Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins captain Sidney Crosby once again OWNS the Flyers in a big win!

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

There are very few guarantees in life, but one of them is Sidney Crosby absolutely torturing the Philadelphia Flyers. Patrick and Hunter begin a victorious Tuesday episode by discussing Sidney Crosby once again torturing the Flyers faithful with a two-goal night en route to a 5-1 win over Philadelphia. Along with Crosby's two-goal performance, the Penguins also put together one of their best efforts of the season, getting contributions from the penalty kill, goaltending, and the defense. They break down all of that and what this victory means ahead of a nightmare December schedule. (0:00) Then, despite not getting on the scoresheet, the play of the so-called "Kids Line" of Rutger McGroarty, Ben Kindel, and Villie Koviunen still had a solid night. Patrick and Hunter discuss their play, whether or not they should stick together, and how they have breathed some new life into the club. (13:54) Finally, the Penguins have two tough tests coming up in Tampa Bay and Dallas. Getting points in the next two days will be crucial. (29:11)Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!DripDropRight now, DripDrop is offering podcast listeners 20% off your first order.Go to https://dripdrop.com and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL.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.MonarchTake control of your finances with Monarch. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at https://monarch.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. So if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit FanDuel.com and place your NFL livebets all season long.  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.

We're going to begin today's edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast with some fast facts. The Philadelphia Flyers franchise was founded in 1967. They've won two Stanley Cups and their owner is no other than Sydney Crosby. We're going to break down the Penguins 5 to 1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers and more 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. Welcome in to another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Patrick Damp.

You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4 Wet, joined as always by the one and only my good friend, Hunter, Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can follow our show's Twitter account at L.O. underscore penguins. You can find us on Instagram at Locked On underscore Penguins and on TikTok at Locked on Penguins. Of course, as always, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. And don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube. plus if you're following us on YouTube, which you should be, make sure you've hit that

notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. Before we get started, this episode is brought to you by Fandul. So if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fandul.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. Five to one penguins over the fillet Philadelphia flyers in what might have been the penguin's most complete effort of the season. They walk into Philadelphia. They layeth the smacketh down on the Philadelphia Flyers. And all is right in the world.

As I said at the top, you got to begin with the captain number 87. I was going to use the cliche line hunter because we talked about it before we hit record. there are very few guarantees in life death taxes in Sydney Crosby just torturing Philadelphia Flyers fans two goals on the night he has now scored the most points against the Philadelphia Flyers in their history that man loves torturing that poor team and it was so funny he almost had the hack trick last night It was a beautiful feed off of a Genie Malkin. And Dan Lidar made the save. And Sid was smiling after.

He went to the bench. He was kind of just like, man, I really wanted that one. He was even talking about it to the media after the game too bad. He really wanted the hat trick just so he could probably hear some more booze. And it's still so funny at this point, Flyers fans will never stop booing him. I got to respect the commitment to that bit. But he lives to torment those people on the east side of the state. And I go back to this tweet from Penguins PR last night, and it reads, including everyone to ever play for the Flyers, only 38 skaters in NHL history have more goals at the Wells Fargo Center than Cindy Crosby's 27.

Crosby is NHL's all-time leader in goals, assists, and points against the Flyers. It really is crazy. First goal, right place, right time goes to where you score dirty goals right in front of the net, cleans up the garbage, a little bit of a bad. rebound from Dan Vlodar. The second goal, what a piss missile. And that was a beautiful zone entry from Eric Carlson. The pass from Brian Rust also to Crosby was exceptional. And Crosby made no mistake. Another outstanding game. He now has 18 goals on the season, Pat. Only two behind Morgan Geeky and Nathan McKinnon for the most goals in the NHL. But for this performance as a whole, I felt this was by far one of the Penguins' best games of the season.

