Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - It's time for our annual Penguins year-end awards!

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's time for Pat and I's end-of-season Locked-on Penguins Team Awards. Your Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Join by my post, Patrick Damp. You can follow him on Twitter at Center for Wet, and you can find out.

Starting point is 00:00:35 all of these shows, Twitter at L.O. and Swear 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 fans. We'll make every moment more right now.

Starting point is 00:00:49 New customers get $150 in bonus bets, guaranteed. That's $150. Win or lose. Visit fandle.com slash locked on to get started. So, Pat, this is one of my favorite times of year. We get to give out our team awards for the end of the season.

Starting point is 00:01:07 We're going to have most of the team awards that you see at the regular NHL awards that are at the end of the season or right at the end of the Stanley Cup final. It's usually held right around that time. But we also have a couple of new awards that we're going to sprinkle in this year as well. But to start things off,

Starting point is 00:01:23 Best Player slash Heart Trophy, Sydney, Patrick Rosby. I know everyone that listens to slash watches this show is going to be like, yeah, no surprise. And you guys are right. But 42 goals, 94 points this season. would have been well over 100 if the Penguins had at least an average power play. He's now top 10 all time and NHL scoring in the league's history heading into next season.

Starting point is 00:01:43 He was carrying the Penguins on his back all year, trying everything in his power to will this team into the playoffs. Yeah, he had a stretch right after the Gensel trade where he kind of looked checked out for three or four games. But right when they played Colorado, he snapped right back into form and did everything in his power down the stretch to try and will this team into the playoffs. it was much like last year as well where he was just tremendous for the penguins and he's been great throughout his career with the penguins but this year by far and away their best player and it's not even close i mean i was going to go with jeff carter but you know obviously joking yeah it's it's it's it's beyond obvious who was the best player on the team this year you look at him 94 point season 42 goals he was tremendous throughout and i said it all season long the biggest thing

Starting point is 00:02:32 for me this year and you hinted at it as well was that the one thing that the all-time greats always do is that they drag their team into the fight. The best will always get their numbers. They'll always get their goals, their points, their assists, so on and so forth. But the way Crosby was playing this year, he was the kind of guy who was doing the jump on my back. We're going to be a lot better of a team this year. And you're going to follow me all the way down that path. And once again, they came up short, but it was not for a lack of crying from Sidney Crosby. Agreed. I still wish we could have gotten some playoff action from him because I think he would have reached another level in the playoffs and would be giving the Rangers, I think, quite a scare

Starting point is 00:03:13 through a couple of games right now. But hey, maybe next year we'll get to discuss that instead of doing our team awards right now because, you know, hopefully be in the playoffs at that time. But moving along, we got the Vezna to get to. And that is, for me, Alex is, Adelkevich. I think he was their best goalie all year, especially when it mattered down the stretch. Yeah, his numbers did dip a little bit in the final six games. He gave up three or more goals in five of those six games, but he was still making timely saves when the Penguins really needed him to. And that's one of the biggest reasons why I'm going to give Nadelcovich the best in here. I was going to give it to Jari, but based on how he really didn't play the final month of the season, how Nadelcovich basically took his job,

Starting point is 00:03:58 I'm going to give it to Ned again. I know Ned's numbers dipped a little bit down the stretch, but he was also getting 12 to 13 starts in a row to end the year. And I think even before that October, November, December, Nadelcovich was just as good, if not maybe a little bit better than Jari during that time. Jari was awesome in the first half of the season, but Ned was right there with him.

Starting point is 00:04:20 And with how Ned ended this season, how he was giving the team a chance, I'm going to give the edge to him with this one. I'm actually going to go with Jari just because I'm going with the full season and the full scope. I'm not really going to look into the recency bias of the last month of the season, although nothing you said is incorrect. He was a large reason that they were in the playoff race that they were in before ultimately falling out of it on the last day. But the other thing to keep in mind here is that there is not a lot of daylight when you look at their numbers. There is not a lot of daylight between them.

