Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins get a win over Marc-Andre Fleury in the final meeting

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

The Penguins faced off one last time against their old friend, Marc-Andre Fleury and in a moment of hockey beauty, both Crosby and Malkin potted goals against The Flower. Patrick and Hunter begin the show by discussing the weekend that was when the Penguins dropped a game against the Vegas Golden Knights but bounced back against the Minnesota Wild. They dive into how the Penguins were just overmatched by the Knights and that's just how this season has gone. Then, they discuss how the Pens were able to win a hard-fought victory against one of the greats of the game, Marc-Andre Fleury. Finally, they get you set for the upcoming week when Vegas, St. Louis, and New Jersey are all coming to town. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins! FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today on Locked-on Penguins, the Penguins get beaten down in Las Vegas, but bounce back in what is probably going to be the last time they ever see Mark Andre Fleury. We'll look at those two games as well as the week ahead 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 edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4Wet. Joined as always by my co-host, the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.

You can give our show's Twitter account a follow at L.O. underscore Penguins. And of course, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget that we are free and available wherever you, get your podcasts as well as YouTube and the Roku channel. Plus, if you follow us on YouTube, don't forget to hit the notification button. That way, you'll be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. So Hunter, a lot to get into today.

The Penguins had two games this past weekend. We got our first look at some of the new guys who are part of the Penguins organization after the trade deadline. It started on Friday night in Las Vegas. where the penguins got their butts handed to them 4 to nothing by the Golden Knights. But we were talking about this right before we hit record on this episode. I saw a lot of this from some recaps, some people in real time watching the game, kind of saying, you know, the penguins, they really didn't play all that well in Vegas.

It wasn't their best effort. It wasn't really all that good of a game. I tend to disagree. while I don't think they played particularly great, I just think this was another data point in this season where the penguins are not a very good team this season. Las Vegas, genuine Stanley Cup contender in the West, and when you put those two things together,

it's going to be a long night for the penguins. I thought overall their effort was fine. They were pretty good in the first period, despite taking three penalties and having to kill them off. And I thought overall for the first 20 minutes, they were probably the better team through 20. But as you have said before, and you said to me before we hit record, as soon as Vegas takes a 1-0 lead thanks to Tanner Pearson, an old friend of the Pittsburgh Penguins, you kind of knew this game was over just because they are probably the second, maybe third best team in the West right now.

And when you are who the penguins are this year and the Vegas Golden Knights are who they are, this is just kind of what's going to happen. They put up as good of a fight as they could. They're just not as good of a team as Vegas. Honestly, you can make an argument that they are the best team in the conference. I know the Winnipeg Jets have been fantastic this year and they're going to be a lot of fun going into the playoffs. But I think when you stack up both teams when they're fully healthy,

you can make a legit argument that Vegas is better and that Vegas would beat Winnipeg in a seven game series, even though I think this is the best Winnipeg team in quite a while. But yeah, that's neither here nor there. But what this game boils down to is this. Penguins gave Vegas their best push in the first period. They were getting a lot of quality scoring chances. Tommy Novak had a good chance on an odd man rush. He had a couple other chances a bit later in the game that he wasn't able to find that.

I actually thought Novak played as a whole really good in that game, really nice debut from him. But right after that first period, you kind of just knew the game was over because the Penguins never really pushed after that. Penguins came out like a house on fire. They were taking it to Vegas. They were shrinking together,

excuse me, a couple of really good shifts in a row. But they just weren't able to capitalize. They weren't able to finish their chances, which, again, has been a problem not just this season and not just last season, Pat, but for the last three to four to probably five seasons at this point. The Penguins just could not do anything. at five on five in this game.

Vegas had a 20 to 12 high danger chance advantage, scoring chances. The penguins were below even in that. Shot attempts, it was about even, but the penguins, it never felt like they were truly threatening in this game. Yeah, natural statrix says they have 12 high danger chances at 5 on 5. It did not look like they had 12 high danger chances at 5 on 5 in this game.

