Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins goaltending dooms them in HEARTBREAKING OT loss

Episode Date: February 4, 2026

The Penguins were unable to hold onto multiple leads on Long Island on Tuesday night, and now the playoff race has gotten a lot tighter. Hunter and Patrick begin the show discussing the Penguins’ overtime loss to the New York Islanders and how, for the first time in a long time, goaltending appeared to be the main issue (1:20). They also get into some of the overtime struggles, and Patrick lays down a HEATED rant about the uncalled spearing penalty (18:50). Finally, it’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time to hand out the MVP of the week in another Warrior Helmet Wednesday! (26:20)Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!IndeedNow, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to https://indeed.com/lockedon right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelIf you’re a new customer, bet just $5 and get $200 in Bonus Bets if you win. Make it count — because after the Super Bowl, the season is over. Last call for football on FanDuel, an Official Sportsbook Partner of Super Bowl Sixty.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.

Stop me if you've heard this before, but the Pittsburgh Penguins outplayed the New York Islanders, but were once again doomed by opportunistic scoring and bad goaltending. Pat and I are going to recap that game against the Islanders. Plus, give our picks for Warrior Helmut Wednesday coming up right after this. You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes.

You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Joined by my co-s, Patrick Damp. You can follow him on all social media platforms at Send him for Wet. You can also follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. And you can follow us on Instagram at Lockdown underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first list and slash watch of the day. we are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to by Fandall. It's the last call for football on Fandall. If you are a new customer, bet just $5 and get $200 in bonus bets if you win.

So, Pat, there's a lot to get to for this five to four overtime loss to the New York Islanders, but I want to start here. I love the way the Penguins played for the most part in this game outside of a two-minute stretch at the end of the first period and the way they handled overtime. That two-minute stretch in the first period, they were defensively lost. I don't think Stuart Skinner was very good to end that period either. And that's all it took, because the Penguins were playing a perfect road period for 18 minutes. They were taking it to the Islanders. They are about to take a one-nothing lead into the intermission. It was very deserved. And then Skinner flubs the puck from the blue line. Ryan Shea tries to clear it up the

middle. Don't really know why. He should have sent that to the corner. Games tied and then Matthew Schaefer blasts away. No one's really. stopping that what a hell of a shot from the 18 year old there and you're down to the one outside of that they blitzed the islanders for the final 40 minutes but they were doomed by goaltending i haven't really been able to say that too much here on the show because for the most part this season the goaltending has been very good even before tris and jari got dealt to the oilers he was having a fairly solid season archer she loves he's had a couple of downward swings but recently especially these last couple weeks, I think he's been really, really good. Stuart Skinner since coming over from Edmonton, for the most part, has been very, very good until last night where he cost them, Pat. And to his credit, he took accountability. He even said, yeah, that one's on me. I didn't do enough to help out the players in front of me. It was a really nice quote after the game. He took full responsibility. That fourth goal, especially, man, I don't want to be too harsh again because I know how good

he has been since coming over. However, I pride myself on being objective, an HL goalie makes that save there. You cannot allow that chance to go in. I understand Poo-Lock is coming down Main Street a little bit, but considering the way the Penguins were defending in that third period, I owners up to that point, had no high danger chances and only one scoring chance at five-on-five. The Penguins were doing a great job.

You cannot allow that one to go in. If he makes that save, I give it around an 80 to 90% chance of the Penguins walk out, with two points. I put that 10 to 20 as no, because they're six on five struggles, but more than likely they walk out with a well-deserved win. But they got doomed to by goaltending last night, man.

Both can be true. They got undone by goaltending on Tuesday night on Long Island, but up until last night, the penguin's goaltending, for the most part, this season has been pretty good. Yeah. Stuart Skinner has been a pretty good goalie, and last night was arguably,

if not definitely his worst game is a penguin. I look at the first period and the Bo Horvatt goal, I can give him the slightest of passes because it was a very dumb defensive breakdown in front. Yes, he flubs the initial shot, but goalies do that. Even the best goalies let up some weird rebounds. The defense in front of him wasn't very good. That led to a really good play by the Islanders. Matthew Schaefer's shot, that was both a,

an incredible shot, we're going to hate him for years to come because he's that good. And it was the end of a period during a delayed penalty call, and the penguins were also on an extended shift. So it was a perfect cocktail for the Islanders to score. So I can't really get too upset about that. And then the other 40 minutes, they play really well. The fourth goal, the tying goal from Polack, it's his third goal of the season. He's not exactly Austin. Matthews or Alex Ovechkin when it comes to goal scoring. It was a good shot. I'm not going to take anything away from Pollock.

