Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins blow it in Vegas, need to bounce back in Arizona!

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins weren't able to get the two points against the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night, which has Hunter and Pat a bit concerned. They open the show by discussing how the Penguins were sticking to the blueprint perfectly before they fell asleep in the third period. They analyze how this happened and why they can't string together consistent 60-minute efforts this season. They also discuss Evgeni Malkin's game and if they're concerned about where it's going after the Vegas game before going into some positives regarding Ryan Graves, Jake Guentzel, and Sidney Crosby. After that, they look at how this is the season's biggest week to date before ending the show with a preview for Monday's game against the Arizona Coyotes.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.IndeedIndeed knows when you’re growing your own business, you have to make every dollar count. Visit Indeed.com/LOCKEDON to start hiring now.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.FanDuelRight now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED when you place a FIVE DOLLAR BET. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Penguins let a golden opportunity go to waste over the weekend, and Pat and I could discuss that, plus preview Monday nights game against the Arizona Coyotes right after this. 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. joined by the best host in the role of Patrick Dam. You can follow him on Twitter at Center in Fruett. And you can follow these shows, Twitter, at L. Lawrence or Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. We are feeling available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Fandall.

Make every moment more right now. New customers get $150 in bonus bets guarantee when you place a $5 bet. Visit fandle.com slash locked on to get started. So let's go back to Saturday night. because it looked like everything was going the penguins way through the first 40 minutes of this game. I thought the penguins came out with a purpose in that first period. They were getting their legs back a little bit, but I also thought Vegas came out with that purpose. I thought both teams were trading chances, but both Logan Thompson and Tristan Jari were really good.

So scoreless going in the second, that's fine, as I detailed in the preview on Friday's episode. Then the penguins really found their legs in the second period, and they took it to the knights. They badly outplayed them during that period. Ryan Graves with perhaps his finest play of the season, winning out Logan Thompson as he's coming down the left side of the offensive zone, and then banks the puck off him for a goal, just a really 200 IQ play, I should say, from Ryan Bays. And then you have Cindy Crosby and Jake Denzel work more magic.

That's another 20-goal season for Jake. He continues to be one of the best pure goal scores in the sport. And you're thinking, okay, you're up to nothing heading into the third. If you can do what you did against Seattle on Monday, you should be able to walk out of here with two clean points and move up the standings of the metro end for the playoff race. Unfortunately, they weren't able to do that because they took the third period off. That's the biggest takeaway I think I have from this game again, Pat. They're not able to string together these 60-minute performances, and it's costing them giddily.

They were totally fine for the first 40 minutes. They were sticking to the blueprint, keeping Vegas to the outside. Trishon Jari was making some timely saves. They weren't giving up too many high danger chances. And in fact, Vegas only had five high danger chances through the first 40 minutes of that game at five on five. But the third period comes along and they sleepwalk. Seven minutes in, the game's already tied halfway through the period. The penguins are already down three, two, and they wouldn't get another goal for the rest of that game. You can't no show a period, no matter how banged up a team is in the NHL and expect to win. And that's exactly what happened in this game against Vegas. That's two crucial points out the window on a night where they really needed it

because they got a lot of help in the standings that day. A lot of teams that they're chasing lost. And if they would have gotten those two points, they would have climbed up the standings a little bit and be in a better spot than they are right now. But that third period, not good enough to say the least. No, that's one of the more concerning losses I think we've seen all season. I'm not going to do the thing where we have a complete and total referendum on the franchise after a loss, but you really don't like what you saw in that third period. If this would have been a close to or fully healthy Vegas team, I'd be singing a different tune this morning because when Vegas is fully healthy, that's a juggernaut of a team.

That's maybe the best team in the national hockey league. But most of their big guns were out. They were hurt. So you can't really, when you have that team down on the mat, you have to pin them. You have to, you know, full WWE, get on top of them, hold the shoulders down, get the three count. But they didn't do that. They let them back up and they came back in spectacular fashion. And it was a nightmare of a third period because one guy who, everybody on the ice for the most part,

for two of the three, basically all three Vegas goals were at fault in some capacity, including Tristan Jari. But in two of the three of them, uncharacteristically bad defense from Marcus Pedersen, who has been a rock all season long. And that was just bad, bad to lose a guy in front two different times. Yeah, that was weird. That was probably, I think, his worst game of the season. And he picked an awful time to have it, to be honest, or especially that,

period. I should say. They were defending the two-goal lead. You're just asking your best players to be your best players in that third period. And they weren't able to be on a night where, again, they really, and I mean, really needed those two points. Yeah. And keeping it on the blue line, though, I was saying this to you before we hit record.

