Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins kickoff a back-to-back against Winnipeg on Friday before Utah on Saturday!

Episode Date: November 22, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins will face the NHL's hottest team on Friday night in the Winnipeg Jets and Hunter and Patrick are here to preview that matchup. They break down the Penguins' expected lineup in that game and who they are keeping their eyes on with the Jets in town. Then, they discuss what the Penguins will have to do in order to slow down a team that can score at will. There's a reason why they have the second-highest shooting percentage in the league through the first quarter of the season. Finally, the two preview Saturday's matchup against the Utah Hockey Club and discuss whether starting Tristan Jarry against the Jets is a good thing.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!IndeedStill searching for a great candidate for your company? Don’t search, just match–with Indeed. Claim your SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT now at Indeed.com/LOCKEDON. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. PrizePicksDownload the app or go to https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNHL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. 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.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM 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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Penguins kick off a weekend back to back against the best team in the national hockey league. Can they find a way to get a win? Hunter and I are going to look into that 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. Hello, and welcome back to another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on all social medias at Synonym 4Wet.

Joined as always by my co-host, the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our shows account a follow at L.O. underscore Penguins. And of course, we appreciate you making this part of your daily routine. Don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube. And if you're following us on YouTube, don't forget to hit that subscribe button as well as that notification button so you can be one of the first people to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. Before we get started today, today's episode is brought to you

by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. The Pittsburgh Penguins are back in action after two days off tonight at PPG Paints Arena, where they will welcome the NHL's hottest team so far, and that is the Winnipeg Jets. They currently hold one of the best records in the National Hockey League. They have lost all of three games in regulation with two of them only coming within the last week. So this is going to be a monumental challenge for the penguins when they take the ice tonight. The Jets are just, as I said, hotter than hot right now.

And it is taking place with a lot of help up and down their lives. lineup. Chief among them is Mark Shifley. He's got 24 points. Right there with him is Kyle Connor with 24 himself. Both have identical stat lines with 12 goals and 12 assists. So they're not just light in the lamp. They're helping one another out. But we will get more into the Winnipeg Jets a little bit later on. We got to start with our hometown team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. And we might as well just get it out of the way now. Between the pipes tonight is Tristan Jari. And I'm going to have a take that Hunter might not expect here. I agree with this decision. I think that he played very well against Tampa in that loss in overtime. Yes, you can pin the overtime goal on him. Absolutely.

It was a terrible goal to give up. He bit on a fake shot that didn't happen. And as I said in the recap episode, he slid all the way out to West Virginia, which left the net wide open for point to end the game. But in the lead up to that, he was extremely solid, especially when the penguins went into a shell in the third period and for parts of the second period where Tampa was getting a lot of chances. So if nothing else, if we continue on this mindset of they are trying to rebuild this goalie, get him back up to what he once. was you have to give him this vote of confidence going into tonight's game and ask him, hey, you played a solid game against Tampa Bay. We need you to replicate that again tonight against Winnipeg. So go out there, do what you think you can do, and we will try to help you out more.

But Hunter, your thoughts on this so far. Well, Pat is right about one thing. I definitely do not expect that take out of him. I will respectfully disagree a little bit, which is, yeah, Some people may think that's a bit rare for us, but hey, sometimes we do disagree with each other on the show. I disagree a little bit with you on that. I would have went to Ndilkevich for this game because I feel like I know Ned hasn't been, you know, back good this year.

He's definitely had his struggles as well. But I still trust him a bit more against a team like Winnipeg compared to Jari, who has not had a good season. Yes, you are correct. He did play mostly well in regulations. against the lightning. He was keeping the penguins in it with a lot of very good timely saves, something that he hasn't been able to do, basically in any of his other previous stars. And then, of course, he negated all of that, all of that, excuse me, with that terrible play in overtime bit on a fake that, as you said, and as we, as I said as well, it wasn't there.

But for this one, I feel like you've got to give this to Nadelcovich, because you got to give Jari the easier start, in quotation marks, on Saturday against a Utah team that's that's okay, I wouldn't say they're good. They had a nice start to the season. They won their first three games, but they've kind of fallen off a little bit. They're kind of in the playoff race, but they're kind of towards the bottom of the Central Division.