It looked like they had, again, probably a few in the first. After that, though, not so much. It was, they were beaten by a better team. team. And in a lot of their losses this year, that's what it boils down to. This team, they fight, they have heart, they give effort. And a lot of these losses, there's obviously been said when we've come out here. We've questioned that at times because it looks like they've given up in some of those losses. But in a large majority of them, you can see that they're trying their best. They're fighting their tails off, but they just don't stack up well against

a team like Vegas. This is one of the best teams in hockey. And honestly, it felt like the penguins were kind of a one to a one and a half line team against Vegas. Osby line was generating what they could in the first period. The Malkin line was generating what they could a little bit at times. You know, Novak was okay, especially in the first period. But other than that, just not much to write home about, honestly. No, and you brought up Tommy Novak. I thought his debut was very solid.

That said, I do think, and obviously small sample size, it's basically one and a half games because we'll talk about it in the second segment. He left after blocking an absolutely nasty short. against Minnesota that you can tell definitely banged him up a little bit. But again, small sample size. I think one of the big knocks on him has been kind of an inability or an unwillingness to go to the middle of the ice. We saw a little bit of that crop up in both games.

But again, it's one and a half games. You can't really extrapolate a whole lot from it from it. But the skating was there. The offensive prowess was there. I thought early on in both games when he would get put with Vgeny Malkin, he did not look out of place, did not look like he didn't belong there. So good looks on that. The other thing that I wanted to bring up from the Vegas game, because it's been a topic of discussion, rightfully so, all season long is goaltending. I didn't think it was a bad start for Alex Nadelcovich.

The top line numbers aren't kind to him, 27 shots against 23 saves, 8.52 saves. percentage, but you look at pretty much all of Vegas's goals and you don't look at it and think, man, a save there would have been nice. Every now and then, yeah, but that's just life in the NHL. You don't know help. Like, that's what it was. You really did not get any help for anyone in this game. Like, yeah, I've watched the tape back from this game.

Those goals that he gave up, they're just good chances, man. Like sometimes got to tip your cap to the other team. Vegas is a juggernaut. Yeah, you beat me to that point. You know, you look at the, if you were someone who didn't stay up for the late night game and you wake up Saturday, I almost said Sunday morning, Saturday morning, and you look at the box score, you think, oh, man, Ned had another rough start. I thought he did what he could. And like you said, there was not a lot of help in front of him. So you really can't pin any of the four goals on him.

So we'll talk again more about goaltending in the second segment. while in no world are the penguins goaltending issues solved, but this weekend I think was a little bit more soothing than the rest of the season has been in net, because while it wasn't a quality start for Ned, he was fine enough, he just did not get the help he needed defensively. And then we'll talk about it more in the second segment.

Tristan Jari, his first start in the NHL since mid-January. I thought he played really well. But at the end of the day, the main thing that I want to emphasize from both games this weekend is that building off of what you said, we have been on this show this season knowing full well, this is not a very good hockey team. We thought maybe if things break the right way, they could be in the race for the playoffs for the majority of the season, but maybe miss. But we have now fully understood and embraced this is not a very good hockey team. but what we have continued to say is that we get that, we accept that. Just don't go out and look lifeless. And they have not looked lifeless the last couple weeks.

And it would be very easy for them to do that, especially with the impending trade deadline and knowing that Kyle Dubus was fully planning on being active. You were probably going to see a few players move. Two of them that we talked about on our trade deadline recap episode didn't, but it would have taken a toll on this. team's mentality going into that stretch of games and then after that stretch of games. But in the last couple weeks, if nothing else you can take away from this team, Hunter,

you said it. This team's battling. They're not stupid. They're professional athletes. They see where they are in the standings. They see how this season is gone. And they understand that they're not a very good team. I mean, you saw that with what Gino said after the Vegas game.

Like he basically said, like, yeah, we need to keep fighting. Like we know where we are in the standings, but we need to go out. out there every night and we need to play our butts off. Like he's obviously not close to satisfied. He knows this is going to be his third straight season of not seeing playoff hockey. He wants to see playoff hockey, hopefully one more time before he retires. Jury is still very much out on that, especially going into the 25, 26 season. But again, I read a couple of recaps after that Vegas loss.

