Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Let's just get this party started!

Episode Date: July 29, 2020

In this episode of Locked On Penguins, it is part 3 of the crossover with Scott and Laura of Locked On Canadiens. It's the final installment of it and they join Hunter to break the matchup down with the Canadiens lines and defensive pairings. Both Scott and Laura give us the details on some line matchups that we could see going on in the series (such as the Aston-Reese line against the Danault line or the Sidney Crosby line against them), plus more talk about Carey Price and how if he turns into December mode, it could be a lot tougher for the Penguins. Finally, the three hosts make their predictions for the series at the end! 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.

Hello, welcome to this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show is Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. So we are back today with part three of the crossover with Scott and Laura. We're basically breaking it all down in this episode and having a prediction at the end. So here it is our final installment of the big crossover preview between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Montreal Canadiens.

All right. So now that we've talked about all the storylines, I guess it is finally time to, to let's just break down this series, do a head-to-head breakdown. And then at the end, we'll just give our predictions as to who do you think we're going to win. So, Scott, I'm going to give this to you. Just break it all down for the Canadians. And then I'll push it up and sure it'll give it to Laura. Just break it down the lines, you know, what the penguins will expect going into this series.

I'm going to break down the rosters as such. The penguins have won Sidney Crosby. The Canadians do not have a single Sidney Crosby, therefore advantage penguins so far, but it's looking at the lineups going into this. Everyone knows the Canadians live and die by the strength of their top line of Thomas Tatar, Philip Dono, and Brendan Gallagher, who are one of the best offensively generating lines in the offensive zone and an incredible defensive unit as well, which is kind of amazing, because Thomas Tatar, for whatever reason, could never get the trust of Gerard Gallant in Vegas.

And now he's part of a trio that is one of the best lines in the NHL. And then after there, like we kind of discussed in our previous episode, is it's very muddled about who is the 2C, who's the 3C, who's the 4C behind that. And right now, I'm slotting Nick Suzuki into the second center spot. And then what they're doing for Wingers is anybody's guess. He could have Juehain and Armiah, he could have Lekin and Impirin. and he could have Domi and Kottkinemi. There's so many potential combinations. And then even sliding down to the third line is, you know,

is it Yaspari Kotkenyemi is your third line center? Is it Max Domi is your third line center? Is it something else that we don't know yet? There's so many options that it gives Claude Julian kind of the advantage to play around, depending on what he wants in a given night. And then the fourth line, it looks like, is going to be some combination of Dale Weiss, Jordan Wheel and Jake Evans. And I'm shocked that Dale Weiss is going to be an NHL playoff starter in the year of our Lord 2020.

But here we are, because my theory is, Claude Julian only saw Dale Weiss when Dale Weiss was at his best playing against the Bruins. Therefore, he has a much higher opinion of what Dale Weiss is to the Canadians these days. And from there, Laura, you talked about it last episode. The defense kind of lives or dies by Shea Weber and Jeff Brees. Petrie, right? Absolutely. And honestly, like, there's a lot of conversation about whether Shea Weber is the top

defenseman or Jeff Petrie is the way that they set up the lines. It's like, Shea Weber is the first pairing. But in terms of responsibility, I feel like it's quietly given to Jeff Petrie. And it's sort of to the Habs detriment, to be honest, because, for example, on the first power play unit on the half, like, it's Shea Weber playing the point. always Shea Weber playing the point. Whereas Jeff Petrie is able to drive play in quarterback, and he's always on the second power play unit.

And while the Canadians kind of have, I'm going to say, like they've got like a good dynamic set of forwards. They always end up going out from Shea Weber and all the other teams for the last, I don't know how long, Shea Weber has been in the NHL, they know what to expect. So I think that it really depends on. whether Claude Julian makes a decision to sort of, I don't know if you could do it, like you could call it a fake out or whatever, is to set it up so that the penguins expect

Shea Weber to be playing those minutes and to be playing the point on the powerplane and all of that, to have that responsibility and then, you know, him kind of sliding in Jeff Petrie, but Mike Sullivan's not stupid. So I think the biggest thing that we've talked about all year is the Canadians kind of, They've got two on the right, right? And then we don't know who can play with them. And the big expectation was Alexander Romanov was going to come in and play with them next year. Wouldn't it be nice for him to be able to play in this series?