Again, we'll preview that game a little later on in this episode, but I would prefer giving Jari the easier start of these two compared to giving him the start against Winnipeg, basically throwing into the wolves against the league's best team this year and a team that is shooting very good this year and being like, okay, see what you can do about that. I could be dead wrong about this and he could go out there and have a very good performance. But again, I'm skeptical because he's been very bad this year.

So if they're up to me, I would have given him the start against Utah. But hey, that's why I'm not the head coach of a hockey team people. Yeah, it's, I think I also don't want this to get misconstrued. This isn't me saying Tristan Jari's back, leave your worries at the door. I still have a mountain of concern with Tristan Jari. I am nowhere near convinced he has figured it out. But again, if you are working to bring him back and rebuild his confidence and get him to a level where he was about a year and a half ago, this is again part of that process.

We have been talking about this with Tristan Jari all season long is that this is going to be a process to get him back to a better level. or at the very least, rebuild his value so you could possibly move him sometime in the next year. And this goes right along with it. You tell him, hey, we liked your game against Tampa Bay. We're going to put the saddle on you against the league's best team right now. And now the onus is on him to go out and have a similar performance. And this also gets you the answer that you might be looking for. It might not be the definitive one yet because we're still relatively early in the season.

We're about the quarter point of the season. So at the very least, you're going to get some answers out of tonight's game. How does he respond after that overtime loss? How does he play in front of a team that is absolutely shooting the lights out? We were talking about this before we hit record. They have a couple of guys who are shooting above 20% right now. Is that sustainable? More likely than not?

or more likely not than it is, but at this current moment, that is the way they're shooting the puck. So this is them trying to get some more answers out of Tristan Jari to see where his game is, if this plan is working and if they can trust him moving forward. Away from Tristan Jari starting in net tonight, it was kind of a sort of well-attended morning skate with players like Cody Glass, Blake Lazzat, Evgeny Malkin, Pustin, D.C amongst them. Chris LaTang and Kevin Hayes, however, we kind of got our answer from Mike Sullivan about where they're at.

It looks like they're going to return tonight. Mike Sullivan using his copyrighted and patented game time decision designation. So that pretty much tells me that they will be in tonight because Mike Sullivan usually gives guys who are returning the game time decision designation. So we should expect to see them tonight. However, we talked about this. I'm very curious to see which forward comes out tonight when they take the ice because for all the flaws that came out of the Tampa Bay game, I liked a lot of what I saw from the forward group top to bottom. Was it great? No, but you saw some flashes there and I think

they're starting to figure something out with line combinations. So I'm very curious to see who Kevin Hayes gets slotted in for. I know you don't want them to touch the OPP line with O'Connor Poo-Yarvey and Poulan. But I'm kind of curious if Mike Sullivan will kind of tinker with that, maybe take Sam Poulan out for Kevin Hayes, or maybe he takes someone off the fourth line. For example, you know, does Matanietto get scratched tonight? Even though I think it's more unlikely than it is likely that he gets scratched because he's been playing, I feel like fine over the last week since he came back from all those

injuries. It's just still something that's kind of in the back to my mind a little bit. If Hayes is ready to go, he's fully cleared, game time decision, I would expect him to play. It's just that someone's going to be coming out of the lineup that I'm sure fans are going to be pretty upset about. As for Latang, yeah, he was doing, he was in his usual spot, excuse me, at practice on Thursday, up there with Matt Grisly. We've already discussed Matt Grisleck why he shouldn't be in the lineup anymore. Obviously, the coaches aren't going to listen to us and all the fans and everyone else out there. But it looks like that's going to be

the top pairing with Pedersen and Carlson on the second pairing. And then it looks like Owen Pickering is still going to stay in the lineup, which is the right move. You want to see more from this player. You want to see what you have in him before. He probably goes back to Wiltsbury at some point this season. I don't expect him to stay up here for the rest of the season. I mean, maybe he'll be called back up after some trades are made. For example, Marcus Pedersen.

