Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins lose both weekend games, miss big opportunity
Episode Date: January 12, 2026The Penguins came out of the weekend winless and missed a big opportunity to make their move in the Eastern Conference standings. Patrick and Hunter begin the show discussing the Penguins' two losses ...this weekend, first against the Calgary Flames and then against the Boston Bruins. On Sunday, it was a lack of adjustments and questionable lineup decisions that led to a 1-0 shutout at the hands of the Bruins. (0:00) Then, it's time to talk about goaltending. While it was low on the list of problems for the Penguins, it might be time to give Stuart Skinner an extended look after another very solid outing on Sunday. They also touch on Kevin Hayes, Dan Muse, and Ben Kindel. (13:47) Finally, the Penguins return home for three big games against three formidable opponents, with Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, and Columbus all coming to town. (28:41) 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.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
It was certainly a weekend to forget for the Pittsburgh Penguins as they go over in their weekend back to back.
Hunter and I are going to recap both those games and talk about some coaching 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.
Welcome in to another edition of the 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 Hunter Hodes.
You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.
You can give our show's Twitter account a follow at L.O. 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're following us on YouTube, which you should be, make sure you've hit the notification
button.
That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes.
Today's episode is brought to you by Fandul.
The Wild Card Round is here, and Fandle is officially in playoff mode.
So visit Fandul in official sports.
sports book partner of the NFL and grab your profit boost pack every NFL playoff game day.
Not a very fun weekend for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
They lose two to one at home to the Calgary Flames and then one nothing in Boston to the Boston
Bruins.
So there is quite a bit to get to for both of these games.
So here's how we're going to structure this show.
instead of taking one segment to talk about one game and then a second segment to talk about the other,
we're just going to kind of weave it all together because there were a lot of similarities in both losses.
There were a lot of things, whether they were lineup decisions, effort, goalies, the opposing team, you name it.
A lot of it is related.
So let's begin with the most recent, and that is the one-nothing loss.
to the Boston Bruins.
Now, I'm going to begin it with this.
I gave Dan Muse the Warrior Helmet last week on Wednesday
because I thought he did and does still deserve a ton of credit
for everything he's done since becoming the head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
But Boston was not his proudest moment.
One, after a weird loss to Calgary, two to one at home,
that you played fine enough, you had some things not go your way.
He throws his lines into a blender.
Kevin Hayes for some reason is on the second line.
And then not only that, Boston is a team that plays very, very defensive hockey.
They will go into a shell and make you make mistakes and capitalize on your mistakes.
and that's pretty much what we saw on Sunday afternoon.
The biggest problem I took from Sunday was this.
The system did not adjust.
The Boston Bruins in the defensive zone clogged the ever-living hell out of the middle.
The Penguins game planned this year a lot of the time
has been working the puck low to high,
and it's brought them some success.
Against Boston, by the time they worked the puck up high,
the middle was clogged.
There were no options.
Boston was blocking everything.
And I'm going to give Mews the benefit of the doubt because he has been good for the majority of this season.
But in that instance, you have to work the puck low and your game has to start behind the net and pretty much remain there for the majority of the game.
Not only that, where was the net front presence in this game?
No one was getting in Corpusallo's kitchen really at all.
you know, Igor Chinikov ran into him during a really good chance earlier in the game.
Looked like he was tripped into him.
No call on that, by the way.
But other than that, Pat, even during a couple of the brief power plays that they had,
there was no net front presence at all, nothing at five on five.
He was easily seeing a lot of these chances.
And I do think he had to come up with some pretty good saves.
Again, the one on Chinokov was good, the one on Ben Kindle, and the first was good.
There was a deflection in the third period.
That was a nice save.
the backhand by Crosby,
where he lunged his glove out,
really nice save as well.
But for a good chunk of these chances, too,
it was just easy pickings for them.
You know,
the ruins were forcing them to shoot from,
felt like 35, 40 plus feet.
