Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Massive weekend looms for the Penguins after dud against the Devils...

Episode Date: November 17, 2023

Well, the Penguins' 5-game winning streak is over after Thursday night's loss to the New Jersey Devils, and Hunter and Pat are here to recap it. They start with Tristan Jarry and how he continues to be inconsistent throughout the season. They analyze how he wasn't good enough on the first three goals and how he wasn't giving his team a chance that they needed to stay in the game. They then analyze how a good chunk of the Penguins laid an egg in this one. It was a clunker if you will. They discuss how the team failed to show up and improve upon the things they were doing during this winning streak. After that, they get everyone set for Saturday's game against the Carolina Hurricanes and give some keys to victory. They then do the same for Sunday's game against the Vegas Golden Knights.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit is only available to US customers.Parkview AdvanceFor more than 25 years, Parkview Advance has helped businesses secure working capital. We Invite the many entrepreneurs who are Locked On NHL to learn more by calling us at 203-675-0071 or go to parkviewadvance.com. If your business needs working capital, call Parkview Advance today!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.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime.Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelScore early this NFL season with FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your team wins! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Penguins let a golden opportunity squander on Thursday night. And for today's episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast, Pat and I are going to recap that game against the devils. Plus, get you all set for this massive back-to-back on Saturday and on Sunday. Your 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's Patrick Dam. You can follow him on Twitter at Senderfrew Wet. And you can follow the shows, Twitter, at LLO, underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first list and watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And today's episode is brought to you by GameTime, down the GameTime app,

create an account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. So, Devil Snive, Penguins 2, the five games, winning streak, poof, it's gone. And the first thing I think about when I just go back for this game, man, the Penguins let a big opportunity to waste. The Devils came into this game. No Jack Hughes, no Nico Hesier. And then we learned during warmups, no Tim O' Meyer.

Three of their four best forwards out. And I'm thinking going in, okay, penguins have a big opportunity to make the six in a row to really dictate terms, finally beat the New Jersey Devil, something they have really struggled to do over the past couple of seasons. And then they just didn't do it. They lose five to two. And honestly, the team laid an egg in this one. Outside of Brian Rust and Eric Carlson,

I don't think anyone on this team played particularly well. And let's just start in net. Not good enough from Tristan Jari. I'm sorry, man. We've talked him up a lot over these last few episodes with how good he's been playing. But then the inconsistencies came back yet again in this one. I felt like I could tell this was going to be.

be a bad Jari game kind of after the first goal, but really after the second one. We gave up that really juicy rebound after Brian Russ scored his second of the night to make it two to one. The devil's come back just about a minute or two later. They score and Jari's rebound control there is atrocious. And then you see the third goal to yes for Brat. He's way off his angle playing way too deep in his net. He did this on the first one as well, the short-handed opportunity.

And he just wasn't aggressive enough, wasn't playing the way he was playing his previous three to four starts. And this is what we've seen from him, though, during the season, Pat. You and I have talked about it. He can look great in some of the starts, but then he can look like, honestly, an HL goalie in some of these other starts just wasn't good enough in this one. And that needs to change, especially when your team is struggling a bit. They were, it was, the game was tied heading into that third period.

But sometimes you need your goalie to really, I don't know, just make some tough scaves when the rest of your team doesn't have it so you can maybe get at least a point and Jari just didn't do that in this one. He was really bad. Yeah, I mean, and I'll get into Jari here in a second. I got to, I got to, I got to, I got to also give credit to Sidney Crosby last night. He also had a solid game in a night where nobody really played well. I mean, you look at his underlying, he did quite well, 63% of the shot attempts. He had 64% of the expected goals. So he played a solid game and extended his point streak. But to the jari point, I said it to our pal Chris Mack last night during the game. It's not asking too much for your

