Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins ELIMINATED in a 1-0 overtime heartbreaker

Episode Date: April 30, 2026

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ season came to an end in heartbreaking fashion, a 1-0 loss in overtime to the Philadelphia Flyers. (1:00) Hunter and Patrick recap the game and how the Penguins, despite their best effort of the series, were unable to find the game-winner to bring the series back to Pittsburgh for game seven. Then, they give goaltender Arturs Silovs all of the flowers for his game six performance. (12:30) With his steadiness since taking the net in game four, it appears Silovs has earned himself an extension in Pittsburgh, but for how much and how long? Finally, three key factors led to the Penguins’ demise in this first-round series, and they explain what went wrong. (24:30) Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Indeed Now, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to https://indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. KALSHI For a limited time, download the Kalshi app and use code LOCKEDON to get ten dollars when you trade ten. Kalshi. Trade on anything.   Gametime Download 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. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get one-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game. 5-Hour ENERGY The Cotton Candy flavor is HERE on https://5hourEnergy.com or Amazon, crack open Cotton Candy 5-hour ENERGY®️ shot today! Warby Parker It’s the perfect time to upgrade your glasses for spring. Buy one prescription pair and get 20% off any additional prescription pairs at https://WarbyParker.com/LOCKEDONNHL.   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.

The Pittsburgh Penguins season is officially over after a 1-0 overtime loss to the Flyers in game 6. And Pat and I are going to recap that game, plus recap the entire series coming up right after this. 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 the Thursday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Joined by my host, Patrick Damp, you can follow him on all social media platforms at Sendin for 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. And of course, thank you all so much for making this your first lesson slash watch of the day. we are free and available on all platforms. To start the show, Pat and I are going to recap Game 6 on Wednesday night before discussing an absolutely unbelievable goal-twinning performance from Artis She-Lovs, why he earned himself a new contract for next season, before ending the show with why the Penguins ultimately lost this series in six games.

But all right, Pat, let's get into Game 6, a 1-0 overtime loss, Cam York, A seeing-seeing-eye shot, no chance for Arder Shilov's there. they got traffic in front of them. He could not see the puck at all. And this game was frustrating because I felt to me it was by far the best game the Penguins have played in this series. I thought the first period, more even, but I felt the Flyers had the more quality of the scoring chances.

Arishilov made some really big saves. I thought Dan Vladar made some big saves in that period too, but I still felt the Flyers had more of the quality chances. Second period, I felt the Penguins started to tilt the ice. a bit more in their favor. Third period, I thought they were by far the better team. And then in the overtime, they basically had the puck the entire time, had plenty of quality chances.

But in the end, Cam York, he has the last laugh, a seeing-eye shot beat she loves. He throws a stick into the stands. Awesome celebration there, by the way. And the arena goes nuts. The Flyers advance to the second round. Again, of these four losses, I think this is the one they deserve to lose. lose the least because almost everyone left it all out on the ice pad. I thought these guys played their absolute asses off in this game.

And I can't ask for anything more than that. I know people are going to come in and you're like, we'll score a goal. Trust me, people. They were trying. Dan Vladar saved five goals above expected in that game per sports logic last night. Like that's just an unbelievable performance from the Flyers Netminder. he was insanely good. But they played as well as they could have at five on five in that game.

And I think gutted is the word that I would use to describe the feeling that I had after that game because I loved the way they were able to fight back in this series. They were one shot away from sending it to a game seven. But in the end, Pat, you had no margin for error in this game. And for as well as they played in games four through six, they no-showed the first half of that series. That loss would have been better to stomach. If you would have won one of those first three games,

we'd be going to Game 7 Saturday night here in Pittsburgh. So again, I loved the effort. I loved the way they left everything out there. But no, this wasn't meant to be. Wasn't their night. There's not a whole lot to be angry about from games. other than that they lost because they played a hell of a game. And I brought this up.