Starting point is 00:04:58 Tristan Jari with a 2.91 GAA and a 903 save percentage. Alex Nadelcovic with a 2.97 GAA and a 902 save percentage. But the reason I'm going to give it to Jari overall is just the six shutouts. You can't discount those. I don't think I know that I am very much in the camp of. I don't think he's going to be this team's goaltender for much longer, given the way he's performed down the stretch the last two years. But when you compare the two goalies over the course of the entire season, Jari is by the

Starting point is 00:05:33 slimmest of margins, the better goalie on the roster statistically. But that's not to discount everything Nadelcovic did to end the season. Right. And I think it's a fair take to have. I just couldn't give it to Jari in good conscience just with how he really barely played down the stretch, especially when the penguins really needed him. Nidilkevich took his job and he ran with it when. the games got even bigger, especially those final five to six games of the regular season.

Starting point is 00:06:01 Moving on a little bit more to the Norris Trophy, I'm going to go Marcus Pedersen for this one. He was steady all season long, especially in his own zone. This Penguins team is really not that good of the defensive team, but he was making a great defensive play on a nightly basis when they were giving up at least one or two odd man rushes a game. Usually when a player was breaking it up, that player was Marcus Pedersen just because he's that good in his own zone. He also brought more offense this season with four goals and 30 points. If you look at his underlying numbers this season, his shot times per 60 rate went up.

Starting point is 00:06:36 His actual goals for per 60 minutes went up as well. 87 goals for with Pedersen on the ice, 67 goals against. That's 56.4%. That's up almost 7% compared to last season. Also, his scoring chance for percentage rate went up as well. No matter who he gets paid by over this summer, whether it's by the Penguins or whether it's next summer, if he doesn't get paid by the Penguins this summer and he becomes a free agent,

Starting point is 00:07:00 he is going to get a lot of money and a lot of term on that contract, and it's going to be very much deserved because he has blossomed into a outstanding top four defensemen. I think he was their best defenseman this season. And you can maybe make an argument for, let's hang, especially in the first half, but that final month just kind of soured on it a little bit from me. Then Carlson, I do think. he was as advertised, but when I look at his overall play compared to Marcus Pedersons,

Starting point is 00:07:29 I got to go to Pedersen just because his valleys weren't as deep, I think, as Carlson or Latang's. For sure. And that's who I'm also giving my Penguins Norris trophy to as Marcus Pedersen. Like you said, I don't have a ton to add. He was consistent all year. He was a very steadying presence on a very unsteady blue line. And then while the numbers aren't tremendous, you're not going to write home about them.

Starting point is 00:07:54 but his four goals, 26 assists and 30 points, all career highs for him. They're all the top for he's ever done. And a little fun fact I found about Marcus Pedersen while researching this segment, do you want to take a guess what his faceoff percentage is in his career? No. It's 100%. He has a 100% faceoff percentage.

Starting point is 00:08:19 I don't know how many he took, but in 2018, 2019 with the Penguins, he apparently took a face off and won it. So he has a 100% face off percentage in his career. But yeah, overall, he had a tremendous season. We talked about it yesterday. I think he is somebody that should be locked up long term for this team because he's a very steadying presence. And I was very impressed with his work all season long once again.

Starting point is 00:08:45 Do you know by chance what game that was against during that season? No, I wish I did. But that might be some homework for the locked on listeners. If you know which game it is, send us a tweet or comment down below on YouTube and let us know. I might have to try and do some of that homework as well because I want to find out who the heck he beat in the face off circle during that year. But moving along here, just a couple more awards before we head to our second segment, the Calder Trophy. And I'm going to give this to Lars Elroy. Yes, I understand people.

Starting point is 00:09:13 He is not a rookie in the NHL, but this is his first year with the Penguins, 15 goals, 31 points this season. He was everything the Penguins needed in their bottom six and more. I just think the Penguins need more players like Eller, just players that are obviously a bit younger and not their mid-30s for next year and in years beyond. But Eller was good at five on five, good on the PK especially. You could put them on your second power play unit. Just a really sound year from Eller overall blew away all expectations that I had of him

Starting point is 00:09:45 heading into the season. He gets my vote for that. I think if we had a bigger sample sign, Michael Buncing was going to get that award for me. For sure. I'm right there with you on Eller. He also gets my Penguins called her award. He was better than we expected.

Starting point is 00:10:01 And I know that sounds like kind of sour grapes or anything like that. But he had a very strong first season as a penguin. His value was evident pretty much all season. He played a very, I know this is silly to say about the oldest team in the NHL, but he played a very mature game. He was very good in all three zones. And his production was higher than I would have expected from him. So overall, a very solid season from Lars Eller.

