Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins head coach Dan Muse CALLS OUT the team after Saturday's loss!

Episode Date: November 24, 2025

Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Dan Muse didn't hold back after a weekend of two losses, and put his team on notice! Hunter and Patrick start the show by discussing Muse's comments. calling this past weekend unacceptable (2:00). They get into how he picked the right moment to make his comments (3:23) and how it shows that the Penguins are keeping a culture of winning and high expectations alive, plus where the team goes from here. Then, they recap a no-show against Minnesota on Friday (14:04) and a bad luck loss against Seattle in overtime. Finally, they discuss a flurry of roster moves that the Penguins made on Monday (26:00) and look at the week ahead.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.MonarchTake control of your finances with Monarch. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at https://monarch.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelDownload the FanDuel app now by visiting FanDuel.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 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.

The Penguins dropped both games of this weekend's back-to-back, and head coach Dan Mews was especially pissed off after Saturday's loss against the Cracken. Pat and I are going to get into his comments, plus recap both of these losses right after this. Your Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, joined by my host, Patrick Depp. We can follow him

on all social media platforms at Sendin and Bruet. You can also follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. And you can follow the show's Instagram at Locked-on underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Fandall. Download the Fandle app right now by visiting fandle.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. Pat, you and I talked a lot about how this is a big weekend for the Penguins. They really got to start stacking some points. And they did the opposite of that, only getting one out of four points this weekend against the Minnesota Wild and the Seattle Cracken. Let's start with what Damn

Hughes had to say after Saturday's loss against the Cracken, because It really brings both of these losses together. We know how awful they played on Friday. Unacceptable performance after so many days off, they looked lethargic. It was a pathetic effort through and through. Not a single player on the Penguins play well in that game. Let's be real here.

Saturday, they were much better. I think they deserved a better result. In my opinion, I think Sergei Muroshov needed to be a little bit better. I don't want to be too harsh on him, just because he's still very early in his NHL career. I still think he could have been a bit better. But Pat, let's get into what Damn News had to say because this is the most fired up I have seen him since becoming head coach of the Penguins. And he said after this loss, we have a weekend here where we only get one out of four points. That's not good enough. And I'm not going to keep coming in here and saying that one point is good enough. It's not. And I think we are better than that. Our standard needs to be better than that. First off, I love everything that Muse said there. I completely agree with him. And that is the right message to send. I know he hasn't been that. head coach for very long, but that is the right message to send to this locker room and to

the fan base, that these results lately, especially over the last month, are not good enough, especially after you let the league on fire to start October, you are 8-2 and 2. I know that injuries have played a role in this recent stretch where they're not playing well, but DeMuse has even said partly, like, that's not an excuse. We still need to get points. And you wake up today, Pat, they are outside of the playoff picture right now. which we have not been able to say this year just because of this really hot start, at least through October.

And even when they were struggling for a lot of November, they were still top three in the metro. Right now, they are not in a playoff spot. So I love this message from Dan Mews. I think he sees what this team can be when they're healthy or honestly, even when they're a little banged up. And he expects them to be better. And I got no complaints about it. No one should, honestly.

If I disappear off screen here for a minute, it's because I'm running a victory. relap around my house and that's because this is confirmation for me of something that I talked about all the way back to last season and have continued to talk about into this season. I understand the want and desire from a lot of fans and analysts that the penguins should just tank, that they should just throw everything away. They should sell off the big three to the highest bidders. They should hand the keys to the car over to the young players and just start. and new and I get that. I totally do. But this is how I think in the modern era you run a rebuild

and a retool. You have to have a standard. You have to have an expectation and you have to have a good culture. And this was Muse's first moment of really saying that because I agree with you and I agree with part of what Mews said in the sense that I thought they played really well against Seattle. It was a very good response after a complete no-show on Friday night. But they're not in the business of moral victories. They're not in the business of, hey, we're just happy with the process. They are in the business of winning. And I understand that are they a contender?

