Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - It's time for some BOLD predictions for this Penguins season!

Episode Date: January 5, 2021

Training camp is in full swing and that means...training camp updates! Hunter starts off the show with some updates from the practices, including how Cody Ceci doesn't seem to be off to a great start. There are also some updates on Colton Sceviour who was back at practice after his wife had a baby and how good he looked in the scrimmage. After the updates, Hunter goes into his BOLD BOLD predictions for this season for the Penguins. Could one of them include Sidney Crosby having 90 or more points in 56 games? What about one for Jason Zucker? Finally, Hunter ends with what needs to go right for the Penguins to win the Stanley Cup and what could really hinder them along the way.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order. 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.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello, welcome to this Tuesday afternoon episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Follow the show's Twitter at L-O-N-Square Penguins. Hope you all are having a wonderful week. I know around Pittsburgh, you know, with the Penguins being back, you know, there's all the big news with the Steelers today. The rounds are going to be without. head coach Kevin Stephansky on Sunday for their playoff game. For that news, you know, go check out Locked on Steelers with Chris Carter.

That's going to be pretty interesting to see if the Steelers can win that. But for the hockey team, another day back at practice. We're going to touch on that in this first segment, touch on thoughts about the scrimmage. I would love if the Penguins got to, like, live stream these scrimmages so that the fans could watch. I don't really know why they're not doing that. They did it for the return to play training camp. I think they had, like, two or three scrimmages that they live streamed. I would very much love if they just...

did it here because, you know, the season begins basically a week as the Penguins will travel to Philadelphia next Wednesday to play them at 5.30 p.m. on NBC's Sports Network. So, you know, hopefully tomorrow maybe they'll think about just, you know, live streaming and scrimmage because that would be a lot of fun. And then the second segment,

I guess I'm going to be doing some bold predictions for the penguins this season. There's a few that I've thought of that are pretty nice. I'm excited to share them with you guys. And then for the last segment, you know, I'm just going to talk about, you know, what needs to go right for the penguins this season in order so they can finish top three or, you know, top four in their division and, you know, what could hamper them.

That would ultimately have them missing the playoffs. We'll touch on that in the third segment. But for today, Colton Seabier was back to practice for the Penguins. All people thought, you know, oh, it was an injury. Oh, was an injury. Nope, Guy had his baby with his wife. You know, congratulations to Colton Severe and his family. But he was back today at practice.

The lines were basically the same, if I try to go find them. I think it was, they just replaced Drew O'Connor on the fourth line. Gensel, Crosby, right? Rodriguez, Zuckerman, Russ, McCann, Jankalsky, Lafferty, Tann, Blugher, Severe, so, of course, Drew O'Connor was out, and the defense was the same, Dumont, Petterson, Marino, Matheson, Cic, and Cic, and Cicin, Rue, and then Jari, and then Jarre and DeMis and DeMis, then did have a scrimmage, and then Jeter, and then Jeter, and then Jeter, and then did he dockette, I think the, um, I don't really, I think, team gold to beat Team Black or something of that. I think it was a three-nothing score, but all I know is that Trish and Jersh, but all I'm just looking at some live tweets throughout it, you know, I'm also reading Josh Yoey's piece from The Athletic. It was his first day back at the arena. He basically said Tristan Jari looked really sharp. No, you know, not just because his team won the scrimmage.

Even then watching him during practice, he looked in good form, given how Erd will be in a training camp. He stopped Jake Gensel on a breakaway. You know, stopping Jake Gensel on a breakaway is pretty hard to do. I don't really care if it's a training camp. Gensel is one of the best releases in the league. But the fact that Jari had a shutout in that scrimmins, especially against the Krosby and Gensel line is pretty awesome.

And Josh also said his rebound control is good. He didn't have to make many saves, but when called upon, he was good. He also said he liked what he saw from Mike Matheson. His skating was very much on display. I think we all know that Matheson is a good skater and his offensive ability is there. But it's just like, how is he going to be in his defensive zone? You know, his transition stats, you know, some are good, some are bad. His underlying numbers, some are good, some are bad.

But like, you just have to make sure that he's on a complete tire fire in his own zone. And I think that's where Todd Reardon is going to come into play here. He has a knack with working with those kind of defense. You know, I'm not going to sit here and call him the defenseman whisperer, you know, remember with Sergei Gonson and all that. Oh my God, he could fix anyone. But Matheson is still young enough. He's like, what, 26?