Starting point is 00:10:27 Agreed. And one last award to get to here is the Lunch Pale Award. That is an award basically to the Penguin's hardest worker throughout the season here. For me, it's Brian Rust and everyone else, I think. I can give this to a few other players. But in my mind, Brian Rust played his tail off every single night, 28 goals, 56 points in 62 games. If he had stayed healthy for the entire season,

Starting point is 00:10:54 he probably would have finished with at least 35 goals this season. That's just how high of a level he was playing at throughout this year. And you can see him down the stretch as well. Doing everything in his power to lead this team into the playoffs, outside of the core guys, there may not be someone who works harder on this team. He is one of the top leaders on this team outside of the core group. I'm giving the lunch pail to Brian Rust.

Starting point is 00:11:19 It's a great pick, and I'm going to go with the guy who I have been calling a mini version of Brian Rust, and that is Drew O'Connor. I thought he had a very good year. We've talked at length about how valuable he became and how he developed and how he seemed to figure out what it takes to be a consistent NHLer. But even in his slumps, even when he was not playing well statistically, he worked hard. He played a very hardworking game. He was not afraid to be physical. he was not afraid to go to the front of the net and he constantly plays with speed. And I loved his game this year.

Starting point is 00:11:54 I'm really excited to see him grow as a player. And similar to what you were saying for the Calder Award we did, I would give it to Michael Bunting, but it was a very short sample size. But I think next year when we're sitting here giving this award out again next season, it's probably going to go to Michael Bunting. Yeah, I'd kind of be surprised if that did not go to Bunting, considering what he was able to do in a little over 20 games since he was acquired from the Hurricanes.

Starting point is 00:12:21 But that'll do it for this opening segment. Coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to give out our final award for this season, what the Penguins' top game was throughout the 2023, 24 season. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about a couple of our sponsors, namely eBay Motors. Passion Drive and Patience, the formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors is everything you need to maintain your vehicle and leveled up to peak performance, superchargers, roof racks, exhaust kits, LED headlights, and more. Whether you're into speed,

Starting point is 00:12:54 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 looking for. And with eBay guaranteed fit, your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or you get your money back because with eBay motors, you're burning rubber, not cash. With all the parts you need at the price as you want, it's easy to make your car the MVP and bring home huge wins. Keep your ride or die live at eBay motors.com eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay guaranteed fate is only available to US customers.

Starting point is 00:13:26 And we're not done. We still got to tell you all about Fandall. It's playoff time in the NBA and HL. Baseball is in full swing and Fandle is your place to bet on every single game. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed. That's $150. 50 bucks guaranteed win or lose. You can bet on everything from slap shots to home runs to slam dunks, all on an app that is safe,

Starting point is 00:13:51 secure, and very easy to use. What are you waiting for? Visit fandul.com slash lockdown and make your first bet an automatic win. That's Fandul, America's number one sports book. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes. Join on my host, Patrick Damp. So Penguins' best game of the year.

Starting point is 00:14:12 There's quite a few that I think you could put down as the Penguins top game of the year. I'm going to throw this to you because yours is different than mine. At least I think it is. What is your top game of the year for the 2023, 2024 season? I am going with February 25th, 2024 at PPG paints arena when the Flyers came to town and there was an absolutely wild game at the paint can that afternoon. that if you don't remember, that is the Penguins 7-6 victory over the Flyers. And I picked this game not because it had any sort of significance in the season.

Starting point is 00:14:52 It wasn't a game in the playoff race. It wasn't a historic milestone game for any of the players. It was just a fun throwback game because both teams get a pile of goals. it was kind of a throwback a little bit to the 2012 series against the Flyers. There wasn't the kind of physicality and circus mentality that there was in that series, but it just seemed like every couple of minutes without fail throughout that game, somebody was scoring a goal. And it was just back and forth all afternoon long.

Starting point is 00:15:33 And I was at that game. And it was an incredibly fun. just because you got treated to a game where both teams just kind of said, you know what, forget about defense, forget about goaltending, it's going to be next shot wins. And it was so much fun. And I still, I have to apologize to a coworker of mine who I was at the game with. As we were walking to the arena, he asked me, hey, you're a pretty big hockey guy, right? What should I bet on for this game?

Starting point is 00:16:04 And he said, I asked him with the lines where I said, well, obviously, no matter what, bet Sidney Crosby any time goal because he always scores against the Flyers. And then he told me the over under, which I cannot remember what it was. But I said, ah, I'd bet that under because neither of these teams really have much offense at this time. Sure enough, we see 13 goals. You don't expect the Flyers, especially under a John Tortorella, to score six goals in a game. He's very well known as a defensive-minded coach.

