Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins lose to Anaheim, showing the same inconsistency

Episode Date: January 24, 2025

The Pittsburgh Penguins were unable to follow a complete victory in LA on Thursday night, dropping their matchup against the Anaheim Ducks. Hunter and Patrick dive into how this week sums up the Pengu...ins season in a nutshell with how inconsistent they are. They look at how they let a great start go to waste and how they couldn't push back when the Ducks started to find their game. They shout out John Gibson for a great performance in the net since he made a lot of timely saves before diving into how rough PO Joseph was on the backend. After that, they shout out the power play for continuing to be a bright spot this season. Finally, they get you guys set for Saturday's matchup against the Seattle Kraken and give their keys to victory.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! SelectQuoteGet the right life insurance for you, for less, at SelectQuote.com/LOCKEDONNHL.  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.FanDuelFrom the first whistle to the final drive, FanDuel makes the NFL Playoffs even more exciting! Right now, new customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get THREE HUNDRED BUCKS in BONUS BETS – if you win your first bet! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 This week summed up the Pittsburgh Penguin season in a nutshell, and Pat and I are going to recap this loss against the Ducks. Plus, get you all set for the game against the Cracken on Saturday 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'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes,
Starting point is 00:00:33 joined by my co-host Patrick Damp. You can follow him on all social media platforms at Sendin for Wet, and you can follow the show's Twitter at L.O. Understained Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by GameTime, down the GameTime app, grant account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase.
Starting point is 00:01:00 So, Pat, if Monday was Jekyll for the Penguins, Thursday night was high because Penguins, you saw the blueprint in place for how they need to win games on a more consistent basis. They beat the Kings pretty convincingly on Monday. Just blew them out or great in the offensive zone, great in the neutral zone.
Starting point is 00:01:19 They defended really hard. They got the goal-tending. They won that special teams battle. And then they threw all that out the window in this loss against the ducks. This duck's loss shows everything you need to do in order to lose games on a more consistent basis. they've just not been able to be consistent really at all this season
Starting point is 00:01:36 outside of a really nice three to four week stretch from the end of November through basically all of December. Other than that, this is who the Penguins have been all here. They'll get a really nice win and they'll follow it up with a dud. And that's exactly what Thursday night was against the ducks. I felt the Penguins came out like a house on fire in this game. They were out shooting the ducks seven nothing through the first eight to nine minutes. But after that, Pat, it kind of just stopped playing, to be honest.
Starting point is 00:02:04 Like, yeah, they got some chances. But everything they were doing right in the first eight to nine minutes went completely out the window. John Gibson, Anaheim Stolley was outstanding last night. Had a nice little throwback to 2014 with some of those saves. But as Michelle Tarian once said, am I going to be happy to play eight minutes? No, I'm not going to be happy to play eight minutes. Sorry, that's my best Michelle Tarian impression. I had to say it because it's relevant for today's show with how the Penguins played
Starting point is 00:02:31 last night. But that was a piss poor effort for 50-ish minutes in that game. You cannot follow up that Kings win with an absolute dud like that. It was bad. And I'll start there. So I'm going to go with this. And when I went to bed last night after the game, I was definitely frustrated,
Starting point is 00:02:54 looked at that game, looked at the results, saw everything that happened, and was incredibly unhappy with what. what the penguins put forth. And then I watched back some of the game this morning. If you're keeping score at home, yes, I don't sleep very much, but that's neither here nor there. The thing that I kind of picked on this morning when I rewatch some of the game is,
Starting point is 00:03:18 I don't want to underplay this, but I also don't want to overstate it as well. This wasn't necessarily a bad game by the penguins, because you talked about they started off really well. And I texted you last night during the game and said, I got that creeping feeling after that great start and went, if they don't score here, they might lose. And look what happened.
Starting point is 00:03:43 And part of it is, one, you don't score early. You don't take advantage of a chance that you get. But that also in a way, I think, defines how that game went last night. Anaheim capitalized on their chances. The Penguins didn't because they, They had a lot of good looks. They had a lot of sustained pressure. And whether it was not getting enough chances, enough grade A chances, or John Gibson
Starting point is 00:04:08 turning the clock back, the Penguins didn't take advantage of the opportunities they got, saved for the power play where Michael Bunting scored a very crisp goal. But at the same time, they were not great defensively. Alex Nadelcovic, while he wasn't bad, he had some sloppy moments, appeared to be fighting the puck a lot last night. So it really was a microcosm of the last two seasons for the Pittsburgh Penguins, where they don't play particularly horribly, but there are just little things within the game that end up coming back to haunt them, whether it's not taking advantage of their opportunities
Starting point is 00:04:47 or a fast start, letting the only opportunities their opponent get end up in the back of their net and then overall just not being able to sustain 60 minutes of play. So I look at last night's game and it's a bad loss. Let's not let's not pretend like it wasn't. That's a bad loss. But you also watch the entirety of the game and then analyze it and think it wasn't like they went out there and just threw a complete dud, but they also did not play to the level they had shown us just a few days prior.