I can't remember if I said it on the show or not. But I looked at Game 6 as, you know, I saw a lot of people saying, oh, you know, the first period wasn't all that great by the Penguins. And you know what? The longer that game stayed even, I thought the more it favored the penguins. Because with all the pressure that was pushed on to Philly for, are they going to blow this? are they going to have to go to game seven and go back to Pittsburgh? If they're locked in a battle with the penguins,

the more they're going to start questioning themselves, the more that they're going to play a little bit more nervous. And that ultimately is what ended up happening through the back half of the game. And then they just get their one moment and take advantage of it in overtime and get the win. But you looked at the way the back half of the third period and all of overtime was played. Penguins were far in a way, the better team. Flyers had their chances when they did. Sheelovs was there up until the first.

final one. And I really like this effort. But to your point, you lose the first three games, you fall down three zero. You don't have any room for air. There's no breathing room. There's no wiggle room. It's win or lose. It's winner go home every game. And obviously, almost the old saying is almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. They were one shot away from almost doing something that never happens. One shot away from forcing a game seven after being down three nothing. And we can lament that that they were down three O, which we have and we will. But at the end of the day, if they had gone out with a whimper and one maybe a game and then went

right back to what they were doing in the first three games, I'd be a lot more frustrated. I'd be a lot more upset. but they battled their asses off for three games were one shot away from taking this back to Pittsburgh and I just have to applaud the effort. I do and don't get me wrong. The Flyers, they deserve to move on in this series.

Overall, in totality, they were the better team in this series. I'll be curious to see how they do against a Hurricanes team. That four check I think is going to give them. Fitz will preview the second round once we have all the matchups finalized probably next week. But again, I thought,

almost everyone left it all out there. And that's all I could ask for. You were down 3-0. You fought to get back into it. You were one shot away from forcing a game 7 and having a chance to make not just franchise history, but NHL history potentially being the fifth team to ever come back from 03 down. It didn't go your way. And again, Pat, this just goes to show how hard it is to come back from 03 down. To win four games in a row, you basically need to play picture perfect hockey in all those games, and you need to get every single bounce to go your way. Game four, you won, game five, you've got a quote-unquote devil magic bounce that went your way for the game winning goal, but you weren't able to get a single bounce in game six.

Igor Chinov hits the post on one of his chances. Tommy Novak hits the post. He also passes up a great opportunity late in the third period. Brian Russ does his patented move, goes backhand, forehand Dan Vladar. is right there to stone him. Anthony Mantha Flubbs his chance in overtime and a couple other chances. We're going to get to him a bit later on as well.

They had chances to have a bounce go their way. But again, it's just so hard to come back from it because you literally have to play picture perfect hockey. And I do want to say this to end the first segment here because I do think this does get lost overall.

I know this season did not end in the Penguins' favor and I understand we're going to get probably quite comments from people that are, you know, gutted, upset, disappointed, and you have every right to feel all those feelings. They just lost to their in-state rival, probably their biggest rival overall. It's going to hurt. It's going to sting. But I do want everyone to remember this. Despite the loss, I still felt like this was a magnificent season. It was completely unexpected. It was magical in a lot of ways. Probably the most fun season I've had since 2017. And I don't

want this series loss to take anything away from that. It was a really fun season with a crappy ending with a loss against your biggest rival. That's how I'm looking at it. If people want to look at it differently, that is okay. But that's just personally my opinion. I mean, we're going to do a season post-mortem on our Friday episode. It won't be obviously a full one. We got so much to get into from this past season. But we'll kind of do a quick one on Friday. But I'm right there with you, man. And I said this today to a colleague, if this series, if you take this series period, just the results in the in the in the end of it and you substitute any team not named Philadelphia, the islanders or the Rangers, we're not this upset. But because it's a rivalry, because it's

that team because it's that city, it stings a little bit more because it's the biggest rival. But with where this season began, with what the expectations were, and where it ended up, this was a good season for the Pittsburgh Penguins for many reasons. Chief among them, for the first time in a few years, there was meaningful hockey for just about all 82 games. and then you got six games of a playoff series in a year where you weren't supposed to have pretty much any of that. You got great experience for some of your younger players, some of your new players played a big role in showing that they're going to be a part of the solution

for the next few years, if not longer. So the lost things, and I'm not going to tell anyone not to be annoyed. I've been annoyed all day because it's the Philadelphia Flyers. But at the end of the day, you more than exceeded expectation, and you got some much needed experience for a few players that you hope are going to be part of your organization for the long haul. I agree. And you also got to see another great season from Cindy Crosby when he was healthy.