He got all of it and more, but unscreened, not that or kind of far out. Skinner's got to make that safe. So, I mean, end of the day, we can get as frustrated as we want about playing the islanders, the way the islanders play. The penguins, and this is cold comfort because of, how tight the standings are. The Penguins deserved a better fate on Tuesday night because the guys who were not in goal played a really, really good game.

I know that there's going to be nitpicks about Malkin turnovers. I'm one of the people who thinks Gino needs the break more than anybody right now because his turnovers have been insane. But on the whole, the Penguins were the better team for, I would say, 58, 57 minutes, a couple of breakdowns. and a soft goal and then just a I have no idea what Kulak was doing in overtime

and that leads to the winner. We're going to talk about the overtime struggles coming up in the second segment because I agree I have no idea what Kulak was doing there. But yeah, like outside really of the goaltending and the Islanders just continuing to be Michael Myers to the Penguins because they, like, I feel like I watch the same game.

Every single time the Islanders beat the Penguins, it's the same. exact recipe. The penguins usually carry the play in those games, but the Islanders, they have their opportunistic scoring, and they feast on usually bad goaltending from the Penguins. That's usually how they win these games against the Penguins. And hey, man, I think has been the best goaltender on the planet this year, they scored four on him last night.

You got to be able to win that game when Sorokin has a quote unquote off night, even though a lot of those goals, I guess the Rust one he probably should have had. had a really nice 200 IQ play there from Rust. But outside of that, the other three really tough saves. But you've got to win a game like that when you score four on the guy who I think is probably going to win the Vezna. I liked a lot of what I saw. That's all there is to it.

Sorokin was very human last night. Yes. He made a lot of good saves. He made a bunch of saves when he needed to. He deserves credit for that. But like you said, you put four up on a goalie like Ilya Sorokin, that's, That's a game you need to win because it is rare he ever gives up more than two or three. So getting four past him is a pretty remarkable achievement.

Agreed 100%. And again, as I was about to say, I liked a lot of the process I saw last night. I thought they were defending fine for the most, especially in the third period. Again, they held the Islanders to only two scoring chances in that period alone. And of course, both of them go in and they weren't the best scoring chances. They were doing a really nice job of limiting them to the outside. No high danger chances allowed in that third period. You just have to close the door in that game.

You have to have your goalie make the saves that he needs to make. Outside of the first and the fourth goal, again, the fourth goal is the one that he really needs to have Skinner. The first one, I put more on Ryan Shea for his really bad clearing attempt. The other ones are not really on Skinner. The third goal, Ilyos Oliviov. If you're not going to block the shot, get the hell out of the way, man. Like, that is just a full on screen.

No goalie, I think, is stopping that. Skinner had no idea where the puck was. And in overtime, Pat, and we'll get to that a little bit more. It's 50-50. What I like for him to make that save in bailout Kuwack? Sure, just because his fourth goal, that was especially bad. But that was also a seeing-eye shot from Horvat. He's been really good all year.

It's a coin flip if he stops that, man. Yeah, overtime breakaways, and especially breakaways in overtime. unless, you know, the goal league vomits all over himself and knocks it into the net or bites on something completely innocuous. I'm never going to get mad at a goaltender for giving up a breakaway and over breakway goal in overtime. It was like you said, seeing I shot by Horvatt. And if we're going to say that Ryan Polack scoring that goal to tie it was unacceptable, Bo Horvats been a pretty good player in the NHL for quite some time. Yeah.

So that's a guy you don't want to give a breakaway to. And the penguins did and they paid for it. So at the end of the day, it's not like the funny thing is, is that we're going to say as we have that last night comes down to goal tending because it does. But it's simply because the biggest goal, the Islanders score outside of the winner needed to be a save. He makes that save there. And like you said to start the show, he makes that save. They're walking away with two clean points. and the tone of this show is incredibly different.

