Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Not the end of the world...

Episode Date: December 19, 2022

The winning streak is over for the Pittsburgh Penguins but this is a loss that not many should be upset about. Hunter is joined by Kat Hunter of Hurricanes Twitter to break this one down and they first start with how great this game was. They look at how it had a playoff-like feel to it, and how we need a seven-game series between the two. They also get into goaltending and how Casey DeSmith let the Penguins down with a couple of stinkers. Hunter even questions why HCMS started DeSmith since the team wasn't on a B2B. They then look at how special teams played a role as the Penguins' PP was shut down (for the most part and how the Hurricanes' PK was able to get it done. They also look at how Crosby was a bit off, how Kapanen had another stellar game, Brock's goal in his return, plus how Jordan Staal made everyone in Pittsburgh miss him...yet again.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds, and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!NHTSADrive high, get a DUI. Click HERE to learn more.Athletic GreensTo make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NHLNETWORK 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.

What's up Penguins fans? Happy Sunday. Well, this will be Monday by the time that you listen to this one. The Penguins 7-game winning streak came to an end on Sunday evening with a 3-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. I'm going to be joined by Kat Hunter, one of the very famous people from Hurricanes, Twitter, to break it all down. It says it was another very good game between the Penguins and the Hurricanes. So that's all coming out right after this drop. You're locked on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins,

part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am your host, Honor Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes and also follow the shows, Twitter, at, excuse me, all those more penguins, and, of course, thank you so much for making this your first list of the day. As you all can see, I am not in my office right now.

Back in Pittsburgh, where the lighting is so much better, I am down in my mom's house where the basement is, where the lighting, it's just, you know, it's not the greatest. But, you know, that'll be this for this episode. And then the other two this week, they will be in my room where I guess the lighting is maybe a little bit better, but not really. But joining me now is Kat, this is for the first time you have come on the Lockedown Penguins podcast. Kat Hunter, one of the very famous people from Hurricane Twitter, I think is my way to describe you. but you know you're also a very good content creator and I figure you know it'd be great to recap one of these games just because they're playing each other so often um these last few weeks

but cat really appreciate you jumping on to uh you know recap this game with me yeah thanks for having me uh i guess i guess i'm a little bit famous uh i got put on the jumbotron tonight and a lot of people were like we saw you and i was like oh this is embarrassing but so that's right yeah you were at the game uh down in raleigh It looked like there was a decent amount of Penguins fans there. I mean, they always travel well, I would say, down to Raleigh. But, you know, another really close team. We like, go ahead.

Sorry. Yeah, we like to say they live in Kerry so they don't have a long drive. Hey, you know, the Stewart just played the Panthers in Charlotte. So they were hoping for the clean, the Pittsburgh was hoping for the clean sweep today did not happen. But I always know that the team is they traveled pretty well down to Raleigh. But another game between these two teams, another. one goal loss for the Penguins, but I think it was a game that was kind of the 50-50. If you ask me, these two teams have played two really tight games this season.

In my opinion, I think the Penguins were just really dumbed down by just some goaltending issues with just the first couple of goals. From your perspective, how did you see the game? And how do you think Carolina was able to just come out on top with this one? Yeah. So honestly, we're coming off a back-to-back. This was our second of the back-to-back. And that's, it's tiring.

Like, we've been going for a long stretch. And so I think we just had to really weather that first period. You guys were, you guys were killing us that first period. We had some of our pushes, but honestly, you guys outshot us, which is not really common for anyone that plays Carolina. If you look, like, even games that we're losing, we normally out-shoot our opponents. and you guys were, it was that Pittsburgh pressure that I've grown up watching. I remember back in, I don't know, we call it the dark years,

but I remember going to games when we play the pins and the pressure that the team just gave on us. I love it when we do it to other teams. When we play the pins, I hate it because it comes back at us a lot. But honestly, it was just us getting through that first period, finding our feet again, and then just getting back to how the canes play hockey. Yeah, you know, the penguins, you're right, they did come out, they played really well in those first 10 to 15 minutes, they were taking it to them. And, you know, Carolina, that's usually not the case because, you know, their underlines are very good.