No. They're not going to hoist the Stanley Cup in June. If they do, I will be so happy to be wrong about that. But when you look at what this team is trying to do, they're trying to retool on the fly, they're trying to get younger, they're trying to get good prospects and good draft picks into the system, you don't want to bring them into a culture that's just happy to lose

or is happy to say, ah, you know, we lost, but no big deal. I thought we played well, it's fine, no problem. No, they want the standard to be, if you show up here, you are expected to win you are expected to play well and if you don't you're not going to be here very long so i love this from dan mus and i understand everybody's going to go oh well you know if they play really well and make the playoffs they're going to get a mid round pick have you met

mr ben kindle they seem to know what they're doing with the draft and scouting so yeah if they're picking in the low 20s then yeah that might be a bit of an issue but anywhere from 10 to 20 kind of seems like they know what they're doing so you might as well continue to build the culture continue to have high expectations and bring these young players

into a franchise that says we're not going to settle for just a good process we want to win. Right and he saw the way this team was playing for the first month. He knows what they look like when they are on their egg game and when they put together 60 minute efforts.

That has not been the case for basically any game this month. Even when they've won some of the games this month, Pat, they haven't played a full 60. They've just done enough to win those games. So he's trying to get this team back to those consistent 60 minute efforts and back to, you know, the way they were beating up on these teams to start the year because he knows what this team can move like, even when they're a little bit banged up, what they can do when they string together those performances. So I loved everything he said. I like the culture that he is trying to build obviously the culture that the big three have had throughout their careers,

all that good stuff. I thought it was the right message at the right time. Even in a lot of his pressers, he's been a little hesitant to really dump on the team. This one, especially with where they are in the standings, their continued struggles in overtime and shootouts. This was, I really feel like, the right time to do it just because you can't keep dropping these points. That's something I tweeted about after the game.

this has been an issue for a couple of seasons. Not as much last season. They were better in three on three last year. They weren't good in shootouts, but they weren't really close to make the playoffs last year. But you look at the two seasons prior, Pat. How many times did we come on this show? We were like, man, if you just got a few extra points here and there

in the overtime or shootout, you would have been in the playoffs. Now you are 0 in 5 in overtime slash shootout situations to start this season. I don't want this to be another situation like it was in, you know, 22, 23, and 23, 24 where, if you would have just won a couple of those, you make the playoffs. Like, if they were, if they had won two of these five games, how do you think everyone would be reacting right now? Fine, honestly. So I just really don't want it to get to a point where we're all sitting here like, man, this is going to cost them, come playoff time. Because stuff like this does cost you a playoff berth.

We have seen it multiple times at the end of the Mike Sullivan era. And they do have to figure this out pretty quickly. I will say, I like the way they played in this overtime on Saturday against Seattle. They were dominant for the first four minutes that Brandon Montor shot just simply cannot go in. If Trishon Jari allowed that shot, I think everyone would be rightfully calling him out. I'm not seeing it as much from Murshov, and I get it just because this is very early in his NHL career. But my job on this show is to be objective, and he needs to have that one. I also think, Pat, you and I were texting about this.

He needs to have the one from Maddie Baneers. was it a laser of a shot a million percent but he needs to take away that top shelf there these are all learning moments i think he is going to be totally fine i'm a huge fan of this kid he is nasty as a goaltender it's just a couple things he needs to work on and that's fine we'll get we'll get in more to the games in the second segment and i agree the the baneers goal that's a 50-50 blame kind of goal where you got to give mattie baneers his flowers for a great shot but you also have to say yeah Murshov should have that.

The overtime goal, that's got to be a stop. And the defensive zone awareness on the Baneer's goal was not good. They had chances to get the puck out and they did not do that. But go ahead. Right. But at the same time, isolating it strictly to the goal, half of the credit has to go to Baneers for a great shot. Half the blame has to go to Murshov to take that away.

