Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins get set to dance with the Devils tonight, looking for six straight!

Episode Date: November 16, 2023

It's another game night for the Pittsburgh Penguins as they're set to take on the New Jersey Devils! Hunter and Pat are here to get yinz set for the game as they try and go for six in a row. To start the show, they look at how the Penguins struggled to beat the Devils last year and what they must do to change that. They dive into how this is still a very good Devils team, despite their injury situation, and detail the plan of attack that the Penguins should try. They also give their thoughts on who to look out for in terms of having a big game for the Penguins since some players on this team have performed well against the Devils over the years. All that, plus much more is on this episode of the Locked On Penguins podcast.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.Parkview AdvanceFor more than 25 years, Parkview Advance has helped businesses secure working capital. We Invite the many entrepreneurs that are Locked On NHL to learn more by calling us at 203-675-0071 or go to parkviewadvance.com. If your business needs working capital, call Parkview Advance today!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.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime.Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelScore early this NFL season with FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your team 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) 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.

Halloween may be behind us, but a devil is coming to the Steel City. Hunter and I are going to preview tonight's game against the devils and more on this 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, ladies and gentlemen, to yet another edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast.

I am one of your host, Patrick. damp. You can follow me on Twitter at Synonym 4 Wet, joined as always by The Illustrius and recently turned 26 boy, Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can follow the show's Twitter at L0 underscore Penguins. We are free and available every day, wherever you get your podcast, as well as YouTube, and today's episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. So Hunter the Penguins tonight looking to make it six in a row, but it's not going to be

an easy road because a team that is pretty good this season, but one that they have actually historically struggled with is coming to town tonight. And that's the New Jersey Devils. And while similar to our penguins, they're off to a slowish start, we kind of expected them and had them penciled in and maybe the top two. of the Metro Division this year. They're just one point behind the Penguins, and they're dealing with some similar issues

along with injuries that the Penguins have as this season has begun. They're missing two of their best players in Jack Hughes and Nico Heeshire. Their goaltending has not been great to start the year. And similar to the Penguins, it just seems like the puck is not going in the net for them, despite doing a lot of things correctly. So as we prepare for this one tonight,

there is one stat I wanted to look up just because I'm morbidly curious like this. We always talk about how the penguins have a rough time with the devils. It seems like this has been going on my entire life. So I pulled up my good friend hockey reference and checked the all-time stat. And since these two teams started competing, Penguins' all-time record against.

the Devils is 114, 115, with 17 ties and 11 overtime losses. So, yeah, they may be evenly matched, but it just feels like they can never truly get the best of this team. Especially the last couple of years, right? I mean, last year, there were a couple of really frustrating games against the Devils, the one where the Penguins, it looked like they beat them in overtime, but they had too many men on the ice in New Jersey. And boom, they score on that power play.

Then you remember this game, Pat, in Pittsburgh. Penguins had, what was it, nine power play opportunities in one game, and they still couldn't win that game, despite the devil's taking a penalty. It felt like every single shift. Penguins just couldn't get over the hump against that team. And while, yes, the devils are missing Nico Heeshier and most likely Jack Hughes in this game, I did see a report from Emily Kaplan for ESPN saying that Hughes is trying to return this weekend against the Rangers.

So I don't expect them to play in this one, but crazy things have happened. But again, yes, they're missing those players. But the Devils still have quite a bit of talent. I mean, yes, for Brat is tied for the team lead in points, seven goals, 20 points in 14 games. Tyler Toffoli, who they got over the offseason for Igor Sarin Govich. He has eight goals, 14 points in 14 games. Tim O'Meyer, fresh off a big contract extension.

He's still very good, five goals, 11 points in 14 games. Dougie Hamilton is a number one defenseman. old friend John Marino, Pat, 10 points in 14 games. You think Ron Hextall is still regretting that trade at least a little bit, but I'll be fair here. I don't think they have Eric Carlson if John Marino is still on the team. So, hey, still a bad trade at the time, but I'm over just because the Penguins have Eric Carlson now.

