Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins bounce back with a HUGE win over Detroit!

Episode Date: October 11, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins rebounded from a bad loss to the New York Rangers over the Detroit Red Wings! Hunter and Patrick discuss what the Penguins did well to score a 6-3 victory over the Red Wings to play spoiler on Thursday night, including how they got timely saves from Joel Blomqvist early in the first period. They also discuss how Evgeni Malkin delivered a vintage performance to notch his 800th career assist and how he was a massive bully all night long. After that, they dive into how well the Penguins defended in the third period and how that should be the blueprint going forward. Finally, they preview Saturday's game against the Toronto Maple Leafs and how the Penguins can get their second win of the season.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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.FanDuelPlace your first FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - guaranteed ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. IndeedStill searching for a great candidate for your company? Don’t search, just match–with Indeed.Claim your SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT now at Indeed.com/LOCKEDON. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed.  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.

Yoel Blumquist helped the penguins get a big win against the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night, and Pat and I are going to discuss that. Plus, preview Saturdays game against the Maple Leafs 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 and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunters-Hoddies. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

joined by my co-Cat Patrick Damping and follow him on Twitter at Center for Wet and you can follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first lesson slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Fandall. Place your first $5 bet and you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets. Guaranteed visit fandle.com to get started. Now, Pat, I wasn't saying last night was a must win against the Red Wings by any

means for God's sakes. It's only game two out of 82. Some teams can definitely come back from sluggish starts, but still, this was a badly needed win I felt like from the Penguins, especially after they got embarrassed on home ice on Wednesday against the New York Rangers. They were booed off the ice numerous times during that game, played an awful final 50 minutes overall in that game. And to come back and win this game convincingly, that impressed me quite a bit. Don't get me wrong. They had an awful start to this game. Those first 10 to 15 minutes, the penguins were awful in their own zone.

They weren't really generating too much offense. It was really the Y'L Blumquist show, to be honest. He was bailing them out time after time. That save on Lucas Raymond especially in that first period, the way that he was able to go side to side, excuse me, on that was tremendous. He bailed the penguins out time after time. And that's what it looks like when you get timely saves from your goal to, tender. Tristan Jari wasn't able to do that on Wednesday, but Blumquist did on Thursday. And that's

where I really want to start today's episode. Congratulations to Blumquist getting his first NHL win in his first NHL start. He looked fully calm, fully poised for this moment. He looked fully ready for the NHL as a whole, in my opinion. And without his play in the first 10 to 15 minutes, I think the Penguins are down by multiple goals heading into that intermission. And I honestly don't think they win that game, to be honest. That's what happens when you get timely saves from your goalie, and it'll allow the penguins to kind of ease themselves into this game. You tie it up late in the period. You then get three goals in the second. You're still getting the saves from Blumquist in the final 40 minutes, but he didn't have to do nearly as much because the penguins were able to find

their legs, play better defensively, and all that good stuff. But shout out to UL Blumquist, Pat, great performance in his NHL debut and some tremendous saves in that first period. nail on the head. The penguins did not start well once again. Well, I don't shouldn't say once again because I thought they started pretty well against the Rangers. But the difference here was like you said, there were moments where Detroit got solid opportunities in the first five or so minutes and Blumquist was there to make some big saves. And then that continued throughout the first period. And again, two, one to two games does not make a season. This isn't going to be a referendum on the penguins, on the goaltending. I know I went in on it yesterday, but that was based on evidence from the last

few months. So I'm not ready to say that Joel Blumquist, excuse me, has taken over the job because it's one game against a team that's pretty much on the same level as the Pittsburgh Penguins, a team that's going to be on the bubble come the end of the year, a team that has some top end talent and not a whole heck of a lot else. But this is in the situation of the game, this is exactly what you need. When you don't have a great start, when the other team is bringing the fight to you, your goaltender has to be there to make saves. Now, it's not going to be every single game where your goalie bails you out.