And, yeah, like, Gino basically, again, even said, like, we have to keep fighting every single game. And you especially saw that on Sunday against Minnesota when Sid and Gino put on a show in front of one of their best friends. And I think that's a good segue to get into our second segment here. By the way, everyone, Twitter is down right now. It's been down basically all day. So if you need to find my content, you can follow me on Blue Sky as well. Same name, Hunter Hodes on the screen. So just giving people another platform out there if you want to follow me on there.

That plug, it sure is shameless. And that was a great transition, Hunter. So we will leave it there on this first segment. When we come back, we will talk about what was an emotional Sunday afternoon game against the Minnesota Wild because it is likely the last time that the Pittsburgh Penguins will see. Their 2003 first overall pick, Mark Andre Fleury. We will get into that game right after this. But first we've got to tell you about today's first sponsor.

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who are going through some struggles of their own, lots of injuries up and down the lineup. They're battling for their playoff lives in the face of that. But the big story of the day is that it was more than likely the last time that Mark Andre Fleury will meet the Pittsburgh Penguins. And in what can only be described as the hockey gods going to work, the Penguins two goal scores while Flurry was in net, Evgeny Malkin and Sydney Crosby.

So I thought this was a bit of a rough game to watch because we already have gone over it. The Penguins, not a very good hockey team. Minnesota is missing some of their big guns due to injury. So this was two teams who are, one, a team that's not very good, and a team that has had to adapt their style of play because they're missing those aforementioned big guns. But the penguins were able to stick with it.

They were able to gut out a big win. And I mean, we joked about it at the end of our trade deadline recap episode that I said, screw it, Flurry, shut out your former team one last time. You said, screw it, Flurry, get shut. in this game one last time. And we found that happy medium where I thought Flurry played extremely well. Both goals, I mean, tough luck for flower because Malkins was just hard work and a bad bounce.

And then Crosby's, I think that goal hit like 19 things before it found its way past Flurry. And then Crosby gets an unbelievable one-handed empty netter. And then on the other end of the ice, unbelievable restart. for Tristan Jari. It hasn't started a game in the National Hockey League since mid-January. And Minnesota was probably the better team for most of the game. And Tristan Jari really kept the penguins in this one.

Yeah, I'll start with this. I think this game as a whole was a slog to watch. I think it was very low event, not many chances for either side. And that's also kind of how Minnesota has to play at this point, Pat, because they don't have Eric Sineck, they don't have Capriced off. And Caprisov is one of the best game breakers in the, sport. I think people, some people don't realize how good Carrillo Caprisoff is with the puck on his stick.

Like, he can do things that only a handful of other people can do. Caprisoff is that good. You could tell the while we're really missing both him and Eric Teneck, especially defensively for Eric Seneck because I think he's one of the better two-way forwards in this league. But the Wild kind of have to play low event without two of their best players. And the Penguins, like that, they were able to take advantage of it a bit because they've been really struggling to score for the last week. minute. Only one goal against Colorado, Pat, shut out in Vegas, and then three goals yesterday,

well, two without the empty netter, but the two goals that were scored without the empty netter, Crosby and Malkin, two of their best players. And it was so fitting that Crosby and Malkins score against Mark Andre Fleury in their last ever game against him. And I was about ready to really crush the power play because honestly, ever since the Four Nations Day Soff break, we've seen a lot of old habits from last season creep back into the power play. right and yeah they've changed some of the personnel on it but still way too stagnant none of players moving around you're not getting to the high danger areas there's not much of a sheet first mentality that zone entries have been really poor like this has been going on for a few weeks now in my opinion

and thankfully they were able to get back to what they were doing before the four nations face off rate towards the end of that last power play the one that ivgeny malcon scored on and they were able to zip the puck around and they were able to get to the high danger areas of in front of the net and you saw ivgeny Malkin. Where was he pat? Right in front of the net. That's where you got to go sometimes for garbage goals on the power play. And hey, PowerPlay merchant Matt Grislet gets another assist on the powerplay. Good job to him. By the way, he continues to have a really good season in terms of counting stats. But it was nice seeing the power play finally break through there because it's been so rough lately. And then Prosby gets a little bit of a wacky goal a bit later to make it to nothing. Just a crazy

balanced Marc Andre Fleurie. Did not look like he knew where that puck was at all. And then the wilder able to make it two to one but honestly that goal should not have counted if you go back to that play connor timmins was blatantly interfered with he gets up we basically puts his hands up like where the heck is the call ref doesn't call it minnesota makes it two one jari really had no chance on that one but that still should have been called the wild hat to that point had already had what four to five power plays in this game like they were calling everything on the penguins but you don't decide not to call that i don't know that was just a bit weird to me but i honestly felt the Timon's debut, especially with Koya Chonuk on that third pairing, was really good.

