Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Marshall Monday: Penguins take 2/4 points against two true contenders

Episode Date: January 6, 2025

The Penguins lost both of their southern games but were able to salvage points in each loss. In a brand-new edition of Marshall Mondays featuring Jesse Marshall, Hunter, and Patrick discuss the Penguins' shootout loss to Florida and the overtime loss to Carolina. They dive into why Carolina is such a bad matchup for the Penguins, how they were able to push back against a physical Florida team, and what has led to the Penguins' resurgence over the last month. Then, Jesse gives us an update on the state of the Penguins' goaltending within the organization including a deep dive into Wheeling goaltender Sergei Murashov. Finally, the Penguins begin a five-game homestand this week and it will have massive playoff race implications. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM 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 got two out of a possible four points this weekend against the Hurricanes and the Panthers, and we're going to break it all down on a new edition of Marshall Monday right after this. Your Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. joined as always by the best coast on the planet.

Patrick Tamp, you can follow him on all social media platforms at Synodon for Wet. And joining us for another edition of Marshall Monday is Legend himself, Jesse Marshall, from the Athletic and McKean's hockey. Jesse, thank you so much for coming on again. And boy, we have a lot to get to today, considering how penguins got two out of four points against the Panthers and the hurricanes. Yes, people, I apologize. My voice is a bit hoarse this morning.

I don't know. woke up with a weird frog in my throat. But Jesse, the penguins get one point against the Panthers, losing a shootout because they always losing shootouts now. And then they lose in overtime to the hurricanes. What were your main takeaways from these two games from the Penguins? I think that they didn't get embarrassed, right? They could have taken four points conceivably. I mean, that would have been, that would have been unbelievable, considering how they fumbled a little bit against the Islanders and Red Wings leading

into the break. But they didn't, you know, I don't think that I can discernibly say they were the overall better team in either game, right? Like, I don't know that it'll go to that Florida. Like, Florida controlled, like, 55% of the shot and scoring chance attempts in that game after they kind of fell asleep at the start. And then the same thing kind of happened in Carolina, right? They fell asleep at the start.

Penguins, you know, do their business early. And then the wheels kind of fall off at the end. So overall, though, like, I think they showed that they can play with some pretty good teams. They almost broke the Raleigh curse, which, you know, is something I think we're all looking forward to happening eventually. But I think just, you know, in micro moments, they were, they were sort of their typical selves, I think, reverting back to some old habits. I know Mike Sullivan was heated last night about the way that they sort of competed in, to use his words, in the second half of the game. But, you know, and we talked about this offline before the show

started. You know, Carolina wears you down, you know, so does Florida for that manner. I think in a different ways, Florida's wear you down is more physical. And they beat you up over a 60-minute period, you know, watch back those clips of their coaching staff, you know, from the cup final telling them to make them feel it in a game seven. You know, you're playing for, you're playing for them to hurt in a game seven, right? With Carolina, it's more like your tongues hanging out, right? And you're tired of chasing them around. You know, I don't know that the penguins are good at handling either of those things, but we probably, frankly, saw them at their best against it this weekend.

So, you know, there's no moral victories when you're trying to keep up with the wildcard two spot for your conference. But, you know, getting some points, at least along the way, is nice. Yeah, I mean, overall, I do agree with Sullivan's assessment in the second half of the Carolina game. they let their foot off the gas against Carolina. I don't think it's as bad or as pronounced as it seems to be with him being as heated as he was because I said this in a text message to Hunter during the game last night.

