Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Not good enough for the Penguins on Friday night...what's next?

Episode Date: December 26, 2023

The Pittsburgh Penguins did not do enough to beat the Ottawa Senators on Friday night, despite getting a point, and that has Hunter a bit worried. It's just Hunter for this episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast since Pat is still with the family but he is joined by Nick Horwat to recap the Ottawa game and to get everyone set for the week ahead. They first start with how the Penguins had no excuse to sleepwalk through two periods of play on Friday night and why that's been a common theme for them this season. They then dive into how not pretty the OT goal was and how the power play continues to go backward after a strong week recently. Should Ryan Graves be put in the press box? The two also get into that along with Rickard Rakell's performance before finishing the show with a mini preview of the week ahead for this team.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!AG1If a comprehensive solution is what you need from your supplement routine, then try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkAG1.com/NHLNETWORK.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 were able to salvage a point against the Ottawa Senators on Friday night and on today's episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm going to go into my biggest takeaways from that game, plus get you all set for another major week for this hockey team. You're locked on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes.

You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Normally this is the part where I would say I'm joining on my co-s, Patrick Damp. But Pat, he's tied up with some family things right now. It's the holidays. That's what happens this time of year. But thankfully, I do have a special guest for today's episode of the Lockdowne Penguins podcast to help me recap this game against the Ottawa Centers and get you all set for this week's action. And that is Nick Horwatt of the Tip of the Iceberg podcast.

The other Nick of the Nick and Nick show, as I like to call. Nick, really appreciate you coming on to help me recap this game against Ottawa. And as I've said already twice, just get everyone set for a few pretty big games for the Penguins this week. Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me on. Happy holidays to everyone, no matter what you celebrate. It's been a long, not very cold month in Pittsburgh.

But, hey, you know what? On this boxing day, it was drizzly, a little wet, a little warm. But we're all heading back to work. Hockey's right back around the corner. And like you said, big, big old week for the best. penguins. One of the biggest weeks probably of the season, really, if you look at it, considering the place they're in and the teams they're playing. Yeah, two games against the Islanders, one on Long Island, one in Pittsburgh, and then one game against the St. Louis Blues. We'll discuss

that a little bit later. First off, just to echo what Nick said, Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrated on Monday. I hope all of you got some great Pittsburgh Penguins-related things and just great gifts in general from your family members, and I hope you all had a great time celebrating as well. Happy holidays to everyone. Today's episode is brought to you by GameTime, download the GameTime app, create an account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. And of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day.

So Nick the Penguins, they're able to salvage a point against the senators on Friday. They got very lucky to get that point late in the third period. And that's just because the Penguins only played 20 minutes in this game. They were absolutely outclass. first two periods, only had 11 shots against the senators, a team that had lost six in a row coming into this game, seven or the last eight, just not a good team in general. A lot of front office moves they had made. They had just fired DJ Smith. And yet the penguins made them look like a Stanley Cup contender for the first two periods. And then the third period, they were

able to figure out, oh, yeah, we're playing one of the worst teams in the league. And the penguins took it to them in the third period. They fired over 20 shots. The underlines were very much in the penguins favor. They had 36 shot attempts for to eight shot attempts against 13 scoring chances for two against eight high danger chances for one high danger chance against in that third period. In that period, man, it gets me so frustrated because if the penguins had played like that for the first two periods of that game, they would have smoked this team. They would have probably blown them out six, seven one, maybe seven, two, something like

that. it just, I don't understand how the penguins can play like utter crap for 40 minutes, look like they don't really care about this game, and then be like, oh, now I guess we have to wake up and actually play against this team. And we're able to get a point. They're not able to get the second one. The inconsistencies with this team, it's just really maddening at this point. You've seen the blueprint be there against Carolina, against Colorado, against Vegas,

against Washington, but for them to do this against a bad team, they just won't do it for some reason. And I don't understand it. It's just not an acceptable performance from the Penguins. And if they had had a better record, I would have said, okay, you toss this in the trash, these types of games happen. But these types of games have been happening all year for the Penguins. And this has been going back to last year, too. The Penguins have a problem with some of the worst teams in the league. It's one of the main reasons why they didn't make the playoffs last year. and if these problems continue for the rest of this year, they're going to miss the playoffs for a second straight year.

