Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins bank two points against the Blue Jackets, but what's next?

Episode Date: March 6, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins once again beat the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night but it wasn't their best effort. To start the show, Hunter and Pat dive into a recap for the Penguins win over the Jackets and how the Penguins should feel pretty fortunate that they got the two points. They discuss how the team should've been a lot better since the Jackets had played the night before and then got into some of the positives, including Reilly Smith and Evgeni Malkin. They marvel at how the two got their mojo back in this game and wonder where it's been for some time. They especially praise Malkin for his performance as he showed that he still has more left in the tank. They analyze Jesse Puljujarvi's game and how he got on the scoresheet before getting to the latest on Jake Guentzel. Is a trade going to be completed by tonight? What teams are still involved? They discuss that before ending the show with Warrior Helmet Wednesday.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.FactorGet started on your resolutions with Factor, so you’re ready for the new year. Head to factormeals.com/lockedonnhl50 and use code lockedonnhl50 to get 50% off. IndeedIndeed knows when you’re growing your own business, you have to make every dollar count. Visit Indeed.com/LOCKEDON to start hiring now.RobinhoodRobinhood has the only IRA that gives you a 3% boost on every dollar you contribute when you subscribe to Robinhood Gold. Now through April 30th, Robinhood is even boosting every single dollar you transfer in from other retirement accounts with a 3% match. Available to U.S. customers in good standing. Robinhood Financial LLC (member SIPC), is a registered broker dealer.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.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelGet buckets with your first bet on FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your bet 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 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There are three certainties in life, death, taxes, and the Pittsburgh Penguins beating the Columbus Blue Jackets. You're Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

Join him on my host, Patrick Gamp. You can follow him on Twitter. at Center for Wet, and you can follow these shows, Twitter at L.O. Arnesworth Penguins, of course, thank you all so much for making this, your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And to kick things off for today's episode, the Penguins get a much-needed 5-2-3 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.

And I really like how they came out in the first period. They dominated the jackets from start to finish in that first parade. they take a two-nothing lead into the first intermission. But after that period is where the Penguins play really dipped. And I'm kind of at the point where I think the Penguins are pretty fortunate that they came out with the result in this game. I thought the final 40 minutes, they did not play well at all. They were outshot 18 to 6 in the second period.

Tristan Jari had to come up with a number of 10 bell saves in that period and the third period as well. They looked like the team that played the night before, not the Columbus Blue Jackets. So that's a little concerning to me as we head into the final 22 games of the season. You can't take 40 minutes off against most teams in the league and expect to come out with the win. You can obviously do it at least once or maybe twice against a team like the Blue Jackets who are one of the worst teams in the league.

But against teams that are close to you in the standings or especially above you in the standings, you can't play like. like that and usually come out on the right side of the result. The penguins, I feel like we're pretty fortunate to get the result after playing a really good first period, but a very bad next 40 minutes. I had pretty much one main takeaway from that game last night. And it's that the Pittsburgh Penguins are not a very good hockey team. The Columbus Blue Jackets are a bad hockey team.

That was just last night's game overall. I mean, penguins get the win. That's nice to see. We've talked about it on the show that, you know, this is kind of all exhibition at this point with the team being in a position to sell, likely not going to make the playoffs. So now we're looking forward to next year and what the next season can look like, who's still got value, who doesn't and so on. But that was a very sloppy hockey game. I don't want to say it was difficult to watch because I'm a gigantic hockey nerd and a hockey fan. So I'm going to lap up any and all hockey content.

But at the same time, I mean, the first 20 minutes, even with the penguins playing pretty well, it was still a sloppy game. There was not a ton of chances, not a lot of pressure either way. You could tell that this was against two teams that know their season comes to an end after game 82 and that the focus is on next season. Now, I will say I was pretty pleased by some of the people that we've been talking about that could be getting moved here in the next few days. I thought Riley Smith had a very strong game. I thought Lars Eller looked okay and not out of place on the top line. You know, that's a showcase for somebody who's likely going to get moved. And overall, I mean, you're right.

The penguins were very lucky to come out with two clean points in this one because they didn't show up in the second period. They got their butts kicked by the Blue Jackets for 20 minutes. And then in the third period, I think it was played a little bit more, even, but I would tilt it a little bit more towards Columbus. So overall, the penguins get lucky to come out with two points. I like Gino's game. It was nice to see Jesse Pooley-R-V finally get on the score sheet.