And it's not a coincidence that this would happen with more of the young kids in the lineup. We're going to get into more of that a little later on in the show because I have some good numbers to go over when it comes to the McGority Kendall Coyvenon line. But you could tell Pat the vets, they fed off the kids that were in the lineup. And I think that really helped towards them having one of their best games of the season. Also shout out Tristan Jari once again. He was exquisite. You're right. And you beat me to the punch on that one.

the two biggest factors I have to give not to steal from our compatriot Chris Carter over on locked on Steelers. If I'm going to give out stars for this game, Tristan Jari absolutely gets one. He was locked in all night. I was a little worried early in the game first five, six minutes because it looked like it might be a struggle game for Tristan Jari early on because he did a little bit of moving around the he was a little up and down and I kind of winced and went oh no is this going to be a jari regression game and it wasn't he ended up locking in he made a lot of big saves and then to feed

into him playing well the second period with the parade of penalties and I saw some people complaining about it none of it was unfair on the the first one was I thought that was a dive on connect knee's part and I was making the diving notion my fiancee was like what are you doing and I had to like explain to her what the diving motion was that one should have been four on four the other two especially letangs I agree with but that first one come on that's soft yeah but at the end of the day of the six penalties and six power play opportunities that the flyers got throughout the game the majority of them were legit they were penalties that you don't want to see a team with a lead taking. But the penalty kill was fantastic, especially Blake

Lazott. He is just an absolute warrior on the PK. His work is going largely unheralded this year. But if you want to talk about a player who's not getting enough credit for this team's early success, Blake Lazot is in on that. And then Tristan Jari, when he needed to, made some massive saves during that second period when the penguins were parading to the penalty box. So, So that was a huge effort by the Penguins. They continue to have really good special teams. The power play goes three for four, 75% on the night. And they continue as of Tuesday morning to be the league's top power play at 33.3%.

Again, last night, bit of an outlier getting four opportunities. Because as we've seen, this team is not getting a ton of power play chances. But when they get them, they are taking advantage of them. And it's all simple. It is all just good puck movement, taking what the opposition gives you and finding the back of the net. There have been times over the last couple of weeks where the power play has looked a little bit rancid. But it's been few and far between when you compare those to the overall season with 25 games where the power play has just been so crisp. The movement has been great.

The zone entries have been great. They have the shoot first mentality. They're going to the dangerous areas. They're also getting some goals right in front of the net. Everything about the unit is so crisp right now. And the Flyers PK pat, it's no slouch. It's one of the five best penalty kills in the league. And they're not, you know, New Jersey or Carolina where they can run a power kill,

but it's usually pretty close. They, like, they usually get pretty aggressive, not to that level, but it's still aggressive. You didn't see any of that last night. Penguins PowerPlay took that penalty kills lunch all game long. They did. And I will say this as well. As we record this on Tuesday morning, now the Penguins have top five units in both power play and penalty kill.

They currently sit fourth in the NHL for the PK at 84.9%. Obviously just a shade under 85%. And very similar to. the power play. There's not a whole lot to break down here. There's not a whole lot to look at the film because you look at their PK this year. When it's working, it's really nothing but hard work and discipline. They're staying in the correct positions and they are just winning puck battles and they are putting the pressure on when it's necessary, backing off when they know it could be a problem. And again, I'll bring his name up. Blake Lazot, man. That dude, especially

during the five on threes in the second period was an absolute animal and he deserves full marks for that effort last night one of his best games of the season and the best part about his game last night pat especially on the pk he was reading plays before they even happened he knew exactly where the puck was going to go he put himself in position to get those clears and he made it look so easy his hustle is off the charts his tenacity is off the charts this is a player that also plays his ass off almost every single game. And he is one of the top penalty killers on this team. He was making quick work of that five on three before the Flyers eventually cashed in.

It's funny, if the Flyers hadn't scored at the very end of that five on three, they were about to get another penalty just because it was the Latang high stick penalty. But he was fantastic once again. Even at five on five, him and Connor Dewar were really good together. And I will also shout out Bocawe and Mama. He did more in that one game last night. than Yonokopin did in all of his games combined this season. I thought Bochua Mama had some nice hits along the boards.

He should have had a goal later on in the game, Pat. Half the net was open, rings it off the pipe. You saw him look up to the heavens after like, how did I miss that? But I felt like he played a really sound game. He should be in the lineup on Thursday. It probably should be in the lineup until more of these veterans come back. I would agree with that. I liked his game a lot last night.

The energy was evident. And I can't remember if, I was reading it, or if it was set on the broadcast, because, as I told you before the show, at a hectic night, last night I was supposed to play beer league, didn't happen. So I spent a lot of time in the car. So I listened to your doppelganger on the radio call the game. But at the end of the day, the thing that stood out to me and continues to stand out to me with Boko and Mama is he is not a one dimensional power forward. He's not just a guy who you're bringing up because we might have to have a fight tonight.

and he's going to be our deterrent and he'll be our guy to drop the gloves. He absolutely can do that, but he is a strong skater. He's not afraid to be physical. And he's got a sneaky good shot. We saw that last night with when he almost scored. It was a great one-timer. It's a shame that he rang it off the post and off the back of Ladar and it didn't go in. But that's not something you expect from just a big dude you bring up for a physical presence.

