Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Marc-Andre Fleury RETURNS to Pittsburgh for his Penguins farewell!

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

Marc-Andre Fleury is officially back in Pittsburgh, and his farewell tour began with a day at Penguins practice! Patrick and Hunter begin the show recapping Fleury's appearance at Penguins practice on Friday afternoon, as well as his post-practice comments, how the team reacted to his return, and what they're expecting for his preseason appearance. (0:00) Next, they preview Saturday night's matchup against the Blue Jackets, which will be Fleury's farewell game. However, what if it doesn't go according to plan? The big boys on the Penguins' roster will have to show up to make sure Fleury gets the farewell he deserves. (11:49) Finally, the Penguins do have a preseason game on Friday night, and they get you set for game number three when the Detroit Red Wings come to town. (20:45)Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelDownload the FanDuel app now by visiting FanDuel.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins.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.

Did you wake up with a smile on your face today? Did the sunshine just a little bit brighter? Well, it's probably because Mark Andre Fleury is officially back in Pittsburgh. We're going to talk about his return and the weekend of games on this edition of the Locked On Penguins podcast. You're Locked on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to the Friday edition, a flurry Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4 Wet, joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's Twitter account a follow at LO underscore Penguins. You can also find us on Instagram at Locked on underscore. Penguins. And of course, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube. And if you

follow us on YouTube, be sure to hit the notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. Before we get started, this episode is brought to you by Fandul. Download the Fandul app now by visiting Fandul.com win $300 in bonus bets to use across the app if your first $5 bet wins. Hunter, what a fun day at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex today, as Mark Andre Fleury for one last time dawned his iconic yellow pads, took to the ice, practiced with the penguins, as his mini farewell tour with the penguins began.

It was a packed house at the arena with fans lining up as early as 630 this morning to get into the building to see Mark Andre Flurry practice with the team. As you know, he will not play tonight, but the Penguins will be playing tonight. He will be playing at least a period on Saturday night when the Columbus Blue Jackets come to town. But we got to talk about the practice, the quotes, the environs, the environment, This is just going to be a fun first segment on this show because it is going to be nothing but a love fest. I want to start with my favorite part. After practice, the media frenzy continued as everybody wanted to get a piece of Mark Andre Fleury. And he was asked if he took some time to talk to the Penguins young goaltenders such as Sergey Murrishov and Yoel Blumquist.

and what his advice would be to them. And his answer was, they better work hard because I'm coming for their spots. Just a classic, classic Mark Andre Fleury moment. Well, Pat, it was Marischov and Philip Larson today just because Hewablenkiss is out for the next four weeks.

Well, the minimum is four weeks, which does really suck. We'll talk about that for just a second, because I thought he was gaining some ground on Archer Shilovs, and now he's going to be out until, you know, late October.

at least. So I think right now, Pat, this goalie competition is probably mostly done where we're going to see Jari and Shilov's at the NHL level and then Marashav is going to start in the HL unless something else happens again. We all know how great Murashav has been at camp, but if I had to say it right now, I think you are definitely going to see Jari and Shilov could be wrong. But yeah, that was a great quote from Mark Andre Fleury on Murashav and Larsson. And I also want to point this out to everyone too. So Sergei Miroshov was kind of like fanboying a little bit when Florey took the ice. He went right over to him and they were having like a nice,

what felt like a four to five minute conversation. You could tell that Murashov really looks up to Flurry and it was really nice seeing the two of them. Have a long discussion before some of the drills started on one side of the rank and then they went to the other ring. But it was fantastic, man. This was a packed house at the UPMC Lemieux complex in Cranberry. Any time that Flurie made a save, it felt like he was going to get a standing ovation. The entire crowd cheered.

When he came out for the first time, he almost got a standing ovation. This was a reunion or a homecoming, eight years in the making, and it didn't disappoint. And I can't wait to see what's going to happen during Saturday's game. Damn U's didn't really tell anyone what his plan is.

Obviously, we know that Flory is going to play, but we don't know, Pat, if he's going to get the first period, the second period, or the third period. Maybe he'll tell everyone on Saturday, maybe during the morning skate, but he's keeping his cards close to the best right now. Dan, you have done a really good job with this training camp so far. We are very impressed with everything you have been doing. But this is your first real test.