You know, they had close to seven, eight minutes of five-on-five ice time together. When they were on the ice, they had 81% of the shot attempts for the Penguins, four scoring chances for, two scoring chances against, and a 70% expected goals full percentage. And those numbers, they matched the eye test. They were really responsible in their own zone. They always knew where each other one was on the ice. They were a lot of fun to watch. Timmons, he's really good with the puck on his stick.

Koya Chonok obviously has speed for days on his skates. I was afraid that Mike Sullivan was going to put Ryan Graves in the lineup for one of those two players because I said on the Friday episode, I wanted to see what these two players can do because, you know, they're still a bit young, they're good with the puck on their stick. And for one game, it was a solid third pairing. I think this has the potential to be a decent third pairing the rest of the way. I want to keep seeing more of it here down the stretch.

And this leads me to my final point. I know it's only one game. So please do not yell at me, people. Tristan Jari was fantastic in this game. I thought he was the right amount of aggressive. He was not too far back in his net. And honestly, he was great at challenging shooters. When he's really struggled this year,

he's not trusting himself. He's not challenging shooters. He's being beat way too deep in his crease. But you know what? That changed on Sunday. He came out. He challenged the shooters. He was also great through traffic.

The penguins have never been that good of a team, at least these last few years. They haven't been that good at clearing the net front so that their goalies can see a lot of clean looks. It was kind of the same in this one. And Jari, he fought through the traffic. He fought through all of it to make some really good, timely saves to keep the penguins in this game.

You look at the underlying numbers. Almost three goals above expected for Tristan Jari in this game. 2.72, to be exact. Really nice start from him. I think he's going to get the next start for the Penguins with the way he played. We'll have to see. And yes, people, it's only one game. He could very well turn back into a pumpkin the next game with how the rest of his season is gone. But for this one game, he was sensational. It was nice seeing him play like that. It was. And I want to respond to a couple of those things. But I do got to give our listeners a little bit of an inside look at how this show works is literally seconds before Malkin scores

on the power play. I get a text from Hunter saying something like, oh, this power play is broken. It's so it's really regressing. And I got to hit him with the John Sina. Are you sure about that meme? Because seconds after he hit send Malkin's scores. So, but all of your points about power play are still very true. One goal does not heal all wounds because we have seen exactly what you're saying about this power play is that they're getting back to those old bad habits. The one thing I noticed quite a few times throughout this game, the dreaded neutral zone drop pass.

Yep. And the thing I have continued to say about it is I'm not anti-drop pass in the neutral zone on the power play. The problem is it's a stagnant drop pass and nobody's moving. Nobody is attacking the zone because the point of it is, is you're supposed to be the lead guy, and you have reinforcements coming behind you. So when you make that drop pass, you have to force the opposing penalty kill to retreat. But they're making these drop passes when two, even three guys are already ahead of the play.

And that just doesn't change anything on your zone entry. So I'm not anti the drop pass in the neutral zone on the power play. I'm anti-doing it when it just leads to a stagnant zone entry. So I digress on that. But the other thing I wanted to also get into like that you said, it was a good start for Tristan Jari. You said all the things I think I was going to say was that I thought he was the perfect amount of aggressive in this game. You saw him challenging shooters.

You saw him up at the top of the crease. You saw him battling through screens. And again, it's one game, tiny sample size. he very easily could regress to what he's been all season long. I'd say it's probably more likely than not. That's what does happen. But you saw what made him good before he really started to regress. He was playing with a lot of confidence.

