Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Jesse Puljujarvi is officially a Penguin!

Episode Date: February 5, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins made it official and signed Jesse Puljujarvi to a two-year contract on Sunday. To start the show, Hunter and Pat discuss the contract and how it was well-deserved after the way he played in Wilkes-Barre. They look at how he fits the team and what they're looking to see out of him before getting to thoughts on him being on the third line. After that, they discuss Reilly Smith's impending return and how he needs to really show everyone a lot more since he hasn't been good for most of this season. They even get into John Ludvig's impending return and what that could mean for PO Joseph before ending the show with how the push for the playoffs is about to be kicked into overdrive.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.IndeedIndeed knows when you’re growing your own business, you have to make every dollar count. Visit Indeed.com/LOCKEDON to start hiring now.SleeperDownload the Sleeper App and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.RobinhoodRobinhood has the only IRA that gives you a 3% boost on every dollar you contribute when you subscribe to Robinhood Gold. Now through April 30th, Robinhood is even boosting every single dollar you transfer in from other retirement accounts with a 3% match. Available to U.S. customers in good standing. Robinhood Financial LLC (member SIPC), is a registered broker dealer. FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your best bet of FIVE DOLLARS or more wins. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) 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.

The Penguins made it official on Sunday by signing Yesy Paul Yarvey to a two-year contract. And on today's episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast, Pat and I are going to go over what that means for the Penguins and how he fits. You're 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. joined by my co-host Patrick. You can follow him on Twitter at Center for Wet, and you can follow the shows Twitter at L.O. Orn's for Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first lesson slash watch today. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is by to you by Sleeper, Down the Sleeper app, and use promo code locked on NHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and additions apply sleep sleepers, terms of use for detail.

So Penguins had some pretty big news on Sunday. they signed Yesy Poolyarvey to a two-year contract for this season and for next season, $800,000 per year. We kind of figured this move was coming because over the weekend, Pat, I sent you a text that he was healthy scratched in Wilkesbury's most recent game, as was John Ludwig. So I was like, okay, it looks like the penguins have some balls in the fire here for bringing him up. And then, of course, bringing John Ludwig back up because he was down there for a conditioning spin. And sure enough, they signed Poole-R-R-V on Sunday. I'm pretty excited about this. I mean, I don't, again, I don't think he's a long-term answer for this team,

but you look at what he did, down Wicksbury. I played 13 games, had a really slow start, was trying to get his legs back a little bit, but four goals and nine points in those 13 games, just really rounded into form, I feel like, over the last week, week and a half, looking like the player that we saw in the NHL when he was healthy. And now he has a shot back in the NHL to see what he can do after a really rough surge rate over the offseason.

And at practice on Sunday, it was the Penguins first practice back after the All-Star break. He was on a line with Ricardo, Raquel, and Lars Eller. I really like the makings of that line. If Raquel can finish a little bit more, that's obviously huge for that line. You have Lars Eller, who can do it both offensively and defensively. And you kind of have the same with Puyarvey,

because when you look at his underlying numbers, he ranks in the 71st percentile for even-strength offense, 91st percent off for even-strike defense. So he can defend well, and he can forecheck well. His finishing is still not where you kind of want it to be, third percentile for that, but he also fits in just perfectly for the Penguins

because the Penguins are the worst finishing team in the league right now. But he has, again, other attributes that make him a pretty intriguing player for this team. And basically next to no money, it's a low risk to medium high reward. There are players in the bottom six lately that haven't been doing the job. See what he can do, and then you go from there. Again, I still think they probably need another move for the bottom six if they want to be a playoff team this year. But at this point for Pollyarvy, why not? He was playing well down on Wilkesbury, see what he can do on a line with two pretty established NHLers.