They can, really, they can outskate most teams, I think, in the league, but, you know, the penguins were taking it to them. But then, you know, Carolina pushed back. You didn't really, you know, I couldn't realize at times that they were playing on a back-to-back, to be honest, it looked like they were pretty fresh out there. But, you know, you were right, they were able to weigh. weather that storm, they got that first goal in the second, Penguins were able to tie it, then get that goal in the third, and then I think Carolina just outplayed them for a little bit for the rest of that third period,

they were able to tie it and then get that game winner. Honestly, from a Penguins perspective, I can't be too upset about that loss just because they've won seven straight, it's all out of 14. You know, I wouldn't say you're playing with house money, but I think you've earned a game where, you know, Sometimes, you know, losses happen. And I know this is a really tough stretch coming out with the Penguins.

They play the Rangers on Tuesday. They come back to play Carolina at home. I'll be there for that one. I'm looking forward to that. They play the Devils coming up. They play Boston, Vegas. So, you know, they have to run the gauntlet here. But, you know, overall, I don't really have too many complaints about the Penguins from this game.

Like I thought, you know, if you look at, you know, the underlines, I love going to natural stature. I think it's one of my favorite sites. The Penguins had, you know, it was about 50-15. terms of shot attempts, scoring chances, almost 50-50. The Penguins, though, had a bit more high-danger chances. But, you know, it's funny. Hockey, you know, a lot of these games between two great teams, they're 50-50s. You know, one team wins.

The one other team wins. It thinks that the Penguins have been on the wrong side of it. But, you know, that's what happens sometimes. I think overall, this was just a game between two very good hockey teams, just like that we saw a few weeks ago, and I said that's on my Twitter. I think you can sign me up for seven games between these two teams in the playoffs

because they haven't played since 2000. This was the, yes, this was the matchup in the last playoffs. We got the Rangers. This was the matchup I wanted in the last playoffs. This is what I wanted. I was like, give me the pins. I know it'll be a hard-fought game. I thought we play very similar styles at times.

It's, I can't stand the Rangers. So I'd much rather play the pin, any day. And I honestly, even like you were saying, even if honestly, if we had lost this game, I mean, it would have hurt because we were at home and I was right there. And I thought we were playing really well. And we've kind of got back into our stride because we had a little slump in November. But honestly, if we had ended up either going into OT like we did the first game or if we had

ended up losing, I wouldn't have been so upset because it was such an evenly matched game. And I think both teams just played really, really well. It was this time we got a couple more lucky bounces and honestly just had a little bit more pressure there at the end. But again, I mean, you guys pulled the goalie and we were at the end and I was scared. Yeah, I mean, the penguins, they don't usually have a lot of six on five goals. I'll be the first to say that. The one that they scored a few weeks ago on the hurricanes. That was their first one all season for first one since I don't even remember last time they did last season.

That's just how rare it is. It just does not happen very often. But no, I definitely agree. In the end, you know, I said this at the beginning. Excuse me. I really do think it came down to, I'm going to use his nickname. So don't get mad everybody. Cucci.

I don't care. You're going to say it's his nickname. That's why I'm going to call him. That's what people chant at the rink. It's a great nickname. I mean, now that Rod says it, it's kind of stuck. And he played a really good game. And it was a curious decision by the Penguins to start Casey DeSmith.

I would not have done it. I think DeSmith has been fine this season. But when you're starting a stretch here against some really good teams, especially in the Eastern Conference, and, you know, I want the number one guy going. Because Drishan Jari, he's been on a heater eyes of late 10 and 0 in two in his last 12 starts, basically a 940s percentage, goals against average a little over two. He's playing very well.

So that's why I was just very confused as to why he didn't go. And I didn't really see a quote for Mike Sullivan after the game about it. I would have to maybe guess it's workload management, something like that. But I would assume he'll be in the game on Thursday. But it was just a curious decision, especially because the hurricanes were only two points up on the penguins at that time. And, you know, I feel like, you know, you've got to put the best team out there in this kind of game. even if it's late December, basically.

