Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins look to extend their winning streak to SIX against New Jersey!

Episode Date: January 8, 2026

The Penguins have a golden opportunity to extend their winning streak to six games when the New Jersey Devils come to town! Patrick and Hunter begin the Thursday edition of the Locked On Penguins Podcast, discussing the struggling New Jersey Devils, who have lost six of their last 10 games and have been unable to generate much offense despite a very talented roster. They look for reasons why, if this is just a slump, or if the Devils are a flawed team. (0:00) Then, they talk about Villie Koivunen being reassigned to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and how that is just another part of his development. They also give their keys to victory for the Penguins against the Devils. (12:59) Finally, tonight's game is game 42 of the 2025-26 season. They offer some predictions and expectations for the second half of the year! (24:06) 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.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. So before tip-off, check the FanDuel app and see what’s dropping during NBA Happy Hour — every Friday from 6 to 7:30 PM Eastern. A little basketball, a little action, and a whole lot of Friday energy. Rocket MoneyTake control of your finances and cancel your unwanted subscriptions with Rocket Money.Go to https://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDONtoday.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.

Iron Maiden once said that 666 is the number of the beast, and tonight against the New Jersey Devils, the Pittsburgh Penguins can take their winning streak to six. You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to another edition of the Locked-on. Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4Wet. Joined as always by the one and only, my co-host and good friend Hunter

Hodies. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's Twitter account a follow at LO underscore Penguins. You can find us on Instagram at Locked on underscore Penguins and TikTok at Locked-on Penguins. Of course, as always, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget, we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube, and if you follow us on YouTube, which you should be. Make sure you've hit that notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. The Pittsburgh Penguins are currently sitting on a five game win streak, and as I said in the intro, they can make it six tonight at PPG

Paints Arena when they welcome their Metropolitan Division rival, the New Jersey Devils. Hunter, in the last few years, the New Jersey Devils have been a thorn in the penguin's side. Even when this team was still kind of good a few years ago, putting aside that they're very much in the race this season, they always have struggled with the New Jersey Devils. and as I frequently say when we preview or recap New Jersey Devils games, even all these years later, it is still difficult for us to break the idea that the New Jersey Devils play slow, boring, trap hockey because they don't anymore.

They play up-tempo, high-speed hockey, and that is given the Penguins fits over the years. But before we get to what the Penguins need to do, we got to make sure our listeners know that this devil's team, they are going through it. And before we hit record, I got to grab my notepad here so I get this correct. I read you a stat about this devil's team that is shocking. On December 11th, they lost 8 to 4 to the Tampa Bay Lightning. That was 13 games ago for the Devils.

In their last 11 of 13 games, they have. not scored more than two goals this is a team that is coming off a nine to nothing loss to the new new york islanders so hunter they are ripe for the picking the vibes are rancid in new work right now they they left poor jacob markstrom in there pat for all nine goals poor jacob markstrom didn't even get pulled in that game shelving keith just said you know what screw it i I'm keeping you in there and there's nothing. You can try to leave. I'm not going to allow you to leave.

He just kept them in the net the whole time. I feel the thing I will say that is even worse about that is nine nothing makes it sound like it was complete in total domination. It actually wasn't. Markstrom in the stats era since 2007, according to Moneypuck, had the worst performance by a goaltender via expected goals. Never. I'm so glad you brought that up because if you weren't, I was going to read everyone that stat. I retweeted it on my Twitter. It was crazy when I saw it. Just that was insane. And this scene, even though they got Jack Hughes back a few weeks ago, they can't get anything going, man. It's been really bad watching them offensively. Despite their struggles, they're going to try to come out here and obviously have a really good start and try to get off of this losing streak. They've lost two in a row. six of ten they have 46 points 22 and 19 and two only three points behind the penguins

if you're the penguins tonight and we'll get into more of the keys later on the show pad but if you're the penguins you got to take two clean points here you don't want to be giving points away in these metro games the penguins have done a fairly good job of that so far again the staff that i keep coming back to going into this game the penguins are seven and one and three against metro teams they have points in 10 of 11 games against metro teams the devils they're the only team the Penguins have yet to beat from the Metro this season. The Penguins have beaten the Blue Jackets twice. They've beaten everyone else in the division once except New Jersey.

