Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins look to get a big WIN over the Caps on Thursday!

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

The Pittsburgh Penguins will welcome the Washington Capitals to Pittsburgh for the first of three meetings this season on Thursday. Hunter and Patrick begin the show by previewing the matchup and what the Penguins can do to get back in the win column. They also go over some of the lineup notes for this game to discuss why so many people need to calm down about Sergei Murashov not starting. Despite the hype, not throwing Murashov right into the fire is probably the best move for his long-term development. Finally, they take a look around the NHL at some of the more underrated storylines from the first month of the season!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!RugietVisit https://rugiet.com/LOCKEDONNHL to get 15% off your first order.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 will look to end their two-game losing streak on Thursday against the Washington Capitals, and Pat and I are going to preview that game 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. Hello, 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 co's Patrick Dap. You can follow him on all social media platforms at Cinder Verwet. 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 bought to you by Fandool, down the Fandle app right now, by visiting Fandul.com and win $300.

in bonus vets if your first $5 bet wins. Pat, it's the first of three meetings between the Penguins and the Capitals this year. This first one, of course, is in Pittsburgh. Pat, these two teams will not face each other until the very end of the regular season, April 11th and April 12th. It'll be a home-in-home. The Penguins will play them at home on the 11th before going to Washington on the 12th. So kind of a weird quirk of this year's schedule,

but this will be the first of three meetings. the capitals are coming off a dominant 6-1 win over the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday. Logan Thompson started in that game, so it doesn't, doesn't not look like he is going to play in this one. It'll be Charlie Lingren, which I will say is a big deal because he has not been good to start the season. I say that now until he probably gets a shutout against the Penguins tonight. But so far through four games, 3.47 goals against average for Charlie Lindgren and an 880% percentage compared to Logan Thompson, who has played nine games. He has a 938, save percentage in a 1.45 goals against average. He's been one of the best goaltenders in the league.

I think he should start for Team Canada at the Olympics. But it's pretty big that it looks like the Penguins will not be facing him tonight and that it will be Charlie Lindgren. We do have to congratulate Alex Ovechkin getting his 900th career goal, making more NHL history on Wednesday. Who knows if anyone else is ever going to hit 900 goals? History says, probably not. The only player that I could see even coming close to that right now is Austin Matthews.

Alta Wetchkin, though, just an absolute freak. He's had a little bit of a slow start to the season, though, Pat, only three goals to start the year. But we all know as history against the Penguins, and in this league, he can score whenever. It only takes one game for him to really get going. The guy had 44 goals last year, for God's sake. But you look up and down this lineup, they still return most of the players from last year. Tom Wilson's been great, 15 points in 13 games. Dylan Strom is a point per game.

Alexei Protis is at 10 points in 13 games. Jacob Trickman has been their best defensemen so far this season. They have started a little bit slow. They've lost four of their last five. But for the Penguins tonight, I really just want to see a response. I loved what I saw in the first 40 minutes against the Maple Leafs. But I want to see a response after what happened on Monday in the third period.

You've had a couple of days to lick your wounds. How are you going to respond? tonight. I want to see a 60 minute effort. That's really the biggest thing going into tonight's game is we can put all the pomp and circumstance about penguins capitals to the side. We can put all of the X's and O's and other analysis to the side because we said going into Toronto that Winnipeg was a bad luck game, didn't hate their effort, didn't hate the way they played. They just didn't get the bounces and it was the first time really this season that they had a loss where you look at the score and you think if you just watch the box score they didn't have a great game but if you

actually dive in and watch the game they just didn't get the bounces they had been getting all season up to that point and you look at a game like that and you think okay that happens it is going to happen in an 82 game season do you push forward and put a better and put a similar effort but try to make your own breaks. And through 40 minutes against Toronto, we talked about it. They played damn near perfect hockey for 40 minutes. Then they completely collapsed in on themselves. They fell asleep at the wheel.

