Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Is next season Evgeni Malkin's last year in Pittsburgh?

Episode Date: April 23, 2025

It was a down year for Evgeni Malkin, scoring just 60 points, and now he's got one year left on his deal, so will it be his last? Patrick and Hunter begin the show by recapping his season and whether this was just a blip on the radar or if he still has some gas in the tank. Then, they dive into the future of his career. Will he finish out next season and retire, or will he try to play into his age-40 season? Finally, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins begin their playoff season tonight against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, and the Wheeling Nailers return home for game three of their series. They get you set for both of those games. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin' and get crackin' with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more!  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.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins! Amazon Fire TV Stick 4kDid you know your Fire TV is also an Xbox? Turn any TV into your gaming and entertainment hub with Fire TV Stick 4K devices — no console required. Head to Amazon.com/firetvlockedon to get started. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription and compatible controller required.UpworkVisit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free. With Upwork, you can find specialized freelancers in marketing, development, design, and more—experts ready to help you take your business to the next level. 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.

Today on Locked-on Penguins, we continue our season and review series with the second head of the two-headed monster of Gennie Malkin. We will also talk about what the future could hold for number 71, as well as get you ready for the two playoff games in the HL and the ECHL. All of that 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. Welcome back to another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4WET. Joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes.

You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our shows Twitter a follow at L0 underscore Penguins. And of course, as always, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube and the Roku channel. Plus, if you follow us on YouTube, go ahead and hit that notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. Before we get started, today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. Right now, new Fandul customers can get $250 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins.

Hunter, we are going to continue our season and review series today. We began it at the top with the captain, Sidney Crosby on our Tuesday episode. So let's go to the alternate captain, the second head of the two-headed monster, number 71, Evgeny Malkin, the man from Magnita Gorsk. And it was a bit of another trying season for Evgeny Malkin. Now, let's start with the good because it was a very big milestone season for Evgeny Malkin. And boy, if this doesn't sum up Evgeny Malkin's entire career, he kind of played second fiddle to Sidney Crosby, who hit a couple of milestones,

and of course, his fellow countryman Alex Ovechkin, who breaks the all-time goals record. But three separate milestones this season for EFatjohn, for Evgeny Malkin in his career, he scores his 500th goal, tallies his 800th assist, and reaches the 1,300 point mark all in the same season, but at the same time, plays 68 games, only scores 16 goals, adds 34 assists for an even 50 points. When you compare the Penguin stars right now between Ifgeny Malkin and Sidney Crosby, Sidney Crosby continues to absolutely defy Father Time.

He is still chugging along, scores 91 points this year, breaks Wayne Gretzky's point per game record, and still looks like top 10 or top five player in the National Hockey League. Whereas with Evgeny Malkin, it kind of feels like father time is starting to catch up to him. Now, I will add the caveat that a lot of people do when it comes to Gino. he has been through the ringer injury-wise. Two separate major knee surgeries, and he is 6-5-2010 pounds,

according to the Penguins website, and he throughout his career played every bit as a 6-5-20-pound NHL player. He was always a straightforward bully, the Russian bear, whatever you want to call it. And when you reach age 38, and you have played so many games on top of all those surgeries on your knee, that is going to catch up to you because he has played a very rough, high tempo style

for the majority of his career, and you expected to slowdown at some point. Now, before I hand it off to you, Hunter, I will say this. He does strike me as a candidate in this Penguins retool, rebuild on the fly, to where if they can find him a good, motivated young winger to play with, he could have a little bit of a resurgence. I don't think he'll go back to 2012, 2013 of Gennie Malkin, but reaching another 55, 60, 65 point season, 20-ish goals, 25 goals. I can still see that because we saw flashes throughout the year

that there is still good hockey to be had from Evgeny Malkin. 100%. And heck, we just saw him not this season, but the season prior. He had a 27 goal, 67 point season in 82 games. I will 1 million percent take that heading into next season if he does that. Now that's going to be the final year of his contract. And yes, he's going to be 39 years old. I will discuss what the future holds for him a little bit later on in the show.