We often forget there's two teams playing this thing. Like Carolina is a really, really good team and they woke up and we expected them to wake up. Does that mean the penguins are off the hook? No, but you have to eventually understand that this is what Carolina does to kind of everybody. But the one thing I've noticed a lot recently, Jesse, is they seem to let other teams do their thing, whether it's play a little physical, whether it's through all the cycling and point shots that Carolina does. And they almost kind of let them get themselves punched out and then they come back on a counter or they at the very least keep their opponent out of

high danger areas a little bit. It's not like, they're great at it. But one of the last times the three of us talked, we talked about how annoying they were in the defensive zone because they just completely fall apart. It appears, at least in my estimation, they've cleaned that up a little bit. What are you seeing with that? I would agree. Yeah, I think they're in zone coverage is way less volatile than it was earlier in the season. That's coincided with the goaltending being way less volatile too. I still don't know that I would prescribe it as good or great. But steadier or average is probably a route that I would go or verbiage I would use.

And I think that that's okay considering the situation that we're in. And where the bar was set, right, from earlier this year, frankly, it was really low. So that's good. You know, both those things are good. I think when you add in the fact that, you know, last night, nonwithstanding, they've had a pretty competent power play, right? And that's been a really positive net change for them. So I think those things have sort of helped stabilize the boat a little bit and get some of that

water off the deck that was causing it to sink earlier in the year. That being said, Pat, like the one thing that still seems to be problematic in some circumstances, especially with a lead is that desire to pinch and try to win a 35, you know, 75, 65, 65 puck. That's not going to work, right? You've got to learn to live to fight another day. We talked about that last time Hunter and I met together, just about like giving it up and just going and defending that rush instead of trying to make a play. Sullivan again was like really harping on that. last night and saying we got to have better discernment around those situations and a better game awareness, which I still think is a problem, especially for those offensive defensemen.

But when you look at some of the plays they made in the zone last night, you can see why they're pinching. I mean, they were, you know, Carlson especially was just absolutely ridiculous at certain points in that game. So, you know, you don't, you don't want to take that away from him, but, you know, I think there's obvious situations where they shouldn't be pinching. And that's what's bothering them is the ones that are like, you know, it's pretty clear that this. is not the right decision. You said, you talked about Eric Carlson. He was fantastic in that game.

He's been great for the most part for, what I see? The last six weeks now, he's been putting together great performance after great performance. And I've been saying it a lot these last several weeks. It's really no wonder that the Penguins have really climbed themselves back into this a bit because of the way that Eric Carlson's been playing. I mean,

that passed last night held that zone entry. That was disgusting. Yeah, the past, yeah. That was gorgeous. He finally utilized his shot again, which is super underrated, by the way. He should be utilizing his shot quite a bit more. Loved that he fired that puck past Dustin Tukarski, who I honestly totally forgot that the hurricane had, and it goes to show that I think they definitely need a goalie around the trade deadline.

I wouldn't be surprised if they maybe kicked the tires on someone like John Gibson from Anaheim or something like that. But he played great last night. I will say, penguins, they came out of the gate flying. I thought they were the better team in the first period for the most part. The second period, though, I get it that Carolina is not a good matchup for them. They really don't match up well with their forecheck. They just give them a lot of problems. I also don't like the way Carolina plays, but hey, that's a discussion from their day.

But it's just been with this for a while where the Penguins, they don't know how to handle the Hurricanes forecheck. And you saw that on display in the second period, Jesse, where they couldn't even break out of their own zone. hell, they barely have a puck in the offensive zone at all that period. And a little part of that also was the compete level in the effort. I want to see more from the Penguins in that department. I wasn't seeing that in the second period, which to me is not good enough. The third period, they were able to get back to their game a bit.

I felt like they controlled parts of that third period. They were able to obviously give a tying goal. Kevin Hayes later had a breakaway almost scored. And then I don't know how the refs missed that blatant interference on Demetri Orlov with Anthony Wivolié crashed in the net. If he doesn't do that, the Penguins probably take the lead there. But I just think we need to see them strain together more consistent 60-minute efforts. Because if they're able to do that last night, they walked out of there,

there were two points, three out of four points on this two pretty brutal stretchier games. And, you know, they're 100% in that final playoff spot right now. Yeah, 100%. I agree. It's the inconsistency across the performance that drives you a little bit crazy. I thought that they actually got the, you know, it's hard to answer the question with this roster of like, how do you beat the Carolina Hurricanes like consistently?