They gave a very top heavy and very talented Toronto top six a chance to walk right through the door and they sure did. Tonight is a game where, all right, is this the start of a bad trend? Are we starting to come back to Earth as a. team or was it a blip on the radar? And if there is ever a team to have a good get right game against, it is your longtime rival in the Washington Capitals. So tonight, I mean, we're going to dive into all the analysis here throughout the rest of the episode. But first and foremost with a bullet, if I'm Dan Mews, the first thing I'm putting on the whiteboard today is just response. And that's

all I want to see out of them tonight. And you also have to take advantage of the fact that the Capitals, they played last night. So this is the second half of a back-to-back for them with travel. The Penguins, they've been off since Monday. So they are going to very much have their legs for this one. You need to take advantage that this is probably going to be at least a little bit of a tired Capitals team. So that's something that I'm also looking for tonight as well. Penguins and Capitals, they split their season series last year,

two wins for the Penguins, two wins for the Capitals. And honestly, Pat, if you go back for the last 10 games, each one five. This has been a very split down the middle rivalry, at least for the past couple of years. We don't need to go into the playoff history, obviously with Crosby and Obetchen, but for at least the last couple of seasons, both teams have taken turns beating each other. So it's been a lot of fun to watch again with Washington. You always got to make sure when they have their power plays cheating someone over just a little bit to take away that one timer by Alex Ovechkin. Dillonstrom.

really good distributor. He also has a good release, but as a playmaker, I like him quite a bit. We all know how much Tom Wilson has gone against the Penguins throughout his career and has done a lot of things against the Penguins. So you always got to watch out for him. He's been phenomenal, as I said, to start the season. Protis, another one of their young players. He's had a nice start. And also someone that's keep an eye on, Ryan Leonard, three goals, seven points in 13 games. I like his game so far this year. I think he's going to be a really good player for them for years to come. Spencer Carberry has them very well coached. They play very stingy usually in their own end.

But I still think even though they beat the Blues on Wednesday, this is a team that can kind of be had right now just because they haven't been playing that well over the last week or so, but also for the Penguins. This has got to be a little bit of a get right game. And I want to see the power play continue to cook. I want to see the penalty kill continue their moments because I think the penalty kill has been a lot better over the last week.

There's going to be a few lineup changes. it looks like Harrison Brunick is coming out of the lineup for Penguins. They haven't made a final call yet on if he is going to play that 10th game and have the ELC kicking. But just based on the morning skate, like Connor Clifton and Ryan Graves are going to slot back in. And it appears that's going to be the third pairing. So God help us all on that one.

We saw Dumba and Clifton didn't really go well. I can't imagine this pairing is going to go that much better. But I guess we'll give it a shot at least for this game. I expect the other two defensive pairings to remain the same with Watherspinning Carlson and then Shay LaTang and also Pat Yonukopin is going to be in the lineup tonight. Remember, Noah Chari is out, Justin Brazo is still out. And then Philip Hollander, he was at practice on Wednesday,

got banged up a little bit during the practice. Dave Mews confirmed on Thursday that he is day to day and he is out, hence the call up for Yonokopin, so he'll be slotting in. I know people have questions about Kevin Hayes. He's not ready yet. It looks like he's really close, but it doesn't look like he's going to play tonight. he'll potentially have an opportunity this weekend. He's been really getting a lot of reps in in practice on the fourth line.

He's clear for contact, all of that good stuff. So those are most of the lineup notes. I'm saving one for the second segment because I know there's been a lot of freak out about the goalie situation. But Pat, your thoughts about some keys to victory and some of the lineup notes. Well, let's start with the lineup. And I know that some of our listeners, especially our frequent listeners, know that I have been known to be kind of soft on. Ryan Graves, despite how much of a disaster he has been since becoming a penguin.

I'm not running from that. I'm not denying it. I'm not telling you not to believe your lying eyes. He's actually good. Don't worry. I'm not doing that. But very similar to what we said about someone like Danton Heinen this year, I am willing to give him a little bit of a runway this year, simply because, and he said this on record to reporters after practice yesterday, basically saying I wanted to go down there and work on my game and get better and be a good example for the young players. It would have been so easy for him to sulk. It would have been so easy for him to be a toxic player in the lineup because he doesn't think he belongs in the HL.

