Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Is the NHL finally getting back to Olympic competitions?

Episode Date: August 23, 2023

Happy Wednesday! Hunter and Pat are back for another episode of the podcast as the two start out with whether Sidney Crosby will hit 100 points this season or not. They look at what he did this past season and how he stayed relatively healthy, though he finished with 93 points. How can he get 7 extra points for this season? The two look at how Erik Karlsson will be a big factor in getting him to 100 and how Jake Guentzel could also be a big factor if he's able to play at a higher level once he comes back from his injury. They also discuss his production on the PP and at 5v5, before moving on to which player in the bottom six will score the most goals this season. Hunter gives his answer (it's a newcomer) while Pat goes with someone a bit on the younger side. Finally, they end the show with some international hockey talk as Bill Daly and the league look set on firing up some best-on-best events for the first time in nearly a decade.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BirddogsGo to birddogs.com/LOCKEDONNHL or enter promo code LOCKEDONNHL for a free white tech hat with any order. You won’t want to take your birddogs off we promise you.AG1If a comprehensive solution is what you need from your supplement routine, then try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkAG1.com/NHLNETWORK.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, when you bet on a Super Bowl Winner, you can GET BONUS BETS EVERY TIME THEY WIN IN THE REGULAR SEASON! FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable free bets that expire 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.

Will Sidney Crosby hit the Century Mark this upcoming season? Pat and I are going to discuss 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. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes.

That is my co-host, Patrick Dam. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can follow Pat's Twitter. send them for 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 list and slash watch of the day. Today's episode is brought to you by Birddogs. You go to birddogs.com slash locked on NHL

or enter promo code Locked on NHL for a free white tech hat with any order. You will not want to take your bird dogs off. We promise you that. So I'm back in my home studio. Pat is obviously back in his studio. I had to make a little bit

of an unexpected trip up to Boston. Yes, I saw a good. Guns and Roses twice in four days. That's just how it is. I love that band and we just decided to do two shows back to back. But before we dive into the Sydney Crosby topic, Pat, we owe our listeners and watchers an apology for our mishap on Monday when discussing Yassie Poo-Yarvey and a professional trial because we both forgot that he had double hip surgery a little over, what was it,

almost two months ago now, and he will not be available until, I think at least the midway point of the regular season this year. So that's very unfortunate, and we both very much apologize for that. I, Patrick Damp of the Lockdown Penguins podcast, take full responsibility for the oversight and error that Jesse Pooey-R-V needed double hip surgery and will not be available until the midpoint of next season. This was my fault, not hunters, and I hope you can find it in your heart, listener, to forgive me. this is why he's not been fired from the show. Okay, that's the big thing here.

But no, like we apologize wholeheartedly. That was just a stupid mistake. If you were healthy, though, it would make a lot of sense. But diving into the meat of the episode here with Cindy Crosby, this past season, Pat, had another great year, played all 82 games, 33 goals, 93 points, hit over 1,500 points this year. He continues to defy everything, you know, what it means to just produce at the level that he's been at, you know, throughout his career now into his mid-30s.

It gets more rare to hit 100 points the older you get, especially now at he's 36. He'll be 40 in the next few years. I know scoring has gone up. Do you think Sid can do it this year, hit 100? I do. And one of the big reasons is the most recent acquisition in Eric Carlson. That's going to be a big boost to the power play. think. I don't think Crosby has any signs of slowing down. I think he's going to match and better

Gretzky's point per game per season record in the next couple of years. But you add that offensive weapon to the power play in Eric Carlson in the way he can distribute the puck in the way he can score. Put those two things together with Cid still being a very elite offensive driver at five on five, that's going to be a big boost to his offensive output. So Eric Carlson on the power play, assuming they all stay healthy, which as Penguins fans know, that's always a gigantic if, that's going to be huge for his production. So I do think there's another century mark coming for Sidney Crosby this upcoming season. And if, you know, Carlson is on the top power play throughout the whole season, you know,

that could bring Crosby's goal total. We all know how great of a playmaker he is. That's been well documented throughout his career. But he's also been a great goal score. And he hasn't scored 40 since 2016-17. That said, had 33 this past season, even when Chris LaTang was not at the level that a lot of us expecting him to be, but also he just went through hell and back with everything that happened,

