Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins earn first shutout of the year against Nashville!

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

The Penguins got their first shutout of the 2024-25 campaign against a struggling Nashville Predators squad and looked pretty good in the process. Patrick and Hunter break down the Penguins' Saturday night victory over the Predators and how, once again, this team continues to be consistently inconsistent. Then, they dive deeper into Friday's late-night trade that sent Marcus Pettersson and Drew O'Connor to the Vancouver Canucks. They discuss what the trade means for the Penguins' future plans, how the new players fit in, and what could come next. Finally, with three games to go before the 4 Nations Face-Off break, the Penguins have a big test in front of them with games against New Jersey, the Rangers, and Philadelphia. They get you set for those games. 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.FanDuelSuper Bowl 59 is here, And there’s no better way to make every play more exciting than with FanDuel Sportsbook. New customers can bet just FIVE DOLLARS, and if you win, you’ll score TWO HUNDRED BUCKS in Bonus Bets. Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started.  Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of Super Bowl Fifty-Nine. 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.

Believe it or not, the Pittsburgh Penguins got their first shutout of the 2024-25 season. Hunter and I are going to recap that victory as well as dive a little bit deeper into this weekend's trade. All of 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. on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4Wet. Joined as always by my partner in crime, 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

L0 underscore Penguins. And of course, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube. Plus, if you follow us on YouTube. Don't forget to hit the notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. Before we jump into everything today, today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. New customers can bet just $5. And if you win, you'll score 200 bucks in bonus bets. Download the app or head to fandul.com to get started. Hunter. We will do a little bit more analysis on this weekend's trade of Marcus Patterson and Drew O'Connor. in our second segment.

We did do an emergency reaction episode on Saturday morning. Thank you to everyone who checked that out. If you haven't yet, it's right in all of our feeds. Only about 12 to 13 minutes, kind of our right off the bat thoughts since Kyle Dubas was burning the midnight oil and decided to make a trade on Friday night at 1155. So we'll talk about that a little more in the second segment, kind of give a state of the franchise, so to speak.

post trade. But first, we have to talk about what was arguably one of the penguins most complete victories of this season so far against the Nashville Predators, a three to nothing victory at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday night. And yes, we have to start here. Nashville is also a bad team this year. They are right there with the penguins, even I'd say a little bit differently, because they had much higher expectations going into this season. You looked at all the moves that they made in the offseason, whether it was Stephen Stamcoast, Jonathan Marches, so you name it. This was a team that had Stanley Cup aspirations in a very competitive,

very top heavy Western conference. And lo and behold, they are way down in the standings, not doing about the same as the penguins. And even with all of that in mind, It would have been easy, given everything else going on with the penguins, with how Nashville has been this year, for the penguins to kind of continue their malaise and take a night off. But really from the drop of the puck until the final buzzer, the penguins were head and shoulders, the better team. They took it to Nashville for 60 minutes. They get a 3-0 win.

Sidney Crosby extends his goal scoring streak to 4. Brian Rust hits 20 goals. It was genuinely a very good night for the penguins. And really after everything that we've talked about for the last couple weeks, I don't have a lot of complaints coming out of that game. Yeah, Pat, the biggest thing for me from this game is the penguins took advantage of a really good situation. Nashville lost on the road to Buffalo on Friday. They came to Pittsburgh pretty tired with the penguins waiting for them there

in their first home game in over two weeks. And the Penguins took the Predators to school. When I was watching this game, yeah, I could tell that Nashville, again, was tired, but also this team is just bad that they really do stink. Barry Trons is going to have to perform, I think, quite a few trades for the deadline to make major changes heading in the next season because they weren't expected to be this bad. I don't think anyone predicted them to be this bad. I know I have them as a top three team in the Central heading into this year.

I did not think he was going to get this bad. And heck, I could see them potentially making a coaching change at some. some point. I thought the Penguins played a very simple and well-disciplined game in their own zone, perhaps their best discipline game in their own zone. When I went to natural statric after the game, it surprised me because they tracked that the Predators had 14 high danger chances at five-on-five. My response, where? Honestly, that's a serious question. Where were those 14 high-danger chances? Because it did not feel like the Predators came close to having that many during the 16 minutes. I just don't really know what that is. I don't know if it's maybe their tracking had an error or something like that. It wasn't fixed, but still, I don't think they had 14 high danger chances. I love using natural statric. They are a great resource for underlying numbers. I love looking up in numbers as well as obviously using my eyes for the eye test. I combine both to give my very best analysis, but I was just confused because it's like, okay, that did not line up to my eye test from what I was watching is the penguins were playing really well in their own zone. Shout out.

