Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins face a massive test against the Canucks

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins start their Western Canada trip with a bang on Tuesday night with a matchup against the Vancouver Canucks. To start the show, Hunter and Pat preview that game and detail what t...he Penguins need to do to win it. They look at how the start will be insanely important, along with sticking to the blueprint. After that, they discuss Bryan Rust's injury and how that will impact the top six. They analyze whether putting Reilly Smith up with the top six is the right move while looking at how the new-look third line could be really intriguing. Finally, they discuss what Rust's injury could mean for the trade deadline as that's about a week and a half away.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.Camino ConsultingAfter providing more than 20 years of service to small and midsize businesses, Camino is offering a digital seminar for families and couples. Mention Locked On when reaching out for a business seminar and receive the first 5 profiles free OR use discount code LOCKEDON for 25% off the rest of the month when you visit www.caminoconsulting.ca . SleeperDownload the Sleeper App and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelGet buckets with your first bet on FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your bet wins! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON 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.

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 The Penguins kick off their Western Canada road trip tonight in Vancouver, but they'll be a little bit more shorthand than they would like. Hunter and I are going to break down all that and more on the Tuesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Welcome back Penguins fans to another edition of the Locked-on Penguins.
Starting point is 00:00:38 podcast. I am one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on Twitter at Synonym 4Wet, joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can follow the show's account at L.O. underscore Penguins. And we thank you for making this your first listen or watch of the day, because we're your team every day and we are free and available on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Before we get started, today's episode is brought to you by Sleeper. Download the Sleeper app and use the promo code locked on NHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply.
Starting point is 00:01:14 See Sleepers' terms of use for details. So Hunter's favorite thing happens tonight. The Penguins kick off their Western Canada swing with some penguins after dark when they'll take on the Vancouver Canucks at 10 p.m. Eastern time. And there is really no reason to delay the inevitable here. We saw the news yesterday. The Penguins will start this road trip more short-handed than they already are.
Starting point is 00:01:37 Brian Rust did not make the trip to Western Canada with the team. He is back in Pittsburgh still being evaluated for what was described as an upper body injury. He left the Penguins Wild 7-6 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday and did not return. Although Mike Sullivan did say that it's not out of the realm of possibilities that Brian Rust could play at some point on this trip, saying it would be later determined whether or not he makes the trip and joins the team midwereux. way through the road trip. So we'll stay tuned for more news on that. But with that out of the way, Hunter with the Penguins heading in to play arguably the NHL's best team in the Vancouver Canucks tonight. What do they have to do to kick off this four-game road swing on a positive note?
Starting point is 00:02:24 I think they really need to simplify things in this game. You're already going to be down your two best top six wingers this season. We all know how great Jake Enzel's been. He's not going back until after the trade deadline. We also know. know how good Brian Rust has been as of late. He's almost at 20 goals this season. He was tremendous in that game against the Flyers. And it's unfortunate that a low-key kind of dirty hit from Scott Lawton took him out. I don't really like that play. I saw the hit actually on social media on Monday. I didn't realize just how bad it was. And that's why Russ got hurt. So it's unfortunate that he's not on this trip to start. But what I'm really looking forward to from the Penguins in this
Starting point is 00:03:00 game is to really simplify things. Keep their shift short. You don't want to do too much against a team like the Canucks who are averaging over three and a half goals per game this season. This is one of the best offensive teams in the league. Honestly, one of the best teams overall in the league. You know what you're going to get from their high-end talent. If you're the Penguins, you don't want this game to turn into a track meet. When all someone happened, when they played, for example, the Maple Leafs about a month and a half ago when that game turned into a blow out really quick because the Penguins
Starting point is 00:03:29 are trying to turn that game into a track meet. You don't want to do that here against the likes of Quinn Hughes, Ilius Pedersen, J.T. Miller, Brock Besser, you can keep going down the list. This team is loaded with their top six. Penguins are going to have to really simplify things, keep the connects to the outside, kind of play a low event game, if you will. I feel like when the Penguins are sticking to that blueprint, they are a very tough team to beat, and they're going to have to do that in this one if they want to take down arguably the league's best team. Yeah, there's no two ways about it. this is maybe the best team in the National Hockey League right now.