Penguins weren't getting to those high danger areas.
I know it is funny,
and I go on natural stack trick after to always look at the stats
to see if they match the eye test.
The penguins are credited,
credit it with 16 high danger chances at 5 on 5.
It didn't really felt like that for a lot of this game.
That's just the way I'm seeing it with my eye test.
Though Bruins only had two high danger chances in the final 40 minutes.
That does track the Bruins.
It felt like we're barely even trying to score in the final two periods of this game.
They ended the game with seven.
So that more so tracks.
16 for the penguins, though.
I question that at least a little bit again.
I still love looking at natural statrick and love the work there.
But so that does that does feel very charitable.
Yes.
Because Sunday was a slog of a game.
It was just.
really the muckiest hockey you could play.
And I'll say this for Boston,
because I know that you want to go off about this.
I don't think that it's their identity overall anymore.
I do think they are a more defensive, heavy team.
But this was a case of two teams who played the day before,
and they were playing some of the most simplistic hockey.
So once Boston got their lead,
it was sleep or hold time.
And as much as I dislike it,
as much as I don't like watching it,
they did pretty much play that game to perfection
and they deserve some credit for it.
Absolutely.
They did play very well defensively.
It did remind me a lot of game for 2013,
the Eastern Conference final between these two teams,
Pat, where it felt like the penguins looked just like this,
where they couldn't generate a lot of good chances,
the chances that they did get.
Tuka Rask was there to stop them.
And yeah, I know Tuka Rask is twice the goalie that Jonas Corpusallo is.
But still, it reminded me a lot of that where it was a lot of it was a slog.
And it felt like that, especially for the final 40 minutes.
And again, I'll give credit to Boston.
They played well defensively.
They took away a lot of the shooting options.
They blocked a lot of shots.
It just felt like very Claude Julian hockey.
And, you know, when he was a coach of the Bruins and just a coach in general,
I just did not like his style of play just because I felt it was very boring.
but the Bruins did what they needed to do to win this game.
They got the two points out of it.
Walla, they're skating out with the victory.
I just don't think Dan Muse did enough to adjust in this one.
You talked about Kevin Hayes.
There was no reason to make that change.
I'm sorry, he should not be the second line center in any situation.
I know Brian Rust is hurt.
He's day to day.
We don't know what happened to him after the game where they won six in a row.
But the only goal you scored,
this weekend was on the Malkin Kindle Chinokov line. By the way, beautiful piss missile from
Chinakov to tie the game against Calgary before they lost. Why are you breaking up that line
to slot in Kevin Hayes at 2C? It doesn't make any sense. And look, I'm not going to blame him
for all the Penguins' problems. I think that is very foolish. You know, one player doesn't
make or break, you know, something like this. But I do think they're just not getting anything
from him when he's on the ice.
And you and I were talking about this before recording.
You know, if you want to put him on the fourth line for a game or two,
while Rust is heard, however long he is, okay, sure, I'll understand the vision.
You cannot put him in your top six, man.
That's ridiculous.
Right.
And I know that we don't want to break up that fourth line because of how well they have played.
I understand that thinking, but this is what injuries do.
This is what injuries cause.
You're going to have to make some big.
changes, especially to a player as important to the lineup as Brian Rust. I'm not even that anti
Kevin Hayes. I think he does have a little bit of value. He is a solid defensive player. If you put
him in a fourth line role, if you shelter him and you give him limited minutes, he still very much
has value. And that's what they were doing last year. And he was honestly okay in that type of role. Yes,
he was also a healthy scratch under Mike Sullivan at times.
But he still was that last year.
Obviously, he's a bit older now.
This year hasn't been nearly as effective.
But still, man, it just does not make any sense.
There was no reason to Galaxy brain this.
I was fine with putting Clifton in over St. Ivany.
I felt like San Ivany needed a break.
You and I talked about that.
I thought Stuart Skinner was great today.