I know some people are going to be a big concern because, yeah, you know, his goal scoring went down by 11 goals this year. He finished with 16 goals, had 34 assists, which the 34 assists was a little bit on par with what he did last year, had 40 last year, 50 points in 68 games. Remember, he missed 14 games this year with a couple of injuries. He plays a full season. I think he probably gets up to at least 60 points, if I had to guess. He also did all of this with, again, another rotating cast of winners. Like, Kyle Dubas really touched on that during his press conference this week, where these last couple of years, there have been a lot of players rotating on his wing.

You know, you discussed it during your, you know, with what you were saying, Pat, with how he's kind of played second fiddle to sit a little bit, especially with some of the linemates that he's had over the years, you know, Sid has gotten the first choosings, I guess if you want to call it that. Like, you know, he's, Evgeny Malkin has had Rickechal on his line for a bunch of Raquel's tenure here. But then Cindy Crosby has kidnapped him at times. And then you saw how great those two were together, especially to end the season.

Brown Rust has been with Evgeny Malkin. at times, he's gotten kidnapped by Cindy Crosby. And if both those two wingers are on the team next season, you probably should expect both them to be on Crosby's line because of how good that line was to end the season. And that means, again, you're going to have to find two wingers that can stay on his line all year. Right now, to me, I think that's someone like a Ville Quoevenin

and a potentially fellow Tomasino. I really liked their fits during the season, especially with Coivinan. It was only six games, 36 minutes of five on five. ice time. So again, very small sample, but when they were on the ice, they had 55% of the shot attempts, they had 52% of the expected goals, 55% of these scoring chances, and 60% of the high danger chances. Again, very small sample, but the two looked like a really good fit together. And if you can combine that with a sniper and Tomasino, who will probably be back, I think they're going to probably sign him to a bridge contract as of right now. But if you combine that line,

or those two players, excuse me, because we all know Mike Sullivan likes to. to work in duos. So you combine covenant in Malkin with someone like Thomas, you know, who doesn't need to be a bit more consistent. Yes. But I still think if you get back consistency, you have the makings of a fairly solid second line for next season. Again, we all know if Gennie Malkin is going to be 39.

It's probably going to be his last season. But I still think when I look back at this season, he did fairly good. I would probably give him a B. Like I'm not going to give him an A or even an A plus like I did for Sidney Crosby. but I'm still going to give him an above average grade based on what he did during the season and based on the roving line mates that he had also throughout the season. He didn't factor in as much on the power play as we're used to seeing.

Only perhaps this year four power play goals and 12 power play assists. So 16 of his 50 points were only on the power play. Yeah, part of that was because they demoted him to the second unit just because they were kind of experimenting with that unit at times. And heck, to be frank, it worked for quite a bit. I mean, they have the sixth best power play in the league. So if they can get that power play production up a little bit more next year or getting him, again, some more stable line mates,

I think you can definitely see him get back to the season we saw in 23, 24, where he had nearly a 30-goal season and almost a 70-point season. Absolutely. The other, to kind of build off of what I was saying as well about linemates, and obviously this changes a little bit with age, with the way his game is trending. But when you remember some of the best moments of of Genie Malkins' career, especially in the 2010s, you look back at linemates who almost challenged him to where,

where you look at Sidney Crosby and there was almost, you would see the guys who failed because they would defer to Sidney Crosby. Crosby needs somebody like a Jake Gensel, like a Ricard Raquel, like a Brian Rust, go down the name of list, Chris Coonitz, guys who work with Sidney Crosby. And I don't mean that in the chemistry way. I mean, they are able to work with him within the way he likes to play. They can keep up with him. They can play to a level that complements his game.

You look at some of the best times of getting Malkin's career. He had linemates who he almost wanted to fight to the point where, They seemed like they hated each other, but in reality, they were pushing one another. You think James Neal, you think even to a certain extent, we're going to put, we're going to go way back here. Max Talbot. Max Talbot pushed him. Max Talbot kind of challenged him. I already said James Neal.

It's going to sound silly to say given his public persona, but also Phil Kessel in the 2017 run, it seemed like those two wanted to strangle one another. But they were able to work together really well. Gino knew when to get the puck to Phil and get out of the way. Gino knew when Phil was looking to pass and he would get to an open spot and they made it work. So the challenge for guys like Philip Thomasino and Velae Coivinin, obviously we only had a very small sample size of Coivinin, so we will see what happens with that.