Oh, a million percent, especially with the way that they played overall. It was a great response after what we saw on Monday where they were sleepwalking, handling the puck like a grenade, weren't playing well in their own zone. They couldn't even break out due to how aggressive Ottawa's forecheck was. They had their way with the Islanders in this game. Anthony Mantha, congratulations to him. 20 goals this season. He continues to be so good for this team more on him a bit later.

because Warrior Hymet Wednesday is coming out, so that's a little bit of a tease. Justin Brzoe gets a really big goal. I loved that celebration, Pat. I really wanted him if they had won that game, looking back, I would have wanted him to be like, can you hear us now? It's just something like that because Islander fans

were just doing their usual thing in that arena. But I thought Ben Kindle was especially spectacular in this game. Brian Rust, really nice to see him get back with a goal. Igor Chinakov, man. what else is there to say about him with his wicked release. So there are a lot of very positive developments from this game. Glad they got the point should have been an extra.

They should have won this game. Yeah. I mean, listen, you got to, you got to be of two mindsets for last night's game. Actually, I'm going to make it three. The first one has nothing to do with any analysis. I texted this to you last night. God, I missed me. meaningful hockey. I missed it so much. That game last night, I was on the edge of my seat.

I was pacing around my living room in early February. I have not done that in at least a couple of years since they had that run to end the 23, 24 season when they almost made the playoffs. This is fun, people. This is what you want them to be playing in meaningful games down the stretch. That felt like a playoff game last night. My heart rate, my heart rate increased every time the Islanders crossed the blue line. every time they had a look, it was awesome. I loved it. But here's the other two mind.

Yeah, you got to be upset about this game because it was a huge game. It was to further your lead for second in the division, in a division where if you want to make the playoffs, you got to finish top three in the Metro. But on the other side of it, you look at the way they played the majority of the game, nine games out of 10, you're winning that game. You are going to win that game.

You were the better team. And unfortunately, last night was the one of 10, and it fell on the absolute worst game. Yep, I agree with you. And there's still a lot more that we have to get to regarding this game. Pat has a lot of thoughts on the spear that Crosby took, has maybe a little mini rant coming up here in the second segment. And we're going to discuss the overtime struggles

because I did have a small problem with what Dan Mews did during overtime after the main three guys were out there. So that's coming up in the second segment as well. Plus a couple other thoughts about this game. That's all coming up right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor, which is Fandall. It's the last call for football on Fandall. One final Sunday, one last kickoff. The final chance to get on in the action before the NFL season officially comes to a close. This is Super Bowl 60 and Fandle is making sure you are right in the middle of it with a special offer just in time for the biggest game. of the year. Whether you're backing the favorite, riding with the underdog, or building one

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I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my good friend and co-st, Patrick Damp and Pat, before we get to your mini rant, because I know it's coming and he has a lot of thoughts on this situation, we got to discuss some of the overtime struggles because I do think in a lot of the overtimes this year, they have carried the play. the other team's goalie has just stood on his head. We've seen that a couple times with Columbus, you know, other games as well, the Anaheim game, for example,

the Penguins had the better of the chances. Seattle also comes to mind. Those are just four right there that I had in my notes. Today there's others as well. Last night, you know, you have a fine shift. You get the big guys out there. But then you put, Evgeny Malkin out there, just fine. Tommy Novak and Brett Kulak out there.

I don't think Brett Kulak should be the second defenseman out there in overtime. I understand your options are, limited right now due to Crystal Tang being out for about a month at least with a broken foot. In my opinion, though, if I were Damues, I would put out Parker Watherspoon for that shift. He's been very solid this year. He's better defensively than Kulak is, in my opinion. I would rather have him out there. And with Kulak, I just don't understand what he was thinking there.

He gets that pass. And you got to rip that thing to the net, man. Either that or you take it back to the blue line or into the neutral zone. regroup, go back into the offensive zone, see what you've come up with with a scoring chance. I don't know why he decided to do what he did there. He was caught completely out of position. Also, Pat, there was no one at the top of the point

because you knew that someone was going to, quote, unquote, cherry pick there. That's what can happen in three on three. So someone abandoned their position, Kulak goes down, doesn't get a good shot off, goes the other way, game over. Just, you know, bad mistakes in overtime once again. But I do think Muse, if I were him, I would have put out Walterspoon out there. Just Michael.