Starting point is 00:04:05 And since we're very well past the halfway point of the season, this is not an aberration. This is not a team that got hot early and rode early hot streak to staying high in the standings. That said, they are struggling a little bit post All-Star break. They're 5-5-1. They're 4-5-1 in their last 10. They've dropped a couple of games to teams you wouldn't expect them to lose to in Minnesota. Well, maybe not Winnipeg because Winnipeg is a solid.
Starting point is 00:04:31 team, but Minnesota and Seattle, they've needed overtime against some less than formidable opponents to pull out victories. So they are coming down a little bit, but you expect that in an 82 game season, even for the best teams, unless it's a record setting team like we saw last year with the Bruins, where pretty much every team that's elite in the early part of the season and continues to be elite for most of it, they'll have a down couple of weeks or a down month. and I think we're seeing that from the Vancouver Canucks. But like you said, there is just an obscene amount of talent on this Canucks roster. You know, everybody, I see Penguins fans still lamenting that they didn't go and get J.T. Miller.
Starting point is 00:05:14 I will say that's a little bit of revisionist history when there was a chance he could come to the Penguins. He was not a 79 point player at the time. He was solid. Like, let's not pretend like he stunk and all of a sudden turned into a great player. But he was very much down this year. he has rebounded greatly. Elias Pedersen, same deal, 74 points, 29 goals. Quinn Hughes, he's your favorite for the Norris.
Starting point is 00:05:37 I'm right there with you. 70 points, 58 assists. Brock Besser continues to be a great player with 33. He torments the penguins every time he plays them. So if you're a betting person, any time goal score for Brock Besser, probably tonight is a good bet. But again, they're getting contributions up and down the lineup. You look at, you look at their stats, you sort it by goals. And they've got plenty of players with 10 or more goals.
Starting point is 00:06:03 Ilya McCabev, Connor Garland, Sam Lafferty, Quinn Hughes, Pius Souter, Dakota Johnson, Elias Linholm, all have north of 10 goals. So they're getting it from up and down the lineup. The other thing that this is why I totally agree with they have to play low event hockey outside of the obvious that there's a ton of elite talent on the Vancouver Canucks. The Vancouver Canucks at home this year are damn near unbeatable. They have a 25 and 2 record at home. So they stack wins at home like nobody's business.
Starting point is 00:06:36 So you have to play tonight a near perfect game against the Vancouver Canucks. And if you don't, you are going to be in a world of hurt. The first five, 10 minutes are so crucial in this type of game. Right. You got to come out there. You got to weather the storm. The Canucks, they're going to be fired up for this one just because they haven't been playing well as of late.
Starting point is 00:06:55 This is kind of like their first adversity that they've really had to face. this season just because they've been mowing through teams in the league this year. And now you finally get into a stretch where you're losing to some lesser teams. You're not playing that well. Rick Tocke caught out the team just a few days ago. And that led to, I know some people in Penguinsbury being like, hmm, I wonder what trade Patrick Alvin and Jim Rutherford are cooking up right now because they're probably not happy with the way things are going.
Starting point is 00:07:18 But this is still a team that knows how to bounce back. And I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if they did, considering how talented they are. But the Penguins, they're going to have to play a perfect first time, 10 minutes to weather that storm. If you can get an early lead, that'll be massive with how Vancouver's been playing. But this is going to be the toughest test of this road trip. And as I said on the Monday episode, if you're able to win this game,
Starting point is 00:07:41 that sets yourself up for a lot, potentially a lot of success for the rest of the strip because you're playing three other teams. For example, Seattle, they've been a bit up and down as late, but they did just beat the Bruins in a shootout on Monday. Edmonton has been a bit up and down as of late in Calgary as well. But if you can win this first test, I think that bodes well, hopefully, for the rest of this trip.
Starting point is 00:08:01 But, you know, we all know how good Vancouver's four group is. Defensively, they're also strong. But let's not forget, and Ned, you can make a case for Thatcher Demko to win the Vesna this year. 21 goals, state above expected. That's second in the NHL, 917, say percentage, 2.47 goals against average for one of the only times I would say this season, Pat. I don't think the penguins have the gold-tending advantage in this one, just because of how good Demko has been. We all know how good Tristan Jari has been even outside of his last start against the flyers. Demko has been that much better.