Starting point is 00:05:20 Right. And the thing that really, I guess, is bonkers. is that the Ducks, they're the lowest-scoring team in the league, Pat. They average 2.36 goals per game. You can't be giving up four goals plus the empty-and-endor to make it five to a team that really can't score to save their lives. Like, we all know the Penguins aren't good defensively. The goal-tending has been pretty inconsistent throughout the year,
Starting point is 00:05:40 but you can't be going blow-for-blow with chances with a Ducks team that doesn't have a lot of high-end talent struggles to score. That's not good enough, like, especially after the way you generate in the way you were able to finish chances against a very, Stingy Kings team. Yes, the Kings really didn't get good goaltending in that game. The Ducks got really good goaltitting from John Gibson, and we'll touch on him in just a second.
Starting point is 00:06:01 But I just didn't like the way the Penguins were generating for a good chunk of that game. They started out doing it a bit early. There were times in the second period, but they still didn't generate to the level that I thought they could against one of the worst defensive teams in the league. I even said heading into this game, the Ducks have given up the most high danger chances in the league at five on five. Pat the Penguins only had six high danger chances last night at five
Starting point is 00:06:23 five against the ducks. That's also not good enough. I mean, again, you generated more as a whole at five on five against the Kings than you did against the duck. So again, it just goes back to the consistency issues with the penguins and that. And I will say this. Shout out to Johnny Gibson for the way he played. He has not been particularly good these last few years. He's played on some really bad ducks teams. He is at least playing his way into potentially being traded at the deadline. He's played at a really high level this year. I can see a team like Carolina going after him. I knew that game was over, Pat, when he made the save on Eric Carlson.
Starting point is 00:06:59 I'm like, nope, he's not allowing a goal the rest of this night. And sure enough, he didn't. But once he made that save on a shot that goes in 99 out of 100 times, I knew it was over. Yeah, Johnny Whitehall had himself a night last night. He played extremely well. You referenced that save on Eric Carlson, but there were a lot of opportunities. and this is how you know that it was a throwback night for Gibson. There were a lot of great, and I know that the penguins,
Starting point is 00:07:28 the analytics tell us the penguins only got six high danger chances, but they had a lot of moments where they were pressing really hard. And he was making what should have been 10 bell saves look routine. And that is how you know it was a John Gibson throwback because he made so many saves where you look at it and go, man, 99 times out of 100, that goes in it. I'm not just talking about the Carlson goal. There were moments in all three periods where the penguins had time of possession
Starting point is 00:07:57 in the duck zone for 45, 60 plus seconds, and they were getting looks. They were getting chances. And Gibson was just shutting it down. Again, doesn't excuse the penguins lack of effort and lack of structure in the defensive zone. It doesn't excuse the fact. that on the other end of the ice, Alex Nadelcovic was fighting the puck.
