Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins captain Sidney Crosby sets a Team Canada record!

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

Another day, another milestone for Sidney Crosby as he now sits alone atop Team Canada scoring by an NHL player! Hunter and Patrick begin the show by discussing how Sidney Crosby surpassed Jerome Iginla for the all-time lead in Winter Olympics points among NHLers on Team Canada. (1:15). They also discuss the dominance of Canada in Italy and whether any team will be able to beat them. Then, with Latvia taking on Sweden this week in the qualifying round, can Penguins goalie Arturs Silovs be the catalyst for a massive upset? (11:22) Finally, the Baby Penguins had a rough weekend, but the big names performed well as expected. (22:50)Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!IndeedNow, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to https://indeed.com/podcastright now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelUse your Profit Boost on an NBA future and get entered for your chance to win a trip to the NBA Finals.Play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Visit https://FANDUEL.COMto get started.   FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Cindy Crosby set a Canadian Olympic men's hockey record on Sunday against France, and Pat and I are going to discuss that, plus discuss the entire playoff round, plus the quarterfinals of the men's Olympic tournament coming up 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 to the Monday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes.

you can follow me on Twitter at Hunters Hodes. Joined by my co-st, Patrick Camp. You can follow him on all social media platforms at Sin and Ru-Wet. You can also follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. And you can find us on Instagram at Lockdown underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Fandle.

Use your profit boost on an NBA future and get entered for your chance to win trip to the NBA finals. Play your game with Fandall, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Pat, death, taxes, and Sidney Crosby lighting it up for Team Canada at the Olympics. He was once again splendid for Canada on Sunday, helping them route France tended to a game that we all knew was never going to be in doubt. It was just a matter of how much is Canada going to up that goal differential so they get the number one seed in that automatic buy to the quarter finals and they beat them by eight goals. Crosby finished the game with a goal and two assists and he also has a new milestone. He has 16 career winter Olympic points. He has passed

Jerome again for the most by a team Canada player in Olympics featuring an NHL players for hockey Canada. Ho-hum, once again for Crosby, got the assist on a Devon Tave's goal. Really nice pass. Got the assist on Kel McCar's goal, which again, Team Canada's power play continues to be, like the Super Laser on the Death Star in Star Wars, and then Crosby gets a goal later on in the game. But he continues to play very well for this team, Canada, very much looking like the favorite to win another goal. Crosby has two goals, six points in three games.

Though it's funny, Pat, Crosby just set this record. Connor McDavid actually might break it potentially later in this tournament. He has two goals and nine points in three games. He just needs seven more to tie it. And with the way that he's going right now, he very well could do that in the quarterfinals, semifinals. And then if they get there, of course, the gold medal game. But this segment is about Cindy Crosby.

What a great performance from him once again. And that's really all I got, Pat. Like he's been splendid during these Olympics. Well, Hunter, you said it there in the intro. He passed Jerome McGinla for most points by an NHL player with Team Canada at the Winter Olympics. And I know I told you before we hit record, but let's just play this game for our listeners. Do you know when Jerome McGinla recorded his final point for Team Canada? Iggy, Iggy, Iggy.

That's when he was calling for the puck, obviously, against the United States in 2010. The primary assist on the golden goal in 2010 was Jerome McGinla's final point with Team Canada at the Olympic. so it's really poetic that Sidney Crosby surpasses him, even though, as you said, and I agree with you, I don't know how long that record's going to stand. Connor McDavid might break it at these very Olympics because he's playing that well. But the thing that's really fun about this is Crosby's on pace

in his third Olympic games at age 38, where he might have and probably will have his best statistical Olympic performance. 2010, four goals and three assists. And then in 2014, as great as that Canada team was, just three points for 87. So he's very much on pace to have his best performance at the Winter Olympics this very year, which is just absolutely mind-boggling that he continues to play at this pace. And when you look at how stacked team Canada is the fact that he's among

the scoring leaders for them just tells us what an incredible player he is. The thing that I have really noticed about Sid in this Olympic so far is that he does the thing he always does. He has just elevated for every game. He has been totally noticeable in every game in the best way. He's playing on a line that both takes the puck from you and then refuses to give it back. And just overall. They'll smother you too, especially with Marner and Stone. He's such a great fit for both of those wingers who have great hockey IQ and just the way

they play defensively. You're not going to get really any chances against that line, especially with the winger that he has. I really, I don't think that just for the sole fact that he scored the golden goal in Vancouver, that's probably forever going to be his quote unquote best Olympic performance because how do you top an overtime winning gold medal winning goal? But just his overall level of performance in this tournament has been a sight to behold because we're all waiting, right?

