Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins make it 4 in a row by outlasting the Panthers!

Episode Date: December 4, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins have their longest winning streak of the season after holding on for a 5-4 overtime win against the Florida Panthers! Hunter and Patrick discuss the Penguins blowing yet another lead but making up for it thanks to a Bryan Rust overtime winner. Speaking of Bryan Rust, they dive into how important of a player he is for the Penguins and how he continues to be so clutch when they need it most. They also discuss how the Penguins have been simplifying their game a bit more over the last week and how that is paying huge dividends. They even analyze Owen Pickering's performance and dive into how Tristan Jarry continues to make more progress. Finally, they give out their Warrior Helmets for this past week and there are some really good candidates.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!PrizePicksDownload the app or go to https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNHL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. 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.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR 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.

Brian Rust was the hero for the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday as they extended their winning streak to four. Pat and I are going to recap that game against the Panthers, plus give out our warrior helmets right after this. You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. joined by my co-host, Patrick Tamp. You can follow him on Twitter at Center for Wet.

And you can follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O. Understar 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 Fandle. You can start the season with a big return on Fandul. New customers can place a $5 bet, and you will get started with $150 in bonus bets. If you win your first $5 bet, visit Fandul.com to get.

started. So Pat, I'm going to start this show off with a old-fashioned saying here. They don't ask how. They ask how many. And the Penguins have now won four in a row, thanks to a crazy five to four overtime win against the defending Stanley Cup champion, Florida Panthers. It was a game where, let's face it, the Penguins probably did not deserve to win with the way they played for 55 or the 60 minutes. They were blown off the ice for the majority of that game. I would say the Penguins played very well the first five minutes of that game. But right after that, the Panthers really woke up,

and they were taking it to the Penguins shift after shift after shift. There was a few shifts in there where the Penguins did outplay the Panthers, but they were very few and far between. I think to me, the biggest reason why they won this game was the play of Tristan Jari and Net. He was very good throughout this game. Yeah, he was, you know, he gave up three goals in the third period in a four minute and 32 minutes span.

A couple of them, if you look at the public models, and you look at the expected goals for those shots, it wasn't that high. But I'm choosing to look past that a little bit just because of the amount of 10 bills saves he was making well before that, especially in the first couple of periods. He was by far the biggest reason why they had the lead heading into the third period. I understand the Penguins blew the lead in record time in less than five minutes in that third period. That's the ninth multi-gold blown lead that they've had and we're not even at 30 games yet this season.

But he was, A, the biggest reason why they got that to, overtime and be the biggest reason why they ended up walking out with two points. So I wanted to shout out 35 for his performance in that game. Do I think it's his best performance of the season? No, I would probably say the Bruins game right after Thanksgiving was the best. And I also want to say this. No, I don't think he's fully back or anything like that. He's put together a couple of good starts here.

That's progress. It's baby steps for head. But I don't want people saying that, oh my God, he's fully back. he's going to be totally fine going forward. I still want to see plenty more good starts from him, but this is at least a semblance of progress. He's playing better since coming up from Wilkesbury, and I wanted to shout him out for his effort against the Panthers

because they do not win that game without the amount of saves that he made throughout those 60 minutes. This game from last night is a really, I don't want to say difficult. That's not the right word, but it's an interesting one to try to analyze, because there are so many different narratives that come out of this game, and most of them are true.

What you said, right on the money. Tristan Jari with a great performance last night. I don't think you can really put many of the goals on him squarely, because Florida's just that good, and that gets into my other point. I know people made their jokes and had their frustrations about the blown lead, but the Penguins didn't really, they didn't play that well, but they also didn't play that poorly either. Florida's just that good

because when I watched back a lot of the condensed game today, I noticed something in watching it. The Penguins didn't really make a lot of the same mistakes that they have been making up to this point this year. Florida's just really good. Yeah, you can maybe do some nitpicking on their defensive zone coverage, but you look at the speed of Florida, and they give every team.

