Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins lose to the Red Wings...what went wrong?

Episode Date: October 19, 2023

The Pittsburgh Penguins fell to the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night and Hunter and Pat are here to recap it and give their thoughts. Pat starts with a plea to the fans to not take every loss like it's the end of the world before the two analyze the bottom six concerns. What needs to change? Does Kyle Dubas need to bring in help from the outside? They look at how that unit is not giving the Penguins anything in the offensive zone and why they won't be able to win like this for an entire season. After that, they discuss the struggles of the third pairing and why it was an off night for them considering how good they were in the first three games. Hunter also brings up how the Penguins showed a lot of fight in the third period, which is something they didn't do much of last year when they were really down, outside of just a couple of games. He especially credits Erik Karlsson for how great he was and how he led the charge. Finally, the two get to a late edition of Warrior Helmet Wednesday!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Jase MedicalGet $20 off these lifesaving antibiotics with Jase Medical by using code LOCKEDON at checkout on jasemedical.com.SleeperDownload the Sleeper App and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details.BirddogsGo to birddogs.com/LOCKEDONNHL or enter promo code LOCKEDONNHL for a free water bottle with any order. You won’t want to take your birddogs off we promise you.AG1If a comprehensive solution is what you need from your supplement routine, then try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkAG1.com/NHLNETWORK.eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime.Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS - GUARANTEED. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON 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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Penguins drop their Wednesday matchup with the Detroit Red Wings, 6 to 3. Hunter and I are going to talk about that, some injury news, and more on this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, hockey fans, to another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Patrick Damp.

You can follow me on Twitter at synonym for wet. Joined as always by the illustrious Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can follow the show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. And as always, we thank you for making this your first listen or watch of the day. We are free and available on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. And today's episode is brought to you by Fandul Sportsbook, the official sportsbook of Locked On. Make every moment more right now.

New customers can get $5 and get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed. Just visit fandle.com slash locked on to get started. And, boy, we might as well jump right into it because last night was rough. Penguins dropped their matchup with the Red Wings 6 to 3. And while a lot of people had some mixed reactions to the games, I do think that the score tells a little bit different of a story than the actual game itself. I have my takes on it. And Hunter, I'm going to get yours on them here in a sec.

But my main takeaway from last night is this. Give us your rant, Pat. Just give us the rant. Listen, okay. So I'll get into it right away. Put the blue and red lights above me. I'm going to play fan police here. Listen, if you are making sweeping statements about a team in games,

Game four of an 82 game regular season, go do literally anything else. Just anything else. It's game four. There's eight new players on the roster. Detroit is a good team. And yes, there are issues with this team. But come with me on this ride, Penguins fans. Deep breaths in through the nose, out through the mouth.

Game four. Listen, there are problems with this team. I know them. You know them. Everybody knows them. But it's going to take time. The one thing I tell people all the time, I've written about it, I'm sure I've said it on this podcast before,

look at the game or the season in 10-game increments. Every 10 games like a series, the Penguins are in the middle of a 10-game series right now. They're 2-2. They haven't lost it. They haven't won it. They've had some games where they've looked great. They've had some games where they've looked not so great.

I'd say last night was one of them. But if you're ready to call this penguins team a bubble team, if you're ready to say they're the same old penguins from last year, just take a breath. I get it. Fan is short for Fanatic. You can be irrational. You can be a little bit crazy about it.

I get it. But I'm 33 years old. If I lived and died with every single moment and every single game, I'd have been dead 10 years ago. And it would have been in medical journals around the country and the world saying, man, this 23-year-old had the highest blood pressure of any 23-year-old we've ever seen. But I get it. They missed the playoffs last year with the team that was flawed.

But when you have Sidney Crosby, of Gennie Malkin and others, you shouldn't miss the playoffs. But listen, it's a tough night. The way I look at this game last night, they played well the first 10 minutes, played very well. Detroit pushed back. I'd say the last 10 minutes of the first period was played on even footing. Both teams looked okay. Both teams had their moments. Then the Penguins fell asleep in the second period and didn't show up.