And then the NHL said, nah, we hate fun, so deal with it and et cetera, et cetera. As good as the Canadians are on the right side, the left side is a constant hodgepodge of Ben Chirot, Victor Mette, and Brett Kulak, but now there's also players like Gustav Oliveson, Xavier Wollett can play on the left side. They've had some of the younger guys who play on the right on the left-hand side. It's going to be a hodgepodge. And I wouldn't be shocked to be seeing if it, I wouldn't be shocked to see a different third pairing from the Canadians every single kind of game going forward.

It's just, it's such a crapshoot that they're hoping Romanov can be that guy that steps in, or they hoped he would be the one that would step in in this playoff and get that experience, but obviously that's on hold now till next year. And I just actually wrote about this is that my theory, and it's not even a theory, it's backed up by stats, is that when Jeff Petrie and Brett Kulak screw up something on the ice, it's never something small and it always gets blown up in their face. But they're an incredibly good defensive pairing that I think should be given more of a run out against Pittsburgh's offensive firepower and kind of ease the order, the load on

Shea Weber's back. And maybe you may get him into the offensive zone a little bit more. Give him some of those chances to use his still very potent shot and everything else. It all depends on how Claude Julian wants to match up against the Pittsburgh offense and how deep it is. Yeah. Getting in front of a, Shea Weber slap shot is not going to be fun for any of the Penguin players, but I'm sure a couple are going to do it, and hopefully they won't pay the price with any

broken bones or anything, because that shot is just potent, like you said, it's potent, it's fast, and it just, I've seen an epic skills competition, it's just ridiculous. But for the Penguins lines, they're pretty, I know you guys, your defensive pairings are kind of a little bit up in the air, kind of like we're called June's going to do, especially on the left side, But the penguins, they're pretty dead set on what they're going to do for their lines coming out of training camp. Top six is just, we all know it's just very filthy. Jake Gensel is back 100%. At times he was like, yeah, I'm not really sure if I'm going to play.

Jake Gensel's back. Sidney Crosby with Connor Sherry. They will put that line out very much. I'm not going to try to count how many ships they'll be out there, but they will be out there a lot. Jason Zucker of Gennie Malkin, Brian Russ. Again, the Malkin and Russ duo has just been ridiculous this season of getting Malkin was on another planet. Brian Russ was going to be a 30 goal score if this season had not been paused. And then it gets interesting.

The third line, well, you want to call the third line. They kind of call the Aston-Rees-Bluger-Tanav-Line their third line because they can just put it out there in any situation. They can get the job done just because Mike Sullivan trusts them so much. But the biggest X-Factor line, if you want to say that, is the McCann line. And I have him as my biggest X factor outside of the goaltenders and the core players because whenever the Penguins have won a Stanley Cup in the Sydney Crosby era, one of the biggest reasons is their third line center has just gone off. Jordan Stalled it in 2009 when he really came into his own against a very good Detroit Red Wings team. I think that's probably one of the best salary cap teams of this era. And then Nick Benino in 2016, we all know what he did with the Magic 2017.

he did it again. And now Jared McCann has a chance to replicate that. Had a very strong start to the season and then had a stretch towards the late stages where he had a one goal in 25 game stretch, one goal, 20 games. Just very, very bad. Oh, yeah, Patrick Marlow is also a penguin in case people forgot. They're trying to get him his first Stanley Cup. And he would probably honestly walk off to the sunset.

And then Patrick Hornquist, who had a very rejuvenated season. So that line is going to be very interesting. We talked about it on the last episode. If the Canadians are going to potentially find a mismatchable forward line, I think that one would be it because they really have not spent a lot of time playing together. We all know what the Ashton-Rees Blue Retanav Line can do defensively. They're on the line numbers just speak for themselves. When Mike Sullivan puts them on the ice, they do one job.

They get the puck out of the zone, and they just harass you until they get off the ice. And then defensively, Dumlin with Chris LaTang, we all know that's the top pairing. they play very, very well together. And then the young rookie John Marino is going to be getting his playoff debut. I'm going to be curious to see what happens with him. Is there any nerves that come into his game? He was just so flawless this whole season. Marcus Pedersen.

And then we all know the third pairing guys. Jack Johnson, Justin Schultz. If the Canadians want to target that pairing all they want, I'm sure no one will blame them because they are just two very, very bad defensemen and have been all season and I really don't want to talk about Jack Johnson anymore, to be honest. Well, that's too bad because I'm going to make you talk about Jack Johnson. And just how bad was Jack Johnson like this year? Because originally, before he signed with Pittsburgh, the Canadians were allegedly interested in him.