If Mark Andre Fleury is not starting on Saturday night, you're making the list, buddy. You're going to make the list because everybody in the building is there to see Mark Andre Fleury. Everybody there wants to have the. union in yes, it'll stink because if he plays the first period and then Miroshov or Jari or Larson or whomever goes in that after him, yeah, the majority of fans are probably going to leave. But at the end of the day, the whole point of this exercise is to honor Mark Andre Flurry.

So do the right thing, Dan, start him on Saturday. I would agree. I think he needs to at least get the first period for that game. There was another really funny sequence. This was kind of like during a little five on O'Drill, the penguins were zipping the puck around the offensive zone. Flurie's going from side to side. Sid gets a one-timer right on the platter.

Beautiful save from Flurry as he's stacking his pads fat. And then Sid, just because he's petty like that, deflects the puck out of midair and just sends it into the net. He's like, nope, you're not going to get full credit for that. You'll get credit for the initial save, but you're not going to get credit for the overall sequence. So I found that really funny. What is even funnier about that sequence is if you go watch any reporter who was there today that got video of Sid in the locker room after practice, when a reporter told him he actually scored, I don't know if I've seen Sid smile like that since winning a Stanley Cup. He was so excited that he was able to put that puck past Flurry because like you said, he, he may be the consummate professional, but he is such a petty competitor that even in Flurry's swan song, he can't let him win. He just can't do it.

Oh, absolutely not. Like everyone cheered when Flurry made that save and rightfully so. It was an awesome save on a five on own. He stacks the pads. But when that puck went up into midair, you knew Sid was going to back. added in. And he did. He didn't really sell a rate, but you could tell he was like, yeah, you're not going to get the full credit for this one. But even after, you know, the stretching part of practice ended at about, you know, 50, 55 minutes. There are a lot of players, including

Flurry that remained on the ice, taking some shots at him. You know, he put his stick up above his head, thanking everyone for coming and all that. But it was just, this was such a job well done by everyone in the organization, you know, the front office, the coaching staff, all the players, Everyone involved in the organization gets an A plus for this. This was a fantastic event for the practice today. And it was a lot of fun to be there, man. Again, this was almost a decade in the making. And it felt really nice seeing him get the homecoming that he deserves.

And he's going to get one more send off tomorrow night. I have to give a special credit to the Penguins social media team for today. Because they didn't do anything overly extraordinary. and the thing that I want to center is that I used to work in social media management for minor league hockey teams. And a day like today, it is really tempting and also really easy to go over the top, to flood the zone, to do take pictures of literally everything, put out videos of everything, graphics out the wazoo. And they didn't do that. They made it matter. They got pictures of fans.

They got pictures of Flurry. They put out a couple behind the scenes photos, a behind the scenes video of Flurrie's kids in the locker room. By the way, not to interrupt you, but that picture of Flurry, Crosby, Malkin, what's hang after the practice, Pat. That was, that that's what we're here for, man. Like seeing all those guys so happy that they get to practice with him one more time, you knew it was coming and they did a great.

job with that. But go ahead. But to put a bow on it, they made it matter. It would have been really easy to just overload everybody's feeds. And nobody would have complained about it. This is the most exciting part of this training camp. But they made it, they struck the right note of we're going to put a lot out, but we're not going to flood the zone. We're not going to overwhelm your feed. We're not going to put every single picture and every single moment. They made it where you got just enough, but you still wanted a little bit more. And it was a very, very admirable effort by a very good social media team. So I have to give them props for that.

And I know the same thing is going to happen tomorrow before the game, during the game, and after. It was really well done. It made you enjoy the moment without keeping you. you glued to your phone for four to five hours. You check back a couple times. You get the locker room picture. You get the Crosby Malkin-Latang Flurry picture. You get a cute video and a couple pictures of Flurry and Net. Extremely well done. Really like their effort today. But we're not going to stop the Flurry talk just yet. We will preview tonight's game against the Red Wings to

close the show. But let's move up Saturday's game. And let's talk about. when the blue jackets come to town and Flurries PTO against the blue jackets. We will do that when we come back right after this. Before we do that, though, we've got to tell you about today's first sponsor, and that is Fandul. The NFL season is in full swing, and Fandul is making sure you're ready for kickoff with a can't miss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5,

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And we're going to keep the Flurry talk going into the second segment because we know why you're here. It's Mark Andre Fleury weekend. We'll get to tonight's game against the Red Wings to close out the show. But we all know you want to talk about Flurry. So do we. It's all Hunter and I have been texting about today. You can go in and look at our text. It's all flurry all the time.