So I thought he had a really good game, brought the energy that that team needed on the fourth line. And as long as there's still an open spot due to injury, it should be his. And then you can send him back to Wokes Bear, but really liked his game, really like the Penguins game overall. And I really, really liked the game of the Kids Line. We're not going to keep you waiting any longer. It's time to talk about the Kids Line. So hang with us in this episode of Locked On Penguins. We'll get into that when we come back right after this. Before we do that, though, we've got to tell you about today's first sponsor, and that is our friends at Fandul. NFL Sundays, they move fast. One big play, and suddenly everything feels different. Like, say, when your quarterback gets sacked, loses the ball, and it's a scoop and score, but we wouldn't know anything about that. Anyway, that's what makes live betting with Fandle so exciting. You're not just watching the game. You're reacting to it in real time. With Fandul, you can place bets as the action unfolds, every drive, every momentum swing, every highlight moment.

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Fandul, the game moves fast, and so can you. Back here on the Tuesday edition of Locked-on Penguins, I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes, recap in a big 5-1 Metropolitan Division victory over the Philadelphia Flyer. on Monday night, and a big part of that win, despite not having the best counting stats on the night, was the line of Benjamin Kindle, Velae Covenin, and Rutger McGority, Hunter. I was thinking about stealing your thunder because I got natural stat trick up in front of me, but I know how excited you are about this.

Pop the hood and show us those under the hood numbers. Yes, the early returns for this line were very good. I test-wise, they got things started right away. And I included this in a tweet last night, Pat, where it was one of the first shifts of the game. It was that line's first shift of the game, in fact, where they had an on-man rush, got me offensive zone.

Rucker McGority gets a chance, shoots it over the net, but it was still a nice chance for about 20 to 25 feet out. Kendall was feeding him all night. Honestly, I thought Kendall was great in all three zones. Coyvin and I thought was very engaged in all three zones. And poor Billy towards the end of the third period, he was coming in on that odd man rush pat just shanks the shot we promise villi once you get your

first goal you're going to start getting those points in waves i really do believe that i think he is just simply overthinking it right now and you could tell that he's gripping his stick a little too hard he's getting a bit nervous but i felt outside i i want to say this i it's not it's not on apples to apples one to one comparison so just just give me this because it's what came to mind last night watching Coyvenin. It reminds me a lot of when the penguins first acquired, and it's been more than a decade since this happened, but that shows you how much of a nerd I am.

Not long after the penguins acquired James Neal, if you remember the first half a season post-trade deadline or post-pre-trade trade deadline when the penguins got Neal, he was getting chance after chance after chance, and they just weren't going in. the next season he goes on to score 40 goals i'm seeing a lot of that in covenin's game where the process is there the chances are there the cap just needs to be let off as soon as that first one goes in i think we're going to see a lot more come right after it just because

he's doing all these right things and at this point and i don't mean this in a negative way it's all mental as soon as that first one goes in that weight is going to be lifted off of him and he should be okay yeah he's going to have the confidence obviously pat is not saying that coiven is going to be a 40 goal score like james neal though i understand what pat is his overall point was but i do think once he gets that first one you're going to see him get you know more points you're going to see the playmaking start going as well i think it's just confidence and he's just gripping his stick a little too hard as for the underlying numbers Five on five, this line played just about 10 minutes.

When they were on the ice, the penguins had almost 59%, 58.8%, to be exact, of the shot attempts. They also had an expected goals full rate of 70%, 70% of the scoring chances and 66.6% of the high danger chances. They were living in the offensive zone all night. I know it was only one game. Give me more of this line. I included it in a tweet as well.

I really felt like a lot of the veteran players fed off of that line. And Rutger, only one game, but you can see how much he has grown from the start of last season. And even at the end of last season to now, because he's had a great start on Wilkesbury. He looked confident last night. His skating looked better. He had a couple of really nice chances on Dan Vladar that either A, he made the save or B, went over the net. I thought Kindle had a couple glorious chances as well. The short-handed chance, Pat, almost went in.

