Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins make it two wins in a row, thanks to Sidney Crosby!

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins won their second straight game over the weekend and Sidney Crosby's brilliance was a big part of it. Hunter and Patrick talk about what they liked about the Penguins' win over the Canadiens on Saturday night, including how they have defended at least a bit better over these last two games. They discuss how the Penguins didn't wilt when something went wrong, which has been a big theme of this season. Of course, they discuss the play of Sidney Crosby and how he had factored in on the last seven Penguins goals before Blake Lizotte got his first as a Penguin. After that, they discuss how Noel Acciari had another very good game and how Ryan Graves stepped up when needed, especially at the end. Finally, they look ahead to another big week as the Penguins will play three Metropolitan Division rivals on the road.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.

The Penguins made a two in a row with a victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday. I'm going to recap that game. Plus, get you all set for this big week of Penguins hockey 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, welcome back to another episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast.

I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. join him on my co-host Patrick Damp. You can follow him on Twitter at Center for Wet, and you can follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O. underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this, your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms,

and finally, this episode is brought to you by Indeed. So, searching for a great candidate for your company. Don't search, just match with Indeed. So first off, just want to apologize everyone for my very raspy voice day. I'm very much getting over a, annoying cold, I think, at this point, and also just to address the elephant in the room here. We were supposed to have Jesse Marshall on for Marshall Monday today, but something work-related came up for him at the last minute, so we're hoping to have him on next week. Remember,

we did say last week that schedule permitting he would be on every Monday, but something came up for work. That's obviously more important than coming on and spewing nonsense about the Penguins for 30 minutes. But don't worry, Pat and I are here to recap this game against Montreal and get you all set for this big week of Penguins hockey in. Let's get into that game. against the Canadians. Pat Penguins win. Three to one, they've now won the season series against the Canadians. They'll play them one more time in December. And I thought like the Penguins were the better team in this one. I feel like they defended better for a second game in a row. And also for a second game in a row, my biggest takeaway outside of Sidney Crosby being him was that when something

went wrong in the third period, they didn't wilt. They just were like, okay, we're going to go back to doing what we were doing. And they defended hard. They kept chugging away offensively. You able to get that empty-neck goal, thanks to Blake LaZott, and also really nice game from LaSotte in general, but they didn't just let that goal have them spiral and have that be their downfall. That's been one of the biggest reasons I think, in my opinion, as to why the penguins are where they are in the standings.

Obviously, they can't defend to save their lives this year, but a big part of that is because when the smallest thing goes wrong, they spiral and it just needs to more goals against just seconds apart. And you didn't see that in this game. like you didn't see it in the Ducks game. And now I understand that the Ducks and the Canadians are both not good teams. They're still very much rebuilding. But it's still at least nice to see the Penguins go back to doing what they were doing,

not will, and continue to push the pace of play in that third period. So that was, I think, one of my biggest takeaways from this game. Another one, obviously, Pat, sending Crosby, two more goals. He was sensational. When he goes down to one knee, it's game over, man. He is going to make you pay every single time. for a time before Blake Luzotte got that third goal to put the game away, Cindy Crosby had factored in,

excuse me, on the last seven penguin goals dating back to the Minnesota game. He is very much back. And if they want to make this season something, he's going to have to continue playing at this level. Great game from him once again. And it was awesome seeing him play like this. For sure.

He is definitely on one right now. And that's coming through in his play. you ran down the stats there on how he factored into seven of the penguins most recent goals up until Blake Lazot hit the empty netter against the Canadians. But I do want to build on, expand upon something that you said. And that was that, yeah, they didn't wilt when Montreal made it two to one, which is a great sign. However, there was one thing that I take as both a positive and a negative from that game. And it was in the third period. I liked the way they defended. I thought they really tightened up and did a very good job of keeping Montreal to the outside because they had a lot of

extended zone time against the penguins. But even in that extended zone time, you didn't see a ton of threatening looks. It was a lot of shots from the point, shots from bad angles, or just trying to get the puck to a prime scoring area and the penguins weren't allowing them to do that, which is a very encouraging sign. Again, it's a team like Montreal, so you want them to do that in those games. You want them to be able to keep them from getting prime scoring opportunities. But then on the other side of it, I would have liked to have seen more pushback because we have seen this with a lot of teams across the NHL, especially this year. one of the hallmarks, especially for the teams at the top of the table in the National

Hockey League, is when they get a lead, they keep pushing. They are not going to let you get back into the game. We saw that against Edmonton a couple of weeks ago. They didn't go up and then start coasting. They kept pushing the penguins. There's a reason they're the defending Western Conference champions. And yes, a lot of that is Connor McDavid and Leon Drysidal, who are two of the best players on the planet, but they play a style of hockey that is absolutely relentless.

