Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins get a point in Carolina, but the power play falters again...

Episode Date: January 15, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins got 4/6 points this past week which is good but it could've been a lot better. Hunter and Pat start the show by recapping the loss to the Carolina Hurricanes and how they had another terrible start in the first period. They discuss how these bad starts are completely unacceptable at this stage of the season, especially against divisional opponents. They analyze why this team can't seem to play 60 minutes against this type of team even though they've shown they can play with them during games. After that, they dump on the power play once again for failing to do anything. They dive into what the main problems are and what Erik Karlsson meant by his comments to Josh Yohe. What are the main problems for this team in 3-on-3? They also look at that before diving into a preview for Monday's game against the Seattle Kraken. All that, plus much more is on this episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast.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.IndeedIndeed knows when you’re growing your own business, you have to make every dollar count. Visit Indeed.com/LOCKEDON to start hiring now. Jase MedicalEmpower yourself when you purchase a Jase Case, providing you with a personal supply of 5 antibiotics that treat 50+ infections. Get yours today at jasemedical.com and use code LOCKEDON to get $20 off your order.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.FanDuelRight now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED when you place a FIVE DOLLAR BET. 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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Penguins dropped another close one to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night. And on today's episode, the Locked on Penguins podcast, Pat and I are going to recap that game, plus get you all set from Monday afternoon's game against the Cracken. You're Locked on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast.

I am one of your hosts, Honor Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-s Patrick Gant. You can follow him on Twitter at Sonom for Wet, and you can follow the shows Twitter at L.O. and for Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this, your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms.

And finally, today's episode is brought to you by. Fans will make every moment more. Right now, new customers get $150 bucks in bonus bets, guaranteed when you place a $5 bet. visit fandoo.com slash locked on to get started. So Hurricanes 3, Penguins 2 in a game that's been basically playing on repeat, I feel like for the past couple of years when these two teams play outside of the game in Pittsburgh earlier this year where the Penguins won in a shootout.

But all these other games against the hurricanes, again, go exactly the same way. A coin flip and it went the Hurricanes way. I do like how the Penguins battle back. to get a point in this game for the week, they got four out of six points. That is the positive spin on this. That's a pretty good week in a way. They won two games, lost one of regulation. I know it's not what really happened, but in a way you could argue that I guess it

did in quotation marks. But four out of six points, that's fine. That said, they still started off this game really poorly. They played a terrible first period to let the hurricanes jump all over them. and they had to play catch up yet again, and they were lucky to score another six on five goal at the end of the game. But again, Pat, just not an acceptable start. That's two games in a row where it feels like the penguins were not ready to play in the first period.

And it cost them a potential second point in this game and against Vancouver as well. It did. And there's, you know, you and I have been texting since the game about a lot because, it's a frustrating couple of a couple of days here in the penguins in the penguins world. The one thing I want to, I do want to preface with is that there's going to be a lot of talk on this episode about things that are going poorly and things that are going wrong. But let's not lose too much perspective here.

They are in a very tight Eastern conference. We can talk about the quality of the Eastern Conference and how good or bad it is. That's a different discussion for a different day. end of the day, this team is still two points out of a playoff spot. They are all of eight, I believe if my math is correct, or not eight, they are all of six out of third in the Metropolitan Division. So things aren't disastrous. You know, we're not talking about this team falling out of a playoff spot or anything crazy.

But there are warning signs right now of where this team is and where it could go. and it starts with the starts. You can't, this is twice now in two weeks that they have gone into a crucial division game with two extremely important points on the line and they don't show up for the first period. They did it against the caps a little under two weeks ago, and that's a bad Capitals team, man. I'm sorry, I got all the respect in the world for Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals is the penguin's rival, but that's not a good hockey team.

They are better than that hockey team and they know showed in the first period in a game where they could have absolutely dominated that team start to finish and taken a crucial two points in a playoff race. And while no, you're not chasing directly the Carolina hurricanes right now. They're looking like they have a very real chance to catch the Rangers at the top of the metro, but it's still two huge points in the division that you are going to need in a couple of months and they just, and top to bottom, too. This wasn't like against the caps where the top guys showed up

and everybody else was terrible. Nobody showed up from the drop of the puck except for Tristan Jari. The first breakaway that they got within the first 15 seconds of the game was a Sydney Crosby turnover, an uncharacteristic Sydney Crosby turnover that you never see happen. So this is a huge problem for this team. I understand they're a little bit older. I understand, as Yohei told us in the preseason,

this team doesn't care about winning the division. They don't care about division titles. They care about getting into the playoffs and letting whatever happens happen in the playoffs. But guess what? If you don't play a full 60 minutes in the National Hockey League, more often than not, you are not going to win. And the crazy thing is they've shown they can compete with these top teams. For example, Vancouver.