You got to see of getting Malkin, turn back the clock quite a bit this season. Eric Carlson, a great regular season, even though he was a bit underwhelming in the playoffs. And obviously, Crystal Tang is still here too, even though Pat and I've talked about it. His regular season was not very good, even though he at least played a bit better in the back half of this race. We'll have plenty of time to talk about his future, Malkin's future throughout the next couple of months for our offseason content.

So we're not going to get into all of that today, but there were still quite a few positives from this season overall. But that's going to do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, Artie Shilovs, take a bow for that performance. last night, Pat and I are going to give him all of the flowers coming up right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor, which is Kalshi. The hunt for the Stanley Cup is on, and now you can trade every game on Kalshi.

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On Calshah, you're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house, and as the probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position. For limited time, download the Calci app and use code locked on to get $10 when you trade $10. That's Calci. Trade on anything. All right, we're back here on the Thursday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my host, Patrick Gamp. And Pat, we're going to get into a lot of other individual player performances coming up in our final segment,

because we're going to talk about where the series was lost and quite a few players didn't show up. One of the big special teams units did not show up. We're going to get into that. But someone who did show up in the second half of this series, and especially in Game 6, Artie Shilovs, take a bow. Take about 100 boughs. You should ask every player on that team to take you to a steakhouse of your choosing for the way that you played in Game 6.

Unbelievable effort for him. That is one of the best individual playoff performances by a penguin goaltender since, honestly, Pat, Matt Murray, Mark Andre Fleury. It's been that long since we've seen a penguin goalie play like that in a playoff game. He gave them chance after chance after chance to win that game. But again, the puck just would not find the back of the net. Dan Vladar outdoved him in the end. But I do want to say this for R.D. She loves as well.

He ended this series with a 939 say percentage. He stopped 77 of 82 shots. Coming into this, he was billed as someone who plays well in the big moments. You've seen it for Abbotsford. You've seen it in the World Championships. You saw it for Vancouver. When he took Edmonton to seven games, he helped beat Nashville a couple years ago. Pat, he more than lived up to the billing in this series.

I know some people may comment, you know, what would have happened if he started those first three games? In my opinion, with the way that the Penguins no-showed the first half of this series, I personally don't think it would have made a difference. He could have played at this 9-39 level. I still don't think the Penguins win those games because they simply, could not score to save their lives in that game. And they also ended the series with 11 goals and 6 games, but less than two goals for per game for the third highest scoring team in the league.

So I don't really want to go too far into it because I disagree with that notion that I know I think some fans make comment about it. I push back a little bit on it. But already unbelievable game, I was a bit skeptical that he was going to play at this level when he came in. But he answered all the questions. very much to me deserves a new contract for not just next season, but the season after. I'd sign him to two to three years and keep that cap hit down a little bit.

I don't think he's going to make like $4 to $5 million, but maybe, I don't know, $2.5, $3 million plus something like that on that contract. That's fine. And I'd run him in Murshov for next season. I think that's probably where they're going to go. And if you want to do a $60, $50, $55, $45, $45.45 split, I think that's probably where they're at right now. but Pat, your thoughts on Artie Shilov's last night and the performance, excuse me, that he had. What a save prior to the winning goal, too. I mean, the penguins give up their first real, true high quality chance against in overtime.

And he makes an unbelievable blocker palm save to keep the penguins in the game. And that was, I mean, my heart stopped when I saw that, that opening. and I couldn't believe he made the save. I will entertain starting him at the start of the series, but only from this point, maybe game one goes a little bit different because it was three, two, maybe he stops that Martone shot,

just because, but again, it's so, so far down the list of the penguin's issues, especially in the first three games. Yeah. So like that argument I can hear, but then you look at games two and three, and it wouldn't have mattered if Matt Murray in the 2017 finals showed up.