to Ricard Raquel, another brilliant pass, by the way, to Sydney Crosby, goes down to one knee. You know, that's game over 10 at 10 times. And as I tweeted during the game, it continues to stun me, man, that Ricard Raquel has not been recalled to team Sweden. Like, honestly, I don't get what else he has to do at this point. Yeah, I know the Four Nations face off is right around the corner might be a bit too late right now, but he has shown so much this season that it's legitimately insane, that he's, that he is not on Team Sweden for the Four Nations face off.

That pass looked like he had eyes in the back of his head. Philip Tomasino, shout out to him. He gets a goal against his one more team. Really nice celebration. But what a one-timer that was. And hopefully that sends a message to the coaching staff. Maybe you don't need to scratch this guy for no reason. Yeah, I'll say this much, though.

I think the Tomasino thing was more of a reset than it was a punishment. Because if you looked at his game in the lead up to this, Predators game. I don't want to say he was falling off because that's really not the right way to put it, but you could see that there were some things starting to slip in his game. He wasn't getting chances or shots on goal. He wasn't playing poorly per se, but sometimes a player that age in that stage of their development, it's not the worst thing for them to take a night off, spend time in practice, spend time in the film room, and get an idea of what they have to work. on and then you saw it against the Predators. He comes out, obviously scores a goal, and that's

all well and good. We're never going to complain about scoring goals, but you could see his game was a lot more complete against the Predators. He was going to scoring areas. He was in the right position in the defensive zone. He was making himself an option on the forecheck. And some of that stuff over the last two weeks slipped a little bit in his game. Now, some of that is the Penguins' overall game was not very good, but you still can isolate individual performances and understand that, hey, maybe this younger guy who were taking a chance on needs a night off. Let him just go watch film, let him work on things in practice, and then next game, we put him right back in and see what he does.

And he passed that test with flying colors. I will say about the natural statric thing, one thing I noticed, especially on the broadcast was there were a lot of oh no so to speak moments in net where like ned would be a little bit out of position or there'd be a bit of a dangerous rebound or two and he was able to stop those i think natural statrick is probably counting those as high danger because if you look at nashville's overall game not a lot of zone time not a lot of a one looks but there were a handful of moments where you could see oh if this puck bounced just a little bit differently.

It might have ended up behind Ned or Ned got to the position he needed to get to to make the save. And I imagine those are probably being counted as high danger because a lot more likelihood of something like that going into the net than a nothing shot from the half wall, which we saw a lot of from Nashville. But again, like 14 high danger chances on 25 shots. I don't know, man, just a little strange track. Yeah, it's definitely odd.

And then the one other thing I will add before we head to our second segment is, and I got to give a hat tip to our good friend Kelsey Sermats of the hockey news because she wrote something that it was a take that I had percolating in my head, but she beat me to the punch and did it a lot better on the hockey news. Ricard Raquel is not the only penguin who has been snubbed right now from Four Nations. I know that we're at one of the best moments in American hockey with all the talent. we have at our disposal. And also there's still a lot more health.

The Americans are a lot healthier right now on the roster. But man, it's really tough to see that Brian Russ didn't make the cut because he is again having a tremendous season. And while you compare him to a lot of the roster for Team USA, it's hard to see someone you might take off and put him in place for. But I do think at the very end of the. day when the when the Olympics come around

and we're playing by I-IHF rules and not NHL rules with roster sizes. If Rust keeps this up, there's a real good chance. He might be going to the Olympics. I like most of Team USA heading into the Four Nations face off,

except the two members of the Rangers that got onto the team. Both Kreider and Trocheck have not been very good this year. I felt like you easily could have just put Cole Calfield or Tage Thompson on there and just called it a day. But Brian Russ is in that conversation as well. Chris Kreider, he's not even on pace for 50 points this year.