And the answer is ultimately you've got to try to find ways to play in the offensive zone as much as you possibly can and stop them from playing keep away against you. But I thought they did it right last night. You know, they really jumped on them. They made it tough in the neutral zone. Some of their early looks were really driven off of Carolina turning the puck over, which is a nice change of pace from, you know, history with that group. So it's in there somewhere, you know, I think they seem to have it in

pockets, but, yeah, stringing it together for a full 60s continuing to be an issue, especially when they get up early. I mean, that's really the, that's, that's the big piece. And it's allowing the still, we still have the issue of allowing multiple goals in a brief span of time, right? And in that meltdown, that sort of internal meltdown that happens. I mean, last night wasn't bang, bang, bang, but, you know, the momentum. swings with this group were pretty discernible. Just too many dumb decisions I felt like with the puck, especially, you know, the first goal, Matt Grisly, just kind of making a hope play from his own zone.

There's just no reason to do that. And I felt like also with another goal, you have Brian Russ coming down, probably should have had a penalty call, but then he's looking back, not really going for the puck in the corner, and then it's a bit late coming back as well. Russ has got to get back there. I am such a big Brian Russ fan. I love how much he means to this team. I love the year that he's having.

the effort there though, and I think Pat would agree with this, that's not good enough. You need to be able to get back to play. I know you're upset with the officials for them not calling a penalty, and I know the officiating has been really poor as of late in a lot of games. You still got to get back into the play and prevent that odd man rush opportunity. Pat, do you have anything else to add on these couple games before we move on to the second segment? No, I really don't. I'm kind of sitting here bursting at the seams because I know what Jesse's got coming for us in the second segment.

and it's something that actually I had somebody DM me and ask if we could talk about because they're a Wheeling Naylor's fan. So that's just a little tease. We'll have something here in a minute to talk about with nailers. Yes, I hinted at it during our farm update with Wilkesbury last week. And we're going to get into that in the second segment. And I will say, though, it is fairly funny how you can tell the penguins just hate shootouts. Like, just look at the attempts that they have in that game against Florida.

Tell me that they don't hate shootouts, guys. It is. I think every team does it. this point. It's something I think I'm going to write about here soon, but like, I think players at large, including goalies, are just overshootouts, and it's not exactly a secret. Agreed. I mean, as much as I want to give Tristan Jari Flack, just for him really not moving on a couple of those attempts, you can tell that he just does not care about those. Like, I don't really think most goalies do, as you said, but that'll do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second

segment. It's time to take a look at what Sergey Miroshov is doing with Wheeling Nailers because he is putting up some ridiculous numbers. That's coming up right after this. Hey, we'll get right back to our conversation with Jesse Marshall as part of Marshall Mondays. But before we do that, we got to tell you about our first sponsor. And that is Fandul. From big upsets to game winning drives, the NFL playoffs are better with Fandul. Because right now new customers can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed. That's $200 bucks in bonus bets, win or lose. The Fandall app gives you everything you need for live bets, same game parlays, and so much more.

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We're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast, joined by my co-os, Padra Tamp and Jesse Marshall. Jesse, I know you have a YouTube video coming out about this with Sergey Murshov and what he is doing with Wheeling. What have you been seeing from this young netminder? And when is the time coming when we're going to see him hopefully full time with Wilkeshirt? it because I think he has shown so far this season that he is better than being an ECHL goalie.

Yeah, so he's won, I believe, correct me from wrong, 14 in a row now. He, I don't, I have to double check how the last game against Norfolk worked out because they lost 9 to 3 and there was a goaltending change at some point in that game. I'm not sure when he went in and how the goal scoring structure will work with him and Taylor Gothi there, but they've both been good. But Mirashav for me has just been like discern. noticeably, noticeably better. I went back and watched all his games from November 15th to present. And it's, I mean, the thing, I'll tell you what shocked me the most is I knew very little going in.