But he talked about the early part of his career when he spent some time in the American League and he saw those veterans come down and set a good example for the young players like himself at the time. So this is his opportunity and he has to seize it. This isn't me saying go easy on him. This isn't me saying everything's going to be fine. Don't worry. He's fixed. But I'm going to give him the opportunity.

I'm going to give him the chance to show that he has worked on his game. I'm extremely doubtful anything is going to come from it. But that said, I will always have time for a player who is willing to do what it takes to get back to that level. And I may not like his game. I may think he's cooked, but if he is willing to do that for the betterment of the organization, I got all the time in the world for that.

As for the rest of it, I look at it this way. This is what happens, not just in the NHL, but especially in Penguinsland. We are the home of the injury bug. Our good pal and my former co-host from the Dying Alive podcast, Jesse Marshall and I always used to say on that show, we need to have some sort of a seance or something around PPG paints arena because there are always injuries. There's always weird injuries. And when they show up, they show up in waves.

We're going to find out both how good of a coach early on Dan Mews can be when he has a lot of his key players out of the lineup and how he's going to utilize some of these depth guys and how they respond. So this is going to be a really interesting game for the penguins tonight against the caps. I agree with that. And you want to get rid of this two-game losing shoot just because you have the back-to-back coming up against the devils who have been lighting up the league. Then you come back the next day. You play a Kings team that I still think on paper they are better than what their record says

and they are going to figure it out and make the playoffs, but they still struggled out of the gate. So it really makes this game. I wouldn't call it like a must win just because we're still so early in the season. But it's a game that I feel like you've got to have. I'll say that. Not a must win, but I feel like a game you probably got to. have. So those are my thoughts on that. As for Ryan Graves, prove me wrong. Like, yeah, he did well in

Wilkesbury. That's all fine and dandy. It's also the AHL. We've seen what he can do with the Penguins at the NHL level. It hasn't been good. Okay. Go out there and prove me wrong. I'm not really expecting anything. Hell, I called that potential pairing with him and Clifton a disaster just a couple minutes ago because I don't really think anything good is going to come out of it. But again, I've been wrong about a few things to start the year. I would love to be wrong about this. History says, though that it's not sure that's going to be the case because we've seen what Graves can do as the thing. But I at least will respect him with his answers when he's saying, I didn't go down there and cry about it and get all upset. I wanted to prove that I can make my way back up.

And, you know, to his credit, he did. Though Owen Pickering also didn't really play that well towards the end of his stint. I thought the beginning of his stint was much better. But he'll at least have a little bit of opportunity here, Graves, that is, to try and prove, I think literally everyone wrong, including us knuckleheads. So that would do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to discuss why everyone in this fan base is very mad online that Sergei Murashov is not starting against the capitals on Thursday night.

That's coming up right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor, and that is Fandle. The NBA is back. And there is no better place to get in on the action than Fandle, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand. Fandle has live bets on everything from who will score next to

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Archer Shilovs will be starting tonight against the Washington Capitals. I'm not really too surprised by that. You're seeing a lot of people freaking out about this. And you and I kind of discussed this on our Wednesday episode. I put it in my column on the hockey news today when I wrote about Sorgaim Miroshaven, and how this will be his first NHL stint. And would it have been cool

to see him go tonight against the Capitals and Alex Ovechkin? Oh, 100%. Home crowd, you go up against the best Russian player and NHL history. It would be pretty cool to make your debut going up against

Alex Ovechkin. However, there is a process to this. They are easing him into the NHL. He's probably not going to be here for the rest of the season, though obviously things can change if he plays as absolute. salute tail off and, you know, Tristan Jari, you know, comes back in a month and they have,

again, things can happen, but I still see him going back down to Wilkesbury to continue dominating once Jari is probably ready to come back. But for the time being, he is here. It may need to manage his workload. He's going to get one of the games this upcoming weekend. If I had the guess, and this is a guess, I think L.A. I think it's the easier game for him. I think you should do it at home.

