Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - More expansion draft talk, plus a sneaky potential bottom-six add for this offseason!

Episode Date: June 17, 2021

Even though there's not a lot of news surrounding the Penguins, the content doesn't stop. Hunter first touches on an article from The Athletic that came out this morning about an expansion mock draft and who the writers have from the Penguins leaving. Are two of them the best-case scenario for the Penguins? Who would Seattle also take if it came down to Blueger or ZAR? He then gets into a potential savvy bottom-six add...(he's from Montreal). After that, it's Bryan Rust's season review. Was he one of the more dominant players in the playoffs? Should we expect a trade with him this offseason? What makes the most sense going into this huge year for the core? Finally, Hunter gives a rant on the GM of the Year Award and why it's a total sham.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. 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.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hey everyone, welcome to this Thursday afternoon episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hoddes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter-Hoddy's follow the show's Twitter at L.O.RenScore Penguins. Today's episode is brought to you by rockado.com.

Amazing selection, reliable low prices, all the parts are covered, need, visit rockadootto.com and tell them locked on sent you. I don't know what's going on with my voice. I don't know if it's, I don't know if it's sounding weird to you all. I definitely feel like I have a cold of some sort. I don't think I have COVID. I'm fully vaccinated against, even though I know fully vaccinated people can get it. But I definitely feel awful. I don't know why my voice is sounding so cracked. I wouldn't say cracked, but it's just like it's feeling feels like I have a sore throat even though I don't have a sore throat, but I don't have that feeling in my throat that I'm going to be getting a cold.

Usually I can feel it coming. I guess it's just, you know, I have a bad cough or something like that. But otherwise, I feel fine. Apologies for no episode yesterday, but today we are going to touch on a lot of things, especially related to the Penguins, of course. Brian Russies in review will come into play as well as an expansion topic that I saw for the Athletic Day. I tweeted out a screenshot onto my Twitter.

We're going to talk about that. We're also going to touch on the GM of the Year award candidates and why this award is basically just a joke in itself. virtually every year because it's just it's basically what team gets the final four you know i think that's basically the big thing when it comes to that war you know we'll also talk about what happened last night with montreal vegas and we'll also preview game three between the islanders um and the lightning which is tonight at eight o'clock but okay let's first get to the expansion stuff so i saw this today i tweeted this out i think it was the um the athletic

article with uh dom um i think clark is the last his last name is car i think he's the the avalanche reporter, if I'm not mistaken. And then do his hat check. I don't even think I can pronounce his last name. I think he's the Ducks reporter. I'm not mistaken, let me actually look at this real quick on the athletic app if I can load this up. I know this is such awful radio, and I really apologize for this. Let me just go to this real quickly here.

Yeah. So it's Ryan Clark, who is the Cracken Reporter, excuse me. And then Eric is just a regular sports columnist for the athletic. So my apologies on that. You know, Ryan does great work on the athletic, and I can't wait to read his work for Seattle next season. Anyways, going back to what I was saying. So they're basically just going through team-my-team predicting what Seattle is going to do in the expansion draft,

you know, what player they're going to pick. So Clark says, taking Jason Zulker comes at the cost of spending $5.5 million in caps days over the next two seasons, but it also comes with the benefit of someone who could possibly serve as a top six board, who has at a 20 goal mark five times in his career. I think Penguins fans and I think management would well-fell. welcome Seattle doing that. Again, it takes $5.5 million off of the Penguins cap for next season, which is huge, especially going into free agency. They will have some money to play with. I mean, that's the biggest thing. A lot of times this team does not have a lot of money to play

with in free agency just because, you know, obviously their core is locked up, but they've also had some bad contracts locked up to some of the debt players. Zulker's contract maybe is one of those. I kind of want to see what he can do next season for this team and kind of prove that this season was an outlier. But if Seattle does take Zulker, it's not going to really be the end of the world. I think Pittsburgh can replace him in free agency or be a trade. You know, that $5.5 million in cap space would be very huge for the team. Still, I can't see Seattle doing that, but, you know, it makes sense from what Clark was saying.

