Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins erase a 3-goal deficit to win the battle of PA in OT!

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

The Pittsburgh Penguins got their first three-goal comeback of the season, winning an emotional game against the Flyers. Hunter and Patrick break everything down, including how Alex Nedeljkovic's meltdown sparked the team in the second period when they needed it most. They also discuss a vintage performance from Evgeni Malkin and how he has been flying since the break. They also analyze Erik Karlsson's performance before giving their thoughts on the Boko Imama hit. Finally, they get you set for another weekend back-to-back against the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!IndeedNow, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to Indeed.com/LOCKEDON right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply.Trade CoffeeGet 40% off your first order with Trade at drinktrade.com/lockedonnhl. Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins! 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 Penguins rallied from a three-gold deficit to take down the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday, and Pat and I are going to recap that game, plus get you all set for a pretty big weekend back-to-back 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 another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. by my co-host, Patrick Damping and follow him on all social media platforms at Cinderin for Wet. And you can follow these shows, Twitter, at L.O. Owners Swip Penguins. Remember,

thank you all so much for making this, your first lesson slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And of course, today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. Right now, new Fandul customers can get $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. So Pat, the Pittsburgh Penguins get their first three-gold comeback of the 24, 2025 season. They were down 3-0 to the Flyers. They had absolutely nothing for the first 25 minutes. And then Alex Ndilkevich happened.

And yes, he did get pulled. Yes, he threw a little bit of a tantrum. But you know what? He woke that team up. I was at the game last night and he smashed his stick on the crossbar. Basically threw it to the corner, gets to the bench, slams the door. You all are watching, of course.

And he was barking at the whole team, basically saying, heck up. What are we doing out here? Obviously, they had just gotten blown out six to one by the same Flyers team on Tuesday. They have been outscored to this point in these last two games, Pat, nine to one against the Flyers. And this Flyers team is not very good, by the way. I know the Penguins are also not good, but this Flyers team also stinks. And he woke them up. To that point, no one on the Penguins was showing any heart in this game. No one was showing any emotion. That's what I wanted to see from the Penguins in this game because of the way they were pushed around, the way they were

embarrassed on Tuesday. But right after Ned got pulled, right after he had his outburst on the ice and on the bench, the players responded. Philip Tomasino, another beautiful goal. I can't wait to see what he does for the rest of the season. And into next year, he's someone that I continue to be really intrigued about. I like him a lot as a young middle six player. And then Eric Carlson makes it three, two. Yes, I know the Flyers make it four, two, and then Carlson makes it four three. He had two really nice goals in this game. I think Carlson was by far the Penguins best defenseman in this game as well. And then it was the Hvgeny Malkin show after that. He ties the game, then wins it in overtime. A four point night for Hvgeny Malkin. We'll dive into

that in just a second. But I wanted to discuss a little bit more in-depth pat because I know you disagree with me a little bit, but it was nice seeing Ned show that fire, show that emotion, because I know we've been hard on him on the show throughout the season, especially this week with the way that he's been playing. But you know what? That guy cares. That guy gives a damn. It's the most emotion I've seen out of a Penguins team this season in at least a while.

Honestly, he woke them up. And again, I know they're not going anywhere this season, but it was nice to see him give them a spark in this game that they desperately did this, especially with one of your biggest rivals embarrassing you on home ice like that, he woke him up and it was game over from that on. I don't want to say that I disagree with you necessarily because that's not the way to put it. I'll go at it this way. It happened for me in two parts.

Part one was that the ESPN broadcast alerts us that there has been a goalie change, that Sullivan has made the decision to yank Ned and bring in Blumquist for the rest of the game. and the camera shows Ned freaking out. He breaks his stick over the crossbar, throws it, skates to the bench and a huff. And my first reaction before what happened right after that was, if there's anybody you should be yelling at, Ned, it's a mirror. Because since this team came back, you've been terrible. And he's admitted he's been terrible.

