Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - It's time for Ron Hextall to act NOW...

Episode Date: February 21, 2023

Whew, that was another tough one. Hunter is joined by Phil from Islanders Twitter to recap another stunning Penguins loss to the Islanders as they blew another third period lead to them. Hunter goes over how more bad goaltending and sloppy defensive play doomed the Penguins yet again as they continue to find new ways to lose. He looks at how Jarry was out to lunch on the last two goals and why he's got to have those, despite it being his first game back. He then looks at what the turning point of the game was while Phil gives his input. The answer may even surprise you. Hunter also details why it's time for Ron Hextall to get out of his dungeon to make this team better as the trade deadline is approaching very quickly. No, this team is not going to sell, especially after the front office went all in during the offseason. The two also discuss the outlooks for each team as we head down the stretch as the Islanders are going to be without Barzal for a bit while the Penguins have been anything but consistent. Are the odds of the Penguins missing the playoffs going up? What needs to change to get this thing turned around? All that, plus a lot more on this episode of Locked On Penguins.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Athletic GreensTo make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORKFanDuelMake Every Moment More.Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet to get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Free Bets – win or lose! Visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn today to get startedFANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I know, I know. You're all very angry right now. Just dropped their third in a row out of the playoff spot. I'm fed up with a lot of things right now, but still have to turn out some content for you all. We're going to recap this painful game against the Islanders. A 42 loss for the Penguins. The best we can.

I have Phil from Islanders' Twitter here to join me for this episode. It's all coming up right after this drop. 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'm of course your host, Hunter Hodes. We're going to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow the shows, Twitter, at L-Owner-Sper Penguins. Thank you so much for making this your first listen to the day.

This episode is brought to you by Fandul's Sportsbook, the official sportsbook of Locked-on. Make every moment more. You can visit Fandoau.com slash lockdown today. to get started. Joining me now for today's episode, I have a very special guest. He has not joined the podcast for, but I figured, you know, they're supposed to play the Islanders twice in, what, three, four days at this point. I figured I would have Phil from the Islanders Twitter on at Phil's Fax on Twitter, Phil.

Thank you so much for joining me. You know, I really appreciate it. I'm glad I'm able to have another first-time guest for the show. Thank you for bringing me on. I'm excited to be here. Yeah, you know, we've been, you know, I feel like we've been going back and forth about, you know, pens and the islanders for probably the last couple of years. I think that's when we followed each other during the series,

which was, you know, basically a carbon copy. I think these last two games were a carbon copy of how that series went. Penguins jumped out on them early. They're getting some goals on Sorokin, but Sorokin is playing well. At the same time, he played like God in this game on Monday night. But some shady defensive play, some not good goal tending from the Penguins, leads to another Islanders win. And nope, the Islanders have had their number two of the last three years.

I think last year, I think it was at least a split or the Penguins maybe won three out of four. I haven't double-checked that, but I know they beat them at least a couple times. But, you know, for me, it's just these two games over these last couple days that the Penguins have dropped, even though they've had leads late in those games, it just feels, again, it just feels like exactly what happened in 2021, except both teams are not nearly as good right now. Agreed. Yeah. I mean, with Sorokin, the odd thing is I think tonight was like the, 11th or 12th time that more than 40 shots have been put on him. And his record in those games is something like 8, 2, and 3.

So he just seems like the kind of goaltender where he gets stronger as the game goes on. And when he sees more pucks, he becomes more and more locked in. To me, this was at least through the first 40 minutes, outside of the misplay by, I can't remember who it was. Was it O'Connor at the blue line? The first one, yeah, the first one was Drew O'Connor. Swatted at the pub. I think if he doesn't do that, he gets back.

Outside of that, I mean, they played a pretty buttoned up tight game. I thought their power play was fine. Their PP1 wasn't great. The PP2 was really good, though. They generated chances. If not for a miraculous Romanov swat at the puck on the goal line, it would have been two nothing. And I don't think the islanders with the depleted roster that they were playing tonight,

I don't think they would have had it in them to come back from a two-gold deficit like they did the other night when they had Barzal putting on a show in the third period. But this was one of those lopsided Islanders, Penguins games that we've grown accustomed to over the past couple years where the Islanders get elite level goaltending by Ilya Serochin. And then they have enough guys up front like Nelson. And this year it wasn't Josh Bailey because he's out.

