And if you can win all five of those games in hand on the Flyers, for example, and you play the Flyers one more time, you win those five games, that's 10 points. You are two points clear them for third in the Metro. Assuming you can clear the Caps and the Islanders and the Devils, you would be ahead of the Flyers in that circumstance, a team that is in a playoff spot. And not to put the card ahead of the horse here, but you look at the Flyers, they are finally coming back to Earth.

They're five in their last 10, and they're in the middle of a four-game losing streak. They're starting to look more like the team everybody expected them to be. Now, granted, they're still probably a little bit better than everybody predicted at the start of the year where everyone figured they were going to be in the basement of the Metropolitan Division. They banked so many early points that it's going to be really hard for them to fall that far. But again, they are starting to look a lot more like a team that is going to be on the outside looking in, come in the playoffs, but that is an opportunity that the penguins have to take. They have to be able to catch them and pass them in some capacity.

And I think these games in hand, it's my theory that Kyle Dubus is going to wait until maybe a week or two after the All-Star break to then, I think, fully assess this team and be like, okay, say there's like a month until the deadline or even three weeks until the deadline, okay, now I know what I'm going to do because he's probably looking at the games in hand right now is saying, okay, show me what you can do in the situation and see if you can make up some ground. If you can't do that with these two games here and with a few games after the break in the biweek, two against Winnipeg. You've got Minnesota. You have a few other games in February as well. If you can't start making up ground this weekend and into or after the All-Star

break, excuse me, I think that will give him enough answers to the point where he's like, okay, I know what direction I want to go at the deadline. That's why I think when we were talking about Chris Johnson's report on insider trading where the All-Star break was just not really a main deadline. I think it's because of the games in hand. I think he wants to see, okay, can this team get back into it a little bit? Right. We did kind of fail to mention that on the Chris Johnson thing that he said on insider trading is that we probably should have looked at games played in games and hand because you're probably right. That's likely what Kyle Duvus's mindset is right now, the fact that they have so many, they have played the least,

amount of games in the NHL at this point. So yeah, he had that kind of self-imposed challenge deadline of the All-Star break, but then he probably went back and saw like, oh, wait, by the time we get there, they're going to be among the least games played in the National Hockey League. So it's going to be difficult, especially if they're where they are right now, anywhere between like four and seven points out of the playoffs, because those are, I don't want to say easy to make up because this team hasn't exactly been lighting the world on fire, but it'll be, there's more of an opportunity.

to make up those points when you have games in hand. And that's kind of also what I wrote about today on Penguin's perspectives at KDCA was that like it was what I have discussed this week on the podcast is that they don't have to be sellers at the deadline. And we still don't know what their direction is going to be. But with a seller's market on the way because of how few teams are really out, the market is going to be flooded by teams going after only a handful of players. So if you're Kyle Dubish, you can use that to your advantage and maybe jumpstart a retooling for next year.

Well, it all starts tonight, and the Panthers. And we'll see if this team has learned anything of these last four days to see if they can go out there and play a full 60 against one of the best teams in the conference. But they can sweep this back to back this weekend. They'll be cooking with something heading into the All-Star break and then heading into their byweek as well. But that would do it for the Friday edition of the Lock on Penguins podcast. Pat and I will be back with another. episode for you all on Monday to recap both these games. And then we'll be back all of next week as well, Tuesday through Friday, even though the team won't be playing. We'll still have plenty of content

for you all. So again, thank you all so much for tuning in. Really appreciate it. We'll be back on Monday.