But again, despite the devil's not having their two best players, this is not going to be an easy out, considering the players I just mentioned and how much skill there still is on this team. What I'm looking forward to in this one, Penguins are not going to be able to outskate the Devils, even without Hughes and He's here in this lineup. They didn't outskate them last year. It's not going to happen this year,

especially with how young the Devils still are, with how fast they still are. But if they can continue to play the way that they've been playing during this winning streak, maybe a little bit outside of that game against Columbus. Defensively, offensively, you can keep that up. I do think the Penguins have what it takes to win this game. And going off the stats a little bit, this is a devil's team. The puck is not going in the net.

they may have a 52% expected goals rate, which is good, but they're only getting 39.2% of the actual goals at 5-on-5. Their goals for per 60 minutes is 2. Their goals against per 16 minutes at 5-on-5 is 3.1. They're not finishing their chances, despite having a lot of talent in the lineup. But I have to be careful with saying that because that can change it any time, as you know. But again, this is still going to be a fairly tough game for the Penguins against one of the best teams in the division and one of the best teams, I think, went healthy in the league. Absolutely. And Amanda Stein, who is a reporter with the new team reporter for the New Jersey Devils,

if you don't follow her on Twitter, go do that. She has the best penmanship in the National Hockey League. When she covers this team, she goes to their morning skate or practices and handwrites, the lines, and it's the nicest handwriting I've ever seen. But she does a really good job. She said that she does a really good job, but she said Lindy, Ruff said that Hugh's,

Jack Hughes may meet the team in Pittsburgh, but he didn't practice today, or he didn't practice yesterday. And it's looking more and more likely that he won't play against the Penguins, but always that chance. So that would be a big boost. Then you look at last year against this devil's team, and it was kind of the tale of two,

I don't know how you put this, two matchups, because they played four times. And you had, the aforementioned game where they couldn't score on the power play. Well, the power play is much improved now. There's a much more improved power play. And you also look at the first two matchups against these two teams last year.

It was the beginning of this season just last year. The Penguins had the better expected goals rate. They had more shots on goal. And then it was one of two things. Either the puck just didn't go in for them and they got goal lead or the other end of it. Tristan Jari wasn't that great. And that kind of bit them in the rear end. So when they take on this team tonight,

they're going to have to just keep, like you said, keep doing what they've been doing. I said it on yesterday's pod when I said I was going to be the skunk at the garden party about a win over Columbus. While I didn't want to do the sports talk radio thing of going, actually, here's why a win is bad. Because the way the penguin started this year, we need all the points we can get.

but they can't play the type of game they played against Columbus earlier this week against the Devils. It'll go really poorly for them. They can't look to trade odd man rushes and trade chances and play Firewagon Hockey. As a fan, I would love it. As a Penguins fan, I would hate it because it means they would be getting caved in because this is a very young, very fast, very talented Devils squad. So tonight is the kind of game where,

they have to play smart hockey. They have to counterpunch and make the neutral zone as clogged up as possible and be ready to counter punch on that breakout. Because if they're able to outnumber this devil's team in the neutral zone and then kickstart a breakout going the other way, there might be a little something waiting for them in the offensive zone. And we are going to get into that right after this because that's going to do for this segment.

But first, we have to tell you about game time. Now, I love game time, and this is one of my favorite stories to tell when I talk about buying tickets for an event. Back when I was in high school, but right before the student rush program started with the penguins, scalpers were a pretty, pretty good industry outside of the old melon arena. And there was one time a friend and I went uptown to get some tickets for a Pittsburgh Penguins game to see a young city.

Sidney Crosby, and we bought two tickets off a gentleman. We walked up to the door. They scanned us in. We walked in. We walked to our section, started walking up the steps and found out, well, that row doesn't exist. So you shouldn't have to worry when you're buying tickets like that. And game time is the fast and easy way to buy tickets for all the sports, music, comedy, and theater events near you. And they have killer last minute deals all in prices, view from your seats, and their best guarantee,

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of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Patrick Damp, joined as always by the illustrious hunter hodies. And now we're going to get into a little bit of looking at this devil's team and what the penguins have to do specifically tonight, because this is both what's going on with the devils and what the penguins have done well so far. One of the things that I started to say before we went to break was if this team in the penguins commits to the style, they have. have been playing lately, clogging up the neutral zone, and making it so they're going to counter punch well on the breakout. Just like the Penguins had for the first month or so of the season, this team in New Jersey is not getting good goal tending. Both Vita Check Vanichek, or did I say that right, Vita Check Vanichick. Go ahead. Vechek Vanichick. Such a fun name, but tongue twister. And Akira

Shmead are struggling to start this. year. Both have a sub 900 save percentage. So I'm shocked on that last one because he was really good in the playoffs and just hasn't been that this year. I thought he was ready for the big time when they put him in and he looked good, but just hasn't been the same goalie this year for some reason. I guess, I mean, a full eight two game season is different from a short sample size in the playoffs, but just hasn't been that same guy yet. But go ahead. Agreed. And the thing I was I was building towards there is if I'm Sully, if I'm the coaching

staff, I want us to almost double down on what we've been doing a lot this season, and that's shooting the puck. Because if you look at a lot of these Penguins games this year, they've had 30, 35, 40 shots consistently in a game. And some of that is score effects. Some of that is they're playing from behind, so they're putting everything and anything to the net late in the game so they can try to get on even or closer to even footing. But at the same time, If you're going up against a team where you know they're having struggles in net, every coach says this, do the puck, make them make a save,

don't let them get comfortable, don't let them get into a groove. And that's not even just getting to the front of the net and screening the goalie. It's constantly having them under siege because a lot of teams will play it safe in the defensive zone early just to let their goalie get a low percentage shot. Makes the save, they clear it out, They start getting in that groove. They're feeling the puck.