That was the obvious player to start.
But there was just simply no reason to move Kevin Hayes up
in the lineup. And hell, if you wanted to make an argument to even scratch him today for
Raphael Harvey Pinnard, I can easily see it. I will say people, once Rust comes back or once
Grosy is back from his concussion, Kevin Hayes is not going to be a regular in this lineup. You were
seeing that when this team was basically almost fully healthy. He was a healthy scratch. So I'm not
worried about that long term. But again, I understand all the grapes because he was once again,
not very good. And to backdoor something I was going to say because you got to it in a different
manner is him being a healthy scratch as much as he has this season. Something that I think
Dan Muse deserves a little bit of smoke for is that a player of his age with the miles he has on his
body, not playing consistently and not getting into a groove, he is going to struggle when
he returns to the lineup. So putting him in a prominent role is not going to work.
If you put him on the fourth line, you play him eight, nine minutes, and you make sure that
he's getting favorable starts. He's getting favorable matchups. We did that a lot with him last
year and a little bit to start this year. And he, I'm not going to pretend like he was great,
but he had his moments. He was passable. He was serviceable. But
you put him with Evgeny Malkin, and I know Malkin's not the fastest guy anymore, but compared to
Hayes, he looks like a burner, and you saw it multiple times against the Bruins.
Plays broke down, flow wasn't there, it was an offensive black hole, and again, I don't want
to be too negative to Hayes because he's been a good soldier, he's been a good veteran on this
team, but it was just a total misuse of him in that game.
So let's leave this segment there.
You did bring up Stuart Skinner, so we do got to talk about goaltending,
which we will talk about when we come back right after this.
But first, we've got to tell you about today's first sponsor,
and that is Factor Meals.
New Year, big goals, and somehow even less time to cook.
If you're trying to eat better,
but you don't want to spend hours, grocery shopping, meal prepping,
are in the kitchen.
Factor makes it easy.
These are fully prepared meals designed by dietitians and crafted by chefs so you can eat well without
all the work.
Factor meals are made with quality, functional ingredients, lean proteins, colorful veggies,
whole foods, and healthy fats.
No refined sugars, no artificial sweeteners, no refined seed oils, just real food that fits
your goals, whether that's eating healthier, managing your calories, or just getting more protein.
I've got a pretty busy schedule these days between recording locked on penguins,
my other job trying to stay in shape, trying to do all that in general.
And I don't have time to spend hours on end in the kitchen.
So factor meals, the convenience is absolutely perfect.
It's not frozen.
It's fresh.
I pop it in the microwave and I've got myself a great meal,
especially since I'm trying to watch my calories and increase my protein take.
Factor, it's right there for me.
Cannot recommend it enough.
So head to factormeals.
dot com slash locked on NHL 50 off and use the code locked on NHL 50 off to get 50% off your first
factor box plus free breakfast for one whole year. That's factor meals.com slash locked on 50 off code
locked on NHL 50 off make healthy eating easier with factor. Back here on the Monday edition of
Locked on penguins, I'm Patrick damp running right alongside hunt
or Hodes. Let's pick it up right where we left off talking about the goaltending.
And I am going to go against the grain, I guess, is the way for me to say this.
Because reading a lot of the recaps from Calgary and seeing a lot of the social media posts,
I have to slightly disagree with everybody on Artur She Loves.
Now, I don't think he was bad against Calgary.
so everybody put the torches out, put the pitchforks away.
I'm not saying he was bad against Calgary.
I'm not blaming him for the loss.
It was not his fault.
But remember the kind of team, excuse me, that Calgary is.
They're not very good.
They don't have a ton of offense and they're not that talented.
I saw a lot of moments where there were some iffy rebounds, some 50-50 pucks.
and say they're playing a team that's a little bit better,
say they're playing a team that they're more close to the race with.
I was a little shaky on Shilov's on Saturday.