And to that end, if he's mad, be mad at yourself. Don't be mad at Mike Sullivan. Don't be mad at the team because you have been given ample opportunity to work out of it. We said on this show as much that we wouldn't start him for the foreseeable future. Yeah. Because of how bad he's been. And last night, yeah, the team did not play well. They didn't get their first shot to well after the 10 minute mark to the point there was

a Bronx cheer inside PPG paints arena when they got a shot on goal. But it was very loud by the way. That was a very, and I mean very loud Bronx share. Someone who was at the arena, it actually happened not once, Pat, but twice because they originally took the shot off. And then when they had another shot on net, the Bronx year was even louder. So just wanted to clarify everything. But at the same time, a lot of the goals he gave up weren't great. Yeah, you can, you can, I know one of them, the meet, one of the Meechkov goals, that's defensive breakdown. Ryan Graves played it horribly. Yeah, Ned was way out of his net, but

you can't let a guy score from the goal line on the off to the opposite post. That's, that's defensive breakdown. But at the end of the day, he needed to be upset with himself because he hasn't played well. Then the camera shows us him slamming the door on the bench, throwing his helmet. And I'm still very much at that point in Ned, this is not anyone else's fault but your own. Then you see him barking at everybody. And I was like reading his lips a little bit, he's not yelling, Mike, what are you doing, leave me in? He is yelling, guys, wake up. Wake up.

We are playing like crap. We need to play better. And they responded two goals in 30 seconds. And it's hard not to say that it didn't spark the team because we have talked about it on the show. The players have talked about it. The day-to-day writers who cover the team talk about it. He's a beloved guy in that locker. He is maybe one of the most popular people inside that locker.

He's respected. He's well liked. We've talked about what a great pro he is. So seeing him melt down sent a message to the rest of the roster. You don't have to believe it. You don't have to even think that's a thing that can happen. But we saw what happened last night. After he screams at the team, they suddenly decided to start playing.

And they come out with a massive victory. 100%. He woke him up and Philip Tomasino had a really nice move. As I said, you know, if Gennie Malkin gets involved, Eric Carlson has a great game. And we do have to discuss the vocal, Mama hit a little bit. While I was watching that live, it looked worse than on replay because I saw, at least live, it looked like that he hit him in the head and then his head just smashed the ice.

And I was like, oh my God, that was like a really bad hit. But PBG paints Arena decided to not show a replay at all for this. So I had to go on Twitter and see a few replays. And after watching a few replays, it wasn't nearly as bad as it looked wide. Shoulder to shoulder to me, it is a bit scary that his head did hit the ice though, Pat. I got a little bit worried there for a second. But I think a mama was trying to send a message as well saying like, hey, don't go after Noah Charlie like that. Apparently after the game, he was saying that he wanted to challenge

halfway to a fight. He wouldn't do it. So I think he was kind of like, okay, I'm just going to try to deliver a big hit. Now, was it a penalty? Oh, 100% people. That is a textbook interference penalty. Puck is nowhere near him. That's a hit that they're going to call a penalty every single time.

But again, man, after watching a replay, then I tried to stay away from tweeting out after not seeing any replays. I failed this experiment, Pat, so I apologize on that. But it wasn't as bad to me as it looked live. What do you think of the hit? I'm in the same boat. When I saw it live on ESPN, I was like, yeah, that's a bad hit. That's a five-minute major.

In fact, they should probably boot his ass from the game because even like you see a guy down motionless because let's let's make sure that's clear hathaway wasn't down grovelling in pain he was motionless he wasn't moving and that's a terrifying scene no matter what happens then they show the replay and he gets them shoulder to shoulder i'll say this though it's a bad hit because it's from the blind side it's textbook interference the puck was nowhere near imama or hathaway it's a terrible hit. And because it's a blind side hit, it's not a head-to-head contact. It's not, it's not something that can get suspended, isn't suspendable because it's not directly to the head. But here's the inherent risk with a blind side hit. You can't brace yourself

for the hit. So that's why he hits his head because he doesn't think he's in a position to get hit because he's not. The puck's not there. I'll say this. Pathway. way's not a superstar. He's not a finesse player. He's the guy who crosses the line. He's a guy who plays a game on the edge. And I can totally believe Boko and Mama's recalling of the game where Hathaway doesn't accept his challenge to a fight. Now, a bit of a size disparity there.

