Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins come up short in Toronto, look to rebound in Montreal

Episode Date: October 14, 2024

Despite a loss against the Maple Leafs, the Penguins did have plenty of positives on Hockey Night In Canada. Patrick and Hunter discuss the goaltending situation and how Joel Blomqvist has looked solid in both of his starts, what this means for Alex Nedeljkovic and Tristan Jarry, as well as break down the Penguins' 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. One of those positives, however, is the power play. The Penguins scored a goal with the man advantage for the second straight game, and they discuss what has changed to make it more effective through three games this season. Finally, they get you set for a Monday night showdown in Montreal against a young, hungry Canadiens team. 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.

While the penguins may have left hockey night in Canada without two points, there was still plenty of the like from their performance in Toronto on Saturday night. Hunter and I are going to talk about that and more on this edition of the locked on penguins podcast. Your 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 edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on Twitter at Synonym 4Wet,

joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's account a follow at L.O. underscore Penguins. And of course, we thank you for making this your first listener watch of the day because we're your team every day. And don't forget that we are free and available on all podcast platforms as well as YouTube. Before we dive into it today, today's episode is, brought to you by Fandul. Place your first $5 bet, and you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets,

guaranteed. So just head to fandul.com to get started. Tough night for the Pittsburgh Penguins in Toronto Hunter. They drop that game to the Maple Leafs 4 to 2, but as I said in the intro, yes, you hate to lose. Yes, there are obviously things that did not go the penguins way, but on the whole being just the third game of the season, considering how bad their home opener was, there was a lot to like from this matchup on Saturday night. But unfortunately, they're unable to get the two points. But let's start with the good. And we'll start with what everybody wants to talk about when it comes to the Pittsburgh Penguins right now.

And that is the goaltending. I thought this was another very good, very professional, so to speak, performance from Yoel Blumquist on Saturday night in Toronto. The biggest thing that stood out to me was, again, very timely saves when this team needed them. And the thing that stood out most to me when it came to Blumquist's performance against the Maple Leafs was the greatest goal score in the world is Austin Matthews. Yes, I know Alex Ovechkin is chasing down Gretzky, but if you compare the pacing, I think it's slightly more in Austin Matthews's favor. But Matthews had multiple grade A chances at Yoel Blumquist and Blumquist denied all of them. So that is a huge, huge thing for a young goalie's

confidence and his ability to play the game when he can shut down a great goal score in Austin Matthews. He was also very solid throughout the final two periods when the Maple Leafs were really starting to push after a great first period from the Penguins. So very encouraging start from him and a little bit of reporting from our pal Josh Yohei this morning, basically saying that Sullivan and the management and the rest of the coaching staff have communicated to all three goaltenders at this point, being Tristan Jari, Alex Nadalcovic, and Yoel Blumquist, that this is an open competition.

There is not a 1A starter right now that if you go out and play well, you will be rewarded for your play, because this team wants to get back to the Stanley Cup playoffs, and we know part of the reason they fell off as hard as they did before they had their resurgence at the end of the year last year was unreliable goaltending. So overall, a very solid performance despite the loss from Yoel Blumquist. And I think we're going to see a lot of load management, so to speak,

with the goaltenders this year. It's going to be whoever picks up the ball and runs with it. It'll be their job. And whoever doesn't is going to sit on the bench. Yeah, if one goalie has a good start, that goalie might keep playing in future games. And that's why I'm curious to see what Mike Sullivan does tonight after how good Blumquist played in Toronto. So far, we're recording this at about 1140 a.m. Eastern time. The Penguins are out for their morning skate right now, about eight skaters.

All three goalies are out there. Sullivan has not confirmed who a starter is, but by the time this episode ends, we might already have it. So once we see it on social media, we'll update you all overall. But I wouldn't be surprised if he did go back to Blumquist, but I also wouldn't be surprised if he does go back to Jari, considering that the Penguins didn't get the result on Saturday. Granted, that wasn't because of Blumquist. He made some very great timely saves. The goals that he gave up were not his fault at all.

I mean, two of them, Pat, just awful bounces. I mean, one of them is a 2-1-0. Another one just bounces off the boards, comes right back out for a rebound. He's not going to save that. And number three, Mitch Marner comes down the wing like that. I mean, he's going to score bad nine out of ten times. It's Mitch Marner, people. I mean, for God's sake.