And I wrote an article saying, for the love of God, don't sign Jack Johnson, especially to the money he was looking for. As bad as low as expectations were coming into Pittsburgh, has he fallen? and short of even those expectations already? Oh, absolutely, yeah. He's just, he's a tire fight. That's really just what he is. He just, he makes the dumbest errors on the ice that I just, I just, I scratch my head at. He can't keep the puck in at the blue line.

Makes bad pinching decisions. There was a time during this season where honestly his underlying numbers were above 50% for, and this was a little sample size with Justin Schultz because, wow, they were getting sheltered minutes and going up again. the third and fourth lines of teams, which Mike Sullivan was able to control because they were on home ice and they had last change, but he's just not good. And they have three more years left of this obitrust of a contract for reasons why. I don't know why Jim Rutherford decided to do it. Seattle, Ron Francis, if you're listening to this podcast, we can offer you Jack Johnson with a sweetener involved, too, if you would like. But he was just 47%

course he fan work percentage this season. Last year he was 45.8. He's been that way for a long time. They knew what they were getting in him. It's nothing but bad, bad, bad. And it didn't help the matter is when Justin Schultz was just as bad. So, like, I'll say it again. The Canadians want to create a mismatch or create one big one.

You go after that pairing. Jack Johnson will make a mistake that will probably end up in back in the back of the Penguins' Nat. Justin Schultz was part of that. He had a resurgence in Pittsburgh after kind of unceremoniously being dumped by the Oilers, who shockingly misused his talents. Did his injuries, you know, that he suffered in Pittsburgh and just time away from the ice kind of set him back a little bit? Or was he never as good as his resurgence made it seem?

Yeah, you know, he was really good in 2015-16. That's when he was, they started him off giving him sheltered pairing minutes. And it actually worked because he was playing with Ian Cole, who I felt was pretty underrated at the time. a lot of the Penguins fame, but that's a discussion for another day. Then 2016-17 comes. Crystal Tang is basically done for a lot of that season. That was his best season of his initial career.

He had like a 50-point season, got paid right after that season, played like a top-paring top-four defenseman, and then had a good start to the next season, then the injury starts. He breaks his ankle, comes back, just as not the same. Then the next season gets hurt again, comes back, not the same, looks a step slow. Then this season, I think he got hurt again for a while. just not the same. He just hasn't been the same for a couple of years now. And it's a clean slate now.

I'm going to hope that he plays maybe even half of what he did in 2016-17, but I'm not really going to get my hopes up for it. But it's just been, it's been hard for him. I kind of feel bad. This is a contract year for him. He was probably hoping he could get a raise from his $5.5 million per. I'm not really going to think, I don't really think he's going to. but I did want to ask both of you.

So there's been this discussion, of course, about Kerry Price, you know, oh, yeah, you know, teams are still afraid of him and his numbers the last couple of years have gone down a bit. Was his, how was his, I didn't get to watch as many Montreal games as I could this season. How was his game this season for the most part? Is it the numbers deceive it a little bit, or is he still one of the elite, elite, elite goaltenders in this? this league or has he like truly fallen off a bit these last couple of seasons? Well he has a nightmare November now every every season that's kind of his thing now. Um, is that at the beginning of the year, all the hopes kind of rest on Kerry Price and then

it's, it's, it's really like he has like an awful November, like abysmal. Like I don't even, it's soul crushing. That's how bad it is. But then if you, if you were paying attention and the problem is the Canadians weren't putting up the results to back this up. But after that, like in December and January, he was playing phenomenally. Like, you look at him and, or you would look at him. I don't know what he's like right now, but you would look at him and you would be like,

I'm seeing the old Carrie Price, like night in and night out, he would keep the Canadians in. And so the problem kind of, like, it was goaltending in November. Like early on when they struggled, it was because they weren't getting the goaltending so any mistake they made was ending up in their net. But then when he was playing better, it's that the Canadians started making, like, it was like a larger volume of mistakes if you want.

And so, you know, at some point, like a lot of the times, the goals he was letting in, like any goaltender would. Like, they were mostly not his fault. And unfortunately, how well he played in December and January were kind of overshadowed by the fact that the Canadians weren't able to score. There was no defensive coverage. And so they were still losing games. Yeah, games were, you know, 3-1, 2-1 or 2-0.