That was a really nice shot. And again, even the equivalent, I thought he was engaged all night too. So only one game, small sample, but the early returns are really good. Give me more of that line, even when potentially some guys come back. Here's the thing I'll say about this line. I know I love to make the reference of this isn't EA Sports NHL. it's the real world but this line is basically if you were to build a line in EANHL because all three of these players bring a little something different to the table and it all meshes together

Ben Kindle is right in front of our eyes developing into a solid two-way centerman he is good 200 feet of the ice he's got a little bit of an offensive touch he's really good defensively and then you look at someone like Coyvenin, though I said I made the James Neal comparison. He's not a pure goal score, but he is a good playmaker. And then you have Magrorty who is just kind of a mix of both. He has the ability to score. He has the ability to play a two-way game. And speaking of his skating, he had some bursts last night where if you compare him last year to him this year,

not only has he gotten a step faster he's gotten quicker his first couple steps even when he got better at the end of the year last year you still saw a little bit of that where you went those first couple strides they're they're getting there but they're not there quite yet last night and what we saw with him in wilkes bear the dude has put speed on his game and he is not a small player. He's not a little guy. So his size mixed with getting some quickness into his game. I don't want to put too much hype on him. I don't want to over inflate expectations. But the fact that he's that size and he can move like that is he develops into a full time NHL player. That kid could be a problem for a little while. I agree. And there's also a chance you

could see him on Crosby's line at some point later on the season. I know fans have been wanting that. But I was totally happy to see him on the kids line for this game. Kevin Hayes, believe it or not, has actually been okay on Crosby's wing. If you can actually believe it, he had that really nice goal last night against the Flyers. And don't give me wrong people, this isn't going to be a long-term thing. He's very much a placeholder until Ricard Raquel comes back. But at least for the time being, small sample, Hayes has been all right on the top line. It's not something you're going to want for the rest of the season.

And it's not going to happen for the rest of the season. I have to see once this team gets healthy, Pat, if he's even going to be in the top 12. But as of right now, he is at least playing all right, had that nice goal. And I also do want to shout out Tommy Novak last night as well. I thought he was really good once again. And as I tweeted, he's really a player you can play in virtually any situation, either power play unit, either line on five on five, whether it's the second line or the third line. If you want to try him maybe a little bit on the penalty kill, I guess.

you can. But he's a Swiss Army knife. And I wrote about that for the hockey news over the offseason. I know he's been inconsistent this year, but I felt like he played another one of his best games for the Penguins on Monday against Philly. Ever since last week, he's been really putting it together. I thought the start of the season as well. He was getting those chances, but wasn't getting rewarded. Over the last week, he's now been getting rewarded. And you're seeing why this is still a player that can really help the Penguins, even though I know he has frustrated some fans this year. And with Novak, it's what we've been saying the past couple of episodes.

It also relates back to Muse's comments where he said, we don't want to be here to be happy about the process. You eventually want there to be outcomes. And as of the last week, there have started to be outcomes for Tommy Novak. As good as he has been playing, we have said it. Eventually, it's got a lead to something. And now it finally is. The challenge, as we so often say, is keeping it consistent,

making it happen more often than it doesn't because, again, this team very clearly has expectations of getting back to the postseason. And we're going to hold them to that standard on this show. So we're going to critique them in that way. But I like his game. There's one more player. I know you're going to laugh that I don't think it's who you think I'm going to say, who I've got to give a shout out to because we were not kind to him on Monday's episode.

I liked Ryan Graves' game last night. He was good defensively. He threw a few hits. And what have we consistently said about Ryan Graves? You are a guy with that size. You have to use it. If you're not going to be great offensively, which we know he isn't, you've got to do something.

He was physical when he needed to be. He had solid gap control. Was it a great game? No. But again, when you, If we're going to be objective and fair on this show, we can't just call him out when he's bad. We have to acknowledge when he's good.

Let me rephrase that. Go ahead. Maybe not good. But he was better last night. He was better. Compared to the last two games, absolutely. Yes, I didn't notice him in a bad way, which is good because we have nothing really to complain about in that type of situation.