They couldn't score. So it didn't matter who was in net. But yeah, I mean, not to burn something that we're going to talk about tomorrow with the season recap. I mean, Stuart Skinner, I think is a better goaltender than people give him credit for. He has played now for the Edmonton Oilers and the Pittsburgh Penguins, two teams that are not exactly known for playing. playing stout defense. They are two teams that have done nothing but sign, develop, draft, people who play fast and scoredoles. So I think he's better than he gets credit for. But at the

end of the day, if you're Dubus and the Penguins going into this off season, you shake his hand, maybe twirl his mustache a little bit and say, thanks for everything, dude. You were great. you were a awesome presence in the locker room. You helped stabilize a lot of things, but you're going to go get paid somewhere else. You re-sign she-loves. You give Murashav his call up. And I mean, honestly, I know that Murashav has the higher ceiling,

but we've seen how good competition can be in the net. So having a goaltender who has had some big moments already in the NHL and a young goalie who we think is going to have some big moments, it's a good place for the penguins to be. And I do think the last three games or the last two games, I should say, really solidified for me that Sheelovs is going to be the guy to come back next year. Yeah, and I don't think it's going to be on a long-term contract or anything like that. I think if anything, it's kind of like a bridge deal where you sign him for two to three years,

something like that. I think if he can find a bit more consistency in the regular season, That'd be great, but he just has that big game aura, if you will. Like you saw the way he played in the final three games of this series, especially in game six where he was giving the Penguins so many chances. You saw at the end of the game when Crosby went up to him right after the puck went in and just, you know, consoled him a bit. You know, and Sid, we'll do that every time.

You know, that's just the type of captain that he is overall. But, you know, I felt. And I mean, the thing to keep him. mind is he is the and this is this is an extremely and I say again extremely loose comparison. It reminds me a little bit of a lot of the time Mark Andre Fleury was the Penguins goaltender where throughout a season and hell, even throughout a playoff run, there would be times where he frustrated the ever living hell out of you. He'd let up a softie.

He'd be inconsistent. But in the big moments, he would show up. In the big moments, he would make the save. I'm not calling Artur Shilov's the next Mark Andre Flurry. I'm not saying they're even the same. But the biggest thing that we heard about Arter Shilovs going into this season when he was acquired was that he's going to frustrate you. He's raw.

He's inconsistent. But when the games get bigger, so does he. and he proved that in this series. 100% again, I can't say enough about the way that he performed in that game made so many crucial high danger saves throughout this one. There was that one late in the third period where the penguins just threw the puck right to the middle of the ice. A flyer just standing there saying, hey, thank you very much.

And she loves bailed out that decision. Thankfully, I know the penguins ended up losing the game. But at that time, I was like, thank God, because that could have ended the game right there. I mean, there was that moment with Eric Carlson where he skated right in front of the net and turned it over. And the thing I said last night was Carlson has been so good this season that on one hand, I can't get mad at a rare mistake, but on the other, it is an elimination game six with no score. Don't do with that. Yeah.

That was just a little too close there. Eric, again, we'll get to him in our final segment. But again, Pat, shout out to Shilov's man. Just a great performance. sucks that the penguins could not have won that game because if they did, we'd be talking about that performance for a while because it really was one of the better goal-taining performances that you will ever see.

I also do want to see it. It was one of their best playoff performances from a goalie in several seasons, probably back to 2017, if I have to be honest with you. Yeah, it was a performance similar to Murray in the 2017 finals, where that team was just out against. ass and did not have much left in the tank. And he willed them to a second straight Stanley Cup. But the other thing that I forgot to bring up in the first segment that gets lost,

I think in the emotion, in the frustration, in the elimination, it is rare that a one-nothing hockey game is that entertaining because this game, this game was the anti this series. Because as Penguins fans, as Flyers, fans, as Flyers. fans were locked into these because there are teams. And if they play a game where each team gets one shot per period and one goal total, we're going to watch it. We're going to live and die with it because it's our teams.