Now, again, not saying he's bad,
not saying he's underwhelming or anything like that,
but I saw some flashing red lights on Saturday,
and I could only think, man,
if they're playing a better team,
this score might be a little bit worse.
see I'm going to disagree with you a little bit I actually thought that was she loves best start in a little bit I thought he kept the penguins in that game especially when Calgary was pushing at times especially after taking that to one lead in the third period even when it was one nothing before Chinakov tied it I thought he still made some big saves for this team so I will push back a little bit on that even if there was a better team I still felt like
the score probably would have been similar just because of the way he was playing.
The first goal that he gave up, not his fault.
Ryan, She just can't make that pass.
He knows better.
You can see right after he made the pass, he knew he screwed up.
That was just a bad play.
The second goal, Matt Coronado, man, that's a good shot from Coronado.
Like, there's not really much he can do there.
Other than that, especially when the flame was pushed at times in the third period,
which I felt the penguins were kind of lethargic for a good chunk of that period.
he made a good amount of saves.
Even in the first period, too, he was keeping them in it.
I also felt like the penguins were very lethargic in that one.
You see, we have that on our rundown here for those that are listening via audio.
We have starts have to be better.
And I just don't think the penguins were ready for this game on Saturday.
Again, very lethargic, very sloppy.
A lot of things felt very clunky.
They couldn't really complete a few passes in a row without the puck being intercepted.
Hell, the penguins were handling the puck like a grenade for a,
good chunk of this game. Honestly, just too many
turnovers, not enough offensive zone time.
When they did get the chances, Devin Coley was there to save them.
And I do think he had to come up with some pretty good saves in this game.
I will give him his due credit.
He started in place of Dustin Wolf, who has played a lot this year.
I still felt like, you know, even when the penguins pushed back and the flames
were trying to push them around a little bit with some big hits and all that,
I still wanted to see more offensive zone time.
And it kind of goes hand in hand with today's game against Foss.
I'm recording this around 8.30.
We're going to drop this episode around midnight.
Just not enough offensive zone time,
not enough for checking,
not enough high danger chances,
not enough of a net front presence either.
A lot of these just go hand in hand
just because the penguins weren't able to generate enough.
A lot of sloppy play.
And I don't think the penguins were, quote, quote,
bad per se, or awful,
or they were boat race or anything like that.
Just, again, the word I keep coming back to is sloppy.
that's really what it comes down to for these two games.
And I also will say, Pajas, to tie these two losses together,
it's a wasted opportunity for me.
You come in with six in a row.
You're playing two teams that are below you in the standings,
a Flames team that is especially not very good this season,
a Bruins team that has been very up, very down.
I still don't think they're that good when you look at them overall,
and they get no points out of it.
And the schedule is going to get tougher this week.
We're going to discuss that a little bit later.
Just feels like a really big missed opportunity,
getting no points against teams that, again, are simply not very good this year.
It really was a lost weekend because, like you said, you're coming off a six-game win streak.
We even said going into this weekend that if you split, it's not the worst thing in the world,
especially given the travel, the type of schedule you're playing.
It's weird start times, 1 o'clock on Saturday, 5 o'clock on Sunday.
that gets you so out of your routine and so out of your comfort zone that if you drop one of them,
nobody would blame you unless it was a catastrophic loss, which neither of these were.
These were just, they were tough luck losses really at the end of the day.
And you touched, before I get into this, the one thing I do want to say,
because we kind of have been doom and gloom since we hit record on this episode,
you look at these two losses this weekend and none of it is a fatal flaw.
It's all extremely fixable.
This wasn't a team that showed a bunch of weaknesses that they have and they were exploited for having those weaknesses.
It was a lot of self-inflicted wounds.
It was a lot of bad luck.
Jonas Corpusolo played out of his mind when he had to.
I thought Devin Cooley was very good with the flames on Saturday.
So a lot of things that if they clean them up, they're going to be okay.
But I will say this.
The one thing I think they've got to clean up more than anything moving forward is puck management.