Didn't come out of the locker room. Third period, found their legs again. Skated, I'd say circles around the Red Wings and played really well. But even in the NHL, it's really hard to eliminate a three-goal deficit, no matter who you are. Very good league against a good team that's in a very good division. So I get it. Tough game last night. But it's game four.

There's going to be changes. You're going to talk about them here in a second because some things we heard in intermission. But all in all, listen, I'm frustrated with last night's effort too. You can't take an entire period off in the national hockey. You just can't do it no matter who you are. And against a team like Detroit, who's on the come up, they've got some young talent, they've got some young legs.

You take a period off against a team like that. You give them hope. You give them confidence. Give them some swagger. that's what's going to happen. Well, that was a great rant by you right there, but have you met this fan base? And I used to be like some of these people

back when I was a teenager, back when I was in early middle school, all that stuff. I live and died by every game. But, you know, as I've gotten older, as of you, as you have gotten older, you know, we definitely have gotten away from that sort of thing, right? But last night, I did see some positives that I enjoyed,

namely Eric Carlson. My jaw was on the floor, the entire third period. while I was watching him. It was a sight of a hold, to be honest. But I'm going to start with the bottom six. And I hear you. I'm not ready to make a sweeping declaration of the bottom six just yet.

That said, it's bad. And it's been bad these first four games. Lars Eller is the only player that has a point of all the players that have played down there. And yes, they did put Jansson Harkins on waivers. We'll get to that in just a second. but the bottom six can't even sustain 10 seconds of pressure in the offensive zone. That is a problem. And by the sound of what Kyle Dubas said during the intermission on Wednesday night,

he's thinking of making some changes here. And we already obviously saw that happen with Harkins. But you can't expect to win on a nightly basis when it's just six to eight players carrying your offense. We are four games into the season outside of the top six forwards. and Eric Carlson, no one else has scored a goal. Sure, you've had too many breakaways from Jeff Carter, but is that really a scoring chance here, people? Honestly, not really.

Outside of that, there hasn't been much from this unit. And if the Penguins do want to go places this year, that needs to change, and it needs to change right now. Yeah, and see, that's the biggest thing for me, is the sustained pressure part of it, because I look at the Capitals game, and I talked about it when we recorded earlier this week, that part of the big comeback against the Capitals was the fact that the third and fourth lines got some sustained pressure. Sure, they didn't get big, they didn't get great chances.

They didn't score, but they hemmed the other team in the offensive zone. So I'm asking them. And that's the biggest point to me is they got some chances last night, but they were won and done. It was a shot at the net. It was a pass across that looked like a shot. at the net or gave them at least an opportunity where they could theoretically score. But it needs to be more than just one and done. It can't just be five, ten seconds in the offensive zone and then they're right back out.

It has to be a little bit more. And I think with Jansen Harkens on waivers, with what Kyle Dubus said last night to the TNT crew, we are going to see some changes here relatively soon. But again, this is the team's Achilles heel. I had some hope for it coming into the season with who they brought in, but right now it's not looking like it's bearing fruit. I also had some hope coming in. I mean, I thought I'd see more from Drew O'Connor at this point. And yes, I understand it's only been four games, and that can change at any time.

Still, he's been relatively quiet. I would probably want to see him away from someone like Lars Eller. And speaking of Eller, I don't really think he's done anything in these first four games. I had so many people, even before you came on the show, just come into the YouTube comments, come to me on social media and say, oh, yeah, he's going to be the third line center that this team desperately needed. Haven't seen that so far. And again, that can change, but he hasn't done anything offensively or defensively.

The only thing he's really done is just take penalties. So, yeah, that's going. Everyone else has been a ghost down there. One thing I hated that I saw last night, and I know I'm going to get pushback for this. I got a little pushback for it on social media. Penguins had all the momentum in the third period, and you're putting the Jeff Carter line out on the ice with what three minutes left two minutes less something like that and i understand you have to give the top six some rest they were carrying the load all night they were trying their

hardest to get the penguins back into this game especially eric carlson on the back end he was doing everything he could with all of the chances he was getting but in that situation i would rather you go with a different kind of line now maybe you don't have to go with the third line that you had going into the game because according to ryan wilson of hockey buzz that third line of l or O'Connor and Harkins had an expected goals for a percentage of not even 10%. That's pathetic. You don't want to ice that line out there either. Maybe you do a mix of those six players and see what you can do.