But if you're an outside observer, it's painfully boring. Games one through five, for the most part, were painfully boring. It was the Flyers playing lockdown defense. And then after game three, it was the penguin saying, okay, you want to turn it into a slog. We'll slog it up with you right away. And then last night, they both just said, screw it. We're playing full speed. We're playing push the pace kind of hockey. It was, it was really entertaining hockey. And oftentimes, especially when you look at the context of what this series was, if you would have, if you just look at the series page and you see game six

one nothing final overtime with the way. this series went, you probably think that game was probably a slog and difficult to watch the exact opposite. It was a fast-paced, really fun game in a rare moment where a one-nothing game lives up to all of the hype. Yeah, it was a great cap to one hell of a series between these two teams. And you're right. Also, I could almost feel how tense it was in the building. It almost felt like that crowd was really nervous about that game, especially the overtime because the Penguins basically had the puck the entire overtime period. They just, again, couldn't find the back of the net.

But awesome game overall, again, you know, as much as it sucks to lose to your biggest rival, again, congrats to them that they moved on to the second round. But that'll do it for this second segment. Coming up to end the show, Pat and I are going to discuss the main reasons why the Penguins ultimately lost this series and why their season is over, and that's coming up right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our final sponsor, which is five-hour energy cotton candy. If you got a sweet tooth like I do, you know how tough it is to find that perfect tree without all the sugar. That's why cotton candy, five-hour energy shot brings that

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Hans for Hodes, joined by my co-s, Patrick Damp. And Pat, I have three main reasons why the penguins lost this series. Number one, they no-showed the first half of it. Let's be real. Those first three games, especially the first two at home, were not good enough. And you and I came on the show, and we talked about how unprepared. It felt like the penguins were for the Flyers' one-one-three system, which was giving them fits. And just the way. And just the way that felt like they lacked the energy in those first two games at home, which is weird, because you're playing in your first home playoff game in four years, and this is mostly a very veteran roster. I felt the flyers are going to be pretty nervous in those first couple of games

because that's a very young team that doesn't have a lot of playoff experience, but it was the opposite where the veteran team looked a bit more spooked, looked a bit more nervous, and it took too much time for the penguins to eventually find their way into this series. As I said earlier in the show, if you were to win one of those first three games and you're playing the way you are now, you'd be tied 3-3 going into a 50-50 winner take-all game seven here in Pittsburgh. But the start just doomed them. They could not complete passes to save their lives. They could not score. And speaking of that, that leads me to my second reason, the power play bat.

Just abysmal stuff from that unit all series long. They had three power play goals in this series. they were three power play goals in two combined games in Philadelphia, games three and four. Otherwise, they were completely shut down. They had chances to help the penguins get back in the series, especially in game two. They had plenty of opportunities there. They did not take advantage of them. They had a couple of opportunities in game six.

They were not able to take advantage of them there. And it was the same issue. Too much perimeter play, not as much of a shoot-verse mentality. And they weren't willing to go to the front of the net. and take away Dan Lidar's eyes. Those were the biggest issues I saw on the power play. And also, Pat, Damuze and Todd Nelson and the rest of the staff did not want to make adjustments to the top unit. I simply don't understand how you could have the same unit game after game and you're just not doing anything about it.

It was unacceptable for a unit that was top five for most of the season to play the way it did in this series. Because of the Flyers, BK, it's fine, but it's not. top five, 10 level good. That last part, and I know I'm contradicting myself from the last two episodes, is the biggest failing to me, especially in game six, because I know that I said, hey, it's a talented unit that needs to work itself out of its funk and find a goal. The difference was game five, they were getting back to doing things on the power play

that they had done that brought them success. they just didn't score. They were moving the puck. They were moving bodies. They were getting to the front of the net. They just weren't scoring. And to me, that signaled, all right, this group is starting to find it. They've got to find the goal now.

The first power play opportunity they had in game six, they went right back to the things that did not work. They were stagnant. They didn't move, perimeter passing. And in that moment, that's when Nelson and Mews and the rest of the coaching staff has to go, enough. We're either you either start the second unit and let them try to score or you throw the lines in a blender and you send out whoever you want to send out but not the top unit. The fact that they didn't do that is a failing. And I'll say this to your original point too, because all the points you're going to make, we're going to agree on here. So the first two games especially, they validated what everybody who was an outsider for this team said.