So all three of those goals really weren't his fault. Otherwise, he seems so calm and so poised in net. It reminds me in a way of Matt Murray when he started out with the Penguins, with how cool, calm and collected he was in net. He's just kind of ho-hum doing his thing. That's what I've seen from Blumquist these last couple of starts. And it's been nice to see him look NH already these last two games. And, you know, he was able to keep the Penguins.

And even when the Leafs were pushing at times in the first period, even though the Penguins were the better team, that period, he was there to make the timely saves. Even in the third period when the Penguins were still pushing, trying to get back in that game, he was able to make a couple of big saves. You mentioned that one on Matthews, and glanced off his shoulder.

That's a hell of a save on a little bit of a mini breakaway against the best goal score in the league. He also had another great save, I believe, on William Nealander as well during that game, another one of the top players in the league. He continues to pass each test. I know it's, again, only two games, but he's passing these tests with such ease that it's fun to see overall. But granted, when you look at this performance as a whole, I don't know how anyone can really be upset with the Penguins with how they played. If you want to maybe nitpick, which is what we're going to do on this show, the biggest thing they need to be better at is more quality chances.

In the third period alone, the Penguins do not get a single high danger chance at five on five, and they only had one expected goal at five on five for the entire game. Granted, that's not good enough. It really isn't. So that's an area where they're going to need to be better at throughout the season, obviously if they want to be in the playoff race and make the playoffs. I know we might be having this conversation quite a bit throughout the season just because the depth, while it's better this year,

it's still not as good in previous years. But you need to be able to generate more than one expected goal game against these sure-fire playoff teams slash Stanley Cup contend. and all that stuff. I felt like, yeah, it was nice that they were able to get back into it in the third period, but they still weren't getting enough quality chances at five on five those last 40 minutes. That first period, I think that was by far the best period they played all year so far. They were taking it to Toronto. The only thing I really wished for was that they were able to get an extra goal that period because of the way they were playing. And, you know,

to start the second period, you get those two awful bounces. And then right after Pat Crosby hits the post on a shot that he scores nine out of ten times. Sometimes it's not your night when you don't get the bounces. It really is. And the other thing I want to add to that is I know a lot of our listeners and Penguins fans are getting tired of hearing this, but we are in still very much in the time of year where you're more concerned with the process rather than the outcome. Now, that's not to say you don't want to stack points early. You really do. You don't want to set yourself behind the eight ball to where you have to catch a bunch of teams later in the season. But watching the way they've played through the first three games, I think at this point,

we can crumple up and throw the Rangers game into the trash. That was just putrid top to bottom. But then great response against the Red Wings where, yeah, they start late, but they figure it out, they come in, they pull themselves off the mat. They respond seemingly every time Detroit pushes it pushes back and then in toronto they just didn't go away yeah their play dipped a little bit throughout the game their first period they were i would go so far as to say they were dominant in the first period and rare is it that teams are going to be able to put together a dominant 60 minute performance there's always going to be pushback in saturday night when you look at the people who produced for both teams this was a heavyweight fight this was a heavyweight fight this was

all the big guns coming to play for both teams. Letang gets the power play goal with assists from Crosby and Malkin, then William Nealander, Matthew Nyes scores, Mitch Marner scores, Neelander gets the empty netter, Raquel gets the goal to pull them to within one, and Malkin gets another assist on that, giving him, which we must congratulate him for, 1300 career points, a huge milestone for Gino. But this is the kind of game that you expect to play against the Toronto Maple Leafs where, yeah, your depth should help out. You want them to help out. But it's a game with so many stars, so much star power and talent that you're just going to trade haymakers back and forth because that's how good these teams can be when their stars are absolutely pushing.

But to your point, I want to see this team increase its quality at five on five. You look at how many shot attempts they've had through the first three games, and they're willing to shoot the puck this year. This is a huge change from last year. They are not holding on to the puck very long. They are attacking the net. They are putting the puck to the net, and they're willing to shoot. But you see how often these shots are getting blocked. You see how often they're missing the net.