Like, Carrie Price makes 35 saves, but lets in one goal because the penalty kill sucks. And everyone goes, well, what the hell, Carrie? And it's like, can he score goals too? I'm one, I'm sure that he can. He's talented enough. It's, we talked about it in the previous episodes or whether or not the special teams can work for the Canadians. If they can get the penalty kill to be even remotely passable, they're going to be fine because Price usually stops like 98% of what he sees,

give or take a few ridiculous things against. And he's not the guy who won every award in the NHL anymore. Like he's still very good, though, in that, like Laura said, his December was, you want to try and score on Carrie Price, you better do something really damn amazing to get a puck by him because he was just in that mode where he made everything look easy. You know, coming across glove, easy. You know, side of the cross-sides, get it with the toe, easy.

Everything looks simple to him. But when he's struggling and second-guessing his defenders, you can tell because he'll be cheating and he'll be out of position or his defenders will be falling on him. If he trusts his defense in front of him and just kind of gets into that mode, it takes a lot to beat Kerry Price. And it's a matter of he's been away from the ice for what, four and a half months coming into this.

Can he get into that mode enough to win three out of five games against a very good penguins team now? Now that we have a little bit of a break, it is time to talk about rockato.com. It's a family business serving auto park customers online for 20 years. You can go to rockado.com to shop for auto and body parts from hundreds of manufacturers. The catalog is unique and remarkably easy to navigate. You can quickly see all the parts available for your vehicle and choose the brand's specifications and prices you prefer.

Best of all the prices. are always reliably low in the same professionals and do it yourselves. Why should you spend up to twice as much for the same parts? You can go to rockout.com right now and see all the parts available for your car or a truck. Amazing selection, reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. That is rock auto.com. Yeah, I'm going to hope that this December carry price does not turn into more god mode

for during this three out of five series because I've seen firsthand what a god mode goalie can look like. It's not very fun when a goaltender is just stopping every single thing that comes out. I'm 970, 980,000, 80s, a percentage. But us Penguins fans do also relate to a struggling goaltending as well as a lot of this season, Matt Murray was struggling, and then Trishinjari was struggling a little bit towards the pause. I think in the last month of the season, his numbers started to deteriorate back to normal. And, you know, there's always been this double standard with Tristan Jari and Matt Murray this season, which I've never honestly really understood.

So now let me ask, obviously, like, the goalings have struggled, and we talked about that in one of our previous episodes, how good are the Penguin Special Teams? And is this the kind of series where if Montreal takes a penalty, they should just go ahead and put the goal up on the board? Or is Pittsburgh one of those teams that randomly is off on the power player, the penalty kill for whatever reason, despite the talent at the disposal?

We've seen it in Toronto before, where they were under Mike Babcock is they have all these talented players and their power play just can't score a goal. Is Pittsburgh similar or are they as lethal as they're expected to be? They're not nearly as lethal as they have been in years past. Mark Brecky coaches the power play. I really think he should have his duty stripped of it because the power play went a lot of stretches this season where they would just not score. I think there was a stretch during the beginning of the season in the first couple of months

where they were going, I think it was like 0 for 25, almost like 0 for 30, and then they finally got one, and it was like the seal broke because they started scoring some powerplay goals after that. But it's just, that's just not acceptable with the talent that the penguins can have on the top powerplay

with Cindy Crosby, or Guinea Malk and Chris Lattang, Jake Gensel, whoever you want to put on that fifth person, Patrick Winquist, who's a menace in front of the net, the penalty kill was just much better for the penguins this season. And I'm sorry, that's just crazy to say. But Jacques Martin, who I know you guys know very well because he coached it. The last time the Penguins lost to them in the playoffs, he coaches the penalty kill.

He does a magnificent job. I think a lot of people don't really realize just how good of a defensive coach. Jacques Martin is. He's been here for the last. I think he was here in 2014-15 when Mike Johnson was here. But he stayed on the staff when Mike Sullivan came in. But he just coaches that unit so well. They can put Tannett out there.

They put Aston Reese out there. They can put Duman out there. They were honestly putting Cindy Crosby out there a lot to kill penalties this season. And, you know, he was doing a pretty good job of it. The Penguins penalty kill is just, it was better than their power play during the season. I guess I'll just end with that. And that's just not something, like I said, I thought I would ever admit. I feel very jealous of teams who have functioning special teams at one point or another.