It's not going to be every single game where they make a bunch of saves because sometimes the damn just breaks. But in that situation last night, you get. boot off your own ice in the home opener. You get absolutely embarrassed by who is going to be a Stanley Cup contender this year in the Rangers, but you would have liked to seen more pushback than that. So you look at the way this team played last night. They were buoyed by a great first period performance from their rookie goaltender.

And then they go out the rest of the game, the next two periods, and they just damn near dominate the Red Bulls. wings. I wouldn't say it was a completely dominant performance because the red wings pushed back, but watching the last two periods last night, I'm just sitting there going, the penguins won this one. I would be shocked if they didn't because just the way they were playing, the way that it seemed like every time, and it was only twice, but still, every time the red wings would score, penguins would answer right back. And that's a huge confidence boost for a team that needed one. Yeah, that's the biggest thing.

The penguins didn't will when the Red Wings would try and snatch back momentum. The Penguins would go, okay, so what that you scored? We're going to go right back down there and bring the momentum back to us. And that's exactly what they did every single time the Red Wings would either score or have a good shift. I will say the Penguins cleaned up a lot defensively in the final two periods. They were especially great in the third period. And I even tweeted this. They didn't allow a single high danger chance and held the Red Wings to 0.1 expected goals at 5 on 5 during that period.

I tweeted about it at 10.50 p.m. because it looked like that's what natural staturec had. And then they changed it a little bit this morning. They only allowed one high-hit danger chance to the Red Wings in the third period, but still 0.18 expected goals for the Red Wings in that period. But point stands, that is the blueprint for the Penguins. It was a boring third period, but that's exactly what you want to see. That is how you want them to defend the lead. Sure, they're pushing, but they're not allowing so many of the chances that they were allowing,

for example, last year. This is something that you really got to build upon because last year, this team really struggled to defend multi-goal leads in the third period. But at least to start the year, they've cleaned that up a little bit. This is the blueprint you've got to follow when you have multi-goal leads in the third period overall. And what's another part of that blueprint we've been talking about all offseason hunter? It's the power play in winning the special teams battle. And they did that last night.

Their power play goes one for two, 50%. They kill off four of the five penalties they took. And the power play goal they surrendered really was just a matter of the dam breaking because they took a five, they were on a five on three disadvantage. And they did a good job, but eventually the dam just broke. They give up the goal. Not that, not something that you're going to get too upset about. But then you look at the power play goal that Eric Carlson scores.

And it's pretty much the kind of goal that, yeah, it's not going to go on the highlight reel. It's not going to be on sports center's top 10 plays, but it's the kind of goal this unit needs to get its confidence back. It was good puck movement and it was a willingness to shoot. And you look at where Carlson shot from on that half wall spot. It's not so much where he shot, but what happened when he shot the puck? There was at least two bodies in front of the net when he made his shot.

And that's exactly what you're going to need this year, especially as this unit rebuilds its confidence, because unless he were to put it right into Cam Talbot's glove, that's probably not going to go in the net. And he's not going to be able to stop it right away, but you have people there to either reestablish puck possession or clean up the rebounds. So it's a solid goal,

and it's a way for this unit to start building confidence and getting to the place they need to be. So overall, you look at last night's effort. they were able to defend the lead. They were able to punch back when the Red Wings would have mountain attack, and they won the special teams battle. Add that all up along with some good goal tending early on from Yowell Blumquist, and that's a recipe for success.

And you've got some depth scoring. I mean, we're going to discuss Anthony Bovillier and Kevin Hayes coming up here in the second segment, but when you combine all those things, you get a very nice, well-rounded win when everyone on four lines contributes, everyone defensively, I felt like, contributed, and you get the solid goal tending, boom, there's a beautiful 6-3 win after a bit of a rough start to the game. And going back to the power play, can I get some snaps overall? I'll feel vindicated for one game because I've liked what I saw with Latang and Carlson on the same powerplay. That play from Carlson is exactly what I want to see from him all year. And it's why I want to

continue seeing both of them get more reps on the power play. I understand that Eric Carlson is not used to playing in the Phil Kessel spot, but he's such a good pastor. he has a shot that he doesn't utilize enough that I want him to utilize more. That's why I like him there. And according to Bob Grove, this was his first power play goal in 71 games. Buddy, just shoot it a bit more on the power play. Use more of that shoot first mentality. I promise the Penguins I think are going to score more goals on the powerplay if he definitely

utilizes that to his advantage. Going back to Blumquist a little bit as well, I'll say this. I would personally start him again on Saturday. I know the penguins aren't going to do that. They probably won't at least. If they're up to me, I would lean towards doing it, but I think they're going to give a chance for Jari to redeem himself after how opening night went.