I don't expect the penguins to be able to do that, at least not in this iteration of the Pittsburgh Penguins, but I wasn't exactly encouraged by the fact that they almost kind of went into a shell in the third period. I didn't expect them to go full tilt. I didn't expect them to run up the score or anything, but I would have liked to have seen more pushback than just, okay, let's hang back, let's hold on to this. lead and let's close it out. And they deserve credit for that because what have we have been talking about all season long? This team's complete inability to defend. And they made some progress the last

two games on that. Again, it's Anaheim and Montreal, so we shouldn't start popping the champagne just yet because those are teams you should defend against. But overall, I'm encouraged by the fact that they didn't wilt, they were able to defend pretty well in that third period. But at the same time, I want to see them taking the fight to other teams more often than I do them sitting back on their heels and running out the clock. That's fair. I will least say they only gave up two high danger chances at five on five in the third period. That is progress people. I know.

Baby steps. The bar is literally on the floor with the way they have defended this year, especially in the third period. period, but that is still baby steps, at least for me. And I felt like Blake Lausant was defending his tail off in the third period. He was rewarded with an empty net goal. And you know who I also thought played really well in this game? Nootari. I thought that was one of his best games as a penguin.

He was running around like a freight train, to be honest. The hit that he had in the third period, I kind of think he got away with one there, in my opinion. I feel like it should have been a minor penalty. I kept seeing talk about that could be a suspension. I don't think that was going to be a suspension. I think that's a little too far. Even a fine, I don't really see at this point.

But I feel like he kind of got away from my. I think the hatred I was mostly seeing was coming out of Montreal. But then you saw Arbor. Is it Jackie? I believe Pat is that you got a last name? Arbor Jackai. Then he tried to go knee on knee with him in the final minute, which is just like, okay, that's kind of a Joker type play there.

I don't really know why he's trying to do that. But anyways, I still felt that was a. great game from Achari and that's the level that I want to keep seeing out of Achari. He just had a great game against the flames a couple of weeks ago. Again, that was one of his other really good performances as a member of the Penguins. Honestly, I can make an argument that this game against Montreal and that game against Calgary were his two best performances as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins. This is the Noel Chari that I want to see on a nightly basis. I'm right there with you. That was in my estimation his best game as a penguin. Yeah, he was very

good against the flames, but I still felt that there was another level he could get to. And we saw that against Montreal. As for the Slavkovsky hit in the third period, I'm 50-50 on it. Slavkovsky's Slavkovsky is a big boy. And I think he leaned into that contact a little bit. So it was more unfortunate than anything. If there would have been a penalty on it, I wouldn't have disagreed just because of the circumstance of it.

You knock a guy down, knock a guy out like that. there should be some sort of penalty call on it, but I look at it more as unfortunate than I do intentionally dirty. I don't think he targeted them. I don't think he was trying to hurt them. I think it was just all of the elements of making it unfortunate came together in a terrible moment. So, and you guys know if you've listened to the show long enough, I'm not going to blindly defend the penguins when they do something dirty.

If he would have chicken winged him or targeted his head, I would have been upset that he did that in a, a one goal game because you can't give your team that sort of disadvantage. So overall, I think it was more unfortunate than anything. But looking at his game, this is the type of player that the penguins were hoping they were going to get when they signed Noel Achari. And that was because you want him to be a power forward. You want him to be a menace. That's where he made his money.

He was a great, maybe not great, but he was a solid power forward who was great on the forecheck, was a menace in the offensive zone, can give you that spark with some physical play, and also defends very solidly. And we saw that from him on Saturday night against Montreal. It's just another building block that they have to find and hold on to consistently. This can't continue to swing inconsistently night tonight. You need to see him put this kind of performance together for a week or two at a time. And if he dips like everybody else does, that's part of an 82 game season. But it can't be one game on, three off, one game on three more off.