Like whether voluntarily or because we want it because you're an opposing fan, we're all waiting for Sidney Crosby to slow down at some point. And he just hasn't. No, you're right. And we all knew he was going to elevate his game to what you've been seeing for these first three games in the preliminaries. Even though he was on a little bit of a slump going into the Olympics, this is what Sidney Crosby is made for. He loves playing in these high stakes, big games. And when he puts on that Team Canada sweater, it is very rare, my friend, that he loses a game.

And so far, he has been one of Team Canada's best players going into the quarterfinals. We're going to get into the full bracket coming up here in the second segment because I'm really excited for some of these play-in games and these quarter-final games if we get them, especially USA Sweden, which that looks pretty likely unless Latvia is able to pull off a pretty big upset. But you knew that Sid was going to come out of this slump at a perfect time. And you've seen it so far. His playmaking has been there. His vision has been great. I even think he's defending a bit better than what we were seeing. during the regular season.

Again, it obviously helps that, you know, Mark Stone and Mitch Marner, two of the better defensive, you know, forwards in the league are on the same line as him. But, you know, also, everyone else on this roster is following his lead.

You can just see it on the bench, Macklin Celebrini, Connor McDavid, Nathan McKinnon, Kail McCar. I can keep going down the list if you really want me to. But they're all also following his lead.

And I do think that's part of it as well. So I can't say, enough about the level that he is playing at right now. And just overall 14 Canada, I know the preliminaries are done. I know there are still some strong contenders for gold like the US. I'll see what happens in Sweden. But Pat, right now, team Canada is very much the favorite, especially with the way that they're playing. There's no way for me to describe them other than business like that this team is genuinely scary. And I know we've had our disagreements. we've had our criticisms of the way

Team USA is put together and we'll get into them a little bit later in the show. But even if USA had brought some of the players, we break them over the coals for not bringing, at this point, I don't know how much of a difference it would make because this Canada team, man,

it's scary good. And they're operating at a level where they almost, this is going to be a wild comparison, but just stay with me. It does remind me of the late 70s and early 80s Soviets team. The way they're playing, the way their opponents are playing with them, it just looks like everyone's walking into that game and going, yeah, Canada's going to win. It's just a matter of by how much.

That's how good they have been playing. and I'm genuinely like as much as I'm still rooting for team USA and I want to see them pull it off I look at this Canada team and I do not see a single weakness and they are playing so well that until someone beats them I don't think anyone's going to beat them. They've had a couple of cracks defensively. Bennington has given up a couple of softies but none of that has mattered just because they're scoring at well. And yeah, you know, some of their competition isn't exactly, you know,

quote unquote best. I mean, their group to me was, you know, a tad bit harder than the USA group, but they're still pummeling these teams. So we'll have to see how everything goes when the knockout starts later this week. I assume Canada is going to be playing for the gold medal game. It just, who are they going to play against? I think that's what we're really wondering. But that's going to do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to discuss the entire playoff qualify around that begins early this week before going into the quarterfinals. We'll discuss Archer Shilov's and the win that he had for Latvia before starting on Sunday and almost leading Latvia back with a couple of really big saves in the final 40 minutes.

So stick around for that coming up right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor, which is Fandall. Ever wanted to experience the NBA Finals live and in person? Well, Fandle is giving you the chance to turn that dream into reality with their NBA sweepstakes. Here's how it works. Use your profit boost on any NBA future and you'll automatically be entered for a shot to win an NBA finals trip for two. That's right. Flights, tickets, the whole experience, all paid for. If you're already looking at the board and thinking about which team can make a deep run, this is the perfect time to lock in. I love futures this time of year,

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Archer Shilov started the last two games for team Latvia. they decided to make a change. And he won the first game against Team Germany. He was really good in that game, by the way, made a lot of really key saves for his country. He then started against Denmark, really shaky first period. I don't think he started out the game well.

But in the final 40 minutes, he gave his team a really good chance to try and pull off this comeback, Latvia, cut it to three, two. It looked like they were going to tie the game early in the third period. And Shilov was making a lot of really big saves. but the rest of the forwards and defensemen weren't able to fully help him out and they ended up losing to Denmark

on Sunday. If I am Latvia though, I am starting him against Sweden for this playoff qualifier game to get into the quarterfinals. He's been better than Elbismers-Leakins during this tournament. But I just think overall,

you know, at first game, really good. Even today had that shaky start. But we've seen him do that for the Penguins this year. He'll have a couple of shaky starts, but then he'll rebound. to really keep the penguins in it as they're trying to mount a comeback, and he'll make some really key saves.

