Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Malkin's big night leads the Penguins over the Blue Jackets!

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins made it two in a row over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night and Evgeni Malkin was a major reason why. Hunter and Pat start the show with the play from Geno and how he had one of his best games of the season. They discuss how he notched another 20-goal season and how he still has some miles left on those tires, despite being 37. No, he's not washed. After that, they dive into Sidney Crosby's performance and how he continues his strong stretch before analyzing Drew O'Connor's game and how he's been a major bright spot this season. They then look at the way the Penguins defended in the third period and wonder where that, plus the Carolina game, have been for most of this season. Finally, Hunter and Pat give their keys for the Penguins to sweep the home-and-home and the season series on Saturday night.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. 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.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.FanDuelNew customers, join today and you’ll get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your first 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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Penguins beat down Little Brother yet again on Thursday night. And Pat and I are going to recap that game for you all right after this. 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 Damby. You can follow him on Twitter at Cinderin Frulrette. And you can follow the shows Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins, of course. Thank you all so much for making this your first lesson slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Fansul. Make every moment more.

Right now, new customers get $200 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $200. If your bet wins, visit fandul.com slash lockdown. to get started. So the Pittsburgh Penguins, yet again, defeat the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night by a score of 3 to 2. They are now 3 in 0 and 0 against the Blue Jackets this year,

and they'll go for the season series sweep against the jackets on Saturday as the second half of the home and home will get underway that night. And the Penguins have now won 15 straight games at home against the Blue Jackets. November 13th, 2015, was the last time the Blue Jackets won a game. in Pittsburgh. And I have two things to say about that. A, I was a senior in high school the last

time the Blue Jackets won a game in Pittsburgh. And B, PBG Paints Arena was not even the name of the Penguins Arena at that time. It was Consol Energy Center. So it's been quite a while since the jackets won a game in Pittsburgh. But getting to this game overall, the first period, not much happened at all. It was certainly a period of hockey that was played, to say the least, It was pretty boring overall. But then the action picked up in the second period. You had two goals aside for each team. And then Drew O'Connor gets the game winner,

not even a minute into the third period. And by the way, that was a beautiful missile of a shot for him to get his 12th goal of the season. But I want to start today's show with some praise for Evgeny Malkin. He was awesome in this game. It's been a while since we've seen one of those quote-unquote geno bombs on the power play. But he uncorked that sucker when he got the puck from Chris.

Let's hang. He then gets his second goal of the night to tie the game at 2-2 off of a brilliant feed from Cindy Crosby. I loved how Gino waded out Terosov. He was kind of scrambling around in his net a little bit and then tucked it five whole. You could tell that having his parents in the building watching him really galvanized him a little bit. And Gino was able to get his 20th and 21st goals of the season. And you look at his overall numbers, 21 goals, 55 points in 72 games. I understand that Evgeny Malkin is not what he used to be, for God's sakes, people. He's 37. He's going to be 38 over the summer.

But to say that he's cooked or that he's washed, I think that's a little ridiculous, in my opinion. Yes, I've been critical of Malkin at times on the show just because he's gone through stretches of play, where we just really haven't seen him struggle like that throughout his career. But again, we have to remember that he is in his upper 30s, and he's also had a very weird rotating cast of line. mates throughout the season. At one point, Colin White was on his line for a handful of games. But I just wanted to take some time to shout out of Guinea Malkin because he had one heck of the game last night. And those performances need to be jotted down always because you're not going to be getting these type of performances from Gino forever. No, you won't. And I think you're absolutely right.

He even spoke about it after the game that the presence of his parents in the building really seem to motivate him to play a little bit better. He even joked, I wish they'd have been here in October or November, so we could have really gotten things going better earlier in the season. But yeah, I mean, I like the contrast, too, of both of both of the goals, because if the first goal was that patented Geno bomb where he just lets one go and just overpowers the goalie, the other was a case study in patience and skill because like you said, he could have easily just tried to fire that one top shelf with the goalie down and out, but he could see that he didn't really have that lane.