And then the overtime goal unscreened too far out. You got to make that save. But again, we'll dig more into the games over the weekend in the second segment you hit the nail on the head he has been Dan muse has been hesitant to call this team out and that's understandable because one they got off to a good start and you don't want to turn the screws on a team when they've had a couple weeks of good play and then they have a couple games off that's the ebb and flow of an NHL season I don't care how good or bad your team is but you have to pick and choose your spots you have to pick the times when it's going to have

the most impact. And after a good response game that you lose in overtime, that's a really good spot to do it because they probably did feel good about the way they played. They probably were definitely not happy that they lost an overtime. But they could take some solace in, all right, we completely screwed the pooch on Friday against Minnesota. And then we responded, but only came out with a point. So that's a good moment for Dan Muse to say all of the things that he said, because at the end of the day, if you go full torts and you're just turning the screws at every opportunity, by midseason or the end of the year, it just becomes Charlie Brown's teacher.

It's just womp, womp, womp, womp, womp, wamp, womp, and the players go, yeah, yeah, let him get it out. He's going to go on his whole tirade, and then we'll just get back doing whatever we're doing, who cares. But when a guy like Dan Mews or any other coach who doesn't have that mentality or that reputation says what they say ears perk up and the guys go oh yeah we we got to get it together here because he's he's not happy right and it was tactful it was the perfect time to do it especially after they keep bleeding points and now they're out of the playoff spot it's his way

of saying i know there's injuries but it's time to wake the hell up because you know with how close the standings are you don't want to go into a slide here and start you know going down towards the bottom of the east you know where toronto is for example and rangers who have really struggled this year. So it was his way of saying, sound to wake up and start banking points because he sees the potential that this team has. They're already off to a much better start than really any of us thought they were going to. And he just wants that to continue. And he wants to be in the race. And Dammeu sounds like someone who really wants to make the playoffs. I mean, obviously, what coach doesn't want to

make the playoffs, what player Pat doesn't want to make the playoffs. But he, my point is that he sees something in his team, and he wants his team to find it like they were in October. But I think that's going to do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to dive into a little bit more of the Friday and Saturday losses. Plus, Tristan Brose has been recall from Wilkesbury. We're going to get into that.

Plus look at the week ahead a little later in the show. Stick with us right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor, and that is game time. Hockey season is officially here, and nothing beats being in the arena for those opening games. But let's be real, getting tickets can be a total headache. Between waiting in queues, surprise fees, and prices that jump right before checkout,

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there really isn't much to say. It was an embarrassing, disgusting effort from everyone involved. That can't be the effort that you have after so many days off. you were talking up what you were doing in practice. Yeah, you know, we're working on the little things. We're working on things that we've been needing to work on. And then you come out and you put that product on the ice. Just gross stuff, really.

I know how hot Minnesota has been. They're making the move in the standings. And, you know, Caprisov was great in this one. Matt Boldy, thank God he's on Team USA, by the way, because he was awesome in this game for Minnesota. Philip Gustafsson gets a shut out. But outside of the first shift, there was. nothing to like from the penguins in this game and that's really all I have to say about a pap just an unacceptable effort coming off that many days off I agree and I'm not going to push back

or say you're wrong on that because you're absolutely right I will say this it was a classic snowball game yeah where one thing goes wrong and then another thing goes wrong and then another thing goes wrong and you just lose you you just lose your handle on the game and while I'm definitely agreeing that the effort was poor and they need to play a lot better than that. I can always give a little space for one of those games or two of those games a year where you just get caught and it's a game where nothing goes right and you'll have those in an 82 game season. The challenge now becomes, and I think we saw this with the way they responded against

the crack in, you don't want to make those happen frequently. And it was really, if I look back at the season, other than maybe the third period against Toronto, it was their only snowball game this year where just nothing went their way and you have those nights. Yeah, we'll talk about Nashville and Sweden the first game, but realistically, they get out to a lead and then they just kind of go into a shell. It wasn't like Nashville was just pouring it on. they just kind of fell asleep. So with the way they responded, I'm willing to give them a little bit of grace, but again, you can't have that effort

after all that time off. Right. And I'll push back a little bit, Pat. I would say the Rangers game they lost, everything just snowballed there as well. The Jets game, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. So I'm just adding a couple more to.