And while I'm never going to be against a team shooting the puck more, because what's the worst that can happen when you shoot the puck? puck. Oh, no, it maybe goes in the net. But they have to be a little bit more selective with their shots just because when you're getting them blocked, when you're missing the net, when they're not getting through, that's all well and good. So just maybe one split second longer. Pick your head up. If you see there's a guy in front of you, maybe wait, try to change the angle, or at the very least, with the way they've changed their forechecking in offensive zone attack this year, put the puck low and go to work because when they were dominant in the first period, they owned the puck behind the Maple Leafs net. And this is starting to show some effectiveness.

So rather than just taking a low percentage shot up high to the net, put that puck down low, go back to work, get your guy to the middle and open up that lane for a better chance. So overall, happy with the performance, not happy with the loss. One thing I was happy with, and I believe Hunter was happy with as well, is the Penguins Power Play once again for another straight game. And we are going to talk more about that as well as the week ahead here in Penguinsland in our second segment. But first, we have to tell you about our first sponsor, and that is Hymns.

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Welcome back to the Monday edition of the Locked On Penguins podcast. I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes. Another game comes by another game where the penguins score a power play goal. As I texted to you, that power play goal in the first period by Chris LaTang. Boy, oh boy, he leaned into that puck like it owed him money. What an absolute rocket from Chris LaTang on the power play. But again, it gets into exactly what we have been talking about with what this power play needs to do to get better this season.

It's a willingness to move the puck quickly. It's a willingness to attack. And of course, it's a willingness to shoot. They did not stand around on this power play. They were moving throughout all of it. And they were able to open up that shooting lane for Chris LaTang. Would I have loved to see somebody else in front rather than kind of off to the sides when he lines up for that shot? But it was a perfect rocket from Chris LaTang.

It goes in. And overall, with the exception, of one of their power play chances in this game where they got a little disjointed. It was a lot of shots. It was a lot of zone time. It was a lot of hemming the Maple Leafs in their end and making them defend. And it's been a very encouraging sign through two of the three games this season, Hunter. Yeah.

At least to start this season, this is a different power play this year compared to last year. If you're not seeing it, well, I encourage you to put the tape on, honestly. The movement has been so much better. The way that they're able to move the puck is so crisp. And look where that shot came from. It wasn't just a harmless little shot from 50 to 60 feet out. No, Latang came down right near the circle and blasted away. Stollars had no chance on that.

Honestly, I don't think any goalie makes that say with how Chris Lantang fired it. And it was nice to see Latang fireback puck because I feel like I've been saying quite often when he's quarterback to power play throughout these last several, several years that he sometimes doesn't shoot enough. Well, he sure did here. And I want him to keep doing that on the power play. I feel like he has an underutilized shot on this unit that needs to be unlocked more.

Because if it is, you can have more garbage cleaned up around the net. Someone like Brian Rust around there, Cony Crosby, with the way he's moving around. Heck, again, Malkin's been moving around to the net front area. And we all know that, you know, he's a bully with a puck on his stick when he's on top of his game. And moving him out of the way, that's tough for any. one considering how big he is.

So I want to see the penguins continue to utilize, let's hang more with his shot on the power plate. But just everything about the unit feels more crisp. I know I said that word twice in the last 60 seconds, but it's true. Look at the way everyone is moving to a different position on the ice. No one is staying stagnant in one spot. You keep these penalty killers honest, and that opens up these shooting lanes for the penguins. That was happening throughout this game in Toronto. You're also seeing at least the drop path these last two games not there.

It was there a little bit against the Rangers, I'll admit, and that made me cringe. But these last two games, it hasn't been there. You're starting to see David Quinn's philosophy, at least for this unit, come out. And, you know, back to Matt games with a power play goal. How many times did we say that last season, Pat? Hardly ever. So it's already off to a better start this year. I understand very short sample size, though we have to react with how it's playing.

And so far, things are good, at least right. now. Hopefully that continues, but I like what I'm seeing. Carlson in that new spot had, I think, another fine game. And also, Carlson was off to one hell of a start in that first period against the Maple Leafs. I thought he was the best player on the ice during those 20 minutes. During the last 40, I felt like he was still good, not as good as that is that first period, but he was still good overall. And honestly, even outside of Letang getting his power play goal, it was nice to see him have a good game. I wanted him to play well. He had a really rotten first two games. he played really well in this game.