Or this game, it wasn't Bailey because he's out and it wasn't Barzal because he's out. But now we have Bo Horvatt. And he's a guy that could put the puck in the net too and create a little bit of offense. Yeah, no, Bohoravat has been awesome, obviously, since joining the Islanders. But, yeah, I think you said it best. I thought the Penguins, they were playing mostly fine defensively through the first two periods. They gave up, you know, a few odd man rushes during that time. I think one of them, they gave up a breakaway right after they got the two-point lead, which is a.

They've been doing this all year, it feels like. And I don't know why their brains just shut off for some reason. I don't get it, but, you know, Sorokin. I mean, he's stupid good. It really is crazy that things are going to have to be going up against him and Igor Shisterkin for many years to come. That's not going to be a fun duo up in New York. But, you know, his save on Latang was probably one of the best saves.

I think I've seen made at PPG Paints Arena in history that the arena has been there since 2010-2011. They score their fill. 3-1 games. I don't know. I wouldn't say it's over because the Penguins blew the two-goal lead on Long Island late in the second period on Friday night, but I think it would have been pretty hard for the out of that for sure.

But that's just been a common theme for the penguins this season. They haven't gotten as good of goaltending as maybe they should, and the other team is. And that's been a big issue. That's been a big difference. The team's defending, I think, has also been really pissed poor for a lot of times a season where their brains just, they shut off.

A lot of Ottoman rushes against. You saw that with the first Nelson goal. You saw the bad defensive play, the Anders Lee goal. Well, also it helps that Tristan Jari kind of gave the puck away, a la Josh Bailey in game five. But, you know, the defensive play down at the net front was also not good there. And for the second goal, P.O. Joseph has an attorney to get the puck out. Ops for a really kind of like a high-risk play along the boards.

Under player jumps up. Horvac comes in, bad goal from Jari. It's just those issues this year have been. and brutal for this team, especially the last five week, five to six weeks. And that's costing them precious points in the stand in the standings, despite having all these games in hand. And again, those don't mean anything if you don't win them. And that's why, you know, even though the math is still good, you know, even for me right

now, I see them, it's over 50% that I see them missing the playoffs, which I don't think I've ever said in the Cigino era. You have them in over 50% of missing the playoffs? Yeah. I never, I'm that concerned with how. just the bottom half of the roster is performing. I'll say this. I won't be surprised if they get in because the court can turn it on any time.

They've been carrying them all year. And if Tristan Jari can bounce back on this and stay healthy, you know, I won't be surprised. But, you know, they're just throwing these points away. And if the GM really doesn't do much about it at the deadline, and it's just it's hard for me to see them getting in, to be honest. And again, that's what I'm usually a very, very positive person when it comes to this team. so many negative reactionary takes. But, you know, it's just, I feel like I've just been seeing this movie too many times before

where it's like, okay, I'm not really sure if they're going to make the playoffs this season. The way I was looking at it up until the Barzell injury, which they're saying week to week, the fourth period put out a tweet where he said that he thinks it could be up to eight weeks is what he's hearing, but it doesn't require surgery. And you never know with Penoa as to how accurate he is. But I was looking at it as you got the penguins. who to me up until this weekend were the most firmly in place in a playoff position and now they lost arena road regulation the the panthers i mean i just i just don't see how a team that has given up the second of most goals in the east to columbus and probably i mean they came inches away from losing to the ducks today now it took two comebacks against the ducks at home to win i don't see how the panthers get in you look at uh the senators and they've been streaking lately, but I just think they're going to run out of steam at some point.

There's Detroit, but they've got a brutal schedule down the stretch, as does Buffalo, right? Buffalo is all these games in hand, but they're about to go through a gauntlet. They've got, you know, this week alone, they've got Toronto, they've got Tampa, they've got Florida. I mean, they have, them and Detroit have the two hardest schedules of all these contending teams. To me, I thought it was going to come down to the Islanders, the Capitals, and the Penguins. But with the Barzal injury, I think the penguins are in pretty good shape. You know, I appreciate that often.