So overall, I mean, you're happy with the two points, but we all know what we're looking forward to at this point. Agreed. And just to dive into some of those individual performances that you hinted at, I agree. I thought Riley Smith played one of his finest game. as a member of the Penguins this season. That touch pass to Evgeny Malkin before he ripped that slap shot past Grieves was a really

nice pass by Smith. And then you saw Malkin feed Smith for a one-timer later on in that game and he just blasted that thing into the net. We got to see that connection come back for the first time in quite a few months. That looked like some October to November type connection from Evgeny Malkin and Riley Smith. And we haven't seen that type of the connection with them over the last four months. So it was nice seeing that come back, at least for this game,

even though it's probably too little too late for this team to get in the playoffs. But still, Radley Smith had a really good game that bums up his trade value a little bit. But I want to discuss of getting Malkin. I thought this was one of his finest games of the year as well. His skating was off the charts. It looked like 2016 level skating, I feel like, from McGee Malkin. You can even go back a few more years as well. all. I thought he took command on the ice. This was a vintage Gino game. I think he was making plays

with the puck on his stick every time he was out there setting up chances, even though some of his chances that he set up didn't go into the net. He was still setting up quality chances every time he was out there. It was a really nice game from him overall. And that's now two games in a row where I feel like he's starting to find his game a little bit more. I think he's definitely beating some of those washed allegations that I think we've seen on social media and a bunch of other forums as well. He can still play at a high level people. Has he lost a step? Absolutely.

I mean, he's 37 years old. He's not going to play the way he used to when he was 24 or even 28. But he is still a very good player in this league. He can still be a second line center, but it's as we've been talking about. He's got to get a little bit of help. He's been creating chances on most nights. The puck has just not been going into the net when he creates those chances. but you saw what happened when he did create some chances and score on a chance of his own,

boom, that's what happens sometimes. So I liked his game quite a bit in this one. I did as well. And I got to give a shout out to the Columbus Blue Jackets broadcast because that's how I was forced to tune into the game last night. And they brought up a good point. One of his first shifts, he goes out and he gets tripped up by a Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman.

It launches him into the boards. He stayed down for a little bit. he started barking about a call. And as much as I don't like seeing Gino bark about a call, because that means we're entering into the coin flip of what version of Gino are we going to get tonight? Are we going to get unhinged Gino that takes stupid penalties? Or are we going to get the Russian bear,

Evgeny Malkin, who comes out and takes over? And the Columbus Blue Jackets broadcast acknowledged that. The guy said he was like, this is a dangerous game. The Blue Jackets are playing right now because when, when Evgeny Malkin gets upset, He is one of the few players who can come out and take over a game. Sure enough to his next shift, he comes out, he steals the puck, he gets scoring chance,

and the broadcaster said the exact same thing. He just said, well, I think we know what version of Malkin we're going to be getting tonight. So this could be trouble for the blue jackets. And sure enough, it was the, you know, you already said vintage Gino performance and looked like a vintage Gino performance. That's what his goal was, man. when Evgeny Malkin was in his absolute prime, when he would wind up for a slap shot,

it was going to have one of two, one of three things was going to happen. One, the most productive thing, he was going to score. Two, in the least productive thing, he was going to miss the net, and it would be a clearing attempt for the other team, or three,

he might actually kill a goaltender with how hard he shoots the puck. Like it would fire them into the back of the net, Mighty Duck style. But that game, from him last night. And then it also is frustrating because you saw the way him and Smith played together last night. And you saw the way him and Smith played to start the season. And you just sit there scratching your head thinking, where did this go? What happened to this? Why could they not

do this consistently all season long? It's baffling. It really is. Like you saw that connection come back in this one. And it's just like, wow, if that connection had been there in December, January, or even February, where would this team be right now in terms of the standings? And you're right about that slap shot goal. All I could think about was how it was that total screw you goal. I'm not going to use the bad language on the show. But it reminded me of what he did in 2008 against the flyers when he wind it up.

And you know what happened. He scored on that slap shot for about 10 feet away. And that would have hit. If that slap shot would have hit Marty Barron in 2008, Marty Barron would not be on TV right now. He'd be dead. I think that would have scarred him for quite a while. So it's always nice seeing Gino line up a clapper like that.