you know, off the ice. You bring Carlson into the fold. Crosby stays healthy. I think he can hit 40 goals this season. You get that up to what this past season. have been actually, yeah, that would have been 100 points exactly. I think he definitely has seven more goals in him, especially, you know, some of them on the power play, couple more, even strength if Carlson plays a bit more with Crosby, though I think

he may split time with Sid and Gino considering, you know, we'll have to see what happens with the pairings overall, but I think Sid definitely has seven more goals in him now that Carlson is in the fold. And obviously the health has to play into it. He's got to stay healthy, played all 82 games this past season. And I also think he could do it because if Jake Gensel comes back with a vengeance after those first five to six games and he produces at the level that a lot of us thought he would this past season, you know, maybe he still scores 40, 45 himself, which we've seen him do twice in his career already. I definitely think he'll hit 100 this season, whether it's, you know, passing the puck Jake to get him some assists or

just, you know, finishing plays that Jake will give him. We'll add in the fact, too, that along with the Eric Carlson edition, which will help on the power play, the roster, not by a lot, but is deeper now. So there's going to be less reliance on the top six to be your only production, but at the same time, they won't be getting caved in and pinned in their defensive zone. So you'll have advantageous situations to where the top six comes out after maybe a little bit of a sustained forecheck by the bottom six. And again, back to Carlson, this also gives Mike Sullivan more options now, because you don't have to immediately pin the top pair to the first line

and the second pair to the second line. You can switch this up at 5V5. And maybe he sees some time with Carlson at 5 on 5 or Latang and add in two guys who are great at driving offense to the forward group. and it just opens up more opportunity for Crosby and the top six to put up more points and more goals just because of that deployment. I like that point a lot, and especially if both of them can stay healthy, I really don't see. I mean, obviously I can see a way he doesn't hit 100 points just because of health and just he's getting up there in age if he doesn't stay healthy, of course. But I think if those top two defense were able to stay healthy, says able to stay healthy, he gets Jake back for the final.

75, 76 games, and he stays relatively healthy too. He can definitely do this. Also with how good sit is behind the net with his vision, he's going to be setting up a lot of goals that way. Whether it's on the power play or at 5 on 5, I definitely think he'll hit 100 in it. If he does, you're going to see him get a lot of heart trophy consideration. I understand he may not outscore someone like Carter McDavid.

I mean, that time is, I think, pass now. Let's be real. Or Leon Drysidal, maybe even, I don't know, Austin Matthews, David Palsonach, something like that. But if he still hits this entry mark, he's going to get a lot of Hart Trophy Love. And he should, considering that he's in his age 36 season, he'll be 37 next year.

I think he can do it. I've said this before, too. Even if he doesn't get heart considerations, I do think he's going to start getting Selky consideration. Yes. Especially now with Bergeron retiring. It's one of those things that, I feel like he's going to get that while very much deserving because he's become a great defensive center along with his offensive output.

It feels like almost a lifetime achievement award to be handed to him of like a hey, okay, now that the guy who we're probably going to end up naming the award after in a few years is gone. Now you can have it. It'll be curious to see if he can beat out the likes of a Sasha Barkov of an Anjay Gras. Copa Tar, who he's still older as well, but he's still kicking pretty efficiently. You have those two guys. You have also, Ryan O'Reilly is still a very good two-way center as well. I can throw so many other names in there, too. But I will be curious to see if especially he can beat out someone like Barcov, who,

honestly, I think right now he's probably the favorite for the award. That'd be my guess. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, it's, and again, it speaks to the way the game. itself has evolved in the past 15, 20 years that the top elite guys are no longer one-dimensional. Rare is it that you have a one-dimensional player that only does one thing very well as average to below average on other aspects of the game. The way the game is now, you can't just be a one-tool player.

You have to be a two-to-three tool player to stick in the National Hockey League. Right. And a couple of names I did leave out there just by accident. You know, Mitch Marner has turned himself into one of the best two-way players in the league. You also have Nico Heeshir of the New Jersey Devils. I would be really curious to see if he can beat him out because He-Shitter is awesome now, especially when healthy. It would be a lot of fun.

