Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Owen Pickering makes strong debut as Penguins split back-to-back

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

The Penguins split a weekend back-to-back but the focus was more on the debut of two prospects! Marshall Mondays return this week as Jesse Marshall of The Athletic joins Patrick and Hunter to discuss the loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets as well as the debut of defenseman Owen Pickering. Then, Patrick and Hunter discuss the shootout win to the San Jose Sharks and how that game pretty much sums up the Penguins' season to this point. Finally, they close out the show by talking about how the Penguins no-showed just 24 hours earlier against Columbus. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Mint MobileTo get this new customer offer and your new 3-month premium wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to MINTMOBILE.com/lockedonnhl. Disclaimer - $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details. Omaha SteaksFrom legendary steaks to mouthwatering desserts and more, save fifty percent off site-wide at OmahaSteaks.com. Plus, our listeners get an extra thirty dollars off with Promo Code NHL and a thirty-dollar reward card when you shop early. Select QuoteGet the right life insurance for YOU, for LESS, at SelectQuote.com/LOCKEDONNHL. PrizePicksDownload the app or go to https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNHL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The penguins split their weekend back to back, as well as saw the debut of two new prospects. We're going to talk about that and more here on Marshall Monday on the Locked On Penguins podcast. Your Locked on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And welcome back to another edition of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp, joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hode. and it is once again a Marshall Monday. So we are joined by Jesse Marshall of the athletic and wherever else you may find him. Before we get started today, today's episode is brought to you by Indeed.

Still searching for a great candidate for your company? Don't search. Just match with Indeed. So let's not waste any time here, fellas. It's Marshall Monday. Jesse Marshall's back on the pod. And despite only playing two games this weekend, And the penguins have given us a lot of content to discuss.

They get absolutely boat raced by their little brother, the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday. And then they try their absolute hardest to blow a 3-0 lead against the San Jose Sharks, only to win in a shootout. We also saw the debut of Vasily Ponamara, as well as Owen Pickering on Saturday night against the San Jose Sharks. And we're going to talk about those two here in a little bit. But as Jesse said to us before we hit record, he's got some thoughts to get off his chest about the Columbus Blue Jackets game.

So Jesse, welcome back to the show and the floor is yours. I feel like I'm carrying a backpack of cinder blocks. I'm just going to take it off and set it down here for a minute and soapbox. I have made it an unfortunate habit. And this has not been good for my mental health in any way to rewatch these defensive meltdown games and try and capture the essence. the core of, if you will, what is absolutely backwards about this team defensively. If you rewatch the Columbus game, their first goal specifically, just you don't need to even spend, don't waste your time watching the other five, just watch the first one when they

executed a simple dump cross the red, okay? Simple dump cross the red, nothing crazy, right? Kill the puck in the corner and go get it. The penguins, in their neutral zone structure, as it were, had a good, I don't know, Pat, 20-foot head start to those loose pucks, right? That's like being generous. I mean, like, it was pretty clear, there wasn't a lot of, like, it was a weird line-change situation. So they had, like, a little bit of a head start, and they lost the foot race, right? 25-feetish head start, and they lost.

And then not only did they lose when they lost, everybody on that. the eyes, stared at the guy who had the puck that won the race, almost in awe that their molasses like movements didn't catch up to the puck first. And I just, you know, at the end of the game, I kind of like went off on the rails a little bit, right? And like, was really stern on the coaching staff. Because I think throughout the course of that game, the Penguins quit in like various stages. It wasn't, I think it was, it was bad to go. Like at the drop of the puck, it was bad, but it just progressively got worse, right? It was like, you survived the new, you know, the your blast, but now the like black rain and fallout is raining on you and then you have to

grow an extra arm. I was shocked, again, by the most basic tenets of what this team is supposed to be doing being the cause for the failures, right? That I have to like, I'm going to repeat that. The core basic structure of this team in the neutral zone and in the defensive zone is an utter disorganization. Somebody yelled at me on Twitter, told me that wasn't the appropriate word. It's the appropriate word. Have you watched them? I don't know how else to describe it. You know, you look back again at Columbus and later on in that game as the rails go off,

Jackson and Ivaney and the rest of the defense would just press down behind the net. And everyone abandons the front of the cage and leaves it wide open, right? There's no one covering there. You have all these situations where the puck moved. I've said this to Hunter last week while you were absconded into the Great Paradise Pat. that when you switch the side of the ice, the puck side of the ice from one side of the other on the penguins, you beat them. That's all you've got to do.