But I have said this about Thomasino. you know down the stretch. Once he can find a more definitive game and be more consistent, I'm not telling him to go in there and push Gino around and say, I'm the captain now. But to be able to go in challenge of Gennie Malkin, that is when as the center, as the second line center of the penguins, he's been at his best.

So to find that winger, it's got to be somebody who is willing to challenge him. It's a bit different from Sid. But I think between the chemistry he has shown with those two wingers, if those two continue to develop, the penguins decide to bring back Tomasino, those are two really good candidates to put on his line next year. But I think that's a good place to leave it for now. We're going to continue talking about Hvgeny Malkin in the second segment

and what the future could hold for Hvgeny Malkin with the Pittsburgh Penguins. We will get into that when we... come back right after this. But first, we've got to tell you about today's first sponsor, and that is Fandul. The NBA playoffs, they are here, and Fandle is giving new customers an incredible way to get in on the action. Right now, when you join Fandall and place your first $5 bet, you'll get $250 in bonus bets if your bet wins. Fandle makes betting super easy whether you're picking your favorite team, diving into player props, anything from three-pointers to steals to assists. Fanduel has so many ways for you to bet on your favorite player props.

Plus, once the game tips off, you can combine those live prop bets into a same game parlay for a chance to win big. So don't miss out, head to fanduel.com and claim your $250 in bonus bets today. We're back here on the Wednesday edition of Locked on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp alongside Hunter Hodes. And let's keep this rolling here. Hunter, we're talking our season and. review series here about the Penguins alternate captain, one of the best players in franchise

history in Hvgeny Malkin. And going into this upcoming season, this is the last year on his deal. He will turn 39 this summer, July 31st. He will be 39 years old. It seems like a lot of the consensus is this will probably be Fagney Malkins last year in the NHL. The one thing I do want to say about that is I don't know if he will hang them up after this year or if he will go back to Russia to play in the KHL for a year or two back home. But the one thing I do know, and I think Fgeny Malkin has made this clear. He has made it clear to our pal Rob Rossi, who is extremely tight with Fagney Malkin. He is more than likely, I would say, 99%. to either continue his career with the penguins after this season

or retire or go back to Russia. I don't see him playing for another franchise in the NHL. He is tied at the hip with Sidney Crosby. They have talked about how much they enjoy being penguins. They want to have their legacy be with the Pittsburgh Penguins. The joke I always make or the reference I always make is they don't want to be the bar trivia Jeopardy Answer guy, where they talk about,

oh, he played 19, 20, some odd seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins, but many people forget he finished his career with this team. So I do think, regardless of what happens after this year, you won't see a Gennie Malkin in another jersey than a Penguins won. Well, Pat, you know who's going to be potentially

a Jeopardy answer is Brad Marchand. Spent all that time with the Bruins. Now he's with the Panthers. We have to see who he ends his career with. you know, could go back to Boston this summer. He's a free agent. I don't think it's likely right now, but, hey, he could be someone that is a jeopardy answer at some point.

But to your point, I agree with you. I think after next season, he's going to either, A, sign a one year contract to end his career with the Penguins, again, one more year, or he's going to retire and head back to Russia. I think those are the two most likely outcomes. I feel fairly confident in that. I do not think he is ever playing for another NHL team. The only time I got even a little bit nervous was when the contract negotiations

with the Hexol regime were going a big. south for felt like a few hours and then immediately after that cooler sides prevailed and they were able to agree to this contract which expires again at the end of next season. I still think he is going to be the second line center of this upcoming season. However, I would not be surprised if they decided to maybe experiment him a little bit more at wing for since this could be his final season. Now, if they do decide to bring him back for his age 40 season on a one-year contract,

that year for sure they're probably going to have to bring in a second line center. They are going to have over 40 to 50 million in cap space. They will have plenty of room to bring in a second line center to play right behind Sidney Crosby. So the time is coming where they are going to have to have a new second line center. People can argue it for this year. I will 100% understand their takes with that because he's 39 years old. His legs aren't where they used to be.