$5 million goalie to pick you up on a night like last night. He doesn't have to be perfect. Again, I'm going to keep saying this until I'm blue in the face, but you're a penguin's goalie. You don't need to be a Vesna caliber candidate. But on a night like last night where the skaters are struggling. They're just off their game. And I got to give credit to Phil Bork because I did have a deck hockey game myself last night. So I had to listen to the second period on my drive home. But he brought up that it wasn't that the penguins were playing poorly last night. They were just off. They just weren't crisp. They weren't having, they weren't having a clean game. They were missing passes by just a little bit. They were just a second behind. But it wasn't.

like they were overmatched. And on a night like that, you need your goalie to pick you up. He doesn't, again, doesn't have to pitch a shutout, doesn't have to play irrationally outside of his comfort zone. He just has to be the backbone on that night. He just has to make the saves he needs to make. And I would say probably three of the five he let in were goals you look at and go, you need to make that save. So that is part of the problem, is, when you're a $5 million goalie with a five-year deal, we need that kind of consistency from you. We're not going to ask too much of you.

We're not going to ask you to win games for us. But again, you can't lose them. And while he is not the only one at fault for last night, this wasn't a case of the Penguins played really well and got let down by their goalie. This was a case of this is a game where you have to be someone who helps and not give it away. And usually it feels like when Jari has struggled this year, you can tell pretty early when it's going to be a rough night.

Heck, even the first goal, I was like, okay, that's not a goal that he had been giving up in three or four of his last starts. And especially on the second one, I'm like, okay, this definitely doesn't look good. I feel like he may have another however coming. Sure enough, we saw that on the third rule when the devils took the lead for good in the third period. But even outside of the goaltending issues that we saw from the penguins in this one, I like what you said when you were discussing field work. They weren't crisp. I didn't like how the penguins played in the neutral zone, excuse me, in this one.

They let so many easy zone entries from the devils throughout the night. And especially on a night where they didn't have Hughes, Heeshier, or Meyer. That's unacceptable to me. I wasn't seeing the same commitment to team defense that I was seeing in three or four or these last five games heading into last night. They were allowing the devils to skate in with control. basically every time and get a chance. And while I understand that the devils are a very fast team,

they gave the Penguins fits again, that's not good enough when the devils are down three of their best players. You need to be able to play the same style against them, against the teams that you were beating, whatever. And I just didn't see it in this one. I didn't like it. They gave up 12 high danger chances at 5 on 5. That's also unacceptable to me.

That's way too many for a lineup that, again, racial handed for the devils. just didn't see that same commitment to defense. And while it didn't do Jari any favors, he still should have made a few of those other saves. It was still not to my liking after what we saw for those last four to five days. It kind of continued what we talked about after the Blue Jackets game. Right. They were playing high risk hockey in a lot of moments.

Now, some of that is score effects. Some of that is the fact that they were down or it was tied or they had just given up a goal. so they were going to try to go get it back. But at the same time, on the whole, you don't want to give up double-digit high-danger chances in a game, regardless of what your system is. Whether you play up-tempo or you play conservative low-event hockey, you don't want to give up double-digit high-danger chances.

Because even on a night where your goalie is feeling it, where your goalie's in the zone and playing well, that is playing with fire. because it's the national hockey league. It's not men versus boys. This is men versus men. So you give an NHL team double digit high danger chances. They're eventually going to find the back of the net,

even if your goalie's on. And that's part of the problem is last night their goalie was not on. And it's an unacceptable result. Because while I can't quite say they didn't. bring their best because they didn't, but I also don't look at that game and think, oh, man, like they really went back to the early season penguins again and looked bad. It was, again, to talk about what Phil Bork said, he brought this up too. It's an 82 game season.

You eventually have to pencil in for most teams in most years, five, six or seven clunkers where you just don't have it, whether you're, genuinely awful or just you just have a night where it's nothing to go away. Yeah. So it's a weird game to recap because while I'm infuriated by the way Jari played and some of the other extenuating circumstances with it, I also look at the standings and where everything sits today. And I'm like, you know what?

It wasn't the worst, but you'd like to see better against a team that's had your number for about a year and a half. Right. And again, they laid an egg. this was a total clunker of a performance by the penguins. I'm not going to read too too much into it. I'm not going to overreact and say, oh, they're going back to how they play when they were three and six.