So he waits him out, keeps it low, beats him under the pads, and gives the penguins a tying goal again on the power play. And overall, I liked his game last night. This was another game that we like to see from McGinn-Malkin, where he's very engaged. He's playing in all three zones. He's asserting himself physically, and he's one of the better players on the ice. And I agree overall that I think aside from the age and the fact that he has a lot of miles on his body,

the lack of consistent wingers has hurt him. If anything should be a priority this offseason, it should be to find somebody to staple to of Gennie Malkin's wing for the majority of the season, because we know injuries happen, slumps happen, things like that. But you've got to find somebody that can sit there on Gino's wing for the majority of the season and help him out because at 38, which will be next season, yeah, he's probably going to be a little bit slower. He's not going to be as good as he once was. But he still has the power and the skill to be a genuinely very good hockey player on this roster. Agreed.

And I even put a tweet out last night when he scored his second goal, asking people if we can stop with the washed allegations with him, of getting Malkin and I had so many people come in my mentions where my replies are like, no, he's still washed, look at the turnovers, look at all this other stuff. And it's like, again, 21 goals, 55 points in a season where the Penguins power play has been flat out awful and he's had really bad linemates for most of the season. The Penguins have an average power play. He probably has, what, at least 65 points in those 72 games.

He's probably close to a point per game player right now. He is not washed at all. The fact that this is the 15th season in his career, he's had 20 or more goals. Yeah, scoring is up in the NHL this year and up over all over the last couple of seasons, but there aren't many guys who can say that they have been able to get 20 or more goals in a season that much and still continue to do it this season. If he can put together a 20, 25 goal campaign next year and you build out this depth and then you have Sid who at this rate looks like, he might be going for the record for most consecutive point per game seasons, well, then you might have something here next year. Agreed. And I do think some people have unrealistic

expectations for Gino because they watch Cindy Rosby do what he's doing at age 36. But Gino was never going to age like Sid is doing. And I think most players that are since age in the Angel are not going to age like I mean, Sid is just one of a kind. So I think there's also that you have to throw in there as well. Again, has Evgeny Malkin lost a step? Absolutely. He's a bit older now compared to where he was in 2015, 2016, even before then. But is he washed or is he done?

No, and I think you're going to see that next season as well. He's also closing on a couple of big milestones heading into next season right now, 492 goals, eight more goals to 500, and also 16 more points to 1,300 points in the NHA. Speaking of Cindy Crosby, I mentioned him. him just a second to go. Another 2.9 for the captain, Pat, nine points in his last three games. It looks like right now he's probably a lot for his 19th straight point per game season.

And also, we should congratulate Crosby on becoming 11th all-time on the NHL's all-time scoring list, passing Ray Bork. He has 1,580 points, 10 more from tying Phil Esposito for top 10 all-time. There's a chance that he could tie Esposito by the end of the season. and if he keeps producing the way he's been these last few games. And also a couple big milestones coming up for Crosby. Five more assists until he hits 1,000 for his career and 15 more goals until he hits 600 for his career. Just another ho-hum, great night for the captain.

Yeah, he again led the way. You know, you see the two assists. And, you know, it's easy to look at that and say it's not much. But just, again, it was another game where his overall body of work was fantastic. great in all three zones. He was a force in the offensive zone as he has been as of late. And I mean, at this point, I think it's safe to say he's going to get to the 82 point mark. He's only a handful of points away.

There's still 10 games to go. And just the way he's finding his stride right now kind of shows you that even if this season has not gone the way it's supposed to go, you can tell this is a guy who cares about his legacy. He may never talk about it. He may never come out and give him. himself praise for what he does individually because that's not who he is, but he's a deeply proud, deeply competitive person. And players like that care about where they sit in the history books of the National Hockey League. You know what play of his that I really loved last night? That's not

going to show up on the score sheet. It was at the end of the third period. They're trying to just win the game. Columbus has the goal he pulled. And Sid comes on to the ice and he kills at least 30 seconds of that six on five opportunity before he got penalized with less than 30 seconds to go. He killed 30 seconds of it in the Blue Jackets' own end, just being a agitator along the boards and just pinning the puck on his skate and not letting any of the Blue Jackets players get it out. And he was flat out wasting time so the jackets couldn't go down and potentially tie the game to send it to overtime. It's that drive and it's that passion that still separates him from a lot of other players in the NHL.