And then maybe if he does well with that, you can move him up to the second line with Hvgeny Malk and especially if Riley Smith struggles because he was back at practice on Sunday as well. He's practicing on Monday, too. And if he continues his struggles, you can bump up Pau Yardby and see what he can do in the top six at that point. So this is a very much a win for the penguins. Just again, low risk, medium to high reward. I think that's basically sums up my thoughts on it. I can't be mad at this signing because like you said, it's, it's for next to no money,

it's $800,000. That's not going to cost you too much against the cap. That's a solid number for a guy who more than likely is just going to stick in your bottom six. His high watermark was the COVID shortened season where he scored 15 goals with the Oilers. That's his career high. He's got 51 goals through 334 NHL games. He started to look pretty good, like you said, in the last week with the Wilkesbury Scrant and Penguins.

The biggest thing for me here is this is something we have seen quite a lot in the Crosby-Malkin-Littang era with a guy like this who high-draft pedigree, disappoints a little bit. Now, I will say a lot of that disappointment comes from former Oilers management who was just a disaster outside of the big name guys like McDavid, obviously, and Dry Seidel and Taylor Hall, who were basically no-brainer can't-miss kind of players. But this isn't really a guy who I think was worthy of the fourth overall pick designation back in 2016. Now, it doesn't mean he's a bad player. It doesn't mean he's not an NHL player. He very much is an NHL player. And taking him forth overall was a reach for the Edmonton Oilers at the time. So, but we've seen this with the Penguins like I was starting to say, a guy who kind of

disappoints elsewhere comes in, kind of rebuilds his, his stock and his value as an NHL player. And like you said, his underlyings make him a solid officer. option on the third line. Do I think he's going to come in and light it up? No, I don't have any misgivings about him suddenly becoming one of the best players on this team. But the way in which he plays the game and you put him on the line that he's on right now with Eller and Raquel. He's a guy who can go do the dirty work. He's the guy who when you're in the offensive zone, he can go retrieve the puck. He can throw the first hit, change possession from the opposing team to the Penguins.

And if you have a guy like Eller who is a pretty sneakily good playmaker getting the puck to Raquel to score, that could unlock a solid third line for a team that's fighting to get into the playoffs. Plus, I think we, and I don't mean this negatively, I think we as Penguins fans and analysts kind of expected him to go down and dominate in the AHL. And there's two reasons I think that was a little misguided. and I will take full responsibility for it myself because I was expecting him to dominate as well. It's a game played with less structure because it's not the NHL.

You don't have consistent consistency on your roster. A lot of guys go up. Some guys go down. Rarely do you have a consistent roster night in, night out. And Jesse Puiarvey's injury and surgery, that's really hard to come back from. And you can practice, you can lift, you can run on the treadmill and ride the bike, all you want. Literally nothing can replicate a game. So going down there and rounding into form after a couple of weeks is a very good sign

that this guy might be ready to return and be 100% healthy after a very, very significant surgery in the off season. Right. And I'll also go off what you said because I was in the same boat. I wanted him to go down there and show that he was the best player on Wilkesery just because of all the NHL experience that he had. And you have to start He wasn't. But then afterward, he kind of showed that, you know, at the time, he probably arguably was the best player because he was lighting it up game after game after game. And he was averaging at the end of his Wilkesbury tenure, almost a point for game.

So kind of in a way, he didn't flat out dominate, but he was still pretty solid and was close to at the end a point per game. Now, as for the fit, I mean, I really like it. I mean, you start him off on the third line with two players who have, I mean, at least with Eller's case, he's in pretty solid all year. year. If you can get Raquel's finishing back to where it was last year and you add Paul Yarvey with his foreshanking ability, that has the makings, I think, of a pretty solid third line. Now, if Raquel continues to struggle, that's a different story. But if all these

players are going the way they have been in the past, I think the Penguins have the makings of a pretty solid third line here. And with Paul Yarvey, the Penguins need him to be kind of like a value player, right? You're kind of getting that with Drew O'Connor. But otherwise, with the forwards with that type of money, I should say, because there's not obviously many making you know, pull your RV money or Drew O'Connor money. You know, the Penguins don't have many of these types of players in their system where they can call up and get good value money out of someone like this. The Penguins need that in the worst way because you look at some of these other contenders, they're getting good value from some of these younger players who aren't making

that much money. And the Penguins also need to be able to get that from players other than Drew O'Connor. For sure. And the other thing you hit on there was that younger players, we are still only 25. He's not, he's not a grizzled vet. And as for the value, I mean, you look at the Penguins cap number right now on offense. And a lot of it is the sins of the past. It's not Kyle Dubus's fault. You know, you've got, you have Lars Eller and Nolichari who were making a shade under $5 million combined. But then you have Jeff Carter on that ridiculous deal. That's Ron Hextall.