And the last time these two teams played, I felt the Penguins were a better team. The Devils were obviously playing really well. At that point, that was a lot earlier in this season when the Devils were top three in the Metro, arguably the top team in the East. Things can change very quickly, as you've seen. But I still felt the Penguins were the much better team in that one. That was, they lost one of their shootout game. They don't play well on shootouts.

We all know that. But I felt in regulation and in overtime, they were by far the better team against New Jersey. And they need to bring that type of effort into tonight's game if they want to win this one. You all know how the devils can hurt you. They have some of the top players in the league, of course, starts with Jack Hughes.

He's been injured at times this season, but when he's been healthy as he is right now, he's been great. 11 goals, 24 points, and 25 games. Nico He's here, you know what you're going to get from him as a strong two-way center. yes for brat has once again been very good they're getting contributions from timo mire dawson mercer as well their bottom six is okay nothing special but their big guns are

where they can really hurt you duggy hamilton is in the lineup he's healthy right now the pair i want you guys to circle though is that second one luke hughes and brett pesci luke hughes does not have confidence right now he is playing really bad this year especially these last couple of games pat you and i have joked about it over the weekend where uh two own goals for Luke Hughes. He was getting booed every single time he touched the puck in Newark. If there's a pair to go after, and I like Brett Pesci, by the way, but if there's a pair to go after, it is that one with Hughes and Pesci. That's a real embodiment of where the devils are at this current moment, because you look at this team, you look at this roster,

and it's a pretty good one. This is a good team on paper, but they are going through it right now. They are struggling very mightily, and that pairing really personifies it. Luke Hughes is getting rightfully dogpiled by fans because you play a metropolitan division game against the Carolina Hurricanes in a moment where you are struggling to score goals and you spot your opponent in the division to goals. Now, the own goal, that was a brain fart that happens. It's part of hockey. Luke Hughes did not shoot the puck into his own net.

He just made a tough play. The other one, on the other hand, against Taylor Hall, regardless of how you feel about where Hall is in his career, he is still a top flight player. And if you cut in front of your own net with him bearing down on you, nine times out of 10, he is going to make you pay. So like you said, that is a pairing if you are the penguins and you are Dan Mews, you want to match your best competition up against them and really keep them down.

I agree. And I always look at special teams as well. The Devils, PK, not nearly as good as I expected them to be. I mean, this is usually a PK that's well above average. Pat, it's 22nd in the league this year. It has not been very good at all. Power play-wise for the Devils this year, they're at 14th at 22.2%. So a little bit above average, Penguins PK has been fairly solid.

that's a way, especially since getting Blake was offbacked. And right now, I do like this matchup for the Penguins power play going up against the devil's penalty kill, even though, again, I keep saying it, they're usually one of a couple, two to three teams that can really want to quote unquote power kill, excuse me, them, Carolina and Dallas, usually. Those are the three teams that are really good at running power kills, but it's still been interesting to see them struggle a lot more on the PK this year. Penguins are expected to get back of getting Malkin tonight, which will be huge.

She was practicing on the second line with Igor Chinochinov and Ben Kindle. And I expect Gino to be back on that top power play unit, assuming he does play in 95% chance that he's going to play. I would be very surprised if he doesn't recording this at about, you know, 3.30, 4 o'clock p.m. Eastern Times since Pat got off work late again today. That's his work schedule people. But still, this is a team that you want to start out fast against. You want to get in their head of, oh, no, here we go again. because it's exactly, you know, when the Penguins even were jumping out to leads during their 8 game losing streak, Pat, when the other team would score one goal, it was here we go again. It's a little bit different here because you're getting out to an early lead, but the same concept applies where it's like the devils could be like, oh no, here we go again.

We just got blown out 9-0. Is this going to snowball just because they don't have their confidence right now and they haven't for the last few weeks? Not one bit, but the unfortunate news for the penguin. may be good news for the New Jersey Devils is Jake Allen will be in the net tonight rather than Jacob Markstrom. He has actually been pretty darn good for the Devils this season.