Legitimately, I'm dead serious. Go look at his numbers so far this season. He is not even on pace for 50 points. Trochag, he has not been that good this year either. So I agree. When you compare Russ to those two players, my dogs downstairs obviously agree. Newhouse, same stuff with the dogs. But even when you look at the numbers for those three players,

Brian Russ is having a better year. So you could make a good. an argument for him over those two. I would, but I also do think, excuse me, that there's a couple other players that are a bit more deserving with Caulfield and Thompson. But, you know, Team USA made their choices. They'll have to live with them. I do think there's a decent chance that Brian Russ could make this team for 2026 if he continues to put together, you know, more 20, 25, maybe even a 30 goal season for next season as well. So he'll have a shot for next year. He just needs to keep up this level of play. Really nice job for him with the way he's been able to drive offense

this year. I've gone out of him a couple of times because of his play away from the puck, but if he's still producing these type of numbers, I will still take that all day. And then also, Pat, this was the first Penguins shutout in basically a calendar year, February 6th of last year against the Winnipeg Jets per the amazing Penguins historian Bob Grove was the last time they had a shutout. It should not be taking this long to go between shutout people. Kind of tells you what the Penguins goaltending situation is as a whole in the the organization right now. But that's going to do it for our first segment.

Three nothing win by the Pittsburgh Penguins over the Nashville Predators on Saturday night. And when we come back, we are going to talk a little bit more about the Marcus Pedersen and Drew O'Connor trade. Give our thoughts on a little bit more on the players who have come in, what the state of the franchise is after the trade and a little bit more. But before we do that, we've got to tell you about our first sponsor. and that is Fandul.

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and didn't get to say this off the top of the show. Yes, it's Monday. Jesse Marshall, unfortunately, not working remotely today. He had to get called back to the physical office. So shame on his company for not understanding that it's Marshall Monday, an absolute sign of disrespect to us and you are listeners. but hopefully we can get him on here relatively soon. We're going to have a ton of time with the Four Nations face off right around the corner.

So there will be more Jesse Marshall content. Don't you worry your hockey little heads about that. So let's dive in Hunter a little bit more to what we talked about on Saturday morning. The trade by Kyle Dubus that sent Marcus Pedersen, Drew O'Connor to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a conditional first round pick. Danton Hinen, Vinny Dayharnay, and Fenstrom, the 18-year-old prospect, who is currently playing in Sweden. And we talked about it on Saturday. This was a tremendous bit of asset management by Kyle Dubus.

You got probably the absolute most that you could get for both of these players. But I want to start here. I think you got to look a little bit longer term. And we dived into this ever so slightly on Saturday. while I don't see Danton Hinen or Vinnie DeHarnay as any sort of actual upgrades, I do think they are very similar and in the mold of the kind of players that Dubus has been targeting for the last year. Are they going to be part of the Penguins long term solution? No.

But they are in the sense that over the next year, whether it's this off season, whether it's next season, whether it's next trade deadline, if they perform at least half as well as you hope they will, you can get more assets for these guys, and that helps you build for the longer term. Well, especially for Heinen. I think he'll definitely have a market next trade deadline. Not this year, obviously, Pat, but next year because he has another year left on his contract.

I don't expect him to be traded at the deadline in the next month. So he'll be able to potentially up his value a bit, especially during next season, if this team is bad and they very well may be bad. And if that is the case, they'll have a chance to get something for him at next year's trade deadline. With Day or nay, I think he needs to really get his value up because this year hasn't had a good year. Underline numbers are pretty poor, hasn't been able to move the puck as efficiently this year compared to the last couple of years where it's been fine. This year, though, it's been kind of disaster. Also not that good in his own zone.

Now, granted, he does do a couple of things that I know a lot of fans are going to like. Number one, he clears net front. He's a big, tall defenseman. A lot of fans are going to like that, rightfully so. Number two, he's also a physical presence. Like, he's not afraid to lay the boom. And we all know the Penguins. They don't have a lot of big physical imposing players

that can really do the dirty work with that type of stuff. So that's going to make fans happy with that. Again, rightfully so. I definitely understand it. But again, I just don't think where his value is right now. That will be enough next year. If he keeps playing at this level, for example, That's not going to be enough next year for them to flip him at the deadline.

He needs to play quite a bit better. But again, they're also not going to be penguins past next season at the latest. Like they took them back salary-wise to get that conditional first rounder. At least that's how I'm looking at the trade, in my opinion. You take that $4.5 million because you have all this cap space and you say, okay, we're going to take these two players off of you. but we also want that first round pick and then giver's like okay we'll do that and speaking of that that's why jim rutherford and patrick alveen are like the perfect trade partner because they'll make

sure that you get at least equal value in trades jim rutherford has always been like that as a gm penguins fans you all know it he was a gm here for quite a while every time he would make a trade he would always make sure the other team usually gets equal value you're seeing that here the penguins got more than equal value in my opinion in this trade And, you know, with Hinen, Penguins fans are familiar with him. This isn't just some, you know, dope of a player or anything like that. He can score at times. And we've seen it firsthand a few years ago, he had 18 goals.