If you can somehow find a taker for Matt Grizzling, for example, that would work as well. Then you can bring Pickering up because that's two guys off your left side. If they're both gone after the deadline pat, there's two spots to be filled there. and I would expect Pickering to probably fill one of them. And again, you just got to see what you have. He's had a really nice week here. Throw him out there to the wolves against Winnipeg and see how he plays.

Yeah, you definitely want to see what he does against even better competition because the early returns have been solid. So very curious to see how he plays against a team like Winnipeg. And we will jump into a little bit of the Winnipeg Jets as well as what the Penguins will have to do tonight in order to beat one of the league's hottest teams coming into PPG Paints Arena. But we will do that when we come back. But first, we got to tell you about our first sponsor. And that is game time.

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And your purchase is covered with the most flexible customer service policy in the ticketing industry. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime picks, download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code L-O-C-O-N-N-H-H. L $420 off. Download game time today. What time is it? It's game time. All right. Welcome back to the Friday edition. It's a feel good Friday here on Locked on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp, joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodies. And the Winnipeg Jets, man,

this is a genuinely great hockey team to start the year. The Winnipeg Jets have just beaten just about everybody that has gotten in their way so far this year, including the Pittsburgh Penguins, which was one of their blown lead games. We have seen it. It keeps happening. And it happened in Winnipeg a few weeks ago. But as I talked about at the top of the show, they are led by Mark Shifley and Kyle Connor, 24 points each. Bringing up the rear is Nikolai Ehlers with nine goals, 13 assists and 22 points. Josh Morrissey defenseman is off to a great start with two goals, 17 assists, and 19 points.

and of course starting in net for them tonight. One of the best goaltenders on the planet. Connor Hellebuck, he's got a record of 13 and 2 this year in a 923 save percentage to boot. So he himself is having a great year along with three shutouts already. So this team can score, this team can defend, and then just the cherry on top. they've got one of the best goalies in the world. So to say this is a challenge for the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight would be putting it quite lightly. Big time.

And I remember the time when Connor Helbeck used to carry those corpses to a playoff spot. Not anymore. He does not have to play at a 935, 940 level to carry Winnipeg to the playoffs. He's only 923 this season, but that's still very good. And to me, I think he's the favorite for the Vesna right now. is playing on top of his game. At worst, I think he's the second best goaltender on the planet behind Igor Shusirkin,

but you can make an argument that he is the best goaltender on the planet right now. He has been fantastic. You remember in that first matchup, the Penguins didn't even face Hellebuck in that game. They faced his backup, who is Eric Comrie, and he played fairly well in that game.

He's only made four starts this season, three and one, 9-0-09, 7%. But you ran through the numbers with Hellebuck. 13 wins, 2.2 goals again. average, 923 say percentage, he has been dynamite in net for the Jets. Another big thing for Winnipeg, we've discussed this a little bit. They are writing a very high shooting percentage right now as a team. And you look at individually as well, Mark Shrevely, again, having a great year,

12 goals, 24 points, 19 games. He's shooting almost 30% this year. We all know that number is going to regress a little bit in the second half, but that is an outrageous start. Same thing with Kyle Connor, Nicolae Eelers. Both are shooting over 17%. Gay Valardi, he's about 19%. Vladna Mestikov, he's at 22% this year

in terms of the shooting percentage. A lot of players are having great years shooting wise. And while again, this is a great Winnipeg team, I just don't want to see that turn into a, you know, kind of a mirage for a full season where, you know, it regresses because I do think it's going to regress a little bit because these numbers are crazy, but it may not be, you know,

a regression that goes way down like we've seen with past Winnipeg teams and all that. This is a team that's in it to win it. I think they're going to add at the deadline. And if you want to win this game, the first biggest key for me, you need to get traffic in front of Connor Hellebuck. I know it's very cliche to say,

but when you have a goaltender who was on fire like this, you need to make his life hell. You need to put bodies in front of them. to make sure he's not seeing the puck. You need to just, again, this is a total Michael Bunting type game, maybe a Ryan Russ type game with the way they cut to the net. You need those players playing at the top of their games. You know, Cindy Crosby with how he plays down low, especially on the power play.