Yeah, I agree in principle that I don't get why he went with Kulak. But like you said, you look at the limitations right now, the blue line. Like you're not getting any offense outside of Eric Carlson and three on three over time. So it's either Shay, Sloviyov, Watherspoon, Clif, and Kulak. And none of those options are exciting. The play itself, I can't get a handle on it, much like Kulak couldn't. But I kind of can't tell if he hesitated or whiffed. Like, because I'll watch it one time and go, ah, he hesitated, made the wrong play.

I watch it. I think he just needs to rip that sucker. He delayed it too long. And I also, that that's the point I'm making is that I also can't tell if was he, was he unable to corral it? did he hesitate, did he whiff? So it was a weird play. But to me, the problem lies more with than anything, they didn't communicate in that overtime. Kulak pinches in and nobody goes back to cover him. Now, you were on an offensive,

you were on a bit of an offensive push. You were hoping to get that goal. But somebody on the ice, whether it's Novak or Malkin, has to notice that Kulak comes in and has to pull back. We don't want them to have, we don't want them to sacrifice offense for defense, but they oversold that overtime way too much and it's what burned them. Hunter, do you have anything to add about overtime? Because I'm, I'm just waiting. I'm just waiting. I'm like a dog looking at a treat on the counter.

I'm waiting. Just to go off that, you're like a dog looking at a steakbone on the counter too. But yes, Pat, I'm going to hand this back to you. I don't really got anything else to say about overtime. Again, penguins deserved a better result, just didn't get the goaltending. I will give this back to you because there was a situation where Crosby got spirited. It looked like right above the nuts. Look like it was like the lower stomach area.

You saw Eddie Olchek just spewing nonsense on the broadcast. And look, I am not someone that tries to get mad at national broadcast because I do like some of them out there. But last night, that broadcast was bad. And I'm a big fan of John Foresland. I think he's one of the top NHL broadcasters out there, but just felt like it was way more of a pro Islander's broadcast, which was just strange to me. I don't know.

I don't usually comment on that, but I just thought it was weird. Pat, I'm going to give this over to you because Eddie was talking about how, oh, there's no penalty on that play. And I'm like, dude, what in the hell are you talking about?

I'm going to fully expect to get the comments in the tweets and everything, saying I'm filling my diaper, saying I'm crying. And that's fine. That's perfectly fine. I accept that. What do we hear every single game when a stick comes up and so much as grazes a player's shoulder?

Intentional or not, you know, you got to have control your stick. You got to have control of your stick at all times. So we got to call that high stick. You're really going to tell me that Pazzo digging his stick into Sidney Crosby's stomach wasn't a penalty? I don't think it was intentional. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that Pajot lined up for that face off and went, I'm sticking Cid right in the stomach.

Pajot has never been that player. The Islanders may be a pesky team, but not since the early 2010s have they been a dirty team. They are just a team that plays with an edge. They are a team that plays annoying. It's perfectly legal in the NHL. You can be that team. But I look at that play last night. and I have this thought that I have had for years.

The NHL is regressing. You look at the other two big leagues in North America, the NBA in the NFL. They protect their stars to a fault. And I don't think the NHL needs to go that far. I don't think they need to encase their stars and bubble wrap. And if you so much as breathe on them, you're getting suspended. But I just think about your LeBron James's, your Patrick Mahomes, your Josh Allen's, etc, etc.

Somebody steps over the line against them and the league goes, hey, that's the guy making us money. That's the guy who people come to watch. J.G. Pajot is a perfectly fine player. I ain't buying a ticket to watch J.G Pajot. Putting a stick into Sidney Crosby's stomach, intentional or not, if he's out, especially with the Olympic, fix looming. People aren't going to watch because he is still a marquee draw. And this is where I'm going to completely let the emotion take over. These teams play one more time this year on March 30th. If the penguins have a good month of March, when they go back to the island, if I'm Kyle Dubus,

if I'm Dan Mews, that's going to be a scheduled night off for Ben Kindle. And I am calling Boko a Mama up to the penguins. And I am saying if the first time that they step a toe out of line, the first time they go to the net a little too hard, the first time they look cross-eyed at Sidney Crosby, confetti gloves. I don't care if it's small. I don't care if Boko a mama gets suspended. You know why? Because the NHL doesn't punish this stuff.