Starting point is 00:08:32 And the Penguins are going to have to get a lot of traffic in front of them and make sure they're taking away his ability to see the puck if they want to really beat this guy. Absolutely. And I got to say on a personal note, it's really cool for me to see Thatcher Demko being as good as he's been. He was in Utica the same time I was working for that team back when they were the Canucks AHL affiliate. And you could see it when he played the AHA. A.HL. He was, to use a tired cliche, he was a man against boys in the HL. That was the year that the core of the Toronto Maple Leafs outside of Austin Matthews were all still playing for the Toronto Marleys. And they mowed through the HL playoffs to a Calder Cup championship. And the only bump in the road they had was the first round against Utica because Utica had Thatcher Demko. And he kept them very much alive in that series, even though the Marleys obviously went on to win. So, Really cool to see that. The other thing that I think keeps this Canucks team from really actually spiraling.
Starting point is 00:09:34 And we can lament the end of the Jim Rutherford era here in Pittsburgh all we want. I think there is a lot of shine on it. You win two Stanley Cups, consistently one of the best teams in the league. You did a good job. But I think you have a young-ish team with the Vancouver Canucks, but it's being led by two guys in Rick Tockeet and Jim Rutherford, who have seen and done it all in the National Hockey League. They have been around for so long.
Starting point is 00:09:59 They're not afraid to innovate from time to time, but they are the definition of been there, done that, and that's a good steady hand to have on the wheel when things start to rattle a little bit, which we've seen with this team. But overall, I mean, I do think the Penguins, if they play the game, we have seen them play inconsistently throughout this year,
Starting point is 00:10:22 where they are very responsible defensively. They don't take too many risks. They take the simple play and take what the game gives them. They can hang right with this team. And we know that Sidney Crosby is doing, he is basically Peter Parker in the first Spider-Man movie with Tom Holland, just pulling the ship together after it breaks apart, not letting it fall.
Starting point is 00:10:47 And if he keeps having that kind of effort, I'm never going to, I know I've said that I think this team is not making the playoffs, but in game to game basis with the way he's playing, I'm never counting this team out because you know he's got some kind of trick up his sleeve. And he always loves playing in Canada. We all know that, I mean, especially in Vancouver. So they're going to need another great performance from him if they want to win this game, especially with how shorthanded they are again.
Starting point is 00:11:15 Their two best top six wards are out if you looked at the lines in practice on Monday, Riley Smith was bumped up to Crosby's line with Ricardo Raquel, which, I mean, is fine. We all know how Riley Smith has played this season, but they really have no other option at this point than to bump Riley Smith up with Ed and see if he can get those results. But again, it all goes back to what I said before, man, simplify things, keep them to the outside, play a low event style, and they'll have a chance, at least a chance, to win this game in Vancouver. If this game is just as good as the first one between these two teams about, what was that a month, month, a half ago, I'll be pretty happy just obviously how the penguins come out on the right side of one and not on the wrong side just because of they lost overtime. But that first one between those two teams was a ton of fun. And I can only hope that this game is going to be just as fun,
Starting point is 00:12:02 if not more. Yeah, agreed. And we'll get a little bit more into the lineup decisions without Rust in the second segment. But we're going to call it on this segment and we'll be right back to talk about those lineup changes. But first, we have to tell you about today's sponsor and that is Sleeper. We're past the halfway point in the season. and Penguins fans, we know how it's going. It's up and down. The playoffs are looking less and less likely. But regardless of where we are in the current standings,
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Starting point is 00:13:39 That's code locked on NHL. See Sleeper's Terms of Use for Details and Locational Availability. Okay, we're back here on the Tuesday edition. of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp, joined as always by the illustrious Hunter Hodes. And we alluded to it there at the end of the first segment. We talked about it a little bit at the start of the show.
Starting point is 00:14:00 Brian Rust, not on the trip. He is not going to be in the lineup at least tonight. As I said, Mike Sullivan has not completely rolled out his return on this road trip. We still don't know his status. He hasn't been placed on LTIR or anything like that. So still remains a possibility, but will not be available tonight. we get the first line of Riley Smith, Sidney Crosby, and Ricard Raquel. And I'll be honest, I don't hate this.