You need to have him also making Hellbooks like the Bit Hell as well. That's the biggest key for me. If you give him open shooting lanes, he's going to gobble those up like candy. It's so easy for him. You've got to make him move. You've got to make him work. If you don't do that, again, he's going to allow probably one or fewer goals. You're absolutely right.

And the other thing I want to add about how this team is riding both Connor Hellebuck being at a completely another level and this high shooting percentage. You dig into their five on five numbers and you pull up natural stature. Look at five on five. They're middle of the pack in shot attempts. They are just under 50%. And then when you look at their expected goals percentage, they're in the bottom of the league at 23rd. Again, under 50%. So this shows you that this is an extremely opportunistic team that is not only shooting really well with high shooting percentages,

but they're not giving up goals because of Connor Hellebuck. So if you're the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight, along with what you said about, you got to make life difficult for Connor Hellebuck in front of the net. you got to take his eyes away. You got to make sure there's traffic and you got to make sure he's uncomfortable because if you don't do that, he is not going to be beat. On the other end of that, you really cannot play a firewagon game against this team. Because with how efficient they are with shooting, we saw this up in Winnipeg.

They didn't give that, if you go back and watch that game, I don't think the penguins played exactly poorly. Did they play great? Not particularly, but again, it was a game where Comrie made the saves he needed to make. And then Winnipeg took advantage of every single chance they got. So you have to spend time in Winnipeg zone. You cannot give them extended looks in your end because along with all of their sticks apparently being on fire like it's NBA jam and you start catching fire.

this is a team that will make you pay for mistakes. So you have to take advantage of the fact that they are shooting the lights out and getting saved. So you cannot give them that opportunity throughout the night. And you go back to that first game in Winnipeg. The penguins were playing decently well through the first, I would say close to half of that game. The first period, it was scoreless at the end of it. I thought the penguins played. Okay.

They then jump out to a two nothing lead. they were taking it to Winnipeg for part of that second period. It was just all of the rewards were exposed right after they went up to nothing. All of their bad plays in their own zone came back to bite them, and they kept giving chance after chance to the Jets. And you can't play firewack in hockey with a team like that, who is especially finishing their chances at an insane level this year. That game was tied for a little bit in the third period.

It was 3-3. But then even after that, too, Winnipeg scored 3, unanswered goals to win that game 6 to 3. three, not a good enough effort in their own zone. We all know that that has to be cleaned up in this one also if they want to win. You know, this is a very deep and balanced Winnipeg team. They have Schifling Connor on their first line. They have Eilers on their second line with Perfetti. Vladna Mestikov has been very good this year.

You have Neider Ryder and Adam Lowry on their third line. You have Morgan Barron and IAfollow on their fourth line. Morrissey is a very good number one defenseman. He's really blossomed these last couple of years. You have Neil Pionk, who's not bad on the second pairing. Hayden Flores on the third pairing. This is a very deep and balanced Winnipeg team that I expect to add at the deadline. Again, they are in it to win it, and they've shown that through these first 19 games.

I think the way they go deep in the playoffs is getting the right match. You saw what happened last year when I think they got the wrong team at the wrong time, and Colorado really took advantage of Winnipeg in the playoffs. This year, they've improved their scoring. They're very good defensively, and they have held up continuing to play out of high. level. So again, the big keys for me, getting traffic in front of Hellbuck, preventing all those on-man rushes, making sure your pinches aren't too aggressive, especially playing against a team that can finish their chances at will. And I want to see the Penguins depth really shine in this

game. I'm right there with you. One other thing I will add is you do, I think the Penguins have to emulate kind of what they did for the first two periods against Tampa Bay. They were very efficient in their defensive zone. They did not give up the middle of the ice very easily. And if you find yourself in the same situation that you did tonight against Winnipeg that you were in against Tampa Bay, don't go into a shell. Just keep attacking.