Starting point is 00:08:21 But as I always say on this podcast, yes, this is a focus on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Yes, we are going to pick apart the Pittsburgh Penguins, but there are two teams playing the game. And you have to tip your cap to how both John Gibson played and how opportunistic the ducks were last night, because they deserve credit. It wasn't, this isn't a situation where the Pittsburgh Penguins
Starting point is 00:08:46 have never been beaten. They've only beaten themselves. Ducks played a good game last night, and you have to acknowledge that if we're going to be honest here. Yeah, they woke up at around the midway point of the first period. They outplayed the penguins for, I would say, most of those last 50 minutes with the way they're able to generate, the way they were kind of able to push the penguins around, the way they were able to defend in their own zone. They defended a lot better than I thought they would, considering how usually the penguins generate offense, not even just this year, but in recent years as well. I also will say this before we had to break, Pat, P.O. Joseph
Starting point is 00:09:19 last night, horrendous game. I think that's the worst game I've seen him play in, especially this season, but probably going back to last season sometime. He was out to lunch on a lot of those goals. He got cooked by Alex Coulin, especially, took another penalty. Really, really bad night from him, by far his worst game this season as a member of the Penguins. Also, I will say this. The second thing that really made me know that this game was over. That weird bounce to make it three to one, goes off the stanchion. For those that will remember this goal,
Starting point is 00:09:50 it low-key reminded me of Kevin BX's overtime winner for the Vancouver Canucks in 2011 against the San Jose Sharks. Do you remember that goal, Pat, where goes off the weird stanchion, comes back to Biazza, he's the only one that knows where it is, fires it past the Sharks goalie, and everyone on the ice is like,
Starting point is 00:10:04 wait, where the heck did that go? It was low-key, almost the same thing. That was one goal that really popped into my head, when I saw that third goal go in for the ducks last night. But really weird bounce. I also knew it was over right then too, but just wanted to add that. This was a culmination of a rough stretch for P.O. Joseph, if you look at the way he's played over the last couple weeks,
Starting point is 00:10:28 he has not been very good. It was the fourth straight game where he's taken a minor penalty. And it's the fifth out of the last six that he's taken a minor penalty. Now, on the surface, that's very concerning. but when you actually dig into it, there are a couple penalties where he's preventing a scoring chance and you'll take that penalty as a defenseman. But at the same time,
Starting point is 00:10:51 there's also quite a few examples of him not being in position, him compensating for that and compensating for getting beaten. And it's just been a really rough stretch for him. And I think the potential is still there. I think he still has room to grow. But the last two, week's have not been the best we've ever seen from POJ.
Starting point is 00:11:16 He was playing, I thought, fairly well when he came back for those first two, three weeks, but lately his game just hasn't been at that same level. And I know he has the ability to get back to the level that we saw him play at when he first got traded back here. And at the end of last season, I felt like that was some of the finest hockey he's played as a member of the Penguins. But he just has to be, again, a bit more consistent, kind of like the rest of the team, honestly, but I think that will do it for this first segment.
Starting point is 00:11:43 Coming up in the second segment, we're going to discuss the Brian Rust injury, plus how the power play at least continue to stay hot in this game against the ducks. But first, we got to tell you about our first sponsor, and that is Game Time. I love going to live events, whether it's sports, music, theater, or comedy. One of my favorite memories was attending a concert last year, Green Day and Smashing Pumpkins at PNC Park.
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Starting point is 00:12:56 Terms apply, again, great account and redeemed code Locked on NHL for $20 off. Download game time today. What time is it? It's game time. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked on Pengland's podcast. I'm one of your host, Andre Hodes, join with my co-s, Patrick Damp. So Pat Brian Russ gets injured last night, doesn't return to the bench for part of the game, then does not return to the game at all Mike Sullivan said he's dealing with an injury.
Starting point is 00:13:21 It looks like it happened during that big hit on Radco Gutis. And no people, I don't think that hits going to be worthy of a suspension. I don't even think he's going to get fined for it. However, I don't like those type of collisions, man. I don't like those little knee-on-kits along the boards. they don't do anything for me. It just causes nothing but injuries, in my opinion. And I don't think Goudis is being a dirty player for that hit.
Starting point is 00:13:46 He's just trying to finish his check. But I just don't like that type of hit. And I just really hope that that injury is not too serious, considering how Russ has played, especially offensively this year, it would stink to lose him. It really would. I will say about the hit. You're right.
Starting point is 00:14:00 It's just unfortunate. He's trying to finish his hit. He miscalculates it. I don't think there was any maliciousness there. I know Goudis does have a history and he does have a reputation, but you don't need to look at every hit a player like that does and call it immediately dirty and call it malicious. Sometimes there is just an unfortunate collision,
Starting point is 00:14:21 and that's how I look at that hit. As for Rust, I don't have any sources on this. I don't have any reporting on it. It's just kind of going off vibes. The fact that he was visible after the game, according to Josh, he looked like he was walking with a little bit of a limp. that kind of tells me that it might not be that bad because usually when it's that bad of an injury,
Starting point is 00:14:42 there's a long evaluation, there's an active effort to keep the player out of the public eye. So hopefully it's not long term or too serious. Maybe he misses in Seattle, we will see, but kind of gives me the vibe that it might not be that bad. But it would be a huge loss because he has been a model of consistency for this team in a stretch where, including last season as well, this team has just been inconsistent all the time. So having a player like that in your lineup constantly perform is a big loss if you lose them. So here's the hoping that he can get back pretty quickly. Yeah, we'll have to see what his status is for Saturdays,
Starting point is 00:15:23 he's game against Seattle and all that. But moving on to the power play, that was the big bright spot yet again. Last night, the power play, the movement on that power play pat leading to the goal from Michael Bunting. so crisp, so beautiful. It was fantastic to watch. The zone entry was also great. And again, they were making the ducks move around.