I'm not going to say that. I will say, though, I didn't like how they didn't get enough chances in this one. The Devils have been bleeding chances and goals against for the last week or so, and I felt like the Penguins didn't really test their defense or VTek Vane and check enough. And I'll also say this when it comes to how they lost this game. Opportunity of the Penguins went on the Power Play, up one nothing after a really nice Brian or a score. forehand, backhand, top cheese, past Vantageichick.

It was a really nice play by Ross. He's been great to start the year. Penguins get a power play thinking, oh, okay, maybe you can go out to a two-nothing lead. Right when they put that first unit on the ISO's first 15 to 20 seconds, I'm like, oh boy, this unit does not have it. And sure enough, they gave up the short-handed goal. And it was like, that's another game, I feel like where the power play just sucks the momentum. It sucks the life out of the team.

right after that. Even honestly, after the Russell, they made it 2-1, I still didn't feel confident because of the way the power play just sucked the life out of them,

and man, the power play again just has to be better throughout the rest of the season. It just, that's not good enough in that situation or at all. And to build off of that,

again, this could all change in a week. This could all change in a month. Last night could be a one-off. But the thing that bothers me about that, about last night overall, is a little bit of a lack of a killer instinct because you're going up against a team that's on a three-game losing skit, going up against a team that's missing three of its best players. It's a team that you expected to be at the top of the

division this year. And at the time being, you were ahead of them in the standings. It's a team that has two goalies that have not been able to make a save this year. And that should be a night where if you're a championship team, if you have championship DNA, you look at that roster or that game on the calendar and you go, we have to beat their ass. We have to beat them up. We have to get a decisive win because, again, similar to the killer instinct, everybody after the first month of this season wrote this team off. they're too old, they're too slow, they're chasing a window that's no longer open,

that should piss you off. That should motivate you. And a game like last night would have been a perfect opportunity to prove that, and they didn't. So again, it could be a one-off. This could all change in a week or a month or wherever, but there is a seat of doubt in my head that maybe this team doesn't have the killer instinct it needs. And hopefully that does change going forward. Heck, maybe we'll see a killer instinct against Carolina or Vegas this weekend.

We're going to get to that in just a second. But I agree with you overall. In that situation when they got the power play, you need to have that instinct. You need to try to be like, okay, we're going to go out and score here to make it to nothing, make it hard on this team that's without three of their best players. And the Penguins didn't do that. And they didn't even really come close to getting a scoring chance on that power play. It was an absolute mess.

And as for Vandchecking, he was cam into this game, sub-900s, say percentage. And he went out there and looked like a goalie who had, a 915, 927%, it's just overall not good enough for the baby. It didn't help family put up 23 shots. Right. No, I agree with you on that, but I think that would do it for this first segment of today's episode coming up in the second segment. We're not going to talk about that game against New Jersey anymore.

Total dud. We're moving on. We're going to preview the game against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night. 18 of the Penguins also did not beat at all last season and see if they can get their first win against them in quite some time. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about game time. You should not have to worry about when you're buying tickets to your next big event. Game time is the fastest and easiest way to buy tickets for all the sports, music, comedy, and theater events near you. With killer last-in-a-deal deals, all in prices, views from your

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tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locktown Penguins podcast. I'm Hunter Hodes, joined by my co's Patrick Dam. So schedule gets tougher this weekend, a massive back-to-back for the penguins, starting up with a trip to Raleigh to play the Carolina Hurricanes, a team that start out a bit slow. They weren't playing well defensively. We weren't playing Rod Rindamore hockey, I should say.

Then they woke up a little bit, started scoring, started eating back to the way they usually play under Rindamor. But as of late Pat, they've kind of struggled a little bit. They got embarrassed by the Flyers this week. they're a bit banged up right now, especially in net. But this is still a team that has given the penguins some fits of these past few years. I mean, last year, the games were all really close. The penguins just didn't come out on the right side of any of those matchups.