You can't have that effort that you showed in those first two periods against one of the worst teams in the league. You need to have full consistent 60-minute efforts no matter who the opponent is. Yeah, that was one of those points that I was thinking up as, you know, the Penguins, and for what it's worth, even the Steelers have this issue too. This is not a, this is a Pittsburgh sports issue, that they almost always downplay, at least multiple times the season, and downplay lesser opponents.

You know, and this penguin just kind of really showed it through the first 40. And like you said, they were lucky to walk away with one point. Honestly, considering how they played in the third period, I tried to pull as many positives as I could in my head about it. Like, you know, they know that they can do this against any team. They know that they can put on a game like this. Had they pulled off a second point, I think maybe we looked at it a little differently than we did. We kind of say, hey, that wasn't a good 40, but you know what?

you pulled out a great comeback victory. There are definitely things to work on, but you got two, and now you're riding, you would have been riding a five and one stretch. You know, five one and no stretch. Now, rather, it's four one and one in their last six. I mean, Bob Grove put out a tweet, I forget which game it was beforehand of, but he said to reach 96 points,

I brought this up on my podcast a few episodes ago too. For the Penguins reached 96 points, which is like the average points to make the, playoffs in the Eastern Conference in the last eight full seasons. The Penguins would need to have gone 33, 8, and 5 to finish out the season. They hit 96. You know, a couple other combinations, you know, of those numbers. But since then, they're 5-1 and 1.

So on paper, you're looking at it as if that's not terrible. You still need to remain consistent. And the thing about this game is they play down to the lesser opponent. Like I said, that's a Pittsburgh sports issue. Heck, even the Pirates do it sometimes. But then there was something about this game that, Once the Penguins found momentum, found a way to crawl back in, immediately. It had happened after every goal almost after the Lardellar goal,

Senators immediately got a scoring chance and capitalized. After Raquel scored, almost immediately they had a chance going the other way, and then eventually capitalized later. And I'll tell you what, there may have been a powerplay goal. That power play is not back to the way it was. It's garbage. It is back to the way it was. It's struggling again.

It is found whatever was pulling them back in the first place. And what really drives at home is, yeah, it was a powerplay goal. That was from the second unit. The second unit that rarely sees a bunch of time. Good to see Lars Eller get on the score sheet. I didn't realize he had a 12-game pointless street going into it. But good to see him getting on the score sheet. And good to see the second unit contribute.

I think it's good to still have some sort of threat there, but they never should see the ice, considering how powerful your first unit is. Chris LaTang saved the power play from an even worse embarrassment than what it already was in this game. The Senators came into that game, Nick, with the worst penalty kill on hockey. Yeah, too. The Penguins had six power play opportunities before their final one later on in the game.

They had three shots on six power play opportunities against the worst penalty kill in the league. That's not acceptable at all. With all that talent that you can put out there on your first unit, how are you only getting three shots on six opportunities? and even worse, they weren't even able to gain the zone, I felt like, on most of those opportunities when the first year was on the ice. They were still doing that stupid drop pass, which I feel like I talked about every episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. And they were siphled at the boot line. The senators would just take a fuck and go like, oh, hey, thank you for this. We're just going to send it back down the other way.

And it was easy for them. And even when the Penguins were able to dump the puck into the zone, the senators had numbers back and they were still able to clear the puck. The Penguins had nothing doing any time they were on the power play. And it was nice seeing that unit play well for a week. They were six for 16 heading into this past week. But it then went back to the unit we saw go over their last 37 for the past 28 to almost 30 days before it was six for the last 16. What we saw when the Penguins were finally getting big goals in big moments from that unit went completely out the window. in a prime example in this game, early on, Nick, that first period.