If they've got you pinned on the strong side, turn the strong side and the weak side over, flip the puck, and then they'll lose their assignments on the route back over to the other side. It's just, it's, it's, I don't know what, like, there's no solution to this that exists for me, right? Like, that's the thing. Like, I think getting an infusion of youth, and we're going to talk about, like, some of the young players is great. And if nothing else, you guys know that when they get caught up, they play with the first four or five games so full of adrenaline that they're just,

like, they don't even know what's going on out there. And you need that energy. Like, that's good energy to have. But I, this is, we're now in approaching December, right?

American Thanksgiving is coming up. And these core functions, you almost wonder, what did they do during camp? Did they practice this stuff? Like, what were they doing? They couldn't have been practicing the same system.

There's no way, right? I mean, I just, it's confounding. And there's a lot of players on this team that are posting career low defensive results in terms of chances allowed that are major outliers to their career totals unless you look at 2015 Mike Johnson. And then, oh, there's no, there's their friend. That's the only other outlier that really exists for them. So, hey, I, you know, I had to get that off my chest is that three minutes into a game,

you have a loose puck race where you've got a drag strip length head start to go. get it. And you had three, a forward and two defensemen, sort of like, which one of us is, like, I don't know how we come to that level of indecision that early in the game. And even if that mistake gets made, right? And this is, we saw this in San Jose too. The recoverability is gone. Right. Yeah. It all of a sudden, when that foundation starts burning a little bit, the whole thing collapses and you suddenly come into like these quick strike offensive opportunities for the other team where you're having like pucks coughed up in really critical areas of the ice so I am I am flummoxed by this I want you to know that I am as flummoxed as I've been in a really

long time watching this tape because it is a great it's it's bad it's really bad and I don't know how that happens three minutes into a game in the division first off great word choice there, by the way. Second off. So last year they were defending at least marginally better compared to this year. How did it come to this, Jesse, where it's gotten still so much worse compared to last year. Every single fundamental is gone. They have no idea where to be on the ice when the puck comes in their own zone. They leave the front of the net wide open every time they're coming in. And when the smallest thing goes wrong, it snowballs and it gets worse and it gets worse. And I just right now, I don't think Mike Sullivan has an answer to this,

and I don't think he's ever going to have an answer to this until they make the coaching change. Last year, Hunter, to your point, their biggest problems were those massive self-inflicted wounds that came from like pinching or, you know, going after loose pucks that they probably didn't have any business going after, not really being cognizant of like time and place, right? Now, though, like, you still get those. So those still exist. I thought it was wild that Eric Carlson pinched the way he did this week. against San Jose and then had the audacity to just get around with his arms up in the air afterwards.

Like, who did that? Like, what happened there? Like, I don't know. So I, you have those still, but now you have like this added bonus of like, not bonus, added hell, I guess, of not being able to defend in the defensive zone. And that's the one that confuses me because the system's the same, right? And I can't, I can't discern anything, you know, from my perspective anyway, that is like a David Quinn specific instruction out there that's making them do something that is different than last year. There's just there doesn't seem to be a lot of on ice communication. That's what it seems like to me.

I think there's a lot of guys that are just sitting out there not not really talking and you end up with a lot of 10, 10 eyes all staring in the same place and sort of leaving these really critical areas of the ice open. Yeah, it's it's a lot of fixation on the puck. I have been saying that all season long. They seem to just puck chase and not worry about where they need to be, which is something you would expect in mites and squirts, not the National Hockey League, but I digress.