I thought they mostly outplayed them in that game outside of the first period with Carolina. They had a really brutal first period. Tristan Jari was the only reason why it was only two nothing heading into the second period. But then the Penguins started to find their lays again. in the second period and in the third period. I thought they actually kind of outplayed Carolina for a good chunk of those second and third periods. But the fact that they're still unable to start these games on time,

whether it's against Vancouver, Carolina, or Washington, that's concerning because these are big games and you need to play a full 60 minutes if you want to take these games in regulation. Even if they had won that in overtime, I would have obviously loved the result. but I would not have liked that it would have taken overtime to beat the hurricanes, but I guess sometimes that happens. We can talk about the three-on-three struggles a little later on in the show,

but these starts have got to get better. You can't be relying on number 35 to bail you out every single time, at least when he starts. We can talk about Nadelcovic whenever he starts, because he's had to bail them out quite a bit at times this season. But when Jari starts and he's playing at this level, you can't rely on him to do this every single. single time you have a bad start. It's a recipe for disaster, to be honest.

It is. And to your point, you look at the, the underlines from last night. They had 66% of the coursey four percentage in the second period, 53% of it in the third period. In the second period, they had 75% of the expected goals percentage and then 53% of the expected goals percentage in the third period. They outplayed the Carolina Hurricanes the final 40 minutes. They held Carolina to two high danger chances after the first period. They locked in after that awful 20 minutes. But the worst part was Pat, they gave up nine high danger chances in that first period. That's not acceptable.

No. And that's the biggest issue here is that they are fighting uphill. And we're going to talk about this in the second segment as a whole. We're going to talk about the power play. But here's the thing. They're fighting uphill overall because they're starting games late. They are not giving themselves a good opportunity. The thing that I, that really has stuck out to me, and I know it's getting, it's getting

parsed, it's getting pulled apart and analyzed by everybody. I'm not going to do that with this, but I want to talk about the Eric Carlson quote to Josh Yohe from this, from last night. He basically asked Carlson why they don't win in overtime, why they're struggling in overtime. And he said, I'm surprised by it too. I don't know why. We didn't control the puck off the face off.

It's tough when you don't control the puck in overtime. I have my theories, but I'll keep it to myself. And listen, that we're not going to put on tinfoil hats here and try to figure out what he said. Here's the thing that I do want to parse against, though. Somebody in that locker room, whether it's Carlson, Crosby, whether it's Latang, Jake Gensel, or even a guy who's done it plenty of times before in a event. Genie Malkin needs to come out and bury this team a little bit to a reporter, whether it's Yohe, Rossi, whomever.

Now, they don't need to come out. Like I said, this team is in a tight Eastern conference. There's still two points out of a playoff spot. Not all is lost. But eventually, somebody in this locker room, one of the leaders, one of the big guys, has to come out and say, the efforts as of late have not been acceptable. We haven't played 60 minutes. We haven't converted on the power play.

We haven't played our best hockey. We've hung our goaltenders out. to dry. We haven't been responsible defensively. And just wake this team up a little bit. Because here's the thing. All the experts and pundits out there have talked about, oh, this team's old, this team's old. They're not as good as you think they are.

They're not as good as you think they are. Screw that. We're not talking about, no offense to him. You know, I love him. We're not talking about Jeff Carter being older. We're talking about Sidney Crosby, Fgeny Malkin, Chris Latang, and Eric Carlson. Guys who at their absolute prime were among the best.

best hockey players to ever put on skates. They haven't suddenly declined so far that they're no longer amongst the best in the league. They are still great hockey players. And this is a team that is not playing up to its potential for a myriad of reasons. One of them being the fact that they aren't playing a full 60 minutes and the other is that they are getting complacent. They are looking towards the playoffs and they haven't made it there yet. It just seems like in a number of ways they haven't fully started back.

push for the playoffs that there were recent years after the back-to-back cups where the penguins were kind of in this same situation where they were fighting for their playoff lives around this time. But then they would go on a couple of massive winning streaks to really get themselves out of there to be in the top three of the division. You haven't seen that just yet. And yeah, you know, they're nine, three, and three in the last 15 games. That's all fine and dandy. But they still haven't pulled off Pat, you know, a massive,

six to eight game winning streak once or twice this season. That's what's really needed over these next couple of weeks to really get yourself out of the bubble and then you can start fighting for a potential top three spot in this division. And then you can maybe look towards the playoffs. We haven't seen that this year. We saw it at the early stages of last year. We didn't really see it at this time last year either. That's what I feel like's been really missing these last couple years.