I know a lot of people that follow this team, you know, listen to Norsha, want this team to lose out, you know, to get that better draft pick to have a better chance at getting Celebrini. But Crosby is not going to let that happen. He is not going to let this team just tank over their final 10 games. Sure, they could still lose a good chunk of these remaining games, but it's not going to be because I've said. He is still going to try to will them to every single win that he can

heading into next season, even if this team likely does miss the playoffs. It's just not how Crosby, Malkin, Latang, Rust, and a few of the other guys are wired. They're just, they're not going to go quietly into the night. They just aren't. And I know we said they might be that looked that way after the Jake Gensel trade, but they got through their morning period and it definitely hurt their prospects of getting in. But at this point, they are going to battle all the way through at Game 82. Agreed, 100%.

And I think that will wrap up this first segment of today's episode. Coming up in the second segment, we're going to get into Drew Connor's goal and how he continues to mature before our very eyes and detail how the Penguins did another great job of defending a third period lead. That's two games in a row where the Penguins have done a fabulous job with the lead in the final frame. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about eBay Motors, passion drive and patience. what brings home the winning trophy is also it keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors is everything you need to maintain your vehicle and leveled up to peak performance from superchargers, roof racks, exhaust kits, LED headlights, and more.

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and bring home that win. Keep your ride-dry live at eBay motors.com eligible items only. Exclusions apply and eBay guarantee fit is only available to you as customers. All right. We're back here in this episode of the Walktime Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host Patrick Dam.

So Drew O'Connor gets the game-winning goal for the Penguins right away to start the third period. 35 seconds in. He notches his 12th goal of the season, also has a career high in points with 27. And as I teased heading into this second segment, the way that he has matured throughout this season

has been something to watch. It's honestly been one of my top bright spots for this season overall. Even though there's been a lot of negativity surrounding the team, seeing O'Connor assert himself as a bona fide good bottom six player, or at least a third line player that can also play top six minutes. if you need him to. That has been awesome to see. And that release was something else.

After struggling a little bit against Carolina, still getting the empty net goal, he carried that final shift over into this game against Columbus and had one of his finest games of the year. I continue to be really impressed by this kid. Yeah, he's having a career year overall. 12 goals. That's a high.

15 assists. That's a high. 27 points. That's a high. He's reminding me a lot of a Brian Rust type player. to where you're probably not going to give him a true defined role. Now, I will say Brian Rust has grown into a bona fide top six winger, and I think he's going to remain there the rest of his career until it starts falling off a little bit when Father time comes for him.

But you look at the way he plays the game. There's nothing fancy about it. There's nothing that's overly skilled. There's nothing that really looks like he's, you know, a sniper or a big time playmaker. he's just a very honest hockey player. He works very hard. He is for the most part positionally sound. And he takes what the game gives him.

Rather than trying to create on his own and do more than he is capable of doing, he gets to those areas where he can score goals. He plays a game with a little bit of an edge. He's a very fast skater. And a lot of those things I'm describing are how you could describe Brian Rust. when he came into the league in the 15-16 season and really started to make his mark in that first Stanley Cup run in 2016. So I like a lot of what I've been seeing from Drew O'Connor,

and this is a guy that I think going forward can be one of those, quote-unquote, younger pieces. He's 25, so, you know, he's not early 20s like a lot of the people want to see this team get, but he is definitely in the crop of players that if this team wants to get a little bit younger, a little bit faster, that's a guy that you have. hang on to unless you get a really good offer or return package for him, which at this point, for a guy who's only got a little shade under 30 points, I don't think a lot of teams are going to come call him.