They're seeing the puck. They're building towards it. No, if you're the penguins tonight, shoot early, often, and from everywhere. Pat is going to be one of those shoot at people at PPG Pins Arena on Thursday night people. Let's just put it out there right now. He's going to probably go to the game if he's going to leave. Or he's going to tell people that are going to the game and he's just going to yell,

shoot it from everywhere. But I agree overall, especially when you have two struggling goalies like this. It doesn't mind matter which one goes in. I mean, Vanjik played the penguin. not bad. Actually, he was actually pretty good in those games, but hasn't been the same goalie this year just yet. I'm going to go a little bit differently.

I agree with you overall, but again, I really want to see the penguins continue to take away the neutral zone. Continue to take away the passing lanes when the devils are breaking the puck out of their own end, force them to really dump the puck into the penguin zone, and then, okay, sure some of their top skaters that are pretty quick, will go after it, but the penguins will have a head start. They'll be able to get there, get the puck out,

go defense to offense real quickly. I want to see more of that, considering what they were doing for the four games, before the Columbus game. If you can do that, you can bypass their team speed. You said it earlier. I don't want to get into a track meet with the devils.

We saw it happened in four games last season. It didn't work. This would work if this was 2016 and 2017. But you know what? The penguins don't have those two teams anymore. But if they can, again, take away the devil's team speed, even without Hughes and Heeshire,

play well in the neutral zone. not be as sloppy there, control their breakouts, get their chances in the offensive zone, they should be fine with this. And of course, I'm talking mainly about five on five right now. That's what I'm looking out for that. Power play, I want to see it continue to get better. It didn't do that much in the game against Columbus, but they're also really weren't that many opportunities.

And I actually will say this. The penguins are at the bottom of the league this year in terms of drawn penalties among NHL teams. They are not drawing a lot of penalties like some other teams are. And I think that's going to regress to the mean at some point. If they do draw a few more penalties in this game, I want to see if the power play can really make a difference in win the game. It's done that once or twice, I think, this season, just not enough.

So that would we also be pretty cool if the power play could, you know, I guess take over a game once in a while. But overall, man, this is just such a big game with these three divisional games in a row. I hate giving points to division teams. Even if it's an overtime win, I like the win, but you're still giving away a loser point. in that situation. But that's where I'm really looking forward to for the penguins to try and get a result in this one. Just continue to simplify, I think. Oh, 100%. And that's the thing I've been kind of trying to, with little success, say about the power play is that, yeah, it has not been

great this year. They also haven't gotten a lot of opportunities. It's not like they're getting four or five a game. They're getting one to two. too. So it's not like they're getting a ton of reps here. But that's the thing is this is a middle of the pack penalty killing team in New Jersey. They're not one of the better PK teams in the league. Now on the flip side of that, if you're the penguins, cannot do what you did against Columbus. Even though I said it on the show,

all but the Johnny Goddrow penalty were legit. You cannot parade to the penalty box against this. New Jersey team. If they're unable to score at five on five in other situations, that does not apply to their power play. They are a whopping 38%. That's 5% better than the next best power play in the National Hockey League. And they don't even have their two best players right now. So if you're the penguins, the number one with a bullet, don't question it priority tonight, is stay out of the box because you will pay for it. So at the same time, we know that's probably not going to happen.

We know there's going to be one, maybe two, if not more. So this is a night where I want to see that P.K. Step up and continue to produce the way it's been producing. I want to see it make the smart plays. And I can't remember if we'll get in more to players. We want to keep an eye on in the last segment of the show. but real quick. I can't remember if I said it on yesterday's pot or not,

but we do have to give some snaps and claps to Chris LaTang for what he has done so far this season because it's not easy to go from the quarterback of the top power play to the quarterback of the penalty kill. And both for his ego and just play style in general, that's a really hard transition to make. And he has made it brilliantly. I think he has been arguably the Penguin's best penalty killer so far this season.