Because the Canadian's whole thing was weird is there was a time when they're Power play was very good. And then they just defaulted to, what if we just give the puck to Shea Weber every time? And then the penalty kill just never got better at all. And Montreal plays that style that they want to hold, you know, they want to slow the game down a little bit. Claude Julian's thing is to kind of clog the game up a little bit. And they can do that with some of their players. But I would, do you think if they opened up with players like Nick Suzuki and Jonathan

and Joane and Max Domi, who are very talented and high-skill players. If they open up with those players against Pittsburgh, are they going to have more success or should they be trying to use some of their Yol Armia's and their Arturi Leckins to kind of grind the play down and slow down a little bit to, you know, slow the play down and try and, you know, mitigate Crosby and Malkin as much as they can. I think, honestly, you know, your first option, because, you know, those are the players that could give the penguins fits, you know, especially on, you know, their special teams and on the power play.

The penguins have been, they give up short-handed goals because of stupidity with plays at the point, they're forcing passes. Those players that you said in your first, you know, with, you know, with Gallagher and all those players, you know, it's just those kind of players that you can just put out there, and they'll be even more dangerous because the penguins will, they'll, They try this thing. They always just try to force pass it on the power play. And it's just very, very annoying.

And when they do that, they shorthand breakaways or two-on-ones. And it's just, I don't get why they've done it so many times. But I've tried to figure it out. I try to go back and watch the tape on it. But, you know, Mark Recky coaches the power play. And hopefully he'll take that into consideration when he sees what players how much you can put out there who are very, very, very. It'll be truly interesting to see whether or not Montreal can get some of their skill players free in this.

Because obviously they have the talented players. It's just a matter of can Drouane be up to the level that we know he can be at. Where is the next level for Nick Suzuki? He's been very good in his rookie season. What's next for Yaspare, Kotkinemi? There's so many questions that it's like, as much as I'm rooting for Montreal to lose and get the lottery pick, I want to have that, I want to see them do something interesting, do something different. Give the kids a chance to go and show what their skill is because they're the future of this team.

And as much as I love Philip Deno and Thomas Dutarr, eventually those are going to be guys who are replaced by Nick Suzuki and Yisperi Kutkiniemi and then Cole Cawfield after that, whenever that day comes. See what the kids have in this series too. obviously you know how good the top line is going to be we we both know and we've agreed on that now see what your skill players can do even if you get if you got to try and line match to get them away from those top lines make something happen to make it to get them out there let them showcase their skills especially drew Wayne who was very good at the start of the year and then got injured he's had all that time to recover if he comes back with that ability that he had at the start of the year. I think he could shock a lot of people in this. Yeah, I was going to ask about

Jureen because when you required him for Surgichab, you know, some people were like, oh yeah, this was just the wing of the Canadians needed. And then, you know, he had some injury problems and he would still produce. But, you know, he got to that level in 2016 against the penguins. I think some, I think some people have forgotten over the years. He was, I think, Tampa Bay's best player that series. And I know this is four years ago, but still, he was just a lightning rock, just everywhere, just beating the penguins everywhere he went, just scoring it well. And like you said, if he can get to that level back to that 2016 level, that's going to be a big problem, I think, for the penguins that they maybe do not expect to happen.

Yeah. And now I kind of have to ask, obviously we know how good Crosby and Malkin and all these players are who is your kind of unsung hero who has the potential the kind of surprise in this playoff i think because everyone knows that everyone knows crosbie's going to be good ever knows malkin's going to be good everyone knows chris the tang is capable of being great as well who is the under you know the unsung hero the underlying player waiting to break out in this series it's it's between two players you know jared mccan he's been dying to break out of this slump that he was in i know it's clean slate now so it's You know, I'll have to say he's breaking out of it.

But still, one goal in his last 20, 25 games before the pause. He is such a key for the Penguins because he's the third line center. He's going to be the third line center of the future. He's centering two players that have really not played with him a lot. Like I've said, when the Penguins win the Stanley Cups, the third line center goes off. Nick Benino, Jordan's stall. Jared McCann needs to go off. He needs to be like the sleeping giant for them, for them to.

just go far of this. And then the other player, if you want to have like a 1B, is John Marino. He had a fantastic rookie season by Nex of Marcus Pedersen. His underlying numbers, the most of all of his defensive numbers are through the roof. And there was just never a situation that was just cheap for him. He was just absolutely outstanding, night in and night out, did not look like an NHL rookie at all. He looked like a player that had been in the league for three to four seasons already. And this could be the start of his, even more, I think, of his big breakout party. And I'm not there yet, and I think not a lot of people are there yet either,

but if he has a very, very good playoff against Montreal, and then if they win a series going even further into the playoffs, I think people could start to realize that he is the next Penguin's number one defenseman when Chris Lattang calls it threats. So like Hunter was just saying the Penguins unsung players, we know, like I said, how good all their stars are going to be. Laura, I mean, I've had my opinions on this. Who do you think the Habs kind of unsung player for this series is going to be?