No, I don't think so either. And I also don't think you should move him during the summer at all. Again, he's shown an ability to play top six minutes when needed now. Do I want him on the top line for a full eight to a game season? No, I would like the Penguins squad there this summer and get another bona fide top six winger where that's three agency if you can somehow convince jake ensel to come back or it's via trade but you still got to get someone to i guess upgrade of o'connor and then you can move him down to a third line role which i still think he is better suited for at this point in his career if you can have

him on your third line with someone like valetri pusson on the other wing and then even ellor or an upgrade at third line center i'll be pretty happy about that heading in the next season in a perfect world i would love to see an upgrade over ell at third line center and that's not to say I haven't liked Ellers game this year. I think he's been fantastic for the Penguins, but I think a player that is a bit better than him and a bit younger than him could slot in there and maybe get a little bit more out of O'Connor

and potentially Pustin for next season. That's at least my dream for a third line heading into next year. For sure. And to keep the Brian Rust comparison going, I also think Drew O'Connor meshes fairly well with Evgeny Malkin. I don't think that he has to, he can or should be the answer we talked about

in the first segment of Malkin needing a consistent winger next season. But similar to Rust early in those earlier days, he's a guy that can slot in there for a handful of games or a little bit of an extended stretch when need be and not look out of place because he hasn't, which is funny because, you know, again, to keep Brian Russ comparison going, Rust has developed some very good chemistry with Sidney Crosby

and plays very well with Sidney Crosby. On the other hand, Drew O'Connor and Sidney Crosby are oil and water. they really do not mix that well. So I think that's where the value lies with Drew O'Connor right now and into the future. Right. And I think part of the reason why he's up there is they like how bunting has matched with Gino so far as well. You can put bunting with either Crosby or Malkin. I prefer him a little bit more with Cid, though I do know he's working well with Malkin.

Again, it doesn't really matter which one you put him with. But if I had a preference, I would put Bunting with Sid and move O'Connor. to the second line, which you know, but again, that's just my opinion on that. But outside of O'Connor, another thing I really liked about this game for the Penguins is how they defended once they got the lead in the third period. The Jackets only had 0.27 expected goals for at 5-on-5 in the third period after O'Connor gave the Penguins the lead just 30 seconds in. They only had two high-danger chances for in that period as well.

They ended the game with only eight high-danger chances at 5-5. on five. That's two masterclass performances by the Penguins with the lead in the third period. And I ask you this, where has that been all season? I don't know. And again, even not looking at the analytics of it, the Blue Jackets only got all seven shots on goal in the third period while trailing for 19 and a half minutes. And usually score effects kicks in and teams like that just start firing everything at the net because both they're trying to get a tie and goal. and the other team is backing off a little bit, but the penguins didn't really do that.

I will say this, though. There is one thing that still remains a concern for me. We're going to talk about it a little more in the final segment today, but not exactly thrilled with Alex Nadalcovic's game, an 895 save percentage. Grad only faced 19 shots. Not a ton of them were of high quality variety, but you know, you play a team like Columbus,

who we talked about yesterday in the preview, just not a good team. They're very much a team that's in a rebuild mode. They're in a very transitional period because of everything with the coaching staff and the front office. That is a game where, again, I referred to it as cookie night, where it's a night where some guys can maybe get some more points on their stat sheet. And you want it to be a game where your goalie kind of just shuts them down. And I'm not going to say that he didn't because two goals against is not the end of the world.

But when you only face 19 shots, you come out with an 8.95 save percentage. It keeps the trend alive that in the month of March and neither goalie has had a 900 save percentage. And yes, this is a little bit of nitpicking. They got the win. They played well. Nadelcovich wasn't poor. But at the same time, you see where this month has been trending and it continues to be

something that is of concern. See, I get what you're saying with that with the 8.95 save percentage. But I'll push back a little bit to what you're saying as well because you look at the two goals that he gave up, right? That first one, in my opinion, that shouldn't have counted. Unless I'm blind, that puck was over the crossbar when the stick batted it in. I don't know how to I didn't get a chance to weigh in on that with you. But yeah, I agree that that probably should not have counted. And I even had my glasses on for this. I don't usually have my glasses on when I record. I just look like a complete buffoon when I have them on when I record the show with everyone.