And you mentioned Yassi Poyarvi as well. By the way, nice keep at the line by Ryan Graves. That was a nice pass by him. One of his best plays of the season so far as well. And Puyarvi just let that thing rip. It's funny, maybe you shouldn't scratch Yassie Poolearvey for quite a few games in a row when you need more depth scoring from the bottom half of your lineup. I understand if you want to do it for a game or two,

just because he's coming back from double hip surgery. I know it's really major. But doing it for multiple games in a row, when you have other players down there who aren't producing, it just didn't really make that much sense to me. Now he comes back in the lineup, gets his first goal as a penguin. Hopefully he can carry that momentum into some more games here down the stretch.

That was a really nice goal from him overall. Yeah, I mean, I agree on the overall sentiment that he probably, probably should not have been held out of the lineup as long as he was. He was looking fine enough when he first debuted with the Penguins. You know, it wasn't anything spectacular, but it wasn't like he was playing poorly. What I will push back on, though, is the depth scoring thing, because that has kind of been the story of Polly Arby's career up to this point,

is that he plays well enough. He does some positive things, but he doesn't score. So, you know, I, I, but obviously that's a counterfeiting. factual. We can't sit here and say, oh, yeah, if they would have left him in, they'd have probably gotten four or five goals out of them if they left them in because we have no way to prove that. But last night, it was another strong game by him on the whole. He looked like he can be an effective depth piece next season should they choose to keep him this off season because he's signed through next season. And I would like to see more of them down the stretch here.

I would like to, depending on what Kyle Dubus does over the next 48-ish. hours with the trade deadline looming. I would like to see him get a little bit more of an elevated role. I would like to see the penguins kind of use these last 20 or so games as an audition for the guys that might or might not be around come next season. Obviously, we know the big four are going to be here, but I'd like to see Poo-Yarvi. I'd like to see Pustinen. If Bemstrom is still around, I'd like to see him.

I would like to see Sam Poulan get a chance up at the big club and just tell these guys like Intel Sullivan because I think at this point they're going to keep at the very least they're going to keep him through the end of the year. You just tell them like, listen, I know you have your ways. I know you like to set the lineup certain ways and deploy them certain ways. But let the kids play the rest of this year. Let's see what we got. Let's see if these guys are worth holding on to if they're going to get a look going out of camp next year. So a lot of those guys that I want to see them play more down the stretch with this team basically with a one-ish percent chance to make the playoffs because there's the very real chance.

If you move some guys out, you let the kids play, maybe you make the last month or so of the season interesting. Right. And if they do move Riley Smith over the next 40 hours, which I expect they will. And then you potentially also move Ricard Raquel in a separate deal. That's a little more unlikely. think at this time. But say you move both of those players, Pat, boom, Poole-Yarvey has a spot to play on the againy Malkins line, see what he can do for the final 20 or so games. Also, even if

one of them gets moved, I still think there's a spot right there for Paul Yardby to see what he can do for the final 20, 22 games for his game overall heading into the offseason and then heading into next season as well. But I think that'll do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, it's the topic that everyone wants to discuss right now. There's a very real chance that a trade could break while we are recording this show. So we are going to give you the latest on everything that's going on regarding Jake Gensel. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about Robin Hood. Did you know that even if you have a 401k for retirement, you can still have an IRA, Robin Hood has the only IRA that gives you a 3% boost on every dollar you contribute when you

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sleep seepers, terms of use for details and locational availability. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, join by my co-host Patrick Dam. So all these rumors are just swirling regarding Jake Gensel as IT's heading into this segment. This trade could break any second now, potentially while we are recording. But as we know right now, the Penguins are trying to get a deal done by tonight. That was reported by TSN's Darren Dregor on Tuesday so far. as of 3.42 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, I'll give you all the exact time when we're recording

this. No deal has been agreed to yet. There have been reports that the New York Rangers are involved in talks. The Vancouver Canucks are involved. And you know when Vancouver is involved. Jim Rutherford is trying his very hardest to get his guy. That's how he was when he was in Pittsburgh. That's how he's been throughout his career as a GM or as an executive. I know he's working with Patrick Alvin, but Jim is definitely working this behind the scenes as well. There were rumors that they were trying to maybe send Elias Lind home to Boston to facilitate this. When Jim wants someone, he will do anything in his power to get it, Pat.

You know it, I know it, everyone knows it. So those are a couple teams that are involved. Oilers were involved, but I don't think they're going to be as much involved anymore. They traded for Adam Henrique today. They gave up a first to get him, which my opinion, I think that's a little bit of an overpayment, but hey, they're going for a Stanley Cup. so whatever. But still nothing has happened just yet.