And he had no issue going to the top of the crease. He had no issue diving out to cover pucks when the moment called for it. And you just, you saw the athleticism that he has. Now, he's going up against an ultimate freak of nature when it comes to athleticism and Mark Andre Fleury on the other end of the ice. So that's a tough bar to compare him to, which I'm totally not. But I liked his game a lot. And the last thing was a thing about Minnesota that I didn't realize.

And you'll have to excuse me for this because not watching a lot of Minnesota games as much as I would like to watch every team every night. don't have the time, don't have the ability. But that's a sneaky physical team. And the penguins hung right with them. Now, they weren't overly physical. They weren't blasting guys left and right and getting down into the muck, but they didn't back down.

They continued to play a hardworking game. They threw hits where they needed to. I thought Timmins had a couple solid hits throughout the game, was unaware that he can play that kind of physical game. I don't expect him to be an overly physical defenseman, but knowing he has that in his arsenal, I think it builds upon what you were saying, Hunter, that he has the makings of a good bottom pairing defenseman

that this team could lean on for a few years. And knowing that he can move the puck efficiently, he can make solid decisions. And if you need him in a pinch to play a little bit more of a physical game, that's a good thing for a bottom pairing defenseman. He was also good defensively yesterday. I thought Koya Chonok was as well. I thought they were great, both of them, in all three zones.

Like no one was ever caught flat-footed. No one was ever making an ill-advised pinch that led to a three-on-two or a two-on-one. They were steady, bottom-paring defenseman. And you know what the best part about a bottom-pairing defenseman like that is, Pat? Don't notice them that much. And that's how it was. Like, they were really steady for the penguins. And that's the main reason why I want to keep seeing more of them on the bottom-pairing.

I don't need to see Graves with one of those guys. I'm sure Graves is going to get in the lineup at some point down the stretch here, but I don't need to see him in the lineup right now. I thought they were both really good in this game. You also saw at least a little bit, Tommy Novak with Evgeny Malkin before Novak got a bit banged up. And you kind of saw Malcon Pat on the wing for a few shifts. They were kind of putting Novak at center while moving to Malcon at wing.

Hopefully Novak's injury is not too serious or anything like that because I am curious to see if they experiment with that a little bit to end of season. I still think Malkin at center, at least right now, is better. But I wouldn't be surprised if they at least try to experiment with that, even though we know where they are going this season. For sure. One last thing to mention from this game, Sidney Crosby's goal to make it to nothing, makes him the 16th player in NHL history to score 20 plus goals in 17 seasons.

And he's the fourth to do it with the penguins. We know those names. But you look at the list, the company that he, is keeping with this. Gordy Howe has the record at 22, 20 plus goal seasons. Alex Ovechkin with 20. Ron Francis also with 20, Yarmier Yager with 19, same with Brendan Shanahan with 19, Dave Andrew Chuck with 19, and then Sidney Crosby tied with Jerome McGinla, T. Mussolani, Matt Sundin, Joe Sackick, Brett Hall, Mark Messier, Wayne Gretzky, Mike Gartner, and Marcel Dionne for 17 seasons of 20 plus goals. So Sydney Crosby continues to cement his legacy as one of the greatest

players of all time. But that will do it for our second segment. When we come back, it's a busy week for the Pittsburgh Penguins. But the good news on that is they're not going very far. They're staying right here and playing at PPG paints arena. Hunter and I will get you ready for those games this week right after this. But first, we've got to tell you, you about today's last sponsor, and that is Factor. If you're looking to optimize your nutrition this year, Factor makes eating well, easy with chef-prepared, dietitian-approved meals that are fresh, never frozen, and ready to heat and eat in just two minutes.

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All right, it's the Monday edition, the final segment of the Monday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp alongside Hunter Hodes and Big Week coming up here for the Pittsburgh Penguins. They've got three games on the slate this week. They will play on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. First up, a rematch with the Vegas Golden Knights at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday. Then the St. Louis Blues come to town on Thursday.