We all know how good he's in the offensive zone. If he can clean up the stuff in the defensive zone, I think you're looking at a really solid third-paring defenseman here, even though he makes a little over $4 million a year. You know, I just, I wish it was like maybe two to three million per season for him. Though, you know, in bad form, Josh did also talk about Cody Cici. He basically said that his skating is just not a strength of his. I mean, it's just, it's never been like that, though, and that's why I just really question the signing. Like, why are you going to sign someone who is a slow skater, doesn't do anything in the offensive zone, is terrible in the defensive zone?

She's just a terrible defenseman overall, and family Jocity was guilty of a bad giveaway early in the scrimmage, was unable to prevent Teddy Blugers pass to Colton Seabier on a two on two, I think. It wasn't a horrible practice, but I wouldn't say he did anything to distinguish himself in a positive way. I mean, I don't really think he's going to distinguish himself in any positive way for the fact. Penguins this season. If he does, you know, I'll eat crow. But, you know, that was just, everyone questioned that signing when it was made. I know one year, one million doesn't seem like a lot. And, I mean, it isn't. Let's be really, it's not a lot, but it's just like you could be playing Tribe Ruudel in the lineup for 700K. I mean, you save, actually, my bad, elementary bath here,

you save 300K against the cap. And trust me, for a cap team like the Penguins, that's actually a lot. So, and Ruudel is just better in every single way than Ruudel. Better at moving the puck up the zone, his own entries per 60 are better. His own egg. exits per 60 are better. His possession numbers are better. Just every part of his game is better than Cody Cici. And I know guys, C C C C C C's going to get playing time. We all know how Mike Selvin likes to do stuff. Jim Rutherton just sign him so he can be on the bench every night. They're going to get a look at this player. But, you know, if he does end up sucking pretty bad and chances are he probably will, I would like to think that Sullivan would take him out of the lineup. It's just

$1 million sitting in the press box and you can just put Chatterweedle in there who just does a much better job. So I feel like you're going to see Josh. and others from training camp talking a lot about CC slow skating, doing nothing in the offensive zone, and just doing nothing in the defensive zone a lot throughout training camp, and I think a lot throughout this season as well. And I think the last big thing that Josh touched on in his article, you know, the trio of Zucker, Malkin, and Rust.

I mean, I think that's one of the top three best second lines in the league. I mean, Jason Zucker, I am really high on him. I'm not to be touching on him coming up in the next seven for the bold predictions, but I do really think he's going to have a huge year for the Penguins. I mean, Evgeny Malkin, we all know how great he, he is and then Brian Russ. I'm going to be really curious to see how Brian Russ plays this year. You obviously think there's going to be a regression. I mean, he's not going to be shooting at, what, a 16, 17 percent clip like he was last year, almost a 30 goal score. I think he got to

definitely score 20 goals for the Penguins this season, but is he going to be close to a 30 goal score again, shooting at 16 to 17 percent? He thinks no. I do not think so. I mean, I know he's been getting some top powerpoint minutes in training camp so far. That's good. I think I would give him the reins to start with, but if he struggles, put Jason Zucker on there, and and if he struggles, or he can also just give a look to Kaspari Kappanin. But that's also whenever he arrives. He may not arrive until potentially this Sunday or something, which would mean he would have to miss, I think, the first couple games for the Penguins.

But I just cannot wait to see that line in action when this season starts. I mean, they were great in the playoffs. I know Malkin was a bit meh against Montreal, but, you know, basically so is every player. But, you know, Zucker on that line against the Canadians was just on fire. I actually think he was their best player in that series. You know, I think he had, what, two goals overall in those? four games. He was just a buzz saw every time he went on the ice. I'm just, I'm really excited for him.