But on this bright, sunny Friday, I'm going to be the one to bring a little bit of rain and a little bit of clouds to the day because the thought just couldn't leave my mind today, Hunter. Let's say Mark Andre Fleury starts. Let's say he should start because he should on Saturday night. Now, it's not like Mark Andre Fleury has been away from the game for multiple years. it's not like they're bringing the old guy out of retirement and giving him a victory lap. He did play last season.

But the thought that continues to enter my mind, Columbus could spoil this on Saturday because while Columbus mostly has a set roster, they still have quite a few open spots and quite a few players jockeying for it. And what better way to send a message to the organization that you want to make this team than showing up in Pittsburgh on a Saturday night when everybody's ready to watch Mark Andre Flurry and you put a few goals behind them. Pat, are you just an evil mastermind out here? You're talking like Emperor Palpatine.

I mean, come on, man. Just trying to poo-poo on everyone's parade here with Mark Andre Fleury playing one more period. I don't want to see him get let up for three to four goals. Listen, I don't want to see him get let up for three to four goals. Listen, I don't want to see that either. I want to see him play 20 minutes, pitch a shutout. Yeah. The place goes nuts.

That's what I'm rooting for. But this isn't a penguin's intra-squad game where he's on team black and team white is being coached by whatever assistant coach. And they say, listen, it's one period of an inter-squad game. Don't try to snipe. Don't screen him. Don't send any tips or deflections. let him have his moment, and then the final two periods, let's ramp this up. But at the end of the day, Columbus still has players that want to make the NHL.

And if you want to make a statement as a young player, a bubble player, a fringe player, you go out and put a goal or two behind Mark Andre Fleury in his retirement tour. That's going to send a nice little message. And I'm not saying that the penguins shouldn't have done this. I'm not saying it's a bad idea. but all day long, I hate that my brain operates this way, but I was like, you know, there's a world where he might give up a couple goals. Hey, you're not wrong.

I'm just choosing not to think about it. I just want him to get that shut out in the first period or whatever period he plays in. I will say also, Pat, you are probably going to see a very veteran lineup for Saturday. Cindy Crosby is more than likely going to play. Same with Evgeny Malkin. Same with Chris Letang. Same with Eric Carlson. I would put Brian Rust in there.

Rickel. I feel like this is going to be one of the quote-unquote dress rehearsal games that you see, where a lot of the regulars get in. I think they're like, Glevin is going to play in this game. I would actually also not be surprised if Ben Kendall plays in this game. He was, it was funny to start practice today.

You know, Florey was on like the main rank, the FedEx rank, taking some shots from Crosby and Latang and Gino. A lot of the other top prospects were on the other rank patch just getting some work in before the main set. session started at 12. Ben Kindle was on that main FedEx rank with a lot of those big guns. And it got me thinking, I think he actually might be playing in this game and get to be part of the dress rehearsal, which is awesome for an 18-year-old top prospect who we know

is eventually going to be reassigned to his junior team. But that's still quite the moment for him. He was taking some drills today with Villi Kovinen and Ricard Raquel. So I'd be curious to see if Kendall gets some time with both those players on Saturdays, game. We'll find out more about the lines during the morning skate on Saturday, but at least like during practice today, you know, I saw Crosby with Rust and Avery Hayes. I saw, you know, Malkin with Mantho once again, and Justin Brasso was skating with them. Again, you know, you saw Kindle with Coivinan. So they were, they were really mixing some things up, but also potentially hinting, hey, you could potentially see some line juggling tomorrow during that game. And I think this is

going to be, again, mostly a veteran lineup sprinkled in with some of the top prospects. Again, you know, Billy Coyvenin, you know, Avery Hayes, Ben Kendall, of course. So that's going to be quite the opportunity for some of these also younger players as well, who we all know are probably going to get a chance in this game. But again, I know why your brain is going there. It definitely is in the back of mine as well. I'm just choosing to hopefully forget about it because I don't want to see him get lit up like that. I will say, though, that's the other side of this thought process and this coin,

is that this is more than likely going to be, as you said, a dress rehearsal game. The big boys are going to play. The top prospects will join them. Some of the middle of the lineup, lower the lineup, expected regulars won't. So it is going to be a good mix of the main players and the players they're really interested in. But the focus has to be on those top prospects and younger guys that they have their sights set on being. coming NHL contributors because let's operate in this world on Friday, September 26, that Dan Muse does the right thing, gives Mark Andre Fleury the start. There's also the other side of that

of where I'm saying, hey, Columbus could spoil this and score a couple goals. If you're Dan Mews, you're looking at some of these younger guys and going, don't screw this up. You need to go out and you need to play like this is a real NHL regular season game and you're playing not only to leave a good impression and make this team, but you don't want to be the guy who makes the mistake and leads to that goal against. So if I can spin zone it, yeah, I'm worried about Columbus wanting to make a statement and some of their fringe players trying to make that statement against a legendary future Hall of Fame goaltender.