If we're going to be the intellectually honest Penguins podcast here, where we flame a guy when he's terrible, we have to give him his flowers when he's good. in the last two weeks, we have seen Ryan Graves get better. Is he anywhere near where he needs to be? Not at all. He still has a long road to go here. But right now, for the first time,

all season long, the arrow is pointing up. And not just because he scored a goal. He has started to play more physically. He's been better with gap control. He's been better with positioning and in front of the net. And those are the things that we need to see. It's what I was talking about earlier this season,

a couple weeks ago when I said, yeah, it sucks that you got to put one of your big free agent acquisitions on the third pairing and in a third pairing role. But you have to try something. You have to find a way to get him right. And so far, playing with Chad Ruehiel and now moving back up with Eric Carlson, he's starting to look like the guy who knows how to play with a dynamic defenseman. And right now the trends are good. And he has not bought enough benefit of the doubt.

for us to stop being worried about it. But the arrow is pointing upward. And I like what I'm seeing from him the last couple of weeks. Cherry on top, he scores a, like you said, 200 IQ goal against a great Vegas golden nights team, despite the injuries.

He wasn't doing that type of play earlier this season. He looked like he had lost his confidence. Now these last two weeks, it feels like he's getting his confidence back and is playing like a completely different player, which is what they need. Obviously, he's not playing close to the,

cap hit that he has and all the term that he got on his deal. But if he can continue to string together performances like these, I think it'll help, I guess get the concern down a little bit from us and a lot of people out there who watch this team on an every night basis. And you hit the nail on the head with the confidence thing. I know you and I are big stats guys, natural stat trick, all the money puck, all that stuff. We love it. Jay Fresh, great guy.

But there is all, there isn't always will. be an intangible part to sports. And playing with confidence can do wonders for your game because so many mistakes that you make in hockey are born of hesitation and a lack of confidence because you don't make the play you need to make. You second guess the play you need to make. You wait an extra second or two to move the puck or do something like that. And it completely flips the outcome of what you were trying to do.

Now we're starting to see Ryan Graves play with more of that confidence. Like I said, he's in better position. He's starting to play physical, and he is a big guy. He has to play physical. Does he have to be a bruiser? No, he doesn't have to turn into Prime Scott Stevens and crush guys coming across the blue line. But you get a guy coming down the boards with no other options. Put him into the boards.

Take a piece of them. In front of the net, tie a guy up, move them. Give Tristan Jari room to see a shot or Alex Nadelcovich, whoever's playing. And we're starting to see that from him. And it's because, like you said, playing more confident, in a role where he's starting to get better suited. And is that confidence builds and his game starts to improve, hopefully this team starts climbing the standings.

And by the time we're looking at a first round series, he's ready to be on a top pairing again. It is funny. It felt like only a few weeks ago we were talking about how this guy is so big, but play so soft in front of his net. Well, he's starting to actually use his size to his advantage, which is what we've been wanting him to do all season. So again, it's been great that he's been playing with this for the last couple weeks.

hopefully it continues. Speaking of trends, though, Evgeny Malkin has been trending down a little bit again. I think that game against Vegas Pat was the most concerned I've been about Gino all season so far. He wasn't engaged, whether it was offensively or defensively. He's not puck hunting right now. He's not all the way there overall. And I felt like when he was on the ice,

he wasn't contributing anything to help the Penguins win this game. And again, people, I'm not saying of Jenny Malkin is a bum or that he's washed or anything like this. I will forever love Gino and everything he has done for this organization. But I was definitely a bit concerned watching his game against Vegas because he hasn't been playing well, well, mostly well, for the last month to five weeks. He's had games here and there where he's been pretty good like the Flyers game just a couple of weeks ago. but that game against Vegas just wasn't all the way there. Are you concerned about his game right now?

Like I am. Very. I'm very. Listen, I'm with you on that train. I love Evgeny Malkin. I am part of the Afghani Malkin defense legion, how whatever you want to call it,

because everybody, you know, still loves their xenophobic, Russian, lazy, whatever narrative. And no, they should not have paid Vince Troc check over of Genni Malkin.