Starting point is 00:16:36 And that game was just bananas. all round. So thanks Cal Peterson for that win, by the way, for the Flyers. My game of the year is a little bit different. It's more recent compared to your game, and that is the April 4th game, 4-1 win in Washington for the Pittsburgh Penguins. The way the Penguins came out in that game, yeah, it was a bit sluggish, but they get the game's opening goal. And from then on, I felt like it was complete domination. I easily could have done the Tampa game a little later on. week where the arena was going crazy thanks to Michael Bunting's goal with a little less than six minutes left. But the Penguins were so flawless defensively in that game against Washington.

Starting point is 00:17:18 It looked like a carbon copy of a road playoff game that they played there in 2016 and 2017. The way they limited the capitals to the outside, the way they got contributions from everyone in the lineup, and the way they got great goaltending in that game, I think it's, to me, by far their most impressive win of the season. Yeah, I know it was. kind of all for moot just because they didn't make the playoffs. But this team rarely loses big games in Washington, at least during the Crosby-Malkin-Littang era. And they put on a clinic that night overall.

Starting point is 00:17:53 I think that's the best game of the year. Again, the way that they were so committed to defending in their own zone was a treat to watch. And I think it was, to me, the best game of the year. That's an absolutely great one. and I think a good honorable mention for us is earlier in the season against Tampa Bay, in Tampa Bay. I know he had a rocky end to the season,

Starting point is 00:18:18 and he has been the subject of much speculation this offseason so far, but Tristan Jari scoring the goalie goal against the lightning. What a moment that was because we're the team that had Mark Andre Fleury for so long, and that man is possessed to eventually score a goal, and we saw Tristan Jari. it. So that was a darn fun game. And it was one of the few high points we got during this season. Heck, even the Tampa game, I think the other Tampa win, I should say, later on in this season, the one that I briefly mentioned during the Penn's Caps game that I think is the best game of

Starting point is 00:18:56 the year. That one against Tampa, the second one should also be an honorable mention. Penguins, they have a 4-1 lead heading into the third year thing. Okay, they should be able to close this one out with ease. Nope. Tampa comes right back. Penguins blow the lead 10 minutes into the third period. But who else but Michael Bunting to rescue them when they really needed those two points. The way the arena was rocking, that was a playoff like crowd, just an outstanding game from start to finish overall. So that's another honorable mention for me.

Starting point is 00:19:26 Yeah, that game, I mean, I have had my fair share of blood pressure raising games with the Pittsburgh Penguins. But that one had me yelling at the TV. That's for sure. So I mean, not a bad shortage of games for us to choose from. But overall, there were high points this season. And I always like you, love this time of year to look back on it because it's easy to get frustrated with this season as we should be. But there were some moments that were certainly enjoyable. Oh, 100%.

Starting point is 00:19:56 But I think that would do it for this second and segment of the show. Coming up to end this edition of the Locktown Penguins podcast, we're going to go over a couple more news and notes items relating to the Penguins. plus maybe do a little update on the Stanley Cup playoffs as well. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about Sleeper, which is the official daily fantasy app of the locked on NHL network. Sleeper is our number one choice for daily fantasy sports and especially daily fantasy hockey because it was Sleeper. You can win 100 times your cash in daily fantasy hockey contest.

Starting point is 00:20:27 You can do this by yourself. You can do this with your friends. You're sick and then you're the other. And you can do this with your family as well. And it doesn't have to be just hockey. You can do NFL, NBA, MLB, and college football, all on Sleeper. All we have to do is pick weather studs like Connor McDavid, Nathan McKinnon, Alexovich, can record more or less their stats.

Starting point is 00:20:47 Goals, assists, you can throw plus and minus in there, and you can throw goalies in there with saves and all the other stats for goaltenders. And to win a 100 times bet on Sleeper, you need to correctly predict the outcome of eight player stats. Your Hermi Penguins fans, you can win 100 times your money playing daily fantasy hockey with Sleeper, start paying attention and nail your picks so you can start winning big. Use promo code locked on NHL and you get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. That's code locked on NHL, CLEC, PERS terms of use or details, and locational availability.