I want to see that especially with what we're going to talk about the rest of the show, with the absolute gauntlet they have coming up this week, he is going to have to play a big part in it. He is going to have to go up against some tough competition. And he's got to play that kind of. of game against them. Right. No, I agree. We need to see this more on a consistent basis from him and not have him disappear for, you know, a week or two or even three weeks at a time before he has another good game or something like that. But I think that would do it for this opening segment.

Coming up in the second segment, we're going to discuss how Eric Carlson had another really strong game and how the Penguins, it's good that they can beat some bad teams, but can they maybe start beating some mediocre to good teams? Well, we're going to find out this week as we preview this slate games for the Penguins overall. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about our first sponsor, and that is prize picks. Prize picks is the best place to get real money sports action with over 10 million members and billions of dollars in awarded winnings. Prize picks has made daily fantasy sports accessible to all. You just take more or less on at least two players for a shot to win up to 100 times your cash, run your game all season long on price fix. You can now

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slash locked on terms and conditions apply if you need to hire, you need Indy. All right here on this episode

of the Lockedon Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host Hunter Hodes. Join him on my co-host, Patrick. I again

apologize to everyone for my very raspy voice. This is not how I normally sound. I am still trying to get over

whatever the heck this cold that I got late last week over the weekend because I guess it's that time of year overall. But getting to more stuff about this game, Eric Carlson led the Penguins yet again in average game score. That's two really strong games in a row from him. I thought the eye test really matched the numbers for this game.

He was great in the offensive zone. He was making good decisions with the puck. He wasn't out to lunch defensively. This is more of the level that I want to keep seeing from Eric Carlson. It's been a very up and down season from him. Again, I felt like he started this. season outside the Rangers game where really no one played well. I felt like he started this season playing some really strong hockey. It dipped pretty aggressively those next four to five games,

but these last couple, he's really come on, and I want that to continue this week. And in fact, it has to continue this week because the Penguins are playing some pretty decent teams. I mean, you look at the schedule this week, Pat, they play the Islanders on Tuesday on Long Island, they play the Hurricanes on Thursday in Raleigh, and then they go to Washington, D.C. on Friday to take on the capitals. three teams in there are bona fide playoff team so far this year. The Islanders, they're not good, they're very banged up, but they still always give the Penguins fits. It doesn't matter how good or how bad the Islanders are. They give the Penguins fits every time they play them. So I want

Eric Carlson to play, especially really good in those games, and just, again, for the rest of the season, of course. But I felt like for this game against the Canadians, the eye test really match the numbers. And we're starting to see him at least string together a couple of really good performances here after a pretty rough stretch after the first few games of the season. Again, the name of the game right now for this Penguins team is consistency. We have seen flashes throughout the first 13 games that there might be something of a playoff team here in Pittsburgh, but they can't really put it together on a night-to-night basis. It's swinging so wildly. And like you said about Carlson, the last two games, I think he has been fantastic.

It doesn't absolve him from the start. It doesn't absolve him from his inconsistencies last year. Just like I was saying about Achari, he has to start doing this for a week or two at a time for this team to go anywhere. Because it doesn't seem like Latang is fully out of his funk yet. He's looked better, but he still hasn't looked. quite like Chris LaTang just yet. And if that's the case, you can't have Chris LaTang

and Eric Carlson struggling simultaneously because you already have to deal with a Matt Grizzlic who is struggling mightily, a Ryan Graves who you are sheltering so you can hopefully get him back to a better level. And that leaves Marcus Pedersen, who himself has not been fantastic.

And then that leaves Jack St. Ivany on your blue line, who's been fine enough. but what would you say his ceiling is? Fourth defenseman, he's not a top guy. So this is crucial for the penguins to get anywhere. And to that point, like you said, the analytics matched the eye test on Saturday night. He was very decisive with the puck. He was making the right decisions.

He wasn't doing the thing that has been bugging the hell out of me all season long so far with him. He's passing in moments when he needs to pass in shooting. in moments when he needs to shoot, which if you compare the start of his season, it was, okay, he shouldn't have shot there. He should have passed or dumped the puck deep. Or he should have shot there, but he passed the puck or put it deep. He was making the correct decisions with the puck. And the biggest thing for me, for the last few games with Eric Carlson, with everything else aside, it looks like the legs are coming back. That was my below the surface. there is a monster lurking under my bed, whatever metaphor you want to use.