And I'm glad to see them doing well in the scrimmage. I'm Colton Severe also scored in the scrimmage. Good to see from that. And then Brian Rust also had a goal. Apparently he ripped it Gloveside over Casey to Smith far down. Apparently it was on a three on O because P.O. Joseph had a really bad pass. You know, poor Casey to Smith having to defend a three on oh. That's really, you know, the only other time he would have to do that is on a three on three overtime, which we've seen countless times throughout the league. But that's basically it for the scrimmages, just looking at the lines and everything,

looking how a lot of these players are doing. I still wish there was more scorning in the bottom six. You know, I don't want to have to rely on the top six every single night to score our goals. I think you're going to see a lot of games and see where the penguins may have to win. 1-0, 2-1, I mean, maybe some 3-2s, but I think a lot of 2-1 games

just because the bottom 6 is not going to be able to, you know, give the top 6 the lift that it needs, or just the break that it needs, I should say. You know, it's just Jared McCam. I mean, you can potentially rely on him for 15, 20 goals, but who else in that bottom six are you going to rely on even 10 to 15 goals for? You know, you have Mark Jankowski, he had that good year a couple seasons ago. Yeah, what was it, 12 goals or something.

Maybe he can do that again. You want to bet on it? Maybe not. Evan Rodriguez, you get a bet on him for 15 goals? Probably not. Teddy Blugher was good last year. I mean, 15 goals for him, maybe a bit stretch. I mean, 10 to 12 would be great.

Brandon Tanev. We all know how good he is defensively, how elite he is at suppressing. shots and then you know what happens with Zach Gastonis when he comes back you know Colton's Jury I think he scored 11 goals a couple times throughout his career I think it was in two seasons in Florida I'm not to double check that though but I do believe he scored over 10 goals

twice throughout his career I'll check that though before the end of this episode but I just have a lot of questions with this bottom six and you know I just I don't want Jared McCann to be the lone goal score that only puts up 15 goals and then everyone else can basically just not do anything and be a passenger and put up five to six

goals I just I really don't want that I want some more balance in the bottom six. And hey, you know what? That's why they should have went out and signed Craig Smith, you know, maybe someone like Esper Fost, et cetera, et cetera. But hey, you know, I'm not Jim Oathford. Maybe one of these other kids will make it from camp. You know, I don't really know too much about Drew O'Connor.

I'm sure maybe he'll start the season in Wilkesbury once that gets underway. And then the same goes for Nathan Legerry and Sam Poulin. But before we do get to our next seven, we're going to touch on the bold predictions. It is time to talk about betonline.org. There's only one place that has you covered in one place. We Trust. That's betonline.ag. You can sign up today for a free account at betonline.orgie and use that promo code locked on

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Welcome back to this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. And speaking of Bet Online, I did release some of the odds that they put up for basically all the NHL teams for like where they're going to place in the standings if I can go find that real quick. I think that they gave the penguins the fourth Beth's odds in the East Division. Yeah, Boston at 70 and a half, Philadelphia 66.5, Washington 65 and a half. Pittsburgh are tied with the islanders, 64 and a half. Then the Rangers are at 55 and a half. Buffalo at 54.5 and in New Jersey at 52 and a half.

Me personally, guys, as I tweeted out on my personal Twitter account, I think Philadelphia is a bit high here. I don't think there are two points better than the penguins. I honestly think the penguins finish higher than the Flyers this season. And I think I would definitely take the over for the penguins of over 64.5. I think they're going to get close to seven. Well, they may get close to 70 points, but I don't think they are going to get 70 points,

but I could definitely see them getting really close to 70. Hey, maybe we'll finish the season with 69 points. That would be a pretty nice number. But, you know, let's get into some bold predictions. Bold prediction number one here, guys. Tristan Jari will finish the season at 925 or better for his save percentage, and he will be named a Vezna Trophy finalist. Yep, I went there.

I am ready. I am all on board the Tristan Jari hype train here, guys. I know it's hard to evaluate goaltending with such small sample sizes. You saw how good he was, though, in the return to play in game four. He was great in January. you know, he was an All-Star. I know his play deteriorated a little bit, but I really do think he's going to put it all together this season.

As Josh said in his article today, he looked really crisp in that scrimmage. He's looked really good in training camp. I'm just, I'm really excited to see how he does. And like I said, I have a lot of high expectations for him. 9-25 or better, Vesna Trophy finalist, and he will prove to be the answer in net,

and he will prove to the Penguins that they made the right choice in keeping him over Matt Murray. Because, you know, you could have argued to keep Matt Murray, because some of the results were kind of similar. But, you know, of course, Murray went on and got that big contract in Ottawa after the Penguins traded in there during the draft. So that's Bull prediction number one. Bull prediction number two. Jason Zucker will be a point per game player for the Penguins this season.