But when I put my glasses on when I was reviewing that replayed numerous times as I was watching the game, I'm like, this does not look like a good goal, but the officials gave it to Columbus, whatever. And then the second goal, that was a bad odd man rush given up by the Penguins. Three on one, so Ender is going to make you pay every single time. There's really not much Nadelcovich can do with that three on one again. So those two goals, I'm not only going to pin too much on him. And again, I know he was 8.95, but I still think he played well enough for the team to get the win. Wouldn't be surprised if he gets the start in the second half of the home in

But I still think they could go back to Jari for that game because I don't think they just want to have Jari riding the bench, excuse me, for the rest of the year. For sure. And again, like you're right that that you can't pin either goal on him. But again, you know, it's kind of a chicken and egg kind of thing because, you know, the saves he made were good. He did make a couple of very solid saves when Columbus did get there a couple of chances. But at the same time, I would like to see even though this season. is cooked with only 10 games to go. I would like at the very least to get it out of the season with the goaltending, having stabilized a little bit.

That's fair. And, you know, he didn't make a big save in the third period where the penguins had a power play. And they gave up another short-handed odd man rush because when do they not give up a short-handed odd man rushes when they get a power play. Though they did score two power play goals in that game, which was nice. But that short-handed chance against can't happen. It was good to see Nadalcovich there to make that big save when it was needed.

But I think that will do it for this second segment. Coming up to end the show, we're going to get you all set for part two of this home-and-home against the Blue Jackets and how the Penguins can officially sweep the season series against Columbus. We're going to get into that right after this. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes, join on my co-Patchel. So Penguins Blue Jackets, yet again on Saturday, this time in Columbus,

with that massive canon that I know freaks, everyone out that goes to nationwide, arena. I have not been to nationwide arena yet. I hope to go there at some point one day, but I'm sure I'm going to get a bit scared when I hear that canon go off for the first time. It's a lot of fun. I will say that. I will say that for Columbus fans. I have been to a game at nationwide. It was the 16-17 season, so they were still pretty good. I'm actually pretty sure the Penguins lost that game. But the fans were awesome. The Canon, it's cool. I won't lie. It's very cool. And the fans are cool. Like they, you know, they were asking me like, oh, you're a fan how'd you get here why'd you come by other than being a penguins fan you know you live close all this

stuff so really cool fan base really cool arena and like we were talking about yesterday i do want to see them eventually figure this out for the rivalry's sake and because that's a fan base that's dedicated and they stick with that team and they are very much deserving of a better hockey team agreed and as we said yesterday on the thursday episode they sell out quite a few games nationwide despite being one of the worst teams in the league. And I expect no different for this game on Saturday. I expect a packed house in Columbus despite Columbus not being good. And I'm going to hand the floor back over to you. How do the Penguins beat the Blue Jackets for a fourth time this season and sweep not only the home and home, but the overall season series? I mean, I'm going to, I'm going to channel my,

you know, inner Phil Bork, inner Bob Erie here. And they just got to play with swagger because they know they're the better team. And Columbus knows it too. Now, Columbus isn't going to lay down. They certainly didn't last night. They played a up until about the last 10 minutes of the game. They played a very spirited effort. They had some physicality. They had the lead on two different occasions. And the penguins aren't going to be able to walk in, take two points, go home, have a fun little start to their upcoming road trip. Penguins will have to earn it, but you play the way that you played last night. It's pretty easy, not easy, but it'll be a better way to get two points. Just keep doing more of the same.

And the other thing is, I like the, we talked about it. I like the way they defended last night. They limited the Columbus Blue Jackets to less than 20 shots. And they kept most of their opportunities except for the questionable high sticking goal in the odd man rush. They kept a lot of their opportunities to the outside. And anytime they would get a chance, very rarely was they're a second chance. So they got to play with a little bit of swagger and then they have to defend well and just again put the clamps down on this Columbus team because they're mired in a lot of misery lately and you don't want to be the team that lets them up off the mat. Right. One of the things I do want to see the Penguins do differently in this game is start a bit faster. I didn't