Starting point is 00:21:21 And we're not done. We still got to tell you all about Indeed. It is the hiring platform where you can attract, interview, and hire all in one place. Don't spend hours on multiple job sites looking for candidates with the right skills. where you can do it all with Indeed. Find Top Talent Fast with Indeed's suite of powerful hiring tools like matching, assessments, and virtual interviews. And if you hate waiting, Indeed's US data shows over 80% of Indeed employees find quality candidates whose resume on Indeed matches their job description the moment they sponsor a job. They know when you're growing your own business, you have to make every dollar count.

Starting point is 00:21:56 That's why with Indeed, you only pay for quality applications that match your must have job requirements. all you have to do is visit indeed.com slash locked on to start hiring right now. just go to indeed.com slash locked on one more time indeed. Indeed.com slash locked on terms and conditions apply. Cost per application pricing not available for everyone. If you need to hire, you need indeed. All right, welcome back Penguins fans to the Wednesday edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm Patrick Damp, joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes.

Starting point is 00:22:29 And we're going to wrap up the show today by giving a. digging in a little bit to what our pal Rob Rossi had to write this morning. The main focus of his piece on the athletic was about the Crosby extension that we should expect to see this summer. You can go read that part. It's something we've talked to death at this point. We expect it to happen. Now it's just a matter of term and money. But there were a couple things in there I wanted to touch on.

Starting point is 00:22:53 Chief among them is Marcus Pedersen. We talked about this on the show yesterday about how we are both in agreement that he should probably end up extended on July 1, get him locked up for the foreseeable future as this team takes a couple more kicks at the can. And according to what Rob is hearing, the penguins are optimistic that they can get him signed to an extension this summer that they believe will only be at least a million more annually. And when I look at that and I look at his current contract, which is currently just a little bit over $4 million, if you can get a guy like Marcus Pedersen, has been very steady on your blue line, locked up to five, five and a half million for the next

Starting point is 00:23:38 four to five years. You take that almost sight unseen. I think five million would be a flat out steal for his services, considering what he's been doing for the last couple of seasons. I was expecting when we discussed this on our Tuesday episode, at least $5.5 million on that next contract, if not $6 to $6.5 million, because I think he could easily get that on the open market, wouldn't you? I mean, 6.6.5 million for someone who is really good in his own zone can bring a little bit of offense. Teams will pay out the wazoo for that kind of defensemen. So I'm kind of surprised that they may be able to get him for five million. If you can get him for that, lock him up, for example, six years. So six times five, I think that's a much better contract overall. And I think

Starting point is 00:24:23 that will ease some concerns that fans have. There's also the prospect of how long, the contract is, I think we see this a lot where the shorter term deals have the higher AAV and then the longer term deals, they spread that out. So if they can get them for five to six years, I know a lot of people are wincing right now, but if you get him five to six years at five, five and a half million, when the time comes in the near future that this team is going to hit the rebuild button, that will not be difficult to move off of. And you can probably get some solid draft capital for a player like that. So I know, I know a lot of people are hesitant on locking up a lot of these guys just because of the position that the franchise is in right

Starting point is 00:25:12 now. But if you extend it out past that, I think that becomes a very movable deal that you can get to help when the rebuild comes. So I'm still for locking him up. A couple other quick things from Rossi's story. The first one is Alex Nadelcovic. I think this gives us a little bit of a window into what the penguins are thinking going in the next season. They kind of seem to feel like he is going to get much better offers on July 1 than they can afford, which I totally understand at this point, unless they find a way between now and July 1 to move off of Tristan Jari, who is making 5,000, 5.375 million a year. it's going to be really hard to justify putting so much of your cap into two goaltenders

Starting point is 00:26:01 when you have a guy like Blumquist waiting in the wings who is going to make next to nothing and could take over as starter if his development continues the way it is. So it's going to stink because he was such a fun piece and it seemed like he fit in really well, but he has certainly earned a payday come July 1st. Right. I mean, Jari makes $5.375 million per season for the next several years. Ndukovych, and this is just a pure guess from me, I'm thinking he's going to want maybe three to $3.5 million per year on the next contract.