Yeah, I would have felt the same if we had, I mean, he played last night, so I wouldn't have expected because Rod doesn't really do back-to-backs with bullies. But I would have felt the same way if we played Ranta, just because Peotter has been on, he is, I mean, the kids come up and been our number one. Anderson's been hurt.

I still think even when he comes back, I think it'll be a really interesting conversation for us on who our goaltenders are going to be. because obviously one's more flexible, but he is the hot goalkeeper for us right now. So I was excited that he was playing against the Pins because honestly I would take him up against Crosby instead of Ranta. Yeah, he's played well in the two meetings against him this season.

He doesn't really allow any bad goals from where I can recall. And it's funny, you know, they started Ranta in all the games last season against Carolina, against Pittsburgh, excuse me, and he played well against them too. So, you know, the Penguins haven't really seen Freddie Anderson, even when he's been healthy these last couple of seasons, which is interesting because, you know, he had that great season last year. I know he's banged up right now, but, you know, they've been seeing a lot of, you know, I guess one B, one C goalies. But, you know, with, you know, Cucci right now, he is playing really well. I'm sure he's going to start on Thursday. But that does it for this opening seven.

Coming up in the next seven, I'm going to get Kat's thoughts on just some of the goals that Carolina scored and just what was the difference with that. Jordan Stahl goal, old friend Jordan Stahl, of course, for all you Papers, man's listening to this. But before we get to that, our next partner has a product I use literally every day. I start taking athletic beans because, you know, sometimes you have time in the morning. You know, I wanted more energy when I'd be waking up, you know, taking pills and vitamins, all that stuff. So you're probably wondering what is this stuff. With one delicious scoop of athletic greens, you'll be absorbing 75 high quality of vitamins, minerals, whole foods, who are superfoods and probiotics to help you start your day right.

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All you have to do is visit AthleticGreens.com slash Antichael Network. Again, that is Athletic Beans.com slash NHiTon Network to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins Podcast. I am Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. That is Kat Hunter of Hurricanes Twitter. So obviously it would be easy for me, Kat, to just say, okay, Casey DeSmith led in a couple howlers.

Thank you so much for listening. But, you know, we have to fill some time here. There obviously were other things that led to the Penguins losing this game rather than Casey to Smith giving up a couple goals that he probably should have had. One of which was, as IT is coming in here, old friend Jordan Stahl, he has, I wouldn't say he's killed the Penguins over the years, but he has made his presence felt. I believe tonight was his fifth goal. I believe that. I saw that from 18th sports,

and it was his fifth goal against the penguins in his career. Big one, won the game. And it was a typical Jordan Stahl goal. I've seen him score that kind of goal numerous times when he was a penguin when I was a kid. Just parks his big butt right in the front of the crease, out muscles whoever's there, and he gets a tap. You know, poor Chabaradal.

He's been pretty good when he's played this season, but when you're going up against stall, you're not going to win that matchup most times. You know, what did you see on that goal? Because from my vantage point, it looked like it was a fan shot from the point. Penguins probably should have had the clear, didn't hide and do it and didn't do enough.

And then they were able to get that cross-ice pass to stall. And again, Ruehito just had no chance, but wanted to know what you saw from that one. Yeah. So I was actually fortunate, like you said, I was at the game. I was actually fortunate to be on the end that the hurricane shoot twice,

and I was four rows up from the glass. So I actually got to see all the goals. And they were, they were very interesting. Yeah. So with the Jordan goal and also the one that he got to Shea at the end, honestly, it was just him hustling. He got down at the end, what he normally does. He traps the puck, wins the board battles. And again, like you said, like kind of out muscles.

