Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins face a huge test with the Colorado Avalanche coming to town

Episode Date: December 10, 2024

The Penguins will look to keep their stretch of positive play going on Tuesday night when Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche come to town. Hunter and Patrick get you set for tonight's showdown by first discussing the Colorado Avalanche and how their season has gone as well as highlighting the amount of elite talent they have at the top of their roster. Then, with some bodies getting healthy on the Penguins' side, they talk about who might be coming out of the lineup and who they think it should be. Finally, with another big two points on the line, they give you the keys for the Penguins to come out victorious. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Mint MobileTo get this new customer offer and your new 3-month premiumwireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to MINTMOBILE.com/lockedonnhl. Disclaimer - $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.IndeedStill searching for a great candidate for your company? Don’t search, just match–with Indeed. Claim your SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT now at Indeed.com/LOCKEDON. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. PrizePicksDownload the app or go to https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNHL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. 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.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are looking to continue their strong play tonight against the Colorado Avalanche. Pat and I are going to get you all set for that game right after this. You're Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes.

You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. joined by my co-s, Patrick Damp. You can follow him on all social media platforms at Send him for Wet, and you can follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. 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. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. You can start the season with a big return on Fandul. New customers can place a $5 bet, and you will get started with $150 in bonus bets. If you win your first $5 bet, visit fandu.com to get started. So Pat,

Penguins look to make it six wins in the last seven games tonight when they host the Colorado Avalanche at PBG Paine's Arena. They're also looking for their fifth straight home win at PbG Pains Arena. They've been playing much better at home in these last couple of weeks. And this is a game I think that's going to be a lot of fun. The Avalanche, they're not as good this year as they have been in recent years, but this is still a team that can really hurt you. And of course, it all starts with their big three.

Nathan McKinan, Miko Ransan, and Kalmokar. Nathan McKinan, at worst, to me, is the second best player in the league. He has been on fire to start this year. Nine goals, 41 points in 29 games, well on pace for over 100 points. Miko Ransanin, he has been a one-man wrecking crew, 15 goals, 37 points in 29 games. And then, of course, Cal McCar, who has 35 points in 29 games, Makar. In my opinion, the best defenseman on the planet right now. He is an absolute monster with the puck on his dick.

He's great in his own zone. He is a treat to watch. I try to catch the Colorado when they play on their national games, I try to catch every single one. And they usually have quite a few because of the talent they have. McCar is such a treat to watch. And it's always great when Sid and McKinnon get to go up against one another, considering how close they are as friends.

And they're just a really fun team. But for me, it really starts. And low-key ends with stopping. the Colorado's big three of the Pensions want to win this game. They are a lot of their offense this year. Yeah, for sure. You said it right there. We were talking pre-show.

You know, you look at McKinnon, like you said, 41 points. Miko Ranton in 37, Kale McCar, 35. And then it's a sharp drop-off after that. You've got middle stat with 21, Sam Gerard with 16, are Terry Lekinen with 12. And then they only have two other players with double-digit points in Ross Colton.

Valerie Natchewski. And the issue there is those guys haven't played the whole season. They're all at about 12 or 17-ish games played, kind of a up and down between that. The funniest thing to me about the Colorado Avalanche this year is, yeah, they're not as hot out of the gate as many would have expected. They're currently in the second wildcard in the Western Conference with 32 points, technically tied with the Edmonton Oilers at 32. and they're in a battle to move up the standings in a very tight division. But the funniest thing to me, as I started to say, was you look at Kail McCarr's game this year, 35 points in 29 games, and he's got 26 assists, nine goals.

We have become, I don't want to say desensitized, but just so used to how good Kail McCar is. I haven't really seen it talked about that much. but that's just how good he is. It's very reminiscent of Eric Carlson before him and for a forward comparison, like guys like McDavid and Sidney Crosby and even his cohort Nathan McKinnon, where we just expect these guys to be that good. So it's more of that negative polarization of when they're struggling, we're going to talk about it.