Starting point is 00:14:27 I don't think, obviously, it's a total necessity given injuries and everything else with Jake Gensel out, with now Brian Rust out. It's just born of complete necessity. So you have to fill those guys in where they are. But we know that Sidney Crosby can be a Mr. Fixit for a lot of guys. So right now at this point, if you want to see really what you have in Riley Smith, and I think Ricard Raquel's game has been trending upward, at least of the last week or so, since he's been rejoined with Sidney Crosby.
Starting point is 00:14:59 I think this could be a bit of a proving ground for Riley Smith, who we, I think is somebody that they're very motivated to move at the deadline. So at this point, I think this could be a nice little proving ground for Riley Smith. at the very least, this does potentially boost his trade value with about 10 days until the trade deadline. If they do decide to sell off Smith to Vegas or wherever else he would want to go, it wouldn't make any sense, in my opinion, to move up O'Connor or Pusin to the top line. With how O'Connor is playing next to Hvgeny Malkin, especially this last week or two, you have to keep him there.
Starting point is 00:15:37 And with Al-Tarri Pusen, with how he played this last week on Ugany Malkin's line, there's no reason to bump either those two up to the Crosby line. Radley Smith has really struggled on Gino's line this season. He's also real struggled in the third line. See what he can do playing top line next to Cindy Crosby because I know we've kind of gone at Ricard Raquel quite a bit on the show. He did get that goal against the Flyers over the weekend, and that's the product of playing with Crosby.
Starting point is 00:16:04 That brings out the best in Raquel. It always has been. Even though he hasn't been good this season, he's still at his best when he plays with Crosby. Could that be said for Riley Smith now? Potentially, he had that great start to the season next to him, and then it kind of fills it out, and they haven't been able to recreate that magic.
Starting point is 00:16:22 Let's see now if he can recreate some magic with Sid and bump up that trade value, help out the team a little bit in the short term before potentially moving on in the next 10 days. But I don't really think they have a choice in the matter, in my opinion. I think that's the only move they can make with Brian Russ and Jake Gensel being out of the lineup. No, and to build off what you were saying there,
Starting point is 00:16:43 I do think that they have found something in that second line with Drew O'Connor, Evgeny Malkin, Valteri Pustin. You know, Pustin, we talked about it months ago that we didn't want to see him become the typical flash-in-the-pan AHL guy where he comes up, has a couple of games where he looks like he might be something, and then falls right back into just being another HAL guy. And now in his second stint, spending time with Malkin and O'HL guy,
Starting point is 00:17:06 spending time with Malkin and O'Connor, he has looked a lot better and a lot more effective. Yeah, maybe the goals and points aren't there, but he's making plays. He's in the right position. He's helping drive offense. And that is kind of what of Gennie Malkin has been missing all season long. He's had, the way I referred to it, a Looney Tunes style rotating door of wingers. And at 37, he's not 27-year-old of Gennie Malkin anymore. He's not going to be able to totally paper over for.
Starting point is 00:17:36 the deficiencies on his line. He's got to have help. And by all accounts, it looks like Drew O'Connor could be a good, quote, unquote, long-term fix for Evgeny Malkin. And Valteri Pustin looks like a guy who, if you put him with elite talent, he's at the very least not going to be out of place. No, and he wasn't out of place at all this past week. I thought he was getting chances in all of their games this past week.
Starting point is 00:18:03 He should have scored it in the Montreal game, in my opinion. and he was great against the islanders, and then he was great also against the flyers as well. Keep giving him those opportunities and see what he can do with them. I think he has earned his place in the top six. And I know I was, what's the word I want to use for that? I think I was excited about seeing what Matthew Phillips can do on the Malkins line, but after a few games, it was evident to me that he just wasn't going to fit there.
Starting point is 00:18:27 And I know he was a cardio merchant. It just wasn't going to fit. What did you say? He was a cardio merchant. That's a good way to put it, actually. But yeah, it just is. No, no disrespect to him. He has some wheels.