But on the opposite end, Marcus Pedersen needs to wake up a little bit here. That was a really poor performance from him, was very down in the average game score, the I test, very much back set up. He was caught flat-footed on the Mitch Marner goal. I kind of blame that a little bit more on Crosby with his decision in the offensive zone.

I don't really know what he was doing there. But Pedersen, he can't get caught flat-footed there. I think he can play that a bit better. And his play overall needs to be better down the, stretch. And I do think it will, but it's still, I wouldn't say it's concerning, but it's not up to par yet. It's something to keep an eye on. It has been a very rough start for Marcus Pedersen this season, but he has enough goodwill stored in the bank that we can give him some runway to figure it out. Now, if it continues into the next few weeks, then yeah, it's definitely concerning. But

Real quickly back to the Chris Latang goal. If you watch the film of it, it's exactly what you were alluding to. There is a lot of rotation because if you watch it, how it starts off, you have Sidney Crosby at the point, and he rotates the puck to Chris LaTang who takes over. Him and Crosby and Rust set a little bit of a chip inside of the Maple Leafs box. And then as Russ starts to pull to the front of the net, He takes the defenders with him giving Chris LaTang that time to figure out what his next option is.

Excuse me. And that's what opens up the shooting lane because the Maple Leafs both have to respect that there's a guy right in the middle of the ice, right in the slot in a prime scoring area. And we can't lose him. But we also have to respect the puck carrier because if he gets a shot or moves this to somebody in a prime scoring area, then we're screwed. So that was really, really good rotation of both the puck and bodies on the power play. And like you said, it's early. It's only three games. And it's not like we're going to say it's solved.

Everybody start planning the parade. But these are the encouraging signs we needed to see early in the season to show that this power play has figured out what the issues are. And they're going to start utilizing the talent they have at their disposal to, to make it a legitimate threat. Right. And just you look at, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. No, you're good, you're good, go ahead. You look at the quick decisions that they're making outside of the Rangers game.

No one is hogging the puck for more than they need to. You're keeping the penalty killers honest. Again, the movement is great. Everyone is also in a prime scoring area, it feels like on this power play as well. There's really no passiveness compared to last year, especially these last two games. It's looking like an actual functioning powerplay unit with all this world-class talent on it. It's crazy. that with a new coach putting some new ideas in there, at least for two games,

that you can get more out of these players compared to whatever the heck we saw last year. Again, put the tape on people. If you're not seeing the adjustments, please put the tape on. They're right there in front of you. What an ab, how absolutely low the bar is that we see a functioning power play and we're just ready to pop the champagne for it because we've been missing it for an entire year. But real quick, before we throw it a break, It is a big week coming up here in the Penguins land with a lot of games on the schedule.

It is a four-game week coming up. You've got tonight against the Montreal Canadians in Montreal. That is going to be a fun atmosphere. It is always awesome to see games in Montreal, and we're going to preview that in our second segment. Then after that, the Buffalo Sabres come to town on Wednesday. Then on Friday, the Penguins are the Penguins welcome in the Carolina Hurricanes. then on Sunday, it's a big Jets day in Pittsburgh because at 3 p.m. The Penguins will play the Winnipeg Jets at Winnipeg and the New York Jets come to Accraure Stadium to play the Steelers.

So no mention of Jets on Sunday, Pittsburgh people, because there's two games against the Jets coming up. But before we get to that point, we do have to talk about tonight's game when the penguins will play the Habs and Hunter and I are going to get you set for that game. right after this. But first, we got to tell you about our last sponsor, and that is Fandle. NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on Fandle, America's number one sportsbook. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, say this coming Sunday when there's the second Jets game for a Pittsburgh team when the New York Jets and Aaron Rogers come to Akshire Stadium, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play, and so much more on the same page where

you place your bets. started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. That's fan duel.com America's number one sports book. All right, welcome back. It is the Monday edition, and it's a preview edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes. And here we go. We're going to the true mecca of hockey. Sorry about that, Toronto, but the penguins are going to play Les Habitants tonight at the Bell center in Montreal, Quebec. And don't sleep on the Montreal Canadians, man. This team is off to a solid start.