But when they're putting together these incredible seasons, seasons. We're just like, yeah, it's Kel McCart's what he does. He's the best defenseman I think I've seen since Nick Lindstrom. And I don't mean that, you know, weirdly or anything like that. He is truly, I think, the best defenseman I have seen since Nick Lichstrom. You know, I grew up watching him. He's still the best defenseman I've ever watched throughout my life. And he kind of reminds me of the way Lidstrom played throughout his career. So I've just loved watching him. And even after, you have Colorado's big three, there is still, you know, at least some decent talent on their bottom three lines. You know, middle stat, I still like that trade for them. I think he's a decent

second line center. Newtucean, he's still getting his feet wet. He hasn't played a lot this season due to obvious reasons. You then have Ross Colton, Yol Keevi-Ronta, Parker Kelly, Logan O'Connor. By the way, they have the best name in the league pat. Ivan, Ivan, baby, at least on daily faceoff right now, he's projected to be in the lineup tonight, and I'm super excited because, He has the best name in the league, not even close. Defensively, again, you have Kail McCar, but please people, do not sleep on Tavent. He is fan-freaking-tastic. I still laugh that the avalanche got him for two second round picks.

Just great stuff by the Islanders right there, by the way. He is a bona fide number one defenseman, probably on three quarters of the teams in this league. It's right up there, I think. with how good he is. So have to watch out for Devon Teves, especially in his own zone. He is great at suppressing chances. Sam Drawer on your second pairing. But then also the avalanche, they were getting rotten goaltending this year, man.

Your Yev was really bad. Their backup was really bad. And the Colorado front office led by Joe Sackick and Chris McFarland, they're like, okay, we're not going to do this anymore. You know, they were literally in the bottom of the league in terms of the same percentage, goal saved above expected. They're like, okay, we're going to get both. of these goalies out of here and bring in two new goalies to at least try and turn this season

around a little bit. They're 16 and 13 right now, fourth in the central. They're probably still going to make the playoffs. But they were looking at this season like, okay, if we get in the playoffs, we're not going to go anywhere if we keep sticking to these two goalies. So credit to them, they go out, they get Scott Wedgwood, they get McKenzie Blackwood on Monday. Blackwood won't be playing in this game. The Penguins actually just saw him a few weeks ago and he played his absolute tail off for the sharks. He was doing that all season. as well. He has an over 900% for the Sharks. Scott Wedgwood, he's been a fine backup throughout his career.

When you compare these two goalies to their other two, it's an upgrade. Is it that much? Probably not, but they had to do something. Well, it didn't need to be. That's the biggest thing here is when you look at this Colorado Avalanche team, yeah, they're led by their big three. Those guys, as those guys go, so do the Colorado Avalanche. At the same time, their Achilles heel,

the last couple of seasons has been goaltending. You look at those teams and you look at the way they perform and you end up at the same conclusion, which is they need a goalie. They need a goalie. It doesn't have to be, you know, the best goalie in the league. It doesn't have to be a Vezna candidate. It just has to be a guy who will not lose a game for you.

It doesn't have to go out and steal it, but just don't lose it. And you brought up McKenzie Blackwood, who they acquired recently. he was on a god-awful San Jose Sharks team and here is his stat line. A three even goals against average and a 9-11 save percentage. For being on a team as bad as San Jose and putting up numbers like that, now he's going to go play on a team that has an extremely competent defense

and an offense to match it. So this really gives the avalanche the shot in the arm that they needed because this was the missing piece for them the last couple years. They needed a goaltender, and now that they have one, it's going to be full speed ahead. And I want to go back to a quick point about the avalanche that you made when it comes to their defense with Kail McCar. You brought up the Nick Lidstrom comparison. I agree for the most part, but when you look at Nick Lidstrom's career, he was not really a point per game player. He wasn't really known for his offense.