That's for sure. I just, you know, it's just tough when I see the same mistakes being repeated. And the goal tending continues to be spotty. And it's just like, you know, even with those games in hand, are you still going to be good enough to where you can get in? And it would be total penguins for them to get in and everyone's writing them off. And then they win at least a round. And it's like, that's the condition.

this is the kind of team that wins around. It would, you know, and I would be glad to be proven wrong. Don't get me wrong. You know, it's just something just seems very off. And, you know, it's not going to get any easier when they have the Oilers coming up on a Thursday. A team that's been struggling, but, you know, we all know how good they are. But that wraps up this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, I'm going to get into what Phil's main turning point for this game was,

because the penguins looked like they were really getting control of this one before, you know, about almost midway through the third period where it all went to crap, we're going to get any of that, plus so much more from this one. But before we touch on that, our next partner has a product I use literally every day. I start taking athletic greens because, you know, I didn't have time in the morning. I wanted better gut health, more energy, all that stuff. So you're probably wondering what is all this with one delicious scoop of athletic greens, you were already 75 high-quality vitamins, minerals, whole food, source, superfoods, and probiotics.

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All you have to do is visit Athletic Beans.com slash Antichwine Network. Again, that is athletic greens.com slash an internal network. Take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. We're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm Hunter Hodes. That, of course, is Phil from my owner's sweater. So, you know, a lot of twists and turns in this one. Obviously, Phil, you know, the big scrum.

in the second period, which led to a lot of penalties looked like, just an old-fashioned barn, barn fight, you know, back from the 80s and stuff, you know, kind of reminding me a little bit of the way, a little bit of the Trevor Gillies crap that we all saw. That name was floating around tonight. 12 years ago, yeah, I will, you know. That one was floating around tonight. Yes, I would never have a good thing to stay about Trevor Gillies,

but I know I already will obviously will. But, you know, what do you think was the main turning point in this game? Because the Penguins, they had this one bottled up. It seemed like for a while. Tristan Jari was playing well in his return. What do you think was the turning point? Yeah, I don't think it was the fighting. Although any time you could trade 14 minutes of Ross Johnson for Jason Zucker,

I'm going to take that deal a hundred times. I don't even think Ross Johnson played five minutes total tonight. We had a couple guys who didn't get much ice time. To me, I thought Jari was locked in. there were a couple really good saves that he had, even though the pens were dominating the first 40 minutes, there were still a couple of opportunities. Martin flung one toward the net that hit a penguin skate,

that Jari was just in a very good position to make a save on. There was the Zach Preeze breakaway where he hit him Blocker's side. Palmeri on the power play had a really good opportunity there. So he was looking good, but I just think for a goaltender who's been out for as long as he has, when he took that rising shot on the penalty kill, right? it was a shorthanded opportunity by Horvitt right to the neck. Even with that protective gear there, that really, that rattled him.

He was down for a bit. He had that mark there. He was holding his neck and clutching. And I just wondered at that point, is this the type of situation where we have a goalie who's been out for a while and goleys are creatures of habit and they get into routine and they get on streaks. And maybe we could start throwing pucks at the net on this guy and he'll start doubting himself a little bit just because he's shaken up a bit.

And that's what happened, right? Horvett really not a great angle on that shot, but it managed to go in. And then a couple minutes later, just a really poor play behind the net managing the puck. And I thought he was doing a good job playing the puck and making good decisions all night. So to me, the turning point in the game really was that Horvatt shot directly to his neck. I think that changed a lot. Yeah, I mean, I would, you know, I honestly kind of agree with you there. You know, the fighting thing, you know, forget it. You know, Jason's like, I know he's trying to get the crowd fired up and stuff. That's probably the most emotion. I've seen the Penguins show in five, six weeks.