I mean, I believe Sid has finished top five before in the Selke. I believe it was once that he did. He's had a couple of top 10 finishes as well. We'll love to see him, you know, just turn into like that, you know, late stage Patrice Bergeron in a way where he's still producing relatively well hits the century mark. Oh, he'll also get nominated for the Selke just because of how good of a defensive center he is too. I want both of that to happen. Yeah, me too. No, it would be a lot of fun, but we both think he'll do it. No, it's up to him now to see if he can go out there and do it

once the season starts in October, but that will do it for this first segment of the show. Coming up in the second one, Pat and I are going to discuss who will score the most goals in the bottom six this upcoming season and who will have the most production overall down there. But before we get to that, we have to discuss bird dogs. These shorts make you look ridiculously good, and they are designed to fit slimmer through the thigh and lay, giving you a truly sculpted look. They do the exact same thing as Woolamon, but fit way, way better, and they fit way better than regular shorts that are made of a stiff, restricting cotton.

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And to get yours, you go to birddogs.com slash locked on NHL or enter promo code locked on NHL for a free white tech hat with your order. That's birddogs.com slash locked on NHL or promo code locked on. NHL for a free white tech hat you will not want to take your bird dogs off we promise you that all right we're back in this episode of the lockdown penguins podcast i am hunter hoodies that is patrick ham so for a bottom six that doesn't truly have a middle six forward at least maybe not yet we'll have to see what happens with tom osatar at some point as we have late august right on us now you look go you go into the season with the bottom six looking like this i think there's a lot of good answers for

who will score the most goals down there. I'm going to give you mine right off the bat. And I'm going to go with Noachari, had 14 goals this past season combined with the Blues and the Maple Leafs had 23 points overall. He's scored 10 plus goals, three times started square. His career high was 20 with the Panthers in 2019-20. He had 20 goals, 27 points in 66 games.

He also shot over 18% that year, so the regression came down a little bit. I do not expect No O'Hari to score 20 goals for the Penguins this year, though that would be a really nice welcome surprise. But I do have him in that 12 to 15 range, maybe even 16. I think of those players down here, you know, even though Carter's a bit older, he had double digits this past year.

He still don't think he may go down a little bit. Matt Nietto, I think is fine, but I think he's a better defensive order at this point. But with Achari, I think he gives the Penguins the best goal-scoring ability of any, forward down there right now. And I know I'm kind of being a little cheap with saying that just because Drew O'Connor really hasn't, you know, flashed as much yet, but that could easily change with a full season coming up here under his belt. So I would not be surprised if he actually scores the

most goals. I would probably have him as like a maybe one B or just a two behind Achari. But with how Achari has shown an ability to score goals throughout his career, he gets those dirty areas. he also has a really nice shot. Kind of plays like that. Brandon Tanev role from a few years ago when he was on that line with Zach Gaston Reese and Teddy Bluger. I think he's going to imitate him not to a full effect that TANF did, or that Tanneth was, excuse me,

but still at a pretty good level where I think he's going to score the most amount of goals. And I think a couple of them will be game winners at some point during the season. So I have Noa Chari scoring the most goals. And I'll even put him down there for, Well, most points, I don't know. I don't think he'll have the most points. He'll have the most goals. Most points I'm going to give to right now,

man, this is, I'm probably getting nervous. I'm going to get some crowd for this, Pat. You ready for this? Oh, who you got? I'm going to have Jeff Carter as the most points just because of his playmaking ability still, but that could turn out to be an old takes exposed really quick. I don't think that's a bad one, to be honest with you. He was someone I thought of when we,

came up with this topic for today's show, especially I think if he gets an extended look at wing and they don't try to keep forcing that square peg into a round hole of center. I've said it on this show before. He's not a center anymore, and that's not an insult. It's just that's the aging curve and time catching up for all of us like it does. I think he still has a great shot and he still has a very good first pass. He just can't keep up with the pace of the game at center anymore. So put him on wing and give him less defensive responsibility and how he's

have more of an offensive instinct, he can be effective. The guy I'm looking at, and I agree with you, I think the safe and probably correct answer is Nolichari, because it's been there. There's a body of work for it. The guy I want to see an extended look for this year, especially in the bottom six, once healthy, is Alex Neeland. I think he's shown he's got the skill. He's shown he can play in a middle six role.