Imam is gigantic. And he is a professional hockey fighter. So if I'm Garnett Hathaway, who's, again, a guy who plays the game on the edge and a professional fighter who doesn't have a lot of time in the NHL is challenging me to a fight, especially when my team is winning, I'm going to tell him no. One, because I don't want to get my ass kicked. And two, it was Max Talbot night. And it was the Max Talbot bobblehead Shush night. We can make light of it and say that, oh, it didn't really do anything, blah, blah, blah. but it gave the penguins momentum when the flyers were beating the hell out of them.

Yes. It sparked the team. So that's good on Hathaway to be like, no, we have a multi-goal lead. I'm not fighting you and giving your team a spark. Get out of my face. Like if you want to fight when we're down, sure, we'll fight. But end of the day, the call reversal was correct. Yes.

I still do not like the hit because it was blindside interference. That's extremely dangerous. The call was correct, but I can't. defend the hit. It was bad. I mean, I don't think he's going to get a hearing from the Department of Player Safety. I mean, that department is always hilarious with their inconsistency, but still, I don't think he's going to get a hearing for that. They got the call on the ice right, though, after the view.

Two-minute interference penalty, 100% the correct call, in my opinion. And that plus what Ned did, I really do think spark the team, woke them up. And then you saw, again, McGee Malc and Eric Carlson both do the things. And I also should shout out Yoel Blumquist as well. he was great coming in relief of Ned. Yeah, did he give up a goal? Sure, it was also a really nice release, by the way. But he made some really big time these saves,

especially in the third period when the flyers were pushing after Gino tied it early in the period. So wanted to shout out Blumquist for that. And Pat, real quick, before we had to break, he has to get the start on Saturday. Oh, for sure. He played very well. This was exactly what we wanted to see.

I would have rather it been a start. But this was a good bounce. back from the game against the Rangers. He, like you said, made a lot of timely saves. He was in position very, very frequently. He was the one thing he was able to do, because let's be completely honest here, it was a victory by the Penguins. They didn't play that much better after Ned got pulled.

They woke up and the effort was better. But the third period, they weren't that great. They, the flyers were the better team in the third period. And the penguins just got a lot of timely saves. They were able to play a little bit better defensively. But the other thing Blumquist was able to do last night was stop play when it needed to be stopped, whether it was a glove save covering the puck, whatever, when the flyers were pressing. So that was able to blunt some of the flyers momentum.

So you have to give them credit for that as well. One last thing I want to mention, ladies and gentlemen, get your confetti out, pop your champagne. Our long national nightmare has come to an end. Ryan Graves gets his first point of the season with an assist on Gino's dying goal. We have made it, ladies and gentlemen. Amazing stuff from Ryan Graves. Just outstanding. That's the word I'm going to use, Pat.

Outstanding stuff. You know what, Pat? Put him on the top pairing next game for that, right? And you know what? Jokes aside, I will say this. I don't want this to come off as saying that, oh, he's fixed and everything's good. it's not. He is still playing not very good hockey. But it gets back into what we talked about at the beginning of the season with Ryan Graves,

where you have to start putting him in advantageous situations. You have to start letting him build back. He's had some very head scratching moments more frequently than any of us would like. But on the whole, he has been a lot better this season. He has been, he's making way too much money for way too long. and he's playing in a position where that player should not be making that kind of money with that much of the term. But for the positions they've been putting him in, he has been playing better.

He's been stringing together performances where, unfortunately, the best thing we can say is you're not noticing it. And with how you want to rehab this player with the contract that he has, it's unfortunately where he has to be. And he's clearing that very low bar. Yeah, I would say that's fair. again, though, I'm not sure he's going to be on this team next year. I just, they're not getting the return on investment with this contract.