And they're a bit of a different team compared to the Devils. With the Devils, you know what you're going to get with how fast they are, how they're going to outskate the penguins. The Penguins didn't do a good job of limiting them, even without some of their best players. And I know I've said that 5,000 times. I apologize about that. But the hurricanes, they're fast, but they will really keep you to the outside. They play some, I guess, boring hockey, inclecation marks when they're on, but it's very effective.

And last year, the penguins, they didn't get a lot of chances against the hurricanes. And honestly, when the hurricanes are on, not many teams get quality chances against them. So when you do get a quality chance, and it's few and far between when they're on, you better make sure that you're putting the puck in the back of the net. So this game presents a much different challenge for the penguins. So when they do get chances, they're going to have to make sure to bury them. And I just, again, want to see them get back to the style that they were playing during the winning streak. But again, this is going to be a very tough team to play against.

You look at Carolina's roster, right? And obviously, Sebastian Aho, Andre Spechnikov, Tevotera Vinen, Brent Burns, Slaven, all really, really good play. But you look at their roster and you don't see a superstar. You don't see an all-time game breaker. So to what you were saying, it's not that the hurricanes play boring hockey. They play disciplined hockey. They play their system and they stick to it to a T.

They wait for the other team to make a mistake. And then they're like, okay, we'll pounce on you. And the thing is, they don't play. slow either. It's not boring, defensive first, clog up the neutral zone, clog up the D zone, and just sit back. They pressure you everywhere, but they pressure you in a very smart way. They make sure that they use the numbers in the strong side of the ice to their advantage. So they're able to counterattack. They're able to beat you with speed and pressure. but everybody on that roster has a role and they all play it well.

That's Rod Brindamore Hockey. And the other thing that they do is they are going to take a chunk out of you. That is Rod Brindamore Hockey. This team, it's what everybody thinks a John Tortorella system is. It's what everybody who is a John Tortorella guy thinks his system is. They don't make, you know, they're not having Terra Vine and Ajo and Jarvis and Svetchenikov and all those guys go out there and block shots and become defensive forwards.

But they're going to play aggressive. They're going to hit your defense. They're going to hit your forwards in the defensive or the offensive zone. They're going to take a piece out of you. So for the penguins, like you said, they have to get back to playing the hockey. They played against teams like Colorado, the way they played on the West Coast road trip, the way they played right before the Columbus and New Jersey games, to where they do not allow this Carolina team to counterattack.

Do not allow them to play their system to a T. Get up on them early and make them take risks. Because like you said, they're hurting a little bit, especially in goal, because Freddie Anderson's, he's hurt. Auntie Ranta, not exactly a great track record against the penguins. So this is another opportunity. And then you look at the standings. they are two points back of Carolina for third in the division.

If they win this in a clean way, they don't go to overtime, it gives them three more regulation wins than Carolina. So this jumps you even past the wild card and in the third place in the metro. And then all of a sudden, you're looking at maybe getting into second and starting to chase down the Rangers a little bit.

Well, let's see if they can get up to second before they think about chasing down the Rangers. And obviously they'll play the Rangers next week, but we'll get you all set. for that next week. But yeah, I agree with you overall. The hurricanes, I think maybe boring is probably not the right term. So I apologize on that.

Discipline, I would say, is a bit better. And, you know, you look at their underwings. This is still a team that controls the expected goals and they also get the actual goals. 53.1% of the expected goals at 5 on 5 this season, about 51% of the actual goals, right? That's pretty decent. They have a plus one goal differential at 5 on 5. And again, while they haven't been the same, this is still a team that can turn it at any time. You always have to watch out for Aho. He's averaging a point per game.

Kockeniemi is playing well, 13 points in 16 games. Marty Naches, I think Marty Natchez is one of the most underrated players in the league. I will stand by that. He is criminally good, and he's off to a really good start for the hurricanes this year. Five goals, 12 points in 16 games. Penguins will have to really be on title alert for him. Seth Jarvis is very good. Tara Binen has nine goals in 16 games. It's just a very well-balanced team. You look at their job. defense. It's so freaking deep. I mean, that's probably one of the best defensive groups in the league. And overall, again, like you want to get ahead of them early because I don't think this

Carolina team is built to come back from multi-go deficits. They like to play with the lead. They like to play in these tight one-one, two-two games. If you can jump out to a lead on them, whether it's two-nothing, heck, whether it's three-nothing, they'll open up the game. They'll open up the game. a little bit and they'll start taking some risk. And that's not what Rod Rindamor likes to do with his system. He likes these close, tight checking game. So it's prudent, I think, for the Penguins to really jump out to an early lead here and get the hurricanes off their game a little bit.