And to your point about overtime, it is funny. Because when three on three first came about, I was a big fan of it. I still like three on three. But this Penguins team always used to play so well in that extra session. And I feel like there's numerous problems with the Penguins with three on three now. One, the team is definitely a bit older. They don't have fresh legs like they used to have. Some of their players aren't as good on three on three as they were.

For example, of getting him all. And he used to be amazing in three on three. he's not anymore. And that's fine. I think of Genni Malkin is still a world-class player. He's just not that good at three-on-three anymore. I also think they make really poor decisions when it comes to changes like last night with Cindy Crosby. There was no reason to make a change there, and he comes off, and then you're leaving Fgeny Malkin out to dry trying to defend a chance there. And let's face it, we all know of Gennie Malkin is not good defensively. He never really has been. He's been a bit better this year, but still leaves a lot to be desired. There's no reason to

make a change in that situation. Another problem, they just don't have the puck often enough. That's, I think, the biggest one. They don't have the puck nearly enough. They barely have the puck at all in that overtime session against Carolina last night. There's a lot of problems when it comes to this team on three on three. Yeah, you can also argue that overtime is a crapshoot. It is.

It kind of is. But I still think they can be better in this extra session than they have in these last couple years because that's now five shows. straight just OT losses for this team. And that's unacceptable because it burned them last year for most of last year before they started to win a little bit more in overtime towards the end. And it's burning them again this year. It's not acceptable.

I also think, and we'll close this segment out real quick. I don't want to go much longer is just that I think like so many other things, three on three overtime has now become so overcoached that it's just teams have caught up just strategically with the penguins because the penguins just used to be able to overwhelm you with speedy skill now. like every other thing in the national hockey league, it's been completely overcoached. I agree. And I know the league is trying to figure out ways to make three on three a little more exciting

just because whenever someone gains the zone and there's not enough help, they can just retreat and then go back for another zone entry. But the penguins just aren't doing enough smart things in three on three, and it's costing them extra points night in and night out. But that will do it for this first segment. coming up in the second segment, oh yeah, we're going to go scorched earth on the power play. Once again, Pat has been waiting to give his take on the situation, as have I, but we are going to really bury this unit in the second segment.

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Hurricanes are usually a very stout penalty-killing team, but the Penguins made it so easy on them last night that I kind of laughed a little bit at times when they were on the power play. There was one sequence in the second period. You know it. Penguins had a five-on-three for about 30 seconds. They couldn't game the zone once. Again, unacceptable. That's a disgrace. That's a joke. It's whatever word you want to call it. You have the five on four right after. Couldn't gain the zone after there as well. And the fact that they continue to not make a single big adjustment to this unit at the halfway point of the season is laughable. I mean, we talked all about Tar Reardon. They obviously don't want to fire him. We can keep blabbering about it all we want. It's obvious they don't want to,

even though they probably should. We can also talk all we want about them, you know, putting Malkin and Crosby on separate units. They're not going to do that, I think, at this juncture. But this unit, it's been unacceptable since night one, and it continues to cost the Penguins points game after game, after game. I know you've been wanting to say a lot about this, so I'm going to go ahead and hand this over to you. So I'm going to treat this a little bit like cliche sports talk radio.

And we're going to power rank it of who's a problem. And I'm going to start at the top, and I'm just going to go with the players. Because listen, we have belly ached about the coaching, and the coaching's not blameless. So before a bunch of listeners and watchers here start cringing, thinking I'm going to run defense and in ops for the coaching staff, don't worry, we're going to get there. But you've got to go with the players because there is no coach in the world. Or there is a coach somewhere in the world that would do this, but there's no coach in the National Hockey League that would be teaching this. or coaching this or preaching this of what we're seeing. This is on the players because I brought this up in an earlier episode.

Somebody on that power play needs to become LeBron James with the heat in the early 2010s and just say, I'm taking over, I'm scoring, and if you don't like that, too bad. I get it. Eric Carlson stepped into a locker room with Crosby, Malkin, and Latang, who are the longest trio to ever play on the same team consecutively in North American. professional sports. I get it. These guys are living legends.