Last year, he had 17 goals. Is he going to get back to that level with the Penguins? I'm probably a bit skeptical, but there's no reason to think he can't finish this year with double-digit goals. There's no reason to think that by the trade deadline next year, he's not going to reach double-digit goals. He's a good middle-six player that can chip in. he can be he's versatile can play up and down your lineup he's a totally fine drew o'connor replacement

even though he's not going to be on the team long term viny day or nay fine player to put in your bottom pairing i wouldn't put him with ryan graves per se i think that's a bit asking for trouble i don't like that mike solvin did that on the first game i think that could lead to a lot of meable moments but it at least worked for one game mostly because nashville stank soon was on the second half of a back-to-back but once you start playing better competition i just get scared about what that pairing could look like. But hey, I want to give that kid a chance. He's had some fine results the first two years in Edmonton. This year, though, it's been pretty bad with Vancouver. So let's see if he can maybe up his value a little bit and start playing it a better because, hey, you know, when Penguins acquired

someone like Eric Good Branson, I kind of said the same thing at the time. Like, hmm, player's not that good. He's had a couple of really rough years, but he came in here and to his credit, actually played competent hockey. You know, same with Cody Cici. He actually played fairly okay as a member of the Penguins. With other teams, though, You know, the sharks, even the Oilers wasn't as good. But if you can get the deployment right with Day or Ney, get the partner right for him, there is a potential world where he plays better. And that's what the Penguins I think are looking for.

I look at it this way. You have two players who desperately needed a change of scenery out of Vancouver. Yeah. Because Danton Heinen started the year in Vancouver's top six. It didn't work. some of that is incorrect deployment by Rick Tockeet because he's not a top six forward. But some of that is he just did not fit into the system in the roster that the Vancouver Canucks had. And the same kind of goes for Vinnie DeHarnay.

Was he great with Edmonton? No, let's not get carried away here. But he was a fairly competent, very usable defenseman with the Edmonton Oilers. And again, he goes to Vancouver and it just doesn't fit there. We'll see if they work here, but it does continue to fit into that mold of the kind of player that the penguins are targeting, whether it's trade deadline fodder for guys who can play well enough to have appeal to a contender at the deadline, or guys who you just give them that second chance or that third chance, they play fairly well. And then at the end of the season, you shake their hand and say thanks for your services, go get overpaid elsewhere. So I like that from that extent. And then for the Jim Rutherford part of it, I wrote about this last night.

It's well known that both what you said, where Jim Rutherford doesn't often try to fleece teams, he tries to be fair and make trades that help the other team as well. But also, it's no secret that he is very fond of Kyle Dubus. He has spoken very highly of Kyle Dubus. And we know Jim Rutherford is not a gamesmanship guy. He doesn't go out there and say things to plant seeds and pull one over on people. He's a straight shooter. He's going to tell you what he's thinking.

He's going to tell you what he thinks and what he believes. And he's been very, very, very high on Kyle Dubas. So you know when that phone rang between him and Alvin. Brotherford wasn't like, Kyle, we don't want to deal with him. He's kind of an idiot. They're like, no, we like this guy. We can help him out. And add that with his affection and connection to Pittsburgh, this was a great move by Kyle Dubus because he took advantage of a team that is desperate right now because they came one game from going to the Western Conference final with a third string goalie against a much better Edmonton Oilers team last year.

They started this year pretty strong and they have fallen off. and now they have to make a move to get into the postseason. So all in all, this is great asset management by Kyle Dubus and just a really, really good trade that is going to help with the penguins plan for the next few years. And going off that, now that they have that extra first drum pick, we're going to see, is it this year or it's going to be an extra member people, this is a top 13 protected pick. So if the Rangers get a top 13 pick, the pick goes to next.