And I would say both the Rangers and Jets games, the effort was there. you can you you won't you don't have to say that like they had a poor effort the effort on top of it snowballing against minnesota was where my problem is i agree with that yes this was probably one of the only times i will say this where i was questioning the effort in the game this season like i feel like in a lot of the other games this season i've seen the effort i've seen i've seen excuse me the compete level i did not see either of those two things against Minnesota. It looked like a lethargic team that was going through the motions.

They weren't even connecting on multiple passes, weren't getting shots on goal, weren't defending the special team Stunk, and then Archer Shilov also had a really off night as well. I don't think I'm really missing anything from that, just an absolute dud of a game. Okay, moving on to the game against Seattle. We already discussed our game, Murshal's performance, and I don't think we really need to get into any more of that. I think the kid is going to be perfectly fine. I'm just being objective here. As for the rest of the game outside of Moroshov, I thought Sid was great, much better game from him.

He got that really nice goal when he goes down to one knee. We all know it's over. Beautiful feed, by the way, from Connor Dewar with that goal. Thank you to Phil Grubauer for a little bit of the assist there, just giving the puck right to Connor Dewar. You also saw Pat a little bit of a welcome to the NHL moment for Ben Kendall. Brutal turnover, I think he is going to be just fine, but that's at least a teachable moment for something. like that with Kendall. So I think he's going to be fine, still something you can't do. That's what you're going to have when you're an 18 year old in the NHL. This is going to be part

of the experience. He's going to have moments where he tries to either do too much and it doesn't work or he tries to do something that he could do at the junior level that isn't going to fly at the NHL level. That's to be expected. And with every time that has happened, because it's happened a couple times already this year, he has bounced back. So I'm pretty, confident in saying that he made some mistakes in the Cracken game, but he bounced back each and every time. And he's continued to bounce back overall. So it's just part of the process. When you're an 18 year old rookie playing in the NHL, you're going to have those moments. It's how you respond. And up to this point, Ben Kindle has responded each and every time. Right. I'm not

concerned. He knows he screwed up. He's going to be just fine in the future. Evgeny Malkin, I also thought I had a great game. And you and I were texting about this. Philip Rubauer had a horseshoe up his butt for a lot of that game, and Penguins were able to take the lead in the third period, but so Pat, they give it up just because, you know, with less than eight minutes left, Maddie Baneers ties it, and then Brandon Montor wins it in overtime. I have talked a lot about, at least for the first month of this season, their improved play in third periods. In the month of November, I feel like we're seeing what we have seen the last couple of seasons,

where they're giving up too many leads, they're slacking off, they're not playing as aggressive. So that part to me really needs to change. I'm just not liking once they have a lead in the third period, whether they're taking a lead into the period or when they get the lead in the period, they're kind of relaxing a little bit. And that's not the time to do that. I want to see what they did in October when they were taking the fight to the other team. They're not doing it right now.

And I do think that's a little bit of a concern. It is. And I agree. I'll also say this. This was a very weird game against Seattle. And this will relate back to Dan Muse's comments is if you just isolate this game and you just look at this game on its own rather than in the context of how the month of November has gone and everything else, I'll be honest. I watched this game and thought they're not going to lose. Like I watched this game and I was like, they're winning this game.

Like not even from a cocky or confident standpoint, just the way they were playing, the chances they were getting, it just felt almost inevitable that they were going to win. and how this also relates to Dan Muse's comments is you look at the game they played. They hit at least four posts. Grubauer made a bunch of, I don't want to say 10 bell saves, but he made a bunch of saves where you went, how did he stop that? How did that not go in? One of the posts was letting in overtime. Could have won the game right there.