The Devils, that's a high-flying team. They get a lot of chances. They're off to a great start. I would go Shilov's back to back tonight and Saturday and then save Miroshov for Sunday. So as cool as it would have been to see Murashav start tonight, I get the thought process behind it. People need to stop overreacting about it. It is not that big of a deal. And there's my quick little mini rant on it.

I can tell you have something coming. So I'm going to give this to you now. Do you just want them to play Sunday because you're going to be there? you want to see his NHL debut. Is that what? You know what? I can confirm that is part of it. I got tickets with my fiance a couple days ago.

I didn't realize he was going to be up this week, just because I didn't even know Tris and Jari got hurt. It didn't look like it on Monday. But that's part of it. Yeah, I want to see him make his debut when I'm there. Just busting your balls on that one. Though it would be cool to see his NFL debut, especially if he develops into what a lot of us expect him to develop into.

But I will say this. For being 21, he is very mature beyond his age because it would have been very easy for him to get caught up in the hype and the excitement of getting his first call to the National Hockey League this week. And when he talked to reporters, he basically said, I'm not worried about when I'm going to play. I'm worried about the process of getting to that point and doing what I have to do to earn my first NHL start. So that's huge for a kid who's only 21 and essentially in his first year or so of being in North America, a whole new country, a whole new continent. So this is big for him. And I also agree with the process point. Here's the thing.

I said it a minute ago. He's 21. And we know that along with goaltending being voodoo, it is extremely rare for a goal to be. of that age to not only come in to the NHL, but become a starter in the NHL at that age. It's extremely rare. It takes a few years because you are the last line of defense. And whether you're on a rebuilding team that isn't that strong and you're getting shelled every night or if you're just adapting to the speed and skill of shooters at the

NHL level, it takes a while to become a true blue NHL goal, the most part. And for the penguins, they want Sergey Murshov, by all accounts, I mean, their borderline just coming out and saying it, that they want him to be their franchise goaltender down the road. So as excited and as much as we all joke about, start him against the caps, you cowards, we want Sergey Murshov to be the starting goaltender and a good starting goaltender for five, six, seven years from now. So, If you throw him to the wolves right away, and let's say this most recent stretch of games is more the true penguins than we saw the first month of the season, that could really hamper his development as a starting. We said it about Yoel Blumquist last year, where, yeah, we wanted to see him more.

We wanted Jari to not play and all that stuff. But they also have long-term plans for him. and if you throw them out behind a team that doesn't play good defensively, you are not going to help his development. Now, you don't need to treat them with kid gloves and say, no, we can't put him in the net until everything is perfect and ready to go.

Eventually, they got to earn it. Eventually they have to face adversity, but you also don't want to just throw them into the deep end and say, well, he didn't figure it out. So guess he's cooked. So I'm fine with the process, but I also don't want to see them be too cautious, I guess.

So not starting him tonight. I totally understand it. It's been a whirlwind couple of days for him. You want him to get familiar with everything. You want him to get a little bit more comfortable. And then you have a game in Newark and then you have a game in Pittsburgh. So you're not doing a ton of travel. You're not going all across the continent.

You can ease him into this. And if he plays well, you know you're going to be without Jari for a couple weeks. so you can really start slotting him into a rotation and see how he does. Right. And if he plays well, I mean, who's to say he doesn't get one of those games in Sweden against Nashville? The Penguins will play Nashville both times in Sweden. They're flying to Sweden next week.

He's going to be there. So maybe you keep up the rotation there. But I think at least to start at least at the end of this week, you can maybe go Shilov twice in a row to kind of break up that 1A1B, then go to Miroshov. And then if you want to go back to Shilov for the first game in Sweden, And then maybe Murashov for the second game, especially if Murashov plays really well in his debut this weekend again, hopefully against the Kings. Of course, I also just think even without me going, Pat, and I'll not to my horn a little bit more there.

I just think it makes the most sense to start him against the King's team that has struggled this year. And it's also at home, I think having the crowd behind you like that, I think is really big too. So I think it just makes all the sense in the world on a lot of levels. you brought up Ual Blumquist, especially his second stint, and I completely agree with you. You saw it felt like a few games in a row, that Toronto game especially, Pat, he couldn't sell the beach ball. And it was like, okay, they might have to send him back to get his confidence back because it wasn't doing him or the team any favors when he's just getting lit up lockerside for it felt like every goal. And he was also playing behind a really bad defense. So they just said, hey, you know what?