The senators take that first penalty, right? And then they take a really boneheaded penalty seconds later. The Penguins have a five on three for a minute, 38 seconds. And they didn't even threaten at all on it. They were just overpassing galore, not firing pucks to the net, not getting any threatening chances at all to the net. Anton Forsberg was just standing there like, this is it. Like, this is all I'm going to face on this five on three.

it's not good enough and it continues to really kill the penguins on a nightly basis. Yeah, that 5 on 30, it didn't remind me, you know, piece for piece, apples to apples, of that 5 on 3 against the Rangers in the playoffs two seasons ago. But the same vibe kind of came out of it. It was you missed an incredible opportunity to notch a goal, maybe to, in the opening minutes of a game, and not only, at least in the Ottawa Senators game, and not recalling the rest of the Rangers game for obvious reasons. But immediately after that, the centers came down and started threatening.

So it was an even score, but it felt like we were fighting from behind because you failed to capitalize on an open opportunity right away. Like you mentioned, against the worst penalty kill in the league, in their home building, before everyone wants to go on break. It was all just kind of, the Penguins needed to score there early to almost put it away right away to kind of start the momentum of running away with it. Even if you just score one and it's a dirty one,

maybe it's after the first penalty, whatever, it's in the last couple seconds of the second. So be it, you got one up, you're taking the wind out of a team that has already lost six in a row. They have a new coach, old coach, Jacques Bartan, former Pengland. You have that momentum going with you too, and everyone just wants to get to the break.

You give them the momentum. It's, okay, let's go on to the break with some high feels for Ottawa. And that's all, that's exactly what they did. Ottawa had attacked right back and took the wind out of the penguin sails for 40 whole minutes. I mean, it's, you said, they had 11 shots after two periods. That's as many as the senators had in the second period entirely. It wasn't a good performance straight up. So, like I said, that, that's just the power play rearing its ugly head for what, that was a month of no scoring. And yet those weapons they have. Right. No, I agree with you. And I like how you brought up, how they scored on that five on three.

You really, I think, would have planted the seat of doubt in the senators considering how much they've struggled this year. Because that could have snowballed into maybe a two or three nothing lead in the centers would have been like, okay, here we go. Again, this potentially could have led to seven in a row, but the center's able to build off that momentum, get the games opening goal. And then, as you said, Lars Eller, really nice job for him to tie it on the second powerful unit. Great job by Chris Lattang to get that puck over to him. And I like the point that you also wrote, this is the last thing I'll say before we hit the break. This has been a problem since last year, too,

I feel like Nick. The Penguins, anytime they score a goal, they immediately give one up or give up plenty of quality chances. And part of that, I do think, does do deal with Mike Sullivan putting the fourth line out there after goals. I've seen him do this a few times this season. It's not as often as he did last year, but he did do it in this game against Ottawa.

And I'm not sure why he did it after every single time. I really don't get it. But the penguins have to be better at defending after they score. You can't just be giving up chances seconds to just a minute or two after you score. That's not going to win new games in the NHL. But I think that'll do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, Nick and I are going to get into what the penguins, I think, need to do with Ryan Waves at this point because he had another pretty poor performance

against Ottawa. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about Fandul. As the weather gets colder, the NFL offers stay hot on Fandle. Right now new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 money line bet. That's $150 if your team wins. If you've been thinking about joining Fandul, there's no better time to get in on the action than right now. The app is so easy to use. There's a wide range of betting options, including spreads, player props, over unders, and so much more. So visit fandle.com and lockdown and kickoff NFL season.

That's Fandle, the official partner of the NFL. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, honored hodies, joined by my special guest,

Nick Worrell. Remember Patrick Damp, who is my normal coast. He's doing some family stuff. It's the holidays. That's what happens this time of year. But, Nick, at least we can talk about a positive,

I guess, a mini one. Ricard Raquel gets his first goal of the season, a really pretty feed from Cindy Crosby to get Raquel finally on the score sheet. Hopefully this is the start of many more for him, considering he had 28 goals last season. But then he had a couple of bad moments later on in this game, especially in overtime, where I think his controller just disconnected, passing it to the Senators player. The puck then goes to Tim Stutzla, the Delkevich, I think panicked a little bit there.