Played great against the Penguins in their first start. 119 and 1 this season, 2.5 goals against average and a 913 save percentage with a shutout to go along with it. So they have to hope that what happened against the Islanders was strictly a poor performance by both, Jacob Markstrom, and if I'm going to be completely honest, coaching job by Sheldon Keefe, because again, you go back and watch that loss. And if you don't watch it, you see the final score of 9-0 and you think, man, the devils

didn't show up. They did, but their goaltender didn't. And for whatever reason, Sheldon Keefe decided to keep him in the net for all nine. So that really could prove to be a fatal blow for this team's confidence. because if you're not going to give them that life, that life preserver to get out of it, it could really snowball and get worse. But that will do it for our opening segment. We have spent quite a bit of time here talking about the Penguins opponent,

the New Jersey Devils. We're going to flip the focus in the second segment to talk about penguins, what they're going to have to do tonight to get a victory, as well as a certain player getting sent back to Wilkes-Barre Scranton. We will talk about all of that when we get back. right after this but first we've got to tell you about today's sponsor and that is rocket money let's be real managing your finances can feel overwhelming between subscriptions you forgot about bills that keep going up and trying to figure out where all your money actually goes each month it's easy to feel

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So let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. join at rocketmoney.com slash locked on. That's rocketmoney.com slash locked on. One more time, rocketmoney.com slash locked on. We're back here on the Thursday edition. That's right. I had to look at the calendar there because it's just been one of those days, but it is the Thursday edition of Locked on Penguins.

I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodeys. And let's start with the new. that Velae Covenin has been reassigned to the American Hockey League. No real surprise there. I want to start with this about it. One, it's really just the only move that they can make right now. He's the only waivers-exempt player that they really would or want to send down, especially with Rutger Magrorty currently on IR with a concussion.

And I also want to make sure people understand. have been abdicating for this on the show for a little bit now. I like his game quite a bit. The underlines are very good, but I do think even with scoring a goal against the Blue Jackets, he is having a little bit of a crisis of confidence. He's playing okay, but he's just a tad off. And I think a couple of weeks with the baby penguins in the top six, playing a bigger role, getting his confidence back is going to do him a world of good. I agree on all those points. I love his underlyings for this year.

They're very good. I just think he needs to be a bit more consistent at the NHL level. And you don't want him just kind of rotting in the press box now that Evgeny Malkin is basically returning tonight against the devils. And I mean, we all know that Kevin Hayes isn't getting in the lineup unless there's an injury situation or something like that. So there's really just no point to having him rot up there. So you want to get him some games.

Get him to have some comments. confidence, and then once both those things happen, you can call him back up and then get him some more games. They also really want to see what they have in Igor Chinikov. I totally understand that just because, again, Pape paid two draft picks and a roster player to get him. They are very high on this player. Right now, he scored his first goal as a penguin against Detroit recently. I think he's played totally fine. It's coming into the lineup outside of that goal. So I totally get why he is going to stay in the lineup on a consistent basis. You're not breaking up that fourth line right now with the way it continues to play the Novak Brazok.

Mantha line has been playing really well. I have a piece coming on the hockey news about it. And then you're not breaking up that top line. So with Blake Coyvenin, it's just a little bit of a squeeze right now. So he goes down to the AHL, do what he did earlier this season. Remember, he went down to the AHA earlier and he lit it up, man, four goals, 11 points in six games. You light it up down there again, get some confidence. He'll be right up here pretty quickly. I'm still a believer in this player. I'm not really that down on him or anything like that. I just want him to show a bit more consistency at the initial level because we've seen him be

effective, just has to do it a bit more often, that's all. 100%. And I'm right there with you. I'm not out on him whatsoever. We got to remember, he's also 22 years old. And as we frequently say on this show, hasn't even played 50 games yet, by the way. Exactly. And development in progress.

when it comes to players like covenin is not linear. It is going to take some time. There will be slips. There will be stumbles, peaks and valleys, all the cliches that you may want to use. So this doesn't mean that he's a lost cause. It doesn't mean that he's done. It just means it's going to take a little bit. And he does still strike me as you are, as you are a believer and so am I,

as the kind of player that when he finally finds that consistency, he is really going to find it. because you can see it in pockets of his game. It's all there. Once he finally puts it together, he will be in the NHL full time, and we will not have many concerns about him overall. So this is just another step in development for him. He's going to be back.