And I think they're really going to look to try and get out of it somehow, some way. I know Kyle Dubus doesn't like buyouts. But again, I just don't think he can be on this roster next year, but the way that this has gone so far with this contract. But again, that's also a different discussion for a different day. Coming up in the second segment of this episode, we're going to discuss more about this game of getting him, again, Malkin's vintage performance, more about Eric Carlson and a couple other things to take

note of this contest where we preview the weekend against Toronto and Boston. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about our first sponsor, and that is Fandall. When the game tips off, the NBA action is just getting started and there's no better place to get on it than Fandle, America's number one sportsbook with Fandle. You can play slide bets throughout the games. So even if you miss the opening tip off or want to bet on a fourth quarter comeback, you can stay in on the action. And if you're looking for a bigger payout, you can even combine your bets into a same game parlay. I love using Fandual's live betting picture because it keeps every moment of the game exciting, whether I'm backing my team for a late game rally or picking a player to hit a clutch three-pointer.

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I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, join by my co-ist Patrick. And I do want to say this to start out this segment. I want to shout out the Penguins fans who were in attendance for this game last night. That was an outstanding crowd. Almost as well, I would say, 90 to 92% of the arena was full last night. and considering where this team is in the standings, that's awesome. Like almost every seat was full last night. The crowd brought it every single time.

I wouldn't say it's a playoff crowd, not like last year when I was at the game against Tampa Bay, where Michael Bunting had that late winter or even against the capitals the year before where Malkin had that winter late in the regular season when the Penguins were really pushing for the playoffs. I wouldn't say it was on par with that type of crowd, but it was close.

I just want to shout out the Penguins fan base for really bringing it last night, really great crowd, especially for a late February game. I know the Flyers are in town, but this team's not going anywhere. However, just a great crowd. So I really want to shout them out. And also, Pat, I have to give this stat last night. That was the 12th time the Penguins have allowed a goal on the first shot of the game this season.

That stat needs to go away for the 25, 26 season. That is just a remarkable stat in every way. part of it's luck base but also part of it's like oh my god can we please get a save right away in this game but a couple other things to get to for this game Evgeny Malkin man I know this team as I've said 5,000 times this episode and 5,000 times this week I know this team is not very good but I will never get tired of watching the big guns do their thing Evgeny Malkin has the juice right now four point night last night two of those were goals his release was outstanding on both. The patience that he had on the overtime winner was awesome. Matt,

they Mietchkov kind of lost him on that OT winner. Definitely a learning moment for that kid also. I should say Mietchkov last night was really good, really impressed with him. And I think he's going to be very annoying to play against for the next decade plus with how much talent this kid has. But Evgeny Malkin, he still has it. Great performance.

And you always see him have this extra burst. Every time he comes back from injury, especially now that he's 38 years old, He has his legs right now. He's humming every shift. He was, again, very good last night. Hats shot him out again here. Yeah, he was great.

And I mean, yeah, the patience on the overtime winner was great. But I'll also say this. As soon as I saw that Flyers defensemen go down, I just said out loud, that's game. Because you give Evgeny Malkin, even at 38, that much time uncontested, he's not going to miss. And he just to add insult to injury. injury for the flyers. He goes posting in. He could have very easily roofed that because Erson went down and he had pretty much the entire net, top of the net to shoot at. But just

insult to injury goes posting in. Crowd goes nuts. Great winner. And you're right. It's what we've talked about. He has his legs. He's bouncing around. He's got the jump. And the biggest thing I'm noticing, I said it earlier in the week, one of the biggest things I noticed was him going to the net. The other thing I've noticed, and it happened especially last night multiple times, he's owning the puck. It is just when he gets it on his stick, it's becoming damn near impossible to take it off of him. He's as maddening as it can get and when it doesn't lead to offense or at least an offensive chance. One of the things we have to appreciate about of Gennie Malkin is he has the last couple years,

and I know people will push back on this, taking a lot of the risk out of his game. He doesn't play a very high risk style anymore. So when he does his thing where he circles the entire offensive zone with the puck, he's seeing he has open lanes. He's not trying to create something out of nothing. He sees there's openings. He sees he's got options.

And you saw it happen a few times last night. He'd go from behind the net all the way out to the point. And then he'd drop it back to whatever defenseman or forward was covering. and it would lead to an offensive opportunity. So this is a very encouraging game in stretch by Evgeny Malkin. And last night was just another data point in the way he's playing. Did over Eric Carlson, man. He was such a treat to watch live on Thursday night.