Starting point is 00:18:37 He can skate, but that's really it. You know, I always say that about guys who are fast. It's like, okay, you want guys in the NHL today to be fast, but it can't be it. That can't be it. It can't just be, oh, he's fast. You have to bring something else to the table. And the thing was, like, he had good goal scoring ability and playing and giving ability in the HL, but it just hasn't translated over to the NHL yet.
Starting point is 00:18:58 And even though it had only been a few games, I was like, okay, let's try someone else up there. And as soon as they put Pustin up there, that line started to take off. And that's what Malkin needs. He needs good linemates in a way to succeed just because he can't carry his own line anymore. And that's fine. The guy's 37 years old.
Starting point is 00:19:15 As you said, he's not in his prime 26, 27, where he can carry his own line. He hasn't aged like Cindy Crosby. Honestly, what player has aged like Cindy Crosby and the NHL at this point. It's fine that he hasn't. He's still a good player. He just needs a little bit of help.
Starting point is 00:19:29 And as you've been seeing for the last week or two, Pat, he's been getting that help with Drew O'Connor with Al-Trey Pusin. Keep that line together and see if it'll continue to cook over this next week on this road trip. And then you figure we said this is going to be kind of a proven ground for guys like Smith and Raquel. It's also going to be another chance for Yassie Pooey RV to show his value because he's likely going to factor back in on the third line with Lars Eller and Emil Bemstrom. And I got to say, I think I like this line too, just because there's going to be some speed there. there's going to be some physicality there. And everybody from Columbus who had anything to say about Bemstrom,
Starting point is 00:20:09 we saw it a little bit on Sunday. The guy can shoot. And if nothing else, if you can get a Pooy RV to post up in front and get the puck to the guy like Bemstrom to shoot it, you can maybe cause some chaos. And that's exactly what you're going to have to do against the Thatcher Demko is it is going to have to be blue collar dirty goals in front of him. You are extremely rare to be.
Starting point is 00:20:31 beat him clean. So at this point, you have to get guys who want to go to the net front. And I think with Bemstrom, Eller, and Pooley-R-V, you might get that. Eller is like that playmaker or also a really good defensive player on that line. While someone like Poo-Yarvey can go into the corners, four check, get the puck out, and then get it to Benstrom, who we saw on that game against the Flyers. He has one heck of a shot. And if you can use that to his advantage, the Penguins can potentially get some more production, hopefully from their bottom six.
Starting point is 00:21:02 I like the makings of that third line with a pure shooter, someone who can forcik can pull Yarvi, and then a playmaker slash that defensive player, and Eller who can get the puck to those two, can also get back in his own zone. It's an intriguing third line. And I'm curious to see how it does for the first time tonight. Yeah, I keep saying proving ground.
Starting point is 00:21:21 So that is going to be the topic of our third segment. With the Brian Rust injury, we're going to talk a little bit how this could affect the trade deadline. we are going to do that in the third segment, but before we do that, we have to tell you about our next sponsor, and that is Camino Consulting. Our sponsor, once again, today is Camino Consulting. You've heard of our online families and couples course and taking advantage of the locked on 25% discount running until the end of the month, but what about the live seminars? In both sports and business, the challenge in differentiating candidates and recruits is an endless battle. Everyone can demonstrate their
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Starting point is 00:22:29 So contact Camino Consulting at Camino Consulting. And get on the fast track to understanding. All right. We're back here for the final segment of the Tuesday edition of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm Patrick Damp, joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. And so we talked about it here that Brian Rust,
Starting point is 00:22:49 not on the trip, might not be making it even at all on this trip. We don't know yet. I do think, though, aside from trying to get them back on track in Smith and Raquel. This is going to be a little bit of a showcase, especially because you're going up against a couple of Stanley Cup contenders in Vancouver and Edmonton on this trip. To showcase, maybe the Penguins have a couple of assets. You might be interested in coming the trade deadline. I think a big one obviously is Riley Smith. It kind of feels like this just has not been a fit since they got him from Vegas in the offseason.