You don't need to ice that Nyeto, Achari-Carter line when you're chasing the game and you're about to pull the goalie. Because once they did that, what happened, Pat? They were hemmed in their own zone for 30 to 45 seconds. All the momentum goes away. Penguins are able to pull the goalie, get a chance or two. Then Malkin gets a bad bounce. Puck goes back the other way.

had the offside review, but it was called a good goal. That's just, that's not the situation where you want to ice that fourth line. I saw that too often last year where there were kind of some similar problems with how the top six was carrying the load. I don't want to see that kind of problem carry over into this year. Bottom line, bottom six still needs work. And hey, maybe that's trading for Connor Garland. If you can somehow make that work salary cap wise, I know he's out with James Cooper that

are willing to eat some money. He just saw the two teams make a trade this week. Maybe Kyle Dubas is eyeing that up. maybe he's eyeing something else up. More than likely, though, it's probably going to be a call-up with Redeems O'Horna, Colin White, Denny Hino Shroza, Redeems O'Hourna, as my vote, considering how great he was in camp in the preseason.

You can't keep running back the same unit in thinking that it's going to change. I mean, that's the definition of insanity here, people. Yep, and we will keep this conversation going right after this because the Penguins did announce some injury news as well as a waiver move today, and we will get to that right after this. But first, snap into action this NFL season with Fandul, America's number one sports book.

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I'm one of your host Patrick Damp. That's Hunter Hodes, the illustrious one himself. And as we said right before that ad, Penguins made a couple of announcements today, first and foremost, from Josh Getsoff reporting from Mike Sullivan's media availability. Oh, here we go again. Chris LaTang is being evaluated for a lower body injury, and Noel Achari is being evaluated for an upper body injury.

Took four games, Pat. Took four games for that to happen, by the way. The Penguin's injury curse knows no balance. I say that all the time on the show. It's the monster we just can't kill. And the other thing they announced today is that Jansen Harkins was placed on waivers. That was a bit of a sense. surprising one to me, mainly just because I think this is, if nothing else, a move to send him

down to Wokes Bear and call some guys up. But it just felt like a very short leash because I don't think he was great. I don't think he was bad either. He was just kind of there. So you said it before we went to break. Big Z's got your vote. Who else, anyone else you're eyeing up that you think is going to step in right now. First off that, I do have to push back a little bit on your take. I actually was not surprised at all by this move. I understand four games is definitely a bit of a short leash. He had a really nice final week of camp in the preseason, but he really wasn't doing anything. They had just, he had only been on the team for a couple of weeks total. Cowudubis really has no loyalty to him. Maybe the Jets claim him and send him back down their

HL team, and he can stay down there, maybe come back up to the Jets. But you had to change something after that game. And, you know, Kyle Dubus, again, he hinted at it when he was having a discussion with the TNT intermission crew. He even said about the bottom six, I don't know if we're quite there yet, and that falls on me. So you could tell based on how the game was going at that point and then how it went, he was like, okay, I think we got to do at least something to shake things up. And I'm glad that the penguins have someone that could do this that quickly. Because if this were Ron Hextall, it probably would be half a season until someone like Jansen Harkins or another move is made to shake things up just because he was probably one of the most

patient people I've ever seen. Kyle Devis, I do think he's patient, but when your bottom six is this bad to start the year, there's got to be something that changes, I think. And so I'm not really surprised just how he didn't really look comfortable on the third line during those first four games. He did have a nice chance, I believe it was in the second period, to set up a goal. Vile Huso had a really nice save on that one.

But outside of that chance in the first four games, I really can't remember him getting a quality scoring chance or setting up a quality scoring chance. And again, based on how they just claimed him, there's really no loyalty, I'm not surprised they just wanted to place him on waivers, bring up someone else. Zohorna, again, has my vote, had a great camp in preseason. I thought he deserved to make a team.