I am not worried about him whatsoever. Now, another player that we've got to keep the focus on here, you may have mentioned of Gennie Malkin, but his counterpart, Sidney Crosby, while the penguins may struggle against the New Jersey Devils, Sidney Crosby does not. 90 career games against the New Jersey Devils, 97 points, 42 goals, 55 assists, and right behind him for third most inactive players against the Devils is of Gennie Malkin.

So might not be the hottest of take, might be the most obvious of takes, but for the penguins that have success against the devils, Sid and Gino got to keep that going. Breaking news, Pat, the penguin's best player has to keep being the penguins best player if the penguins want to win this game. I'm just messing around. But it's so funny how both of these guys have insane numbers against a lot of these metro teams. I mean, pull up Sid's numbers against the Islanders, for example, the Flyers pull up Gino's numbers against those two teams, the capitals as well. It's just, it's funny how they take turns, you know, just beating the crap out of a lot of these rival teams

that we can throw the Rangers in there, of course, as well. But obviously, great point for me again. You gotta start fast. I think if you can get a goal in the first five minutes that could potentially drain some of New Jersey's confidence, heck, if you can get another goal right after that, obviously that would be huge because, again, I think for them, it will be like, here we go again.

Obviously, have to take away New Jersey speed. It has caused the penguins a lot of problems over the last few years. When Jack Hughes gets a burst of speed, for a lot of players, it is game over. So the Penguins have to do a really good job of trying to slow him down. I want to see them try to win those minutes against Hesier, just because I think he's one of the better two-way centers in the NHL. I think he's fantastic in his own zone.

And then with the explosiveness, excuse me, that Esper Bratt has, same with Tim O'Meer, Dawson Mercer, got to try to slow those guys down as well. Can't speak today for some reason. I haven't one of those days, even though we're almost at the end of the the week here. But those are some of the keys for me today. Also, I want to see Stuart Skinner continue to have another good start. Two really nice starts in a row. It's his turn now for the rotation. How does he play? That's a big question for me as well. So if he can put together a third straight start, obviously that would go a long way towards the Penguins winning this one. I think

he's been the better goalie recently between him and she loves. And I want to see that continue. It may be one of those days when it comes to speaking, but it's also one of those days where we are very much on the same page because I was thinking the same about Stuart Skinner, but to link that together from the first segment talking about how they have only been able to score two goals, they've only scored two or less goals in 11 of their last 13. Big opportunity for Stuart Skinner to have himself a night. Now, it has to be a complete team effort. And again, to take this all full circle, you talk about the speed in the skill that the New

Jersey Devils have. Speed's great. I am always an advocate for a team being fast, but you neutralize that by keeping them to the outside. If they want to skate laps around the rink and not get to the middle of the ice, you can let them Wiley Coyote themselves all around the ice all night long. You've got to make sure you're protecting the house, the front of the net, in the middle of the ice,

because if you give them those high leverage areas, a team like the New Jersey Devils are going to make you pay every single. single time. But really, I mean, my biggest key to victory, you've hinted at it multiple times on this episode. This is a team that is struggling. They have very little confidence. You do even a cursory search of New Jersey Devils publications, blogs. I'm sure it's the same with our boys over on Locked on Devils. This is a team that people think has quit. They think this is a team that halfway through the season has given up. And you cannot give them life. No. They are, granted, we know how tight the Eastern Conference standings are. The Penguins are all of three

points up on them. And the New Jersey Devils are barreling towards the bottom of the Eastern Conference. But at the same time, you can't let them off the mat. You can't just give them momentum and you can't let them think that they can dig themselves out of it. It would be a really nice feather in the cap for the Pittsburgh Penguins to get another victory in the Metropolitan Division, especially against the team they have yet to beat this season. Yeah, I agree. Also, it'll be big just because this is a team that's chasing you down in the standings. If you can take two clean points tonight, you'll be five points up on this team.