And then, yeah, he just got the puck back to Shazy. I couldn't tell if it was a shot or if it was supposed to be like a pass. and you get like a tip in or anything. But then with his line mates with Wiki and with Martin, like they normally, it was just like a scuffle. They play really pretty. So honestly,

they prosper out of chaos. And so, yeah, it went to Shazy. He got across the goal while the Smith was focused on that. Yeah, Gordo had kind of camped at the top. And when the loose puck came over to him,

he just tapped it in before anyone had a chance to really defend against him. So, yeah. And the same with the last. goal was he he was able to battle it, win it, and get it back to our shot from the point as well. So he did a lot of hustling plays today, which is what he's known for. Like he doesn't, he's not a big goal score. You gave that stats on him scoring against the penguins. He doesn't score that much against a lot of people.

He's just our, like, he's consistent. He works really hard every game. Makes his line mates play better. Like whoever's on his line, honestly, like last year they had, it was him, Nino and Quicky this year. They've gotten Martin Hook instead of Nino. And now Martin Oaks a top score, just like Nino had a bunch of goals last season. So honestly, it's just a lot of praise to our captain that I know a lot of people were concerned,

not this season, but last season he had a big slump of like not getting goals, which of course he's not a big goal score, but like nothing was going in. And now this year he's starting off a lot better. So, yeah, I'd say a lot of our win tonight came from our captain just really. playing a really good game. Yeah, you know, he was fantastic. And, you know, to add off that cat, I tweeted this at the end of the game, it's very rare when you see Cindy Crosby get cleaned out on four straight faceoffs. He's not just the best face off player on the team. He's one of the best in the league. And, you know, I don't usually talk that much about faceoffs on the show because,

you know, in the grand scheme of things, they don't, you know, I just don't look at those stats that much. But in the late, in late game situations, they matter a lot more, obviously, especially when it's a one goal game. But every time, I know, in those final two minutes when the big guns were on the ice crosbie malk and let's hang and raquel and all those guys stall against crosbie face off wind fall solvince crossby face off and then it happened two more times and i was just like wow uh and i shouldn't be so i shouldn't be that surprised because i know stall is so good at face off and that's just that was his brand and butter when he was in pittsburg too but i was just like wow you know that's that's something that the penguins

they have missed over the years and you know i'll never not say a bad word about him i think yeah we're i mean as a team coach from Rod Rendamore, like we are a face-off team. Honestly, the games that we're struggling in or the games that we lose, we have bad percentage of face-offs. It kind of correlates a whole bunch. But, yeah, Stahl normally leads us. If you ever watch, well, last game with you guys, if you watch us in overtime, Stahl normally comes out there.

His number one job is to win the face-off, and then he gets off the ice and we get new bodies in. So that's, if you watch, like, he has a role. I've only seen it not work once. He didn't win the face off and then it put us in trouble. But he's really good at it. It's a bad night when Jordo is missing his face off. You know it's going to be a rough night for the Carolina Hurricanes.

Yeah, no, absolutely. He was a menace in that circle tonight. He was just a menace defensively as well. He's been, I can't say enough good things about Troy and Stoll. It's truly. You know, one positive I will say about the Penguins, though, for this one, they were able to keep the hurricane star players pretty quiet, I would say, for the most part. And they've been doing a good job of that, you know, for the last couple of weeks during this winning trade, Tage Thompson didn't really do anything and the back-to-backed.

They shut down the star's top line with Jason Robertson, who I think is the King of the Hart Trophy frontrunner right now. But Sid's right there with them and then Rupa Hens. They're able to shut down some of the top players from Vegas and all that. But what was it, do you think, you know, with the penguins, how do you think they were able to shut down? you know, Svetnikov and Aho, you know, which, you know, led to some of the debt players to step up with the hurricanes. But, you know, did you just say this was an off night or something for them? So Aho's actually out. He's been out the last couple of games.

No, you're good. Sorry. He's been out last couple of games and we've had Stasney filling in up at the front. But I would say our stars, even with Ajo on the ice, so far this season, our stars have been Nages and Svetch. Sorry, that's funny. Yeah. No, you're good. So they have, they were, it's weird.