What do you make of everything that's going on with the Gensel situation? Well, the thing that encouraged me from Dregor's report yesterday, and this is obviously going to be outdated now, just because of all the flurry of activity we've seen on Wednesday afternoon in the trade market, is that I liked the thought of getting Gensel dealt before Friday, just because that would have given Kyle the opportunity to set the market. If he can get a decent haul for Jake Gensel,

that's going to leave a bunch of other contending teams scrambling to get whatever they believe to be the second place trophy, and that's going to drive prices through the roof. But now as we've seen, a bunch of teams have made moves this afternoon with a lot of contenders, like Florida getting Teresanko, the Oilers getting Henri, Adam Henrique, the Colorado Avalanche making their bow and buyroom trade, which was just, I couldn't believe that one. But, you know, at this point, I think the hope has to be, if you're Kyle Dubus and the Penguins, that Jim Rutherford is going to go full Jim Rutherford because he will empty the tank to make a trade. he will put a sweetener in.

He will pay a little more than you might expect to get a guy that he wants. And he has obvious history with Jake Gensel. So does Rick Tockeet. There are a lot of ex-Penguins on the Vancouver Canucks right now and in the organization, not just Rutherford and Alvine. There's also Sergei Gonshire and like I said, Rick Tockeet. So there is a lot of familiarity there for Jake Gensel. you add in the fact that a lot of teams right now probably can't afford what Kyle Dubus wants for Jake Gensel.

The Vancouver Canucks can, and they have most of their key pieces locked up. They're not too worried about spending a lot of things right now because they're far ahead of schedule than where they're supposed to be. People forget they weren't supposed to be this good this year. they weren't going to be bad. They weren't going to be a lottery team. They looked like they were probably going to be a playoff bubble team, maybe make it in, maybe surprise some people, but they weren't supposed to be this good.

So they're far ahead of schedule. And similar to what you hinted at with the Henrique trade, and we know this as Penguins fans, who gives a damn what you trade away if you can win a Stanley Cup? That flag flies forever. You're not sitting there looking at the 2017 Stanley Cup banner and going, oh man, I really miss that first round pick, though. That would have been nice to have.

So if you're Kyle Dubus, you got a sweet talk, Jim Rutherford here and say, like, listen, you need a very, very elite scoring winger. I have one. Pay up. And with how Jim has always wanted to do quote unquote fair trades when he makes trades, I think the penguins would come out of that deal with Vancouver better than if they were to trade with other teams. I know the Rangers have been poking around there as well.

I know he's inside the division and it would hurt seeing him play with the Rangers just because the Rangers are one of the Penguins' biggest rivals. But if you can still get a pretty good package from them, that's maybe even better than a lot of other teams, maybe even better than Vancouver if you can swing it. I would still do that deal even though you're trading him to a Metro Division rival. Though I also think the price should be a little higher if you're trading him to a rival. But that's just my opinion and how I see that.

You definitely have to include a divisional tax. If you send him to say the Rangers or the hurricanes, a team like that, you have to add in a divisional tax where you basically have to tell them, like, listen, we'll make the deal with you, but you got to make it sweeter because we're in the same division. We're not going to just hand them to you. I also think there's another thing. And I'm sorry to interrupt you here.

I thought of this here just a second ago. Dubus and Rutherford have a lot of history making deals together. It might not be as widely known as I think. But when Jim Rutherford swung the deal to bring Phil Kessel to Pittsburgh, the lead negotiator from Toronto wasn't Lou. It was Dubus. Dubus helped orchestrate that deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins to get Phil Kessel. So these guys have worked together on extensive trades before.