The one game I really come back to, it's funny, that game in Columbus, when the penguins were down 4 to 1, he wasn't very good to start, but the penguins were crawling back into it. They're able to tie it late, but part of that was because Shilov's made some really big saves down the stretch in the third period. Again, I know Latvia wasn't able to tie it today against Denmark,

but the script was similar where he was struggling a little bit early, but then really turned it on in the final 40 minutes. So I have liked his play a lot, especially these last two games. Yeah, the constant through line for Arthur Shilov's career for the most part, especially at the NHL level, has been one where he leaves you wanting, right? He will play two really good periods and have a shaky period, figure out the order however you want. And that has kind of translated to the winter games where he started off a little shaky,

but then he got it together. And in no world was any of the losses that he took his fault. Latvia is in a tough group. They're in that second tier of teams that are at the games. They're in the same boat as Switzerland, as Denmark, even as I would say a little bit Germany, where they have some talent, they've got some solid players, but they don't have enough to really hang with your Canada's, Sweden's, USA's. But he did exactly what you said. He has put his team in a position to be competitive, which is to me one of the more interesting

things about watching these winter games, especially in hockey. And there was a great piece on the athletic about this in the lead up to the preliminary rounds where they talked about the mentality of certain teams, whether it's Slovakia, Latvia, Denmark, where getting a win or pushing a team to the brink is a point of national pride. And it's kind of how they approach the games, whereas Canada, the U.S., Sweden, they go into the games and it's like, we are not here to enjoy the Olympics. We are not here for participation trophies. We're not here for feel good moments.

We're here to win. And with Latvia, they had a big lift in front of them. You're in a group with Germany, the United States, Denmark. They were going to be competing for fourth or third in that group. But at the end of the day, I'll put it, I'll put it this way. If I'm the penguins, I'm feeling really good about the Arter She-Lavs. I'm going to get when he returns from the games. Yeah, I do think so as well.

And you've seen him suit up fairly well for Latvia, especially when you go back to 2023, the World Championships, Pat. He led them to a bronze medal. And he was really good during that tournament. Man, 7 and 3 record, 2.20 goals against average, 921 Sabres, manage. Remember, he was the best goaltender in that tournament.

He was also the tournament's most valuable player. He has been fairly good for his country. So if I'm a Latvia coaching staff, I am starting him early this week in that play and qualifier game to the quarterfinals against Sweden. It's already going to be a tall ask to beat Sweden just because of how good Sweden is when they really turn it on. But in my opinion, you got to start She Loves for that game. I am fully expecting the USA versus Sweden. It's going to take a pretty big upset, I think, from Latvia to change that.

But you got to put the better goal to turn out there right now in this tournament at least it She Loves. will say this, that of the four games in the qualifiers on Tuesday, that is the game that I have my eyes on the most because all the ingredients are there for a lot being upset. Because Sweden really had some struggles in the preliminary round with goal tending. Yeah, the talent's there in the skaters, but we say it on this show all the time because look it's what, look at what has happened with the penguins the last couple of seasons. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you can't get a save, it's all derailed. And between Shilovs being the guy who can rise up and suddenly continue to keep Latvia as the pesky team,

if Sweden has some struggles in net and Latvia can pop one or two and Shilov can have a good game, Like I look at the qualification around Switzerland versus Italy. Switzerland, I'm pretty sure is coming out of that. Germany versus France. I'm taking Germany. Czechia versus Denmark. I'm taking Czechia. Then I look at that, then I look at that Sweden-Lotvia game.

And I'm like, if there was ever a game of those four that there could be an upset, that's the one I look at. I'm on the fence. I would say for me, I'm going to take Sweden. I would say there's a 90% chance that they go through. I think for Latvia to upset Sweden, I think a lot of Sweden's top players are going to have to have an off game. And I think Gus is just going to have to be really bad in net, assuming that he does get the start.

And yeah, I know. He hasn't been that good this tournament at all. But I think it's going to take more than just Artie She loves having potentially the game of his life for Sweden to be upset of here. I just, I like Sweden's roster a lot. And if they're on, I don't know how close. this game is going to be. But I get what you're saying at the same time. I just, for me, wouldn't bet on it. That's for sure. I am going to take Sweden to go through

here. I'm pretty confident that they're going to win this game. And that was set up at USA versus Sweden in the quarterfinals, which that's going to be a really tough matchup overall if we do get that. The fact that we might get this in the quarterfinals is also. That's because Slovakia won their group as something that I didn't see coming. I don't think you saw coming either, but credit to Slovakia, excuse me, they got the number three seed. The other qualified games, you mentioned them. Yeah, Germany, I'm going to take them to beat France.