The biggest problem was he did not look like he could move well. And we know that he's had some struggles with ankle surgery and everything like that throughout his career. But very similar to his counterpart in Chris LaTang, if the legs aren't there, everything else falls apart. And you watch his game from early in the season, the legs were not there. But the last couple games, he's been a lot more decisive. he seems like he's got a good first stride, and it looks like the legs are coming back. So if he can get that part figured out, I think the rest is going to fall into place. I hope so.

And speaking of another defenseman on this team, you brought him up while you were discussing Eric Carlson. Ryan Graves, credit where credit is due, I felt he played a pretty fine game against the Canadians. And dare I say, that fight that he had at the end, I think that's the best thing he's done as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins ever since he signed there last off season. The way that he was sticking up for his teammates and everyone knows my take about fighting on this show. I'm definitely not the biggest fan of it at this point in the sport.

I know that's going to ruffle on people's feathers. I understand your gripes. I totally hear the other side of it. But I actually liked that Graves fought there because it was nice seeing him stick up for Achari and stick up for his teammates. And the way that he kicked that dude's ass on ice, It kind of reminded me of the Latang team-in-fight from 2012. Just the way that he was able, he didn't really like put his jersey over his face, basically.

But it was close enough to the point where he almost did. And I really felt like that was a cool moment for him. Because again, you're sticking up for your teammates, you're saying, hey, this is not okay. I'm going to stand up when needed. And you know what? He used his size to his advantage. I've been saying forever, buddy, you are six foot four. you are a big body on the ice.

Use it to your advantage any way you can. He did with that. And honestly, again, I felt like he had outside of the fight a pretty fine game. I still think he's being heavily sheltered. He's getting those third and fourth line minutes. He's doing okay with them. I don't think it warns him being in the top four. Please do not get that twisted people.

I do not want to see him in the top four. I am totally okay with him being on the bottom pairing. But I felt like at least for this game, he was fine. and I like seeing that intensity at the end from him. I did too. And you can have your takes on fighting and physicality and hockey. I certainly do. I think we've moved past the necessity for it as a sport.

But it doesn't matter what I think about that. It's still part of the game. And listen, the way the end of that game was going with Jack I going for the knee to knee hit that he tried to pull in the game getting out of hand at the end, I think Jack St. Ivan, he sparked something in this team that they have been missing for a little bit. They have increasingly become easier to play against. And that doesn't mean that they've got to go out and get a guy like Matt Rempe or Ryan Reeves or something like that. But they're still, whether you like it or not, and God knows I'm not the biggest fan of it, the deterrent is still something that this hockey world believes in. And when you think about the penguins in the Sydney Crosby era, rarely has there been that to turn.

It has been a turn the other cheek kind of team. And it's led to three Stanley Cups. So we can't say it hasn't worked. But there will be teams, both contenders and pretenders that try to take runs at the penguins, whether it's the stars or other players. And if you have a couple guys who are going to say that not on my watch, we're not doing that, it might not stop the dummies from being dummies because that's just how they play the game. But at the very least, it will decrease the chance for them to maybe think about being dummies because Ryan Graves not a small guy.

He is not a little dude. And if he's coming at you with Fiss of Fury, you might think twice because it doesn't feel good. But it's an encouraging sign because they're willing to stand up. And when you're going to play these rebuilding teams, when you're going to play these teams in the mushy middle, there's going to be frustration that boils over, especially if the penguins are winning. So whether we like it or not, this is still part of the game. And I will give credit where it's due overall. That was a great little moment at the end where Ryan Graves said, enough's enough. I'm going after this guy.

But then away from that, he is at the very least performing to a level he needs to perform to. in these sheltered minutes. And I liked his game. I thought he was in position when he needed to be. He made the right reads with pinches. And he made the right reads of when to throw a hit and when to back off. And again, like so many things we've talked about in today's episode, this is all part of the process.

They have, they're, they're showing these little moments that they're taking steps. Now they have to continue to take them. If Ryan Graves continues to play this way and continues to improve in these sheltered minutes. Maybe you give him some looks higher up in the lineup. But at the very least, the process is underway. And so far, it's giving you a little bit of a return where he's starting to look more usable. He kicks shribles butt in that fight. And then you said it about St. I haven't he. I love the spark that he provided at the end of that game too. He even said as well, enough is enough. We're not going to, we're not going to tolerate this. And it was nice

seeing that fire come back in this team. Because you're right. They have been pushed around. it feels like a bit too often these last few years. And I don't want them to go out there and get a goon that really doesn't score or do anything else except fight. But it is nice seeing some of the more bigger and more physical players on this team say, all right, enough's enough. We're going to take matters into our own hands and say, you're not going to push us around like this. But I'll do it for the second segment. Coming up to end the show, we're going to do an early look ahead to this big week of divisional games for the penguins

and also discuss whether the penguins should keep together the Crosby, Malk, and Raquel line, considering now that Crosby is fully back this season. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about our next sponsor, and that is Fandall. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with Fandall. That's America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $150 and bonus bets if you win. The Fandul Sportsbook app gives you everything you need to place live bets in the NFL all in one place.