The relationship is there. And by all accounts, Jim Rutherford has a lot of respect for Kyle Dubus and thinks he's one of the good young general managers up and coming in the league. So you can really leverage that kind of relationship because we know as much as we complain about it as hockey fans, the NHL is an old boys club. And if one of the old boys likes your general manager, they'll help you out. It's always been an old boys club. It'll stay that way for probably quite some time. This might be a little bit of copium.

but the thought did occur to me today just because he hasn't been moved as of yet. But again, this could change at any time. Perhaps maybe when you're listening to this, this idea that I have could be thrown completely out the window. And this is probably a low percent chance that you've been happening. But could Carl Dubis say this is, again, one to five percent chance here? If he doesn't get what he's looking for, and obviously that's quite a bit for the best rental on the market,

could he, in fact, keep him past the deadline and have him play the final tournament? 22 games and see what you can do with perhaps extending him. I know there's been, I guess, if you want to call them rumors that maybe he doesn't want to sign with the penguins no matter what. I haven't seen that reported by verified people. I think they're just rumors that have been circulating overall. But is there a possibility that a few teams here don't want to pay what Kyle Dubis is asking? And Dubis is like, okay, if you're not going to give me what I want, I'm just going to keep

them for the rest of the season and try and make. a run and extending him or signing him, excuse me, before he becomes a free agent on July 1. Again, that might be just pure copium on my part. It's probably a low percent chance of happening at this point. But I feel like it's at least a little bit of an option, even though it's still four o'clock on Wednesday afternoon. I think that would be a failure by Kyle Dubus, if that happens, because it's your only real leverage right now.

Yeah, we've talked about Riley Smith. We've talked about possibly Ricardo. Raquel talked about Lars Eller, a couple other guys that you could move out and get some pieces for. But the guy that is going to get you the most return is Jake Gensel. Now, I will say this. And again, I think this goes into similar territory that you were talking about. By all accounts, he's a rental. He is not going to go to Vancouver or whomever he ends up with and signing an extension in two weeks.

I also think a lot of people kind of have forgotten with everything that's happened so far this season. Jake Gensel's camp basically said without saying they weren't going to negotiate any sort of extension in season. They were going to wait until the off season. They never blatantly said, no, we're not talking contract. Jake's focused on the season, anything like that. But you could see with the language that they used when he got asked about contract and extension and where he's going to go. They pretty much said without saying, yeah, we're waiting till the off season to do that. So I do think at the same time, there is a very real world where they could maybe get a

haul for them and maybe they don't re-sign them on July 1 and he doesn't sign an extension with whoever he ends up with. But they can throw their hat in the ring. They can make an offer and they can say, hey, you got your preferred center here, you're comfortable here. You've won Stanley Cups here. You're a fan favorite. Maybe you can come on back. But I do think at the end of the day, ends with Jake Gensel not being a penguin. I agree. And I think to your idea that you just mentioned, Pat, that's a low percentage chance of happening.

It's really rare when a team trades a rental to another team. And then that player comes back to the original team when July 1 starts. The only one that I can really think of off the top of my head right now is Antoine Vermet. I was several years ago. Yeah. It just doesn't happen very often. 98, 99% of the time when you trade a player that says,

or any rental, that player will sign with a different team on July 1 and not the original team. So I think fans just have to be aware of that. If Gensel is a free agent heading into July 1, he's still probably not going to come back to Pittsburgh. And in a way, like, yes, he will have Sidney Crosby for at least a few years of his contract. But does he really want to commit seven to eight years to the Penguins where at the end of that contract, they're going to be in a full-scale rebuild. I mean, if I were him, probably not.

Even though I know I would be able to get to play with Cindy Crosby for the first, you know, two, three, maybe four years of that deal. On the back half of that, I'm going to be on a rebuilding team. I'd rather go to a contender for seven years where I can contend for most years often than not. I guess that's what I'm kind of trying to hint at overall. And overall, when you see the whole guy gets traded at the deadline as a rental and goes back to his former team, It happens more frequently than people say it does,

but it happens with bottom six players. It happens with bottom pairing defensemen. It's guys who get moved from a team they've been with for a while, and they do the whole like, hey, you're a good soldier, go chase a Stanley Cup. And whether they get it or not, they come back on a cheap deal. We saw that with, I can't think of the guy's name. The Penguins acquired them in 2014 from Toronto.

But he, like, he did it two different. times. He got, he was a depth center. He got moved and then the penguins got him at the deadline and then he went back and signed with Toronto again. So I think it's unlikely, but at the end of the day, this, this is the first of a couple different aunt miss moments for Kyle Dubas in his tenure as the president of hockey operations. Yeah, it sucks. It's painful. You don't want to move on from a guy who has been so productive, who has been an absolute loyal soldier and one of the best wingers in the franchise's history, but the moment you find yourself in and you find this franchise in, you have to move him.