He can step up and be on a second line if you need them for a brief period. of time. I think if he gets an extended look, he can get 12, 15 goals in the bottom six just because you know, it's not somebody that teams are going to key on to be a threat, at least early on. So if he has some extended time in the bottom six and in the NHL level, that's a guy I think can be effective this season. But again, I don't think it's an old takes exposed moment for you unless it completely crashes and burns, but Jeff Carter has still shown some very good offensive upside in his game. The problem was he was playing a position he's no longer suited to play. And I had a Carter jersey up behind me in an episode. I'm not going to let

Penguins fans forget how much they loved him for a good period of time. Like, I still have the Steel City Jeff Carter, Crush, Beer, Score, Goals shirt, and I wear it with pride. Because that's a guy throughout his entire career in Philly and L.A. I was like, man, I love a Jeff Carter on the Penguins. But overall, Neelander's the guy I want to keep an eye on this season who could be a big breakout candidate in the bottom six. And maybe this year, on a wing, Jeff Carter has a little bit of a renaissance. The Nealander take is interesting. And you're definitely not the first one to have it.

There is definitely a, how do I want to say it? Like an Alex Nealander fan club, I guess, on social media. just other places. And I get it. Young forward hasn't worked out in a couple of places during his career so far, but a couple of bad situations, I would say. Now he's actually in a pretty decent one. He did show some promise at the end of this past season. His goal against Detroit when the Penguins were fighting for the playoff lives, Pat, that was a nice goal. Like, I'll say that he was really patient with the puck, fired it into the net. I really liked it. I also liked the game that he played against the Rangers late in the season. I believe that game was in, was it,

have you already marked somewhere around there. I believe it was one of the penguins. They had just beaten the Rangers for a second time. They've won both games at home, and then they lost the other two at Madison Square Garden a little later on in the season. He should have won that game in regulation. So I do think some of the tools are there,

but it was such a small sample size. Is that going to translate over to the season? I think that's my big question that I have with him. Yeah, like you said, there seems to be like this crowning in shiny new toys and, when it comes to Alex Nealander just because, like you said, young forward, shown some flashes of potential. I'm not in any world on that bandwagon. I'm not somebody who's campaigning for Alex Nealander

to become the next top six forward with the penguins. I do think, though, he has earned and should have a more extended look at the National Hockey League level because the tools are there. I don't expect them to be an elite forward. I don't expect him to be a 30, 40 goal score, but he's a guy who, if you put him in a role where he can produce at the wing with some good, a good center with them or at the very least a passable center, he can be one of those younger, cheaper pieces that help push you over the edge. And I think he's past the point of playing in the HL. I guess at this point in his career,

he was really good in Wilkesbury this past season. He's going to be given every opportunity to make the team out of training camp. The competition, again, is going to be very fierce. I mean, if he can take a spot, by all means, you can put a couple people on waivers, give him a shot, he's a young player. The sample size overall for him is honestly not even that big. My big thing for him at this point is just his age. He's kind of at the point now, again, still young enough,

but when you look at a player's quote-unquote peak years, prime years, you know, peak is what, 22, 23, maybe 24. After now, you've got the prime years, you know, sometimes it's 24, but 25, 26, 27. Then after that, you kind of tail off a little bit. My concern, though, is, you know, where he's at in his career right now, is that all you're going to get out of him, considering his age? Or is there more to give with him?

And I think the panes are going to try to figure that out. And I am all for it. Don't get me wrong. If he can take a spot and he can play well in the bottom six, score you some goals, play good in the defensive zone. I'm all for it. Well, it's one of those things to build off what you said a little bit. He has nothing left to prove at the American Hockey League level.

Yeah. You know he's a top six great forward in the HL. So now it's, for lack of a better term, put up or shut up time. Are you an NHL regular? Are you an NHL contributor? Or are you going to be in no disrespect to this? Because, again, it's the 1% of the 1%. If you're great at the HAL level, that's nothing to say.

sneeze at. But now it's time to find out, okay, is this guy a consistent NHL player? And we're going to find that out with Drew O'Connor this year, too. I mean, he's been at least decently consistent at times in the NHL, but we're going to find that out in a full season for him this year as well. But so you're watching The Leander. I'm watching Noa Chari. I really just like that signing a lot. And Kyle will do this. I think he's going to be great in every zone for this upcoming season. But that will do it for this segment. Coming up to end the show, Pat and I are going to discuss how international hockey could be making a return sooner rather than later.