yeah, he chipped in. He eclipsed 70 points and even 80 points a handful of times in his career. Kail McCar, on the other hand, can both provide you offense. And guess what? It's not like Prime Eric Carlson where he was basically a fourth forward. Kail McCar can shut you down. He can play lockdown defense. So this is why he is arguably, in my opinion,

the best defenseman in the National Hockey League by a wide margin. And that's why he's so dangerous because, yeah, he's going to, he can put up a three, four point night, all while locking down your top six. And that is worth its weight in gold. Right. I was mainly just talking in terms of impact because Lidstrom would impact the game every time he was on the ice. Obviously, he was great in his zone. He would chip in offensively. As you mentioned, you know, not know maybe what Cal McCar has been doing offensively with how scoring is in the league right now. But in terms of impact, he's the best defenseman I have watched. since Nick Legend Strimand, again.

I grew up watching him. He was so awesome, and I just love watching McCar anytime I can. But I'll do it for this first segment. Coming up here in the second segment, we're going to discuss some of the lineup notes for the Penguins could fill it Tomasino be back in tonight,

who's a starting goaltender, all of that good stuff. Before we get to that, we got to tell you all about our first sponsor, actually, not our second sponsor. That's coming up in about eight more minutes, but our first sponsor, and that is prize picks.

If you love sports, you're going to love prize picks, the best place to turn your sports knowledge into real money. Whether it's hockey, football, or any of your favorite sports, prize picks makes it easy to get in on the action. And here's why you need to get started today. Number one, you can win up to 200 times your money on prize picks. Number two, get $50 instantly when you play your first $5 lineup. No need to win that $50 is guaranteed.

And number three, they also offer fun weekly promotions like Taco Tuesday where select player projections are discounted. up to 25%. Down the app today and use code Locked on NHL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. That's right. $50 instantly, and that is prize picks. Run your game.

All right. We're back here in this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host Hunter Hodes. Join Obama coach, Patrick Damp. So Pat, Tristan Jari will be a net for the Penguins tonight against Scarlet Avalanche. And that is no surprise. Jari right now is out playing. Alex Nadelcovic, and you need to give him the lion's share of the starts.

I can't even believe I'm saying that right now, considering the way that he started the season. But since coming back up from Wilkesbury, he has played at a good level. He's making timely saves. He's not flopping around in his own net. Again, I picked that one William Nealander goal from the Maple Leafs game outside of that. He made a lot of 10-bill saves and was tremendous in that game. It's only right that you reward him with the start against Avalanche, and you see what he can do against the likes of McKinnon, Ranson, McCars.

I have no problem with that. This also allows Nadelkovich to work out some of the kinks in his own game because his game is kind of down in the dungeon right now with the way he's playing. For sure. Jari has earned more starts. And I know that we got a couple comments about nitpicking on some goals. But that's what we do here. We got to analyze everything from the angle that we see it. And when it comes to that Nielander goal against Toronto, yeah, I would have liked to have seen him get over quicker.

But as I said on the episode, William Nielander is an elite player. and sometimes elite players do elite things. Both can't exist. But at the end of the day, he is starting to rebuild some of the trust that he had lost from both the fan base, the coaching staff, and the organization over the past few months.

And the best way to keep that going is to let him build on it, is to let him keep playing. You, with what you're trying to do with him, either you're trying to find out if you're going to hold on to him, him and let him continue to be your number one goalie, or if you're trying to rebuild him and get his value up so you can ship him out sometime in the near future, this is how it's done. We have spoken about this. I have spoken about this. This is part of the process of rebuilding Tristan Jari. And it's going to be frustrating. It's going to be annoying because there are going to

be stumbles. This is not going to be a very easy fix. You have to let him play. You have to sit them down a couple times. You're going to have to deal with some less than stellar starts. But this is the process and how it works. He, by all accounts, went down to Wilkes-Bair, had a great attitude about it. He didn't pout. He was one of the guys. He worked his butt off. And by the sound of it, he is, in fact, regaining some of the trust that he lost with the organization. They're not ready to crown him the starting goalie and say, no, he's, our guy. We're never going to move on from them. But they're encouraged by what they're seeing. And so am I. The last few starts, he has played to a level we need him to play to. Is he all the