I had like highlights only, right? Like not full game experiences with Sergey Marshall, so I didn't know what I was going to get. But the thing that shocked me the most was how good he is at playing the puck. Like, holy smokes, like really good, like consistently creating outlet passes for forwards on the penalty kill um like getting guys sprung from behind the play aggressively coming out of the crease to just keep pucks moving for his teammates like in transition a lot of things that i was not like like dish passes you know what i mean like real dish passes over other people's sticks and stuff and like are there times where it gets him in trouble absolutely like i think the nature of any goalie who's very active with a stick is that sometimes it doesn't go the way you plan it to

but I've never seen it cost him. Let's put it that way, right? Maybe it creates some, like, scary edge of your seat moments, but it doesn't cost him. He's got to be the smallest goalie I've ever seen. I don't like having a hard time thinking of a goalie I've watched that was this good that also this small, and I'm not coming up with one in my head.

So I think he's got to literally be the smallest goalie I've ever seen. I also would say that that is a good thing for him in the sense that he's also one of the fastest. He's really quick, especially with his lower body. That I would say is where his greatest strength is. He's got a good glove. He's got a good blocker.

He's got a, again, stick save wives. He's great. Like his ability to get his blocker into a position where he could just make sure that his stick is there. A lot of people seem to accidentally hit his stick at the last minute. It gets knocked out of his hands a lot because he's making saves with it so much. But lower body is unreal. That's where he's good.

And his aggressive level, aggression level, in the crease is like on a 11 out of 10. That's what I like to watch. Always at the top of his crease, he's really makes shooters uncomfortable. And, you know, things like shorthanded breakaways or just breakaways in general, you rarely see someone get to execute a move on him, right? Because he's so far up ice and it sticks out like poking and he's so aggressive that they just feel like they have to get rid of it, right? Like, I need to make a move as quickly as I possibly can because I don't have a lot of, like, I'm going to, we're going to run into each other here, right? So that's been fun. A lot of side to side stuff. A lot of side to side. Where I've seen them get beat is clean stuff up top that

everyone's going to struggle with that I don't think is related to size. I don't think it's size related. Let me just get that out of the way right now. Like when someone lasers you in a puck size hole top corner, you could be six five and that hole's there, right? Like it doesn't make a difference. And then dirty stuff. Trash. You know, he gets beat. I almost all the goals against I watch for trash. Like somebody deflects something in front. front he has no chance on. Or he made three saves and it was the fourth one that went in. Right?

Like, that's, I can't complain about any of that. And I don't know that I saw him get beat six or five once in any of the 14 games. Then he's won in a row, which is remarkable because he's so quick to get down. Now, I painted a lot of good,

like, pictures here, like, two things. Like, one, really out of control with the puck playing stuff. Like,

really out of control. And there are times where, even the announcers and Wheeling are like, like what a decision that like what a strange decision right like you know and the second thing is his rebound control on reaction saves is very bad it's very very bad and he gets himself into he's making the second save so it's hard to complain right but when someone's coming in the zone guys and they have their head down and they just wrist one without giving a tell and he's got to drop and make a reaction save who knows where that thing's going to go like the rebound's going to come off

the pad and I have no idea. There's not a lot of control around where he's placing it, right, which isn't a big deal in the ECHL, but he's got to work on that. He's got to work on it because if you go up to the American League and beyond, you're going to get, people will start shooting it off your pads intentionally, right, like little pass off pad stuff to manipulate you in that way. So it won't fly, right? So he's got to fix that part. But I think like he's ready to move up, right? I don't know that I'm getting an impression that there's a lot left for him to learn down there. The problem is, and this has gotten no discussion at all. Philip Larson is crushing it at the American Hockey League level.

Like, there ain't a lot of playing time up there right now because this man is leading the league in shutouts, right? And is playing some pretty darn good hockey and has returned to North America. So what an embarrassment of riches. Joel Blomquist is playing very well. Philip Larson's playing well. Taylor Gauthier, we haven't talked about at all. He won like seven games in a row for Wheeling. So he's playing really well.