You know, he's a 20 goal mark five times in his career. He's a top six winger. They could also potentially flip him at the deadline, eat half of his salary. So what's that $5.5 million? What is that? 2.75 million, 2.8 million, something like, I think it's 2.75 million, I think, is what it is. And I think the teams would definitely take a gamble on that,

considering what Zucker has done for his career. And he's also been a good player in the playoffs as well. Now we get to one of the other writers, not Dom. It's the other one that I touched on. Eric do hats check. He says here, Tristan Jari, grabbing a goalie from the Penguins worked out so well for the goal of nights. It seems like a tried and true path. Okay, Eric.

Maybe let's lay off a little bit of the mess. on that one. You know, grabbing, Mark Andre Floyd was a different story. He was a very accomplished goaltender, and we all knew that the Penguins had to give up Flore because you're not keeping an older goalie when a younger one who just won you two Stanley Cups is right there.

This is a totally different story. He then puts at the end, thank you, Rob Rossi. In case anyone did not see Rossi in his piece last week for the Athletic Pittsburgh reported that he's been hearing that it sounds like Pittsburgh might not protect Tristan Jarney in the expansion draft and that they'll protect Casey to Smith instead. That makes a lot of sense because, again, if Seattle somehow does take Jari, which is very unlikely, I think, in my opinion, that is then $3.5 million off the Penguins cap next season.

It also helps that Teddy Bueger and Zach Astris and Brandon Tanniv will all be on the team next season. Sure, they'll have to go out and get a goalie, but there's a lot of veteran goalie options that are out there right now for Pittsburgh to go after. So this makes a lot of sense. It's not going to work out the way it worked out for Vegas with Mark Andre. Tristan Jari is not that good. I mean, people are still sitting here saying, like, oh, yeah, he's a kid, he's going to figure out. I mean, people, he's 26. He's going to be 27.

This is the prime of this career. I understand goaltending. You know, it's very high variance. It's kind of random. You know, it's voodoo, as I like to call it on this podcast. And I know so many other people call it that as well. But I wouldn't expect Seattle to do that, especially with his results from the playoffs this year. I know that he was mostly good in the regular season outside of those first four to six weeks.

But I really just don't. see Seattle doing that with all the other options that will be available to them. Now, again, if they do do that, that would be awesome, but I don't expect that. And then Dom hits us with the most likely scenario, I think, and that's taking Zach Ashen Reese. He writes, Pittsburgh has a lot of options

here. I like Asking Reese a lot, an excellent forechecker that fits the MO of some of the other players selected. He uses that ability to drive some of the very best defensive in the next in the league over the last couple of seasons, and that's worth an expansive in the selection. Dom is 1,000 right. He does have some of the best defensive metrics in the league. You will probably see

him get nominated, well, excuse me, you're not going to see him get nominated for the Selke. You're going to see him get some Selk Seleky trophy candidate votes. You may see him get. Usually when the ballots come out, I think it goes out to the top five. I definitely think you will see Zach Osteris get a few fifth place finishes. You know, he is really good in the defensive zone. He shows that every year with the numbers, with how, you know, he really does drive that line with Brandon Tannib and Teddy Bueger. You know, I know a lot of people say it's Tannib's doing or Blugger's doing it. And Blugher is a great center on that line,

but I think Aston Reese really drives that defensive impact home on that line. You take him out of that line, and it looks completely different, at least, in my opinion. So again, to wrap this up, two of the options would be great. You know, especially taking Tristan Jari, you know, Penguins go out and get an actual starter, and then Casey DeSmith can back them up. And if it's Jason Zulker, that's $5.5 million off your cap. You can go after someone such as maybe Blake Coleman and Free Agency. If you don't want to – well, I mean, it's probably going to be a bidding more for him.

but if you can get him to take a cheaper deal, that would be awesome. There's other players such as Zach Hyman, even though I think he'll probably price himself out of Pittsburgh. You can use that cap space to do a lot of things. But again, the most likely scenario probably is Zach Ashton Rees or even Teddy Bluger. If the Penguins do go ahead here and protect, obviously, the big four, Jared McCann, Kisbury, Capitan, and Jeff Carter, that leaves Bluger and Ashton Fis and Tanniv exposed. I think in that scenario, you probably see Bluger selected over Ashton Rees, but it would not shock me in the slightest

if they did prefer Ashton Rees because I touched on his defensive metrics are really good, as Dom also wrote. And maybe Blugher is also past his peak years. Even though he is on a good contract, I just don't know if they really will pick him. In my opinion, I think they will if it's between him