Switzerland, I will take them to beat Italy. Chequia, Denmark. That one I actually do think is closest to a coin flip or maybe 60, 40, if you want to call it that. I've been a little overwhelmed by Czechia so far. France gave them quite a scare this weekend. I'm going to take Chequia, but I need to see some of their top players show up, maybe a little bit more in this one. I want to see Lucas Dostal also play

a bit better as well. I'm going to take Chequia, but Denmark can make that game interesting. Don't be surprised if they are able to pull off that upset. Sweden, Latvia, I'm going to take Sweden. And then for the quarter final matchups, Slovakia will play the winner of Germany, France. So probably going to be Slovakia versus Germany.

Canada will play Czechia or Denmark. These games will be on Wednesday. Finland will play Switzerland or Italy. I would love to see Finland versus Switzerland, by the way. And then the U.S. will play Sweden or Latvia. So it's also funny, Pat. Eric Carlson, Ricard Raquel, versus Rati She-Lovs. And if Sweden does win that game, Mike Sullivan versus Eric Carlson. And look, I know Eric Carlson, the rest of the team Sweden, you know, their eyes are focused on the game in front

of them. They obviously, they very much are coming into this tournament, wanting to win gold. I'm sure they were very disappointed by the way the Four Nations tournament went. But I got to think Eric Carlson is chomping at the bit to get back at his old coach a little bit. You've seen Pat, some of those pointed comments throughout this season going at his former head coach. I think there's maybe a little extra motivation in there to win that game. Yeah, wouldn't shock me if Eric Carlson's got his eyes on that game. And I mean, look at the thing you said that I want to kind of go back to here, Slovakia,

man, they deserve a ton of credit. Or good. And they might be my favorite team. team at this Olympics just because they were the full on chaos agent. They threw this tournament into absolute chaos. And it's been fun to watch. So we're in for some really good hockey coming up over this next week because we got this and then we got the USA women's team and the Canadian women's team

on a collision course to make it to the gold medal game. and buddy, I know people are flaming me for my take from Friday, but at the end of the day, I have been watching this women's tournament like a hawk. And same things I said in the first segment about the Canadian men's team, apply that to this U.S. women's team. They have been just a juggernaut. Oh, yeah, they've been unbelievable.

And hey, I also disagree with you on that take to be, perfectly clear. I am not on your side for that one. I just want to put that out there to everyone here for this episode after I know you were getting flamed a little bit on Friday. I just want to let everyone know, I agree with you guys. I think Pat was a little out to lunch for that take. But I will say about the jargonaut talk. Yes, the U.S. women's team is a juggernaut. They're a lot of fun to watch. Hope they can beat Sweden on Monday in the semi-finals to go to the gold medal game because this team is firing on all cylinders. And hopefully we do get that USA Canada game.

I think everyone wants to see that rematch. But I think that's going to do it for this second segment. Coming up to end the show, got to check in on Wilkesbury. Wasn't the best weekend, but there were still some players that scored and played well that we definitely have to highlight for this episode. So that's coming up right after this. All right, we're back here on the Monday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host, Patrick Damp,

and Pat Wilkesbury this weekend, they get blown out the first game. And Kurt McDonald, if you saw some of his comments to some of the local media, not for the old to say the least, they come back the next night, much more competitive game. They come from one goal down, not once, not twice, but three times. Set it to overtime. They have some good quality chances. But I guess it's a Penguins organization thing where they can outplay the opposition

in overtime but still lose because the Wilkesbury's Grand Penguins did lose in overtime to Cleveland, but I do want to highlight some really nice standout performances, and I'm writing about this for the hockey news for today as well. Rucker McGority gets a goal. I think he's been very solid since going back to Wilkesbury once the NHL went on its Olympic break. Billy Coivinen also scored. I like the way that he has been playing as well.

Emil Pianney Nemi, congratulations to him, his first HL goal, and I think he's playing well, too. And last but not least, Avery Hayes dropping the midst and just absolutely pummeling former penguin Zach Astin Reese with a few rights just directly to the face. What can't Avery Hayes do at this point, man? I think I wrote this at the start of the season where I said, remember the name Avery Hayes by the end of the season, especially if he gets a run in Pittsburgh, is going to end up being your favorite player. And I mean everybody, not just you, Hunter.