But I think if you look at them, you know, Blomquist is in a class where he can play in the National Hockey League, right? I don't know that about Philip Larson yet. And I don't know that has been in North America long enough for me to feel super confident about that. Murshov's kind of in the same boat, but his gross talent level is the thing that makes me bump him up the ladder a little bit. Like the athleticism, you can get away with a lot when you have that. Look at Mark Andre Fleury, right? Is he the most technically sound goalie of all time? No.

but he's unconventional and athletic. And that won him some Stanley Cups. So proofs in the pudding, right? This is a good situation for the Penguins, though. I think you could be frustrated about the current state of goaltending. I won't disparage you for that. It's fair. It's not been great.

But there's literal embarrassment and riches right now in both Wheeling and in Wilkeshire in North America, functionally operating right now that make this a situation that gives, I think, Kyle Dubas, a lot of flexibility. It's a really good place for the organization to be because we have seen firsthand at this point how bad goaltending can derail a lot of things in the organization. And like you said, shout out to the Wheeling announcer, DJ Abicella, my good friend. He was there when I was there. Dude's awesome. He made watching those games fun.

Yeah. And like I just, I don't want to rant about DJ this whole time, but like we'll send him this clip. I hope he'll appreciate it. The personal candor that he gives you, like within a game. is unreal, right? And there are times where hockey is sometimes not the most fun to watch

and maybe a game's like, you know, not the best or whatever. Like there was a game right around New Year's Day where he's like talking about New Year's resolutions. And he's like, I don't have any. I'm claiming to be,

like I'm committing to being the same awful person in 2025 than I am right now. And I was just laugh like, it makes watching the game so much more enjoyable. Like would you get those little moments of like, you know, personal candor out of him. Like, and he's got an arsenal of good calls. Like, just an personal of good, like unconventional calls that make the game fun.

So I want to back you up on that because it's a great one, a great one for you and our listeners to look up is when I was still with the team and they went on their run to the Kelly Cup final in 2016. They beat the Redding Royals at home in overtime in game seven and DJ just knocked it out of the park with the call it's one of the it just even thinking about it right now gives me goosebumps he did so well but real quick because i know you're running low on time here jesse i got to ask the lowest of low hanging fruit because i'm a short person and i got to reach only the things i can reach for our listeners and that's for murashov we're going to ask the dumbs i'm going to ask

the dumb sports radio question comparison if you had to compare them to a goalie that we know in the NHL in the last decade or so, who would you compare him to? Trying to think who's the smallest NHL goalie I can think of is. Because a lot of what you were saying when you were describing him, the name that came to mind for me was Prime Jonathan Quick, where it just had not, he was just, he was just fast, he made saves, and there was almost no rhyme or reason to anything he did. He was just chaos that worked. Very agile, too.

Yeah, I would probably, that's a good one. UC Soros is probably the only name I'm coming up with. I think there's some similarity there, and it's not just like, UC Saros obviously small, but again, like, he's very athletic, right? In his side, the side movement, the way he protects the crease, he's an aggressive goalie. I don't know about his puck playing ability,

but I think Saros is probably the one that I come up with probably be the closest call. Soros, very much a short king like Pat, except he's definitely, he has a few inches on Pat, but I think how tall are you? We never, we never discussed this. How tall are you? I'm 6.1. 6.1.

I had you about 5.11. I'm surprised to hear that. I'm over 6 feet. Well, well, well, taller than Pat, though. But I think everyone has to mention it for the fourth time. How many times are we going to mention it? Well, it's always fun to joke about Pat's height because everyone is taller than him. It's true.

But, no, no. I only look down on Pat physically, personally. I'm looking up. That's good. I will say, this does beg the question at some point. I feel like they're going to have to move one of the two goalies on the main roster right now. Probably going to lean towards Ned.

It's easier because the contract. Yeah. It's easier. I mean, if you have, I mean, that's just the reality of the situation, right?