I'm just going to put that out there right now. But, listen, I don't know if the fall is here, but it might be. It very much might be. And the thing that people have to keep in mind about that is that the fall might be here for of Guany Malkin, but it's not a swift one. He hasn't completely cratered and become a liability. He's not washed.

He's just not dominant anymore. And maybe in two weeks he finds it again. Maybe in two weeks we're talking about how he's looking like of Guany Malcon again. But the thing that I don't think anything, anybody could have predicted going into this season is that the highs for ofgeny malkin have been extremely high and the lows have been embarrassingly low and Vegas was one of those nights he just Vegas is one of those nights because even though his game is starting to trail off a little bit as of late we saw the worst habits of him where he knows

he's not doing everything he usually does and he gets fresh frustrated and tries to do way too much and it backfires on him. And he even said to the media after this game that he knows he needs to be better and he's trying to be more consistent. And that's what I really want to see at him. Just more consistency from 71 because you know what you're getting from 87 every night. You know what you're getting from 59 every night, 58, mostly 65 as well. If they can get that level of play from 71, that will also, I think, go a long way towards

the team potentially getting into the playoffs later on this year. But that would do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, Parano are going to discuss Trish and Jari's game, Jake Gensel, maybe more of Sidney Crosby, just a few more things to wrap up this game against Vegas before we preview Monday night's game in the desert against the Arizona Coyotes.

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All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, join by my co-host Patrick Dam. So I wanted to discuss Trish and Jolly's performance a little bit in this one. I felt like the first two goals, you really can't blame him too much just because Marcus Pederson was obviously out to lunch in front of the net there. but the third one, that's the one that I would want back. Brendan Brasson's first goal. And speaking of Brendan Brousson, that makes me feel really old,

considering that he is the son of Pat Brasson, who has been Cindy Crosby's agent forever. I mean, Sid used to babysit this guy. He's known him his entire life. And now he's scoring goals in the NHL. I mean, good Lord, man. This makes me feel so old saying his name in the NHL. Yeah, it's, it's really, it's a really cool moment

because there was a lot of discussion after the game. game. I think even before maybe I can't remember, you know, these late night games kill me. But they basically talked about and Sid talked about like knowing the kid growing up with them babysitting. And I believe it was Josh who wrote about it in his recap about how when Sid would babysit him, it would, uh, they'd be playing in the pool and a Malkin would be hanging out with them. And it's just such a great visualization to see and think of, of Gennie Malkin in a pool with his Russian accent pretending to be a shark just like, Dan it

Dan it So like I hate that it happened to our penguins But that's just That's such a good story It's great that they were able To forge a great bond Between all of them when Brendan was such a young kid

But going back to that goal a little bit I felt like that wasn't a true high danger chance That Jari faced I felt like there wasn't too much traffic in front I felt like that was kind of a Low Medium danger chance in my opinion, I feel like that was one that he probably should have had. With the way the penguins were reeling at that point, I want my starter to make that save.

And I'm not trying to be picky in this situation because I know Jari has been very good this season. He was great in the first two periods. But that's still a shot though, Pat, that I would want my starter to save in my opinion. And it also, I agree on the whole, that's a save you would like to have. I also think it gets into what I was saying in the last segment about Afghani Malkin because a lot of that was born from. He tried to attack the point while playing wing after coming out of the box.

And it just didn't work. And that leaves Brissan wide open in the slot. So while you want Tristan Jari to make that save, let's not lose sight of that. You don't want it to get to that point. And that's kind of the yin and yang of it where, yeah, Tristan Jari should make that save. It's not, it wasn't exactly the greatest shot. it wasn't exactly screened in all of that. But you also don't want it to get to that point

because you want of Gennie Malkin to make the right play and keep Bresan from ever getting that chance. Agreed. Yeah, if he was able to make a better defensive play there in that situation, that chance probably doesn't even happen at all. Moving on a little bit, Cindy Crosby and Jake Gensel continue to work their magic Gensel with another 20-gool season, as I said earlier on in the episode,

with the way they're working their magic, I again tweeted this. It's like you're telling me that you're going to tell Sid at the deadline, hey, I know we're, I mean, and this is just hypothetically speaking. I still think this is going to be the case that they're in the race.

Hey, I know we are in the race, but we're still going to trade you 59 and take away your best winner. You think he's going to be okay with that with the way he and Jake are humming right now? Again, I still can't see it though.

you were telling me this before we started recording. They have a few bad games here before the All-Star break, and they maybe lose to Arizona tonight, which we'll get to in just a second, then maybe Florida and Montreal coming back home this upcoming weekend. Then we can maybe start having a different conversation where it's like, okay, maybe it might make at least a little bit of sense to sell 59 at the deadline.