year and it's an unprotected 2026 first round pick. So the Penguins would have two first round picks in next year's draft. However, say the Rangers barely miss out on the playoffs, even though they've been playing a bit better in the two games since they got J.T. Miller. J.T. Miller's also been really hot in those two games. Rangers are one in one, but say they still miss the playoffs, but it's by a point or two, and they get the 14th or 15th pick in the draft lottery. Penguins can potentially have two top 15 picks in this year's draft, even though this

draft is not nearly as good as next year's draft, that's still important because, A, if the Penguins get their own top 10 pick, potentially top five pick, they'll be able to take a player that could potentially play as soon as next season. And B, if you have that other top 15 pick because the Rangers finished right outside the top 13, I would not be surprised if they try to flip that pick to go get an immediate help, a young player that can help you not just now, but well after. Crossby, Malkin, and Latang retire, I would be really interested in trying to see which young players are available during the summer, even though there's a lot more cap space available, there's still going to be young players that want change of scenaries, that want

to request trades that have had good NHL careers. So stay tuned for that, people, because I think they could look to dangle that pick, as well as this is something that Kyle Dubas also discussed when he was taking questions from the media. They've stockpiled a lot of these picks, these next few years in the draft. And he kind of hinted at it like, yeah, we might start to potentially dangle some of these picks to go get immediate help at Ford that can really potentially speed this thing up with what they're trying to do. So again, don't be surprised if it's something like that or if they try to package that pick with the Rangers, especially if it's this year's draft or heck, even next year to potentially go and get a younger piece. Right. You beat me to that. That's what I was going to say about the extra pick in this trip.

trade. If it goes to 2026, you got to figure they're keeping it. Much deeper draft, much more talent pool for them. And it could offer immediate help. But if it goes to 2025 and they have the ability to pick in the top 10 with their own pick, that is certainly going to be an asset that they can use to go get a player in his early 20s from a team that might be might have fallen out of favor with. So again, great asset management from Kyle Dubis on this trade. But that is going to do it for this middle segment of locked on penguins when we return, there is still hockey to be played before the Four Nations face off kicks off next week. Hunter and I are going to get you set for the week ahead right after this.

All right, welcome back to the Monday edition of Locked on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp alongside the one and only Hunter Hodes and big, big week coming up for the Penguins before we hit the two week break for the Four Nations faceoff. and it is in all metropolitan division week to finish up this stretch of the season. Tuesday night, the New Jersey Devils come to town, and that is always a tough matchup for the penguins. They have given them fits for the past few years. Then it's a quick two-game back-to-back road trip with the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Friday night. and then it's off to eastern Pennsylvania and the Wells Fargo Center to play the Philadelphia Flyers.

So we understand that for the most part, this team probably not going to make a postseason push, but we will be able to get an idea of where this current iteration of the penguins are because they're going to go up against three teams. One that is pretty much a playoff lock in the New Jersey Devils, a team in the New York Rangers who is fighting for their playoff lives. Chances are this group of Rangers, they're on their last chance before they may have to take drastic measures because as we as Penguins fans know, teams can get old very quickly,

and that looks like it's happening for the New York Rangers. and then you go to the other side of the coin on Saturday night, a young and upcoming team in the Philadelphia Flyers who have continued to show that they are a resilient group with a coach that a lot of us may think is outdated, but appears to be pushing all the right buttons. So Hunter, big tests await for the Pittsburgh Penguins. A lot of fun games if you love the rivalry matchups.

You know, New Jersey, it's been a struggle fest for the last several years when it comes to them. I will say you might be getting the devils at the right. time though. They will not have Jacob Markstrom in this game. They're really good starting net minder. He's also going to be out for the four nations face off. So pretty big news there. He's been a rock for the devils this year. You're going to have looks like Jake Allen for that game against the penguins. And he's fine, but he's not Jacob Markham, especially with the year that he's been having. But that's still going to be a tough game, especially with how much firepower the devils have up front.

And with the way they can play in their own zone. The penguins, they couldn't generate a thing against the devils in that first matchup. year the devil's played very stingy defense. Credit to Sheldon Key for for getting that team to play a lot more responsible. The Rangers, yeah, I mean, there's still a mess. You know, obviously they make that big J.T. Miller trade. And he's been good in those two games. He scored multiple goals, had a two-gold performance against Boston on that first day, and then also scored in that game on Sunday as well. He has three goals since coming back to New York. He's been fairly solid for the Rangers, though. The big question is, is it too little too late just because of where they are in the standings.

Like that's obviously going to be something to monitor. I still don't think they're done. By the way, I could see them making other moves around the deadline. Chris Jury, their GM is desperate. He's desperate to save his job. He knows if he does not get his team into the playoffs, the owner is probably going to let him go out after the season because of the way everything has gone wrong.