They were just borderline careless with the puck all weekend.
First goal against Calgary was just a boneheaded play by Shea.
One of the many penalties that they took on Sunday against Boston, the Kulak penalty on the
semi-breakaway.
That was born of a high-risk pass by Chris Latang on the half wall.
They pretty much had Kulak covered at the point.
And instead of just bump in the puck deep,
Latang tries to go to the point.
They get a stick on it.
They get a partial breakaway.
Kulak has to take a penalty to keep a goal from being scored.
And it was just all weekend long.
You saw a lot of their plays,
passes, zone exits and entries were very sloppy.
They were trying to do a little too much.
But again, all of that is extremely fixable.
Right. I agree.
This wasn't the hockey you were seeing during their long losing streak
where they were just self-destructing in the most dumbest ways possible
or they were mentally fragile or where a couple times you and I questioned,
you know, effort, compete level.
Now, all of that, especially the,
effort and compete level. Those two things were especially there in these two games.
It's just that they were an offensive black hole, but that can easily be corrected,
especially when you've looked at the offense that they have created throughout the season,
the way that they're five on five metrics, especially offensively, have continued to improve
throughout the season. They're going to be fine. It's just, again, a missed opportunity
against two teams where you only concede three total goals all weekend, just thinks that
the offense was nowhere to be found.
Again, not going to solely blame Kevin Hayes, but I did not like the lineup decisions today from Dan Muses.
Just not good enough there overall.
I do have to say, though, Stuart Skinner was a big bright spot for me this weekend.
I thought he played very well.
Once again, if you want to say he should be the 1A right now, I won't argue against it.
I do think he is playing like the better goaltender, though again, I do think she loves
bounce back on Saturday in my opinion.
Oh, also, I did want to bring this up to.
because we hadn't really talked about it yet.
The goalie interference on the Tommy Novak tying goal,
they were not going to win that challenge, by the way.
There was absolutely no way.
I know I had a few people come in my mentions about this.
Like, well, why didn't Dan News challenge that?
There's no chance he's winning that.
Don't get me wrong, people.
I know it's spin the wheel for goalie interference.
Usually it's a 50-50 judgment call.
On that one, you're looking at 95-5 that it's going to stand.
I would have been stunned if that call.
Hall was reverse. Was Krazi pushed into Devin Cooley? Yes, but he also went into the blue paint
on his own. They are going to uphold upheld that, excuse me, basically every time. So I do think
Kooley went down a little bit easy. I agree with Sid, but he's not going to get that call there.
That was goal interference. Right. At first in the moment when it happened, I was adamant that it
should have counted and that they should have challenged. Then they showed a couple of replays.
like you said, you see Sid go into the blue paint of his own volition,
and then you see him lunge a little bit after he's hit,
that was not going to stand on a challenge.
So Mews got that one right.
And annoying as it is,
because it is a very gray area in the NHL,
that's one of the areas where it's pretty black and white.
They weren't going to win that challenge.
They would have ended up on the penalty kill,
and it would have snuffed out any and all.
momentum that they were building up to that point. So it was a very smart non-challenge by Dan
Muse and company. Since I said we have been pretty doom and gloom on this episode to this point,
I know this is some broken record stuff because we have been saying it all season long,
but I continue to be just so, so impressed by Ben Kindle. I thought he was one of the Penguins' best
players for both games over the weekend, especially on Saturday.
There was a power play in the third period where it looked like they were going to lose
possession in the zone on two separate occasions down low.
And Kindle was just an absolute puck hound, kept possession, kept the penguins pressing.
He needs to be on that unit one way or another, even when this team is healthy because
he very much can handle it.
and then on the flip side of it against Boston,
he gets some penalty kill time,
and he was effective there too.
I know that some people are frustrated
because he's on a little bit of a goal drought,
but the way he has been playing,
it is going to come with time.
Because remember, he is still 18.