And again, I totally understand that people. But if you're up to me, I would go back to Blumquist considering how well he played. But I also understand that you don't want to overwork a rookie goaltender like that. So I'll totally understand if they go back to Jari. You don't want to overwork a goalie, especially a rookie goalie. I will, I'll put it this. way, though. Jari has, at least we can expect him to have a short leash, but when you have a

short leash, you get a shot at redemption. He's not on a one strike in your out policy. And we kept reiterating this yesterday. The New York Rangers are a bona fide Stanley Cup contender. If there are, if of the 32 teams in the league, they're top five, if not top three. They are one of the best teams in the league. So you can afford Tristan Jari a mulligan on that game. Now, if you go and play another very good team on Saturday in Toronto and he lays another egg, then you start thinking about how much you want to play Blumquist and then Nadelcovich when he gets back. So he gets the, the opportunity, I think, to redeem himself on Saturday. But it is going to be watched with a big microscope and if he doesn't perform, then we have a real, real problem.

Right. I think this is going to be one of Jari's biggest starts of his Penguins career on Saturday if he does get the call. And again, I expect him to just because they're going to give him a shot to redeem himself after how he played on Wednesday. Again, personally, I would ride at least a little bit of a hot hand, but I totally get why they're probably going to go back to Jari, considering that this was only Blumquist's first start overall.

But that'll do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, we're going to discuss more about this game against the Red Wings, including how dominant of Gennie Malkin looked, how Anthony Bavillier played, Kevin Hayes' goal, and so much more. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor, and that is Indeed.

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and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. That's indeed.com slash locked on. Terms and conditions apply. If you need a hire, you need Indeed. All right, we're back here in this episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunters, hoodies, joined by my host Patrick Dam. So Pat, what type of performance was that from Evgeny Malkin on Thursday?

I'd like to call that a vintage Gino performance overall. He was a bully all night long. Every time he was winning battles along the boards and taking the puck, he was saying to everyone, you are not taking this puck off me. I am going to do some special stuff. And he did that all night long. He looked like he was 28 instead of 38. The play that led to the O'Connor goal was gorgeous,

the way he was able to get the puck of the blue line, knife around one Red Wings player at the Red Wine, then goes into the offensive zone, knives around three more Red Wing players, basically, one of them being Patrick Kane, who I don't even know what he was doing on that play, by the way, and delivers an absolute seed to Drew O'Connor to make it three to one. It's stuff like that that should remind everyone that follows this team,

that of Gennie Malkin is still a very, and I mean a very good player. Yeah, he's a bit older. Yeah, he's lost a little bit of a step. But damn, is he still a great player? What a performance last night. And also, congratulations to him. He gets one of the big milestones that's coming for him this year. 800 assists, one of three active players with 800 assists in the NHL right now.

And again, Pat, there are more milestones coming for him. He needs two more goals to get to 500. more points overall for 1,300 points in the NHL. Congratulations to Gino for this accomplishment and for one hell of a performance. You're right. That was a vintage of Genni Malkin performance. You hit the nail on the head because it was the Russian bully at his best where he just takes the puck and knives through everybody. I will say this. It was funny to watch that play that led to the DOC goal because when you are, when you're defending, right, you're told from a young age, do not fixate on the puck. The puck is not the only thing you have to worry about on defense, but you watch the way that Gino was galloping.

All of Detroit's defenders heed on him. And Drew O'Connor did not have that much of a resistance to him going to the net. So they all forgot about him. And Evgeny Malkin just went, all right, if I'm going to pull all of you over here, I've got O'Connor right over there, and it leads to the goal.