He would be my first choice as a call-up. If it's not him, I think it's going to be someone like Hina Shrozer or Colin White. of those two, I probably go towards Hinochroza, though. Yeah, I would agree with that. I also think that there may be another opening, depending on what happens with Nolichari, almost said Matt Nietto, with Nolachari. We don't want to make, just like the line and slapdown.

We don't want to make anything harder on the penguins than they already are. But, yeah, I think there may be another opening. The good news is that they've got today and tomorrow before they go to St. Louis for Saturday night's game. So there still is some time to see just how bad the injury situation is and who they can bring up. Also, they'll probably want to wait to see what happens with Harkins. So, yeah, I mean, again, we talked about it on this pot a lot.

Radim Zahorna had a great training camp for preseason. He was arguably the penguin's best player throughout. So it was genuinely surprising to see him sent down to Wokes Bear at the end of it. So I would like to see him up. I think, you know, you look at his numbers in a limited time he had with the Penguins in the past couple of years. He was always effective, put up a handful of points in a bottom six role. And I think if nothing else, he gives you that push and he gives you a little bit of a little bit more energy in that bottom six, which I think that honestly has been the biggest thing that bottom six is lacking. There's just not a lot of push there.

Because when you watch, especially last in the first period, top sticks was moving. I mean, they were whipping the puck around early. They were out possessing, out chancing, out skating the Red Wings for the first five to seven minutes of the game. And it looked like it might end up turning into a laffer early on. But then you look at that bottom six and not a ton of energy, not a ton of pushback, just out there kind of like Chris Mack said to us, they were playing 50-50 hockey. wasn't overly positive, wasn't over the negative, then the game continued it. It became a negative.

But I think if you get a guy like Big Z in there, it really helps. I think Hinnisroza, if he's another guy who could come up, could give you another guy who can give you a little bit of offensive push. So I'm really curious to see what they decide here over the next 48 hours. At the end of the day, you have to try something new. I mean, this is obviously not working. So, Hona, we saw how good offensively he was during camp in the preseason. And now, I don't know if he's going to be that good during the regular season,

but he does have solid underlying numbers in a small sample size as an NHLer. So why don't you call him up, see what he can do on a third or fourth-flin role? I mean, it can't be worse than what Harkins just didn't. And I don't think Jensen Harkins was that bad. He just wasn't doing anything, but also the rest of the bottom six hasn't been doing anything either. But I mean, we've kind of talked about the bottom six enough. I do want to talk on one big positive that I took from this game. I love the pushback in the third period.

The Penguins could have just wilted over. They could have just said, hey, you know what? We'll get the blues on Saturday. We're not going to waste too much energy here. No, they fought like hell to come back. They clawed back to within 4-3. I thought Villi-Huso made some really nice saves when the penguins are pushing. And he's been a pretty good goalie throughout his career.

The one save, the big one that I really remember was on Raquel right in front of the net. That was a really nice one. He also had a couple other ones on Carlson. But it was Carlson that led the way. And every time the puck touched his blade, I was in awe. He was making things happen every single shift. He led the penguins in terms of time on ice among all defensemen. It was on 26, 27 minutes higher than Crystal Tang.

Anytime he was in the offensive zone, he was firing that puck to the net. His first goal as a penguin was a wicked wrist shot. And then the Brian Ruskell, just a beautiful release looked like it was going wide. Russ tips at top corner. He did everything in his power to try to lead the penguins back. And overall, I thought the penguins responded to that, especially the top six. Again, they did everything in their power to try to squeeze out a point out of this. And I didn't really see that a lot last year.

I saw when the penguins were down like this in third periods last year, they were kind of just wilt over. They would kind of just play like crap. Be like, eh, you know, we'll lose five, six, one. We're not going to exhaust a lot of energy. But they fought like hell to claw back into this one. And I do think that is at least a mini positive heading into Saturdays game against St. Louis. But, I mean, Eric Carlson, what a show he put on it.