I agree. And he was never going to have the duties. I feel like on the top PK and the top power play combined. I did say going into the season, I wanted him on the top power play, but I knew that was going to sacrifice some of his PK time. Well, I'm glad that Mike Sullivan made a decision to put Carlson on the top unit and then have Latang on the top unit for the PK because it's working out just fine. You're having Carlson get those minutes with the top players,

but you're also having Latang. do his work in the defensive zone and really do a nice job getting his stick into shooting lanes, getting his body into shooting lanes, having some really nice clears. I mean, he was a clearing menace against the Blue Jackets on Tuesday, Pat. I feel like every time he had the puck, he was sending it down the other way. I agree with you over on the PK. I do want to see, what's the word I'm looking for right now? I guess more resistance when it comes to some zone entries.

I didn't like how the Blue Jackets gain the zone pretty freely to, be honest on Tuesday night, that's going to have to be cleaned up for this game against the devils considering how fast they are. And I want Tristan Jari, because I'm assuming he's going to get the start on this one. It's against the Devils. I want him to be as good as he was on the PK like he was on Tuesday night. Maybe not have to rely on him as much if your penalty killers can be a bit better denying the blue line. But if he's still one of your best penalty killers, if not your best, you're doing the job, and I want to see that continue to. Yeah, absolutely.

And the last thing I want to say before we move on here and get to the last segment is this a young New Jersey team that is currently on a three-game losing streak. And this is a time for the oldest team in the National Hockey League to take advantage of that. This is not the youngest team. I think the sixth or seventh youngest team in the national. National Hockey League. So you look at the way this team is constructed. They're a young team.

They're in the middle of a slump. They have started slow. They had hefty expectations on them going into this season. So this is a chance for the penguins to take advantage of that. Because when you're a young team like this, we saw it with the penguins early on in Crosby and Malkin's career. When you have these expectations on you and they're not going the way they're supposed to go, it can really determine where your season goes.

And for the penguins trying to keep the window open, trying to fight to stay in the playoff picture and get back into the postseason and maybe make another run at the cup, this is a team in your way. So if you're able to maybe keep this slump going a little bit and lessen those odds ever so slightly of them getting into the postseason or at the very least getting into the postseason ahead of you, this is a very important game for you to win. I agree with you. And, you know, everyone, I said it to heading in this year.

I think the devils are for real when they're fully healthy. I'm right there with you. They showed last year how good they were. They were down to nothing to the Rangers. It looked like that series was over. And they'd come back and win four out of five against one of the best goaltenders on the planet. And I mean, Egoor Shurkin was the only reason why they were in that game seven.

And then they got the Rangers coach fired and now they turned into a wagon this year. They go up against Carolina. You know, they were a little out of their depth. I thought Carolina was a bit deeper, but they arrived last year, and they're going to be here for a long time, especially with their core locked up. Tom Fitzgerald has done an incredible job with that team. But you said it for a Penguins team that's trying to keep this window open as long as possible.

You are going to have to go through a team like this that's just entering a cup contending window. And maybe, I don't know, teach them a lesser or two. Like, hey, you still got to go through some of these older men if you really want to go on a deep run here. The old dogs are still barking and you ain't going to slow them down just yet. So that's going to do it for this segment. When we come back, we're going to talk about a couple of the players that we're going to keep our eyes on tomorrow night to see how they do in this matchup. But first, we've got to tell you about Fandul.

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once again, thank you for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. I'm one of your co-hosts, Patrick Damp, joined as always by the newly 26-year-old Hunter Hodes. And big one tonight, as we've been talking about, pretty big one. And I'm going to say it right out of the gate. With the devil's goaltending, struggling right now, I am once again keeping my eye on your warrior helmet Wednesday winner, Tristan Jari, tonight. I've been saying it all season. We've been saying it all offseason and into the season that when you're a penguins goalie, you don't need to be a Vezna candidate.

You don't need to steal games, anything like that. But you know what? Tonight, I need a big one from Tristan Jari. I don't need him to steal it. I don't need him to be the reason they win, but I need him to do a little more than just be good enough. I'm going to need him to if and when the penguins find themselves short-handed. I'm going to need him to be the penguin's best penalty killer.

I'm going to need him to make a couple of saves. Because as I was saying before we went to break, there's a team that's in a slump right now. It's a young, good team in a slump. And if he makes a couple big saves on a power play that's this talented, that could get that doubt creeping in that. Oh, man, what is going on with us right now? Why can't we get it together?

Why can't we win? So I need a big game from Tristan Jari tonight. I need him to step up. I need him to, like we keep saying, be the $5 million man you signed to be this summer. Give me a 920 game from Tristan tonight. That's what I'm looking forward in this one. And I don't need, again, I don't need Tristan to be at that level.