I get it. I personally don't think it's going to happen this summer. I think it's more likely the next summer. but with Gino I'm still excited to see what he can do this year man because you saw especially when he even missed a little bit of time and again I'm not I don't want him ever injured or anything like that but it felt like every time he even when he was gone for a couple of games with an injury he would have his legs immediately not saying you got to sit here and do some load management or anything like that but it is interesting that like you see him really have that burst of speed right when he comes down. back after a few games. Like he's a professional athlete, Pat. He will want to play every single game because that's how he is. Like if you tell him, hey, Gino, we want you to take off the next game or two for your

legs. We want them to be fine. He's going to look at you and tell you to screw off. Like that, that's just how he is as a player. That's how every professional athlete is as a player. That's how they're going to operate. But again, I did find it at times this year. He would come back and it'd be like, man, looks like 2012, Evgeny Malkin out there.

but I think he's going to work on his skating a little bit more this summer. He's going to come in next year with, in my opinion, a little bit of a chip on his shoulder because he knows his production was a little bit down this year. He's going to want to get back to at least the level we saw the season prior, where again, he was almost a 30 goal score. There's a couple things here that I want to respond to. First is the center thing. I do think this year he will remain as the second line center.

and for no other reason, it's simple necessity. There is really no one, as we were, it's April 23rd, the first round of the playoffs isn't even done yet. We're so far removed from free agency and everything in the off season that Kyle Dubus is going to do. But as we sit here today, there's really nobody, even in the system, let alone on the NHL roster that could step in and be the second line center. that would be a better option than of Genni Malkin. Does that mean he is still a bona fide second line center? That's up for debate. He had a rough year and he is getting older.

So it sucks to say because he is an absolute legend. He is going to be in the Hall of Fame on his first ballot. And if he isn't, it's a crime. But at the end of the day right now, it's just born out of necessity. You have to have him as your second line center because there's really nobody on the roster who can fill in. And I know people say Ricard Burkell, but you don't want to take him away from Sydney Crosby right now because of how well they played together, especially if he remains on the team. So we'll see there.

But I do think if he comes back for his age 40 season in an off season where they're going to have so much more cap space, so much more flexibility, who knows who they're going to draft, acquire and trade for in that time frame that maybe you can get a second line center in there and have Malkin wing and kind of have him end his career in a similar way to Mary Olimu, where Mary O'Mew moved over to wing for his last few years, and it was able to extend his usefulness as a player because he really just had to focus on being a goal score. The load management thing, here's a thought I've had about that. I think it would be wise, especially for basically any NHL team at this point. to consider adopting load management. Now,

you see a bit more at times in the NBA, but it's a bit harder in the NHL because these players are just wired differently, and for good reason. Yeah, and here's how I want to kind of square the circle and bring it to the Penguins is this is a total fantasy booking scenario.

I am making this up as if I'm writing a fantasy novel, but let's say next year, This team surprises us. And I'm not saying that they're making a run at the Metro Division or the conference, but they're finding themselves in the top three of the Metropolitan Division at the end of, say, November. They get off to a hot start. They're playing pretty well. You can look at them and go, and this also goes for Chris LaTang.

This goes for even Sid as well to where you can say, guys, listen, you are getting up there. in age. And we are putting ourselves in a position where we can burn a couple points, or we can take a night or two where if we lose to a Western conference team, it's not going to hurt us that bad. So if they look like a team that could find their way into a playoff spot and surprise everybody, if you want to go along with what Kyle Dubus said about not just wanting to be a team that sneaks in, you're going to want 87, 71, and 58 clicking on all cylinders. And if they play 82, 80, 75, 70 games, you get to that point at the end of the year where there might not be a ton of tread left on the tires.