It's something that we've been saying for the past couple weeks. You can't miss on this return. You can't lower your asking price just for the sake of it. You have to get a haul for this player. And speaking of another trade just came through, Wenberg to the New York Rangers. So we'll have to see what the return is on that. I'm not really sure if that's going to take them out of the Jake Gensel sweepstakes, but Wenberg has been traded to the New York Rangers.

that's just breaking news on the Locked on Penguins episode for today, even though we don't cover the New York Rangers. But I think that'll do it for this second segment. Coming up to end the show, it's Wednesday, you all know what that means. Warrior Helmet Wednesday, Pat and I are going to give our Warrior Helmet to the player that was the best on the team over the past week. There's not too many selections considering how the team has played, but there's a pretty obvious one that we're going to get into that to end the show.

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That's indie.com slash locked on terms and conditions apply. If you need to hire, you need indeed. All right. We're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Hunters, Joined by my host, Patrick Damp. So that, you know, it's time to give out our warrior helmet for this week. this selection was pretty easy for us today considering how he on Tuesday night. I think if he didn't have this good of the game, it would have been a bit hard to select a player

for this segment. But I'm going to give this over to you. Who gets the warrior helmet for this week? No, it's not actually Jeff Carter. I'm just being a goof. It's Evgeny Malkin. I mean, just put aside how this season is gone. Put aside where the penguin.

ones are right now. I always think back to something our pal and my former co-host, Jesse Marshall, has said about this team for the last couple of seasons. Yes, it's frustrating as hell. Yes, they are not where we want them to be. And it looks like the end of this era is a whole heck of a lot closer than it once was. But a game like last night, there are only a handful of players in the National Hockey League that can have a game like that. Yes, I know. the Columbus Blue Jackets. Yes, I know they're not that great, but when Evgeny Malkin is on his game,

when Evgeny Malkin is playing that way, it is an absolute treat to watch. He was the best player on the ice by a mile. He had a great game. He scored that awesome goal, involved in every play, skating absolutely beautifully in hunting pucks, engaged in all three zones.

And it was just to make the meme that there is from, locked on penguins, it was a vintage Evgeny Malkin performance. It absolutely was in every aspect. And I like that you brought up, you know, just, oh, it's Columbus. I saw that take so often on social media last night. And it's like, who cares what team he's doing this against? You will be missing these types of performances from Evgeny Malkin when he's no longer

playing and when his jersey is up in the rafter. So I don't really care what team it's against. And I saw a couple other people, I'm like, well, where has this been throughout the season? And while I get that to a degree, he's been playing mostly well throughout the season. He's shown flashes of playing at this level throughout the season. He's been setting up chances most nights. The puck has just not been going in the back of the net because no one has been able to finish off his chances. It's been like this all season long.

So I just loved everything about that performance. He also gets my warrior helmet for this week. And again, it kind of goes back to that game in Edmonton a little bit, even though the penguins were rotten in that game. thought Gino was one of their better players and, you know, he gets a lone goal right around the net front area. Just a really nice couple of games overall from Gino. And again, hopefully he really keeps this up for the final 22 games of this season. He's starting to look more like the version that we saw in October, November, compared to the funk that we saw him being a little bit, you know, December, January. Again, he is still a fine second line center. I will

take that to my grave. He just, again, needs a little bit of help. on his line for the rest of the season and then especially into next season. Again, we said it in the first segment with the way he meshed with Smith last night and early in the season. We have seen it as long as he has somebody on his line that he can have ride shotgun with him, he's still very effective. So the importance continues to be heightened going into next season to make sure that we have somebody on the roster that can ride shotgun with Genie Malkin for 70,

75 games. We know injuries are going to happen. We know off nights are going to happen. But if you can get him a winger, they can run with him for the majority of the season. There is still a lot of talent to be had with Hvgeny Malkin. 100%. And just to end the show, the return for the Wendberg trade has come in. Second and a fourth overall for Wendberg.

So the Rangers still have quite a few assets left if they want to make another deal. So they could still very much be involved in the Jake Gensul sweepstakes right now. But I think that will do it for this episode of a lot. on Penguins podcast. Listen to this while you can because this, a lot of the show honestly might be mute by the time tonight rolls around. But thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this episode. Whenever a Gensil deal breaks, Pat and I will be on for an emergency recap of the deal, giving our initial thoughts before breaking it down in full for the next full episode of this podcast. But again, thank you all so much for tuning in.

We really appreciate it. We'll be back. potentially on Wednesday night, but if we're not back on Wednesday night, definitely on Thursday.