But that is also the value of a player like an Hvgeny Malkin to where so much emphasis is going to be put on, don't let this guy kill us, that everybody else benefits from it. And it still shows the vision that Vgeny Malkin has because lesser players would probably just end up in the corner, try to take a low percentage shot in that situation. But he understood he had help and got it to his guy.

And I mean, it was a big milestone night overall in Detroit for the penguins. Obviously, we've already talked about Yel L. Blumquist getting his first NHL win. And then we had two players get their first goals as Pittsburgh Penguins last night. Yeah. And speaking of that, Anthony Bavillier, congratulations to him. scores not only the first goal of the penguin season, but the second goal of the penguin season as well. So if you somehow predicted Anthony Bovillia to score the first two goals of the 2024-2020-season, I ask that you step forward. There's actually someone in my mentions that predicted

Bavillia to score the first goal the season, and I even tweeted we have a bingo, so congratulations to you for calling that. But if you called the first two goals, again, please step forward. And sure, one of them, it was a bit lucky. You get a fortunate, bounce off of Ben Chirot. But you know what? I'll gladly take that. The Penguins had not scored yet during the season. So I will gladly take that type of bounce. And also for Beauvillier, Pat, he only had five goals all of last season. He already has two now in two games. So he is well on his way to getting ahead of the five goals. If he keeps playing like this, he'll definitely hit double-digit goals this season. And I actually have really liked his game through the first

couple games of the season. Now, granted, he is playing on the top line with Cindy Crosby. We do have to see how he plays in the bottom six once Brian Rust is ready. And I assume that's going to be either tomorrow or next week, maybe in Montreal or a bit later next week when the Penguins come home. But I have liked Bovilliers game. And with Kevin Hayes, what a rocket that was, by the way. And just before that, he delivered an absolute seat of a pass as well to Nola Chari, who I thought was going to score there.

That was a better save by Cam Talbot. But still, really nice game from Kevin Hayes. And right after he scored, Pat, we all saw what he did, pointed right up to the heavens for his best friend Johnny Goodrell. Yeah, it was a fantastic performance, I think, all around last night. And also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this. Friend of the show, Kelsey Sermats, did predict Anthony Bavillier to be the first goal score of the Penguins.

So shout out to her. She knows Puck. We know Puck. That's why we all get along. But one thing I want to add with somebody like Bavillier and obviously not so much Kevin Hayes because we've talked about that. well, but an underrated part so far, especially last night of this season and the off season for Kyle Dubus is, yeah, this team isn't back to its 2015, 2016, 2016, 28, or 2016, 17,

levels of speed, but his team sneakily has some speed again. Anthony Bavillier can move. Ricard Raquel looks healthy. He's moving again. DOC. Michael Bunting, Rutger McGority, Paul Yarvey's got his legs back. Cody Glass has been moving. And yeah, it's again, this team isn't putting on the afterburners. Nobody's going to accuse them of being one of the fastest teams in the league again. But for a team for the last couple of years that has looked kind of slow and stagnant, suddenly there's a little bit of a Joel to speed again.

And yeah, Anthony Bavillier is definitely getting a lift by playing on the top line with Sidney Crosby. but if he can play at this pace, if he can play this kind of game consistently, that's only good news for this team. Right. And I've really liked also Kevin Hayes fit so far in the first couple of games. When he plays like that,

especially in the second game, he gives the bottom six a jolt that it really didn't have last year or the fourth line overall, I should say. And I actually liked that line of him, Cody Glass and Achari in these first couple of games.