So they were quiet. Like, they definitely had chances. Naceus, I'm, if you, if anyone missed it, if you go back and watch, like, in the first period, NACIS had what could have been, like, the goal of the, of this year. DeSmith did get that one. That was really good. But, like, he had it back to the net, pulled it back between his legs and almost tucked it away.

And all of us were just like, I would have passed out. I would have been like, we're done. The game's over. everyone we're done um but yeah they uh they had a lot of hustle but they really couldn't find um so natures is our speed fetch just kind of body you guys body natius a whole bunch um really gave him pressure when he had the puck um he was able to still kind of zip around like he normally does um but yeah they just weren't getting the shots that they normally do or like the two-on-ones or anything like that um so yeah you guys really focused on shutting them down i think that was

Bears had some good matchups there. Thankfully for us, as ESPN and HL and all of them like to say, is like we don't really have star players. I mean, granted, we don't have a Crosby. But when we don't have a number one player that scores a whole bunch like that, we rely on a lot of our depth guys. And I mean, that's who got our fourth liner got us our first goal. So you guys did really good shutting us down.

And thankfully, our other guys stepped up to the task. Yeah, yeah. I was very, very, when I saw Derek Step on the score, I'm like, wow, I literally almost forgot that he's still getting fourth line minutes. Got a goal last kid. Yeah, he's on a street now. Yeah, I was just like, wow, I was almost, I always used to know. He would always, you know, score a decent amount of goals each year,

but I was like, wow, I just did not realize that he's still playing four, five minutes. He's our consistent step daddy. That's a perfect way to say it. Now, we'll wrap up this segment, though, coming up to end of the show. I'm going to get into a little bit of the special teams talk because I do think that played a big role in this one because the Penguins PowerPlay, which has been red hot as of lay was shut down for the most part of this one.

So stick around for that coming up right after these messages. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. That is Cat Hunter, of course. So as I teased coming into the commercial break at, you know, special teams, I do think that was a little bit of a factor as well. Penguin's Power Play coming into this game, seven straight games with a goal that's their longest streak, tied for the longest streak that they've had under Mike Sullivan since he took

over in 2015. So that unit has just been on a tear these last couple weeks. But tonight, you know, a Carolina penalty kill that's usually very aggressive from what I've watched against them and other teams. And I think we were talking about this during the game. The one goal that the Penguins scored on the power play, Jacob's Slaven, I don't think, was on the ice of four because I'm pretty sure he was in the box. And I know he's one of your best penalty killers.

So what do you think the Hurricanes were able to do to really shut down the main advantage which is just to be really hot for the penguins as of late? Yeah. So this season, it's taken a little time to get back into it. And I think it's because we've had fresh guys and they really needed to learn the system. But our penalty kill, like last year was like, I think up at like 80%, maybe higher. They were killing it. But yeah, you're right.

Slavin wasn't on the ice. He got his, the only way you're going to get that man in the box is if he accidentally clears the puck out of bounds. Never intentional, of course. But, yeah, so he wasn't on the ice for it. And, I mean, this was coming off. I think you guys had, I think, three or four of your penalty of your power plays were in that first, first period and second period. And it just seemed like it was like nonstop for a little bit. And it was very nerve-wracking.

Thankfully, we had, I think also what helped with the momentum of the, game was in the first in the first five minutes when you guys did have a power play. We talked about him again. Piotr had a really big stop. And I think that just gave us a little bit more life and a little bit more confidence in our penalty kill, which has been doing well. It did. I mean, you guys only got one out of five on us. Thank goodness. Because if you guys had gotten one on everyone, it would have been a hold of a ballgame. As you can see, our power play didn't do anything tonight really so really the i guess the story of tonight is you guys power play in our penalty kill um which i mean i love my defense so i'll take it i would love some some power play

goals for us but yeah um honestly he just does so our our penalty kill is just so smothering um and he is our he is our heart in our back one so when he's not it's very rare that he's not on it um which is um i think led to the big like immediate breakdown for Verkel's goal, which is great. He's on my fantasy team, so I was excited about that, but then also, like, I don't want that. Yeah, no, no, I totally hear you on that. Yeah, it kind of went back to some old habits tonight. I didn't really like some of the zone entries they had.