Exactly. And so the reason I like Mews's comments is, yeah, the process was there. The way they played was very good. good. And you, you fell victim to what can happen in three on three overtime. You can dominate for four minutes and one break the other way can end the game. Yeah. And that's what happened against Seattle. Yes, we talked about Murashav. He should make that save. But that is the risk reward of three on three overtime. You can play really well. And then one break ends the game for you. So I look at that game and just isolating it.

Like I said, I like the way they played. They hit a bunch of posts. They had a couple missed opportunities. And you're going to have that in the course of an NHL season. But all of that to say when you take it away from just an isolated view and you look at it in the context of the whole month, eventually these good process we played well, they have to end with two points. even if it isn't overtime. You can't keep dropping these games and going, yeah, well, you know, we played well, we did all right.

Again, you said it. Mews' comments said it. This is a team that has its sights set on making the postseason. Whether we want them to or not, this is where they're setting the bar. And if that's where you're setting the bar, one out of four is not going to do the job. Right.

And 0.5 inch shootout slash overtime is also not going to cut it sooner or later. They are going to have to figure this out. You and I used to joke all the time how the islanders were loser point merchants. They were just collecting them like infinity stones. Well, it's kind of what the penguins are doing right now because they haven't been able to win an overtime slash shootout. And they were working on both of these in practice last week. I'm sure that's going to continue this week. Sooner or later, you've got to get something to go your way in that extra session.

I know you're not going to go to overtime or shootout all the time, but you still need to get some of these results. I will say, though, to that point, this, it didn't bear enough fruit because they didn't win, but you look at the way they played that three on three overtime, they dominated. They were the better team for all of it. And then they just had the one break. And that is, again, as cold comfort as it is, you are eventually going to break through, or at least you believe that you're going to break through eventually. Because the way that, again, the way that they played that three on three overtime, I am

fully confident in saying they were the better team just they hit a post a couple pucks didn't go in and then murashov gives up a bit of a softy and unfortunately that's life in the big show and again muse deserves credit for both the comments and realizing we've got to work on this and you see the way they played you see the process starting but again you need to get the extra point right you got to start banging points especially with the way the standings are. You even look at the underlines, and the underlines back up what our eyes said.

The Penguins had 4.38 expected goals for. The Cracken only had 1.74, and that's at all situations. If you go just to 5-on-5 for the Penguins, 2.3-3-2, yes, 1.27 against. So, again, even at 5-on-5, penguins were better. All situations, they were especially better as well. Eric Carlson, I thought was great. In this game, he had a couple of dazzling displays, especially in overtime where he walked around,

almost the whole team on the ice. He was great. And this one, I already said how great Sid was, how great Chino was. But sooner or later, you have to start putting together a little winning streak. Like you did earlier in the season, you got to start banking some points because the East it's still very cluttered and you don't want to run the risk of going further down the standings. But that's going to do it for the second segment. Coming up to end the show, the Penguins made a flurry of roster moves to start the day on Monday.

Pat and I are going to discuss those moves. plus get you all set for the week ahead that's coming up right after this but before we get to that we have to tell you all about our final sponsor which is fandall the NBA is back and there is no better place to get in on the action than fandul the official sports betting partner of the NBA even if you miss a start of the game or want to ride the hot hand fandle has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks plus you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team's making that late push.

If you want to bet on the Steelers to beat the bills next weekend, after they lost to the Bears this past weekend, you can go on a Fandall and do that. And right now, speaking of that, Fandall is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So head to fandle.com to sign up and play your game with Fandle, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. All right, we're back to you on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-s, Patrick Damp, and Pat. Penguins made a whole bunch of roster moves to start the day on Monday before they practiced in Cranberry. Notably, Tristan Brose has been recalled from the Wilkesbury Scrant Penguins.

Philip Tomasino has been reassigned to Wilkesbury after clearing waivers. Also, Harrison Brunick and Jackson-Ivany have been reassigned to Wilkesbury for conditioning purposes. So let's start out with Tristan Brose. I will take a little bit of an L here because I know a lot of people were asking when he was going to come up. And I said, probably going to be a bit later on in the year. I didn't think it was going to be this soon. So I'll take a little bit of an L. I did say it was going to come a little bit later.