And you'll also pass the Washington Capitals, who, by the way, Penguins right now have three games in hand on the capitals. Capitals are one point ahead. You win those games in hand, you'll be a little bit ahead of Washington, to say the least. So if you get up to 51 points, that's huge. You still trying to chase down the flyers who are at 51 right now. The Islanders are at 52. The Penguins, remember, they have games in hand on both the hurricanes and the islanders. Obviously, it only matters if you win them, but you still have those games in hand. So you can get closer to pushing for a spot in the top three. The spots, in the metro to watch for just because of how New Jersey is struggling this year.

Washington hasn't been as good as I expected them to be. I didn't think they were going to be as good as they were last year. I didn't think they would be struggling like they have been recently, though. But the spots to really try and chase down in the metro, two and three. I think Islanders and the Flyers are the two teams you want to try and catch. 100%, especially with just one, how log jam that is, into the biggest logjam if you look at the Eastern Conference standing. right now is the Atlantic because right underneath the penguins right now, Buffalo, Florida,

Toronto, Boston. So the Atlantic Division really is going to gun for those wild card spots. So if you're the penguins looking at the second half of the season, you want to snag one of those second or third spots in the metro to really give yourself some distance from what is going to be a dog fight in the Atlantic division. But penguins, Devils, 7 o'clock tonight at PPG Paints Arena. You can catch the game on SportsNet Pittsburgh. And obviously Hunter and I will be back here on Friday to recap this one. But before we go, tonight is game 42 of the NHL season for the Pittsburgh Penguins,

which means the second half of the season kicks off tonight. So we're going to talk a little bit of expectations and predictions for the second half. of the season. We will get to that when we come back right after this. Welcome back to the Thursday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp running right alongside my pal-hunter Hodies and game 42 for the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight against the New Jersey Devils. The second half of the 2025-26 season gets underway.

let's just start here. We didn't expect this, at least not to this level. The penguins, they are right in the hunt. They're currently sitting in the second wild card spot of the Eastern Conference. And they have been much better than I think any of us would have expected. Now, we didn't expect them to be terrible. We didn't expect them to be a bottom of a barrel basement level team that is just difficult to watch every night. We expected them to struggle. We expected them to be the kind of team that hangs around in games, but probably doesn't come out with a win, but you look at them through 41 games, 20, 20 regulations or 20 wins, 12 losses, 9 overtime points. They have a 598 points percentage in 49 points.

I'm just going to continue with this prediction slash expectation that I've had since the beginning of the year. I expect them to be in this race all the way to the bitter end. Whether they make it in or not, I am still totally unsure because the East has just been insane this year. But through 82 games, I see this team being in the fight all the way until the end. I still don't think this conference is very good to say the least, but they're going to be in this all the way until the end of the regular season. And I think it's going to come down to only a few points.

I said I was confident that they were going to stay in the race a few weeks ago, even during the losing streak, and obviously before the losing streak as well. I got a bit nervous when they went on that eight game losing streak, but then my nerves came down as they've won now five in row and six of their last seven games. They tried to go for their six wins in a row tonight. But yeah, I'm with you. I never felt like they were going to be a bottom three team or even bottom five. I pushed back a little bit.

I kind of felt like it was going to be similar last year power. They were going to finish in that six to 12. range, something along those lines. And, hey, maybe potentially it still happens where they finish, you know, in that 11 to 12 range. But as of right now, I see them very much staying in the race until the end of the season. If you would have told me that they would be 20 wins, 12 regulation losses, and nine overtime points through the first half of the season. And in a playoff spot going into game 42, I would have said, honestly, you're on a little bit of drugs. I would have thought you were a little out of your mind, honestly.

but they have exceeded every expectation so far in the first half, and they are very much in this thing. And again, I've said this before a couple of times. I haven't said in a while, but they're playing like a team that has absolutely nothing to lose, and that can be pretty dangerous at times. So I expect that. I expect Cindy Crosby to finish another season with 90 plus points.

So until he doesn't do that, Pat, I'm just going to keep picking him to do it. I still think of Gennie Malkin is going to finish the season at a point per game. I know he's missed the last month. but I still think in the second half of the season, assuming he stays healthy. He is going to finish at a point per game. I'm still sticking with my prediction for Eric Carlson and Tommy Novak for my two bowl predictions.