I didn't think he needed to go for the poke check, in my opinion. But the puck goes past him and in for a goal from Stutzlo to win the game. But it's still nice seeing Raquel. get on the score sheet, and I really, really hope he can start turning into the player that we saw last year, because that will be a big deal for this team down the stretch. That'd be huge. That would almost act as a big trade deadline accusation. I know a lot of people like to say, like, you know,

a player returning from injury can be that big trade deadline deal. Just Ricard Raquel waking up could be an early, you know, an early Christmas gift for the Penguins. I mean, even in that game alone, he had hit a post earlier in the contest where it was, is he ever actually going to find the net again? And he proved that he could. Finally, after his 20th game, I think it was, something like that. It had been a long stretch for him without, you know, finding the net.

You're right, he scored 20-something last year. I think he said 28 last year. He led the team of Power Play goals last year. Remember that, too. That was, he was a key on that, on that struggling PowerPlayplay. But this time around. It wasn't a 20th game overall this year. Yeah.

Yeah. First goal in 20 games. And that's just. just not what you want to see from him, but it's good that he was able to get the monkey off his back. Maybe that Riley Smith effect can happen here, where he gets the one, and then it's just a snowball.

It is all, the avalanche is coming. It all kind of rolls for him in the right direction. I mean, for as close as Raquel had gotten in his 20 games in his 19 prior, quite a few posts, quite a few big saves, and just quite a few just barely missed opportunities. Maybe those just start going an inch up or down, and it's left to the right and starts working for him. And the next thing you know, you have a new help.

Could be first line right winger. It wakes up the Malkin line a little wherever he goes. We know wherever Raquel goes in the lineup, he's going to bring something. Maybe he brings some scoring touch to the third line if Valteri Puson decides to stay in the line. There's all kind of options the penguins have here with their wingers. It will be interesting to see how they act.

I know I mentioned the trade deadline, but it'll be interesting to see how they act during this trade. deadline with Ricard Raquel maybe returning to form and maybe Valteri Poosman fully earning a spot. But as for Raquel, this is an incredible thing to see. And it's just hopefully, like I said, hopefully the start of that Riley Smith effect, the one, and then here comes the out of lunch. Right. I like that you made that comparison because Riley Smith was getting all those chances at the beginning of the season. And I felt like, okay, if he does get that first one, you're going to see quite a few more go in. And sure enough that happened. Now, he hasn't been scoring as frequently as

did after the first one winning and you saw the avalanche, but hopefully he can get back to that as well. But for Raquel, it's just good for him to finally get on the score sheet. And I expect him to stay with Sidney Crosby until Brian Rust is ready to come back. The penguins at the end of the day, they have quite a few options, especially if Thalteri Pusinin stays up. And I've been pretty impressed with him so far, to say the least, if they want to put one of these three on the third line, they can do that, keep two of them in the top six. I'll be curious to see what they do there. But it's good that he got the goal, but in overtime, we got to discuss that goal a little bit too, Nick.

I don't really know what he was doing there, just was in no man's land in the defensive zone. Crystal Tang, I feel like, was also in no man's land there too. I probably went a little too hard on McGinemalkin than I should have. I will say he probably should have won that puck battle over Jacob Trickren. He had multiple opportunities to win it, but still, Raquel, don't pass it right to the Senators player. That's just not what we're looking for there.

You'd be a little more patient with the puck on your stick there. I know it's three on three. It's a crapshoot in that situation, but you don't need to just throw a panic pass to a senator's player. That's not what I'm looking for there. Yeah, and even on Malkin's case, it's, you know, even if he just happened to kick it a little bit over the blue line, okay, now it's off sides, we're calling it dead.