So I guess I'll get credit for just a teeny bit. But I'll mostly take an all on that because I didn't think it was going to be this soon. However, I think this is a well-deserved call-up for Tristan Brose. He has been dominating and will expect to start the year. eight goals, 13 points in 18 games. And the fact of the matter is this team needs depth score right now, especially with so many players hurt. And Tristan Bros will try to at least provide some of that in a bottom six role.

We said multiple times that he was very close to making this NHL team at a training camp in the preseason. And he went down to Wilkesbury and dominated. And now he's going to get his shot, deservedly so. And I'm excited to see what he can do during Monday's, practice, he was skating on a line with Sam Pullen and Tommy Novak. Ben Kindle was up on the top line because Brian Russ was out with an illness. You know, assuming Brian Russ is ready to go for Wednesday, I'd like to see maybe

Kindle and Bros together potentially on a line or maybe if you want to still have them on separate lines, okay, but no, maybe you still have Kindle at Center and you move Bros to wing. For example, I'm just, they're falling here with people, but I think that will be a lot of fun, especially when you see how good of a goal score Bros has been this year, how good of a playmaker he has been. I'm excited for this and I know a lot of fans are as well. They should be. And I'm going to take like half of an L on this because I know that I have said with

some of these young players that everybody wants to come up. I've said, hey, be patient. You want to put them in a better role. You want to put them, you want them to be here. You don't want to shelter them and you don't want to waste their time and waste their development by sheltering them. But you brought up a point that I think is crucial here. With all the injuries, with everything that the team is going through right now,

they do need depth scoring. They do need some more from their bottom six. And they can provide that in these roles because of the injuries, because you're moving other players up the lineup and it's taking away from your potential depth. Now, the challenge is going to be making sure that Dan Mews sticks with rolling four lines like he has done for the majority of this season. you don't want to suddenly pull back from that.

You don't want to say, oh, okay, well, I've got Tristan Burroughs on the third line, and I don't want to put them out there in too high leverage of a moment, or I don't want to put them up against something he can't handle. Throw them in the deep end. Throw them in and say, learn how to swim. And from what we've seen from a lot of these young players this year, they've been able to handle it for the most part. So give them that opportunity, hope that they bring you that depth scoring,

and get out of this little funk that you're in right now. Right. And I do think, especially if Kindle goes back to the third line, assuming Rust is good to go for Wednesday, I know he's battling an illness right now. I would assume that, you know, Kindle may be centers in and Rose is on the wing. I think Demuz will throw Rose into the deep end,

especially because Kendall's line, he's been great, doesn't matter who his wingers are. He's been able to dominate on the third line and even go up against some of the top players in the NHL, and we've seen it have a 90 plus expected goals for percentage just look like, you know, a season vet out there, not an 18-year-old kid. So I do think if you see that third line, maybe you have Novak on there as well, I do think you're going to see those three get a whole lot of ice time.

Again, that's if Brian Russ is able to come back, and then they move Ben Kindle down to a line with Rose and Novak. I'm getting spitballing a lot there. As for the other moves, Harrison Roonick goes down for the conditioning sit with Wilkesbury. We knew that this was probably coming. It's the prudent move. You can't just keep scratching him for no reason. He's got to get some games in, and this will also give Wilkesbury Scranti to coach Kurt

McDonald another chance to work with him. His eyes over the summer lit up when talking about Brunich. So he's a big fan of him, and I'm sure he is very excited to get to work with him, at least for a little bit over the next week, week and a half, two weeks before I imagine we're going to see a rural junior stint, but this was the right move. And also Jackson Ivaney, he's working his way back. I know we've had some people ask, could he make his way up to the national roster? I could potentially see it if he plays ball down there at Wilkes-Ber.