and Aston Rees, but again, wouldn't be surprised if it is Aston Reese. In that case, this all goes to show everyone that I've been saying this for the last week or two. The Penguins are going to lose a damn good player in the expansion draft, And it is going to be hard to replace that player next season. I mean, if it's Zach Ashton Reese, you've got to go out and sign someone in free agency

or, you know, elevate Frederick Goodrow to a more full-time gig as he was in the playoffs. And rightfully so, I think he needs the same as organization, at least for the next couple of years. He's the UFA now, I'm sure the Penguins will bring him back on a cheap contract. You could also always bring up back Evan Rodriguez, redeems O'Hourna. I'm sure he's also ready. Samuel Poulin may make the team out of camp. Nathan Legerry is going to be a strong option as well. So, you know, maybe they don't have to go out into free agents.

and get a bottom six option. But, you know, as Chad from the 4-1-2 sports talk said last night, ULR Mia from Montreal makes a lot of sense, I'll probably have a more in-depth breakdown on him. Later on in the week or maybe next week, if you just go to his page and you just look at his counting stats, you know, he is 6-4, 210 pounds. That fits the need to get bigger, as Brian Burke and Ron Hextall have said.

He had 14 points in 41 games this year. Last year, 16 goals, 30 points in 58 games. If you go to his Corsi, 51.5%. So he was on the ice for almost 52% of the shot attempts. Last year was basically 52% and in the year before in 2019, it was at 53.4%, which was a career high. So this is a player that I think is definitely underrated in the bottom six role, and I think you could get him pretty cheaply.

So that is a player I would definitely watch out for if the penguins do lose someone like Ashton Reese to expansion. I definitely think Hextall could go after someone like ULRMIA. You can get him for maybe a one to two-year deal. a couple million on the salary cap, that would make a lot of sense. And again, it fits the need to get bigger on the roster. Not so much as getting tough, but getting bigger, that's for sure. But okay, that wraps up this first segment of the Lockdown Penguins podcast.

Coming up in the next one, we will touch on Brian Russ season review. Before we do that, it's time to talk about that online. The fastest, easiest way to run on all your sports section. Baseball season is in full swing and you can track all the action at Ben, Ben, Online. You can get the latest news, odds, and info for all your sport needs, including MLB, NBA and a genre all your UFC action. Before the next hit pitch, head over to bed online on your laptop or phone

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All right, so welcome back to this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hoadies. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow those shows Twitter at L-O-1ersquare Penguins. So we continue our panthers. wins player season reviews with another top six four. This is the fourth one that we have done for the season reviews and all four of course are top six forwards. And that today is Brian Ross

who goes into the last year of his current contract where he makes three and a half million per probably the best barking contract in the league in my opinion. And he again had another outstanding year. You know, you just you look at his playoff numbers, you know, played a hundred, a little over 100 minutes at 5V5. I was on the ice for 62.2% of the shot attempts. I mean, that's blows away his career high. from 2016 when it was 54.5. I know he was on the ice for more goals against than goals four, but if you also looked at his expected goals for,

59% this year. That's second best from 2016. Scoring chances percentage, 62.6% of the 20 chances when he was on the ice. That's a career high. High danger chances for 27 to 19. So he was on ice for 58.7% of the high danger chances. It did not get to the actual.

high danger chances. He was on ice for three high danger goals allowed and no high danger goals for. But, you know, he was generating a lot. It just, you know, couple of that with, you know, with bad goal tending and just Ilya Sorokin being insane on the other end. It's no wonder why he only had two goals and really just two points in the six games. He was one of their best players and he played like it, you know, especially, you know, if you go to the regular season as well, you know, that's back-to-back almost 30 goal seasons. He played almost 900 minutes at 5E5 ice time this year, was on the ice for 52.5% of the shot attempts. It was on the ice for 40 goals, 432 goals against for 55.5% of the actual goals.