way back? Not even close. But early returns and signs so far are encouraging. So totally fine with him getting the start tonight, especially with what you were saying about how Alex Nadelcovic has struggled this season. Right. And I think another thing to monitor at least as we go through the rest of the season. You know, January is coming up here in a few weeks. We all know the history of Jari splits at least, you know, from October to December. Usually this year wasn't as good as he normally is from October to December, but from January onward, usually that's when his game kind of falls off. You know, normally his state percentage is in the, you know, 915, 920 range for the first few months of the season. But then after January, goes down, you know, about 900905. So that's going

to be something I'm really monitoring in the second half. Does the state percentage since coming up from Wilkesbury. Does it stay where it's at right now? Or does it go down with the trend that we've seen these last few years? And this will be a big challenge for him tonight because you look at the last two starts, Florida and Toronto. Those are teams with a ton of talent, Colorado, another team with a ton of talent. And no, he didn't steal either game.

The Penguins played mostly well against Florida despite trying to blow it. And then they played extremely well against Toronto. he was part of that solid effort, that has to happen again tonight. Wouldn't say mostly well against Florida. They got skated off to ice for most of that game. They just got timely goals. And Spencer Knight wasn't really good. But Jari was kept them in that game.

He was good when he needed to be. He was great. Yeah. I know he allowed four goals, but he was facing so many shots. They were bound to score a few of them in that third period. I'm not going to really going to pin that period on him just with the way the penguins were playing defensively. But one other lineup, I know before we had to break here,

Philip Tomasino, Mike Sullivan, said that he is a game time decision tonight. So good news. Usually that means that he is going to play. But then the question is, man, who is coming out a lineup? So the forwards from last game against Toronto. Ricardo, Rekyllis, New Crossy, Brian Rust, Drew O'Connor, Evgeny, Malkin, Cody Glass, Michael Bunting, Blake Lazzott, Jesse Poolyar, the Anthony Bavillier, Nolichari, and Kevin Hay.

So we all know no one from the top line is coming out. O'Connor and Malkin aren't coming out. Bunting and Lazzat aren't coming out. And probably Bavillet aren't coming out. out isn't coming out, excuse me, either. It's probably going to come down to either one of glass, Puyarvi, Achari, or Hayes, but if I'm really narrowing it down, excuse me, even further, it's probably going to come down to one of glass or Puyarvi. If you're making me pick between those two, I would prefer to have Puyarvi in the lineup. I want Tomasino, obviously, in there too.

It just thinks that probably one of those two is going to come out, which shouldn't be the case. If you're asking me, I would take out one of Achari or Hayes and put Tomasino in. we've complimented to Charlie a bit more on the show this year compared to last year. But I feel like in these last few games, his play has kind of dipped a little bit. So I don't think it would be the worst thing in the world if you scratch him for a game or two. And, you know, maybe get him to reset a little bit while putting Tomasino back in. And I also do want to see more of Cody Glass. A bit of a breadcrumb to follow here some more, as always, tremendous reporting from Taylor

Haas. She spoke with Yesy Pooey-R-V the other day. and he basically said he didn't like his own game at all against Toronto. He basically said, I felt terrible. And when she asked, she was like, oh, was it, you know, injury related? Did you not feel good physically? He was like, no, I just didn't feel good about the way I played at all in any aspect of the game. And I think that kind of shows you, I know this is going to be frustrating for a lot of people,

including us, that the coaching staff's message to him is getting through, where they're telling him he's got to improve in a lot of things. And I agree with that sentiment. I've said it on the show. I think as good as he has been, there are a lot of weaknesses in his game that have shown up. You add that with, we often forget, he's less than a year or about a year removed from double hip surgery.