I guess it depends if you're talking relative to the regular season that they had because Kotkinemi and Max Domi both underperformed this season. I'm expecting Tatar to be good, Deno to be good, Byron to be good. So, you know, I guess relative to the Penguins, it's not elite or superstar level. But so those are like, I think that either. Yaspari Kot Kenyemi or Max Domi is going to come out. But if we're talking like not relative to expectation and context of the season, I think Arturi Lekinen maybe or Yol or Mia.

I'm not stealing your answer, Scott. I promise I'm just saying like these are truly unsung people on the team. So if it like I guess it depends. So it's like if it's truly like a player who nobody expects anything out of that could really turn it on and become one of those guys that you know like the GMs are always saying you have to you win a playoff series with those guys you win in the playoffs with these guys like then you're talking um i'm gonna i'm gonna pick i'm gonna pick arturi lecannon um and and yeah so like i guess those are my two answers depending on context i'm right

there with laura and that arturie lecinen proved in sweden he was a playoff performer when he broke daniel alfredson's playoff scoring record he played really well the last time he was in the playoffs in Montreal, and I think this is a really good chance from the show that he's got the type of play that is very much perfect for, you know, nitty, gritty playoff hockey. It's not always pretty, but it gets the job done. Leckinen does not score many pretty goals, but he just gets the puck to the net when he needs to, and that's, I guess, what's the most important right now anyways. So, Hunter, I got to ask you, what in your unbiased opinion? is going to be the series result here.

Okay, so I've been kind of going back and forth on this one. I will tell you it's not going to be a sweep from. The Penguins are not going to sweep Montreal. They probably ever sleep into the playoffs anyway when they win a series. But I am going to say the Penguins will win this series in four games. Montreal is going to win game two, and then the Penguins will go on to win game three. and then on Cindy Crosby's birthday,

Cindy Crosby will score, and the Penguins will win that game because he is one of the most superstitious hockey players out there, and Cindy Crosby will get a birthday present. So I'm going to go Penguins in four, but I think they're just deeper. I think they're a better team. I just, I think the Penguins will do what needs to be done.

They'll take care of business. And whoever they go up against in the next round, Boston, Tampa, the whatever, that's who the pain wins. Yeah. I don't think it's going to be a sweep either. I'm going to think Montreal steals one game somewhere, but I just don't think they can compete with Pittsburgh's firepower right now. I think it'll be a 3-1 series.

Montreal might win game one or game two, but I think Pittsburgh is going to absolutely just take over. Crosby is going to be in that mindset where he just takes over the. the series at one point, it just refuses to give it back. I'm cheering for the Canadians to get a draft lottery pick out of this anyway. So, like, I'm not trying to be mean to my team, but I don't think that they have the firepower right now to pull off the upset, barring Carrie Price, turning in a ridiculous performance. My prediction is five games.

I think the Canadians are going to win two. I would say that they'll probably win like games three and four. That's kind of my feeling. And then the penguins kind of, you know, in game five are like, all right, let's like, you know, write this ship or let's let's, let's, what do you call it? Not, let's stop messing around, I guess. I don't know. But yeah, that's going to be, that's my prediction. It's going to be five games.

It's not going to be fun for either fan base. it's going to be, I don't think it's ever going to rival like a Montreal, Boston ridiculousness kind of series, but there's definitely going to be shenanigans on both sides. And then, like, things will go that the way they were always meant to, and the penguins are going to at least make noise. I don't know if they'll win the cup, but they'll probably, they'll probably make some noise. And the Canadians will either get, you know, the ninth overall or the first overall. and like that's kind of like how it's supposed to shake out anyway.

So that will basically do it for our three-part crossover series preview with Scott and Laura. I very much appreciate you guys listening to this. We will be back with regular episodes tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday to basically just preview it even more. Maybe you have a couple of guests on before the real fun starts on Saturday at 8 p.m. on NBC Sports Network. And then after that, we'll be breaking it all down for you guys next week. So keep it right here on lockdown. again thank you guys so much for listening to this three-part crossover preview and i will talk to you all

tomorrow