And also shout out to Cody Glass. I think he's had a pretty solid start to the season. He hasn't scored, but he's had some decent chances overall in these first couple of games. I liked what I've seen in the coaching staff. They're going to have some really tough decisions here once Russ is ready to go, once Blake Lazot is eventually ready to go. I do not envy Mike Sullivan and his staff overall when it comes to taking players out of the lineup because we all know, both Russ and Lazot, they're going to play. So a couple people are going to have to come out. And I just, at this point, man, I really don't.

know who it's going to be because Magrorty I felt like played fine as well last time. He's been totally fine these first couple of games. Puyarvey had another good game on Thursday. This is going to be a pretty tough call. And one more thing, this is a different little subject here. Marcus Pedersen gets on the score sheet last night with a goal and an assist. That goal reminded me, you'll enjoy this. That goal reminded me of the Fedotanko goal, game for 2009 Penguins Capitals when Varlamov led in that goal where I was like, how in the hell did that go? win. That's exactly what it looked like with Dili Huso and then he gets replaced. And I'm like, yeah, rightfully so, because I don't know what he was doing there. Yeah, that was, that was a very

funny goal to give up. But I mean, the biggest thing for me with Cody Glass is been he's been an absolute menace on the penalty kill. Yeah. He has looked like one of their best penalty killers. And in a league that we know is really starting to trend more toward offense, a guy like Glass on the PK is huge because there are teams that have, and especially down the next couple weeks with where the penguins are headed on their schedule, they're going to play some absolute killers. So if you can have a guy like Glass on your PK, if he keeps playing this way on the penalty kill, it's going to be a very, very difficult decision. And frankly, it would be the wrong one to take him out of the lineup if he keeps playing like this.

Yeah, at least right now, I would agree. And speaking of the good teams of the. Penguins will be playing coming up. One of them is this Saturday as the Penguins will play in the Dubest Bowl in Toronto as the Penguins will visit the Maple Leafs and take on their stars. We're going to preview that game for you all coming up here in this final segment. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our last sponsor. And that is Fandle.

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I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host Patrick Dam. So, Pat, it's the battle of the two teams that are one-in-one, overall, the Maple Leaf. They also got shut out in their opening game. They lost 1-0 to the Canadians. And then they go out and beat the Devils in their former head coach in Sheldon Keith last night

in a 4-2 victory to get their first win of the season. Goal scores in that game. Stephen Lawrence gets a goal for the Maple Leafs, Bobby McMahon, Max Patcheretti, and John Tavares get the goals for the Maple Leafs. And we all know what you can expect in a game against the Maple Leafs. This is a team that has a lot of talent, especially up front. Morgan Riley on the back end is very good. They added Chris Tannove over the offseason.

They also added Oliver Ekman-Larsen, who kind of resurrected his career with the Panthers. To be honest, he was looking like he was washed until he had a pretty solid year last year in Florida. And his first couple of games, he's been fine. Overall, the Maple Leafs, though, where they've, I wouldn't say they've struggled, but they do have an injury in goal with Joseph Wall. So they have Anthony Stolars being the, quote, unquote,

starting netminder this year. But Pat, you still look up and down this lineup. A lot of talent overall. Matthews, Nyes, and Marner on the top line, Domi Tavaris, and Nielander on the second line. You have Patch Ready with Nick Robertson on the third line, David Camp, Bobby McMahon, Stephen Lawrence on the fourth line. still a pretty good forward group.

This is a team that is going to be contending for the Stanley Cup this year. We still have to see it in the playoffs, obviously, with Toronto, but this is still going to be yet again another big test for this team. Yeah, we can make our jokes, and rightfully so, about this team not getting it done in the postseason. We all enjoy them. We all have fun with it, but make no mistake about it. This is a stupidly deep Leafs team.

You named those names. All four lines on this Leafs team are a threat. The fact that David Comf is their fourth line center shows how deep this team is. I've liked David Comf's game for years. He is a very effective bottom six forward. And if you have him as your fourth line center, you've done something right filling out a roster. Max Patchrette, through a couple games,

looks like he's ready to have a little bit of a resurgence or a renaissance for his career. If he stays healthy. Nick Robertson, how was he on a third line? We were salivating about trying to get him out of Toronto because that's how good he is. And obviously there's that top six. Matthew Nyes, that kid looks like the real deal.

Max Domi has always been a solid player. And then, of course, the big three for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Matthews, Marner, Nealander. Again, go ahead and make your jokes about them in the postseason, but in the regular season, they are damn good, and this is game three of 82, so you know what to expect from them. And you briefly brought this up.