And for a player who goes through a massive surgery like that, it's going to take a lot longer to get to 100% than you would like. we would love for this to be NHL 25. Oh, he's off the injured list. His health bars up to 100%, but that's not how the world works. So I do think that might give us a little bit of a hint on who comes out. Because I will say, I thought he was fine against Toronto.

I didn't love his game. I didn't hate it. But on the whole, I would like to see him given more of a runway, but that might be something to monitor going into tonight. I hear you. I just really would hate if he came out of the lineup again just because, again, I feel like he is one of their 12 best force, even when everyone is healthy. I think he has shown that in the games that he has played this year.

I get what he said to Taylor Haas. I would still keep him in, though, and give him more of a runway, see what he can do in a third line role, because we've seen it in Sparks this year. He's played well. It's just for whatever reason, Mike Sullivan wants to take him out of the lineup for a couple of other veterans who I think have been a bit worse than Bully R. this year, in my opinion. But I think that would do it for this second,

coming up to end the show, we're going to discuss more of the keys to win for the Penguins tonight. And if they do win, how this can really set themselves up for a pretty big next couple weeks if they can take advantage of the schedule that comes right after this game. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about our last sponsor, and that is Fandle. Get ready to tackle the NFL action and Fandle. That's America's number one sportsbook. Because right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $150 and bonus bets if you win. The Fandall Sportsbook app gives you everything you need to place live bets on the NFL all in one place.

So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live, play by play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. Just visit fandle.com join today, and you will get started with $150 in bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet. That's fandle. Never waste a hunch and make every moment more with Fandle, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host Patrick Gam. So I think my biggest key, it's kind of something that we talked about during the Toronto game,

really keeping things simple. And when you get a lead in the third period, continue pushing. They did both of those things in Toronto, even on the second half of a back-to-back. I want to see that carry over to this game against the avalanche. I know it could be easier said than done playing a simple game against the avalanche when they have Ransom out there, when they have. have McKinnon out there when they have McCar, but you need to keep things as simple as possible when those three are on the ice because they will make you pay in the blink of an eye.

It really does not take long for them to start galloping and they'll make you look silly in your own zone. We all have talked about how bad the Penguins have been in their own zone throughout this year. I don't want to see them kind of throwing up all over themselves in their own zone tonight, especially when those three are out there. So playing another simple game, not being as aggressive, doing what you did with the lead against Toronto, bringing that over if you have a lead against Avalanche, especially in the third period, those are my two biggest key snipe,

because when the Penguins had that lead against Toronto in the third period, they didn't just turtle, they didn't just pass back and forth in their own zone, they were taking it to Toronto. They were continuing to try and get chances. They were limiting Toronto to the outside. I want to see all of that against and against an Avalanche team that I think so far this year,

they're not in that contender status. But they are at least to me a playoff team. And I think they're probably going to get better at the deadline. For sure. And one thing about this team to kind of bring the whole conversation full circle is that they're in the top 10 for goals scored in the league this year. But like we were talking about, they couldn't get a save. Now they've got goaltending.

So we'll see what this team truly is now that they have goaltending. But for the penguins tonight, echoing everything you just said, got to keep it simple, cannot play high-risk hockey against a team that has this level of talent. The other thing that I really am going to focus on watching tonight's game is head coach Mike Sullivan because you are at home, you have last change, and I'm not going to say that the Colorado Avalanche have a bad bottom six because they don't. It's a great bottom six, in my opinion, because as we've talked about, they have the best name in hockey and Ivan Ivan.

But you have to win the match-up game tonight because, Yeah, we're going to, we definitely are deserving to see some Crosby versus McKinnon head to heads. But at the end of the day, you want to get your top six into favorable matchups tonight. Because I think the penguin's top six can overpower the avalanches bottom six. And I think there's enough after what we saw against Toronto that if you can get your bottom six to play to even against Colorado's top six, say we get a goal from a Blake Lazot or a Kevin Hayes or somebody, and you know that McKinnon and company are going to get their cookies, but you can play to even and win that matchup game tonight.