And a lot of it is thanks to one of the most electrifying young stars in the game. And that is Cole Coughfield. He's having a heck of a start to the season already with four goals in three games. And helping him out is another young superstar defenseman who, I think his name, going to be very much in the Calder discussion, and that is Lane Hudson, four assists in three games. And this team, man, like don't sleep on the Montreal Canadians. Marty St. Louis got this team playing very well early,

and it's a young, fast team. So you got to figure the penguins are going to have their hands full tonight. Right. And last year, the penguins were able to beat them. But those games were still pretty fun and they were all very close. Montreal played Pittsburgh very tough last year. And in the year before that, the Canadians, they beat them quite a bit and their speed was giving the Penguins quite a few fits. I think you might see that on display tonight just with the way the Canadians have started

the season. I picked the Canadians to finish six in the Atlantic. I think they're definitely trending in the right direction. I don't see them as a playoff team this year, but I could easily see them taking that step next year or the year after. Kent Hughes has done a really good job as GM of this team, you know, building up a foundation with some. of these younger pieces, adding some veterans during free agency at times.

And you look at the team right now, you know, Caulfield Suzuki and Slavkovsky on the top lines of Suzuki. He's also off to a good start and he's also a pretty underrated top line center. You know, he only has, you know, he has an assist in three games. He's looking for his first goal, but he's still playing well in his own zone. Caulfield, you already said it, four goals in three games. Do not let his size for you. He may not be the biggest dude, but as you said, he is electrifying talent.

Well, look through his coaches. look who his coach is, Marty St. Louis, not the biggest guy, but one of the better players of the late 90s, early 2000s. Exactly. And he has one heck of a release overall. You have their second line with Alex New Hook, Kirby Doc, and Yuel Armiya, Brendan Gallagher. He's off to a good start this year. He already has two goals, two points in three games. Josh Anderson with Jake Evans. And then I have Christian Dvorak on the fourth line. It sucks that we're not able to see Patrick Line in this game because he's going to be out for the next couple of months with a pretty serious injury that he's during the preseason. I really wanted to see how he would play in this game against Pittsburgh, and I just really want to see him do well overall, just because I think when he's on top of this game, he's a ton of fun to watch. Defensively, old fair friend, Mike Matheson on the top pairing with Caden Gully. Matheson had a hell of a year last year, man. He was awesome for the Canadians. I expect the same this year, and you said it, Lane Hudson. What a talent he is. His skating is top-notch.

His playmaking ability is great. The way he's defended his start the year is, awesome. I don't know if Hudson's going to win the Calder, but I think he's going to be at least a finalist for it, in my opinion. Hudson, this kid is legit people, and I hate that Montreal is going to have him for the long haul. At least he's not on a Metro team, though. But you have David Savard on the second pairing, and then you have Justin Barron on the third pairing. And then goalie-wise, you have Caden Primo and Sam Montembo. I assume it's going to be Montembo tonight for Canadians. And he played pretty well. Actually, he also has started the season out pretty well for the Canadians as well. For the Penguins, it looks like Tristan Jari, Pat, first goal you off

the ice. It appears as if now he is going to get the start for the penguin. So Mike Sullivan goes back to number 35. It appears right now. Yeah, real quick on Tristan Jari. I had a lot, I saw a lot of comments on one of our episodes as well as I had a lot of people tweeting this at me over the weekend ahead of the Maple Leafs game. When I said that I expected Tristan Jari, to get redemption. I understand people see that and say, how much more do you need to see? How much more do you need to see? But when you look back at what we talked about in the first segment, it's not redemption

for his entire career. That is going to take so much longer. But when you look at it strictly in the context of the season, yes, I am very much on record that in the home opener, he was probably the biggest reason they got boat raced by the Rangers. Now, it doesn't absolve everybody else of how poorly they played against the Rangers. But in this current season, it's not going to be a one strike and you're out. He is going to get opportunities to bounce back. But he's not going to get extended opportunities. It's not going to be, hey, you played two bad games, so go try it a third time. It's going to be,

you played a bad game, you're going to get a start in a few days, you have to bounce back there. And if you don't, we're going to go to the other options. So I understand them starting him tonight. He deserves and has the opportunity to bounce back this season. I'm not talking about his career as a whole. So there's that. As for the Montreal Canadians, you can tell that this is a team, like you said, that their GM is really setting them up to be great in the long term. And they are just taking the next step because I look at their defense, right? And it's very similar to what we talked about with Detroit, where there's some solid pieces on that defense.