We've seen the experiments for Connor Clifton so far. Early returns are not good. Matt Dumbah is the same. Early returns are not good. Ryan Graves, we've given a smidge, just a smidge of credit, Pat, but still, I'm not really high on him either. No one really should be. So if he goes down there and plays well,

I could easily see him, you know, getting called back up to the main squad as well. And then Philip Tomasino, you know, no surprise there. No, and I'll say this for the defense part of it. I think Graves has worked his way into. being more of a regular with the way he's played lately. But that is only in the comparison of Dumbah and Clifton not really performing well. I think it's going to be easier to take one of those two out and move St. Iveny back in. Should we get to that point?

Now, we'll see how Graves continues to play. But I think right now of that group of three, he's at the top of it just because you said it, we haven't really noticed them. And that's about as best as we can hope for right now. Well, he wasn't good on Saturday. I don't think he played well in that game. But I also don't like the way Dumba and Clifton have played either. Yeah, and I think a lot of that also can be attributed to.

I don't think Dumbah's working out. So at that point, if maybe St. Ivan, he can just work his way back, become who we've seen in the past. That could be a nice little third pairing that you cycle some guys in and out of. But we'll see. As for Tomasino, it's got check time. It's time for him to go down, have a good performance in Wilkes Bear and prove that he's still got value for this franchise. I think the potential is still there, but hopefully this reassignment and waiver and being placed on waivers is the wake up call that he needs.

Agreed. And real quick, both just before we end the show, quick look at the week ahead. Wednesday, the annual Thanksgiving Eve game for the Penguins, they will play the Buffalo Sabers, who are always a meme, let's be real, but still got to get the two points there. Friday, the young and up-and-coming Columbus Blue Jackets who are trying to push for a playoff spot, penguins got a point against them earlier in the year. They did lose in a shootout against them. Probably at one point, didn't deserve a point, but also they were like an inch away from winning that game.

It over time, just a great defensive play, all the blue jackets in front of their own goal. So Penguins will still look for a better performance in Columbus, and then Saturday the Penguins will take on the Maple Leafs, a game that they also got to have. The Leafs have not been off to a good start. Penguins played a perfect 40 minutes against them earlier in the year, took the third off.

So I'm sure they're going to have that in the back of their heads for that game. But still, this is a week here where the points are definitely there for the taking. The Leafs have not been good. The Sabres have also not been good. And the Blue Jackets, that's a team that you're usually able to beat at least a couple times a year. So there's points there for the taking for this team. I'm going to put a marker down that could potentially have our listeners and viewers clowning me at the end of the week. but I'm going to put my marker down.

You've got to take five of six in these three. You have to because we have talked endlessly the last week about how tough December is going to be. And given their recent slide, given Dan Muses' comments, you have got to take five of six from this next little stretch. You brought up the teams that they're playing. You cannot no show against Buffalo. It is an extremely beatable team.

Columbus, they're kind of in the same realm as you are. they're building back up they've got some potential they've got some good players but you should be able to overpower them toronto they are a down down team right now yeah they're dealing with injuries and everything but this is a team that is severely underachieving right now you cannot be the team that starts giving them hope you cannot be the team that opens the door for them to turn it around they are down kick them while they are down so you've got to put these points on the board right now. I agree, and it's funny, I kind of think Columbus is going to be the toughest game this

week just with the way they play, the way their high-end talent is playing, the way it's tough to win sometimes in Columbus. I say that now until, you know, Toronto and Buffalo somehow I have the best game of their season. So we'll see, but why stop at five points, Pat? Let's go for all six and start a winning streak here. But, you know, I think it's going to do it for the Monday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

Thank you all so much for making the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with another show for you all on Tuesday with the latest news on the Penguins before we get you guys set for the annual Thanksgiving-giving Eve game on Wednesday. By the way, we're going to record right after on Wednesday as well. Drop the Thursday episode, probably like 8, 9 a.m. for everyone for Thanksgiving. And then Friday, we will get everyone set for another weekend back-to-back for this team. So for Patchdamp, I am Hunts for Hodes. Thank you all so much taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. We'll be back on Tuesday.

Thank you.