They have stopped punishing it. So if you want to play that way, we're going to play that way. And if I'm the Penguins, I'm sending him out against the Islanders to say, we're probably seeing you in the first round. Keep your head up. Because the NHL isn't going to punish this. And I wish they did. I really wish they did.

I don't think it needs to be every little thing gets called and suspended. But if the NHL is not going to police it, police it your damn self. Okay. So there was a lot to unpack there. I understand a lot of what you're saying. I disagree with the end of it. I don't think you need to give Ben Kindle a night off there. I would just play him,

especially when you're fighting for your playoff lives, because if they're not in a playoff spot by then. I said that if they have a good march. If they're still battling, don't do this. Get into the playoffs. You're probably still going to be battling, though. That's my main point. Unless they just go out there and light everyone on fire in the month of March

when you're just playing juggernaut after juggernaut, you know, obviously that's the dream. but I still think they're going to be really battling for that second spot in the Metro by then. Now, if you had a playoff spot clinched by then, I understand your point a little bit more, but I still also want Kendall playing and more of those high-stakes games. It's just really good for his development overall. I do think there should have been a penalty there. I 100% agree on that.

It wasn't intentional by Peugeot. That was really stupid. But it still should have been a penalty. And for Eddie Olcheck to kind of just scoff at and be like, well, you know, You see this all the time. Do you? You really don't. I don't really know why Eddie was just really defending it like his life depended on it.

They're very strange. I think you just go at that game and you repeat what you did in this one. I do think the Penguins in the two games I have watched them play against Islanders this year, and there's a legit chance these two teams will play in the playoffs, as of right now. I do think the Penguins are a better team than this Islanders team. However, what continues to scare me is because every time the Islanders beat them, as I said, it is the same exact loss over and over again. They have haunted the Penguins throughout my entire life going well beyond before I was born.

I don't need to spend an hour talking about how much the Islanders have done to go full Michael Myers on the Penguins. We would be here for a long time. The list literally probably goes like five to six pages deep, if not more. But, you know, just got to keep playing your game. Like, yeah, it was dumb. Sid, thankfully, is okay. that's the big thing. He returned.

He was fine. He's going to play on Thursday. But I just don't think you need to go to those measures, you know, call up Bokoi Mama and rest Ben Kendall. I think for me, that's going a little bit too far. In my opinion, this wasn't a situation with what you saw, you know, at the end of that first Flyers game, for example, where, you know, I understood, okay, like maybe you want to call him up there because of the stuff that happened. You know, this one, there wasn't really a scrum off of it. You know, no one really got too heated or anything like that, just even during this game. So I just don't really think there's a full need for that one.

That's just what I have to say on that. But again, I think we've kind of, you know, said enough about this game. All in all, the Penguins were the better team. They should have won that game. They got derailed by goaltending. I liked a lot of what I saw from a lot of players, as I mentioned. I still want to see more from Crosby. thought last night was a little step in the right direction, but he's still not all the way back

yet. I want to see more from Rickel. I didn't like his game last night either. Evgeny Malkin, you know, I still like his chemistry with Novak and Chinacoff, but I also didn't like some of the turnovers that he had, especially in his own zone where he put the puck on a silver platter to Matt Barzell. That's not the player you want to be given the puck to. So a lot to like, but still some things to clean up. Stinks that they've only gotten one point this week. It just makes tomorrow's game that much more important man gotta win that game going into the break on a little bit of a high note but i think that's going to do it for this second segment coming up to end the show it's wednesday yins know

what that means it's time for warrior hum at wednesday where pat and i give out our weekly MVP and that's coming up right after this back here on the wednesday edition of locked on penguins i'm patrick damp wrestling the host's chair away from my good friend in co-execkel host Hunter Hodes, as I do on every Wednesday episode because it's Wednesday, it's Warrior Helmet Wednesday. That means we're handing out our MVP of the week as part of this segment. If you're new here and you're asking what is Warrior Helmet Wednesday, you heard me say it's the MVP of the week, but the inspiration for this segment is homage to the 2016 Stanley Cup winning penguins, who coincidentally were honored this past week at PPG Paints Arena for their 10-year anniversary.