He was doing everything in the offensive zone. It was also playing really well in his own zone as well. I thought his breakout passes were superb. He had very much a shoot first mentality last night. Almost had the game winner late in the third period that went off the post. So I thought that was going in right when he fired the puck. His release, especially on the third goal, was awesome. The Penguins back in the game late in the second period against the Flyers.

But I thought this was one of his best performances of the season. He is such a treat to watch when he is on his game like this. I thought he was superb. Yeah, he played extremely well. I also need to kind of push back a little bit on something he said about the pinches. It's not that they were ill-advised. And I never want to call an NHL player lazy because that's just lazy analysis, no pun intended or joke intended there.

But one thing you come to notice with Eric Carlson is he's a very economical player in the sense that let's say he makes a pinch and it goes the other way. He's not going to go balls to the wall in a situation where he knows he's not going to catch the opposing team. Granted, he doesn't dog it back, but he's not all out sprinting to get back to it. Last night was not the case. If he pinched and the play went the other way, he was on his horse getting back. He actually turned a couple of odd man rushes into two on twos or three on threes.

And it's a credit to him because when he's on top of his game, he's going to take the risks in the offensive zone. He's going to try to get down low, be an option. for the forwards and try to get a scoring chance. But when he's at his best, he's going to do that. And he's also going to get back on defense. And he was very smart about that last night. A lot of his pinches were very smart.

And in the few times that they went the other way, he was right back defensively, which is a great sign for Eric Carlson. Yeah, he was great in all three zones last night. Again, he was absolutely outstanding for the Penguins. But do you have anything else to add about this game? I know it doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things outside of beating one of your biggest rivals, but it was still nice seeing them come back from three goals down for the first time this season and showing some fight, sewing some heart, and showing some emotion as well.

I am going to, because I'm a glutton for punishment, build off of something I talked about early this week, about the whole tanking narrative. Yeah. And last night is a game where I can give a point to my. myself because how many teams have we talked about this season and seen firsthand that when they get into these situations when they're a bad team and a bad season, that the minute they go down a couple of goals, they give up. They stop trying because that's become the culture of their team.

It's a, oh no, here we go again. This is who we are. We just get run out of buildings wherever we go. It's happened with Buffalo, happens with Chicago, happens with Anaheim. In the past, it's happened with Ottawa and a couple other teams. This is me saying this. I understand they're not good. I understand the enticing option for wanting to burn it all down and start over. But this is a team that said, yeah, we're a retooling, rebuilding team right now, but we still have to play the game.

and that is a, I would rather the penguins in this unfamiliar, unusual territory of not being a contender or a playoff team still be a team that can pull themselves off the mat and try to win. It's a better culture to bring young players up because we know over the next couple years, this team is going to get a lot younger. Crosby, Malkin, the Tang, they'll be around for a couple more years, maybe one or two or three. and the majority of the players around them are going to be early 20s, if not younger. And I would rather those players be brought up in a culture where you're down 3-0 to the flyers, and then your goaltender comes off and says, wake the hell up, we have to play better. And then Crosby, Malkin, Lattang, and the other big guns say, you know what, he's right. Let's go. Let's pick this up.

I'd rather it be that culture than one of, eh, we don't have any expectations. this year. It's not our night. We're done. We're just going to run the clock out. And then we're going to get on the bus and go to Toronto this weekend. Yeah, because you know, young players, they feed off that stuff. Like, you have to have players on your team that have an experience of winning. Obviously, the big three, they have. They've won three Stanley Cup together. They've been to four Stanley Cup finals together. So having that experience and having these young players learn from these older veteran players who have been here for so long and know what it takes to win. You can throw even Brian Rust in there. I know he's not part of the big three,

he still helped the penguins win two Stanley Cups. Again, young players, man, they feed off of moments like this. They feed off games like this. Who got the ball rolling? Philip Tomasino. Yep, 100%. Like, he's going to be someone that learns how to win from the big guns. And I want to see him play more on a Vagany Malcon's wing down the stretch here.