And I want to clarify here, too. I am not saying that any of these players aren't talented or good. They're still good. I look at this roster and I don't see a true blue or red if you're the Carolina Hurricanes, a true blue superstar. Maybe Brent Burns just because of the legacy, but you look up and down that roster. There's no generational, there's no build your franchise around him kind of player. It's all very good players.

So they kind of went the, rather than have one guy and build depth around him, they just built depth everywhere. Yeah, I think they're one of the deepest teams in the league. And heck, they just got Andre Fetchnikov back during the season. He's close, I would say, Pat, to maybe a superstar level. I think he's, in my opinion, I think he's better than Sebastian Ojo, to be honest. But, Spfetnikov, I think is the closest one they have. And he's going to get better as the season goes on, in my opinion. Yeah, I mean, their big three really is Svetnikov, Aho, and Tara Vinen.

And again, it speaks to the level of talent in the league now that I'm saying, oh, you know, I don't know if these guys are superstars, but they're still pretty damn good. Right. No, I agree with you overall. And just looking at the history, these last 23 games, Penguins 12 and 7 and 4 in their last 23 games dating back to January 17th, 2016 against the Hurricanes. They also have points in eight of their last 11 games at PNC Arena down in Raleigh. So team that historically, they've played pretty decent against, but last season, obviously a little bit of an outlier, they've struggled for the last year, year and a half against the hurricanes.

Overall, when you look at this back-to-back, before we head to Brable preview the Vegas game, what do you do with the goalie situation here? Do you go Jari in this one and maybe Nadelcovic on Sunday when he's here to come back from LTIR or Helberg? Or do you do maybe Helberg in this one and Jari in the next one? It's interesting to think about if you're asking me, I'd go Jari in this one against the divisional opponent. And then I would go Nadelcovich if he's ready to go on Sunday because he can come back from LTIR then. But that's just how I would do it if I were Mike Sullivan. I think it's going to have to be that.

I think one, you want to, and I know a lot of people are going to argue me on this and rightfully so. Jari's your guy, whether you like it or not. He is your guy. So play him in the divisional game. Play him in the divisional matchup and give him that vote of confidence and say, listen, go out there and win this one for us. And I don't know what's going to happen with Helberg and Adelkevich. I know that he's eligible to come back from LTIR this weekend,

but I do know that Wokes Bear has said he's down there for conditioning. So I don't know how long his conditioning stint will be. Sometimes that's one game. Sometimes it's multiple. But I think this is how I would do it. We're going to talk about Vegas here in a minute. Even though Vegas is probably the best team in hockey right now, you stand more to lose tomorrow night than you do on Sunday.

I agree with that. And that's why considering it's a divisional opponent, these games, me more against a team in the Western Conference, rather than a team in the Western Conference, excuse me, you go with your starter in this one, and then I think you'll deal with the situation on Sunday against Vegas when you have to. Man, again, just looking up and down this Carolina team, I mean, it is such a good, man. Jordan's ball is their third line center, for God's sakes, and I'll always have love for Jordan Stallman.

He is Penguin Royalty, as far as I'm concerned, to be honest. He's the one player. He was the first person that, you know, real quick, my dad was a hockey writer at the 90s for the penguins. And he was the first guy that I ever realized, okay, I'm old enough to talk hockey with my dad and be on a similar plane because he was, he was emphatic. Stahl's rookie. They're going to send him back to junior. I'm telling you, kid, they're sending them back to junior. I was like, dad, I'm telling you, I've been watching this guy in preseason.