But right now I'm still like, man, this is what you're going to tell Sid at the deadline when they're probably still going to be in the race. He's probably going to be like, get lost, guys, to be honest. Yeah, I'm still. very pro hold on to him and try to extend him because he has just become one of the best scoring wingers in hockey and it's not a product of Cid, he's just that good. But because of the loss on Saturday night and then everything that's transpired since then, they're now five points out of a playoff spot. They win on Saturday and everything else goes the way it went.

There are three points out, which is, you know, I know everybody's going to go three to five. That's not that big of a deal. The NHL is so dedicated to their false parity that five points is a large margin in this league because somebody's half a season to go. Because somebody is going to get a bunch of loser points. Some team like the capitals or the islanders are going to keep going to overtime and losing or one team is going to get a little hot for a week and then they're going to widen the gap to six or seven points. And the thing I'm saying is, if they don't make hay this week, where they have two, they have three of the three games they're playing, two of them are extremely winnable and

should be wins. That's Arizona and Montreal. If you lose to Florida, that's not a big deal. There may be one of the best teams in hockey and they're playing extremely well right now. So if you don't get two a six this week and you're still staring a five or more point climb in the standings going into the All Star break, maybe it is time to look at getting some return for Jake Gensel because the other thing I think a lot of people need to understand I've been beating this drum. It's a seller's market this year at the deadline because everybody

thinks they're in the race just about. Right. So you're not going to get some elite return for Jake Gensel. And I know this is kind of arguing against what I'm saying. But my point there is if you're out of the playoff race, start getting young guys, start getting guys who are on actual contenders that might be ready to go in the NHL in next year or two. Get a couple more draft picks to restock that pipeline because if there's one thing Kyle Dubus is really good at is drafting. Because, yeah, it was Leafs fans who made the Mark Donk and Buzz Flibit joke about the Penguins. But guess who has a ton of Mark Donks and Buzz Flibitz right now, Toronto? So at this point, if you don't climb your way back into the playoff race and I'm talking one, two points out by the time you get to the All Star break or just after, maybe it is time to have a discussion of trading Jake Gensel. And that might be a good conversation for next week potentially, depending on what happens this week.

In my opinion, you got to get at least four out of six points this week. That's the minimum in my opinion. Five out of six or obviously six out of six would be the best here for the penguins. But four out of six is the bare minimum route going up against teams that I feel like the penguins are better than. They've already beaten Arizona once this year. They've beaten Montreal once this year already. You need to win those two games and then see what you can do against the Panthers this upcoming weekend at home. But that's going to do it for this second segment.

Coming up to end the show, it's time to look ahead to Monday Night's game in the desert against the Arizona coyotes as the penguins try to sweep the season series against them. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about. Fandall, the NFL playoffs are here, and there's still time to get in on the action with Fandall America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets. Guarantee when you place a $5 bet. That's $150 in bonus bets, win or lose. The app is so easy to use, and there are so many different ways to bet like live, same game,

Parlorays. You can find bets in the new explore tab. You can make a parlay in the Parlay Hub, and you can do so much more. All you have to do is visit fandal.com slash locked on and make your first bet a layup. that's Fandle, the official partner of the NFM. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my host, Patrick Camp. So it's Penguins Coyotes, 9 o'clock start time on Monday night.

So it's not too late of a start for most people, I would say, but still the game's going to end around, what, 1130, 1145. Sometimes it's a little late for some people to have to get up to work at 6, 6.30. 7 a.m. for me, I work at 9 o'clock on Tuesday. So it's not too bad, at least for me. But this is a Coyote's team that has been at least decent this year. They are 22 and 19 and 3. They've lost six of their last 10 games, though they did just win their last game.

For me with the Coyotes, it starts with Clayton Keller. 19 goals, 41 points in 44 games. He's the only player on the team that's really, I would say, close to a point per game at this point. But this is still a much better team this year compared to last year. They're better at forward. they're better on defense and Pat, they have one of the best goaltenders in the league. Connor Ingram right now is third in the NHL with 14.6 goals they'd above expected. He has a 919 save percentage and a 2.49 goals against Savage.