You want to know more about that. You can obviously go watch the highlights or definitely check out Josh Yoey's article on The Athletic because he wrote a great piece on Eric Carlson today. I can't disagree with that. He was arguably the best player on the ice last night. And I will bring a little bit of a storm cloud to this and say, speaking of who so, looking at the other end, I saw some people last night kind of say the whole like, oh, you know, save would be nice,

whatever for Jari. I can't blame him for any of the four goals that he was in the net for. The first one before Chad Rueedo completely melted down throughout the rest of the game. Well, that was just everything just went Austin Zarnik's way on that first goal. Chad Rueido played the angle well and just missed the hit. The puck took the absolute correct bounce off the boards. Nine times out of ten, that's going into the corner. and not bouncing right to the middle to help him out.

And then an incredible pass across to the brinkat for the goal. No way he's stopping that. Pio Joseph, I think, could have broken that up. I thought his stick was kind of in the wrong place there. I'm not really going to blame Ruehdle for that one. I thought he made the right play. You said it. Nine out of ten times that pup does not go right back to him.

That was still really lucky bounce. Outside of that, though, I do think it was a pretty rough night for the third pairing. And I saw some takes online. Oh, the third pairing has been really. bad, all this stuff. Heading into this game, the Joseph Ruehiel pairing, when they were on the ice, the Penguins had 70% of the expected goal share. I mean, they've been good for a third pairing that plays 10 to 11 minutes a night.

I'm not really sure where I'm getting that from, though I understand Wuriel did have a really bad night. He basically screened Tristan Jari on the Ben Chiracal. Yes, I know he was pushed a little bit by Lucas Raymond, but don't stand directly in front of your goalie. That's really clueless there. He just didn't have a good. game. He's not really been, I know he's had a few good games start the year. Overall,

these last two years, though, I don't think he's been the same player. No. Since Cody C.C. I think it's just, it's not, hasn't been the same. I don't know what happened, but it's not the same Ruehdle that I think all of us remember a couple of years ago. Agreed. So that'll do it for this segment. I think we've beaten this horse quite enough to death. So because it was a weird week and because there was only a couple of games, we delayed our newest segment Warrior Helmet Wednesday to Thursday. That way we had a little bit more to work with. We're cool.

And we will reveal our pick for this week's Warrior Helmet Wednesday right after this. But first, we have to tell you about the Jace case. The Jace case is a personalized emergency medication kit that contains, five essential antibiotics that treat the most common and deadly bacterial infections. You can also customize your case and add additional life-saving medications based upon your unique needs. Jace Medical now offers customization for your Jace case with dozens of add-on medications. Choose the medications that best fit you and your family's unique needs. So go to jacemedical.com and enter code Locked On at checkout for a $20 discount on your order.

That's promo code Locked On at JASE. medical.com. We're back here on this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am Patrick Damp, joined as always by the Incredible Hunter Hodes. Thank you for making this your first listener watch of the day. And as I said, even though it's a Thursday, we pushed our new recurring segment back a day so we could have a little bit more content to talk about. So we're going to reveal our Warrior Helmet Wednesday for the player we think had the best

week in Penguinsland. And at this point, Hunter, I think runs. same page again for this one. You can probably speak for me with this one. But yeah, Evgeny Malkin, I'll probably speak for you here, to be honest. But Chino has been a rock through these first four games, seven points in these four games, had another goal on Wednesday night against the Red Wings. And he has killed the Red Wings throughout his career, by the way, over 40 points

and just what, 28 games against something is. Something absurd. Like, I don't know what it is about the Detroit. I mean, maybe it's the fact that they have that history in the 90s and 2000s of being the home to some of the best Russian players to ever come through the NHL. So he just feels like he's got to go there and stick it to him. But an incredible opening week for him for this season. It's just, and I got to talk, I got to speak to the chemistry he has developed with Riley

Smith. I said it last night during the game, the goal that he scored on that pass from Smith, yes, the pass was incredible and we have to give Riley Smith's flowers. for it because it was great. But it's what happened right before it that stood out to me. He just, he did, Smith just made this subtle little look over his shoulder. Just he got the puck. He looked real quick and he just knew.