Riley Smith was signed by Vegas. That's a Vegas deal. Ricard Raquel, $5 million worth it at the time when it was signed. We didn't see the drop off coming. That was a very savvy move, dare I say, by Ron Hextall. But then obviously you got big funds, Brian Rust, Jake Gensel of Gennie Malk and Sidney Crosby. They're making the money they're supposed to be making. So you're right.

you know, outside of DOC, there really isn't that value contract that's between a couple of 100 grand and one to two million. So this is something they need from him. They need him to show up. And he doesn't have to light the world on fire. He doesn't have to go out, do a point per game. He doesn't have to score a bunch of goals. But if he chips in every second or third game at an $800,000 salary, that is, no pun intended, found money for the penguins. And that would be big because it feels like for a lot of the season,

we've been wanting the bottom six to step up outside of Lars Eller. And, you know, Drew O'Connor, I mean, he's been elevated. He's been pretty solid for most of the year, too. But, you know, with him being elevated now to the top six, you look at the bottom six in general, it's mainly just Lars Eller that's doing the work right now. I mean, Achari, you're not getting much offensively from him. Carter, I mean, at least a little bit. Harkins only has four points in the 30-plus games that he's played.

And now you have we are rejoining the fray. if you can get some production with from him and then from Ella, as you said, every second or third game or maybe like, you know, once a week in a game, for example, the bottom six starts to look at least a little better and potentially, as I've said a couple times already, if you can get Ricard Raquel back to looking like the version that we saw of him last year, that would also be a big win for your bottom six. And then if you also play as well, you can bump him up to the second line, potentially, and then move Riley Smith down if he continues to struggle in. Speaking of Smith, we're going to talk about him and the rest of the practice notes in the second segment. 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 a number one choice for daily fantasy sports and especially daily fantasy hockey because of Sleeper, you can win one or times your cash in daily fantasy hockey contest. You can do this with their friends. You can do this by yourself. You can do this with your girlfriend.

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So Sunday, as I said, it was the first official practice after the All-Star break. And outside of Yes, Heeple Yarvey, there were a couple other interesting tidbits from the lines as well. Top line was intact. Genswell, Crosby, Russ. Second line was a little bit different, though. You have Drew O'Connor on Afghani Malkins' left wing, which I'm still happy about, with Gino and then Riley Smith, taking the place of Colin White, who was in Smith's spot before the All-Star

Right, just because, you know, he was kind of the filling at that point. And I know we laughed about it. It was a few memes. He didn't really do anything. But, hey, it was only for a few games, no harm, no foul. But it looks like Riley Smith is ready to return on Tuesday. And for me, man, it's put up or shut up time for this guy. He's been a major disappointment for a lot of this season, and I expected a lot out of him.

One of my bold predictions heading into the season that I am prepared to take the L on, if not already, I predicted 25 to 30 goals out of him on our bowl predictions episode. And I look like a complete and utter dupus right now because he has been anything but a 25 to 30 goal score. He started out of the season a bit slow. He rebounded and I was like, okay, maybe he's now going to come around. We were starting to see that chemistry like we saw when Evgeny Malkin had James Neal on his line. and then after that he turned into a total ghost and then he got hurt. It's time for him to live up to the contract that he has right now.

This is a player when you look at his contract, $5 million for the rest of the season and $5 million for next season. He's not living up to that at all. And you got him to replace Jason Zucker and I was totally fine with it. But he needs to be a big factor in the second and the unofficial second half of the season if this team wants to make the playoffs. You can't be having the same players. produce on an overnight basis. Riley Smith needs to start really help getting on the score sheet

if this team wants to make a run here. Well, let's also put it in perspective here too. You may take the L on that bold prediction, but at the time, it looked like he was going to be that exact player. He was just like Gino was in the first month of the season, he was a man on fire. He couldn't miss. neither could Gino. And while Gino has had some production dips throughout the season, he has still, for the most part, looked like of Gennie Malkin. And we also have the added caveat that of Gennie Malkin is 37 years old, and he has a lot of hard miles on his body.