I've been watching them in the first five games. He is a bona fide NHL player. He is not going to do anything in junior anymore. He is done with junior. He's in the NHL. And I think it was like his 10th or 11th game. He scored a hat trick. And I was at a friend's house.

And I pulled out my flip phone because this is how old I am and called him and went, Hey, did you see that? You scored a hat trick tonight in the National Hockey League. And he just went, ah, screw you and hung up. That's a perfect story on Jordan. stall. And it's crazy that it's already been a decade since he left the Penguins. It's just like, man, time just flies. But again, I know he's been gone for a long time, but for what he did for this franchise with the O'9 Stanley Cup and even before then,

always treat them as Penguin royalty people. I all always have all the respect in the world for Jordan Stahl with what he's done throughout his career. But that would do it for the second segment coming up to end the show. We're going to preview Penguins Golden Knights on Sunday. I'll be there for that one. That should be a lot of fun. Penguins playing on a back-to-back. We'll preview that one in the final segment. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about Jace Medical. We spend a lot of time talking together to you and I. We get fired up together on wins and losses, especially after this last one,

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You want to worry about whether or not you can refill your other prescriptions like Seales and all this other stuff. And this is possible because of our friends at Jace Medical. Go online right now at Jacemedical.com to receive your 12-month supplier on daily medication. Remember to use promo code locked on at checkout for a discount as well. If you are someone you love would like to get some peace of mind by having your supply of any daily medication, go to Jacemedical.com to see if it's offered for you. Remember to use promo code locked on for $20 off your purchase.

All right, we're back here in this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm Hunter Hodes. Join my Michael's Patrick Damp, of course. Thank you all so much for making this your first list and slash watch of the day. We are freely available on all platforms. So Penguins Golden Knights comes your way on Sunday in Pittsburgh. Right after the Steelers play, they play the Cleveland Browns. And noted Cleveland Browns fan Alex Ndelkevich will probably be in the building for that game.

And you know what, Ned, I don't ever want to see you wear in a Miles Garrett jersey at practice when T.J. Watt is playing for the Steelers. but that's the first game of the day, and the Penguins will send you all off with a game against the goal in Knights. Another game where this is going to be super tough for the Penguins to win. Knights have been one of, if not the best team,

in the league this year. No Stanley Cup hangover there. Their high-end talent has been absolutely incredible. William Carlson, 19 points in 17 games. Jack Eichl, or I like to say, Ikelmania, seven goals, 18 points in 17 games. Mark Stone, who I also think is one of the more underrated players, in the league and also is a complete psychopath with his celebrations, 17 points in 17 games.

Shea Theodore's awesome. Jonathan Marches-o, Chandler, Stevenson, Patrangelo. I can go down this list. This team is absolutely loaded. And Pat, I hand it over to you. How do the Penguins win this one on Sunday? Discipline, plain and simple. They are, this is a game where if you, and this doesn't just apply to the Penguins.

This applies to a lot of teams in the National Hockey League when you're going up against the Vegas Golden Knights is you have to swallow your pride a little bit. I know it's the National Hockey League. It's pro sports. You're a competitor at the highest level. You want to prove that you can go blow for blow with the best. I get it. But if you want to beat a Vegas Golden Knights team like this that is this deep, this talented, this good, you're going to have to conserve. You're going to have to let them punch themselves out.

You're going to have to play a disciplined game where you're very responsible in the defensive zone. You double down on how well you clog up the neutral zone. And as Mike Sullivan says, stay above your opponent in wait for them to make mistakes. Because here's the dirty little secret that the Vegas Golden Knights have figured out that a lot of teams have it. we're not in an era anymore where you need an elite goaltender. You don't. They have Aiden Hill and Logan Thompson, who are both fine enough. Are they great?

Yeah. Are they good? Sometimes. They've been good this year. I'll say that. Right. But they've gotten a lot of help because you look at the Vegas Golden Knights goal differential. They've given up 40 goals, but they've scored 64.