We're not even worried about it. One thing that's really fun about this game happening right next to the holidays is that everyone then hung out with their family, right? And the first thing I heard about Malkin was they got to stop putting him out on three on three. And you know what? After that little excursion, I don't totally disagree. I'm thinking Malkins kind of start seeing some sort of setbacks and just in line of situations, things that I'm sure I'll discuss down the line.

But, you know, having a loss like that come right whenever you have to start hang out with your yinns or uncles and ants, they all want to see certain things. things from certain players and when they're not providing, like when Malkin is not providing the way he should be for this team. See, I don't think he needs to like not be on the ice in three and three and three situations. He's one of your best players. He is.

He is. He is. He is. He is out there in three on three. I mean, Nick, I'm not going to watch Jeff Carter out there on three on three. I'm not going to watch that, man. There is that stuff too. It's, it's, it's, it's the way maybe that Malkin wanted to take initiative on that

situation. Maybe maybe just make sure he's not trying to play defense. Maybe it is all just sort of just being on a man waiting for the open art opportunities. I mean, 303 is turned into waiting for teams to make their first mistake. And more often than not, it's Malkin the one making them. I can remember, I mean, there was obviously that one. And then the Carolina game last year, almost to the day that they played Carolina just this past week. And ironically enough, Sidney Crosby in both games,

opened the scoring with his 19th goal of the season, throwing that out there for everyone. because I felt that last year's Carolina game on, it was almost to the day, was the beginning, was the beginning of the end for that season, I felt. They were just taking the lead in that game with, I want to say,

six to seven minutes left in the third period, off of the beautiful Brian Russ goal, and then they give up the time goal, just a few minutes later. And then I remember it's Evgeny Malkin, chase the Carolina player around the net, and that leads to an on-man rush and the hurricanes win on the other side.

I hear what you're saying. Yep. That's so, because I remember I texted my podcast goes, Nick Brilanski, or it's the second period or so. I just wanted to throw this out there, be a little ominous that the beginning of the end last year was Sidney Crosby opening the scoring against Caroline Hurricanes on his 19th goal of the season, almost to the day.

So, and now we get that overtime gaff from Malkin, just a game later. Again, I don't want to be ominous, but I'm going to be a little ominous, considering the situation the Penguins are right now, still seventh in the metro. you can't have those sort of gaps. Because again, imagine what that extra point could do to their standings position. I mean, there are four points back. I don't have the standings in front of it yet,

but there are four points back of Carolina who's right in front. Sorry, the devils. Two back of the devils. Imagine if you were one back. If Malkin doesn't commit that gap, maybe you create some offense. There's something that's going to be said about these random missing points. And for the ones from the last month, the power play is going to be a cause of her conversation for all of them. But man, at one point could have been crucial.

I mean, we could say the same about last year's team too. And this is just this loss. It's a common theme with last year, too, where the penguin's inability to beat bad teams on the schedule is potentially going to come back to hon them this year like it did last year, right? The penguins remember, they lost to the sharks last year at home. They got swept by Montreal. They also lost two games to the senators last year. Blackhawks game. I don't need to remind everyone what happened in that game at the end of the season. You can't lose those types of games no matter what, whether it's regulation or overtime.

Those games need to be two points if you want to be a playoff team later on this season. And so far this season, you're seeing a similar trait compared to last year where the penguins are not able to beat some of those top teams, some of those bottom teams, excuse me. Now, one more thing before we had to break, Nick, and we get set for this big week ahead for the Penguins. This team has a Ryan Graves problem, and it's not going away anytime soon. Mike Sullivan does not want to scratch him at this point. That much is known. I guess I get it because we're not even half a season into this six-year contract that he just signed over the summer. But I think at this point, you need to put him in the press box for a couple of games to send

a message by saying, your play right now is not good enough. He drags. down every pairing that he's on, whether it's with Crystal Tang or whether it's with Eric Carlson. I don't think sheltering him in the bottom pair is going to work either, whether you put him with Traver-Reedle, John Ludwig, P.O. Joseph. I just don't think that's going to work. He got absolutely dusted by Brady Kachuk multiple times in that game against Ottawa. He was out of position in front of the net defensively, too. He's just not ever really using his body to defend the net front, which I don't understand considering how big he is. He also has such a long reach, which I don't think he ever uses either.