Starting point is 00:15:44 They were making them defend every single possible angle. And the way that Raquel and Russ were able to disout some passes there before bunting scored was gorgeous. And I really like how that unit is cooking right now. Heck, I like how both units are cooking right now. And I know he is not the main reason for success. players are part of the reason. Mike Sullivan is part of the reason for at least the power play this year. We have to say that. But David Quinn's influence on this unit has been really nice to see.
Starting point is 00:16:16 You can see he's brought in some fresh new ideas for the unit. And it's worked. It's been a model of consistency in a very inconsistent penguin season. Top five power play unit. It's scoring at will at this rate. And we have to give David Quinn some of his flowers because when his hiring wasn't announced. You and I came on here. We weren't sure about it. I was pretty mixed about it. I know you were too, but I still, of course, wanted to give him a shot. And I'm happy to say, as an assistant, partly working on the power play, I think he's done a really solid job with that unit. And it continues to be a really big bright spot for this team. 25 power play goals in the last 25 games. That's nothing to. Is that good, Pat? It's pretty darn
Starting point is 00:17:00 good. And I will say, it's not like they're doing anything overly innovative. They didn't totally overhaul a system. And it's more than what you and I have spoken about where there's got to be better puck movement. There's got to be better player movement and more urgency. That all is happening. But the one thing that I have noticed is that they're putting Sidney Crosby a little bit deeper into the zone, whether it's not quite all behind the net, but it's more below the faceoff dots to the goal line. He's, that's causing opposing penalty kills to sink lower in the zone, opening up your point shots. And the reason bunting has nine goals on the season on the power play is because he's getting lost because they're focusing on Crosby with possession down low or someone on the
Starting point is 00:17:51 half wall giving bunting the ability to sneak away from the defense. You look at his goal last night. everybody on the Ducks was fixated on Sydney Crosby low. Even Michael Bunting, or not Michael Bunting, Brian Dumlin, excuse me, leaving Michael Bunting open on the back door. And you know that Sidney Crosby is going to be able to make that pass every single time. Because, yeah, Dumlin was in the lane and he had his stick down, but Crosby's getting that pass through the majority of the time. And Bunting has the pretty much entire net shoot into because of the puck movement.
Starting point is 00:18:27 So that wasn't on the assist. That was Rust. And it was Rust and Crosby. They both had, or Crosby didn't have an assist on it. But he was part of the focal point of that goal. So you look at the way they run their power play now. They're pulling opposing penalty kills down low. And it's opening up either the bumper spot in the slot or the back door.
Starting point is 00:18:51 And that really has made all the difference this season. Yeah. I mean, you saw it recently as well with a Ricard Raquel goal in Buffalo. You know, that came right from the Oshy spot. And now you saw it with bunting right at the side of the net. Gibson, no shot there because Dumlin is playing shot there. But that pass still gets through. Bunting's like, you know what?
Starting point is 00:19:10 So yeah, I'll score on this 10 out of 10 times. He did exactly that. So again, really nice to see this power play continue to cook. And also here's another stat for you, Pat. Penguins only had 40 power play goals last year. They have 39 right now. with a little over 30 games left in the season. They will crush that number this year,
Starting point is 00:19:31 especially with how that unit is going. So at the very least, really nice to see this unit absolutely kicking butt this year. Heck, if they had this type of power play last year, they easily make the playoffs. One other thing I got to add as a stat, I got to give a shout out to Pensburg for finding this one. And it kind of shows where this.
Starting point is 00:19:55 team is in one of its deficiencies. And I don't want to bury this team over it because I do think over the last couple months, they have really done a good job of pulling themselves up off of the mat and playing with a lot more urgency and a lot more heart. But here's a big, big problem for this team in my estimation. Through 50 games this season, because last night was game number 50, they are 2, 21 in 2 when they trail after two periods. Now, last night was not a game where you saw a comeback coming. All of the ingredients were there for this to be a let down. And that doesn't even start to get into how the game itself actually went.