but if you're a young player or a fringe player on the penguins, you got to look at this and go, I don't want to be the guy on the highlight for the penguins gave up a goal in Mark Andre Fleury's retirement tour because I screwed up. So I do think there's a real world where if Flurry starts, even though this is a preseason game, it could be a pretty damn good first period. And also given the lead, you know,

especially, you know, get a couple goals. He pitches a shoutout in the first period. One of the other goalies comes in, whether it's Philip Larson, Sergei Miroshov, Tristan Jari, Archer Shilov, whoever. Get him a lead going into the first intermission. And then, again, and that's if he starts the whole first period.

If he comes in later, that's a different story. But if he does start in the first period, get him a lead. And I know we're talking about this, Pat, like it's game seven of a playoff series or something like that. But this is still going to be such a spectacle. even though it's a preseason game. It doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things,

but you still want to send out one of your franchise icons into the sunset. Again, I know it's only a preseason game, but you still want to send them off the right way here. So this is actually might be the most excited I've ever been for a preseason hockey game, to be honest with you. It's the most I've ever been excited for a preseason game because you look at the last 20 years outside of Crosby, Malkin, Lattang, stall all getting their preseason premieres.

We knew that regular seasons were going to follow. We knew that they were going to be here at least for a few years, and we would get to see them in real games. This one, it's Saturday night, and that's it. It's over. And Mark Andre Fleury, as you said, rides off into the sunset, into retirement, and hopefully the next time we see them, they're doing a ceremony to put number 29 in the rafters.

at PPG Paints Arena. But they do have a game tonight against the Detroit Red Wings. We are going to get you set for that game when we come back right after this. Back here on the Friday edition of Locked-on Penguins, I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes. Hope you enjoyed all the Mark Andre Flurry talk and hope you enjoy the Saturday night game where Mark Andre Flurry will make his final appearance as a Pittsburgh penguin. Before that happens, though, penguins do have another preseason game ahead of them tonight at PPG paints arena against the Detroit Red Wings.

And I think we kind of know that Saturday is going to be a dress rehearsal game because when you look at tonight's roster, it's a lot of players who we kind of expect to see in the American League or maybe back to juniors with a couple of guys here and there who are fighting to make the roster. namely Philip Hollander, Robbie Fabry, you've got Sam Poulan, then you have Valteri Pustinen, Jack St. Ivany, Alexander Alexiev, Connor Clifton, and the goalies tonight will be Tristan Jari and Archer Shilov, likely your duo in the NHL to start the year. But I want to begin talking about tonight's game with the goaltenders. This is the first time we're going to see Tristan Jari in net for a game this preseason. And we talked about this a couple of days ago.

During training camp so far, it has been all quiet on the Tristan Jari front. And I argued that that's probably a good thing because we know the struggles he's faced the past few years. We know the way he's played. But with the focus off him, he's been able to kind of just do his thing, tend the net. Doesn't have to worry about anything crazy because everybody's watching Murrishaw, everybody's watching Blumquist and Larson. He can kind of go about his business. But tonight, obviously it's a preseason game.

It's not all that important, but it would go a long way. If for however long he plays tonight, whether it's the period, half the game, even the full game, if he puts up a good performance, that would help his stock ever so slightly. I agree. And I think he's going to play the first half and then Archer Sheelovs is going to play the second half. At least that's how they've been doing it, Pat, these first couple of preseason games or one goal he plays the first half and the other plays the second half. So I think that's probably what you're going to get tonight.

I think it may be a bit later in the preseason, you know, not tomorrow, of course, because we know 40 is going to get a period. But, you know in the next week, for example, I think you might start to see some goalies get like a full game. For example, we know the Red Wings are going to start John Gibson, Pittsburgh native John Gibson, that is, for how. half the game and then one of their other goalies is going to play the second half and they're going to play a pretty young lineup. But yeah, I just want to see Jari playing confident, playing aggressive tonight, showing that, yeah, last year is last year and that I'm ready to come out here and try to prove a lot of my doubters wrong, including us on this very show. We've very much given our takes on him and why he kind of is what he is at this stage in his career. And even though it's only preseason, I still want to see him put out a good performance. just because of how bad last year was for him.