He hasn't been good this season, and it's become a major, and I mean a major problem for this team. Yeah, at first, never he came on, we thought everyone, at least I thought, you know, cool, an upgrade from Brian Dumolin, a younger Brian Dumont, almost same sort of size, same sort of build. They're not going to produce a ton offensively. Yeah, it was, we're not going to, they're not going to produce a ton offensively, but they're going to move bodies, I'm going to push bodies. They're going to be the resurgence, basically behind Dumlin 2.0 to end Latang's career. And then this all kind of started happening.

It's, you know, people will say that defensemen take longer to mold into their new role, mold into their position. But this has gone on for, like we said, 30 games now, 33 games now, and it's still kind of faltering. They have to, and you're right, I mean, does, you know, sticking them onto the third pairing change anything? Also, if you scratch them at the moment, the thing about, scratching him at the moment is they don't have options to pull up or they don't have or they have they have anyone in the immediate roster that they're going to throw in there because other than than Keel Joseph if you wanted to just put him in the top floor and still run that bottom pairing and yeah I don't know we unite peterson with Carlson just because right now that graves Carlson

pairing Nick it's it's not working I mean I have some of the numbers right in front of me they're below water and shot attempts per 60 minutes. They're below water and scoring chances per 60 minutes. They're below water and expected goals. It's not there. Those numbers, funny enough, they're worse than his numbers with Chris Lutang. And again, he's sinking both his team's top defenseman. And it's not working out.

And I know the sample size with Carlson is a lot smaller compared to his sample size with Letting. It hasn't been as long. But you're seeing similar results. and as a result of Graves not being good on that pair with Carlson, you're seeing Carlson's game, I think, go down a little bit as well. It's not good enough. And I would agree with you they don't have the best options,

but they at least have one in P.O. Joseph, if they want to, they want to put them up in the top four, but I don't really know if Mike Sullivan wants to do that at this point. Yeah, we'll see what Mike Sullivan wants to do. Who knows? Maybe Ty Smith has a really good Spangler Cup and impressive. And next thing you know, it's, hey, you know what? He impressed in this international stage.

And the Tye Smith thing is getting really weird, though. So it's not even like he's going to become an option. Jack Rathbone's around. You know, hey, there's the, I'll keep saying it. The defensive logjam is still there, but it seems to be a bit more of a, you can move these guys around. Last year, you couldn't move them. It was Yon Ruda and Jeff Petrie, and they were in place.

There was no getting those guys in around the lineup. Now, this time around, it's a bunch of young faces and that you can easily shift up and down through the minor league system that, I mean, the HL has six, I think it is. It's a full lineup of defensemen with NHL experience, whether it be two games, one game, whatever it is. They still have NHL experience, so they have all of the options there. But like I said, these guys, you can move up and down.

If you want to, say, scratch, Ryan Graves. If you want to scratch Ryan Graves, you can't because you have up to six options in the HAL that might be able to step up. and perform in a moment's notice. It's a bunch different logjam this year. I think it could be more productive. And Caldubis and Mike Sullivan have already proven to state results matter and performance matters.

If Ryan Gray's isn't performing and showing the results, he's going to find himself in the press box. And I think at this point he probably should be there already. And I did see in Elliot Freeman's 32 thoughts last week that Kyle Dubus is thinking about. maybe a quite another defenseman. I'm sure a defenseman would have to be going out to make that happen. It has quite a few defensemen on the NHL roster right now, but that's a discussion for another day.

But I think Nick and I have said all we've needed to say about this game against the senators coming up in the final segment, we're going to preview the big week ahead for this team, the two games against the Islanders and the game against the St. Louis Blues. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about game time. You shouldn't 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 minute deals, all in prices, Vueuers from receipt, and their best price guarantee. Game time takes the guesswork out of buying tickets.