I think I was getting a text from Josh Yo, and he put it out on Twitter after that he cars a team for the athletic, and he was telling me how Brian Burke was just slamming the table, just up in the press box, just because that's just who he is. But no, like, Bashaw definitely stung him. I was hoping, beyond hope that it was not going to be another injury because he has had brutal luck this season. But, you know, after that, didn't seem comfortable. That poor Vat goal was just such a, such a, such a bad. add one to allow. Honestly, I don't really like any of the three goals that he allowed tonight, to be honest. He made some, he made some good sayes, and I know it was his first game back in

the month, so I get that aspect. But still, some of those, the goals that he allowed, I think, are the ones that you probably would want to have back. I didn't mind a Nelson goal. I mean, Nelson, Nelson's been a high-end goal score for quite a while now. He's got a ridiculous wrist shot. The only thing I'll say is if you're defending Nelson on a two-and-one, I mean, there's enough film out there on Nelson to know that he is not a passer. I think he's one of those exceptions, and I think he could throw, he's not in the Ovechkin's tier, but there are certain players where you need to cheat a little bit more over toward the shot with a player like Nelson as a defenseman when he's coming in on a two-on-one

because the odds of him shooting and scoring there are way higher than him getting that pass over to Paul Mary for anything dangerous. And I think maybe Jari also was thinking pass there, and he flinched ever so slightly which allowed it to go in but i i had no problem from a pen penguin's perspective with that goal the other two though i mean that's just those are just breakdowns and i've been telling you for a while now i think that regardless of how well jari has played the the penguins need a serious number two goalie to be available to them for the playoffs for two reasons number one because of injuries which we saw last year and number two if he goes cold you need someone else who you can rely on

right and the islanders aren't going to sell right now and they're not going to sell within the division so you're not going to get varlamov but if there are options out there for you to get a good number two goalie to ride with in an emergency type situation think about what thomas bocun did for them against the islanders in 2013 maybe and how he spelled mark andre flurry when he was falling apart in that series and it was two to two that's the type of thing that i think they need yeah it's it's kind of starting to creep up my list of deadline needs for this general manager who I don't think there's a way you can bring him back next year at all right now but that's what's dropped out of it for another day but you know that's my my biggest issue though is I don't really know how many goalies are available right now James Reimer he makes sense I don't know if the centers are trading Cam Talbot I don't know if they're going to trade Cam Talbot I think he's rumored to be out there other other than that I don't really know many other goalies who are out there which is that's just my big concern about it.

I do agree. I would like to have a better number two back there. You know, Casey DeSmith has started too many games a season. He's been good in some, not been so good in others. Again, I say this reference a lot on my show. Check on Hyde. And then, you know, with Jari, he's been very good for most of the season. Came into this game with a 9-201.

But, you know, at times, you got to make a save. And that Horvot one, you make that save there, which is usually really really, routine, who knows what happens for the rest of that game. I also think the Penguins power play. It's the second unit is better than the first one right now. The first unit is just out to lunch every time. And I think that was another turning point in this game as well. They've had, they have countless opportunities to make this a, you know, multiple goal lead against the Islanders. And the first unit is just not getting any chances in the offensive center. Sure, Sorokin is coming up with some saves. But, you know, the first unit is also just not.

not executing simple passes in the zone. The drop pass when they come into the zone, and the neutral zone, excuse me, it's just horrendous. They continue to be awful in terms of gaining the offensive zone. And once they do, it's just one and done. It feels like the other teams know what's coming. And again, I think that was another big turning point in this game for me.

The PK was good for the Penguins in this one. I don't think the owner's power plays any good. But time and time again, when the powerplay has had chances to really try and put teams away this season, just hasn't worked out that way. And it's very frustrating. Yeah. And you're talking about a penalty kill without Pajot, without Clutterbuck.

Bailey's not a great penalty killer, but he's one of the regulars. I mean, we were throwing Matt Martin out there on the penalty kill. And I can't remember the last time I saw Martin killing penalties because he's frankly too slow to do that. So, you know, penalty, I was thinking about like power plays. they're such a wild card an enigma, almost like goaltending year to year. You see teams that have like stacked units, like the penguins. I mean, they've got all world talent on that top unit. You look at the Rangers who were ranked, I think, second in the league last year,

and they're pretty much middle of the pack right now with the same exact personnel. The Islanders were 12 last year and with pretty much the same exact guys, and now they even have Horvat. It's been better with Horvat. Now that Barzal's out, don't talk to me about it because they just can't get in the zone without him. And they were like ranked 30th coming into this game. I, you know, that's one of those things that I just don't understand how you can have really elite high-end talented players like Crosby, Gensel, Malcolm and Letang on a power play unit like that against the depleted team and have nothing dangerous. And then the second unit comes on with Jeff Carter and friends.