Starting point is 00:26:34 Maybe it's a little lower $2.5 million. But if you're paying Ned, for example, three to $3.5, that's over $8 million tied up in goaltending for next season. I'm not really too interested in that. Unless you have one of the five to seven best goaltenders on the planet, I don't really want to pay that much money for goaltending. So if he does look for something like that, and I think that would price himself out of Pittsburgh, you'd just say, hey, happy trails, thanks for this great season, but we're going to go in a different direction. That would not be

Starting point is 00:27:06 surprising at all. And I think at this point, it's a little more likely that he leaves compared to that he stays. Yeah, that's really the, I think the long and the short of it with Ndolkovic. Finally, something that you and I talked about. post-trade deadline from Rossi. He says that Dubus did speak with a few teams during the deadline regarding Riley Smith. And because I always say this, GMs are the most risk-averse people in the world. And there were no suitors for him because at the time, he still had the rest of this season and next season left on his contract. But going in the next year, he's on the final year of the deal.

Starting point is 00:27:46 And teams apparently like that more than they did, oh, I don't know, two and a half months ago. which makes no sense to me, but if that's the case, I don't think they'll have too difficult of a time. I think moving off of Riley Smith's deal, just because the other thing we have to keep in mind here going into the off season is you look at the Stanley Cup playoffs right now. I'd say there's maybe two teams in there that really don't belong,

Starting point is 00:28:13 and it's probably Washington and the Islanders. Everybody else has aspirations of a deep run, whether it's winning a couple rounds or winning, the Stanley Cup, inevitably a few teams are going to fall short of that. And they're going to make panic moves and they're going to overreact. And it'll be a lot easier to talk to those teams and move off of some deals because they're going to think for whatever reason they make up in their head that they should have gone further.

Starting point is 00:28:42 You know what team that I think could be interested in Smith at the end of the season? They can. I think they were one of the teams that was really circling around Smith at the time of the deadline, they just didn't have the salary cat flexibility to make it work. But when I look at the Kings roster, I still think I see a team that needs some more scoring. So I could easily see them circling back to Pittsburgh being like, okay, we have a little bit more cat flexibility now. What do you want for him, et cetera? I just think he kind of, Smith, that is, works better on a Western Conference team compared to some of the teams in the Eastern Conference. I do think when you look at the

Starting point is 00:29:17 players on the roster right now, Smith is the most. likely to be dealt at least to start the off season. I just really don't see a world where it comes back. I know Rob wasn't really breaking anything in that story. We've been kind of discussing that far before Rob wrote that in his story, but overall, I still don't see him returning to the team next year. I'll be happy to be proven wrong, but right now I just don't see it. Yeah, and you look at the King's cap friendly right now. They're going to have just a shade under 21 million going into next season. they don't have a ton of notable RFAs or UFAs that they're going to have to lock up this off season. So they'll have a lot of money to play with.

Starting point is 00:29:59 And at this point, if you can move off from Radley Smith, I think that's the best course of action. Just because I don't think it worked here. I don't think it's an indictment on him as a player or anything. But for whatever reason, it just did not appear to work out here. But unless you have anything you would like to add on the Stanley Cup playoffs so far, I think this is going to do it. Hey, the Islanders and the Capitals are 0 and 4 through two games. You hate to see it.

Starting point is 00:30:25 You really hate to see that. And I just got to say, what the Islanders did to Jake Gensel the other night was Bush League. I'm sorry. I don't stand for that kind of stuff. He just risked it in the empty net. And then Brock Nelson, Kyle Palmeri got mad for really no reason there. I know they blew the lead there at the end, but I don't really understand that at all. otherwise this Winnipeg Colorado series is cinema inject that into my veins it's already a great

Starting point is 00:30:51 series Dallas Vegas game two pretty soon that's going to be a very long series I think and I'll be curious to see how this Vancouver series goes now man demcoe might be out for the rest of the series Casey to Smith time getting a little worried about if Vancouver can really win that series but the two series that are going how I thought they were going to go are definitely the rangers and hurricane series if they are both able to finish the Islanders and Capitals off, that's the second round series that I would be really excited to watch. Yeah, if both of those teams go into a series against one another fresh, oh boy, that one is going to be a lot of fun. I am also very curious to see how the Leafs

Starting point is 00:31:31 now react that they have stolen Home Ice Advantage back from the Boston Bruins. Do they finally exercise the curse or are we all ready to step on the same rake that we have been stepping on for the last 50 years. But that is going to do it for this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Thank you, as always, for tuning in. Hunter and I will be back tomorrow with another episode of this show. But for now, I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes. Thank you, as always, for tuning in.

Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - It's time for our annual Penguins year-end awards!

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.