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All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by a special guest Nick Horwant. So Nick, the team from Long Island, the Penguins will see that. team twice this week, a team that penguins got swept by last season. They all lost all four games against them, including the game that I am still a bit upset about to this day. And that is the game that the penguins had a two-goal lead on the islanders late in the season.

There's less than six minutes to go in the third period. And they give up two goals to get the game into overtime. And then the Islanders went in overtime to steal two points. that honestly they had no business stealing the Islanders. This has been such a fascinating team this year because they're a roller coaster. They can play well, but they also give up quite a bit of leads. And the scary part about the Islanders this year is that Ilya Sorokin hasn't even been that good.

He's been good, but he hasn't been Vesna caliber good. And that can change in a moment's notice. He has always played well against the Penguins. That game on Wednesday is so crucial because if the Penguins can get two clean points from that game, no overtime, no shootout, they'll only be standings-wise right now, five points, excuse me, behind the Islanders for second place in the Metro. They would tie the Devils and the standings, the two points behind the hurricanes, only three points behind the Capitals. This is a massive game for the Penguins on Wednesday on Long Island. They need to have a much better effort in this one compared to what they showed on Friday in Ottawa. It'll be it. It's going to be a big one.

It's going to be this one and then right on New Year's Eve with a St. Louis Blues game in between as a buffer. Those are two huge contests. And I know I was ominous before. I don't want to be ominous again, but I'm going to for a minute. Exactly a year ago to the day coming out of the Christmas break. You know who the Penguins played? The Islanders on Long Island and lost five to one. Yep.

So it's going to be a game of not only looking to put yourself in the right trajectory to catch them in this playoff race, but also you got to exercise some demons here all of a sudden. You have to suddenly find a way to beat a team that you couldn't beat it all last year. They went 0.2 and 2 or something. It wasn't like it was. It was 0.2 or 2. Yes. Yeah, it wasn't like it was over. But again, you need those extra points.

You went essentially 0 and 4 for the first time against. this team in either franchise's history. It's the first time that that season sweep, season sweep happened. And now you have to make sure it doesn't happen again, essentially. You have to make sure it doesn't happen again right away. Right away coming out of the Christmas break, you're going to have to play like it was third period against Ottawa for a full 60.

Pick up early goals, pick up power play goals, find whatever you need to do. And you're right, Sorokin hasn't been bad this year, but when has he ever had a goals against average over three? this is a different sort of Islanders team. They're finding goals this year, which is weird, but things are starting to shift there as well, and you're right, they've had a roller coaster season. This is the kind of game.

You've got to get on them and find new ways to find win. And pardon me, the Penguins were 03 and 1 against the Islanders. 03 and 1, even worse. Re-regulation losses, one loss in overtime, the overtime loss again. That's the one that I will be still triggered by the most. heading into this game on Wednesday. But you're right, the Islanders, they're a weird team where it looks like at times

they're going to get Lane Lambert fired. But then they realize, oh, no, we're not going to get Lane Lambert fired because they're able to withstand blowing these leads. And this is still an Islander's team that has some good talent. Matt Barzel, 10 goals, 35 points and 32 games. Noah Dompson has been really good this year. I think he's probably one of the most underrated defensemen in the NHL, in my opinion. Beau Horvatt, 14 goals, 33 points, and 32 games.

Horvatt had a bit of a slow start to the year, but is showing why he earned a pretty sizable contract extension from the Islanders. Brock Nelson, you know him, everyone. Penguins killer. If you are a betting person and you don't put Brock Nelson down as an anytime goal score, you are not doing it right because he scores at will against this team. And honestly, the same goes with Anders Lee. He hasn't been as good this season, only 15 points in 33 games, but he still always scores against the Penguins people.