I know how much you love Avery Hayes. But the thing that surprised me about that fight, more than anything, not just that Hayes dropped Zach Aston Reese the way he did, the fact that Aston Reese let that happen. I know. Because this is a guy who's got quite a bit of NHL experience under his belt, and he's been a bottom six player for the majority of his career. You would think he was going to at least be a little bit more defensive in that fight. but Avery Hayes went out of them like a wild cat, so that was cool to see.

And then for Magrorty and Coivinen, it's to the point where I genuinely feel kind of bad for both of them, because they're too good for the American Hockey League, but there just isn't room for them right now, which really sucks for them. But at the end of the day, I do think the two of them will benefit from two different things. one being in high leverage situations with Wilkes-Bair in their top six on their power play, their penalty kill, they're going to be relied upon for offense, they're going to be relied upon in the biggest moments. And they're going to be on a team that hopefully can go on a run and they will be the guys

who drive that run. And that'll help them with their confidence. It'll help them with their skill. And when they get here full time, hopefully next year, they're going to be ready to step right in, even though we know they can, it's just going to push that even further. Yeah, it's kind of like putting the finishing slash almost final touches on their development before they're ready for this, you know, on a more full-time basis. And, you know, I do think Rucker McGority is going to be a good NHL player for a while. Again, it's the same conversation

that you and I keep having where there's just really no room for either of them right now, especially with the way that the team has been playing, going into the Olympic break. you know, the way that this team is when fully healthy, they're able to run four lines with basically anyone in the NHL. And even if he doesn't get too many more NHL games, you can still play him in these HL playoff games because Wilkesbury is going to make the playoffs. I mean, you look at the standings right now.

They're still second in the Atlantic Division. I know, a little bit of a rough weekend, but 32 wins, 13 regulation losses, 30 overtime losses, two shootout losses. They have 69 points. Nice, by the way. six points fine the Providence Bruins. Providence does have four games in hand on them. But the next closest team to Wilkesbury Pat is the Charlotte Trucker is at 55 points.

Wilkesbury is going to get the number two seed in the divisional playoffs here. So it's really all about, you know, fine-tuning some things for this team, getting both goaltenders playing a bit better. You know, Miroschow struggled in the first game. Blumquist was the same today. So it's really all about just, again, fine-tuning a few things here. I'm not concerned about McGority at all. Coyvin, his underlying numbers have been very good at the NHL.

I think he's been really snake-bit in this year. There have been some games where he has struggled, but I'm still not pressing the panic button on him or anything like that. Avery Hayes, again, what more can we say? He's going to be in the NHL full-time pretty soon as well. So help is on the way. It just might not be for this season, especially just because the Penguins are having such a special season.

But a lot of good things happening down on the first. arm right now for Wilkesbury. Yeah, it's a cliche, but it's a cliche for a reason. It is going to do those guys in Wilkeshire some good to go through a little bit of a struggle, hopefully one that's not too prolonged, just because that is part of the developmental process, especially for these top guys, your Magrortes, your covenins, Hayes, et cetera, where you need to know how to respond. You need to know how to pull your team back up because this. is going to happen, especially at the NHL level. They're very rarely are smooth sailing seasons where you might lose a game or two here

and there, but for the most part, you're on top all year. So this team having some valleys to go along with its peaks and those guys helping lead Wilkes-Bair through it. Same goes for Sergey Murashav. You know that there's inevitably going to be a game for Wilkes-Bair where they don't have it. And Murashov's going to have to be the guy to make. 30 some odd saves and keep his team in the fight, which we know at the AHL

level, he's very capable of doing. So yeah, this is, I know it's annoying. I know it's frustrating because we want these guys to be here. We want them to be NHL contributors, but they're cooking. Let them, let the oven do its thing. Let these guys cook and bake to perfection. And when they come up, you know they're not going back. I agree with that.

And with that, I think that's going to do it for today's episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Pat and I will be back on Tuesday for a fresh episode of the show going over all of the games that day, potentially recapping a couple of them. We'll have to see what time we decided to record because, as Pat and I have said over the last week, recording times are going to very, very much. I mean, hell, we're recording this 9.30 p.m. on Sunday. This is going to drop very early on Monday. Tuesday, don't think we're going to do that.

we might record later on in the day, potentially the same thing for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday because we have the quarterfinals coming up later this week. Then we have the semifinals, especially way later this week. And then we have the bronze and gold medal games next weekend. So lots of look forward to. Then once this week is over, man, Penguins hockey comes your way the following week with two games left in the month of February against the Devils and the Rangers. So don't go anywhere anyone.

We got you covered for this entire week. And then, of course, the next week when the Penguins finally returned action. So for Patrick Damp, I am Hunter Hodes. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We appreciate it. We'll be back on Tuesday.