Starting point is 00:20:41 But eventually you have to be able to erase a two-gold deficit. And you have to be able to erase that deficit after two periods. It's not something you can expect all the time. you don't want to go into the third period down two or more goals. That's a horrible place to be. But only being able to squeak out a total of essentially six points when that happens, you have to be able to battle back a little bit better. So when you play a team like the Ducks,
Starting point is 00:21:11 I would have liked a lot more resistance in the third period. And we really didn't get that. Right. And I know some of it is a bit hard, especially if you're getting blown out heading in the third period. but if you're down by a goal, for example, you need to find a way to come back a bit more often and at least get a point in overtime slash a shootout.
Starting point is 00:21:31 Obviously, you know, winning the game is even more important, of course. But I agree. They need to find a way to get more points in those situations and not have the team, you know, get an insurance goal, shut you down, all that good stuff. But I think that'll do it for the second segment of today's show. Coming up in the final segment, it's time to preview this game against Seattle.
Starting point is 00:21:51 The second of two meanings against the Cracken this year. The Penguins lost the first one pretty recently, even though the Penguins outplayed the Cracken for most of the game, but they just did A, didn't get the goal tenning, and B, really weren't that great for most of the third period. But before we get that, we got to tell you all about our final sponsor, and that is Fandul. From the first whistle to the final drive,
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Starting point is 00:22:54 I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-s, Patrick Amso. Pat, since the Penguins lost to the Cracken, the Cracken have gone two and two in their next four games, they have lost to Winnipeg and Washington. Washington loss was on Thursday, but they've also beaten the Kings at home, and they also beat the Sabres at home. Joey DeCore did everything possible to try him, will the Cracken do a win on Thursday, but Cracken just didn't get any offense considering how stingy the capitals are defensively. And D'Card, that's where it starts for me with the Cracken Man.
Starting point is 00:23:24 He's been fantastic this year. He's been the biggest bright spot for them. And we saw it on display really recently. He was a big reason why the Cracken won that game in Pittsburgh making some really big, timely saves. Penguins were able to get that from Tristanjari, allowed that really bad early goal to Chandler-Stevenson and a bit later in the game. He also wasn't that yet.
Starting point is 00:23:44 I also felt like at around the five-minute mark of the third period, after that, Penguins just kind of stopped skating, especially after the Cracken took the lead in that period. Penguins really didn't generate anything at all. They didn't really come close to mounting a comeback in that game. So, again, I liked the effort a lot in that first matchup against Seattle. I would say the first 45-ish minutes. But again, game is 60 minutes. You've got to finish off those final 15 minutes.
Starting point is 00:24:11 And, of course, they got to get the better goaltending where he talked about their high-end players a bit recently, but again, for those that may not be aware, you know, Maddie Baneers, he's having another decent year. You've got Capocco on the top line. Chandler Stevenson, he's not scoring a lot of goals, but he's at least an okay playmaker. Bjorks ran, I can see it seemed going after him at the deadline. You have Jared McCann, obviously, Andre Barakovsky. They got Tolvinen on their third line. Adam Larson with Vince down on the top pairing. You got Brandon Montour on their second pairing. Again, there's talent here. They have an okay forward group. They just don't have
Starting point is 00:24:44 some of the big guns that a lot of these other Western conference teams have. But again, for the Penguins really win this game, they got to do, A, mostly what they did last time except finish it off for the final 15 minutes. And B, get the goaltending because, again, I really liked a lot of their effort against Seattle outside the final 15 minutes and the starting goalie. The goaltending is the biggest thing for me. You look at that game against the Cracken. And it was a culmination for me of a theory.
Starting point is 00:25:14 I have had on this team for this season, especially when Tristan Jari was the goaltender, especially the starting goaltender. And I know that he's not a bad guy. His teammates do like him. He works hard. But you could tell in that crack in game that once they scored those two quick goals, were the penguins good defensively when they happened? No, but they were saves that needed to be made.
Starting point is 00:25:41 And in the team's mentality and body language just switched to, well, here we go again. This guy can't make a save. This guy is not putting us in a position to win. And it deflated any and all confidence that they had. Because like you said, for 45 minutes around that in that game, Penguins were the better team. They were the better team by a mile. But Joey DeCord was making the saves he needed to make as well as some huge saves that realistically probably should have been goals.
Starting point is 00:26:11 And then you couple that with your goaltender not being able to make the basic saves. That's pretty much how that game went. So you really just have to replicate that effort. And I'm guessing it's probably going to be Blumquist who gets the start after two straight for Nadelcovic. You have to hope that Blumquist makes the saves you need to make because in that case, you play a similar style game, you get a couple on to court who I imagine they'll probably start and you'll probably win this game.