If you go to his expected goals, a bit down from last year, around 51% last year. It was almost 56%, which was one of his best marks. Scoring chance-wise, he was on the ace for 53.2% of those. It was 54% last year. He also goes out against the best competition night in a night out. So what year around the 52, 53, 54%? mark. That's usually one of the better marks in the league. He was also on the ice. This is one of the only years where it was below 50% for high danger chances for,

48.9% of the high danger chances for. But if you go to high danger goals for, the actual goals was on the ice for 25 high danger goals for, and 18 high danger chances against. That goes from what he did last year. 32 high danger goals for, 23 goals again. So he was at 58.18 for that last year, 58.14 for that. So you're basically going to see him, uh, play like that, I would think going into this season as well. If you go to Micah's stuff with his isolated 5-8-5 impact, plus 2.7% expected goals for, that's up from 1.6% expected goals for last season. And his defensive impact was right around where it was last season, and minus 2.2%

expected goals against this year, minus 2.5% expected goals against. So it was only basically minus 0.2% difference. So he had another really good year. And, you know, the biggest question with this player going into this year, year, what do you do with him in the offseason? After the expansion, do you trade him and get a good package in return for him? Or do you basically use him as a one-year rental and then let him walk next year? Because let's be real folks.

I've been talking about this on the podcast a lot in the last week or so. If you have not listened to this, this is my take on it. There is no way the penguins are going to be able to bring back Brian Russ next year. It's just not going to happen. You have Chris LaTang to pay. You have Evgeny Malkin to pay. Gesperi Kaepin's contract is up. Oh, yeah, Jared McCann's contract, I think, is up next year.

There's a whole lot of contracts that are going to be expiring in the next year. And, you know, Jeff Carter's contract is up that, you know, they just won't have the space or the money to pay him. You know, Brian Ross will go out onto the open market and he will command upwards of $5 million, $5.9 million per. He honestly could get $6 million per with the production that he has had. You know, he's a two-time cup winner. A lot of GMs just kind of wet their pants when they see that. I can't be too crass on the podcast, but you get my drift. But he is a player that you could definitely get a first-round pick for, plus I think a top-nine

forward. I 100% think that the Penguins could get that kind of package for him. Or if not, you know, a first-round pick and a forward, I think a first-round pick plus a prospect, in my opinion. I did ask this question on the Lockdown Penguins' Twitter. Would you look to trade him this off-season or would you have him play out this season and try to go win the Cup and then have him walk? Alan Teodor says, I want him to play this season.

If they want to win, I think they're better with him. You know, I do agree with that, but I also think if Ron Hextall wants to get back into the first round, you know, not just for this draft, but, you know, for a draft down the line, you know, I real, or just honestly adding an extra pick down the line, excuse me, I really think he would definitely look at that, you know, because considering he is a builder and, you know, this team is not going to be good long term. He probably wants to corral as many picks as he can. Understanding, though, that this team is still in win now. Friday Times says, if you're still legitimately trying to win, I think you have to keep in my thing before he walks. Overall, I do agree with that sentiment, but if you can find a team that wants to overpay for him, I think you do take that shot and then maybe go out and pay someone like Blake Coleman and for agency, or the player you get back in return has similar production to someone like Ross Dom.

Anson Smith Piper, I think how the best answer to this is you put him on IR and then sign him in the playoffs. That gave me a good chuckle. Thank you for that, Anson Smith. They should totally circumvent the cap like the Tamp Bay Lightning did this year, when they were basically $18 million over the cap in the playoffs. as Nikita Kutrov missed the whole season due to hip surgery, and then, of course, is magically ready for the start of the playoffs. 4127-24 Pitt asks,

The question I have are the pens projected to be over the cap with Marino's contract coming into effect? Good question. No, they are not. They will have cap space. It's not going to be a lot because, you know, that's just how the penguins are. They're always up against the cap. But there will be room for the penguins to create more caps, say so the off-season if they choose, especially, you know, if Jason Zulker is taken in the expansion draft,

say they maybe want to trade Marcus Pedersen and put P.O. Joseph in his spot. That makes sense if you want to try to find a team to take on Mike Matheson's contract. Not likely, but you could also do that. Remember everyone, I've also said this a lot too. Ron Hextall has no loyalty to these players. He did not sign them. He did not train for a lot of these players, except for Jeff Carver. He obviously has loyalty to him.

He was with him in L.A. for a lot of years. But he just, he really has no loyalty to them. And I could definitely see Hextall trying to trade one or two players this season, this offseason, excuse me, to create cap space. Pedersen and Matheson do make a lot of sense. There are ways to create cap space so the penguins can play, well, so they can play. So they can be a bit of a factor in free agency. You know, you're obviously not going to go out and sign Dougie Hamilton or something like that.