Keep playing a full 60. Don't white knuckle this until you get to the end and hope that you can come out with two clean points. When you have them down, keep them down. So that is going to be it for this second segment. When we come back, we're going to preview the Saturday night game against the Utah Hockey Club. But for now, Penguins Jets tonight, 7 o'clock, P.PG Paints Arena, you can catch that on Sportsnet, Pittsburgh. If you are in town.

If not, it is also going to be on NHL network. So you can catch it there. And when we come back, we will get you set for the Saturday night matchup the first time ever, the Pittsburgh Penguins will meet the Utah Hockey Club. and we will talk about that right after this. But first, we got to tell you about our last sponsor, and that is Fandul. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with Fandul,

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That's fendul.com. Never waste a hunch and make every moment more with Fandul an official sports book betting partner of the NFL. All right, welcome back to the Friday edition of Locked on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Ho. and kind of a history-making game coming up on Saturday night when the Utah Hockey Club comes to Pittsburgh.

That will be the first time that the Penguins have met this iteration of this franchise that has moved to Utah from Phoenix, Arizona, Scottsdale, wherever they have been over the past couple of decades. So really exciting to see that because before we even get into the game itself, It's really exciting to see a young franchise with a lot of potential, a lot of good core pieces now have an ownership that is dedicated to making this a successful team. Their ownership has basically said they are going to spare no expense to the point that the Delta Center where they play in Utah has been made specifically for basketball,

but they are retrofitting that thing as we speak to make it both a basketball and hockey arena. So really exciting to see that they're going to spend the money, put the effort in. And this is going to be a franchise that we are not going to forget about quickly. The novelty is not going to wear off after just one season because there is a lot of talent, both on this Utah hockey club and in their system. So they are going to be quite good right now and then moving forward. Led right now by Clayton Keller, who's having himself a solid start to the season, six goals, 10 assists, 16 points. And it's been not the best recent stretch for Utah.

Like you said, they started hot. They've trailed off a little bit as of late. But really cool, no pun intended to see a Pittsburgh native, West Mifflin's own, Logan Cooley. He's having a solid start to the year. Three goals, nine assists, 12 points in 19 games. So Hunter, this is a young, team that has a lot of talent.

They're starting to figure it out. We're hoping they can figure it out throughout the year. They're battling in the Central Division. So what do the penguins have to do against the hockey club to get a win on Saturday night? I'm glad you finally called them the Utah Hockey Club and not whatever the heck you were calling them. What was that you said? The fighting mutins.

The fighting mutins. Maybe you can pitch their owner about a name for them. You can pitch them. We all know what we all know what they're going. to be next year. It's more than likely going to be the Yeti. I would be stunned if it's anything else. See, people thought this was a hot take. The Utah Venom is cool, man. Sorry. I just think that's so cool. Some people like didn't like that name. Sorry. I like it. I think you got to be a little more of a desert team to be the venom because you're thinking Snake. When you're in the mountains with with Utah and everything,

Salt Lake City, I think you got to go Yeti. Okay. I think that's fair. Yeah. I just feel like, you know, Venom is also a cool name, but, you know, getting to the Utah Hockey Club, yes, three and no to start the year. They are also four and one in one through their first six games, but as of late, they've slipped a little bit in the standings. They're seven, nine and three, six in the central. They are still trying to fight their way into the playoff race. They have gotten some really good production from their young players here,

but it's also nice to see this team or these players, excuse me, they have really stable ownership finally. They weren't getting any good ownership during their time in Arizona, you know, Before that, it was, you know, remember the Phoenix Coyotes. It was really poor with their ownership groups in Arizona. Now, you have an owner in Utah who cares about winning. Did you see the money they spent this offseason? They were really serious about turning this team over a little bit and trying to get them to the playoffs.

They kind of revamped to their entire defensive group. They brought in, they killed Sergei Chet from Tampa, which was nice. They brought in John Marino. He's a bit banged up right now. Sean Jersey's a bit banged up right now as well. But it was nice to see them make some points. pretty aggressive move, something that I'm not usually used to seem with that franchise, especially since they were in Arizona.