They just weren't getting set up, like, normal. And, you know, credit to Carolina, I think their penalty kill is. We hold the blue line. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I noticed that a lot tonight. Like, you guys, you don't, like, really collapse down low.

you push up a little bit and that kind of threw the penguins off a little bit and, you know, it kind of forces them to the corner and those are easy clears for the opposition. And, you know, I'm wondering if you're going to see other penalty goals try to, I guess, duplicate that against the penguins. But I definitely do think that was a key, you know, reason why the hurricanes came out on this one and the other were Kelgoal. You know, he continues to stay hot. He's been great ever since he was acquired by Ron Hextall this past year, excuse me.

Again, I didn't really like that term on the contract. track, but, you know, I'm eating a lot of crow on that right now. He's been very consistent. And then the other goal score, you know, your former, I'm sure, you know, a former member of the hurricanes, of course, Brock McGinn. And we were talking about this as well. You say, like, it's almost like every former member of the hurricane just scores on them. And I can honestly say that about the Penguins as well.

It feels like every time a penguin player leaves, the Penguins that goes to another team when they play them, that player just scores. But, you know, kudos to Brock. That was a really nice goal that he had. great rush off the ice by cap and to get back going. He looked like a different player on the ice night, which is not the case for him usually because he's just not been that good this year. But then McGinn was able to finish that off.

He's been on a tear as of late. And I'm sure you're used to that. I see. Yes. And I see he's, I see, yeah, it was a bad, it could have been a smart pass, but end up there was no one there. It was a bad pass from Jarvis. And you guys took advantage of it.

And honestly, of course, Brockwood, I mean, I've seen he's also gotten his. his fair share of the short-handed goals and that man he would anytime we were down the player would you like once brought got it we'd be like this is great we're going to get a goal um not between there's three things he was consistent was was the um short-handed uh goals um consistently hitting the post unfortunately um and that man could take a beating like he will there is barely any time that i've seen him take like he would never get off the ice like you'll see guys now and they'll go down and you'll be like oh i think what's wrong they're going down the tunnel i didn't

see what happened like you would see what happened to brock and you'd be like why is he still standing and he would just keep going um so yeah it was i had a really bit a little bit of bad uh jersey luck this is my new jersey it's fetch he's not going anywhere but i said i was going to get a brockmigan jersey i was like it's for sure we're going to have him he's going to be lifelong hurricane for sure and then you guys took him and I mean it could have been worse like he could have gone to the caps or somebody but I guess he's okay if he's at the pins

but yeah so I was a little sad I get excited every time he comes back in the building I'm sure it's a very familiar place to him but if anyone I had to score against us too I guess it's fine if it's Brock yeah and I'm glad that he is playing well you know he started the season off on a cold streak

but since then you know those first couple weeks. He's been, I think, one of their most consistent bottom six players, and it was nice to see him get rewarded with that goal. Last thing I think I do have for you, Kat. We were talking about this as well, and I figured I would bring it up on the show. You know, Sid was kind of shut down a little bit tonight, which is usually not the case for him because he's just been on a tear this season. It's got on pace for well over a point per game and is going to, again, tie Wayne Gritsky's record for the most of all time pretty soon. What do you think played into that tonight? Was it just a case of you think Slaven seeing a good dose of him and really shutting him down?

Just how did you see it being at the game? I honestly, I just didn't see him a whole lot. I would see, I would see Malkin a bit. He would be crunching our players. But I just didn't cease it a whole lot. One of the times I saw, I think, I don't know if it was even on the power player, if it was just a normal shot, but you guys had it down. And he was ready to like, he was getting down on one knee,

ready to just slap it in and we managed to get a player and piota right there to block that one timer from him and i think that's the most i really saw from him tonight um i didn't honestly when i'm there sometimes i can't really tell what line is matched up to what because i'm just so enthralled with the game um but typically like you guys said like you like you how you guys took down our top guys kind of like you kind of kept them from uh not producing i would say he was probably matched against Slavin and Bernsey. But again, I mean, Shea and Peschi are also, like, they get our most ice time. But normally Slaven, normally Slaven is the one that he normally shuts down some of the top, again, my favorite defenseman.