This might be one of the only times I say on this show this season that the opposing team has the edge in goal over the Penguins, considering how good both Jari and Adelkevich have been this year. Ingram has just been that much better. The Penguins are going to have to make his life a living hell in this game and make sure he's not really seeing a lot of pucks that are coming to net, and that means a lot of traffic in front of them, considering how good he's been. But the Penguins, they've already beaten this team in Pittsburgh this year.

4-2 was the final. They really just have to do what they did. And on that one, they got contributions from everyone in the lineup. They kept Arizona at the outside. They won the special teams battle. And now, if you remember in that first period, that was actually all special teams. And that one, Arizona did have a power play goal. But the Penguins also had a short-handed goal in that period.

they were able to win the special teams battle as a whole in that game. And then they were able to win at five on five, too. But this is still a game. Even though the coyotes are better this year, I think the penguins are a better team than them. And they need to show it in this one and get two crucial points in the sandies because you lose this one. It's going to start to get a little bit dicey coming back home later on this week.

It really is. And similar to what we said about the Seattle game last week, this is the kind of game where you have the advantage. with the top end talent. So play like it. You have to be the team that has the better players. Yeah, Clayton Keller is just kids great. He is that's, and there's, there is a lot to like about this Arizona team for the next few years.

Clayton Keller, obviously, Nick Schmaltz, Lawson Krause, Sean Dersie, Alex Kerrfoot, Logan Cooley, Michael Carcone, coming out of nowhere with 15 goals. And it's, there's a lot of talent here and a lot of. lot to like in the system for Arizona, like I've said about them before. They finally have a hockey op staff that knows what it's doing and is actually working towards a rebuild that's going to pay off. And they clearly have ownership that's dedicated to it. Now they just got to find a place to play that isn't Arizona State. Like that shine has kind of worn off.

It's still neat to watch every now and then to tune in and see an NHL game and a college Arena, but things are pointing up for this Arizona Coyotes franchise, and they're not going to be the place where you send your dead cap hit. They're going to be a place that they're probably going to start buying in the next couple of years and looking like a team that wants to win the Western Conference. So this is, it's not going to be a test per se, but this isn't a pushover game. They have to get two points here. And it has to be a big bounce back game because I want to also discuss a little quick thing here that Josh brought up in his recap. The Penguin's organization was cool enough with the team to send them to Vegas early and let

them have some fun, go get dinner, go gamble, go have your fun, do whatever you want to do. Get drunk. Yeah, go get drunk, go party, go have fun. You can't lose both games after that. You simply cannot. You cannot take the trust of management and the coaching staff and flush it down. the toilet if you come out with no points. That's a great point.

And I'm glad you brought that up. You cannot go O'Fler on this road trip. And especially after having that 2-0 lead in the third period against Vegas and then losing to a coyote scene that, yeah, they're a bit better this year. But I still don't think they're a better team than the Penguins. That happens. I think Kyle Dubas is going to have a lot more questions as this team comes home for the final two games before the All-Star break.

And you are up to- Here's the other big thing. Just like the penguins, the coyotes are fighting for a playoff spot. They're all of four points out. That's what I was going to bring up because you brought up how they're going to get closer to buying, right? In my opinion, I think they should think about buying this year. You look at the Central Division standings right now. Obviously, Winnipeg is great this year.

Colorado's amazing. Dallas is also a very good team. But after that, Nashville's in fourth with 51 points. Arizona is only four points behind them. And then St. Louis is one point behind the coyotes. And then Minnesota is two. points by the coyotes. Minnesota has been able to claw their way back into it a little bit. St. Louis has been kind of there as well. But if I were Arizona, I would be seriously thinking

about buying this year considering that that fourth spot in the central, we'll have to see how the West goes in general. That fourth spot in the Central is very much up for grabs. So I think if they're able to stream together some wins here as well, hopefully just not against the Penguins tonight, but overall, if they can turn this around a little bit because they lost six or the last 10 games, they can potentially buy at the deadline in the next six weeks. And I would potentially be in favor because they need to give their fans something to really share about considering how Babby's last few years. And yeah, they've been giving them at least a little bit of something this year considering

the team has been better. But I'm talking about for a playoff race, give this team a little bit of something to be excited about because I think they've kind of exceeded some expectations this year, to be honest. I don't, I don't fully disagree. I get what you're coming from. And I think it's correct that they,

they eventually have to give this fan base something. But players in general, I feel like because again, I feel like they've exceeded expectations this year. But if you look at this Western Conference playoff race and they were to get in, they're going to be the worst team to get in. Probably. And I don't mean that in an insulting way,

because Winnipeg, Colorado, Dallas, all great. Vancouver great, Vegas great, Edmonton great, Los Angeles, really good. Maybe I would give them the edge over Nashville. I think they're a little bit better of a team. But then you go through that. It's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven teams.