They've done everything there is to do in this sport. But you know what? If you're the quarterback of the power play, you don't have to be nice anymore. Don't give the puck to these guys every time you don't defer to them, all of that. Because if they don't like the fact that you're scoring goals and winning games on the power play, well, that's their problem, not yours.

And guess what? We know these three guys. They're perfectly fine with winning games in scoring goals. They don't have to be the ones to do it. and if they do have a problem with that, well, then you know what? Maybe they aren't the greats we thought they were. Eventually somebody has to take charge of this power play because they're doing the same drop passes.

They're playing the same passive style they've been playing. They won't go to the front of the net. Because if you look at the times, when this power play was effective, they were quick with it. They played urgently. They went to the front of the net. they had a shot first mentality. When they, everywhere else, that's not been the case. Now we go to the coaches.

This is on both Todd Reardon and Mike Sullivan. It's on Todd Reardon because you're the guy in charge. I don't know what else to say. I can't really go much deeper than that because when you're the guy who is known for the running of the power play and this is what we're getting out of it, well, you're part of the problem, a big part of it. as well. It's on Mike Sullivan because it's my favorite story about him. When he first came in in 2015, he sat down with Crosby, Malkin, Latang, and at the time, Phil Kessel, and basically

ask them, why should I keep you all together on the top powerplay unit? It sucks. And he let them speak their piece, and he basically said, okay, you've got, it was either five, seven, or ten, I can't remember games to prove to me that you belong on the same unit. And all of a sudden, they decided to prove that they belonged on the same unit and the rest, as they say, is history. Eventually, I think Mike Sullivan is one of the best coaches in the national hockey league. They have a top five coach behind that bench, but I think he's gotten a little bit comfortable. And I don't mean that in Kyle Dubus has to come out and threaten his job or Kyle Dubus has to come out in the media and talk about how, you know, we're looking at all these problems and blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever.

I think he's just gotten too comfortable with his guys as well, he should. these guys have earned a continent's worth of the benefit of the doubt for everything that they've done. But he's eventually got to say to them, guys, you're all future Hall of Famers. You're all offensively talented. Why is this power play bottom three? Take a seat. I'm giving everybody else a shot. And if they want to complain and moan about it, well, that's too bad.

Go out and score goals. You are paid two score goals. This power play, if it was average, that's fine. Because you know what? It's the most inherently random game. on the planet. And how much power play has this team top three in the metro right now? Sometimes you do everything right and the puck just doesn't go in.

That's what hockey is. But guess what? They're not even getting the process right anymore. So eventually he has to step in and again be the alpha in charge of this team like he was for the first few years and say to the players, guess what? You're stinking up the joint, take a seat and figure it out. I'm breaking this power play up. And if you guys have a problem with that, well, you better prove to me that you should be on the same power play again.

Because it's been 41 games. It's literally been half of a season. We know what this power play is. So it's a problem. And everybody's at fault. So for everybody it's going to tell me, oh, it's this thing. It's that thing. It's this.

It's that's the other. You're all right. You're all correct. Every single part of it is a problem. Right. And honestly, at this point, I don't see why he maybe doesn't just put the second unit out there for the first half or, maybe even more of a power play that the penguins get and be like, okay, if the top union isn't going to do anything and they're not even going to be able to game the zone, I'm going to put

you guys out there, some of the debt players. Let's see what you guys can do. You start getting some results. I'm going to continue to put you guys out there for the first minute, minute 10, minute 15 of a power play and we'll go from there. And just to just put the, I guess, the cherry on top to this discussion, Matt, who he has a long, it's like Ginzer on social media on Twitter, I guess. He compiled all the Penguins' one-score losses and their power play results for the first half of this season, or a good chunk of them against the ducks where I was there for that game with that awful goal at the end.

Penguins went two for seven. Rangers, O for four. Sabers, O for two. Predators, O for two. Flyers, O for five, O for three. Sanders, O for four. Capitals, one for three. Kinnucks, O for four.

Then Carolina, last night. What was it, Pat? O for four? That's not good enough. That is costing you games every single week. And it's no wonder why you're out of the playoff spot right now because this unit is absolute dog crap. I don't want to say what I was going to say.

And you're not you're not asking them to be the historically greatest power play to ever exist in the history of the league. That would be nice. You certainly wouldn't hear complaints from us about that. But one goal, one, one goal in those games, just one. One extra power play goal. And they're probably in third or second in the metro right now. They only have themselves to blame.