We could probably talk about the failings of this defensive system for an hour. So we're going to leave that there. But the other reason we wanted to bring you on today, Jesse, is that we saw the debuts of Owen Pickering in Vasily Ponamerev. I thought Ponomerov was pretty solid. Didn't really jump off the page in total. But Owen Pickering had himself quite a debut, getting his first NHL point with an assist on a goal against San Jose. And it was very encouraging work. And I know that you've studied a lot of film on

Owen Pickering. So what did you see from him on Saturday night? I thought he looked really good. I thought it was an excellent debut. My only concern going into it was that his first step is just, let's be honest. And you know, you just said this about Brian Dumlin or any number of defensive style defensemen that have come through here. His first step isn't the greatest, right? And I think that sometimes smaller HL forwards, you know, you guys know I'm a big fan

of Consta Hellenius to write the Buffalo prospect and I watched the game against Rochester, Wilkes-Bair, Rochester played a couple weeks ago. And I caught, there was a couple of times

where Pickering, kind of gets handcuffed a little bit when somebody has that burst, right? And a lot of NHO players have that burst. And I think his first step and especially when he has to pivot

is still a little bit not, I think it'll come playing against pros. That's how he'll develop it is getting time against NHL players because you can't replicate that in an American Hockey League practice repeatedly, right? NHL speed, that is.

So that was really my only concern. The other thing he does a lot is when he gets the puck in the defensive zone, he makes a lot of handcuffed passes. So there passes that are made before they need to be almost like a second or so too soon that the recipient isn't necessarily in the greatest position to get it. And if there's a four check presence there and that four check presence can peel off and just handcuff the player who just got the, the too early pass, it can hem you in your own end sometimes, right?

Like, you end up putting your teammate in a rough position. I didn't see any of that, right? And I think the other thing I mentioned on Twitter is that he does a lot of, Murphy dumps a lot. And sometimes he does a layer over top where he should go. Like, he's got a pass in front of him, but that pressure he's feeling causes him to just sky it and it goes to the other team, but you had an outlet, right? These are like minor complaints.

Like, otherwise, the guys, he's an animal in front of the net. really good in front of the net and not in a wasteful way. When I put together, it's really hard to make an Owen Pickering mixtape. It is. I'm just being honest with you. It's going to be full of him stopping guys trying to cross the blue line or clearing the front of the net out because he's not carrying the puck a lot, right? That's just not what he's doing.

But you can see in the video clips that his timing is great. That's what I love about him. When he throws his stick in to break something up or when he makes physical contact with somebody, it's right at the point where they're about to receive the puck. So they're focused, right, on getting that pass. And the next thing you know, they're off balance because here comes pickering with that perfect timing. Gap control is great too, right? I mean, that's what he's about, his reach.

He's a lengthy human being. And, you know, his top speed's good. It is for a guy that that size. I mean, I think he can, once he gets the wheels going, he's like Donkey Kong and Mario Kart. You can't get slowed down at all. But once you get up and you're running, like you're good. I didn't think that from a foot speed perspective, he looked out of it at all. all, I thought that he was engaging with the puck, which I wanted to see because, you know,

when he, the discussion about Owen Pickering is about his plateau. That's what it's about, right? It's like, this guy seemed like it was like, I had him knocked as a 2D. Like, I mean, he got drafted. I was like, this is going to be like a Dumolin replacement later on down the line. And then there was this added bonus that, like, he liked to carry the puck and junior. And that hasn't gone with him much, right? And he still does it from time to time.

But you were expecting more there. I think, over his development curve. It's kind of just like he got really good, really quickly, and has stayed at that level with marginal increases since. Right. I think that's a good way to put it. But that was a great debut. I think it'd be hard pressed to complain about it.

It's tough for defensemen, man. Like, that's a tough thing to do is to step in a lineup against a fast team like San Jose that's got a lot of speed in a defensive environment for the penguins that's just kind of like a mess, you know, to just come in there and be baptized by fire. I thought it was really good. Yeah, the biggest thing for me was that he didn't look out of place. You mentioned his gap control. That was one thing I noticed as well.