Like, it's going to be harder to get out of that jari situation because of the term. Exactly. Nobody wants that term for an unproven guy. You know, I know, a lot of people say that contract is, you know, unmovable. There's definitely been some goalie contracts that have been moving. You could do anything. You could Jack Campbell it if you had to.

Yeah. They can. Yeah. I don't see him finishing his career in Pittsburgh either, but it is nice knowing that they have some really, and I mean, really good prospects in this system, especially goalies. And with Blumquist, him and Larson are kind of training haymakers in Wilkesbury. They're both playing, I feel like, fairly well. And it just sucks that Blumquist is still down there

because he has shown that he is in age already. And if they weren't committed to this tandem with Netanjari, at least right now, he would be up here full time. But I think that's going to do it for the second segment. Coming up in the final segment, Pat, I'm going to take a look at the big week ahead for the penguins because they have a major homestand

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RocketMoney.com slash locked on. All right, welcome back to the Monday edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. As always, we appreciate Jesse Marshall taking time out of his Monday. He's a busy guy having him jump on here. Talk about all things penguins. And I got to say, Hunter, dude's got me excited for Sergey Mershov. I was already excited for him when we found out he was coming over. But now to see him crushing it in Wheeling, I can't wait for this dude.

to be an NHL player, especially if his development goes the way it should. But putting development to the side, the penguins, well, it's going to be a lot of home cooking this week. They have a big week coming up. It's not going to be a very easy one either. They are going to have a lot of challenges at PPG paints arena over this next five-game stretch. But let's focus on what's coming this week. It kicks off tomorrow night, this five-game homestand, little brothers come into town, the Colon Lumbus Blue Jackets. And they have already lost to this team this year, and it was a pretty embarrassing loss. So they should want to avenge that, especially coupled with the way the penguins have

been playing over the last month. This is a team that you've got to put down. Then if it wasn't bad enough that they played against a team that they match up horribly against on Sunday in Carolina, another team that they match up absolutely terribly against comes to town on Thursday. Connor McDavid and the Western Conference champion, Edmonton Oilers come to town. That is going to be a massive challenge,

a great team, a team that just like Carolina, the team speed of Edmonton gives the Penguins fits left and right. So that's going to be very difficult. And then on Saturday, I know Hunter loves to give me grief for being a wrestling fan, but I'm going to make a vintage wrestling reference here. It's going to be Saturday nights,

main event at PPG Paints Arena this weekend, even though it's a 4 p.m. game, because the team that they have been jockeying with for the second wildcard spot, the Ottawa senators come to town. And if the penguins can get three of four, two of four going into that game, this one has to be a clean two points. So Hunter, big week coming up, your thoughts on what we need to see from the penguins over the next few days. Saturday, big elite sports day for Pittsburgh. You have Penguin Senators, as both teams are jockeying for that final playoffs upon the Eastern Conference, followed by what, Pat? Stewards Ravens, 8 o'clock in Baltimore.

So if you also love the Steelers, Saturday is a fairly big day for you, especially in this town. Got to take a clean two points against the sentence. You lost to them in overtime earlier this year. I like the Penguins effort for the most part. in that game. I actually feel like they played fairly well, but you need to get the two clean points in that game. Same with Columbus, man. Columbus has really climbed themselves back into this,

which I got to say, I'm kind of surprised my, because when I look up and down this roster, there are still quite a few holes, but credit to them, credit to their coaching staff, they have been really able to climb themselves back into this race for the final pile spot. Same thing with, you know, Detroit a little bit. The Canadians have been playing a lot better lately.

this is a pretty fascinating race right now, but the two games, you absolutely have to get two points against in regulation, Columbus and Ottawa. You cannot go to overtime against those two teams. You cannot give any of those two teams. Loser points has to be two clean points of regulation. Edmondson, that's always going to be a challenge.