I've always looked at the Leafs and thought, you know what? They have a great forward group. They got to figure something out on defense. This summer, they figured it out. Because when your top pairing is Morgan Riley and Chris Tanev, I'd put that up against a lot of top pairs in the National Hockey League. and then they come at you with OEL and Jake McCabe.

That's another really solid pairing. And while I'm not that worried about Benoit Timmons on the third pair, if they're not taking big minutes, you don't put them in high leverage situations. So this is a really good Toronto Maple Leafs team. And I mean, even though Joseph Wohl is hurt, he's always been hurt. So I'm not too worried about that. But Anthony Stollar is pretty good goalie.

and Dennis Hill to be, if that's who ends up playing, which I doubt it, the dude is 6-8. Like, that's hard to beat. So this is going to be the one of the tougher tests the Penguins face early in this season. And if they can stick to the script that they had without the slow start last night, I'll give them a shot. That's what I was going to say. You cannot afford to have another bad start in a game like this against a team with so much talent up front.

I mean, we all know Austin Matthews, at least to me, is the best pure goal score in the NHL right now. William Nylander is coming off an outstanding year last year. We already discussed Mitch Marner as well. You cannot give up quality chance after quality chance to this Maple Leafs team and turn this game into a track meet and expect to win. They did that against them in the earlier portion of last season. Remember when they went to Toronto and they got the doors blown off of them early in the season and they tried turning that game into a track meet? Didn't work. You're going to have to really slow this game down, play more methodical,

especially in the way you played in the last 40 minutes, if the Penguins want to win this game. And of course, you got to get the contributions from all four lines, got to get the power play involved yet again. And if Jari does start, which, again, I expect him to just because they're going to give him a chance to redeem himself, he's going to need to make some good saves to start out to, again, give this team, you know, a full shot to win this game. Absolutely.

And again, we know it's early. I know people are going to get tired of hearing that. are also going to get tired of me talking about winning the special teams battle. But it's very important tomorrow night because through two games, the Leafs power play with all that talent has still yet to score. So you know that they're looming. You know that they're looming. But they've also given up power play goals for their penalty kill through two games.

So if you're the penguins, it's a chance to continue to plant that seat of doubt in a really good team. head of if your power play goes out, scores a goal or two, and you can be perfect or close to perfect on the PK. We all know, because we saw it last year with the Penguins Penalicle, yeah, there were structural issues, but a lot of players came out and admitted it last year that the ball never got rolling and the negative vibes never got exercised. So if you can kind of keep pushing them down that track as your opponent, that can only help

your ability to be successful in tomorrow night's game. Agreed. And just one more thing before we wrap this up and get you all out of here for the weekend. I do need to see a better performance from Crystal Tang. First two games, he has not been himself. It's very obvious. It looks like he's lost even more of a step with his skating.

Some of his decision making has not been the greatest. He's taken a couple of bad penalties as well. I want to see him have a big game against Toronto here. Because, you know, the first game against the Rangers, again, struggled even against Detroit. I felt like most of the defensemen,

played pretty well in that game. Carlson was great. Pedersen, a little bit of a slow start, but rebounded really nicely. Jackson, I haven't had a good game. Matt Gerslick played well. Heck, Pat, we'll even say, we got to be fair. Ryan Graves played very well on Thursday night. I didn't notice him that often, which is a very good thing. But the couple of times I did notice him, he was carrying the puck out of his own zone with control, even though a defender was draped all over him.

I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone when I saw that, because he rarely did that at all last year. So that was probably one of Graves' best performances as a member of the Penguins. they got to get Crystal Tang cooking if they really want to exceed a lot of people's expectations this year and make the playoffs. That's the last thing I wanted to end with for today's show. But I think that'll do it for today's episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with another episode for you all on Monday to recap this game against the Maple Leafs and get you all set for Penguins Canadians that week and the week ahead with the homestand

that's coming up as well. But for Patrick Damp, I am Hunser Hodes. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We appreciate it, and we'll be back on Monday.