And that means before the Olympics in 2026. That's coming up right after this. All right. We're back here in this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am Hunter Hodes. That is Patrick Gam. So earlier today, Bill Daly, and sometimes I take what he says with a grain of salt because him and Gary Bettman just liked his few nonsense. but he was discussing today just to the media,

I believe it was to the media, Pat, or just like a media conference call. And he was saying how the league and the PA, they're working great in international competition for February of 2025 with the intent to return to the Olympics in 2026. The full quote was, if we do a 25 international tournament, we can do the Olympics next year,

then the World Cup of Hockey in 2028, and then the Olympics in 2030, and so on. In theory, this works great, but are they going to actually do it? Is the main question because we have seen the NHL time and time again, not want to commit to the Olympics and some of these other tournaments. Even before COVID, now after COVID, it's time to get a true best-on-best tournament because we haven't seen one in seven years now. And with the talent that the USA has added to those,

This is probably going to be the best team USA team I have seen in my lifetime with how good Canada is, with how good all these other countries are at this point with all the talent that it is in the league. Sign me up for a World Cup of hockey or whatever competition in 2025. And then please, for the love of God, send these players to the Olympics the next year because we need Olympic hockey back so bad. Before I get into my little rant about this, because anyone knows me knows I love to rant about the international hockey thing, Hunter, would you say that Austin Matthews is going to be great for Team Canada? Screw off. I'll never, I knew you were going to bring that up.

For those are new, I made probably one of the most hilarious blunders of all time by, I think this was a couple years ago right now started off the show. A few years ago, yeah. I accidentally said Austin Matthews was going to be on Team Canada. That was probably one of the dumbest things I ever said. I couldn't let that pass. I'm sorry. I had to.

good. No, here's my thing. You can gripe about what the World Cup of hockey was in 2016, because it had its flaws, no doubt, but are you going to really look me in the virtual eye right now and tell me that you weren't absolutely captivated by Team North America? Yes. I know it was a gimmick. I know that they had team North America and then they had team some of Europe. Like, I get it. In an NHL sponsored event, because let's not get that twisted either. The World Cup of hockey was an NHL showcase. It was the best NHL players in the world playing in a tournament for their countries or their continents. I get it, gimmick, whatever. But I always go back to, I believe it was the 92 Olympics. I'm probably getting the date wrong, but the

team USA dream team, the Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, team that went and just dominated world basketball. What that did was it took the NBA from a United States brand to a global brand because the best of the best went on the world stage and showed this is more than just a league, this is a culture, this is something that everybody's going to want to be a part of. And yeah, the NHL has played globally, especially in Europe and Russia on a much higher level. But if you truly want to grow your sport and make it a part of the culture, put your best players playing for their country in a true best on best tournament. the game will grow. The game will absolutely grow. And no matter which way you twist it, World Cup of

Hockey, Olympics, World Championships, whatever you want to call it, everybody who plays a sport at a high level has the dream of playing for their country, of representing their country. And like you said, too, this is one of the best chances in years for the United States to put out one of the best rosters they've ever had with the amount of American talent that has come out over the past 10, 15 years. I understood it in 21 and 22 why they didn't go. I usually hate the whole, oh, we don't want to take the risk. We don't want to have our players getting hurt at the Olympics. We don't want to stop the season for two and a half weeks. When COVID-19 was still a problem, then it was still a problem then. And you don't want to have half your league knocked out by COVID-19 when they come back from the

Olympics. That's really understandable. Now, for all intents and purposes, that's in the rear view. And if you can get back to the 2026 Olympics with NHL players, I understand it. Everybody loves the 1980 story. It's such a, it's fun. It's great. It's one of the best moments in history. But we're not in that world anymore. When I watch the Olympics, I want to watch the best athletes from the country competing against other best athletes from other countries. Athlete and sport have become full-time jobs now in the 2020s and on. So as much fun as it to say, oh, our college guys beat their college guys, yippee.

Like, I don't want to see that anymore. I want to see the absolute best going up against the absolute best. So please put the pride aside and understand that rather than just looking insular and saying we want to grow the game in the United States and parts that aren't traditional hockey and keep it popular in Canada. Listen, NHL owners, you're all capitalists. There's an entire globe of money that you can get

if you globally grow your brand. So let those guys go and let them have moments to grow the game globally. And just based off that, you remember this probably just as well as I do, 2014 Olympics, that crazy shootout, when noted Washington Capitol Ford, T.J. Oshy had his moment. And do you remember how crazy Twitter was at that time?