Now, they're elite players. They're still very good players. So that's a difficult thing to say. But you know how hyper competitive these guys are. and it would be a lot easier in my estimation obviously I'm an idiot with a microphone in his bedroom recording this but I feel like it'd be an easier sell to say do you guys want to win a random game in February or do you want to win a round or two in the Stanley Cup playoffs and if you guys are healthy going into the playoffs a lot better chance we can do that but if you want that win

in February it might not lead to the other thing right I hear you on that hypothetical again we just have to see what the moves are this summer because again still right now I don't have them as a playoff team nor do I'm playing that scenario out for potential load management right say they exceed expectations then it's definitely a conversation to be had again especially if they do blow everyone away and start out fast and all that stuff yeah so we'll see what happens with malkin i i i will say this this is the last point i'll make on the future for abgeny malkin I think a lot of it hinges upon how he plays next year. If it's a similar year to this one where you get kind of the same production,

you get 15 to 20-ish goals, 45, 50, 55 points, misses some games here and there, it wouldn't surprise me if he said, you know what, I have won three Stanley Cups, I've won an MVP, I've won a Con Smyth, I'm done. I don't have it. I don't have anything left in the tank or I don't have enough left in the tank to continue. But if he has a bounce back year, I can see a world where he sees the writing on the wall. This team's got a bunch of cap space. Sid's going to be back.

Tangers going to be back. A bunch of the young guys are coming. Let's take a run at this. I'll take a one year deal for a discount and let's see what happens. Yeah, man, no argument with me on that one. Yeah. And obviously, absolute legend. 71 going to be in the rafters.

He's going to be in the Hall of Fame. But hey, one year left. So no need to start right in the retrospective just yet because still a whole season to go. But that is going to do it for our middle segment. When we come back, the farm clubs, they are in action tonight. The Wilkesbury Scranton Penguins, they get going with their best of three series against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. And the Wheeling Nailers will play game three of their opening round series against the Norfolk admirals will take a quick look at both of those to make sure you're ready for those,

but we will get into that when we come back right after this. But first, we got to tell you about today's last sponsor, and that is Wonderful Pistachios. If you're looking for a snack that's both delicious and nutritious, crack into a good source of protein with wonderful pistachios. Wonderful pistachios, it's one of the highest protein nuts. Each one ounce serving has six grams of protein, giving you over 10% of your daily value. Plus, they are packed with fiber and those better for you unsaturated fats that help keep you feeling fuller longer. I'm a big fan of the no-shells variety, whether I'm sitting at my desk at work, driving in the car, doing all the stuff I do throughout the day.

So it's a nice quick snack for me to get that little protein push. But if you're a fan of crack and open those shells for that satisfying crunch, the in-shell option is always a classic. So get snacking and get cracking with the snack that packs a protein. punch, visit wonderful pistachios.com. Welcome back. It's the Wednesday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp alongside Hunter Hodes. And we have got playoff action tonight and not just in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Wilkesbury Scranton Penguins, they kick off their best of three series against the

Lehigh Valley Phantoms. We have set the table for you on this one quite a couple times on this show. they slid kind of down the stretch. They went from looking like contenders to their division to now having to play what is essentially a play in round in the Calder Cup playoffs against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Second year in a row, they're in this series. But Hunter, you hit me with some stats before

that will either give you some confidence or scare the crap out of you. Small series can be fickle, but if you look at the overall sample size between these two teams this year, Wilkesbury dominated this series against the UE High Valley Phantoms. I almost screwed that up somehow. Apologize about that. They went 8 in 2 and 1-1 against them this season in 12 meetings. Now, you can throw it out of the window now if you want.

Three game series, we all saw what happened last year. Wilkesbury lost. But they have the reinforcements back. Vili Covenan is coming back for this game. I can't wait to see what he does in game one. Vasily Ponomera is back. St. Poulan. Voluntary Pusinin.

Rucker McGority doesn't look like it's going to be ready for this one, Pat. But I do think if they get past Lehigh Valley, they can potentially see him sooner rather than later. It looks like Y'all Blumquist is going to get the start tonight. No surprises there. Like, this is the guy you want to be leading this team in the playoffs as of right now because they have Sergey Muroshov down at Wheeling, and that's a big game three for him.

Again, I know some people are freaking out about his ECHL stats, but he's not getting any help, people. I mean, that's the biggest thing that people are, listening right now is that he's not getting any offensive help. So people want to dunk on Rochon of all they want. But until this willing starts getting offense, there's really no reason to keep dunking on him. But for Wilkesbury, there'll be mostly, after-level, obviously McGrody won't be there.