That would have to be very creative, in my opinion. But, you know, there is a way, I think, that they could go out and maybe sign someone such as a Blake Coleman. They don't already have space for someone such as a YOL or Mia or some other, you know, middle tier forwards that are going to be hitting. the market this off season, but if they want to create more cap space, they certainly can do that. But yes, with Marino's contract coming into effect next season at $4.4 million, they will still have cap space. You know, they already have some players leaving, especially with Seattle going to be taking someone, especially also if they help them out and take someone that has a decent amount of term

and a decently high cap hit. But, yeah, to answer your question, they will still have cap space going into this season. It's just, you know, it's not a lot of some of the other teams. But, okay, before we do get to the next segment where I'm going to do a little mini-wamp, on the GM Awards and just, you know, why this award is a total joke. It's time to talk about Rock Auto. With the ever-increasing numbers of makes and models, it's now impossible for your local chain auto parts store

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I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodeslaw. The show is Twitter at Eleanor's Wear Penguins. A reminder, you know, if you haven't rated the podcast out on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast, please go do that. You know, if you want to give me a five-star, you know, that'll obviously be awesome. Give me that. You know, if you want to give me a low star because you hate me so much, hey, you know, I get that.

But I think if you hated me so much, I don't think you would be listening to this show. But anyways, you know, getting back to, you know, the GM award stuff. So the GM of the Year Award, you know, the finalists were announced today. It's voted on by the GMs. And for this year, they decided to vote on it after the second round, which, of course, you know, that's just such a cop-out because two of the teams that are in there, two of the GMs are finalists. And that's Lou Lamarillo, excuse me, and Mark Bergerman.

And it's so funny that, you know, you have all these, you know, Islander fans just, you know, defending Lou Lamarillo anytime they get. And it's like, he really didn't do a lot for your team this season. I mean, that Palmary trade was looking so bad before he just finally turned into magic in the playoffs and has, what, seven goals now? I mean, he had three points in 19 games going into the playoffs. I mean, you don't just expect someone to score seven goals in the playoffs. I understand hockey is a high barry in sport.

There's a lot of randomness to it, and it's a lot of luck-based. But, you know, any actual fan that watched the games could see that, you know, it likely wasn't going to happen with Palmary, but, you know, the unexpected always happens with this sport. He goes in and plays some good hockey. You know, Travis Ajax looks cooked, whatever. But, you know, he traded Devon Taves over the summer to Colorado for two second-round picks. And then the Islander fans will say, well, he's their first. fourth to best defensemen on the team and it's like, is he though?

You know, as from Thor Ragnarok, like, is he though? I mean, he put up some elite numbers with Cal McCar on the top pairing. I actually think that he would be just as good, if not better, than Ryan Pollock and Adam Pelock. I would put him definitely up there with those other two defensemen. I don't know what other defensemen that they think Devon Taves would be better than, you know, other than those two. But I think it's almost like a 1A, 1B, C thing. And he got two second round picksman. I mean, that's just a terrible trade.

I mean, like I said, yes, he did the Palmary trade. It's looking great now. But other than that, what did Lou La Merello do? I mean, this is Barry Trots' team. He's the main reason why this team is in the final four for the second consecutive year. They honestly should just nominate Barry Trots for the GM of the Year Award because he's done so well with them. I mean, that is the reason why this team is so successful is because everyone has bought into his system. I mean, he's signed Leo Comrov to extensions.

He signed Matt Martin to an extension when he doesn't really do anything. Calcutterbuck's not good anymore. I mean, he saw as Andy Green on his team when he's not that good. So, I mean, because he made one move to get Kyle Palmary, I mean, is that really why he's a GM of the year finalists? I really don't understand it. No, Mark Bershman's the same way. You know, this award is really just the other GMs just bootlicking their friends saying like, hey, you know, I'll nominate you. You know, your team is doing really good.