Starting point is 00:23:24 you know, no disrespect to Riley Smith, the player. He is a very solid hockey player, but this is starting to feel a little bit like square peg round hole with him. So you can hope that a bump up to Sidney Crosby's line gives him a little bit of the kick in the pants. He starts producing at a better rate, and you can really entice some teams to maybe take that deal off your hands. He can go on a shooting mender over this next week, right,
Starting point is 00:23:50 to see if he can just pot a bunch of goals and then that could raise his value a little bit, and then boom, he's potentially out the door when the deadline comes in 10 days. And that's obviously if they want to move him, but all indications are with the rumors and everything that he's very much on the trade block and they would potentially want to move on just because the fit hasn't been there overall.
Starting point is 00:24:08 I mean, other players that could get moved. I mean, we've talked about this as well. You know, P.O. Joseph, he's getting top pairing minutes with Crystal Tang. Are they showcasing him, Pat, potentially, for other teams? That's the possibility as well. They did reunite Pedersen with Carlson, which is great. And speaking of Marcus Pederson, you did see the report on Monday from David Pagnotta.
Starting point is 00:24:25 I would not move Marcus Pedersen at all. I think he's someone that you build around, even as this team gets into a major retool or potentially big re-build down the stretch, that's someone who I don't want this team to move on from it all. I understand that the haul that you could get from moving on from him, but I just don't really want to imagine what this defense looks like
Starting point is 00:24:43 without their services of Marcus Pedersen. Other Ford's wise, I mean, I don't really know who else is going to get moved off of this team. I mean, in a way, maybe Ricard Raquel, You know, he's obviously getting top line minutes with Cindy Crosby, but I also don't know who's going to want that contract at this point, considering how he has played this season. You're not moving again any Malk and his two wingers are not going anywhere.
Starting point is 00:25:04 Benstrom's not going anywhere. Maybe Lars Eller, if you can get a team to, you know, give up a third round pick for him or something like that, that's also a player who could be on the move if this team does kind of sink during this road trip. But, you know, again, you look up and down this lineup. with Gensel out, Brian Rust out, their trade targets right now outside of Gensel, it's mainly just, you know, Riley Smith,
Starting point is 00:25:28 Ricard, Raquel, Lars Eller, to a lesser degree, Marcus Pedersen, and obviously one of the goalies, Alex Dahlkevich, Tristan Jari, you have Joel Blumquist down in Wilkesbury as well. Other than that, I'm still not really sure who else could get moved at the deadline. I mean, I don't think Eric Carlson's going to get moved at all.
Starting point is 00:25:45 But, you know, this is, this road trip is, it was going to be hard to begin with, even with Brian Russ playing, but now it's just going to be that much harder with their two best top six winger is going to be missing, you know, at least this first game, if not the entire road trip. For sure. And as for Pedersen, I agree with you. I don't want to move him. I don't think they should move him. But if somebody offers you the sun and the moon for him, you have to take the call. I don't want to say that he's irreplaceable because he has been one of the steadiest. and best penguins this season. But if a general manager comes to you with a very enticing package, they can help you in the short and medium turn, you have to take the call.
Starting point is 00:26:28 I think it would suck. I think, you know, it's... You got to have a replacement ready for him, though, and the penguins don't have that in their system. Ryan Graves is not going to be that guy. P.O. Joseph is not going to be that guy that replaced Marcus Pederson. Are you getting something back in return from him that's going to replace him? Or are you going to have to go out in a free agency or via trade this summer
Starting point is 00:26:48 and get someone to replace him. And honestly, if you do go that route, I don't know if there's going to be anyone out there that's available via trade or ready to sign a agency that can do what he does, especially in the defensive zone on a nightly basis. So I hear what you're saying. I think if someone offers you a package that you maybe can't refuse, you can definitely think about it and listen to it.
Starting point is 00:27:08 But you have to have a full proof plan in place if you do move on from him in terms of replacing it. Agreed. And that's kind of what I'm saying is just like, I think it's very unlikely, but if there's a package that works to move him, you have to at the very least take the call. But I think that is going to do it for this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Penguins and Canucks, Canucks Army, we're waiting for you tonight. We'll see it at 10 o'clock out in Vancouver.
Starting point is 00:27:36 And then Hunter and I will be back tomorrow to recap that game as well as get you ready for the rest of the week. But for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always, for tuning into the lockdown Penguins. podcast. We will talk to you once again on Wednesday.

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