And you know what? I'll be saying the same thing if they missed the playoffs at the end of this season. That's the biggest thing. Yeah. We're going to look back. And if they miss, we're going to be like, man, if only you guys lived up to your billing on the power play,

you guys would be playing in the tournament and another team wouldn't be. And that's the biggest thing. We're going to say. Power play is about, we can say, about because we're at the halfway mark of the season. The power play is literally about to cost them their season. Yeah.

And it's crazy to me that they will not make a single major change to it, whether it's something regarding the personnel, firing a coach, preferably Tar Reardon, whatever. It's just crazy that they continue to just run this thing back and think that, oh, everything's fine. They're going to figure this thing out. It's been half a season, guys. it ain't just going to figure itself out on its own.

But hey, again, they'll have themselves to blame if they missed the playoffs in these final 41 games. But that would do it for the second segment. Coming up to end the show, big game on Monday against the Seattle Crack and a team that is now won nine in a row after starting out the season really cold. Pat and I'm going to preview that game to end the show. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about game time. You shouldn't have to worry when you're buying tickets to your next big event. Game time is the fastest and eases way to be. buy tickets for all the sports, music, comedy, and theater events near you.

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train account and use code locked on for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, train account and redeem code locked on for $20 off download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes, joined by my host Patrick Dam. So Penguins Cracking coming your way, 1 o'clock start time on Monday. this was originally going to be an evening game, but thanks to the crazy weather in Buffalo,

the Penguins are cracking, we're able to come to a deal to get this game to 1 o'clock because, let's face it, the Pittsburgh Steelers run the city of Pittsburgh, and everyone that goes to that game wants to be able to go out to a bar, go back home to watch the Steelers take on the bills at 430 on Monday. So shout out, shout out to die hard Steelers fan, Ron Francis for agreeing to it, man. We love you. We love you, Ronnie franchise. guys. Yes, he probably was like, you know what, I'll do this. Let's make the game at 1 o'clock. I want to go watch this game somewhere, even though I'm the general manager of a hockey team. And speaking of his hockey team, the Cracken has been on fire as of late. They've won nine in a row. They start off the season. Really, and I mean, really cool. They were well below 500, but they've riled off quite a few wins as of late. They are firmly in the playoff race right now. If you look at the standings for the

Pacific Division. They're 19 and 14 and 9, 47 points tied with the Eminton Oilers for fourth place in the division of the Oilers have three games in hand on the Cracken. So if the Oilers win all three of those games, there'll be six points up on under the Cracken. They're also one point behind the Kings for third in the Pacific. They've really climbed their way back and they have not lost in regulation in their last 10 games. And you look at the players on this team, Vince Dunn, leads in points, 35 and 42 games. This is a team that, wow, they don't have any elite to superstar type players. They have a lot of very good to great players. Oliver Burek Strand, 12 goals, 34 points and 42 games. Tolvinen has 11 goals, 28 points. Old friend

Jared McCann, 16 goals, 26 points. And yes, I am still a little bit mad that Jared McCann is not a member of the Penguins anymore, even though it's been a few years. Still, what a player he is. You have Maddie Baneers, who I think is one of the best young players in the league. Jordan Eberley is always a penguin's killer. It feels like he scores every game against the penguins. Chaden Schwartz, Alex Wendberg, Yonnie Gord. We can keep going down the list if you want. But one of their biggest MVP's of this season, if not their MVP so far, is goaltender

Joey DeCourt. In 27 games, he has a 923 save percentage and a 2.29 goals against average. He really didn't have much of an NHL sample heading into this season, but he has played like one of the best goaltenders in the league this year and has really turned things around for the cracking. This has been a cracking team over the past couple of years that really hasn't gotten that great of goaltending, though they gotten into the playoffs last year and had a nice little heater by Grubauer.

But again, Grubauer this year, 884 hasn't really been playing that well. Despite the little bit of slow start, this team, again, firing really well right now. This is going to be another big test for the Penguins in this one. It really is because one, you know, we all know this as longtime hockey fans. When a team gets rolling, everything just seems to go their way. You know, we saw that last year, ironically enough, because this is the team that played in it this year, with Boston in the Winter Classic. They were on one of those heaters last year where when things went their way, everything went their way.

And that's what's happening for the Cracken right now. Here's one thing, though, and I don't want to poo-poo. a 90 and one run because it's very, very hard to fluke your way to 10 straight games without a regulation loss. But let's also look at who they've beaten in this stretch. It hasn't exactly been a murderer's row. It started off with L.A., who is a damn good team this year, but then you have the ducks, you have the flames, you have the Flyers.