I also want to see She-Los be a bit better pat. Like that first goal, we talked about it earlier this week that he gave up on Wednesday. I think he's got to have that one from 35 to 40 feet out, uncontested, no screen in front. Yes, it was a really nice shot from Shinnikov, but I still want him to make that save. So that's an area of his game I'm going to be watching for tonight, especially if he plays in the second half, which I expect, is how is he going to play some of those shots? Is he going to be a little bit more aggressive? Is he going to fine tune a couple of things? That's something that I'm going to look for as well.

Outside of those two goalies, you do have a good mix, I would say. There's some veterans playing in this game. Blake Lazotte, who is battling for a spot. You have Tommy Novak playing again in this game, and I still think he is pretty much a lock for the roster, but he's playing. Connor Dewar is in this game, and he's battling for a spot at Philip Thomasino. But then you also have some of these other younger players

who are trying to also beat us. of these veterans. Philip Hollander is going to be playing tonight. You have Dayton Heinen, who is going to be playing tonight. Valteri Pustin, it looks like he's going to be playing in this game. Aaron Hooglin is going to be playing Nolan Renwick, Aidan, McDonough, Sam Poulan. So again, it's a really nice mix at least with the forwards. You know, defensively, you have Matt Dumbo, who's been a veteran, Connor Clifton, Ryan Graves, but you also have, you know, Sebastian Ahu, who he's probably going to start the year in the but he's trying to also show the coaching style something.

If Jackson and Ivaney gets in, he's also very much trying to win a spot on the right side. So like the first two preseason games, this is a mix of some veterans battling for spots and also some younger players being like, hey, I'm trying to push for one of those spots at some point. So again, it's just a nice mix for this one before you get the big boys coming out on Saturday.

Right. Two other players I'm going to have my eye on tonight for the Penguins is Sam Poulan and Ryan Graves. We've talked about both of them extensively, but in the Montreal game, there were, we, there were a lot of bright spots in both of the Penguins preseason games so far despite the outcomes. Again, the outcome of the game really immaterial in the preseason. you want to see how individuals, how lines, how pairings work together in the score is as close to irrelevant as it gets unless it's a blowout one way or the other. But it's a bounce back opportunity for both of them. We obviously know with Ryan Graves' contract, he's not going anywhere. He may be in the press box.

He might get waived. But at the end of the day, you know he's remaining on the penguins. But as I've been saying, new coaching staff, they're going to try to. to refine his game. I don't expect him to get fixed. I don't expect him to redeem himself and suddenly become the player we need him to be with his contract. But he needs to take a step in the right direction after that first preseason game. And the same thing goes for Poo-Land. It was nice that he dropped the gloves. That was all well and fun. But everything away from that was pretty unimpressive. So he gets another, both of them, I should say, get another opportunity tonight to really show that.

they're taking steps in the right direction because when you look at their performance, both historically and so far this preseason, they have to build themselves back up. Well, at least with Poole and Pat, he did have a nice scrimmage on Wednesday, beat Sergei Mirosha 5 hole with a nice shot. So if he can carry that small momentum into this game and have a big performance, that would be big for him. I'm not expecting it just because I haven't really seen him do that a lot of times. for as long as he's been inside the organization.

So I guess I'll have to surprise me with that. And honestly, Ryan Graves is going to have to surprise me with that as well. I'm not expecting them to trade him before the season. I also don't think they're going to waive him. So the team is kind of stuck with him at this point. They need him to somehow improve his game during the preseason, especially during the regular season, because I think they have no choice but to keep him on the roster unless something wild happens.

So I got to see at least some improvement. Monday's game against the Canadians now and inspire a lot of confidence in that. So we'll see, man. Yeah, again, I'm not saying I have any high expectations for Graves, but at some point under the new coaching staff, you have to take the opportunity that is very obviously being afforded to you by them to kind of have a fresh start. And it wasn't a great first impression against the Canadians.

So Penguins and Red Wings tonight, you can catch that on the Penguins Radio Network as well as SNP. Plus, and then Saturday night, the Flurry return. You can find that just about everywhere against the blue jackets. But that is going to do it for us this week on the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Hunter and I will be back on Monday recapping both of these games, looking at Flurrie's return in any other news that might happen between now and then. So for Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp.

Thank you, as always, for tuning in. And we will be back on Monday. Thank you.