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All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host Patrick Dam. So, Pat, it's nice that the Penguins can beat these kind of mid-to-flat-out bad teams, right? You've beaten Montreal twice. You've beaten Buffalo. You've beaten Detroit. You've beaten the ducks. Teams that are right with you in the standings to a bit below you in the standings.

Well, it's time to see if this team can beat some teams above their weight class, at least right now. this week you do start with the game against the Islanders who are right around them and the Stamings Islanders have not been good this year. They can't defend. They can't score. I mean, they've been already shut out four times this season. This Islanders team has not been very good.

Sorokin, their starting goaltender has gotten back into peak form. So he's been a penguin killer over these last couple of years. I expect him to probably get the start in this game if I had a guess. But we'll dive into more of that preview for our Tuesday episode. But that's still a game that's very winnable for the Penguins. The Islanders are also really banged up right now. including Matt Barzell. He's out for the next month to a month and a half. That's a pretty big bowl of the Penguins will dodge and not seeing on Tuesday.

But then after that, you have a game against the Hurricanes who already dominated the Penguins in Pittsburgh this year in the game against the surprisingly very good Washington Capitals. I wasn't as high on the Caps heading into this year. I kind of needed to see it before I really bought into it, just considering they had a minus 37 goal differential last year. They weren't really fun to watch. I thought they got by with mostly just really strong goaltending. but their numbers are up this year, their goal differential is up,

they're getting contributions from everyone in their lineup. Alex Ovechkin is off to a really hot start, and it looks like right now that he's going to break the all-time goal scoring record at some point this year. I had a tweet on my Twitter on Sunday saying that it may happen in the final game of the season against the Penguins. It would kind of be fitting if it did, honestly. But there's still some good tests for the Penguins this week.

You won two in a row, you beat teams that are around you in the standings, you show that you're better than at least those two teams, But can you carry that momentum forward in these games against division rivals where you're trying to get your season back on track? The hurricanes totally dominated them. I thought like that was Cindy Crosby's worst game of the year. The Capitals, those games have been pretty back and forth these last several years. You know, the Caps will win one and the Penguins will win one.

It just kind of goes back and forth. The Islanders, you always get ready for a tough fight against them. But Pat, what do you want to see from the Penguins in these division games as they try to, A, get their season back on track and be sure that they can maybe beat some of these teams and punch above their weight level right now. Well, you kind of took it away from me. That's what I want to see them do. They have yet to beat a team that's that has a winning record or was in the playoffs last year. It's, it's great that they're beaten up on these bottom feeders because that's what good teams do. They beat the teams they're supposed to beat. But then you have to start actually beating some teams that are going to be in the playoffs come

the end of this season or at the very least teams that were in the postseason last year. Now, here's something I was thinking about this morning. And again, I know it's early in the season. I know the Penguins have only played 13 games and that the teams around them have played anywhere from 12 to 16. So it's not like we're deep into the season yet. But through these first month of the season, you look at the Eastern Conference standings. In this conference is wide open.

despite the penguin's slow start, they're currently sitting two points out of a wild card spot, and they're five points out of third in the division. So it's not like this has suddenly become insurmountable, and they've had a terrible start to the season that has doomed them. And you look at, except for three teams in the east right now, you look at the Eastern Conference. It's Florida, who's a wagon once again. You've got the Rangers who once again look like one of the best.

best teams in the league. And then you've got the Carolina Hurricanes who are doing their Carolina Hurricanes thing that they do every single season. But outside of that, and you can say I'm excluding the Capitals and I am and I'll tell you why. I don't know how long this run is going to last for them. And you can say I don't believe in it. But the thing is, in the ebbs and flows of a season, when you have a team built like

the Capitals, what they're doing, I don't see sustaining over 82 games. they're doing a good job defensively and suppressing shots, but neither of their goaltenders have over a 900 save percentage. So eventually something has to give. Either their goaltenders have to step up and start making some saves, or they're going to have to figure out a way to stop scoring goals to prevent goals because they're not getting the saves they need. Now, I could be completely wrong.