And again, flyers surprising, still pretty good. Then it moves on Vegas, okay, if any, if any, the Olympic champions always look like a wagon, big win. But then coming into Pittsburgh, they have beaten Ottawa, Buffalo, the caps, and the blue jackets. So they have had a pretty soft schedule going into this. And again, say it all the time. You can only play the games in front of you. You can't treat it.

It's not a restaurant. You can't be like, excuse me, waiter, NHL, this is not done well enough. This wasn't a hard enough schedule. We'd like to return it. Please don't put us in the playoffs. But the Penguins will have to play a full 60 minutes. Again, we've been talking about it all episode. You're going to have to play a full 60 against this team because they're rolling.

They're feeling themselves. Everything they touch lately has turned into wins. And that's the other side of this coin that I'll talk about with this softer schedule. They haven't been winning coin flip games, you know, 2-1, 3-2. It's been multi-goal victories over these teams. over these teams. So they're playing teams that they're supposed to beat and they're beating them. That's what I was going to say before you said that, funny enough.

You know, obviously you can only play who's on your schedule, but they're beating teams they're supposed to beat, which the penguins at times have not been able to do these last couple of seasons. So they're taking care of business, banking points when they can. And now they head into another game here against a team that's also fighting for their playoff lives. Penguins were swept by their cracking last season. They actually had two pretty solid games against Seattle,

but the penguins just weren't able to get the result in either one. But still, this one I'm still pretty excited about considering the level of talent that the Cracken have and how there are still at least a few former penguins on this team. But special teams, as you look at the Cracken, they're at 21% on the power play. The Penguins should have the edge there in terms of penalty kill. Power play, no one, the Penguins never have an edge with the power play at this point this season. But for the Penguins to win this game, it's really more of the same. I feel like with what we've been talking about for previews. You know what the blueprint is for the Penguins

to win these type of games against good opponents. The Penguins just have to go out there and really execute. And it all starts in the first period. Come out and show that you give a damn in that first period and try to play a full 60. You did it against the Flyers earlier this week, or last week, I should say, time to do it again here against a Cracken team that is playing well, but you, I think, honestly, at this point, need those points more than they do. You do. And similar to what you said about how the Cracken don't really have the big time game breaker, or the big time superstar, that's what you have to play to your advantage.

You have the talent advantage in this game. You have the better high end, top end skill here. And you should play like it. You should play like the team that has Sidney Crosby. of Gennie Malk and Jake Gensel, Eric Carlson, and Chris LaTang. So really use that talent in that type of gameplay to your advantage, because this isn't a crack in team that plays a high tempo style. They play a very structured game.

Make them break that structure. Make them chase you. Make them try to keep up with you. And should you do that, assuming Joey Decord doesn't stand on his head, which looks like is something he very much could do, I like your chances in this one. well joy de cord might stay on his head because auntie ranta just stood on his head in that game for the hurricane we we didn't say that in the recap but ranta has had two non-awful games this year and they've both come against the penguins his save on sidney crosby late in that game i'm like you're an eight sixty two goalie making that type of save only the penguins i feel like

only man and one more thing before we close this up brian juman his first game back in Pittsburgh for this game. He's going to get a really nice tribute video, I'm short by the Penguins. I hope everyone at PPG gives him a standing ovation, considering what he did for this team with those back-to-back cup runs and after, because when he was in his prime,

he was one of the most underrated defensemen in the NHL, and he formed one of the five best top pairings in the league when he was in his prime alongside Chris Lentang, when he was also in his prime. So I hope, Dumont gets his flowers. I'm sure he will. But it's going to be nice seeing him come back to PBG for this game. His decline was tough.

It was tough to watch because, like you said, that was one of the best top pairings in the National Hockey League for a long time. He was an integral part of both of those Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017. And for my money at his prime, he might have been the best defensive defenseman in the NHL for a couple of years. So, yeah, if you're at the time, the game tomorrow and they give that tribute to him loud, proud, everything you got because he deserves it. And he already has three goals in 41 games this year. He didn't even have three goals

and 82 games for the Penguins last year. So I had to put out there. But I think that I'll do it for this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this episode. Monday is a massive day for Pittsburgh sports. We'll see if the Penguins can go one of two before the steward try to make it two for two later on that after. afternoon. But again, thank you all so much for tuning in. We'll be back with another episode for you all on Tuesday to recap this game against the Gattle. And then we'll be back Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday with more episodes regarding this fantastic hockey team in the city. At least that's one word for it. We'll be back for you all on Tuesday.