fits in the defensive zone. That's not just a Penguins exclusive thing. And then on the other hand, I look at it. And I don't think the Penguins won this game so much as Spencer Knight lost it for the Florida Panthers. He was bad. He was not good. And I understand that, you know, the Penguins had a couple really nice goals. Owen Pickering's first NHL goal. Beautiful screen by Michael Bunting. The Evgeny Malkin goal, great puck movement, but at the same time, it wasn't a one-timer. It wasn't too much of a left-to-right or right-to-left situation. That's a save he should probably make. Marcus Pedersen all of a sudden looks like a power forward out of nowhere. Chris LaTang, I mean, again, that goal, I don't know if I can so much put

that one on Spencer Knight, because his own Nate Schmidt both blocked and screened him from getting over. And then the overtime goal from Brian Rust, it's a great shot, but you should probably stop that. And he only saw less than 20 shots and gave up five goals. So at the end of the day, he was probably the catalyst for the penguins winning. And then the last thing that I wanted to get into was, I don't think in that blown lead, getting back to my original point, that the penguins beat themselves. The Florida Panthers are just really, really good. and they got undone by goaltending.

So I don't think the penguins made a ton of mistakes like they have up to this point. They just played a team that is worlds better than them. And they had the better goaltender on that night. Their forecheck was giving the penguins problems all night long. And this was not a thing that just happened in the third period. This was something that was happening in the first period, in the second period. The biggest reason why the penguins had that two-go lead heading into the third was, A, the player of Tristan Jari, he was billing them out with a number of high-danger saves.

some big timely saves, and B, to play us fencer Knight. You said it, Pat. If Sergey Brabowski was in net for that game, the Penguins probably do not win, just with the way that he's usually able to play during the regular season. I know his numbers this year aren't as good as normal, but I still think the Panthers probably win that game with him in net,

and Knight was just, again, flat out terrible in that one. I like that. You mentioned Owen Pickering's first goal. And again, another great game from him. His gap control continues to be really nice. The play in his own zone continues to be good. He's not pinching too aggressively in the offensive zone. He's not giving up many odd man rushes.

And heck, honestly, as a team, the Penguins have really cut down on the amount of odd man rushes against throughout these last four games. They're playing more diligent defensively. You're noticing them playing a bit more, what do you want to call it, conscientiously defensively? I think that's the word to use. They're actually, again, you're seeing a semblance of structure,

even though they blew that lead in record time, four minutes and 32 seconds, because I knew when the Panthers scored that second goal, I'm like, okay, this game is still not close to over. And then once they got the third one, I'm like, okay, just tied the game at this point because the Penguins have been blowing these leads so often this year. But there wasn't just them barfing all over themselves in their own zone.

It was the Panthers making winning plays for checking well, doing what they were doing for the first 40 plus minutes of that game. But it's what we talked about with Jesse on Monday. It's a lot. It applies more to just Eric Carlson and Chris Latang. They're being more forceful and deliberate with their decisions, rather than just pinching for pinching's sake or just firing the puck on net any chance they get.

They're having better shot selection in the offensive zone, which doesn't lead to blocked shots or turnovers that lead to odd man rushes. And the same thing with pinching, which is what they've cut back on or at the very least been smarter about over the past few games. When they pinch, it's high leverage, high percentage situations where they know that they're going to get the possession or they're going to be able to get a quick possession and bump the puck down to a forward or across the ice to their defensive partner or another forward.

So the thing is, they're not so much overhauling their game. It's what I have been calling for them to do all season long. They're simplifying it. They're taking what the game is giving them rather than trying to create something out of nothing. And we saw that last night. Again, Florida Panthers, therefore check gives every team in the league fits because they are big, they're fast, and they're physical.

I don't care what team you are that is going to give you fits. You go back and watch the way they played in the defensive zone. It was simple. It was taking the high percentage plays. And sometimes against a team like Florida, they're going to get chances. They're going to hem you in. But you don't chase the puck. You don't take unnecessary risks.

And we saw them do it multiple times last night. If nothing else, ice the puck. The only thing that happens is a face off. and you get 10, 15 seconds, catch your breath, take the face off. And if you win the draw, get it out, make a change. And that's what they did. Right. No, I hear you.