But I will say he was better than the last two games. That's really it. But I will give him a little bit of. credit for the physicality, playing at least a little bit better in his own zone. We all know he's not going to be giving the Penguins any offense, but at least he was okay on the third pair. All right, Pat, let's get into it to end this segment and let's get to the rest of the week. Trevor Zegris is an absolute clown, and that's all I really have to say on that.

He's out here, you know, head faking Connor Clifton. And look, man, I don't think. think a lot of Connor Clifton, but do you really think someone like Clifton who is known for being physical is going to fall for that crap? It's just hilarious to me. That guy is just such a loser. I, listen, I'm of two mindsets, a couple mindsets, maybe not even more than two, but one, I agree with your point. Like, I understand trying to agitate the other team and with where Trevor Zegris's career is right now. He is getting, he is having a bit of a renaissance offensively with the Flyers.

Obviously didn't happen last night, but he's a guy who has struggled to really build on his career. He's struggled to find fits, especially when he was on his way out in Anaheim. So I understand him trying to find a niche in being an agitator. You're never going to lose money in the NHL by having the ability to agitate your opponent. But the problem I take with it is, again, I have got no problem with agitators. Granted, I didn't play any serious high-level hockey, but it was the niche I carved out. I was a great agitator.

I was able to get under players' skins. But at the same time, you look at what he has done, especially in the two Penguins games this season. Noel Char is engaged with someone else, and you go after him. One, that is Bush League. That is, I'm going to use a word here that I probably shouldn't, but it's cowardly. It's absolutely cowardly. If you're going to go after the guy, go after him. Right.

Even if you lose. And then Connor Clifton, I said it this morning. It's all bark, no bite. Yep. Clifton looked at him and went, what are you really going to do? You're not going to do anything. He just has a baby face. Like, we all know you're not going to be physical.

you play like half of a rat like I don't respect I've got to give credit to Eric Majesky who brought this up a couple years ago Crosby went at Zegris again in Anaheim and all of us kind of went what is why what is going on here like it's Trevor Zegris who cares after the last two games against the flyers think Sid knew something none of us knew yeah and it looks like he was correct. So that was just a dumb moment and just an absolute absolute loser energy from Trevor Zegris. Good player. He's going to be a big part and a thorn in our side for years to come. But last two games, the dude has not painted himself in glory. But the villain is at least there, Pat, for this rivalry. He's painted himself as a villain, which I think the rivalry has really needed,

but definitely big loser energy. And he's just doing stuff that I'm sorry, I don't respect on the ice. The world just feels right when you've got a Penguins Flyers rivalry, burning hot, just makes things feel good again. But that is going to do it for our recap of the 5-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. When we come back, we're not going to preview the rest of the week, but we do got to take a look at it because the road, it's going to start getting a little bit more difficult here. And a 5-1 win on Monday really helps this team's case.

We'll do that when we come back right after this. but we've got one more sponsor to get to and that is drip drop when i'm hydrated everything just works better my focus energy mood and even my skin and that is why i have been using drip drop it's doctor developed hydration that keeps me running at full power no matter what my day looks like drip drop it's not your average sports drink it delivers three times the electrolytes and half the sugar of leading brands using a science backed formula trusted by medical professionals, firefighters, and over 90% of the top college and professional teams. Guess what I'm doing once we finish recording this episode.

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workout and drip drop. Not only gets that done for me, it's not like those protein shakes or anything where I got to choke it down and pretend it doesn't taste good. It's pretty damn tasty. So big fan of drip drop over here. And right now, drip drop is offering podcast listeners 20% off their first order. Go to dripdrop.com and use promo code locked on NHL. That's dripdrop.com promo code locked on NHL for 20% off. You're going to want to stock up now because even though it's snowing in Pittsburgh today,

We know that heat and humidity is right around the corner in drip drop will help you out with that. So keep your body and your mind performing at their best with drip drop. Finishing up the Tuesday edition of Locked on Penguins, I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodey's big rest of the week for the penguins. They are obviously off today. Then they are off again on Wednesday, but Thursday. Thursday is going to be a big test, as will Sunday. Thursday, they head south to see old pal Jake Gensel and the Tampa Bay Lightning, who they're just kind of using this year as, hey, do you guys forget about us?

You probably shouldn't have because they're pretty hot. And Dallas, as always, in the West, one of the better teams. I don't want to make a grand declaration about two early games in December, but they're going up against two teams who I am very comfortable saying are legit contenders. We will see how this team stacks up against both of them. These are two big tests. Tampa Bay. They've won seven in a row, eight of their last 10 games.