It was fluid throughout. He made every right decision when he was on the ice. He wasn't too aggressive in the offensive zone. He knew when to pinch versus when to come back and not give up an odd man rush. He also knew, you know, when to go one-on-one in his own zone versus when to not. And it felt like, again, he made the right decision every time. You compared him to Brian Dumlin. To me, it was kind of like Paul Martin.

with the way he was playing. That's kind of the comp that I really love to see that. Yeah. Yeah, when I look at Owen Pickering, he plays just like Paul Martin, a very steady game in his own end. He's not going to give you a ton of offense, but when he does,

it's an added bonus. And I want to see more from him. I think he was playing really good in Wilkesbury this past week before he got called up. He got his first goal in the HL this past week. And I was really liking everything I was seeing. His skating, especially Jesse,

was, I thought, on point in this game. He never lost a, you know, foot race to a puck, and he was great exiting the zone with control. It was a really nice debut, and I want to see more out of him over this next week or two, however long they want to keep him up. I know it's not going to be forever because they're probably going to put Ryan Graves back in a lineup at some point, though.

I personally think Matt Grizzling should be scratched over Ryan Graves right now, but hey, that's just me. I still want to see more from Pickering, but overall, I think this future blue line with him and Brunick, I think it's in good hands with those two coming. For sure. One comment I had made about his HL time that I thought is relevant to this transition to the NHL is that he's really good at recognizing switches, which means my teammates beat, and now this is my responsibility, and I need to step in and take this this puck race or whatever the case may be. He's so good at that. It's very seamless for him. So I hate the idea of a young player like that playing alongside a Carlson or Latang now. But like future state, right like that's that's what you want you want a guy who can recognize those situations and say no no no this is now my time i need to pen i need to press i need to step over i need to come out of my position and help and that's something he's done really well at the american hockey league level so um hopefully

that translates for him uh to the next to the next tier yeah that would be huge and like we said not a overly tremendous debut for panama i thought he looked good i definitely want to see more from him. But Jesse, I know that you got to get rolling here. We're probably going to get a message from our guy, Sean, because we're running a little long on this first segment.

So we appreciate you taking the time today. Hunter and I are going to come back here and talk about the rest of the weekend and everything else. But before we finish that off, Jesse, just let everybody know where they can find you and what you might have coming up here in the next couple weeks. Yeah,

at the athletic got a Crosby article from last week talking about his goal scoring. And then we got to talk about Martin Nekish. This unbelievable buzzed or bleached blonde haircut that he has right now is just tearing it up in the league. And Carolina in particular, I think, is putting him in positions to succeed. And I want to talk about that on McKean's a little bit more about why zone entries matter for a forward when you do or do not have the puck. And the decision making that goes into that, I think is really unique and intriguing. So we're going to talk about that a little bit too. Absolutely.

We're looking forward to it. Hunter and I will be right back. we're going to talk about the rest of the weekend. Our thoughts on that as well as get you set for the week ahead for the Pittsburgh Penguins. But Jesse, as always, we appreciate it. Hunter and I will be right back after this. But first, we got to tell you about our first sponsor, and that is PrizePix. Prize Picks is the best place to get real money sports action with over 10 million members

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get that $50 bonus after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks run your game. All right, welcome back to the Monday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. It is now just Hunter and myself. Jesse, as I said, had to get rolling, but a lot of great insight from him about Owen Pickering

and what he saw in his debut. Wish we would have had a little bit more time with him. Would have loved to see some more on Vasily Ponomerov, but such is life and we'll hopefully get him back next Monday and we can talk even more about all that. But rather than go right to the negative, let's at least start with the somewhat positive from the weekend that was for the Pittsburgh Penguins, a shootout victory over the San Jose sharks. They tried their hardest to blow a three nothing lead against the sharks, but they were able to overcome that and win in the shootout.