I will say the one thing is they got to cut down on the number of high danger chances they give up in this game. They gave up 15 at 5 on 5. That's not good enough. And I want to see what happens over the next week against team that I don't want to say or worse than Florida because New York still has a lot of talent. Toronto's Toronto, Colorado, even though they're not. they're kind of wobbling a little bit, still a very good team.

But when you're not playing the defending champions who have that style, if you cut it back and you just go, okay, Florida's that good, they're starting to figure this out. But if it's the same result, then we might have some problems. Right. No, I hear you. And one more thing just to discuss before we end this first segment, Philip Tomasino, man, that no look past to have Guany Malkin was superb.

And he has been fantastic of this last week. It's really fun seeing him get these opportunities on the, of Gennie Malkin line. He feels like such a seamless fit. Who knew Pat, trading for another player named Phil, would get this team going a little bit more. No, I'm not trying to compare Philip Tomasino to Phil Kessel, but he continues to play great hockey for this team. And it's not often you also see Sasha Barkov get cooked like that in the neutral zone. In fact, that was the only time he really got cooked during that game. He was flawless against the Crosby line and the Gino line after that.

But it was nice seeing the penguins kind of take it to him during that shift. And then that no look pass from Tomasino to Malkin was textbook. Oh, it was great. And I'm very impressed by him. Now, I don't say this from a cynical place. It's just the way I'm looking at it as an analyst is I want to see what happens in five or six more games because we have definitely seen the change of scenery guy show up, play really well for a handful of games and then level out.

Now, I don't expect him to play at this high of a level consistently for the rest of the season, but you can see some chemistry with Hvgeny Malkin. He very clearly has a high hockey IQ. If he can keep playing at least a semi-comparable level, this will look like an absolute fleecing from Kyle Dubus. It already looks like that right now, but I agree. Let's see if this continues over the next five to six, seven games. But that'll do it for this first segment.

Coming up in the second segment, we're going to continue our recap of this big win against the pan. and also discuss Brian Russ game winning goal and how he continues to be so freaking clutch for this team. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about our first sponsor, and that is Fandall. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with Fandall. That's America's number one sportsbook, because right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $150 bucks in bonus bets if you win. The Fandual Sportsbook app gives you everything you need to play slide bets on the NFL all in one place.

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So, Pat, Brian Rustman continues to be such a clutch player for this team. He plays his tail off every single night. That goal against Spencer Knight was fantastic. I was kind of waiting for him to potentially pass that to Eric Carlson because it looked like Carlson was calling for the puck there. But I'm glad that Rust was able to trust himself and fire it past night just because Knight was having a really bad game. And he also was way off his angle a little bit there.

You could tell he was kind of. playing the pass a little bit there. I think he expected Russ to pass it to Carlson, but it was nice seeing Russ take advantage of that and just laser that puck past him to get the game winner. His celebration was great. And he's had a really nice week for the Penguins. More on that coming up in Warrior Helmet Wednesday and tent.

But I wish they would add another A so that he could wear it on his sweater because I know we have the big three with 87, 71, and 58, but he really is as close to a core member of this team as it gets. I absolutely love this player. I want him here for quite a long time. And again, man, I love seeing him play at such a high level. Well, as far as I know, there's no limit to the amount of captains that you can have.

The only rule I'm aware of is that a goalie can't be a captain. So, because if you remember that from quite a few years ago when Roberto Luongo was still in Vancouver. They made him the captain quote unquote and he had a C on his goalie mask to show it because he wasn't allowed to have a C on his sweater. So I mean, I agree with you though that this was an incredible effort from Brian Russ, not just on the game winner, but I thought he was all over the ice once again. He's just, he's one of the best utility players I think we have ever seen in the penguin's history in the sense. that if you want him to be in your top six and score goals, he can be in your top six and score goals. If you want him in your middle six or bottom six to be an energy guy, he can do that just as well. He can play on the power play.

He can play on the penalty kill. You can trust him in defensive situations. You can put him out there when you need a goal. He's just a fantastic multi-told player. And one of the things that I got reminded of this morning reading our pal Josh, Yohe's recap, is something that he reported on way back when the penguins traded Jake Gensel, and you could tell that this team was starting to enter this retool, rebuild mode. And Rust basically said, I want to be here when this team is good again.