He has played a really, regardless of how Penguins fans feel about him, he has played a rough brand of hockey in his career. So his biggest strength was always his size and size. strength and you play that kind of hockey by the time you get to age 37 in the national hockey league it is going to take its toll. Riley Smith on the other hand, you look at him and he's all of 32, which I know in sports terms that's kind of old, but at the same time, he came in as advertised. He was the Zucker replacement and he looked every bit the part of it and he just hasn't been that guy since. And it's a problem. Not just because of the salary.

but because he was a key contributor all those years in Vegas on the Stanley Cup run, the run to the finals, and everything in between with the Golden Knights, and he has not been that outside of a couple of weeks in Pittsburgh, and you can retcon it all you want about, oh, this was a loss of a move for Kyle Dubus and all that and the other, but he came as advertised at the start, and it was a low risk, high reward move.

And right now, it's looking more like a risk move, and that's a problem. Exactly. And I'll also say this about Riley Smith. I don't think he's going to get dealt at the deadline this year unless this team truly bottoms out in February and then in early March. But if he doesn't pick this up for the rest of this season, I can see him being a trade candidate over the offseason with one more year left on his contract and making $5 million.

And maybe Kyle Dubas wanting to get more production from his. spot in the lineup and maybe bringing in someone a bit cheaper with also similar scoring stats that can help out this team. That's what I'll say. I can see them potentially thinking about moving him somewhere over the off season if he doesn't pick that up because if he doesn't pick it up, I don't want $5 million on the salary account for next year from this type of player where you didn't really see anything from him this year, like what you think is going to change next year. So that's, I think the last thing I'll say about Riley Smith on that if you wanted to. Oh, I would just say he's a great hockey tree.

candidate in the off season if you want to move on from them. $5 million for one more year. Going into the next season, he'll be a pending UFA. And it could definitely be the kind of move where you can go get maybe a younger player or two for less money or money that equals it. It could be a money in, money out deal. You have a rising salary cap, a $5 million winger at age 33 or 32,

whatever he'll be when next season starts. that's not that much of a cap burden to take on, especially if you're a team with Stanley Cup or deep playoff run aspirations. So that's definitely someone I could see in the offseason that they try to move on from if he continues to disappoint. But at the other hand, if he picks it up here in the second half, then hey, you got a $5 million winger who produces fairly well

and that can help you out next year. So we'll see. But I agree with you in the off season. That's a guy that you could potentially move. Right. We'll have to be fair. If he does come back and produce for the second half of the season here, then, hey, he'll be fine heading in the offseason,

and I don't think they're going to look to trade him. But we'll just have to see how these next, you know, 35, 40-ish games go for him in this team. Outside of that, you know, the regular fourth line, you know, Harkins, Achari-Carver, not really too many surprises there. You look at the forward group in general. Outside of Matt Niot, this is probably as good as you're going to get at this point. And even with Nietto in the lineup, I still think this team is another fours. but again, right now, this is probably as good as you're going to get without any trades from

other teams coming in. Defensively, mostly the same pairings, Pedersen, Latang, Graves-Carlson, John Ludwig, with Chad Rueh, P.O. Joseph was with Colin White. I will stress to everyone, P.O. Joseph was in John Ludwig's spot in practice on Monday. So we'll have to see who gets the nod between Ludwig or Joseph. I'll say this, though. If Joseph immediately comes out of the lineup on Tuesday against the Winnipeg Jets, that's concerning to me.