And the owner there was, I mean, let's face it, he was kind of cheap. But this year, Clayton Keller has played very well, six goals, 16 points in 19 games. Dylan Gunther has been very good. Nick Schmaltz, he has 13 points, but he hasn't scored in 19 games. I think that's coming sooner or later. You brought up Logan Cooley. I love watching him play when I can. Surgichav is almost at a point per game.

They're getting some quality depth score. You know, Jack McBain has five goals. Bairton Hayton has five goals across the board. Again, they're getting quality depth score. You look at their line, Schmaltz and Hayton are on that third line. Cooley and Krauser on that second line. Then you have Clayton Keller and former penguin Nick Bukstad on the top line with Dylan Gunther defensively.

Former Penguins Olimata and Ian Cole are in that lineup. So that would be a nice little reunion for those two former penguins. And then also, Robert Bortuzzo has also been the lineup this year too. So three, former Penguins defensemen should be playing in this game. on Saturday. And then goalie-wise, they have Karelva Melko, who I feel like has been a bit underrated throughout his career. He was putting up some decent numbers on some bad Arizona team.

So it's nice to see him at least getting more support for this team in Utah. But, you know, it's a back-to-back at home. Got to keep your shift short. You don't want to exert, you know, too much energy just because you're playing the night before. Alex Nadelcovich is expected to get the start. But again, you know, if you can slow down someone as hot as Keller, you know,

Cooley's been great. You know, the Penguins will have a good shot of winning this game. I think the Penguins will, you know, it's goalie-wise, you know,

in terms of the Melka versus Nadelcovich. You know, the Melka has a 922 7% percentage this year. Only has one win, though, five losses.

So say percentage-wise, he has the edge, but he just hasn't been able to get wins this year. Another big thing for Utah is that Connor Ingram is day-to-day right now. That's been a big injury

because he's actually gotten most of the starts this year for Utah Pat has 13 games, 6 and 4 and 3 overall, 871 save percentage, so not a good save percentage, but they're giving him more of the reps this season compared to the Melka. But this is still going to be a really fun game, and I'm excited to see how these new look faces play for Utah against the penguins for the first time. But, you know, again, my keys, a little bit similar to the game against Winnipeg. I mean, it's kind of similar to a lot of the games that we've been talking about this year with their play in their own zone, the forward depth needs to shine, all that good stuff.

So those are just a couple of my keys. Again, I feel like I'm saying these for almost every game at this point. I don't mean to ramble on for five more minutes. The biggest thing for the penguins on Saturday night, it really is you hinted at it a little bit there, is that it's going to be the second half of the back to back. Yes, it's at home. You're not traveling. That makes it a little bit easier because you get to go home.

sleep in your own bed, have your routine in place. You're not jumping on a flight or jumping on a bus and heading to the next city. That makes it a little bit easier. However, after you're playing the league's best team in Winnipeg on Friday night and then welcoming in Utah on Saturday, you have to play simple. It has to be everything simple. Nothing complicated. Play your system the way it's supposed to be played.

You get the puck in the neutral zone, dump it in deep, go get, possession, shots at the net. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, especially when you're playing a team that's a little bit on the young side, a team that is struggling a little bit just like you are. You don't have to do anything crazy. Just keep it simple. And like you said, Karel Vemalka has just had some rotten luck, not getting a lot of run support, so to speak.

He's making the saves, but he's not getting the support he needs from his team. So you have to just play a very solid simple game against Utah, and I think you can come away with two points. This is also these next two games, a really good measuring stick right now to really find out where this team is. Can you build upon some of the solid things you did against Tampa Bay, play a full 60. Can you get three of a possible four points, or at the very least two of a possible four, and kind of come out of this a little bit better than you are going into it. So we will see what happens with that. Same exact kind of deal on Saturday night, 7 o'clock at PPG Paints Arena.

You can catch the game on SportsNet, Pittsburgh. And we are going to close up this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Enjoy the games this weekend. Hunter and I will be back on Monday to recap both of them, as well as we always do on Monday. we will likely and hopefully welcome in our good friend Jesse Marshall for another Marshall Monday. But for now, thank you as always for tuning into the Locked-on Penguins podcast. For Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp, and we will be back in your podcast feeds on Monday.