And they're just generating high danger chances all over the place. And they're the ones that get the goal. It's bizarre. It's funny. You know, they're keeping it simple. I think that's the best way for me to describe the second unit. You know, they're gaining the zone. Jeff Peaches is getting the puck at the point.

He's bombing it. And Jason Zucker and Gisbury Caputin Company, they're crashing the net. You saw that for Zucker's goal where he was able to beat Sorokin, kind of got a little bit of a fortunate bounce, I would say. But, you know, he's been one of their best wingers all season. I would probably say he has been their most consistent winger this season, which is weird to say because Jake Gensel's obviously been awesome and McCrake-Reckel. But without Zucker, I don't even know where this team would be right now.

and that unit, they're keeping it simple, the first unit, they're doing anything but that overpassing, not being able to gain the zone. It's cost them, I think, a lot of games this season. And, you know, right now they're in like a two-for-20 stretch. You know, these last, you know, handful of games coming out of the All-Star break. Not good enough at all. But I think that's going to wrap up the second segment.

Coming up to end the show, I think we're going to get into just, I think the outlook for these teams for the rest of the season, you know, just, you know, what this loss means, for the penguins, obviously what this means for the islanders and, you know, can the penguins battle back out of this really rough patch that they dig themselves into because they had a chance to really bury the islanders in these last couple games

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and locked on. So we're back in this episode of Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm Hunter Hodes. That is Phil from Islanders' Twitter. So, Phil, we knew this stretch was going to be big for both teams. The Islanders were coming in reeling. They got two out of six points against senators, the Canadians, and the Canucks. I believe that is correct from what I had on my show last week.

And you're thinking, oh, they're playing bad. The Penguins, they're jumping all over them on Friday. They lead forward to late in the second period. a stupid decision by Mike Sullivan to throw the Jeff Carter outline out there, gets the under fight back in it. They've been win 5'4 tonight. You know, you're playing well. You're really out shooting them.

So Rogan's standing on his head. But same mistakes happen and you end up losing this one. You know, do these wins change your outlook for the rest of the season for the founders? Do you think they can really make a push here for that final playoff spot despite not having Matt Barzel for the foreseeable future? Because, you know, they ain't win with him tonight, but I don't know how much. then they're going to win with him down the stretch. Yeah, I mean, and that's the real question.

They've got a pretty tough stretch coming up here. They've got Winnipeg on Wednesday night. They got L.A. on Friday night, which is a team they really struggle against because they struggle with these teams that are young and have speed and, you know, skate circles around them. Then they've got Minnesota and Winnipeg again. I'm not sure if that's the order leading up to the deadline. And, I mean, the worst case scenario would be a situation where they do enough for Lou to

decide that he wants to mortgage more of their future for this particular team, and then they end up missing the playoffs. That would be a disaster, and that's a distinct possibility, and you never know what Lou's going to do. But I think they've got a really tough path here. I think that aside from the Barzell injury, I think an injury that's been enormous for them has been Pajot. They have no shutdown line right now. They used the Pajot-Prize pair plus Holmstrom or Pomerio, or whomever's bitten the third wheel on that line, very effectively, this,

very effectively against teams top lines, right? You don't want to be matching Horvatt or Nelson up with the Crosby line because more often they're not, they are going to get run over. And we saw that in both of these games. So they're missing some key pieces. They've got guys in the lineup who frankly shouldn't be on NHL rosters. But what it will come down to is they've got an all world goalie,

who's playing out of his mind for most of the season in Sorokin. can steal you games like he has tonight. Yeah. And they have just enough talent in their top six where they can score some goals like you saw tonight, which is what's going to make things interesting, right? It's been a who wants these two spots, who doesn't want these two spots the least is what it's looked like. Last year you had eight teams that were just on blistering hundred point paces and it was

put away by Thanksgiving. And this year, I, you know, I plugged it in tonight. the line right now for the seventh spot is the penguins, they're only pacing 92 points. I mean, you're going to have a, there's a real chance that you have two sub 95 point teams making the playoffs in the east this year,

which is fascinating and real 180 from what the east looked like last year. Yeah, that's, I mean, it's crazy how it's a complete 180 from me. I mean, in your right, I mean,