During that run from the regular season all the way through their cup victory after every game that they won, they would hand out a warrior helmet in the locker room for their player of the game. So that's what we do here. And there are a lot of good candidates to be the weekly MVP here on Locked on Penguins. But I do think there is. one who stands out above the rest, Hunter. I believe we have a unanimous pick once again. So tell the people who gets this week's warrior helmet.

Yes, my pick this week is Anthony Mantha and rightfully so. He has been on an absolute heater over the last week, over his last six games. He has six goals and nine points during that time, 20 goals and 41 points so far this season. He has been everything and then some for the penguins this year. And you saw that chemistry with Justin Brzo on the third line last night. That was something that I was really excited to get back now that Rust has returned from his three games suspension because Brazow and Mantha do a great job of reading one another. And you saw that on Mantha's goal. Brazo really nice, you know, pass with one hand on his stick to Mantha.

Makes no mistake. Really nice release there. and he just continues to play flawless for this team. He was great on the big line with Brazo and Malcon earlier in the season. He continues to play even better with Brzo and Ben Kendall. And my God, that third line last night was a lot of fun to watch. I already discussed Ben Kendall, but Anthony Manta fully deserves this. He has scored a lot of big goals for the team over the last week and continues to be such a great signing by Al-Qaadubas.

Probably, you know, the best UFA forward signing, in my opinion, of the Crosby-Molkin era, considering his production. It's definitely up there. We'd have to really go back and look at all the FAA signings, but this is certainly up there in this era. And it's the fourth time in his career that he's hit the 20 goal mark. So I said it earlier this week on the show. You look at the teams he played for in the production he has had throughout his career.

Good on Kyle Dubis for noticing that there's a talented player here. He played on some truly crummy Red Wings teams and was still able to produce. He was with the Capitals when they were kind of in the mushy middle doing what the penguins are doing now. And you knew you could get them because a lot of teams, they get hesitant and rightfully so after players undergo knee surgery because it's a really tough injury. It's a really tough surgery. It's hard to come back from. They took the chance. It has paid off.

He's had six points in the past week. He's just been really, really good. And, you know, we have said it. This team continues on its pace towards the Stanley Cup playoffs. He's a player you're going to have to hold on to if you want to go on any kind of a run. But the good news for him is this summer, he is going to get paid. Could you also imagine, Pat, if the penguins were in a spot where we expect them to be, how much interest he would be getting at the deadline.

You could probably get a team to maybe pay a first for him with the way he is going. I still think you might get some calls on him, but still with the way they're playing and where they still are in the standings, I don't think Dubis is going to move him right now unless he's really blown away. But dude, like, if they were really selling, oh boy, I think you'd see a lot of interest and rightfully so. Oh, if they were selling off, if they were selling off, there are team, there would be teams lining up for Anthony Mantha.

But if I'm Kyle Dubus for now, if this team continues its pace, he's sticking around and he's going to help this team try to win a playoff series. So huge week for him, very well deserved Warrior Helmet MVP award here on Locked on Penguins. Now, if you're watching us on YouTube, you're about to see it. Let's go over the tracker for Warrior Helmet Wednesday up to this point this season. Leading the pack, Sidney Crosby and of Gennie Malkin with four Warrior helmets so far this season. Justin Brzoe, he's got three. Kyle Dubus, Ben Kindle, Eric Carlson, Anthony Mantha, Dan Mews, and Sergey Murrishov have two apiece.

And with one, we've got Connor Dewar, the special teams units, Arter Sheelovs, and Stuart Skinner. Why are we keeping the tracker up and running? Got to keep this segment evolving, right? And at the end of the year, hopefully after some playoff series, we'll give out some warrior helmets for the entire season. And we'll probably do a couple other Locked-on Penguins awards for this team at the end of the year. So make sure you're sticking with us for that. And thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Hunter and I will be back on Thursday to get you set for the final game before the,

Olympic break against the Buffalo Sabres and go over any other news that might happen between now and then. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you as always for tuning in. And we'll be back on Thursday.