He had every opportunity to run away with that spot while Ludwig was hurt and while he was down in Wilkesbury getting in a conditioning stint, and he wasn't able to do it. And if he gets replaced in this first game back, I think he could be trade bait at the deadline here because I don't think he's lived up to the Penguins' expectations that they had for him this season. And while granted, his underlines have been pretty solid, and I've been really on the train that he needs to play a little bit,

more. It's obvious that the coaching staff doesn't see it a lot with him. And the fact that Ludwig is already getting more reps than him in practice at times and the fact that he already might be in line to replace him, even though he was out for Soling. And while Joseph was playing quite a bit, bash is concerning for me. And I don't know what his future holds here in Pittsburgh. I can't really add anything on the P.O. Joseph front. I agree with that take that he's probably a candidate to get moved at the deadline, depending on what this team wants to do and where they see themselves going. On the other hand, though, I do think Ludwig brings more value to this lineup, because we've talked about at length this team's deficiencies this season, and one of them

is that they don't have a great net front presence in the defensive zone. And not that I think this team needs to become bruisers, that that's not the style of hockey this organization has ever played. But having a physical presence on the blue line is needed, especially this time of year and going into the Stanley Cup playoffs. Now, people will point to the 1617 teams and say, well, they weren't really that physical. It's not that they were overtly physical, but you knew you were going to get hit playing the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1617. You weren't going to go in and get beat up. You weren't going to get pushed around, but it was a team that didn't back down. And John Ludwig fits that bill very well. He is a physical player. He's younger and they need a guy who in the defensive

zone can not in a bad way, but can get a little dirty, can throw some hits, can move guys out front of Jari or Nadelcovic. And at this point, I think what he brings to the team is more valuable for what this team wants to do than what P.O. Joseph brings to the table for where this team wants to go. And that's fair. I will say he is of almost any other player on the team, their most physical player, even though he's not that big of a player. But that aside, I know I've been, I guess, a little critical of him. I still want to see more of what he has to offer outside of being a physical presence. You know, you can look at the underlines a little bit. He's played six games with Chatterweedle on the bottom pairing. And in those six games,

those two have a 52.6 expected goals for rate. That's pretty good. And for your third pairing, that's that you'll take that all day and twice on. I'll take that any day of the week. And I think the penguins want to see more of him again. I want to see more of him. And I don't think they can do that if you're icing P.O. Joseph, even though he's had a few weeks here to really establish himself. But again, he hasn't. So it's hard because I want to see both more of P.O.

And I want to see more of John Ludwig. But one of them is going to have to sit unless, you know, one gets traded. and that's probably going to be PO. They're not just going to move on from Ludwig after just getting him before the season started. So with all that said, I don't think PO has a long-term future with the Penguins, but we'll have to see when it comes to that. But final thing before we had to break here, the power play. Mike Sullivan actually stuck with it. You saw the new look power play before the All-Star break, and sure enough, he got the same combinations. Chris Leng is quarterback in the top unit with Jake Gensol, Cindy Crosby, and Brian Rust, and Riley Smith was elevated to the top

power play. Not sure how I truly feel about that. I probably would have a different player on there. But so he's elevated up there. And then for the second unit, Jeff Carter, Ricard Raquel, Lars Elmer of Gennie Malkin, and Eric Carlson. Jeff Carter being on PowerPlay 2 is, I got to say it. It's kind of funny to say the least. But you're still seeing these two split pairs of the powerplay. And honestly, I'm totally okay with that. That top unit before the Ulster break, when you saw the switch made, it had plenty of quality chance. in those couple of games, keep riding that momentum after the Allster break. That's an easy decision for me.

I'm glad Mike Sullivan is sticking with it. 100%. And I like the idea of putting Smith on that unit because goal scoring cures all depending on how he feels, because you know he's having a crisis of confidence right now, the way he's been playing lately. And with a unit that was looking like they were figuring it out before we went to break, that unit could get him going again. if he pops in one or two or is a big part of a couple big power play goals, that could spark

his game again. And as for Jeff Carter, I mean, we have seen it the last couple of weeks with him. He has fully embraced being a fourth liner in the sense that he's getting in the crap, man. We saw it against Florida. He was in the fight every single time there was a scrum. So with that in mind, he's got no issue planting his big butt in front of the goalie on the second unit and just letting everybody else go to work and being a guy who draws a defender in to the front of the net to open up more space. So I like putting him on a second power play unit just because if nothing else,