And I'm also expecting the power play to continue to cook as well. There's nothing, you know, PDO about it or luck about it. This is just a great unit through and through. So I expect that to continue to. And I also, again, I expect this team to just keep fighting in every single game this season. So those are just a few of my expectations slash predictions. I'm not going to predict whether or not they will make the playoffs, because before the season, I said no.

If I flip-flop now, I look like a complete clown. So I'm going to stick with it. And if they prove me wrong, so be it. I've been proven wrong plenty of times on this show. So that's fine with me. Speaking though, of the playoffs, there is one thing I do got to say about that. If the Eastern Conference is mid, the Western Conference stinks. It's not good either.

Because here's the thing. There are exactly three teams in the Western Conference right now that would be in the playoffs in the East. And it's Colorado, Dallas, and Minnesota. Everybody else in the West that is currently in a playoff spot, Vegas, Edmonton, Seattle, San Jose, who would have thought in Los Angeles, all of them, if you put them in the east, they're outside the playoff picture. So it has been a baffling, baffling year in the NHL. But back to the Penguins. Again, I already said I expect them to be in the fight.

This might not be a bold prediction. It's kind of just piggybacking off of something you said this week already. I do think if this keeps up, which I expect it to, which this team continues to be in the fight, and especially if they end up making the postseason, Dan Mews' name has to be in the Jack Adams conversation. Yes. Because granted, none of us had expectations for this team again to suck, but to be this deep into the season and still very much being in the fight,

nobody saw that coming. And I think a lot of it, as I said during Warrior Helmet Wednesday, is a credit to Dan Mews. he has this team playing very solid hockey and he had, regardless of your opinion of the former coach, massive shoes to fill with a core group of players who deeply loved and deeply respected their former coach. So he had a massive job in front of him. And through 41 games, he's done one hell of a job.

Yeah. They're also a lot more fun to watch compared to the last few years as well. And last thing, Pat, you look at the Pacific Division. The Penguins would be in first place right now in that division. That's just how bad that division is. And also outside of those top three teams in the central, how bad the West is as well. Because you're right.

The West is also bad. It's probably worse than the East. And I don't think the East is particularly good either. But, man, outside of a few teams in the West, yeah, it is bad. But we'll end the show on that. Yeah. And my last thing that I wanted to add real quick is I do think that more lanes are going to open up for some of the younger players that everybody wants to see. Now, if this team finds itself

in a top three position going into or close to the trade deadline in the Metropolitan Division, I may have to rein that back because as I have said, I do think Kyle Dubus is going to quote, unquote, reward this team for playing well. Doesn't mean he's going to swing a big deadline deal. doesn't mean he's going to sell things off. But if this team is hanging around the wild card in it, just outside of it, I do see some of these veterans getting moved in that opening up the runway for some of these young players down in Wilkes Bear. Now, again, if they find themselves in a top three spot in the metro going into that portion of the calendar, I do think Kyle Dubus is going to hold some of those players.

and then when we get to the off season, we'll have more of a discussion about that. But I do think they're very much as a time coming, hopefully this season, especially if this team is doing okay enough, that some of the young players everybody wants to see are going to get their opportunity. Yeah, I could see that at some point,

especially with Avery Hayes potentially, at some point Tristan Brose, but again, a lot of it also depends on, as you said, what do they do at the deadline? Who potentially gets moved out? Does anyone get brought in as a quote-on-crow, reward time will tell there's still a long way to go until the trade deadline so wait and see approach second half of the season it starts tonight buckle in it has been fun for 41 games

we've got 41 and hopefully a few more to go after that but that is going to do it for the Thursday edition of locked on penguins hunter and i will be back with a new episode recapping this game on Friday as well as getting you set for the weekend back to back, unfortunately, because of the schedule we have put fan take Friday on hiatus. We're not deleting it. We're not getting rid of it. We love your questions. We love your hot takes, but there's a lot of hockey being played right now.

And the hockey always takes the front seat, but don't worry, it will return soon. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you, as always, for tuning in. And we will be back on Friday. Thank you.