He is still a rookie.
His game is still being refined,
but where it is for being an 18-year-old
rookie is miles ahead than any of us could have ever expected.
He was also robbed by Corpus Sallo again earlier in that game on Sunday.
He came in a little bit of a semi-breakaway and made a nice move, just a better save from
Corpus Salo.
What can you do there?
I mean, when the goalie makes a save like that, all you can do is just kind of toss your
arms up and be like, well, I made my best move there.
Corpus Sallo was just there to answer as he was for a few other saves as well.
Again, I already touched on those earlier in the show.
But yeah, I do like Kindle playing on the PK a bit more just because I think it really suits him,
especially with his hockey IQ, the way that he plays defensively in his own zone.
I feel like he's kind of a natural for that type of role.
So I'm glad that Damuse is also experimenting with him there.
And I think you're going to see him get more minutes.
I also want to shout out the entire penalty kill for this game on Sunday.
They were outstanding against one of the better power plays in the league.
I know Morgan Geeky wasn't there for Boston.
He left on Saturday for a personal matter or family emergency.
It looks like that's what it said.
for the Bruins on Twitter.
But I thought the Penguins penalty kill was magnificent.
They were quick to lose pucks, quick to clears,
didn't really let the Bruins set up at all.
I really wouldn't say we're doom and gloom.
On this one, I think we're just disappointed in a way.
And also just sometimes like, what can you do?
They played sloppy a little bit in two games.
They weren't awful or bad.
It's just two losses where you look at,
hey, it's a wasted opportunity.
But you move on and you try to,
get better this week. That's all. I'm not
mad or anything at these two games.
Hunter may not have any kids that any of us are aware of,
but he went full dad on that one.
We're not mad. We're just disappointed.
But there is a chance for redemption,
a big chance for redemption coming up this week
with three massive home games at PPG Paints Arena.
We are going to quickly touch on those to close out the show right after this.
But we've got one more sponsor to tell you about, and that is Quo.
New Year, new systems.
This is the time when a lot of us look at the messier parts of how we run our businesses and think there just has to be a better way.
And good news, there is.
Streamlining your communications is one of the quickest upgrades that you can make.
That's why today's episode is brought to you by Quo, that's spelled QUO, the smarter way to run your business communications.
communications because when your team is reachable, organized and communicating in one place,
you're not just working cleaner.
You're creating more opportunities to connect with customers.
Your whole team can get calls and texts from one shared business number, so nothing gets
missed.
It works right from your phone or computer to keep your existing number, which is just so
clutch when you recognize the number because we've all got one of these these days and
it's blocking those annoying calls.
but with this one, you know who it is.
It's coming through.
It streamlines at all.
So it's no surprise that Quo is the number one business phone rated system on G2,
trusted by more than 90,000 businesses from solo operators to growing teams.
Make this year where no opportunity and no customer slips away.
Try Quo for free, plus get 20% off your first six months when you go to Quo.com slash
Locked-on-N-H-L.
That's Q-U-O.com slash locked-on-N-H-L.
Quo, no-missed calls, no missed customers.
Closing out the Monday edition of Locked-on Penguins,
I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes.
And, oh, boy, I hope you are ready for some fun hockey this week.
We hope, given the way this weekend went.
but three big games at PPG Paints Arena this week, all at 7 p.m.
It starts on Tuesday against the red hot Tampa Bay Lightning playing like one of the best teams in the National Hockey League.
They are on a heater.
And if you thought the Tampa Bay Lightning were dead, shame on you for six weeks because they're still here.
Then on Thursday, get those rivalry hats out.
because it's the Philadelphia Flyers coming to PPG paints arena.
And then the week closes out with everyone's least favorite little brother,
the Columbus Blue Jackets at 7 p.m.
So Hunter, I look at this week's schedule and I see need and hope for a two and one record in some way, shape, or form.
You look at Tampa, they're just on a roll.