We're going to send you back, go down to Wilkesbury. And we're going to call up Trishon Jari to and the season, even though at the time, He probably didn't deserve the call because he wasn't playing that well even down in Wilkes and Wilkesbury. But at the time, they were like, hey, we have no choice. We're not just going to keep throwing this guy out there and crushing his development. And they're not going to do that here with Murashav. They have future plans for him. They want him to be the number one netminder for the future.

And by the way, if he does turn into the Penguins number one netminder for the future, that's one way to potentially speed up this rebuild is if you have a potential franchise goalie. So again, everyone, don't overreact. Everything is fine. He is going to get one of the games, excuse me, this weekend, and he'll probably play a little bit more after that until Jari is ready to return. And hey, like I mentioned, say something crazy happens where in each start he has,

he lights everyone up and crushes it, and then maybe we'll have a deeper conversation, but he hasn't played an initial game yet. So let's just see how he does when he makes his first start, this upcoming weekend, and then we will go from there. But I think that I'll do it for the second segment. Coming up in the final segment,

we're going to go with some news and notes around the league, plus discuss how Wilkesbury pulled a full NHL Penguins last night, blowing a 3-0 lead to the Toronto Marleys after dominating them for most of the game like the Penguins did against the Maple Leafs. So stick around for all of that coming up right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our final sponsor, and that is Rugi it. Let's be real. Making excuses doesn't solve anything. We've all heard them before. It's just stress. I'm tired or happens to everyone sometimes. But when it comes to performance, sometimes your body just needs a little extra support. And that's where Rougiate comes in. Rougiate.com offers fast acting, doctor prescribed treatments for ED, designed to help you stop making excuses and start making moves.

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Locked-on NHL so they know we sent you. Ruggiat, stop making excuses and start making moves. All right, we're back here in this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-s, Patrick Hamid and Pat. I did want to say there was some speculation

that Avery Hayes could be coming up, but he is a little bit banged up right now. Tony and Dracudus of Inside Aitcha. Hockey was talking about this on Wednesday night. And speaking of the Wilkinson. Wilkesbury Scranton penguins pat. They blew a 3-0 lead to the other team from Toronto, the Marley's. Wilkesbury was dominating them for most of that game and let them come back and then

lose an overtime, just like the penguins did against the Maple Leafs, except penguins, they lost that game in regulation. They didn't even get a point out of that game, which is even worse. So, hey, I've seen that movie before. Yeah, I mean, good on the, like, I guess good, not. really, but good on Wilkes-Barre on getting a point out of it, because if you look at the way that game went, they were up 3-0 all the way into the midpoint of the third period, and then they blew that lead. And then they almost got it to a shootout, but then the Marley's score with

42 seconds left in overtime to get the win over the baby penguins. But yeah, I mean, it's fun to make the jokes, but at the end of the day, you look at Wilkes Bear right now, and they still very much are a wagon, 8, 2, and 1 second overall in the HL, first in the division in their conference. So they're still humming right along. And you look at that team and how good they are. I'm not all that concerned about losing a game like that because Toronto, especially the organization, still does have a ton of young talent,

especially at the Marleys. So that's another team that's going to be pretty good. They might not be a true contender at the AHL level, but they're going to be right in the mix like they always are. And then you just look at it this way. Like I said, baby penguins are very good. And that just is more than likely a hiccup. When you look at the big squad, though,

I don't want to say they're fragile because that's not the right word. But it's a team that, as we know, is in transition. and retooling and a loss like that can carry a lot more weight for a team that's still trying to figure out what it is as they move on to their next phase of the franchise. Wilkes Barrett's like, eh, wait a bad night. Happens. We'll be back at it when we go play the Rochester Americans and my former employer, the Utica comments.