There's a world where the penguins can get a win against Colorado. Plus, you add in how well they have been playing lately, and the level of confidence they're playing with, because this is something you and I have noticed with this team. When they were in the doldrums early in this year, they weren't playing with any kind of joy. They weren't playing with any kind of energy. It just seemed like they were going to a boring 9 to 5 slog office job. We're here to get a paycheck.

We're going to work until 5 o'clock hits and then we're out the door. Last couple weeks, there's been an energy in their game. There's been a confidence in their game. Dare I say there's been some happiness in their game. If they can bring that over to tonight against a Colorado team that is still trying to figure it out because they have not had great goal tending, they've been able to score, but their defense has been kind of in the mushy middle. This is a matchup the penguins can take, but for me it comes down to those couple of factors. I agree. And also, man, I want to continue to see how Owen Pickering progresses in his development.

He has been fantastic since coming up from Wilkesbury. he's been really good at suppressing chances at five on five. I like that he's getting more of an opportunity on the top pair with Chris LaTang. He really did not look out of place, even against the Toronto team that has a lot of talent up front. He passed that test with ease. But now you're going up against Ransana. You're going up against McCar. You're going up against McKinnon.

Now you're getting more of the big dogs for those top Perryman's with Crystal Tang. I want to see how he does against those three, too. But that's another test. We didn't really get to talk much about Pickering in the last week. But it comes back to the thing that Jesse said. When you make his mixtape, it's not going to be an and one mixtape. It's not going to be him dangling people, scoring goals, going coast to coast. It's going to just be him putting on a clinic when it comes to stick positioning,

body positioning, making the first pass. And we're, that really is what he reminds me of. He's basically almost like a mini Paul Martin. He's not going to do anything flashy, but he's going to make sure that you don't do anything in your own zone in the Penguin's own zone. Excuse me.

Exactly. And this is the point I was building to, which it echoes what you were saying. He is becoming a defenseman that we're noticing him right now because he's a rookie. He's young. He just got called up within the last month. So all eyes are on him because. You want to see how the young gun plays.

But moving forward, should he stick in the NHL, you know what his best asset's going to be? We are never going to notice him because he is just going to make the smart simple play. He's going to shut down the top forwards. And it's not flashy. It's not something that is going to show up on the highlight reel. But it's going to be a very significant, honest day's work. Because if you remember, the only time we really ever noticed,

someone like Brian Dumlin in his heyday is when he messed up or when he scored a goal. And then the only other third time that we would notice him was be the two times a year that the Penguins would play the Oilers because if there was one thing Brian Dumlin wrote the book on in his prime was how to keep Connor McDavid limited. And I'm not going to put Pickering on that level yet. I still got to see how he does against those type of talents. But the way his game is trending, you can tell that he understands. positioning extremely well.

He knows where to have his stick. He makes a very solid first pass. And if he keeps that up, he is a guy that you can staple next to an offensive defenseman and just take the shackles off that offensive defenseman and say, you got your safety net back there. Go Gallup. Yeah, the future on the blue line, you know, with him,

Harrison Brunick maybe being ready next year. It's looking, you know, a lot more bright than maybe, you know, some other people thought it was going to look, you know, in the next year to maybe even three years down the road. But I think that will do it for today's episode, the Locktime Penguins podcast. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. Actually, one more thing.

I will say if they win this game tonight, you know, the schedule really eases up. They will have an opportunity here to potentially make a run out of this. And really, and I mean, really climb into the playoff race with some of these other teams and the conference team like the Rangers, even though they're continuing to struggle. they've lost eight of their last 10 games. I'm not really sure what they have playing,

but they have a chance to really get fully back in the playoff race if they can have a really good month of December here. But again, that will do it for today's episode. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with a fresh episode for you all on Wednesday to recap this game against the avalanche and give you all picks for Warrior Helmet Wednesday. So for Patrick Damp, I'm Hunter Hodes. Thank you all so much for tuning in.

And we'll talk with you all on Wednesday.