They are making some of even the best teams in the league look amateur.
The Flyers, they've been up and down.
They've had some good moments.
They've been trending upward, I would say, for the most part, as of late.
But given the way it looks like the rivalry is back, throw out your record books,
throw out your trends, because it's going to be a little bit of a battle.
And then Columbus, you know you can handle this team.
You're in their heads.
You have been kind of all over them for pretty much ever.
So I look at this week and again, I would like to see a two and one record.
Yeah, I think if you can get four out of six points or even five out of six go two,
and one, that's a successful week for me.
These are all going to be very tough games.
Two of them are in the division.
As we've said a lot, the Penguins have been very good against the Metro this year.
Eight wins, three overtime loss is only one loss in regulation coming against the Rangers.
Got to win those, especially since the Penguins are trying to chase down Philadelphia.
for a top three spot in the Metro.
Gotta get two points from regulation there.
Columbus,
I know they're towards the bottom of the conference.
They're still not out of it.
The Penguins have won two of the three games.
They have five out of six points against Columbus this year.
This will be the final matchup against Columbus as well.
So the Penguins will try to go for the season series victory against them.
And then Tampa, you said it, man.
I mean, this team is just absolutely kicking everyone's ass right now.
Andre Vasselowski, he's been back with a vengeance.
all year. Nikita Kuturov, Pat, he's doing his thing, as we all expected. This team, once again,
is a juggernaut, and they're going to get better at the trade deadline as well. If I had to pick
one team to come out of the east right now, even though, again, I don't think this conference
is that good. I would pick Tampa Bay, just especially with how everyone else is playing. That's
going to be the toughest game of the week. Penguins have beaten them once in that crazy wild affair
back in Tampa Bay a little over a month ago. We all know what happened in that one. But,
Again, if you can get four out of six this week, I think you're sitting pretty going into the next week of games.
It's going to be tough.
It's going to be a lot tougher than this week, even though, you know, we both said, oh, it's, the opportunity is there.
You could easily win all three of these and the Penguins only win one of them.
So maybe it's the opposite this week where, oh, it's going to be a bit of a harder week.
And maybe they do win two or all three of the games this week.
But it's going to be tough.
These teams are very solid again, even though Columbus is at the bottom of the standings in the east.
that's the team that has offensive firepower.
So it's going to be really fun to see how this team responds after these two, again,
clunky, sloppy performances.
I do think as well not to make excuses for this past weekend,
but I do think three home games all at the same time,
you're not going to be on any weird schedules,
you're not having odd face-off times, you're not traveling.
It is a good opportunity for a mini reset for this team.
that you got out of this weekend.
It appears that outside of Brian Rust,
it looks like you're mostly going to be healthy,
depending upon who comes back.
I don't think Watherspoon is actually hurt.
I think he just got a pretty bad stinger on that blocked shot.
He did return to play.
So you got out of this weird weekend,
and while you missed a lot of opportunities to stack some more points,
on the other side,
you've got three home games,
three same face-off times.
you can get into a good routine, you can start to build some momentum,
and you can get right back into this race, even though they're not out of it,
but you drop those points this weekend.
And it puts you a little bit further back than you'd like to be.
But with the log jam that is the Eastern Conference,
you get four out of a possible six this week, and you're right back in it.
So huge, huge opportunity for the penguins this week.
and like Hunter said at the top,
we're recording this on Sunday evening
because we know,
we know what your focus is today.
So we appreciate you taking time
to talk some puck with us because
it's the Steelers and the Texans
at Accraher Stadium, Monday night football.
Our good buddy, Chris Carter on Locked on Steelers,
is certainly getting you set for that one over on his show.
So make sure to check him out.
And of course, he's,
Here we go.
But that is going to do it for us on the Monday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.
We will be back on Tuesday to get you set for the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning
and cover any other news that might happen between now and then.
So for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp.
Thank you as always for tuning in.
And we'll be back on Tuesday.