That puts them firmly in eighth, which makes them the eighth best team in the West to make the playoffs, which means they're the last team to get in. Now, what I will say is I hope they do that because they have enough youth on their roster that would be a nice welcome to the league moment for a young core because chances are they would get in and just get run over.

But similar to the, I'm not comparing them to the franchise, but similar to the Penguins in 2007, where that young team learned, oh, this is different. Like that could be a really good learning moment for a young core. And not to switch sports a little bit, but I thought that same way about the Steelers as well, because a lot of those players really hadn't played in the playoffs for, and they went up to play in Buffalo,

which was obviously a hostile wiring. They got to learn pretty quickly, oh, yeah, this is what the playoffs are all about. And I feel like the coyotes would be in a pretty similar vote here. And also, seeing playoff hockey in that college arena, Pat, that would just be awesome, to be honest.

It would be funny, though I think it would also be pretty awesome to say at least. I'm not saying this team should go out there, get the biggest rental at that deadline, but just maybe buy a little bit, get a forward who maybe has a little bit of term. and that's a younger talent that's producing this year, but not someone that is obviously an unrestrictive free agent in July this year or something.

They're a sneaky team to make a quote unquote hockey trade. To go get somebody who's got two, three years left on their deal and could be a good productive piece. And they could send something like, I don't know, Karel Vemalka back for a team that might need some shuring up on goaltending. And then all of a sudden you find yourself a fit. but I also think to your point, if they were to make the playoffs,

I'm actually going to rescind my they might get rolled over take here because they'll have some advantage playing in Mullet Arena because it's not like one, it'll be rowdy just because it's small and everybody that goes there is going to be a diehard. And it's not a comfortable place

to play. Long walk to the ice. Not a lot of places to stay. It's not, and you can grit your teeth and like, oh, these divas and the national, but like, you get used to a certain standard when you play in the National Hockey League, and that standard's not there in Arizona. Right.

No, it's just a, it's obviously a much smaller arena. I'm not going to compare it to the Nassau Coliseum where the Islanders used to play. I thought that was a giant dump, to be honest. And I forever will think it was a giant dump. But it's still an arena where, yeah, you're right. It's going to make the visiting team a bit uncomfortable. But just to finish up the episode here, what do the penguins have to do to get this win in Arizona?

In my opinion, just do it. you were doing against Vegas for those first two periods, but finish the game this time in the third period. Have 87 and 59 continue to work their magic, but also give me some more depth scoring. I feel like it's dried up a little bit as of late outside of Drew O'Connor, to be honest, he's been, I feel like the only player in the bottom six who's actually been able to score a goal outside of the top guys.

Give me some more depth scoring in this one. I think that's, I think, my biggest key overall, outside of just doing what you were doing in the first two periods into the third period. That's what I really see hopefully happening for the penguins in this one. Yeah, slow down Keller.

Make sure that he's not going to be the game breaker. He can be. Get in front of Ingram, should he be the starter? And yeah, depth scoring. We need a little something from Eller, maybe a little something again from our boy Jeff Carter. But we got to see something from the non-top six tonight

because this is the game to do it because they probably have on par the same kind of depth that the Arizona coyotes do. So you have to match and better them tonight. And just remember, you have to play motivated tonight. Because you are now with the All Star

Break approaching. You're now fighting for both your playoff lives. And if you guys all enjoy each other's company the way you say you do, fight to keep it together. Fight to win. Fight to add to this group. Show your general manager that you are a playoff team and maybe if things break your way,

you could go a couple rounds deep. So it's got to start tonight. These next three games are perhaps their biggest of the season so far because either way, I think Kyle Dubas is going to know what he wants to do at the deadline once this weekend finish us up.

So I'll have to see if they can get the win against Arizona and then later on this week against Florida and Montreal. But that will do it for this episode of the Locktime Penguins podcast. Pat and I will be back with another show for you all on Tuesday to recap this game against the coyotes

and then we'll be back Wednesday and Thursday with more episodes and then on Friday to preview the weekend. and ahead. But again, that'll do it for this one. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We'll talk with you all again on Tuesday.