Well, there we go. So a couple of big games coming up for Wilkesbury. They'll try to shake that off, flush it down the toilet, all that good stuff. But Pat just wanted to end the show with, I guess, some of your thoughts, Leaguewide, anything that you've noticed so far from the standings to how some certain teams have played that have caught your eye. We really haven't done that so far. We're about a full month now into the 2025, 2025, 26 NHL season.

For me, Montreal is insane to start the year, 9-3-1. Ivan Demadov. I still think he's going to win the Calder. Layton's been great once again. I love watching Cole. He'll do his thing. That team is going to be dangerous throughout the year. I'm not buying the stock under.

Detroit just yet. I've seen this movie a few times. They're in second right now. This is a very good start, but I'm just not sure how long this is going to last. Tampa Bay, they had a little bit of a slow start, but you've seen them climb the standings slowly but surely. In the Metro, it's so funny. The Rangers, they're decent on the road, but they just can't win at home to save their lives. And they're kind of having the same problem that the Penguins were having under Mike Sullivan, where, yeah, their expected goals are great, but it's not translating over to actual goals. If you go to the West, the Avales, Lynch have been fantastic, only one regulation loss in their first 14 games. We talked about Winnipeg.

Utah, my sleeper team heading into the year that I picked and make the playoffs, they have been awesome. Shout out Logan Cooley. Shout out Nick Schmaltz. By the way, he is going to get paid after this next season. If he does not extend in Utah, he has been fantastic. And then the high flying ducks, man, first place in the Pacific, 8, 3 and 1, proving me wrong so far.

But can you do it for a full season and make the last? the playoffs when a lot of players on this team have never done that before. So I know I said it was a year early, but they're proving me wrong so far. It's been a lot of fun to see some new teams towards the top of the same thing. Hell, even Seattle has 16 points so far, which is crazy. I didn't think they were going to be any good. Yeah, I would say I have two surprises in one underrated storyline. The two surprises for me are obviously you brought them up, Utah.

I said it even when they were still in Arizona. Bill Armstrong was doing a hell of a job with that team. It was just a matter of having a bad ownership in a bad organization with the coyotes. Now that they've got a good ownership and they're in a stable place, they're really going to fly. And I was with you and I had them as a sleeper playoff team, but I didn't expect them to be this good out of the gate. They are an absolute wagon to start.

And then the other surprise that I have a little bit, and we'll see how long it lasts is Chicago. They're, I wouldn't say they're good, but they are much better than I expected them to be. They currently hold a wild card spot in the West. They are 6, 5, and 3, which granted that is under 500, but they're battling, they're working hard, they're finding some ways to win.

You're seeing some real growth from the Blackhawks, with Bedard, which they really desperately needed because you don't want to become the early McDavid Oilers or the Buffalo Sabres where you get all this top tier talent or you get one good player and it just doesn't seem to take flight. So that's good to see. Then the underrated storyline for me, you brought them up. Colorado. I mean, they are just underratedly.

No one really seems to be at least. not that frequently talking about how good the avalanche are. Not that we didn't expect it, because they are still an extremely talented team. But I would say right now, if I had to pick a Stanley Cup winner on November 6th, really hard for me not to pick Colorado, because they just look really, really good. And they just extended Marty Natchez for a big contract. I would have been crazy to see what he would have got on the open market if he had gotten. there, just saying because he's been great to start the year. But I do like that one, Colorado.

It's definitely a safe pick to make the cup final, but they're still going to have to go through a really deep conference. The Central Division playoffs are going to be nuts. Again, Winnipeg, Dallas, et cetera. So I get where you're coming from with that one. Chicago, I agree. They've been better than expected so far. Not sure how long that is going to last, but they've still been good.

Seattle, yeah, their overall record, if you combine the overtime losses with the regulation losses, it's below 500, but they're still better than I thought they would be so far, 6, 3 and 4, 16 points that's tied per second in the Pacific. They're battling every night. So I'm definitely surprised by that one as well. But I think that's going to do it for today's episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with a fresh episode for you guys on Friday, recapping this game

against the capitals and getting you guys set for a big weekend against the devils and, of course, against the Kings. So again, that will do it for this one for Patrick Damp. I'm Hunter Hodes. Thank you guys for tuning in. We will be back on Friday.