One thing I want to add before we talk about the penguin's side, of it. I am completely confounded by the way San Jose ended that game. I know that this team is rebuilding. They are more or less tanking this year just to get another high draft pick to continue their rebuild. But I could not believe how in the last minute they were just happy to pin the puck and play to get an extra point. And it kind of goes against their organizational philosophy right now of trying to lose and not get points. And yet for the last minute, they were just pinning the puck on the wall,

running the clock out, and letting the game slip to overtime. You know, I could honestly say the same thing about the penguins, pat, because it's like, you're playing for a loser point here against the sharks. Come on, you freaking cowards. Like, that's,

I was at the game and it felt like after the puck stopped being pinned, and there was about still a little bit of time when the penguins were behind their own net with the puck, and they were just playing. playing for the point. And I'm like, one more rush up the ice. Come on. See what you can do. See if you can somehow get a lucky bounce to win this game in regulation. And they're like, nope, we're just going to play for overtime. And I'm like, you guys are freaking cowards. This is probably the worst team in hockey. So that kind of made me laugh. But it felt like at

least for a time. The penguins were on their way to a fairly easy win. The penguins came out with a purpose in this game. They get a goal pretty early on. Really nice play by Brian and Russ there. They almost made it to nothing, or they did until an offside review took away a beautiful getting Malkin move. That was a Sydney Crosby like backhand goal from him. But as much as I hate offside reviews now, that was very much offside. There was not a mile off sides. They got that one right. And I mean, it kind of continues the theme for Michael Bunting this season. He's had a couple games here and there where he's looked like himself. But on the whole, he has not been the Michael Bunting that the penguins got after the Jake Gensel trade.

And that is a little bit of a concern for this team. Agreed. He's been starting to heat up ever so slightly, but it's not nearly as good as it was to end last season. It's still concerning, as you said. Then they get another goal in the second period to go up 3-0, kind of a weak goal to allow from McKenzie Blackwood, who replaced VTek, VT, Tini-Frosby gets to 599,

had 5,000 more chances to get to 600, especially in overtime. and Samo McKenzie Blackwood just kept making grade A save after grade A save, just channeling his best Igor Shisterkin, Connor Hellebuck impersonation. And I was like, what is going on in net here with McKenzie Blackwood? It's the way he played against the Devils about a week ago as well. But then you start to see the warts come back. You know, the sharks make it 3-1.

But then you have that 3-1 lead heading into the third period. And I was sitting next to my friend and I'm like, this new lead is still not safe, even though the sharks are bad. And sure enough, 3-2, a few minutes. minutes later 3-3. And it's just like, again, when the smallest thing goes wrong, it snowballs. And then you have a tie game. And then the Penguins are kind of defending that lead a little bit in the third period,

but they also did get a couple of very quality chances, namely from Raquel late in that period. Did you remember that save from Blackwood when he basically reached out his blocker to deny Raquel off of a great one-time opportunity? I couldn't believe that. The Penguins could have won the game right there. But there were still a couple of other scary moments to end the third period. Then you have the overtime where I will say this.

I actually might get that bold prediction right this year, my friend, of the Penguins finishing above 500, at least in three-on-three overtime. They have really fixed their three-on-three game to start this season. We're about a little over a month, and they really aren't allowing any chances in three-on-three. They're having the puck the entire time. They're knowing when to reset versus knowing when to come in to the offensive zone. They're knowing when to change versus when not to change.

They're not giving up those on-man rushes. It's funny. why don't you bring that mentality over to five on five play? I know three on three is a totally different piece, people. I get it, but why can't you have similar line changes at five on five and the way you're protecting the puck in three on three over to five on five? It's just some of it is just a bit madding to me. Crosby had countless chances.

There was a great save where Blackwood lunged over to deny Crosby on a one-time opportunity. And then the funny thing was, they finally want a shootout. I never thought I'd see the day of there, buddy, where they actually won a shootout in our year and Lord 2024. A couple of really nice moves, one from Bovillier. Crosby had a nice snipe and then again, Malkin gets the game winner later on in the shootout and Dahlkevich was able to get the save. And hey, it's good you get the two points.