So your goal here is. is to not get scored on and try to score a couple goals. And I know that's, I know a bunch of people going like, wow, Pat, great analysis, really thought that one through. Listen, man, Occam's Razor, sometimes the simplest answer is the correct one. And this Vegas team is genuinely great. Like, if they are back in the Stanley Cup final this year, I will not at all be shocked because they're deep, they're talented,

and they have an ownership that understands pro sports is about winning and winning now the future be damned. So if you're the Penguins, play disciplined, counterpunch, and do not, under any circumstances, try to go blow for blow with this team, or you are going to get mopped up. It's the same strategy that we kind of had for a Colorado game, where the avalanche were one of the best teams in the league starting out the season.

They came into Pittsburgh, and the Penguins completely shut them down, also helped that Tristan Jari had one heck of a game. game. Again, we don't expect all right to play in this one. It's probably going to be one of the backups because the Penguins really don't start their starter in back-to-back games. But whoever does start a net obviously is going to have to play well. But again, for the same game plan for the penguins, got to do what you did against Colorado. Limit the Knights to the outside. Don't give them much in the neutral zone. And play a little bit of that, I guess, slower tempo hockey as they were during the winning streak that they had. Because you're right. I mean, this Knight's team

They're built to score every single time that they're out there. Whatever, it's the first line, second line, third line, heck, even their fourth line. They're also one of the deepest teams in the league. Defensively, they're very good. They have some very strong puck movers on the back end. You said it for the goalies meet Aidan Hill and Logan Thompson. They're fine. Usually, they've been very good this year.

Aidan Hill has a 928 say percentage in 10s games. Logan Thompson's only played seven games. He has a 925 say percentage. Very good numbers. and normally their numbers aren't that good if you look throughout their careers, but they're looking really good right now. It doesn't matter which of those goalies have been in net. The Knights have gotten really good goaltending.

And then I know you didn't say it, but I'll say it for you. Bruce Cassidy is one of the five best coaches in hockey, I think. I mean, I still don't understand why he was fired by the Bruins. I mean, I know Jim Montgomery is doing a hell of a job up there right now, but man, Bruce Cassidy has done one heck of a job with this Knights team, and they've been a lot of fun to watch. So I do think that's what I'm looking forward to in this one. And especially on a back-to-back pat, just keep those shifts a bit shorter.

And make sure you're not trying to do too much out there because the nights will make you pay in those situations. Yeah, absolutely. And just like we also didn't really take into account I didn't that it is going to be the second half of a back-to-back. Yeah. And you are going to have to play a. You're going to have to play a simple game. You are going to have to keep it simple because you're not going and playing the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night. You're playing Carolina.

It's a good team. It's going to be a tough game. It's going to be a battle. So you're going to have to play simple smart hockey on Sunday. I agree. And just diving into a couple more underlying numbers before we wrap up the show here. For the nights of season at 5 on 5, 51.6% expected goals rate, very good, but their actual goals rate, 57.8%.

Top five in a league, one spot below the penguins who have a 59.1% actual goals rate. So the Knights, they are scoring quite a few goals this season, and the Penguins are going to have to do whatever they can to keep them off the score sheet as much as possible in this one. Should be two really fun games, two more big tests for the Penguins. If they can somehow sweep this back to back, man, that would be massive heading in next week with a couple more big games for this team. I'll still be happy with a split, though.

If they can get a split, I'll be happy heading into next week. But man, if they can somehow sweep this, I'll be on cloud nine, excuse me, heading into next week with the Rangers game and all these other games next week. I'd really like to be back here on Monday morning with you and talking about how they swept the weekend. So I think last time you and I said something like that, it came true.

So let's keep that mojo going. Let's throw it into existence here, people. But man, I would do it. I know. That will do it, though, for this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for listening to slash locked in this one. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Penguins play Carolina on Saturday.

Vegas Sunday. We'll see if they can get four out of four points before we talk to you all again on Monday. We'll recap both of those games for you and then get you all set for that massive game against the New York Rangers right before Thanksgiving. And they can get you all set for the rest of the games after Thanksgiving next week. But again, thank you all so much for tuning in. We'll really appreciate it. We'll be back with another episode for you all. on Monday.