And you don't often get that from NHL players. Even the most loyal, most whatever you want to call them type of players will say things like, oh, you know, this is the cycle of the national hockey league. You have success and then it turns into the whatever. Rarely do you get that from somebody that is that loyal. And how could he not be? He has experienced the highest of highs, the lowest of lows. And he's done everything for this organization.

And they've compensated him well. And he's just become a fabric of the organization. So I'm glad he's a Pittsburgh penguin. and I know that the kind of game he plays, we are on a knife's edge with when his game might fall off, but he's a player who's done so much that I'm willing to wait it out and see what happens as long as he's in a penguin's uniform. Agreed.

I don't want him getting dealt anytime soon. I understand this team is very much in a retool slash rebuild on the fly situation right now, but I want that player for quite a bit still. He plays his tail off every single. night and he continues to be very clutch for this team when it matters most. But there's also a couple of other players who have been playing really well this last week. And let's start with Chris Latang. He played another very strong game on Tuesday against the Panthers outside of one play where thankfully that goal was reversed for

offside because he had a really bad breakout pass from his own zone and Jari allowed a goal he probably would want back. And thankfully he was able to, Latang, that is, recover from that because he played very well in his own zone after that. He was creating offensive something that has kind of gone away for most of this season today. But this last week, he's really turned things around. And the same thing can be said about Eric Carlson. He was not out to lunch defensively in his game. He wasn't being too aggressive with his pinches. He was creating offensively. It's no wonder, man, that when these two are playing fairly solid, this team has success. Yeah, I know. Breaking news, people. When two of your number one defensemen are playing

very strong, yeah, your team's going to win. Right. And the biggest thing that I see out of them. And I mean this in a very complimentary way, is that, and I can't prove this, but it's just something I, I've been workshopping. You could tell that these guys were playing with a certain level of frustration, because they're so used to just being able to go out, go out there and dominate, because that's what they've done for the majority of their careers. and it appears in the last couple weeks that the both of them have adjusted a little bit. They're not trying to do too much. They're playing within the skills they still possess, which by the way are still way up there.

They are still two extremely talented hockey players. But rather than trying to do too much, trying to take over the game every chance they get, they're playing a lot smarter. They're looking at what the game gives them, rather than trying to create something. That's kind of been the entire theme of this little winning streak. The penguins aren't doing anything groundbreaking or earth shattering. They're not reinventing the wheel. They didn't make massive adjustments to their system.

They just took out a lot of the high risk plays, began to play simple, took what the game gave them, and they're getting help in net. So combine all of that, are they a playoff team now? Still extremely hesitant to say that. But are they now a team that rather than getting embarrassed on a binaughtly basis, they're going to be in a lot of games. So this isn't a bad place to be for them because going back to the plan that we are pretty much aware that this team is trying to pull off,

if you can have some success, have these guys you acquired in the off season, be moderately productive. you're going to get some good value back for them. You're going to get a solid draft pick. You're going to need a couple other solid draft picks, maybe some prospects. And who knows in a year or two, when all the big names are on their swan song, you might be right back to competitive. Right.

And the biggest thing I can say about this team right now, they're watchable. And I'm not trying to be mean when I say that because they were getting crushed on a nightly basis before this four game winning street. They are watchable. And that's really all I'm asking for this season. I didn't expect them to make the playoffs heading into the season. Well, I want this team to at least be watchable.

And so far, these last four games, they have been doing very well when it comes down. I hope that continues this weekend with the Rangers and the Maple Leafs. A couple more things. Pat, when did Marcus Patterson turn into Bobby? Or because that power move, I'm like, buddy, A, where did that come from? And B, where in the heck did that back can come from?

I don't think I've ever seen him do that. I'll tell you where that came from. You know who was in the booth on the headset during that goal? Artie. The one, the only, the newest member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame, the legendary Kevin Stevens. And he even said it on the mic when Pedersen scored. He was like, wow, that was a power forward move right there.