Yep, I am that high on Zucker. He was their best player in the return to play. Like I said, two goals. He was great after coming over from Minnesota in the regular season, him playing on a line with Crosby. They were just lethal together. I know he's going to be playing with Malkin. I mean, stylistically, there's not too much of a big difference, but, you know, analytically with the numbers, he's going to put up just as good numbers with Malkin as he did with Crosby. And I say that because, you know, you could have made an argument to take Gensel away from Crosby when he came back and returned to play just because the Gensel Malkin, when Crosby went down with Crosby was so freaking good.

It actually had just as good of underlying numbers as he did with Cid. But, you know, they opted to put Gensel with Crosby just because, well, for obvious reasons, they work so well together. And then Zulker went down with Malkin. and, you know, it was just a perfect match there too. So I really do think he will average a point per game for this team this season. He's under contract for a few more years. He's just the perfect fit for this team. He's another great left winger that the penguins need in their lineup.

And I think he's going to be quickly become a fan favorite here for this city. You know, I really do believe that. And I wouldn't be surprised if he signs an extension once his contract is up just because of how good of a player he is and just how he gets back to the community and has his own foundation and everything going on with that. So that's bold prediction number two for, for bowl prediction number three. All right, here's a good one here. Sidney Crosby will have 90 or more points in the 56 game season. He's going to play every single game.

He will not get hurt. And he will have 90 plus points in the 56 games. Yes, I'm going there. Sid is here for another rejuvenated season. Well, it wasn't really a rejuvenated season. Well, I guess it is because he was hurt for a bunch of last season. But, you know, he will not get hurt this time. He's going to produce, just like he has throughout his career.

I'm going 90 plus points. in the 56 games and he's going to win not only the Art Ross trophy for the league this year, but he will win the Hart trophy as well. So that's bold prediction number three. Bold prediction number four for this team this season. Well, is this one bold? Well, I guess it kind of would be. I think Jim Rutherford is going to trade for a bona fide top six right winger so that they can move

Kasperi captain down to the lineup. I think he's going to say, you know what? Fuck it. The window is almost closing. We're going to go out and we're going to trade for someone who gives a shit about prospects. The team is going to suck in about three to four years anyway. We're going to go out and trade for a bona fide top six right winger that we can plug in right next to Sidney Crosby and Jake Gensel and he's going to trade.

I don't really know. Nathan Legerrier or something like that. I don't know. Maybe they'll keep him. They'll probably keep Sample on, but he will make a big trade for a top six right winger so that Kaepinan can move down to the third line and play with Jared McCann and Mark Jankelski. I think when it's all sudden done after the trade deadline, your top three lines. Well, your top four lines, this will be your lineup, folks.

We got Gensel-Crosby with that new right-winger, Zuckermalk and Rust, McCann, Jankalsky, Kappaninan, and then Aston Reese, Blugertanav. The defense is the same, but I think also Chad Roodle will come in for Cody Cici and then Tristan Jari. That team will look so much better with a actual bona fide top six right-winger playing next to Sid,

and the depth on the team will just look great to, you know, having an actual good offensive player on McCann's line will do wonders for him, and Jenkowski as Jenkowski is looking to regain his 2018-2019 form. I really think that would go a long way if they can put Kappaninan down there and actually go out and get a top-line winger. Jim will do that. That is Bull prediction number four.

And one more bull prediction, number five, to end this segment, Chris Letang will finally be nominated for his second ever Norris Trophy voting. I think this is going to be a huge year for Lettang. I understand he's 33. He's going to be 34. at the end of the season. But this past season, guys, 44.61 games. I know he missed a little bit of time,

but he almost tied his career high in goals. This season before that in 2019 was almost a point per game player, 56.65 games. Actually got sixth in the Norris voting, so he was pretty close to being a finalist. We've seen him get close to that level, and I think he will get there this season. He will be a Norish toby finalist at the end of the season

as one of the best defensemen in hockey. They're not 10 defensemen in this league that are better than him, and when he's truly, truly on his game, there are not five defensemen in this league who are better than Chris Latang. That is how highly I think of Latang on this team and around the league. So that is it for your bold predictions. Let me know what you guys think of those. Do you guys think I'm a little too crazy?