really like the way they played in the first period. I thought they were too lethargic in that period overall. If you can get out ahead of Columbus early in this game, they're going to start to have doubts exactly the way they had doubts when the penguins took the lead for good in the third period, thanks to Joe O'Connor. Yeah, they played a bit spirited for the first half of the third period, but after that, you just knew Blue Jackets were going to lose that game because their play started to dip. I mean, heck, in the final couple of minutes, when the Blue Jackets had their net emptied,

it didn't matter if it was a six on five or six on four when Crosby took his pen. the blue jackets never really came close to scoring and they didn't have a shoot first mentality at all. It looked like that they resigned themselves that they were going to lose that game. If you can get on them early in this one, they should have no problem winning this game in Columbus against a bad team. Yeah, a fast start is obviously very important. I also just want to see Crosby and Malkin continue to be Crosby and Malkin. And lastly, got to think about the movie Major League. We won a game yesterday.

We won a game before that. If we win today, that's three in a row. It's called a winning streak. They have happened before. And I'm not going to start the Hopium here. They're seven points out. They got some help with the teams in front of them on Thursday night. No, not going to get into it.

But it would be kind of funny if they did win that game and got closer to a playoff spot. We both know how the season is probably going to end. but wouldn't it be hilarious if they won that game and got more help and then got to within five points of the playoff spot again? The second wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference is the greatest piece of charity that's ever happened in the history of hockey. It's just no, you take it. No, you take it.

No, no, no, no, I don't want it. That's all yours. No, no, no, no, please, please, please. I'm telling you, it's yours. I don't want it. That team, whoever gets in, just going to be a first-round fodder for whoever that team plays, whether it's Florida, Boston, the Rangers or even the hurricanes, whoever gets the number one seed in the Eastern Conference overall.

But do you have anything else to add for this game on Saturday? If the jackets do start that Teresov kid, the Penguins are going to have to be on high alert. I think he played a really sound game for the jackets on Thursday night. That toe save that he made on Crystal Tank's wrap-around was a thing of beauty. He kept the jackets in that game, especially when the Penguins were really turning it on in the second period and then even the third period as well.

The Penguins ended up doubling the jackets in shots. And that game could have been a lot worse if Tarasov was not in that. I think at this point, he's better than Elvis Merzleekins. Yeah, they might have something in him. That kid might be a good backup for Merzleacons. Should Merzleekins stabilize? I think he's kind of on a much worse scale in a similar position to Tristan Jari to where he's a good goalie, but he's got a bad team in front of him.

And he's not quite a top-tier guy yet. I think Merzleekins could be one day. But right now he's not there yet and you have the kind of team in front of him that he does. It's just that's how the chips fall for him. So I do think, again, we've talked about it with the Blue Jackets. They've got a very bright future. A lot of young talent, a lot of potential there. The next general manager makes some savvy moves and they could be right back in the conversation.

And it certainly starts in net because they have a lot of talent there. Agreed. I would not be surprised at all if he starts. And I do think he probably will get the start. We'll have to also see if Alex Nealander draws back. second, he's been skating for the boot jackets. He did not play in this game in Pittsburgh, but we'll have to see if he plays against his former team on Saturday.

And keeping with that, would not be surprised if he scores against the penguins because, again, almost every time a former penguin plays the penguins, that player scores. And he's been also- Unless you're Jake Gensel. I know, except Jake Gensel. He was nice enough to not score against the penguins earlier this week when the hurricanes came to town. But I think that will do it for this episode of the Lock-on Penguins podcast.

I do want to say, hopefully Ryan Graves is able to get a full recovery for his concussion. He left that game against Columbus. Early on, he has been diagnosed with a concussion, so he'll probably be out for this game against the jackets. And John Ludwig will draw back in and will be paired up with Jackson. I haven't again, best wishes to Ryan Graves as he recovers from that. But overall, that would do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this episode.

Pat and I will be back with another show for you all on Monday. to recap this game against the jackets and get you all set for plenty more Metropolitan Division matchups. They are playing quite a few Metro games to end the month of March and to start the month of April. But for Patrick Damp, I am Hunter Hodes. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We'll talk with you all on Monday.