But Emil Benstrom will also not be in the lineup. He's going to be out for the rest of the H.L playoffs really stinks just because he had 23 goals on Wilkesbury this year. He had season-ending surgery. So just really stinks that they're not going to have. have him for the entire HL playoffs and the McGority at least to start. But if they can get past the I Valley here,

which I think they're capable of when you look at this lineup, and they can get McGority back, they will have an opportunity to go fairly deep. I know there's a lot of buzz, a lot of enthusiasm with the fans in Wilkesbury. Rightfully so. This is one of the top Wilkesbury teams I think we have seen in quite a while. And I'm excited to watch to see if they can get some revenge on the I Valley.

Because I look at these two teams, Wilkesbury has the better and they have the deeper roster. They used to go out there and prove it. It was a bit of a surprise to hear that McGority might be ready if they get past this, this first round against Lehigh, because the way it was kind of framed when he got hurt in Pittsburgh was that he was done. It kind of sounded like he is just going to be done for the rest of the year. They're going to let him rest and recover and all of that.

So to find out that there is a world where he returns and plays. plays for the baby penguins, that's a huge shot in the arm for them because it could really boost their chances to make a deep run. And I got to give a shout out, as always, to Taylor Haas from D.K. Pittsburgh Sports. She is on top of all of this. We're going to obviously do as much as we can to keep you updated for it, but also make sure you're following her work. She talked to McGroarkey, who said something, at least he said this at cleanout day in

Pittsburgh about the Wilkesbury Scrant and Penguins saying, I feel like from the forwards to the decor all the way to the goalies, we have a really deep team. Guys are really bought in. I feel like we bought in for each other. We talked about this in the lead up to the Colorado Cup playoffs with the baby penguins when we kind of started to shift into let's look to the future mode. This is a group that A is having a blast together. They are really playing for one another.

They're really enjoying their time in the AHL, and they are starting to see that they are building something special. But that also builds into the longer-term plan for the franchise. Yeah, we all wanted to see these guys up in Pittsburgh, and obviously we got our taste with Covenant and Magrorty at the end of the year, but I'll continue to beat this drum. You want these guys to be long-term contributors for the Pittsburgh Penguins. You keep them together in the AHL, you let them win together.

lose together, struggle together, triumph together. They start coming up together. They've got that experience. They've got that cohesion. And it'll be a nice transition for them as a group. So that is a big one for them tonight. Game 1, 705 in Wilkes Bear. Meanwhile, the Wheeling Nailers are looking to get into the wind column for the first time in their series against the admirals.

That is tonight at 710. and they are down 2-0 in the series and were shut out by identical 4-0 0 scores in Norfolk. So this is a big moment for this Nailers team who was pretty good this year. They've got to find a way to respond. And like you kind of hinted to, I know you look at 2-4-0 losses and it's easy to go. The hell was the goaltending doing, but he was getting zero run support. So the Nailers sticks and the Nailers' offensive players have to wake up tonight.

night. Yeah, I made that clear a little, just a couple of minutes ago. They need the offense, man. That's not going to matter. Muroshov is going to give them the goaltending. I'm pretty confident in that. Again, I know his numbers don't look that good, but he's not getting any support. But if they can get the offense going, especially tonight, they will have a really good shot of coming back in this series. And also, this is, I'm going to make fun of you for this because you said Norfolk, Norfolk, Norfolk. That's how it's pronounced. Buddy, I'm a Western PA native. My tongue does not speak that way. It's okay, man. I had a lot of family growing up in Virginia Beach. Actually, that's where my uncle, uh, who passed away last Saturday lived for a long time. So I used to

go down to Virginia Beach all the time. And we always make fun of everyone who says Norfolk differently. I don't know. Just a fun end of the show. But again, that game seven, 10 tonight. We will obviously keep an eye on both of these matchups tonight. And we will bring you some recaps of those throughout this series. these playoff runs, but that is going to do it for our Wednesday edition of Locked on Penguins. Hunter and I will be back with a brand new episode for you on Thursday. We will continue our season in review series as well as recap these two playoff games in Wilkes-Bair and Wheeling. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp.

Thank you, as always for tuning in. We will be back on Thursday.