They looked old. They looked slow. They looked like they were cooked. And I would not, if they would have lost both games in a hard fought battle, puck didn't bounce their way, maybe Skinner didn't have a great game, something like that, I would have said, you know what? Those are the things that happened in the playoffs. But the fact that they looked like it was February,

in, I don't know, Vancouver, and they just wanted to get done with a Western road trip, that was wholly unacceptable. And it led to them digging themselves such a hole that they couldn't get out of the series. Right. 100% agree with you on that. You just, you can't no show games like that,

especially in the playoffs, because they mean just as much to you as these last games have. And yeah, again, I loved the way they battled back. made this a series, they went out with some dignity, but it's just so hard to come back from that type of deficit, excuse me, because again, you literally just have to be perfect in all four of those games, and you gave yourself no room for error. You simply have to come out of the gate quicker and just with more of a purpose also. And the final reason, Pat, depth scoring completely went away. Anthony Mantha, happy trails. I'm sorry.

sorry. That is one of the worst playoff performances I have ever seen from a penguin player in this generation of penguin hockey, the way that he played in this series. Yeah, welcome to the series in game five, had that nice assist. Otherwise, that was a playoff run to forget for someone who had such a great regular season, had a career high year, led the team in goals, scored many huge goals, had countless chances in game six to win that game, but he flubs the one from the net. He then, you know, he's on the ice for the game winning goal. Of course, he's not able to get a stick in the shooting lane.

He was awful in this series. And Pat, you and I were talking about it, maybe him potentially during the regular season, at least being re-signed to a short-term deal. No thanks now. That's for sure. I'm not doing that. No.

If there's even a consideration, of bringing back Anthony Mantha, I don't know what we're doing here. Because it's a cliche and it is such a stereotypical sports talk thing to say. Anthony Mantha made himself a lot of money during the regular season. He spent a lot of it in six games.

Game five, kind of similar to what I said about the power play. It looked like, okay, he's arriving. He's showing up. He's getting to the series. Thought he had a good game in game five. The thing I'll say about game six actually didn't hate his overall game. Flubbed a couple chances, but here's where it falls apart. The third period, that flubbed chance that led to the bloody pig pile in front of Dan Vladar.

Everybody's going for bodies. Everybody's digging. Everybody's trying to get to the puck. Anthony Mantha is standing on the side of the net, stick at his knees, doing nothing. And logically, he's not getting that puck. We all know that. He isn't getting it. There's too many bodies.

There's a giant goaltender in front of him. He's not getting to it. But you have to make an effort. He could have done one other thing in that moment that I would not have been too upset about. If he would have drifted back ever so slightly and put his stick on the ice to make himself an option should the penguins have gotten possession and he's got a wide open cage and no one on him. I get that. That's that's foresight. That's understanding the situation. But he did neither. He didn't get involved in the scrum. He didn't make himself a passing option. He just kind of stood there. And I'll finish it with

this for him. He has the hallmark now at this point in my eyes. Great regular season guy. But when the lights come on, they are too damn bright for him. him. As the kids like to say, or maybe they did say this, I don't know if they say it that much anymore, Pat, but he doesn't have that dog in him. Like, he simply doesn't. And you saw it during this series. Igor Chinakov, obviously a rough playoff outing for him. I think he is going to be fine overall. He hit the post on that one big chance in game six, Pat. Like that chance right there just sums up his whole series. Like he was getting some chances, but they were either going high slash wide of the net. or he's hitting a post there and it's just like that was a series from hell for him. He's going to be fine. They're either going to sign him to a short-term bridge contact or they're going to sign him maybe a five-year deal. But, you know, just things that they couldn't get more out of him.

Ben Kindle, I'm not going to give him any crap. I know he didn't score in this series. I saw, I've been seeing some wild takes on social media and other places. If you are giving a 19-year-old rookie a lot of crap for this series, I'm sorry. I think you're doing it wrong. I actually thought part of his game was getting better as the series went on. Still playing great defensively. Had a couple of really nice chances these last couple of games.

Sure, he lost a face off that led to the game winning goal. You know what? He's 19. He'll be fine. He is going to bulk up this summer. I think he is going to be an even better player next year. I can't wait to see what he looks like when he's even 21, 22, 23. For people out there, they were giving Ben Kendall some crap.