That's always fine. It should not have come to that. I'm sorry, you cannot blow a three goal lead to the worst team in hockey in regulation. That is still pathetic. Yeah, that was basically extremely inexcusable, but I will say this. You hinted at it a little bit. Blackwood deserves his flowers for that game. He really kept them in that, but it was also a microcosm of this penguin season so far,

where they played fairly well, I think overall, but every mistake seemed to, especially after they were up three nothing, every mistake seemed to end up in the back of their net compound that with the fact that McKenzie Blackwood played very well against the penguins after taking over for Vanichick. So that you put those two factors together and you essentially get the cocktail that is the 24, 25 penguins because those are all the ingredients. So overall, you're happy to see them get the two points. But the effort was, I don't want to say poor, but it also was not great. So speaking of not great efforts,

we got to talk about the Columbus Blue Jackets game. Hunter and I will do that when we return right after this. But first, we got to tell you about our last sponsor, and that is Indeed. We're driven for the search for better, but when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search match with Indeed.

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I'm Patrick Damp. joined as always by Hunter Hodes. And it was an absolute mauling by the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday with the Penguins losing six to two in Columbus, two baby brother. And I mean, I have a lot of thoughts about this one. I think Jesse hit the nail on the head in the first segment talking about how bad their defensive zone structure is and how they just completely gave up. But I want to add a caveat to that.

And I know this might seem lazy. I know it might seem like the lowest hanging fruit when it comes to analysis of that game. But I have to pin a lot of it on Tristan Jari. I know that the team's effort wasn't great. They deserve critiquing for that. They deserve to be their feet held to the fire for that. Because if there's one thing you can truly always control, it's your effort and the effort was certainly not there.

But once they gave up the third goal to Columbus, the team's body language just completely collapsed. They were down to nothing. They battled back and really in the lead up to them tying the game at two, I thought they completely turned it around. They were looking like the better team. The energy was there. The momentum was there.

They give up that goal. And while, yes, they gave it up on a three on one rush, I thought Marcus Pedersen played it very well, taking away the passes, giving Tristan Jari the shooting lane. But Jari gives up the goal. And you could see the body language of this team just go, man, we cannot win with this guy in the net. And that can derail even the best of efforts. Again, they deserve scorn for basically giving up. But you can tell with this team, they have completely lost any belief they might have had in Tristan Jari.

It feels like it. I mean, for God's sake, he gave up a goal on the first shot that he faced in his return to the NHL. That's not good enough. He also gave up two goals in his first three shots in that game in his return to the NHL. We all know how poor they were defensively in that game. We all know how poor they've been defensively all season.

But his inability to give them at least one timely save throughout this season is annoying. It's been annoying since the first game. And it's continued to be annoying. now. In my opinion, I don't know how many more starts you can give him at this rate. This is kind of who he is as a goalie for this team. Could he be a bit better on a team that's better defensively? I do think so. I think he could maybe improve his game a little bit, but right now, this is who he is on this version of the Penguins. And I personally don't see it getting that much better. So that's where I stand on Tristanjari. They might give him another

a starter to, but you probably should not be expecting too much considering how poorly he played in that game. Now that said, they still defended really poorly in that game. And again, I hate saying this. I don't think Matt Groslick is an NHL player right now. There were a couple of instances again in that game where he's just skating the puck into no man's land. He's not making the right decision. And the funny thing is his skating is the best asset of his game. It's everything else that I feel like right now is a complete and utter tired. fire. He makes all the wrong decisions with the puck. And you saw that on display once Columbus got the lead late, just skated the puck in the no man's land. And I'm like, where is your puck

awareness? Or just also, where is your awareness on the ice? So I get wanting to scratch Ryan Graves or Owen Pickering. I don't think Graves has had a good tenure with the Penguins, even though I think Graves has been a bit better this year. It's not by much when you compare it to Grizzling, but I still think he's been a little bit better. But if we're talking right now, I would rather they scratch Grizzlic over Graves. I can't even believe I'm saying that heading into this season, considering that Graves was so bad last year. But I would rather have Ryan Graves in this lineup right now compared to Matt Grisling.