And then it's the annual St. Patrick's Day game at 3 o'clock on Saturday against the New Jersey Devils. I will more than likely be at that game as I can continue to celebrate my Irish heritage and be a debauchorous person around the city of Pittsburgh. But that's neither here nor there. Hunter, going to be a bit of a challenging week for the Penguins. we obviously went over in the first segment. What a good team the Vegas Golden Knights are and how they are a legitimate contender

once again in the West. So that'll be a huge challenge for the penguins. Then you've got St. Louis who's sniffing around the playoff picture. I wouldn't say that they're not a good team, but they're also not a great team either. And then you got the New Jersey Devils who you would hope one of these seasons, this young core, this talented core, could catch a bruntled. break and not get hit with injuries or bad luck.

But they're once again kind of struggling a little bit right now. They are third in the Metropolitan Division and they're in danger of falling into a wild card spot. They're only four points up on the surprise of the year, the Columbus Blue Jackets, who currently hold the first wild card spot with 70 points. So your outlook on this week, Hunter, I think it's probably going to be a one and two kind a week, but they could surprise us with some wins over, say, St. Louis and New Jersey. Yeah, that's the biggest thing. Like, Vegas, that's going to be the toughest game of the

week. You just saw how they played in Vegas, not very good. At least you have Vegas coming to Pittsburgh early this week, so you have them at home, but that's still going to be the toughest game by far this week. The Blues, they're kind of a middling team right now. Like, obviously, they still have Braden Shamm. They have some other good young pieces on that team. But they're still not that good in my opinion. I think that's definitely a winnable game for the Penguins at home. And then New Jersey, yeah, I mean, Jack Hughes, he's out for the year. Really brutal injury for them.

Dougie Hamilton is still not healthy. It really is unfortunate that they just haven't been able to stay healthy these last couple of years because, I mean, I've said it a couple times on the show, but when healthy, this is one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. They just haven't been able to stay healthy that often. these last few years, which is really stunk because, like, when the Penguins played the Devils for the first time earlier this season, Penguins were completely to shut down. Like, the Devils, they were great offensively, but they were also really good in their own zone.

Like, they can really shut it down if you ask them to. That second game, the Penguins almost won that game and a shootout, very rare, almost shootout win for the Penguins, but they just weren't able to win it, even though I felt like they were the better team in that game. They'll have a chance to at least get out of this two game losing shoot against them, though they have been really struggling against this scene for the last few years. Their team speed, even though they won't have Hughes, even though Hamilton is also hurt, their team speed continues to give the Penguins fits every single time they play them. Yeah, it'll be an interesting match because you look at New Jersey.

They're with, they're going to be without a lot of their best players, but it's still a very talented team regardless. And like you said, it's given them fits. So I look at this week and I think, you know, you would like to see, I don't want to call it revenge because it's not like it's a rivalry game or anything against Vegas. But you would like to see them have a little bit of extra motivation because you go into Vegas, you get beaten down. And while I still said multiple times, I think they played fine enough, but Vegas is just that good. You would like to see them give Vegas a little bit of a scare, kind of give them a little bit of a push and say, hey, you know what? We're not going anywhere.

I'd like to really see a win against St. Louis. They're not one of the really teams I worry about in the Western Conference. They're sniffing around. But in then New Jersey, I also look at that one. It could be one of those crowd pleaser games. It's going to be a party day in Pittsburgh. It's the St. Patrick's Day celebration, which if you're from here, you know how much St. Patrick's Day means to the city of Pittsburgh.

So it'll be a raucous, fun crowd. and what better way to get a nice little win than do that on St. Patrick's Day and send everybody off to whatever they're doing for St. Patrick's Day in a good mood. But overall, I do think it'll be a challenging week for the Penguins. But I want to see what some of these new guys do. We'll see what's going on with Novak. We haven't heard a lot of updates. He did leave the game against Minnesota.

So I'd like to see if he's doing all right and he's able to play this week because I was encouraged by the start from him. but really going to be a challenging week. And of course, Hunter and I will be here to cover all of it. We will get more in depth on the Vegas game tomorrow in a preview episode. And we will obviously do the same for the rest of the week. But that is going to do it for our Monday edition of Locked on Penguins. Thank you as always for tuning in.

As I said, Hunter and I will be back with a full preview of the game against the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday and anything else that may happen between now and then. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp. Thank you as always for tuning in. We will be back on Tuesday.