he can be a very good deterrent or not deterrent, a very good net front presence that draw, like I said, draws away a defender. Sorry about that. My brain short-circuited their listeners. But that's not a bad thing to me. And if this first power play unit is what it's supposed to be with this group, he's not going to get much more than maybe 30 to 45 seconds of ice time if he sees it at all if

this team scores. Yeah, he can also get you some deflections from in front of the net. I mean, I think he's still pretty decent at doing that at the stage of his career, even though he's quite a bit older. But we'll see how long this takes overall, though. I'm glad that Mike Sullivan is keeping Chris Lettang quarterback in the top unit because, again, as I said before, the all-star break in the by week, it seemed to flow better those final couple of games when Latang was quarterbacking that unit.

That will do it for this second time. Coming up to end the show, oh yeah, my friends, it's time for the push to the Stanley Cup playoffs. We're going to see just what this team is made of in February and especially in March. But before we get to that, we'll got to tell you all about Fandul. Happy Super Bowl week to all who celebrate from Fandul, America's number one sportsbook. If you're like me, suitable Sunday is all about scoring the best seat on the couch, grabbing your favorite football snacks, and placing some super bets.

They have so many ways for you to end the season with a W or two. or three. And not only can you bet on who will win Super Bowl 58, but Fandu also has bets for which players will score a touchdown, how many points will be scored, and so much more. New customers you can join today and you'll get $200 in bonus bets. If your first bet of $5 or more wins, just visit fandle.com slash locked on to sign up. That's fandle.com slash locked on. Make every moment more with Fandle an official sportsbook betting partner of the NFL. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locktown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Honor Hodes, joined by my host Patrick Dam. So, that, Penguins are back in action on Tuesday. We'll preview

that game against the Winnipeg Jets for you all coming up on the Tuesday episode tomorrow. But this gets going, the playoff push for this team. We all know where they are in the standings. They have games in hand on the flyers. They have games in hand on everyone in the Metropolitan Division, but as I've said a lot, those only matter if you win them. And these next couple of weeks, especially, they're going to be the biggest couple weeks of their season because we're going to find out pretty quickly what Kyle Dubus wants to do with this team. I think he's going to give them a couple weeks here to see if they can string together some wins on a consistent basis against teams that I think they should be able to win. I mean, yeah, you look at the schedule this week and they get Winnipeg twice this week, and that's obviously one of the best teams in the Western Conference and also the NHG. But they also have a game against the Minnesota Wilde who are not that good. But then you also have quite a few. few days on before you play the Panthers, and then you have the Chicago Blackhawks, and we're not going to have Connor Bedard.

Then you have L.A. who just fired Todd McClellan. You have the Islanders, the Canadians, the Flyers. Then you have your Western Canada swing. You look at this schedule overall for this month. They had a lot of off days with the by-week and the allster break. Their legs should be totally refreshed. You then have this game against Winnipeg. A couple more days off before a back-to-back.

And then a few more days off before another back-to-back. and then a few more days off before Yarm or Yager night on February 18th. They're going to have plenty of off days throughout this month to really keep their legs refreshed, even though they just had the break. But again, it's still put up or shut up time. These points matter so much right now. And we're going to find out real quick if this team has what it takes to make the playoffs and get back after missing last year.

So I did a little math before we hit record. I went through the schedule the rest of the way. So this month, they've got seven games against teams currently in or fighting for a playoff spot and only two Metro games. So not a big deal there. Coming up in March, they've got nine games against playoffs teams currently in the playoff picture. Seven of those are against the Metropolitan Division. And they have 16 games in total. So they play half the month in March.

And then in April, they've got four. games against the Metropolitan Division. So that means they have 13 total division games to go, which puts a lot of points on the line for this team in the stretch run. So at this point, if you're the Penguins, you have to at the very least take advantage of these Metropolitan Division games because you've got games on hand in everybody. You're only seven points out. And normally seven points out in the National Hockey League.

is almost an unclimbable mountain. But with the games in hand, it's going to put them over teams with a tiebreaker. It's going to put them over teams that don't, or have played more games. So at this point, you don't want to write games off. You obviously want to string together as many wins as you can,

but you need to highlight, underline, bold, italicize, whatever, those metro games. Because that many points on the line against your division, where you are very much in the thick of it with a couple of teams falling, that is where you have to make your money.