Send it across that spot, Gino's going to be right there. And it was a no doubter. I mean, that's chemistry you can't teach. You just have that or you don't. I said it on Twitter last night. I'll say it again here on the show. It's getting to that James Neal territory without the, stupid cheap shots and all that good stuff, obviously.

But we're at that James Neal territory or starting to get close to that with how good their chemistry already is. It's fantastic to see. And if you ask me, I think it's going to be better than that just because I think I said this to you via text, James Neal was just a pure sniper. James Neal was the guy you got the puck too and he just rifled it off of his stick. I mean, how many times with those two did we see the face off play where it was almost like the Philadelphia Eagles tush push?

was like, you know this is coming. It's going to happen and it's going to work. There's nothing you can do. But given the fact that Smith isn't just a goal score, he's a pretty good playmaker. These two are going to be able to feed off of each other for quite a while because not only is it going to be just Gino's setting up Riley Smith to score, it's going to go both ways. We saw that last night.

We've seen it through the first couple of games. These two have a chemistry where they're setting one another up, almost like they have a bet in the locker room of like, no, no, I'm going to get you an assist tonight. No, no, no, I'm getting you an assist tonight. No, no, I'm scoring a night. No, no, no, no, you're scoring tonight. I mean, you saw it for sure in that Washington game twice. Yeah. Smith set up Malkin, and then the other thing happens with Malkin's setting up Smith for his first goal as a penguin. So, you know, you also obviously saw it in the Calgary game as well. So it's really been fun to see them set each other up through these first four

games. Again, amazing start for Epkinney Malkin. And it is 42 points in 28 career games against the Red Wings. And then also, congratulations to Gino. Third most goals by a Russian player ever in NHL history passed Alexander McGilney last night. He has 474 goals now. And yes, Alexander to McGilney should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Hopefully he gets in very soon. Gino just needs nine more goals to tie Sergei Federer for second all time, 10 more to pass him, and he'll be there for quite a while because obviously he's not going to be catching Alex Obechkin. But still, another great stat for Jim. Gino. He's just a man on a mission right now, and it's fantastic to see.

Yeah. And keeping it on that train, too, of a guy like Riley Smith coming in, obviously Eric Carlson is who he is. But getting Riley Smith might end up being one of Dubus's best moves because it looks like he has helped Malkin turn the clock back five, ten years at this point. Because we haven't seen this out of Gino in quite, probably since the Stanley Cup runs in 16 and 17. because he just looks like a man on a mission. He's playing all 200 feet. He's playing aggressive. And I know that this is a bit overblown with him, but he's keeping his temper in check.

He's playing hard. He's playing physical. He went at it with Ben Chirot last night, but it wasn't him blowing over and blowing his top. He just got in a good battle with a guy, and that's when of Gennie Malkins at his best. Right. And you obviously don't want him to piss off at the opposition because we've seen what that can do to Genoa at times with some of the stuff he's done throughout his career.

But he's always at his best when he's this engaged every single night. And I agree with you on Smith. That deal is looking beautiful right now. They basically got him for free. A third round pick is literally nothing. And again, they had that pick just for the Teddy Blugher trade. So again, they basically didn't give up anything to get Riley Smith.

But I agree overall with what you're saying. I just, I can't wait to see what else they can do this season. I was high on Smith coming in. I said he was going to score quite a few goals, have quite a few points. I'm still saying that right now. I think it's going to have, again,

20, 25, 30 goals this year, maybe 50, 55, 60 points somewhere in that range. And, you know, if that happens, Gino is also going to continue to have quite the season as well. I predicted 90 plus points for him. Right now, I think both those predictions are looking pretty good through four games. So I'm going to pat myself on to that. They are well on pace to come to fruition, if you ask me.

That's going to do it for us on this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. We will be back tomorrow and we will preview Saturday's game against the St. Louis Blues, as well as provide any updates we see over the next 24 hours or so in regards to waivers and injuries. but thank you all so much for listening to this edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. We will talk to you tomorrow.