I had people in my high school going crazy about it. And they had no idea what hockey even was at the time. That game was at like 5.30 in the morning. Yeah. I was on a road trip for IUP hockey. We all got up early after a late night game to crowd in two different rooms in the hotel we were in to watch that game. And we talked about on the show before, Sydney Crosby, Golden Gold, Golden Gold, 2010 Olympics, one of the best Olympic hockey tournaments,

not just that game, that whole tournament was unbelievable because you had incredible talent playing for each country. And I know there's copyright issues and all that, but everybody watches the Olympics. The world, for all intents and purposes, shuts down during the Olympics. So it's a great operational. for the sport, for the league, and for the players, and they would be stupid not to get back to it. Right. And please, whoever is the GM of the future USA team, please do not do what the

last moron did in 2016. When you brought a bunch of weird sandpaper-type players to try and beat team Canada, I'll understand that strategy. We all know they left Phil Kessel off the World Cup team, which is just a joke in itself. Go back, look at some of the players on that team. You will laugh. You will laugh at the strategy. Hire someone who knows what they're doing, bring the best players no matter what.

The Cichuk brothers, Austin Matthews. We can go down the list. Jake Gensel, Jack Eichel, so on and so forth. Adam Fox. The goalies are going to be really good with Connor Hellebuck. And they're, heck, the goalie, when you look at USA and Canada, they have such an advantage over Canada

because Canada's starring goalie at that time is going to be like what? Carter Hart, Tristan Jari, Darcy Kemper, maybe someone else comes out of the woodwork. But Team USA with how good their goalies are right now, they have the advantage right there. And defensively, heck, I didn't even say Jacob Slavin. You can put him in there with Adam Fox,

all these other guys. It's the best crop we've seen. seen in quite some time. And they just, they need to pick the best skill players no matter what. And I think Mike Sullivan is going to be the coach. Yeah. There's really no other option at this point for USA hockey in this moment. It could change in the next couple of years. But you have top to bottom, the strongest pool of talent from behind the bench to in the net to on the ice for USA hockey right now. And like you said, don't you, you, you don't need to play three-dimensional chess.

There's so much talent. That's all Team Canada ever does. They just take the absolute best players and say, go. Yep. They've been doing that for a long time. And, well, hey, it's why they win, right? They don't care that a guy who isn't a traditional fourth liner was on the fourth line in Team Canada. They just sit there and go, this gold medal's pretty shiny, isn't it?

Right. I will be curious to see if Russia is allowed to participate. in any of those events, just considering what's going on with the war with Ukraine. And I mean, they have obviously so much talent on their hockey team. Fores wise, they have three goalies who could start if they wanted to. I would love to be a fly on the wall for the meeting if Russia is allowed to participate in either the World Cup of Hockey or the Olympics. Who the coach decides to start in those games, whether it's Sorokin, Shosturkin, or Vasilevsky.

I mean, that's, you got the picking poison there, to be honest. that might be the one thing that pushes Russia over the top for international competition should they be able to play is that they've got three all-star goalies right and waiting right I mean I just I can't wait for international hockey to come back I've missed it I mean I was a I was a freshman in college the last time they had an Olympic competition or just in a competition in general so this needs to come back in a big way the NHL especially Bill Daley Gary Bettman they need to stop being difficult come to agreement with the players

because they want to go and then come to an agreement with the IHF and the IOC for the Olympics and stuff boom, it should not be this hard. Come to an agreement, whatever it is. It's hockey in its best form. Two weeks of your best players on the biggest stage

showcasing everything they can do is worth a lot more than maybe losing two weeks of, I don't know, Penguins versus Florida on ESPN plus the third on a Wednesday night. It baffles me that they try not to do this, but it's right there, guys. All you have to do is reach out and grab it. 100%. And again, we both want this to return so bad.

And hopefully there's a tournament that they're playing for 2025 and hopefully it's a World Cup of hockey or whatever it is. Just give us some kind of tournament before the Olympics. in 2026. That's all we're asking for here. Not a lot. Yep, you're right. But that would do it for this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. For Friday's episode, please send us your mailbag questions. We're going to do a mailbag episode on Friday.

You can send them to Pat on Twitter at Send them for Wet. You can send them to me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. And if you are watching on YouTube, you can leave some questions down in the comments for this episode. You can also DM me some questions on social media if you're just listening audio I'll also put something out there on the shows, Twitter, and my Twitter and all that stuff. But yes, overall, send us your questions for Friday. We do our best to answer every single one of them. But again, that will do it for this one.

Thank you all so much for tuning in, and we'll talk with you all on Friday.