Am I a little too soft on some of them? Just let me know at my Twitter at Hunter Hodes. The show is Twitter at L.O. Underscore Penguins. Send me your guys' bold prediction so I can talk about them on the show and see if they always have a good chance of happening as well. But before we do get to our next segment, it is time to talk about rockado.com. It's a family business, serves auto-part customers online for 20 years. You can go to rock-a-o-o-dot-com to shop for auto and body parts from hundreds of manufacturers.

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Amazing selection, rely below prices, all the parts your car will ever need. That is rock auto.com. All right, everyone, welcome back to this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hode. So as I talked about very early on in the show for this segment, we're just going to touch on, you know, what really needs to go right for the Penguins if they are to go not only make the playoffs this season, but go all the way and get Sid and Gino that fourth Stanley Cup.

And we're also talk about what could hinder them along the way. And it won't just be injuries, guys. We all know the penguins will have injuries and that obviously will hinder them. But it'll be stuff deeper than that. But the first big thing that needs to happen. I already touched on this early on in the podcast. You've got to have some productions from the bottom six. You can't just be relying on your top six to score every night.

My fear is that there's going to be a lot of two-to-one games. You've got to have a player like Mark Jan Kelsey, revert back to his 2019 form, scoring 12 to 15 goals. That will be so big for this team. You've got to have Jared McCann be more consistent. I know they want to play him on the wing. I think he's better at center.

If you stick in a wing, though, you got to just be playing him there just that entire season. You know, that's why I think they got to do for him. If you put him there, stick him there the entire season. You can't just keep flipping him back and forth and back and forth. There's just no consistency with that. You know, I love to see more offense at Brandon Tannum. A lot of people shout on that.

contract, including myself when it was signed. I ate a little bit of Crow on it last year because he was great defensively, but, you know, he's still signed for what, four, five more years, 3.5 million per. Didn't put up a lot of offense this past season, even though he drew a lot of penalties was good in his own zone. You want to see him score a bit, have some nice playmaking ability. If he can get maybe what, 20, 25 points, I think that would be good as a fourth liner. You know, the same with Teddy Blugger, he took a nice step this past season.

What's next for him? Could he be a consistent goal score in the bottom six? And, you know, Colton Siever, you know, I think a lot of people just forget that he was acquired. You know, myself included, I kind of forgot about it a little bit. But, you know, this is a player who has, indeed, scored 11 goals twice in his career. I finally was able to look it up through his hockey reference page.

He scored 11 goals in 2015-16 with Dallas, 23.71 games. 2018 with Florida had 11 goals, 24 points in 76 games. So this is a player. He had four consistent 24, 24. 26-point seasons with the Dallas stars and the Florida Panthers. If the Penguins can get that kind of production from Severe and the bottom six, it'll just make the bottom six just that much better. I'm a little bit skeptical, though, because he is 31.

He's getting up there a little bit at age. He's been in the league ever since 2010, 2011. So, you know, we're going to have to see what happens with that. But, you know, I think that's the biggest one for me. You know, the second one, of course, you know, the obvious, the goaltending. You know, I'm pretty high on Trish and Jari. as I said in my bold predictions, I think he's going to be awesome. But, you know, if he falters, this team could be in big, big trouble.

But he absolutely has to play well for the order of penguins to go all the way. And then, you know, this one's also obvious, too, you've got to have the stars produce. You can't have Crosby and Malkin lose a step. They shouldn't lose too big of a step. I know they're getting in their 30s now. But, you know, these are two world-class players. Cindy Crosby is still the best player in the world. I think he's going to play like it this year.

As I predicted, he's going to have over 90 points in the 56 game season. But, you know, what about Evgeny Malkin? You know, looked a little bit lost in the return-to-play series, but he was also coming off a great regular season where he wasn't attached to Jack Johnson for basically the entire game. That was a lot to blame for on his previous season in 2018-19. That was just because Jack Johnson and Justin Chultz were playing right next time, and he was just never getting the puck.

So now that he'll be playing with John Marino virtually every night again, I think he's going to have a pretty good season as well. And they know Chris LaTang, Jake Gensel, Jason Zucker, Brian Rust. You know, that's going to be a big one there as well, just with the top six just having to be awesome, especially the core players. And, you know, like I said, one of my old bold predictions, too.