This could work and they could ride it out and they could win, but I look at the way they're playing early, and I'm like eventually something's got to change here because the team's going to figure it out. The league's going to catch up to it and it could spell trouble for them. Then you just look at everybody else in the east and it's like this is wide open. So this week I want to see them be able to beat some of these teams. Islanders are one of those teams right around them. Carolina, you got punched in the mouth last time that you played them.

So I want to see some pride and have them pull themselves up off the mat and show that they can hang with them. And then Penguins Capitals, I don't care what the record is. This is still the rivalry. This is a game you get up for. This is a game that you want to play in. And it's a game where you don't worry about the records. You don't worry about the standings. You go into that thinking, this is a rivalry game.

And I want to show this team that we are still better than them. So this week, at the very least, I want to see a two and one record. I want to see them get out of this week with two wins and a loss. I don't expect them to sweep all three, especially because Carolina to D.C. in a back-to-back situation is going to be extremely difficult. So I can see them dropping one of those two. They cannot go winless this week. They absolutely cannot because they are still in a position where they can keep themselves competitive in the Eastern Conference wildcard race. So this has to be a week where it begins because then when you look at their schedule, you go after this week,

they basically are at home for two straight weeks. Next week they have Dallas and Detroit at home, and then they go to Columbus, not a far trip. They're back home against San Jose, and then the week after that, they have Tampa at home, Winnipeg at home, Utah at home, and then to close out the month, they've got Vancouver at home,

then they go to Boston, and then Calgary comes to town. So for the next three weeks after this one, they barely go on the road. So if you can make some hay this week, you're in a good position to start climbing up the standings. And that's where the schedule balances out, right? You had a lot more road games in the month of October,

especially the Western Canada trip. Now you're getting those home games. You're right, Pat. I mean, they have a five-game homestand in this month coming up. Again, Detroit, excuse me, not Detroit. You have San Jose, Tampa, Winnipeg, Utah, Vancouver. Then you have the game against Boston right after Thanksgiving. and then you have the Calgary game.

And then actually you have Florida to start December. So really, they have a stretch where seven of eight games are at PBG-P and Savannah. I did not mean to say Detroit. That's coming up before the five-game homestand. But you have a really big opportunity to really bank some points, especially with the way they're continuing to improve their play at home, at least, throughout the season so far. You've got to win this game against the Islanders.

No ifs, ands, or buts. If you can split the two against Carolina and Washington, I'll be totally fine with that. You know, 2-0-1 would be fine. Two-in-one would also be fine. If you don't now sweep this week, that's the dream right there. But if you can go 2-1, I think that's totally good heading into the next week of games for the Penguins.

But also, just to end the show here, the Crosby-Malk and Raquel line, been by far their best line throughout this past week. Crosby's gotten going. I ask you this to end the show, real quick. do you keep that line going now that Crosby's back? Or do you split Malkin up, have them get his own wingers, and have Crosby get his own wingers again?

Right now for me, I'm kind of in the phase where I ride it out until it maybe just fizzles out and then you can separate it again. But I also would not be surprised if they did decide to separate Malkin again now that Crosby's back to producing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. There's no need to break this up. I know people want more depth, but listen, this is working right now.

There's no reason to play with it. Let them keep producing. And like you said, if it fizzles out, then figure out what the next move is. But for right now, you've won two straight. Yeah, it's against Montreal and Anaheim, but you've won two straight. Crosby seems to be out of his funk. Just keep riding the hot hand until it cools off. No, I hear you.

And with that said, I expect probably Alex Nadelcovich to get the start against the islanders on the island on Tuesday, considering how Nadelcovich has played. in his last couple of starts. He's made some really good saves. Shout out to Ned for the last two wins. He's been great in Net. Even though I do want to see more of Y'all Blumquist, I understand them wanting to go back to Ned

because he has played really well in his last two starts. But I think that I'll do it for today's episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with another show for you all on Tuesday to get you all set for Penguins Islanders and then we kept back in for you all on Wednesday and then get you all set later this week for Penguins Hurricanes and Penguins Capitals.

So for Patrick Damp, I am Hunts for Hodes. Thank you all so much for tuning in and putting up with my very annoying voice. And we'll talk with you all on Tuesday.