I can't do a very good Boston accent, so I'm not even going to try. But yeah, that was a great goal. I don't know where that came from. but I mean, I'm not going to ask questions. Just keep doing it. I agree. And one more thing before we end this segment before we're getting to our Warrior Helmet for the final segment.

I'm not ready to say at this point that, you know, hey, we're back to Parliament. Let's file a claim. Pat, you texted me before this show. You're like, I want to whip that out. I'm like, you know what? No, because I don't want you looking foolish if they lay an egg against the Rangers this Friday

or against the Maple Leafs on Saturday. I still need to see more consistent play over these next maybe two to three weeks, at least, maybe a bit more for me to say, okay, maybe we're back, maybe let's see if they can make a push for a wild card spot, top three spot in the Metro, anything like that. It's a four-game winning streak.

It's very nice. They're playing a lot better over this last week, but I'm sorry, I'm still a bit skeptical right now. I need to see it on a more consistent basis, but man, it is at least fun to watch. I would much rather win ugly in the game on Tuesday, then lose pretty. Yeah, and listen, this bit is for those of you who watch us on YouTube.

So if you're listening to us on a podcast app right now, gonna need you to check out YouTube. But just pretend that this doesn't say accelerator. Just pretend it says hopium because, Pat, what are you doing, man? I'm chugging the hopium right now. They beat the defending Stanley Cup champions. No, but you're right. It was a, it was, I don't want to say a good effort because they,

they did not play all that well, but they, they haven't beaten slouches, so to speak, in this four game winning streak. They've beaten some solid teams. It's encouraging, but again, we're going to need to see this over a two to three week span because every team, good, bad, indifferent, eventually has a stretch of games where they figure it out and then water finds its level, so to speak. But encouraging signs, we're not back yet. but they're giving us just a little glimmer of hope.

And like you said, they're watchable. I don't care if you lose. I don't care if you struggle. Just put up a fight. In the last couple weeks, they have put up a fight. Agreed. And I think that I'll do it for this second segment of today's episode.

Coming up to end the show, it's Wednesday. You all know what that means. It's time for Pat and I to give out our warrior helmet for the player of this last week. Plus, we're going to dive into a little bit of the Four Nations face off rosters because Finland and Sweden

just announced their rosters. and there is one penguin that has made one of those teams. We'll dive into that coming up here in the final segment. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about our final sponsor, and that is prize picks. It's the best place to get real money sports action. And with over 10 million members and millions of dollars in awarded winnings, prize picks has made daily fantasy sports accessible to all.

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Down the app today and use code locked on NHL to get $50. instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. One more time, download Price Picks app today and use code Locked-on NHL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. That's Price Picks, run your game. All right, we're back to this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host Patrick Damp. So, Pat, let's dive into the Warrior Helmet.

There are a lot of very good options for this last week. A couple weeks ago, there really weren't too many options. is considering the losing streak this team was on. But hey, what a difference the last week or two makes for this team. For me, I'm going to split mine right down the middle. I've been going back and forth on this throughout the day. I'm going to give half of it to Brian Rust, half of it to Tristan Jari. Jari was superb in that game against the ruins.

He made a number of high danger saves, excuse me, in that six on five. He was great in that game against the Panthers. Again, I understand. up three third period goals, but he was, in my opinion, the biggest reason why the Penguins walked out of that game with two points through two periods of that game. He was stealing the show against the Panthers, making a number of high danger saves, even against the Canucks. There was a goal that I definitely would want him to have back, but he still made enough

saves in that game for the Penguins to win. He's playing a bit better since coming back from Wilkesbury. It's at least, you know, a little above league average compared to where he was before he went down to Wilkesbury, which was flat out terrible. So really nice week from him. Half of it goes to him. And then the other half goes to Brian Russ. He gets the two-gold game against the Canucks.

He was awesome in that game. And then gets the big game winner against the Panthers on Tuesday. Vintage Brian Russ' goal. He's been playing his tail off over the last week, as we mentioned numerous times during this show. That is my Warrior Helmet pick for this week. I'm splitting it down the middle. Pat, I think you might do something a little bit different for,

this pick. What are you going with? You're right. I am going to do something a little bit different. And listen, I'm right there with you. We were texting about this all day because what do you know? They play well going a four game win streak and all of a sudden, we have a lot of candidates who could be the MVP of the week because they're playing some good hockey lately. But I'm going to go a little off board rather than going with kind of the player who played the best this week. and I'm going to get a little sentimental. I'm going to give mine to Owen Pickering. Gets his first NHL goal last night against the Florida Panthers. What a time to get your first NHL goal at home against the defending champions.