That is where you have to make your move. So, yes, they've got to look good against the Winnipegs, the Florida's, the Vancouver's of the world, but the Metro games are as important as they've ever been, and you can't go to overtime. You cannot seed points to these teams. You have to get two clean points. You do the words right out of my mouth there.

I hate overtime games. when you play the Metropolitan Division. It just, it doesn't help you. I mean, it helps you a little bit, but you're also obviously helping the other team. So that's not good of. You got to win those games in regulation. And going off what you said, they only have two Metro games this month. But look who they're against.

The Islanders who are also fighting for their playoff lives, they haven't had that new head coach bump from Patrick Wages yet. It could be coming, but they still looked pretty inconsistent in the first few games under him. That's at home. And that's the third of four games against the Islanders before they, and the season on the island against them. And then, just a few days later, you have the Flyers for the fourth and final game against them this season. You just beat the Flyers in Philadelphia a few weeks ago, and you dominated the Flyers in that game.

Now you're coming home to play them. You need two clean points in those two games. I think those are the two most important games of this month with where the Penguins are in the standings, with how the Islanders and them are literally one point apart. And with Penguins trailing the Flyers, but only a few points. wins but having the games in hand, you take four clean points there and you're able to get consistent results in your other games. You're going to set yourself up looking really nicely heading into the gauntlet that we call March. And the biggest thing there is we talked about

it right before the break. The flyers are sinking like a rock. They're starting to look more like the flyers we expected. And they only, again, they only have one goalie right now. That's Sam Erson. The whole Carter Hart situation, we'll have to see what comes with that. But they only only have one NHL competent goalie on their roster right now. And I don't know if Sam Erson is built for a lot of this run that he's going to get because he's never had that type of workload before in the NHL. So I'm going to be curious to see how that goes for them. Agreed.

And the other thing is at this point with the way the Metro is setting up and the way the Atlantic is setting up, your best bet is to get into the top three of the Metro for the playoffs. because I have a sneaking suspicion that the two wild card spots are going to go to the Atlantic Division. And at this point, you don't want to run that gauntlet of the Atlantic Division. Because, yes, New York and Carolina are very good teams, but I do believe they are both beatable. But then you look at the Atlantic and you've got Boston, you've got Florida, you've got Tampa, Toronto. And then the only other team that I look at that maybe is beatable, and this wouldn't really happen in a wildcard situation, because I don't see them breaking into the top three and staying there is Detroit. So at this point, if you're the Penguins, you want to get that two, three matchup in the Metro for the first round and maybe fight your way out of an easier, somewhat weaker division.

I would agree with you on that. And obviously, if you get the two, three matchup and the team gets in, you're playing one of New York or Carolina. and I'll say this, if we get another Penguins Rangers series, I think both New York and Pittsburgh as cities might combust, considering how much these two fan bases absolutely hate each other, and I would say the teams at this point. I've been wanting to see a Pittsburgh Carolina series for quite a long time, but I also know how the hurricanes play.

They just really frustrate the Penguins, but I've still been wanting to see it happen because I've always at least admired and respected Rod Rindamor for quite some time. But yeah, if you get into that two-three matchup, you are probably going to play one of those two teams. But it all gets started February 7th tomorrow against the Winnipeg Jets at home before the Penguins have a couple of days off.

And then Friday they go to Minnesota to take on the wild. And then Saturday they have a game in Winnipeg against the Jets. So two games against Winnipeg in the span of less than a week. And speaking of that, we're going to preview the first of the two games against the Jets on Tuesday morning for you all, then recap this game on Wednesday, and then get you all set for the back-to-back later on this week. But that I'll do it for this episode of the Lock-on, podcast. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We really appreciate it. We'll be back with another

episode for you all on Tuesday.