And I have seen it. Give him some, cut him some slack. Like, come on. Both Chinikov and Kindle are in the same, in similar buckets for me, I should say. Chinikov, he needed playoff experience. He was wound so tight. You could see it with the way he was shooting. He was gripping his stick like he wanted to smash it into a million pieces.

And he's got the experience now. And I've said it a million times about him in this series. The chances were there for him. If he would have been a non-factor, I would have been worried. He got looks, he got chances. He was just wound so tight in his first playoff experience that it happens. That happens to a younger, talented player. He's got it now.

He's going to have a full season with the penguins next year. He's hopefully going to have multiple seasons with the penguins moving forward. And I think he's going to be a great contributor. Ben Kendall burned out, man. He's 19. He has played the most hockey he has ever played. in his life at 18 years old for the majority of it. And he didn't just play it.

He played it in the NHL in a significant role with a team that made the playoffs. He is going to grow. He's going to learn. He's going to get better. He's going to have a full off season of NHL level training with NHL level resources. And then he's going to come back next year. And guess what? He's 19.

He's just going to get bigger because that's how, the human body works. He's going to grow. And it's going to be there for him. And I thought he played perfectly fine. But you could tell by the end of this series, he was a 19 year old kid who played more hockey than he has ever played in his life. I agree.

And a couple more things where we wrap up. I know we're running a little bit long today. Tommy Novak, Pat, you know I was the president of the fan club this year for Tommy Novak. That was a really tough series for him. Overall, especially in game six. I don't know why he is trying to pass that in that situation there. Fire that puck on the net.

You might disagree with me a little bit, but he needs to be better there, man. I do. I think it's more that he was just handcuffed. Like, but just in general, like I just didn't like his series that much. No, yeah. I mean, I agree with overall his series. I'm talking about the play in game six where he was right in front of Lidar and everyone got mad at him for passing it.

I was mad at him at first. then I saw the replay of it and I went there is maybe one player in the history of the game that scores on that and he's the guy that used to own the team try it though just try it that's that's the thing I will give people try it but at the end of the day he was handcuffed with the door right in front of him I can't give him too much crap but because of the series that he had it wasn't a great look I hear you and then last but not least just want to thank everyone Like this season was so much fun to talk about this team on the show. It was so much fun, you know, reading slash responding to all of your comments.

Pat and I are really proud of the community that we have built slash continuing to build here for Locked on Penguins, whether you're listening on Apple, Spotify, Amazon music, or whether you're watching us on YouTube. This was an absolute blast. You know, Pat got to make his debut with doing playoff content with me. I got to do this a couple of times, obviously. in the 20 slash 21 season, then 21, 22. But we had a lot of fun, and we couldn't have done it without all of you tuning in

and taking time out of your busy lives to listen to us, analyze everything about this team. So I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you very much. It means the world to me that so many people continue to tune into this show, whether you are a new listener or an old listener, thank you. And we're not going anywhere.

We got two months of offseason content here to get through before we go down to three shows a week in early slash mid-July. Pat, you have anything? I can't really put it much better. I mean, this season top to bottom was a blast. It was, I'll fully admit it. There were times the last two years we're doing this show as a slog because the team was just not good. and we knew where it was heading and it stunk. This year, every episode was a blast.

It was so much fun. Our community is the best. The comments on YouTube are great. The interactions on social media are fun. And it's grown over the last year and a half. And I'm excited for it to continue to grow because we've got a lot of exciting players and moments coming with this team in this organization over the next couple of years.

So here's the bigger and better. And as always, thank you guys so, so much for hanging with us on this show. 100%. And again, we're going to be back here on Friday to recap the season overall before getting into our offseason content, starting on Monday, talking about what happens with Hvgeny Malkin, Chris LaTang, which free agents they should bring back, who should go to market, potential trade targets this summer. My Pengman specific draft board will be making a return. turn. And later on in June, because I'm going to dive into that here now that obviously I got more free time, a lot of fun stuff coming here on the Locked on Penguins podcast. We're still daily for the next couple months. And then again, we go down to three shows a week after free agent

frenzy on July 1. So for Patrick Damp, I am Hunts for Hohde's. Thank you all so much to take the time to listen to slash watch this one. And we'll be back with another edition of the show on Friday.