I think the number one defensive defenseman in the league. If you know what, if you follow me on Twitter, I will talk about it all day. But normally he's the one that shuts down the big guns for most teams. But if not him, it was Pesci and Jay. honestly, they just do a really good, unless they make a pretty crucial mistake. They're pretty good at shutting down top players just like you guys did. So I would guess it was a lot of the matchup. But yeah, again, I didn't really see a lot of like, oh, my, like, and normally you can hear

when number 87 has the puck, and I didn't hear that a whole bunch, even though it's like majority Carolina. I didn't hear that. So I just, I just don't think he, I don't know, I don't want to say he had a bad game. I just didn't notice him as much as where you would want to. notice your star player. Yeah, and I think that's fair. You know, he's going to have games like that during the season, and I'm not concerned at all. I mean, he's, Cindy Crawford for God's sakes, but, you know, he had a couple of, you know, shots on net. I thought throughout the game just

didn't threaten as much as he normally does. But, you know, every time he has a game like that, he usually follows it up with one of his best games of the season. So, well, I mean, I'm happy. I'm happy if he has a game where it's his off game, I'll take it, because no one likes to get Crosby, which I think happened to us last game. So, yeah, I'll take it. I mean, I'll take a couple less hits from Mawken, too. But, yeah, I love watching Crosby play. So I just, you know, let him go play that way against other teams.

Yeah, lucky for you. They have the Rangers coming up on Tuesday, so we'll have to see if they can beat them up because they're the Rangers won tonight. And that pushes the Penguins down to fourth place in the Metro. Now, as this division continues to be very crowded. I think that might... You guys should want some revenge for the playoffs.

You guys need to play with some revenge from the playoffs. Yeah, I think it's going to be a lively crowd. I know some of the crowds have not been that good at PPG to season. I think, you know, multitude of reasons of the weather, and there's a lot of construction around the arena. But that's going to be a lively crowd. That's probably going to be one of the better crowds in the season. And I think on Thursday, when I'll be there,

I think it's going to be a good crowd as well against Carolina. But I think that will do it, though, for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Kat, if you have any other thoughts about the game, you know, you can share them right now or otherwise I'll just have you plug where all the good fellow listeners can follow your work. Yeah. Yeah, honestly, it was a great game to start off Christmas break for me.

So honestly, I look forward to any time we play the pins. Hopefully we'll be playing you guys in the playoffs. I would love, again, you said in seven game series with you guys would be great. Look forward to the next couple of games against you guys. But yeah, besides that, you can follow me on Twitter at Kaniak Chick. If you want, it ranges, it's mostly hurricane stuff every now and then it's other NHL things as well.

And then you can also follow me if you, if anyone has a TikTok. It's K-A-T-E-R-G-Y-74 for Jacob Slavin. I just post funny videos about hockey every now and then. and would love to interact with and talk hockey with anyone. And then just if you do follow me, stay tuned because I do have some fun announcements coming up at the end of the year. Yes, go follow her, please, guys. She's one of my favorite people from hockey Twitter. Yeah, I think that's the best way I can say it.

But we'll definitely have to do another one of these during the season, maybe later this week or potentially for the other game that they have coming up against them as well. But really appreciate you coming on, Kat. This was a lot of fun. And next up for the episode, I will be doing a preview for the Rangers game with John Chick of Locked on Rangers. That is a massive game for the Penguins, as the Rangers have all of a sudden caught fire, and they are now one point ahead of the Penguins, which is just very annoying at this point. It's funny.

When the Penguins wanted to start winning, that's when the Rangers started to start winning as well. So this is going to be a sprint until April at least. But again, thank you all so much for listening. I will talk with you all on Tuesday. Thank you.