Hopefully Jim Rutherford goes out and acquires an actual top line winner to play with Crosby so they can bump Cappin and down to give this team some more depth scoring. I mean, I think Capon is just a little bit out of place up there. I don't really think he's going to make it to Valentine's Day on that top line if he does, because I just don't know if Sid's going to really like playing with him. So it's going to be interesting to see how that happens there. And then, you know, for how this could derail the season, reasons the season could derail from the Penguins,

You know, I talk about injuries. That's not really a big thing. But, you know, a big losing streak, that's obvious, too. You know, they have to show up every single night. And they should. You know, you're playing a lot of your biggest rivals that, you know, don't like you. You don't like them. There's no reason to have a lot of games where you're just not showing up, you know.

Like, especially, you know, a big example of that that I remember from this past season was the California Road trip. You know, that happened with that long six to seven game losing streak, which we have not seen before in the Mike Sullivan era up until that point. They just looked very disinterested in games against the ducks, the sharks, the kings. You know, they finally came home, played like crap then too. They didn't really seem to care in those games when I was watching it. It was just such a low effort. So you can't have games like that on this schedule, especially, you know, when you play Boston, eight times, Washington, Philadelphia, both New York teams, you know, Buffalo coming in, et cetera, et cetera.

You have to show up every single night. Another big one, of course, you know, with the top six falters, they're going to be in, trouble. I mean, they're not going anywhere without production from the top two lines. You know, if you're going to ask to rely on the freaking bottom six to win you games almost every night, that's this is a recipe for disaster. You know, this isn't the 2016 Penguins' third line coming through with Carl Hagglin, Nick Benino and Phil Kessel, all those guys are gone, or even 2017 as well. You know, a lot of the players in the bottom six, just, you know, who knows if they'll even score 10 goals this season outside of Jared McCann. So that's a big

one there too. That could derail the season. Another one, you know, and this could also fall on Mike Sullivan, you know, how does he do, like, the lineup playing the players that he believes that have the best chance to win for this team, you know, how much you're going to play Cody C, C, C, C, I mean, are you really going to give him the amount of minutes that you gave Jack Johnson the return to play and throughout the last two seasons? Probably wouldn't be a good idea, you know, are you going to play Sam Lafferty a lot of minutes? You know, it's just, it's going to be interesting to see what decisions he makes, you know, has he learned from the mistakes that he's made from the last two postseason and regular season, you know, just

playing Jack Johnson a lot of minutes, playing Justin Cholts and a lot of minutes, even when everyone knew if you just watch the games or if you look at the numbers analytically, they stunk. Like they flat out stunk. And yeah, Mike Sullivan, for reasons beyond my comprehension, decided to keep playing them. And, you know, the same with the Fords. He somehow played Patrick Morrow, who was a corpse in the return to play when you had better options on the bench like Evan Rodriguez.

You could have put him in the lineup. You know, I would have even preferred Sam Lafferty for most of that series over Patrick Morrow. So it was just a lot of weird decisions. you know, just his coaching is going to be a big reason for both, honestly, you know, how it could hinder the penguins and how they could go very far and ultimately win a third Stanley Cup under him. I think that's basically it for this episode. Oh, one more thing for the Penguins with how the season could really go far for them.

I know I'm going back and forth. The play of Mike Matheson. If his play turns around big time in the defensive zone, he becomes great in there. He starts producing even more offensively, thanks to Tara Reardon. He will really, really help this team. And he could be the upgrade that the Penguins are really looking for in that Harnquist trade and just, you know, the Jack Johns replacement, even though he makes over $4 million per year. So, you know, if that happens, I'm not really super high on it, but if Mike Matheson is pretty damn good this year,

that will go a long way for the Penguins in potentially winning us down the cup. But that will do it for this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Hope you all enjoyed it. I'm actually going to be recording tomorrow's episode a bit later. Jesse Marshall will be joining me for this episode. We're going to go over everything about the team, basically previewing the season, some bold predictions for him what he thinks will happen with the team

some line combinations for him just what he thinks about the bottom six Mike Mathes and Cody C, C, C, all of that good stuff we're going to touch on that in tomorrow's episode. I'll have that up for you guys tomorrow. So I hope you all have a great rest of your day and look forward to that Jesse Marshall episode being posted tomorrow. So talk to you all then.