That just goes to show how poor Grizzlic has played this year. I don't know if they're even going to get anything for him at the deadline with how he's going right now. So it was a complete joke of an effort on every level. It was nice to see them battle back. You get Anthony Bavillier, his goal. Keep boosting that trade value, my friend. and Michael Bunton gets a really nice goal in his office.

And you're like, okay, they battle back from a two-gold deficit. They've done this quite a few times with Blue Jackets, but here this is where they go for the kill shot. Well, have the opposite effect. The Blue Jackets went for the kill shot, and the Penguins really had no answer for it. And you can see on the bench, everyone just looked dejected after that game.

And again, you want to lose games? Okay, you can't be losing 6-2 to a Blue Jackets team that's been really bad this year. and a team you have dominated in recent years. I think I might have jinxed them when we previewed this episode on, or previews this game, excuse me, on Friday episode. I don't know where my mind was going there, but I might have jinxed them when we were previewing that game on Friday,

but you can't be given up six goals and losing by four goals to the Blue Jackets. I know the team is bad this year, but can't be doing that. That's not good enough. And I do want to shout out one player, though, from this weekend just to end the show here. You know what? No one is talking about him as much. Matt Nietto. He has played very well in these two games. I don't think he's a long-term answer for the bottom six. I think there's a chance that the Penguins move him at the deadline, but he is at

least an NHO caliber player for your bottom six. He skates well. He four checks hard. He plays well in the penalty kill. He can give you a little bit of offense at times. He's playing really well these last couple of games. Not many people are talking about it. I'm right with you. I think he has been very, He has started off very strong since returning to the National Hockey League, especially given everything that he's gone through in the last year. So that's very encouraging to see. And just like Anthony Bavillier, keep playing well and boost that trade value so we can get a good return.

But, yeah, I mean, one quick thing before we wrap up here, I agree with you on the Graves Grizzlic thing. Yeah, I mean, the bar is not high for Ryan Graves this year. But I do think when we talk about guys that they're trying to rehab, So far this season, for the most part, I think it's starting to work a little bit with Ryan Graves. He's still making mistakes. He's still following into some of the habits and in mistakes that he made last season. But his overall game has been better, not by a lot, but it has been better. So it shows that the plan that they have in place for him is at least working to a certain extent.

meanwhile, Grizzlick has been just sub-professional. It's genuinely difficult to watch because he is just making poor decisions. He's not skating well. He doesn't have good gap control. It's just a complete disaster. So that is a huge, huge problem. And I don't interrupt you as well. Ryan Shea, I think I've seen enough from him at this point.

I don't know if he's an NHL player at this point either. He had a decent stretch of games to end last season where it was like, okay, he might make an okay number seven. a number right defenseman in the league. I don't even know if he's that at this rate. And I know Jack St. Ivany hasn't been as good this year compared to the end of last season as well. But I would still rather have him in the lineup on a nightly basis compared to Ryan Shea. She was also making all the wrong reads during that game against San Jose. And I think I've just kind of seen enough from him at this point too. Same here. I think Jack St. Ivney has not a lot,

but a higher ceiling than Ryan Shea, and that will definitely help this team moving forward at least a little bit. But it's a big week coming up for the Pittsburgh Penguins, some very stiff competition to end the month of November. We've got the Tampa Bay Lightning tomorrow night. And then going into the weekend on Friday, you've got the Winnipeg Jets, arguably the hottest team in the National Hockey League.

Then the Utah Utahans come in to town for the first time in their franchise history on Saturday. And we will get you. for Penguins Lightning on our Tuesday episode, but that is going to do it for the Monday episode of Locked-on Penguins for Hunter Hodes. I am Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always, for tuning in. Hunter and I will return to get you set, as I said, for Penguins Lightning tomorrow.

But for now, have a great day. We will talk to you again on Tuesday.