Those are the two dyes that the Penguins will have to be on high alert for in this one. You can put Barzell in there. Paul Mary has been also very good for the Islanders again this year. But the main two that always score against them, it's Nelson and it's Lee. And I would assume Sorokin is going to go in this one, though they could go to Borlaamov, who has also been very good. the penguins just have to be patient with the islanders. I feel like when they played the islanders last year, they were trying to do things too quickly with them,

and it backfired because the islanders tend to play a much more slower game. It's not as slow as when they were coached by Barry Trots. They have opened things up a little bit more under Lane Lambert, but they're still a defense first team. That is their identity, and they're going to make you work for every goal, and the penguins are going to have to be prepared for that. If they can play a style that they have shown that they've been able to play against, for example, Colorado, Vegas, in those games, heck even Washington earlier on this season, they can win this game against the Islanders. I don't even throw the Carolina game in there, too.

The Penguins only held the Hurricanes to seven high danger chances at five on five in that game this past week. You bring that performance on the road to Long Island, you can win that game. But overall, it is time to finally show that you can beat this. team. You did it against the hurricanes last week. You haven't done it against the Devils just yet because the Penguins got swept by the Devils last year and the left all the opportunities to beat them. But you need to show it here against the Islanders. And then you'll have another chance to show it this upcoming weekend when you play them on the New Year Z game. Then Nick, you have the Blues sandwiched in there as well. That's the back-to-back this weekend. The Blues,

they're a bit of a middling team too. They just fired Craig Barubei, but we're still in the race a bit as well. They have quite a bit of talent. The Penguins lost them earlier this season. But this is still quite a momental week. If you can win these three games, you would go into the new year, seven and one in one. That's pretty big considering where they are in the standing. So the Penguins have a major opportunity here over these next several days. Big chances. It's big chances. And like you mentioned, even just take two of three, you're in a much better playoff. I know other teams still have to get their games in, but you're gaining momentum in a much better spot

when it comes to this race, when it comes to finding a wild card spot. And because the East is still so close, I'm not going to say if it's good or bad, but it's still extremely close, a couple of points. You could be, look next thing you know, sitting in second in the metro.

Out of nowhere. The Penguins, in hindsight, in a way, I think if things work out correctly, could legitimately be above a wildest. wild card spot by the time the ball drops on New Year's. There's some really interesting action that could happen. You got to get some help. You got to get the clean points against the Island. Of course. I keep saying on my show, man, I don't want to see overtime games against divisional teams. I'm tired of it. Yeah, you got the shit I went against Carolina, but you only gained one point in the

ending. Yeah. You got to get two clean points, two regulation wins. Because if you're able to do that against the Islanders here, that's a four-point swing. Yep. Heading into 2024. So that's major for this hockey team. But I think that I'll do it for this episode, the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Nick, when is the next to the Iceberg show being recorded and just what's next for you? Should be coming up Thursday, full episode coming Thursday, I believe.

We'll see if Nick Brulancey, my co-host, has any Pens to ghost coming out. He said he might do one today. I doubt it at this point. It's a little afternoon. and maybe he'll do one Wednesday. I will see. Just always read me, Berlanski, and are the writer Jacob Puntory stuff on Inside the Penguins.

Proud affiliate of the Hockey News. I try and do the rundown like Berlansky does. It doesn't work out when I do it. But, yeah, find me on Twitter at Nick Horwatt 41 or X, whatever you want to call it. It's still Twitter. It's Twitter for me too. But yeah, you can follow Nick on Twitter there,

follow him on the tip of the Iceberg show and Nick Berlansky. there as well. We'll be back with another episode for you all on Wednesday. That'll be a crossover edition of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'll be doing a crossover with Gil Martin of Lockdown Islanders to fully dive into this matchup against the Islanders. And then my co-s, Patrick Camp. He'll be back on Thursday to recap that game against the Islanders. And then Friday, we'll be previewing both the Blues game and the game against the Islanders in detail for this weekend. So again, thank you all so much for tuning in. We really appreciate it. We'll be back with another episode for you all. on Wednesday.