people were saying, I mean, the islanders, they have so many games in hand. I mean, it was over, you know, by Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, maybe you could argue, but this year has anything

but that. And, you know, for me, it's time for this GM to make some changes. I'm sorry, you know, you can only say so many times, oh, I like my team on paper, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, you have 10 days until the trade deadline. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear the salary cap is an excuse. I am sorry. The Toronto Maple Leafs just found a way to acquire Ryan O'Reilly, and they are paying their core players, what's the numbers? 65% of their salary cap is going to them. It's probably a little bit more. I don't want to hear the salary cap is a concern.

The Penguins are paying. Sidney Crosby, Jake Gensel, Gennel, Gennelke and Chris Tang, $28 million for this season. If you want to add Jason and Zucker and Rekyll, those players, a combined $39 million, and yet they still have salary cap problems. But again, I don't want to hear that as an excuse. Do you have a favorite trade target? What did you say? Do you have a favorite trade target for them to go after?

No, I had it as O'Reilly. I think he made a lot of sense, but the Leafs paid a lot of hefty price to do that. Right now, I mean, I like Adam Henrique from the Ducks. He makes a lot of sense. Good center. I know he's a little bit older, but he can score, play well defensively. Max Domey from the Blackhawks makes sense. You know, he's kind of a punk to play against, I think, at times.

He can also put the puck in the back of the net. in terms of centers, those are probably, you know, two of my top ones right now. But I also think they need a third line winger because Brock Begin has now gone 22 straight games without a point. Not a goal. He had that nice heater to start the season. But he has been brutal the last six to seven weeks because he's very captain. He has also nowhere to be found. They really just need to remake that entire third line.

And I just don't think they have the assets to do it. But, you know, it's time for him to make some changes here. you know they're probably not going to sell i know people want them to but that's just not going to be they're in their mo but until that deadline hit so they got to start banking some points here they got the oilers coming up on thursday they go to st louis after that um i think they come home after that if i want to double check here come home after they play the blues they play Tampa bay next Sunday that's a back-to-back then they go to Nashville Tampa bay Florida and then they come home and play a lot more metro games Columbus the island

again, flyers, rangers, this schedule is going to get really nasty here for the penguins. So it's all about them, I guess, finding that consistency, somehow redoing that third line and, you know, just changing some things up. The definition of insanity, as Alan Walsh tweeted the other night, Phil,

is doing the same thing again, in the exacting results. I don't think he's going to tweet that to Mike Sullivan or the penguin's Twitter account, but I think his tweet applies here. Right. The veiled shot at Sutter right there. I'll say this.

I think that I think getting the eighth seed is probably going to be a waste of time for anyone who gets it. Boston just looks like a fully operational death star. You never want to rule it out, though, because we did see that Columbus Tampa upset and it could happen. You never know. I think the canes are more vulnerable than people think. I think if you look back at how the Rangers beat them last year, they were not able to do much of anything on the power play. because they don't have any elite goal scoring talent there. Couldn't win on the road either.

Couldn't win on the road. They couldn't win on the road. Their power play wasn't great. Couldn't put anyone away, or in particular, the Rangers. And this year, their goaltending has been bad at times, really bad. And I've lived in Toronto long enough to have seen enough Freddie Anderson game sevens to know that you just cannot trust that guy. I think the canes should get a goaltender.

Now, this is subject to change if they get team on. Meyer. If they get Tim O'Mire, I take all this back. I think he'd be a beautiful fit there, and he solves a lot of the problems that they thought Pat Choretti was going to solve for them up until his second Achilles tear. But I think they're a team that could potentially be a vulnerable two-seed. Yeah, I mean, they still haven't truly proven anything yet. They did have that run to the conference final, I believe that was 2019. Where they got swept by Boston. That was funny. I remember that. I understood sweep the penguins. Canes sleep, the Islanders, can't get swept by the bro.

I always remember it for that. But, you know, since then, lost in the first round. You know, then you lose again. You have the first second round. Then you lose again second round last year. So they really haven't proven, you know, anything yet. But it's just the Penguins, they haven't matched up well against them this season. But I'll also say, pardon you thinks, all four of those games were 50-50s, one goal games.