Obviously, Lane Hudson, Arbor Jack. I both very, very talented. Both have a lot of potential. But then you look at the rest of it. Obviously, Mike Matheson, that's an experience. depends on which version of Matheson you're getting. And it could be a guy who looks like, holy crap,

is he a Norris candidate or my God, this guy's barely replacement levels. That's always a fun experience. But then Caden goalie and then David Savar, Justin Barron, not bad, not great either. So you do have to take advantage that they're a little bit thin on the blue line. And then same kind of thing goes for the forwards, ton of talent up front.

That first line is absolutely lethal with coffee. Suzuki and Slavkovsky, you can't let them kill you tonight. And then you have to just see if you can outlast this team. Because while the rest of their forward group, pretty solid, the second line of Doc, Armia, New Hook, not bad. Third line, Evans, Anderson Gallagher, that team's, that line's going to make you pay the price. They are going to be a physical line.

So have your head up on them. And then their fourth lines, whatever. So this is a game where I want to see the Penguins top. talents takeover because the high-end talent is a little bit higher for the penguins. And like I started this segment off with, this has to be a bounce back game for Tristan Jari. I'm not expecting him to make a 45 save shutout or anything like that. But make the saves you need to make early, stabilize this team when your opponent inevitably pushes back, and just don't give up a soft one.

So that's what I'm looking for tonight. Yeah, he needs to show the coaching staff that he can be an option. throughout the season. You know, we're not talking about next season and beyond that. We're talking about this season because right now it's not a number one and then a number two and the number three. It's very much at least for me right now, a 1A, 1B, 1C situation just because, again, they have three goalies up right now.

And the Delkevich is getting pretty close to being able to play. He's not playing tonight, it looks like. But I would assume he's going to be healthy sometime this week, if not this upcoming weekend. If not that, then probably next week. But the time is coming when he's going to be healthy. healthy and then the penguins will have to make a decision do they sign Blumquist down to the HL again do they keep three goalies up what happens with all that that's again decision that's coming but it doesn't have to be made at least right now but still going back to Jari he needs to show that

he can be an option going forward for this season and not play at the level that he did against the Rangers and I keep seeing this thrown out there as well there's everyone keeps mentioning his goal state above expected jari's that is from the game against the Rangers, Jari allowed two goals above expected in that first period, and then was able to rebound in the final two periods and save 2.3 goals above expected to get to that number that everyone keeps referencing, which is saving 0.36 goals above expected. And it's like, okay, are we really giving him all this credit for garbage time saves? Like, because that's what it feels like people are doing. And again, I'm not trying to say that he played the worst game he's

ever played. We've seen worse, obviously, here people. But I'm just, I'm just, I guess, a little bit confused by some of the praise I've been saying. Don't keep it wrong. And I hope he bounces back tonight. The penguins definitely need it. But I think people are just giving him too much credit for just saves and garbage time when the team was already down for nothing and the game was out of reach. I mean, they were down by more than two goals after the first period.

The game was basically over after the first period. Even though you're down three nothing at that point, coming back from that many down in two periods against a team like the Rangers, that's very, very difficult. So again, just giving all that credit for garbage time saves, a little questionable, at least for me. Absolutely. I'm 100% in agreement on that.

And that's the biggest thing is they got to start stacking a few points here because the vaunted Western Canada trip starts on Sunday when they go to Winnipeg. And then it's on to Calgary, who's off to, no pun intended, a hot start. Then you have Edmonton. Yes, they're struggling early, but that's still the Edmonton Oilers. and then it's right to Vancouver, who is one of the best teams in the National Hockey League. So you want to have some margin for error when you go to that trip on that trip,

because it is going to be a murderer's row of teams that they got to face. But before they get to that, they've got the Montreal Canadiens tonight at the Bell Center, 7.30 p.m. You can catch that on Sportsnet, Pittsburgh. And that is going to do it for the Monday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. We will be back with a brain. brand new episode tomorrow, recapping this game and getting you ready for the rest of the week,

as well as breaking down anything else that might happen between now and then. But for Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always for tuning in. And we will be back on Tuesday.