I'll put you up for an award that you really don't deserve. You know, if anything, I think Julian Risball should be nominated because he basically circumvented the calf and he just invented new ways for the lightning to be successful. You know, same with Joe Sackick. I mean, he robbed Lou Lamarwello from Devon Taves. Basically robbed the Blackhawks of Brandon Sod. Who did they, I think they gave up Nikita Zadarov to get Brandon Sodd. It was a really good player for them and it's going to be a UFA this offseason. And yes, I will be talking about Brandon Sod on this podcast for a later date as if that makes sense for the Penguins and if they could afford him.

And I understand a lot of the Jensers will be going crazy. You know, hashtag bring Sod home since he is, of course, from the Pittsburgh area. Anyways, going back to what I was saying, you know, he makes a lot of sense. Other GMs, I think, makes sense as well. I mean, hell, you know, put Ron Hexthal up there, traded for Jeff Carter, and, you know, that's all she wrote there. He honestly deserves more credit than Mark Bergen. And, you know, he was honestly one overtime loss away from, I think, being fired. I mean, you know, three games to one, overtime in Toronto, you know, this worked about a minute in, and then game six, Toronto dominates that whole OT.

Kakiami takes advantage of a bad turnover. Then, you know, we all know what happens in game But, you know, if Montreal loses one of those two OT games, which is basically a 50-50 coin flip anyway, I mean, you are literally talking about Bergerman being fired after this. I mean, is that really, really nominating someone two rounds later for GM of the Year award when he easily could have been fired after the first round? It's just the logic really makes no sense. This award is always one of the most overrated awards of the year. I think even just a few years ago, two of the finalists for the GM of the Year award were Pierre Dorian, who gave Mark Stone away to the Vegas. and Knights for pennies on the dollar. And then Peter Shirelli, who is not even in the league anymore as a general manager.

So that just goes to show how stupid this award is. I mean, David Poil was also a GM of the year candidate. And then, you know, he gave out so much term to Matt Duchyne and other players on their team. So this award is always a crapshoot, like I said. It's just a lot of bootlicking from the other GMs in the league who have good relationships with their friends as GMs. They're not really actually diving into saying, oh, you know, what good move did this GM make? How did it improve their team? You know, well, what are they doing now?

It's just like, oh, you made the final four? Okay, here's a GM of the year award. I mean, for God's sake, people. Jim Rutherford was a GM of the year, canon. I mean, I know that came during 2016 when he actually, he actually deserved it that year. I mean, the David Perron for Hagelin trade, getting Nick Benino, trading for Phil Kessel, Trevor Daley.

You know, that was actually well deserved. That's probably one of the more deserving GM of the year award being given out. But like this year, it's just like, okay, I mean, we're literally, what are we doing here? There's also Bill Zito. He actually should, I think, win the award. He got Patrick Hornquist, of course, from Pittsburgh. He was really good for them this year.

Signed Carter Verhege, Anthony Duclair. I think Owen Tippett made the team this year, if I'm not mistaken. I think he did a really good job. Brought up Spencer Knight after signing him in the offseason. So he definitely, I think, should win the award, even though his team did not make it out of the first round. The other two GMs, I don't think deserve this award at all. Montreal literally finished 18th in the league.

I know they're in the final four, but it took a Tarno, Leaves Glax and then Mark Schifley just, you know, taking himself out of the series for them to get to the Stanley Cup semifinals. You know, I understand you're going to have some of the media just bootlicking for Mark Bergeoning and talking him up and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and the same with Lou La Marello, but, you know, it's just this award has always been a joke. And, you know, you always have a segment of each fan base defending them no matter what, just because, you know, that's who they are.

You know, they're fans for a reason. Anyways, this award is a joke, you know, before we do end to this podcast, though, Tampa Bay Islanders game three tonight I have Tampa Bay winning that game I will stick with the lightning in six I also stick with the Vegas Golden Knights in six games even though Montreal did win game two I do have Tampa Bay winning game three

at the Coliseum tonight and I do have Vegas winning game three at the Bell Center on Friday even though the Bell Center will definitely be rocking I think on that night I can't wait to see how the atmosphere will be there I don't know how many fans they're allowed there just because Canada's different with COVID

but no matter how many they put in it's definitely going to be a raucous atmosphere and also, you know, especially with the Coliseum tonight as well. But that would do it for this episode of The Walkdown Penguins podcast. I appreciate you all listening to this one, and we'll do another one of these tomorrow to send you all into the weekend. So I'll talk to you all that.