So you have that to deal with. Again, this is a Rangers team that's also kind of right for the taking. In Philadelphia, there's been some drama with Matt Bay, Meachov and John Torrella, them kind of screaming at each other on the bench over the last weekend. Still, a team that's in the rebuild, they also just traded Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee for reasons, I guess. I don't really understand what Danny Breyer was going for in that trade. I really like the way that the flames came out ahead, in my opinion, in that trade. But still, I'd be curious to see how Guzmanco

fits in and the flyers there. But they own an opportunity here to really, you know, string together some goodwill before this break. And, you know, you compare this to last year after they made the Gensel trade, the Penguins kind of quit on their season. It felt like, yeah, they had that nice run to end the year. But for that seven to 14 day stretch pat, kind of felt like they quit with the way they were playing. Like they were like, oh, like you want to trade one of our best players. Well, we're just going to put efforts like this together before they finally woke up. Well, they at least didn't do that against Nashville, but I still want to see if that continues in these three games this week before the break.

For sure. And I think that getting a team like Nashville, at that moment after you make that trade actually helps them out a lot more. Because if you remember, they had Washington the night of the Jake Gensel trade in Washington. While they weren't what they are right now, they were starting to show some signs of life at the end of the year. And add in that it's a rivalry game and the penguins were in the mood that they were in. It was a recipe for disaster. Now you look at the Nashville game, they go up against another struggling team.

They play a complete 60 minutes. Again, don't think this suddenly means they're going to go on a run and find a way to come back to life and make the playoffs. But I think we'll probably see, especially seeing how this week goes, a similar kind of effort because it looks like the penguin's biggest names aren't just going to lie down. They're not just going to quit. They're not just going to give up. And I think that gives you some more confidence in the direction of this team because if those guys aren't going to give up, those guys aren't going to lay down and keep you competitive. then you hope that all this young talent you're starting to stockpile can take the next step,

accentuate the other guys, and you can be a competitive, possibly playoff team as the big three ride off into the sunset. I will say this. I wanted to address this thing about the flyers with both the trade and the tortarella part of it. The trade, I think they're just trying to throw Matt Veemichkov a life preserver,

because he's got a history with Kuzmanko. familiarity there. He's not signed long term. So they're just trying to help out what is obviously the central piece to their rebuild. And you eventually have to do something like that, even if it costs a couple players that you might not have wanted to part with. But in the long run, you want to give Mischkov a level of comfortability. And I think Kuzmenko does that for him. I also look at the Tortorella Mijikov screaming match as part of a player's development. Because to Tortoralla's credit, he didn't come out after that game and treat media and fans like they were stupid and say like, no, what are you talking about? Our relationship's great.

We're doing fantastic. You're making this up. He said, listen, he's further ahead of schedule than we thought, but he still has to be developed. And when he's not playing the right way, it's my job to show him that he needs to play the right way. And if that means sometimes screaming at him, sometimes benching him, that's part of development. It's not just, hey, you're a good young player. Go out and do whatever you want. He has to hit certain points in development.

And I appreciate that from Tortorella. As much as I criticize the guy, he hit all the right notes on that one. And to Mischkov's credit, he didn't go in. into a shell. He didn't disappear. He kind of seemed to realize his life in the NHL. So Penguins fans learn that name because he's probably going to torture us for a little while. Well, he didn't do anything in the first game against the Peglins. But now that I say that just with how jinxes have gone on the show this year, he's probably going to get a hatching against them this weekend before the Four Nations face off. Right. And also, just want to fully correct myself,

because I guess I'm having a case of the Mondays today. J.T. Miller, four points in two games, two goals in one, two assist the other. Thought he scored. during the game against Vegas on Sunday. Apologize he didn't, but he still had two assists, set up a couple of goals. He has been still, point remains very good in these two games. So these the Rangers have that going for them heading into that game this weekend. Yeah, and it's like I was just saying about Meechkov. It's that level of comfortability.

J.T. Miller just appears to be a Ranger through and through. You put him back in the blue shirt and suddenly he finds his game. So good for him, not good for the Rangers, because I don't want to see them succeed as a Penguins fan, but J.T. Miller being Pittsburgh adjacent, I do like seeing him do fairly well, but that is going to do it for the Monday edition of Locked-on Penguins. Hunter and I will be back tomorrow to get you set for the game against the Devils and anything else that may happen in Penguins land between now and then. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always for tuning in. We will be back with a brand new episode on Tuesday.