And I'm excited to see him on this team for next year as well, because I think he has the opportunity to really build more for his game as well. But I think that will do it for the second second. Coming up to end the show, we're going to preview both games this weekend against the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs. But before we get to that, we've got to tell you all about our final sponsor, and that is trade coffee. If you're like me, your mornings have to start off with a good cup of coffee, but I got

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order at drinktrade.com slash locked on NHL. One more time, people, that's drinktrade.com slash locked on NHL for 40% off your first order. All right, I'm back here in this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host Patrick James. So Pat, we got two games this weekend against the Bruins and the Maple Leafs. And speaking of the Bruins, man, whole boy, they are down bad right now. This is a team that does not have a lot of depth. They're not that good defensively.

Jeremy Swayman's not having as good of a year this year, and they may have to sell this next week. And I know that's going to be hard for Bruins fans to hear just because they've been all in for so long. And they have David Posternak's stone is prime. They still have Brad Narshan, but this is not a good Bruins team. This is a Bruins team that can be had, in my opinion, for the Penguins. You know, they have Pavel Zock with Morgan Geeky and David Posternick on their top line. Giki's actually having a decent year for them this year. Posternock, you know what you're going to get from him.

But Linholm hasn't been as good of a fit as I think the Bruinsack. would have liked so far. Zadorob, I think, has too much term and too much money. He's playing on their top pairing, but I think in a perfect world, he's a number three, number four defensemen on a contending team, and they still have Martian on their second line with Charlie Coyle. But you look at that bottom six. And honestly, man, they don't have a lot of guys down there that I really recognize. I mean, you know, I know who Justin Brazzo was. I know who Matthew Poitras is, but, you know, John Beecher, but it's just, this is a very, and I mean a very, top heavy team.

And you got to blame Don Sweeney for that. He did not do that good of a job this offseason. But the Penguins have already beaten the Bruins once this year. The Bruins really couldn't generate much of anything at five on five in Boston against the Penguins in late November. I want to see a similar effort in that game in this one on Saturday when the Penguins played the Bruins for the second time this season. I got to say, though, man, if Brad Marshalls somehow becomes available in the next week,

I'd be very curious to see what a trade package for him looks like. I think a GM would give up a whole lot to get Marching, considering how good he still is, still very rowdy, gets under opponent's skins and all that. But for this Bruins team, not good defensively. They don't have a lot of offense.

This is a game that the Penguins definitely have a really good shot of winning, in my opinion. They really do. And you're right. I mean, if I'm a contending team, I'm calling Boston multiple times a day until they find a way to agree to a Brad Marchon trade,

because expiring deal, he's up there. And it's, I know that he is the consummate Bruin, but it would be time, if you ask me, it's time for the Bruins to take a page from the capitals and the Penguins books, where identify who your core players are. So for them, it's David Prosternak. It's Charlie McAvoy. It's Charlie Coil.

It's obviously your goaltenders, maybe one or two other players. And then you just start retooling this thing. they do still have a solid prospect pool. It's not like they're covered as completely bare. So you really could pull a caps on this one if you're the Bruins and just sell off a lot of things that you have, get assets for them, get younger players, get draft picks. But you're right. This is a struggling Bruins team.

And they suffered a pretty tough loss to a team that they're used to torturing, the team that the penguins will play the next day, the Toronto Maple Leafs, who they had a three nothing lead on the Toronto Maple Leafs. They blew it in lost five to four. And then you look at the rest of the Bruin's schedule as of late. It's not pretty. OT loss to the Ducks, OT loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs,

lost to the New York Islanders before the break. They had lost to the Rangers three to two. They had lost to Vegas four to three. So this is a team that's falling rapidly. And we know how tough this Eastern Conference playoff picture is. Penguins have to take advantage of this, especially after getting an emotional win against the Flyers. 100%. And then after that, they'll play the Toronto Maple Leafs at home. This will be the third and final meeting between the Penguins and the Penguins and Leaves have split the two meetings so far.