It's funny. I remember when everyone was like, oh, the lightning may not be good this year after they had that really rough start where they lost, what, like five or six of their first seven games. Now look where they are. Now look where they are, excuse me, 16 and 7 and 2, 34 points in the, Atlantic Division, good for first place. Those top guns, they are still that good. And they're still going to get healthier, too.

And you all know Julian Brisball, the GM there. He's all in every year when you look at a team like the Panthers who haven't really figured out yet, they still haven't gotten to Chuck back. This could be a year where Tampa Bay potentially makes some noise again in the Eastern Conference. I think one of the biggest reasons why they haven't made noise, A, their depth. But B, they've had to go through Florida. and the Panthers are now, or they have been the big bullies,

and the Lightning just have really not had an answer for. But so far this year, the Lightning have been great, and that's going to be a big test. Usually that's a match with the Penguins are comfortable with, but unlike last year, the Penguins lost all three games, the Lightning last year, but that's not usually the case. They usually play a lot better against John Cooper in the Lightning,

but that's still going to be a test. And then after that, you go to play a Dallas Starz team that has also been ridiculously good this year. You look at the standings in the Central Division. They're 17 and 5 and 4, 38 points. They're 8 and 1 in their last 10 games. They've won four in a row. The only reason they're not in first place is because the Colorado Avalanche are an absolute machine this year.

The Penguins, thankfully, Pat, they're not seeing them until March. And the Avalanche only have one regulation loss this year in 25 games. Now, the Stars only have five regulation losses in 26 games, but the Central has just been crazy. the stars. Jason Robertson has been on a tear. If he is not on Team USA, there is some issue going on. Mero Haskinen is one of the five to seven best defenders in the sport. We all know what he can do. And then Jake Ottinger and Nett, of course, Pat has been ridiculous again. And they have a whole bunch of other supporting players around them as well that make them one of the best teams in hockey. So you already got the two points against the Metro team this week.

big. If you can split these next two games, that is a, excuse me, success. I would agree. I think if you go one and one or one oh and one in these next two, you've done a really good job of setting yourself up. And what we continue to tell you is a hectic December on the way. One thing that could help and we'll obviously go more in depth on both teams, the closer we get to those games. But both of these teams have pretty average home records. You take out. the overtimes. They are both 8 and 5 on home ice. Granted, over 500, but it's not like they are two teams who when you go into their building, you can schedule up a loss. They're doing okay at home. Granted, for the penguins, they're not exactly road warriors, 7, 3 and 3. So if you

don't account for the overtime, 7 and 6, but it's two teams who are fine enough at home in a team that's fine enough on the road. I'll give the penguins this. Seven wins on the road is nothing to sneeze at at this point in the season, but also you have six losses. So it's funny that you look at these games going into them. The penguins have a big opportunity in front of them, but it's also just such a massive test. Because as I said, these are two legit teams, one in the east, one in the west. It wouldn't shock me if when we get it, to the Stanley Cup playoffs, at the very least, these two teams are in the final four. 100%.

I mean, these are two big measuring stick games. You're going up against bona fide contenders. We all know how great Tampa Bay's top line is. We all know how good Dallas's forward group is. Haskinen has been awesome. Ottinger and Ned, who might be on Team USA. These two teams have what it takes to go deep. So this is going to be a lot of fun.

And also, about just one more stat before we end the show here. I didn't bring this up. I should have. Penguins now against Metro teams this year. five in one and three take out the overtime losses it's five and four but pat only one regulation loss against metro teams so far that's pretty big when you compare it to the last couple of years this has been a team that's really struggled against metro teams to get points you have points at least one point excuse me in basically every game against a metro team this year five games

where you got two points but still remember those at the end of the season they got to keep playing against the divisional teams well, and we're 25 games in, I think with where they're at right now, this is a much better team than any one of us expected. And with how tight the Eastern Conference is and how tight the Metropolitan Division is, stacking those points in division, especially if they have an expectation of making the playoffs again, that's going to be very, very important come game 82. but that is going to do it for our Tuesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Hunter and I will be back on Wednesday.

We will be giving out our Warrior Helmet for the MVP of the week as we do every Wednesday and recapping any news that happens between now and then. So for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you as always for tuning in. We will be back on Wednesday.