They have really struggled with Edmonton. It's not even just their speed. It's just they have really struggled to shut down their high-end talent. McDavid has a field. day against them. Leon Drys title, Zach Hyman, Newtron Hopkins, Bouchard, they just really struggle with playing that type of team. Excuse me, you saw that earlier this season where the Penguins were really having their gross start. The Oilers were just toying with that in Edmonton.

You cannot have the same thing repeat itself here in Pittsburgh. And I'm glad that this home stretch is happening now because they've been playing really good hockey at home for the last several weeks. On the road, it's a different story. The numbers are not pretty, Pat, they are losing way too many road games here, especially lately. They need to learn how to win on the road if they really want to keep staying in this. You know, it's great that they've been able to win at home lately, but you still need to go win on the road. And even after these three games, you still have two more, one more against Seattle,

and another one against Tampa. That's another big games. You're also battling with Tampa Bay for another one of those playoffs. Tampa Bay has a lot of games in hand on the Penguins. The Penguins almost one that. game against Tampa earlier this year. You know, they had a two-goal lead on them. They blew it, lost in overtime because Tristan Jari was, I don't know, doing whatever he was

doing in his net, flopping around like a fish, didn't play that puck well. But I feel like in this homestand, three one-in-one, three-and-two, obviously four-one, five-and-o is the dream, but at the very least you need to go three-one-in-one, if not three-and-two. That has to be the minimum requirement on this homestead because after this, you have a seven-game road trip to end the month of January. And as I just mentioned, this team can't win on the road right now. They're really struggling. So you have to take advantage of this homestand.

Yeah, I mean, you look at the Penguins Road record. It's 6, 10, and 5. That's not very good. It's not disastrous, but it's also not going to help you get to where you want to go. It's bad. And you're right. This is a massive homestand-stand because, yeah, Columbus, I say it tongue-in-cheek. Columbus is little brother, but they have climbed back in.

They are one point behind the penguins, just like Ottawa. So you have to get a win in that one and you cannot surrender loser points. If you get beat up or beaten or whatever by Edmonton, if it's a putrid effort, we're going to come on here and say that. However, if you play it close with Edmonton and lose, I'm not going to bury this team because Edmonton, among the best in the league.

They have the best player on Earth who's right, who has maybe the third or fourth best player on earth riding shotgun with them. So how do you really realistically defend against that? But different discussion, different day. And then Ottawa, you have to win that game and regulation. So I look at these upcoming three games. And yeah, three and no, that's the dream. You would love to sweep it. And I know there's more on the homestown, but we'll talk about that next week.

But two and one, two and one has to be the floor here. they're getting themselves back into the conversation. If they want to stay there, we got to hold them to that standard. And all these teams, we keep saying that they have games in hand. Yes, it's great that the Penguins are in that final playoff spot right now

as you wake up on Monday, as you listen to this podcast. That is awesome. But if you want to stay in that spot, you need to keep winning because the games in the hand, they're going to sort itself out. But if you start losing more games,

those teams behind you pass. they're going to start passing up with all those games in hand especially. So that's why, especially this week with this homestead, these games against Columbus, these games against Ottawa, heck, Tampa Bay next week. They're super important, especially if you can bank the two points. And here's the thing, man. Yeah, the East is soft this year. The East is not very good.

But with that in mind, here's where it gets difficult. The Penguins, as you're listening to this, like Hunter said, are in the second wild card spot with 41 points. But guess what? Ottawa and Columbus trail them by one. Montreal, Philadelphia, trail them by two. Detroit trails them by three. Rangers, Islanders, trail them by four.

So the only team that is truly out of it right now is Buffalo. Everybody else in the east, one good week, two good weeks. All of a sudden, you're right back in the conversation. that applies to the Penguins. They got to hold serve here. They got to get it done when the opportunity's in front of them. So that is going to do it for the Marshall Monday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. As always, we appreciate you guys taking time to make us part of your daily routine.

Hunter and I will be back to get you set for the first game in this homestand in a brand new episode on Tuesday. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp. Thank you once again. we will be back on Tuesday.