So this will be kind of the rubber match, if you will, the team that wins will win the season series against the other team. And the Maple Leafs, Bonafi is Stanley Cup contender once again this year. They are 36 and 20 and two so far this season, good for 74 points. only one point behind the Panthers. They also have two games in hand on the Panthers. So if they win those two games in hand, they will be three points up on Florida for first place in the Atlantic. And if, in my opinion, I mean, I would want to avoid Tampa Bay in the first round if I am in Toronto.

Tampa Bay, I know they are also top heavy. But Vasilevsky is playing on the elite level again this season. Their top line is disgusting. They still have Sorrelli and Hagel that they can throw out there. I would try to avoid that two-three match with the Atlantic and get one of those wildesties. card teams where you would be a big favorite over because the wild card race, again, a lot of mid teams. You get Columbus in there, which is a great story, by the way.

I still don't think Columbus is that good, but still, probably the best story in the league right now. You have Detroit in there. They're fine, but I still don't think they're that good. You have the Islanders poking around a little bit. You have Montreal poking around a little bit in there as well. The Rangers, of course, Ottawa as well. But still, if I'm Toronto, I very much want to focus on getting that top seed in

the Atlantic in avoiding that two three matchup. But Toronto, again, you know what you're going to get with this team. A lot of speed, a lot of scale. Austin Matthews is one of the best goalscores in the league. Playing on the top line with Mitch Marner, John Tavaris on the second line. You have Max Domi running the third line with Matthew Nyes. You have David Camp and Stephen Lorenz on the fourth line. Morgan Riley and OEL on the top pairing.

You got Jake McCabe on your second pairing. And then goaltender-wise right now you have Joseph Wall and Anthony Stolars. Stolars has had a pretty solid year for Toronto this year. So my keys against Toronto will always remain the same. And you cannot give up so many chances off the rush, especially against a lot of their top players, or they will burn you. Like we've seen that happen a few times over the last few years

where the Penguins have tried to get into these track meets with the Toronto Maple Leafs. And it doesn't work out. Like you get crushed when you do that. So this calls for once again a very disciplined game and a very structured game if the penguins want to win this one, especially on the second half of a back-to-back. Yeah, you beat me too. that all of that is exactly what I was going to say. This is a very deep Maple Leafs team.

And for the first time in a long time, they have two viable goal tenders. Joseph Wool, having himself quite a year, 910 save percentage in 30 starts. Anthony Stolars looking like highway robbery for the Leafs being able to get him out of Florida, 20 starts, 926 save percentage. So along with being able to score, this team can also defend. This is in my estimation. And again, I know there's the memes. I know there's the jokes. But in my estimation of the last about 10 or so years, however long it's been since they've had this Matthews-Nielander-Marner project going on in Toronto, this might be their best shot. Because not only is it a deep team that can play both high octane offense and defend well.

They're in a dog fight with a great, and I mean great Florida Panthers team for the top spot in the Atlantic. They are one point off. They're keeping pace with a great team and they're doing it by playing complete hockey. So for the penguins, you have to almost play a boring game against Toronto this weekend. You have to bring them down into the muck. You've got to be diligent defensively. and when you get your chances,

you have to finish them. 100%. It's going to take a great effort from everyone in this one, especially if you want to win this on the second half of back-to-back. If I am the Penguins, I'm going Blumquist on Saturday for the first half,

and then I'm going Ned on Sunday. Yeah, I know some people are like, well, you're starting Ned against the better team. Yes, I am, but I think Blumquist deserves a start in the first half, considering the way that he played in relief for Ned on Thursday, Ned gets to reset a little bit. He woke them up on the game,

on Thursday. So he would not start him on Saturday. He can watch the game from the bench, and then Sunday he can go out there and try to get the Penguins another win for this game. But I think that I'll do it for today's episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. Remember, guys, both games this weekend nationally televised games. They will not be on Sportsnet, Pittsburgh, for this weekend. But for us, we'll be back on Monday, hopefully again with Jesse Marshall for Marshall Monday. So for Patrick Damp, I am Hunts or Hodes. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We appreciate it and we'll be back on Monday.