Two of them went to overtime. You know, the Penguins definitely could have split the season series with them, but it's part of the reason why they've lost nine straight games against metropolitan division teams, which is something that has never happened in the Mike Sullivan era. You're usually one of the best teams of the division against other divisional opponents, but, you know, something's got to give here. I get better goal-tending. Defensive play has to be cleaned up.

Top power play unit has to be better. And it's time for this GM to finally make a stand and show that he is different from his way in Philadelphia because right now I don't see a way you bring back any of this front office next season it's probably best of clean house once the season is up that's how I'm feeling right now

but you know if you have anything else you want to add about this game or in general Phil I'll leave the floor to you here anything you stand out about this game or in general all I'll say is I hope that the pens keep losing because that would benefit my team from Long Island

Well you know I wish I think I know I wish I and a lot of the listeners here could share that sentiment, but no, I don't think that's going to be. I do want to say this, though. I had the Penns winning the Metro this year, right? And a lot of people called me crazy. I like their off-season moves. I like the idea to get Petrie.

I thought they needed, you know, a little bit of what he brings from a leadership standpoint and the way he just blasted from the blue line like we saw tonight. I like that pickup. To me, this is surprising. I did not expect him to be fighting for a wildcard spot in this kind of dog race. I thought they would have had a number of, you know, I thought they'd have it put away by now. So I was bullish on the moves that this GM made in the summer. You know, people said he was crazy for bringing back with Tang and bringing back Malkin. But, I mean, what was the alternative?

The alternative, I mean, you were going to just kind of like strip it down. You may as well, you know, just you already have Crosby here. You've got Gensel. You recommitted to Rust. And then Raquel, I thought they had some nice pieces here. Yeah. I don't want to hear that. Jeff Carter, who, by the way, when he was acquired at the time,

trade the line he was a fantastic piece it's just his hands and his legs have gone rather quickly which happens when you reach the age that he is he hasn't aged as gracefully as ac prerese or patrice bergeron i'm not going to put parisi with bursaron but he has not just gracefully as as the bursarons or pevelskis or crechees zach preese i'll totally as you said me the other day penguin killer just like josh bailey and now brock no oh man he was a beauty tonight Yeah, yeah, he was. He was very, very good, and he's been great against the Penguins his whole career. But, yeah, I mean, Jeff Carter, first half of last season was great,

and then it just all fell apart. He gave him the extension, quite literally, gave him the extension, and then it just all fell apart. And, you know what I mean? There was a time where I thought the Penguins could win the Metro this season. They were running through the league after they had that losing streak. They great in the other parts of November. December they're playing great.

And then all of a sudden after that, the inconsistent. consistency's returns and the injuries happened and it's just been a seesaw for this team since. And, you know, I understand some people like some of the moves. I didn't mind the Petrie one. I thought he was going to be a lot better than he has been so far. Hasn't really lived up to it. Due to cap problems, they couldn't even have Ty Smith on the team, even though he, I think he played better than POJ at camp, though, I think Pio has been pretty decent this season.

But then, you know, when you give all that money to Carter and you still have McGinn on your payroll and you bring back his spare cap and at $3.2 million, which is also ridiculous. this is what you get and it's a flawed roster and the top six has to do everything every night as well as Chris Tang and this is what you have so far and the GM is now searching for answers while saying that he likes his team on paper which is again hilarious but um that i think that will do it for this episode of the lockdown penguins podcast really appreciate you coming on phil um just where can everyone find you on social media if they want to read your wonderful islanders takes and just takes it on the nchal it just Phil's fact

that's fills with the Z facts. Yeah, go following him there. He's a lot, he's, you know, in terms of Islanders followers, probably one of my favorite ones, probably the best one out there. Oh, thank you. I will say. And I'll have another episode coming for this podcast tomorrow, which is, of course, Tuesday, a lot to discuss when it comes to this team.

You know, we'll see if they can dig themselves out of the hole right now because as I see it, you know, maybe people are more bullish than me with their play-out chances. You know, I'm just starting to get that vibe that they, may not get in which is just really unfortunate but that's how i see it at least i'll probably i'll e crow if i'm wrong of course but thank you all so much for listening and i'll be back with you all on tuesday