Starting point is 00:26:42 It just can't be a game where goaltending lets you down again. And with the way we've seen Blumquist play in his limited NHL time, I have no issues saying that I think he will make those saves. I agree, especially with the way he was also playing against Washington last weekend on the second half of back to back, where to me it was pretty clear that the penguins really didn't have it going into that game. You know, they got into Washington a bit. They played a really emotional game against Buffalo and all that stuff.
Starting point is 00:27:13 And Blumquist, for the majority of that game, was keeping the Penguins in it. Yeah, the Capitals got the late power play goal late in the third period that really kind of derailed any attempt of trying to get a point out of that game. But I still felt like he was making a lot of really big, timely saves against one of the top teams in the league. So that gives me some confidence heading into this game against the Cracken and especially his early season sample size where he was playing some really tough teams, the Penguins were playing even worse, but he was still making those saves. So yes, I would go to Blumquist in this game.
Starting point is 00:27:44 I understood why they went to Ned for the Ducks, considering how he had two really good starts in a row. But after this start where I don't think he was bad, per se against the Ducks, he just wasn't as good as he was the last two starts. It's only natural to go to Blumquist for this game to see if, A, he could give you a spark, and B, see if this team can get back on track because they really need these next three. games and if they really want to climb the standings, they get closer to that second wildcard spot because, you know, you're two and two on this road trip right now. Best case now you're looking
Starting point is 00:28:17 at five and two on those road trip, which would be a success. Don't get me wrong, if you win these next three, five and two on a seven game road trip. Pretty good success considering how they played on the road this year. But again, you got to take this one game at a time. Do you have anything else to add about this game against Seattle before we wrap up? I mean, the main thing for me going into this game is throw out the stats, throw out the history, throw out all that. You got beaten by a team you shouldn't have been beaten by on your home ice with a good effort. So you have to have a little bit of motivation going into this one to kind of get some revenge. And I'll add this kind of on top of what you said. It has to be from here on out a one game mentality for this team. You can't
Starting point is 00:29:02 look ahead. You can't worry about, and I know it's human nature. Some players will, some players won't. You can't worry about the trade deadline. You can't worry about who's going to be here, who isn't going to be here. Play the game in front of you. Play a full 60, start stacking points again, and see where this all shakes out. Because I think we all know that this team is likely to be a seller no matter what happens. And at the end of the day, I've said this a bunch. I said it last season a bunch. A lot of guys are playing for the future. A lot of guys are playing for jobs, whether it's here, whether it's elsewhere, whether it's guys saying I want to be part of the solution here in Pittsburgh, so I'm going to prove my worth or guys saying that I want to go
Starting point is 00:29:44 play for a contender in the next couple of seasons. So I need to prove to those contenders that I'm worth a contract or I'm worth giving up assets to acquire. Yep. I completely agree on that. There's also one other thing. I forgot about Hunter before we go. there may be something people notice when we return on Monday about you and where you're recording the show from. Would you like to share with our audience, especially the YouTube audience, what they're going to see on Monday? Yeah. So this room is not packed up yet. I'm waiting until we finished recording this, which will be in the next probably 30 to 60 seconds. But I will be in my new house starting tomorrow on Saturday. My girlfriend and I closed on a house a few weeks ago. We are moving into that
Starting point is 00:30:28 new place tomorrow and I will be in my new office on Monday. Kind of similar background. I'll have my nice bookshelves. I'll have my little bobbleheads, all my little pictures and all that. Some of them might look a little different. I might be moving some stuff around. But for all intents and purposes, it's going to be a fairly similar setup come Monday. It's just to be in a different house, which I am pretty excited about.
Starting point is 00:30:52 This time I now own a house considering, well, I was renting for quite a bit. But yeah, I'm pretty excited about it, man. Yeah, I just wanted to give you that shout out. Give you your flowers for that. It's awesome news. So looking forward to seeing you in the quote unquote new studio. Hey, I appreciate it. I will just say this.
Starting point is 00:31:11 Moving sucks. I know a lot of people that are listening to slash watching this have probably done it many times. It is terrible how much work goes into it. But hey, yes, I will be in my brand new office on Monday. Super excited about, especially in a place that I will officially own again and not rent. But again, that will do it for today's episode. We'll also hopefully have Jesse Marshall on for Marshall Monday this coming Monday. But thank you all so much for tuning in.
Starting point is 00:31:33 Pat and I both really appreciate it. We'll talk to you all on Monday.

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