And it's technically the first goal of the game because there was one that was disallowed because of a review. But huge momentum swing for your team. He has not looked out of place whatsoever in the NHL. and it's just been a solid start to his NHL career. So you just put that little cherry on top, scores his first goal in a big moment, in a big game. So I give mine to the rookie Owen Pickering.

That's also a really good pick. He's been great this last week. Heck, he's been great ever since coming up from Wilkesbury. And if you ask me, he should not be going down anytime soon, if at all this season. He looks ready for this show. and it's been awesome seeing him really develop on this team.

I know he's been getting some bottom pairing minutes with Ryan Shea. I think it might be time coming up here soon to see what he can do on the top pairing with Letang. Just because, again, I'm not really too high on 24. And we expect Grizzly to be traded right around the trade deadline. So I think once that happens, I think Pickering will probably get those minutes and rightfully. So I think you have to give him a shot to see what he can do next to 58. But he's been awesome. So I really like that pick.

We also thought a lot about Philip Tomasino. He's been awesome since coming over. If he keeps this up, he might get next week's warrior helmet with the way that he is playing. One more thing, though, to end the show, Pat. A couple four nations face-off teams were announced today with Finland and Sweden. USA and Canada, they get announced later on tonight.

So we'll see what those two teams look like. We'll dive into the Penguins that are on those teams for the Thursday episode. But for today, congratulations to Penguins' Defenseman Eric Carlson for making Team Sweden. No brainer for that. I'm not sure which pairing is going to be on, but anyone who didn't think that Carlson is going to make Team Sweden,

I don't know really know what you're talking about. The only other Penguin that we thought was maybe going to make the team, but didn't. No Ricard Raquel on Team Sweden, but Sweden's forward group is also insanely deep. So I get that Raquel is not on the team, even though he's had a really nice start to the season. I think if he was maybe a bit more consistent last year

and wasn't banged up for a lot of that season and produced a bit more, I think he would probably be on that team, now, but I think he's still going to have at least a decent shot to be on Sweden for the Olympics in 26, but still, congratulations to Eric Carlson, but man, you look up and down that lineup for team Sweden. That is a nasty lineup, my friend. Oh, yeah, that, that, the four nations face off gimmicky as it is, I think is going to be an incredible tournament just because all four of the nations involved are going to just be loaded with talent. So, that's going to be a ton of fun to watch.

And as for Raquel, I do think you're right that last year dings him a little bit. I think he's been great this year so far. And I also, if there's an injury between now and the Four Nations face off, he is probably their first call. They probably reached out to him and said, if there's somebody on this roster who's not able to make it come tournament time, pack your bags, you're coming. Oh, great.

And again, you look at this lineup for Sweden, They have players like Leo Carlson, Esper Brat, Philip Forsberg, William Carlson, Elias Linholm, William Nealander, defensively, Rasmus Anderson, Jonas Brodine, Rasmus Dahlin, Eric Carlson, Victor Hedman, Gousaworsling. That is a disgusting defensive unit in the best possible way. Goaltending-wise, you know, it maybe leaves a little bit to be desired when you compare it to, say, for example, the United States or even Finland because Finland has UC Soros starting. but that team very well might win the Four Nations face up with how deep they are. And then for Finland, you have players like Sasha Barkov, Eric Hala, Rupa Hins,

Patrick Linae, congratulations to him for making that team, Sebastian Ajo. You have Mero Heskinin, and then again, for goaltending-wise Uzi Soros. So those two teams are announced in the United States, and Canada will be announced on Wednesday evening. We'll dive into those rosters coming up for the Thursday edition of the show. But that'll do it for the Wednesday edition of the show. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We really appreciate it. Pat and I will be back with another show for you all on Thursday.

So we will talk to you back.