Every single night, be awesome if he was. But if you can do that against one of the best teams in the league, even though they're down to their best players, more often than not, you're going to win this game. And I do think if he's 920, the Penguins have been really good shot at winning this. I have a couple for you. Two players who have played really well against the devil throughout their career. Brian Rust and Jake Gensel,

27 points in 28 career games for Gensel against the Devils. 11 of those are goals. Brian Russ, 26 points in 33 career games against the Devils, 14 of those are goals. I'm looking forward to them potentially having big games tonight. You saw Gensel have that goal against the Blue Jackets,

the one that tied it up. Brian Russ has been red-hot to start the year, really correcting the shooting percentage that we saw last year, going back to the mean at least a little bit. Both obviously play on Zinnon, cross these wings. I'm looking forward to them. Can't you have in big games. You know, Russ, again, didn't score in this one against Columbus, but I think this could be a

game where you see a big goal from him. Big game, Brian, as everyone likes to say, sometimes with him. And then for Jake, just continue to do what he's been doing. Honestly, for the last week, week and a half. He started out the season, honestly, a little bit slow, but since then, he's really, really come on. Those are two of the players that I have my eye on for this one to say, at least. I mean, I could easily just say, Sid, after what he just did against the Blue Jackets, but that's kind of obvious. If I had to give you one more, I think we could have a big of any Malcolm performance coming in this one.

He was a bit sloppy in that game against the Blue Jackets. Did have that beautiful pass to Eric Carlson in the third period, but did have a little bit of a mess of a first period. You don't want to have that first period against the Devils, to say the least. But I think he could be in line for a big game here. I also, we do have to add that Malkin did miss practice yesterday because he wasn't feeling well. He's under the weather.

Hopefully he's okay to play. Sullivan didn't seem too concerned about it. It just kind of seemed like a, hey, you know what, you played well last night, take the day off, go get some rest. We'll see it when it matters tonight. So there's that. But I don't want to call. It's November here in Pittsburgh.

Yeah. One of the last people I want to bring up that I'm looking at for tonight is Ricard Raquel. He doesn't have the same kind of performances against the devil. that Brian Russ does, but he always does seem to play fairly well against them. He's not lighten up the score sheet. He's not the most dominant player against them. But every time, at least last season, when they played the Devils, I remember thinking, man, I'm really noticing Raquel tonight.

I'm really, like, he's involved. He's doing what we expect him to do. So if there was ever a night for him to bust out of this slump, for him to make a difference, It would be tonight against the devils. And with him, I've been saying this for the most part all year. I'm not, we're going to need production soon. Let's not get that twisted. Eventually the puck's got to start going in.

Probably need it now, to be honest. But at the same time, the chances keep coming. You just have to hope eventually they're going to fall. And tonight would be a great night for that. I mean, eventually you got to score your first, right? Yeah. I wanted him out there for the empty net just to try to get that one and be like, hey, I scored even though it's an empty netter,

but you know, you would hope that, hey, maybe that gets him scoring a bunch of goals even when a goalie's in the net, obviously. But it's past time for him to start scoring. He makes a lot of money. He's signed for a long time. It's past time for him to, again, be producing and living up to that contract. Because so far this season, he has not come close to living up.

to that deal. Now, obviously, we can have the discussion of putting him up, putting him up, excuse me, on Cindy Crosby's right wing. I think that could work. We've seen the Gensel Crosby-Rekle-Wine have a lot of success over the past couple of seasons. The underlines are very good, and the results are very good. Now, I know people get a little upset because Brian Russ has been playing really well with Cindy Crosby, but, you know, he'll also play fine with Evgeny Malkin people. It's probably not going to be that big of a deal. Now, you could move him down to the third line as well, but I don't think they're going to do that at this point, but I agree.

He's just got to start producing, man. I'm kind of over this at this point. For me, it's put up a short time with this player. You know, I've really liked what he's done the past couple of seasons. I loved the acquisition from Ron Hextall. I still can't even believe he acquired him from the Ducks when you look at his other moves that he made as Penguin's General Manager. But it's past time for him to start putting the puck in the back of the net

because he's been the only player in the top six this year that is just not playing well. Be dice. It'd be really nice to see that damn finally break. So Penguins Devils tonight, 7 o'clock at PPG paints arena. You can catch it on Sportsnet Pittsburgh or you can catch it on 105.9 the X or wherever else you may or may not find games to watch. That is going to do it for us. We will be back tomorrow to recap the game as well as get you set for the back to back coming up this weekend. And then we'll be back again on Monday to get all that chaos.

recap here on the locked on penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for listening and we will talk to you on Friday.