Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins mid-season check-in with Josh Yohe!

Episode Date: January 10, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins are nearing the halfway mark of the 2023-24 season and that means it's a great time to bring Josh Yohe back to the show. Hunter and Pat get Josh's thoughts on the team as we reach that 41-game mark and if he thinks they can make the playoffs at the end of the season. He gives his thoughts on the depth players, how they've stepped up as of late before getting into the blue line, and what he thinks about that overall. After that, they do an early preview for the NHL Trade Deadline and what Kyle Dubas could look at if this team continues to roll. Finally, they give their selections for Warrior Helmet Wednesday and reminisce on Michel Therrien's rant 18 years later.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Jase MedicalEmpower yourself when you purchase a Jase Case, providing a personal supply of 5 antibiotics that treat 50+ infections. Get yours today at jasemedical.com and use code LOCKEDON to get $20 off your order. 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.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelRight now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED when you place a FIVE DOLLAR BET.  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.

We're back with Josh Yohey on this edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. We're going to do our little mid-season check-in 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. Welcome back, Penguins fans, to the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Patrick Damp, joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodies. and today we welcome Josh Yohe back to the show for a midseason check-in.

We thank you for making this your first listen slash watch of the day because we're your team every day. You can find us for free on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. Make every moment more right now new customers get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place a $5 bet. Visit fandle.com slash locked on to get started. So as I said, Josh Yohey is back here on the Locked on Penguins podcast. And we had them on just as training camp was wrapping up, and we talked about the outlook for this season. So we're going to do a little bit of mid-season check-in here to see where the penguins are.

So Josh, welcome back as always. And let's just give you the floor. What are you seeing from this penguins team so far this year? Well, before we get into that, I just needed to say, I'm coming to you live from the seventh floor of the parking garage at Rivers Casino. But I am not that much of a gambling derelict that I have to be at the casino. know at all times. I have a radio show to host later in case anybody was wondering. Not that I'm against

playing a wager every now and then. That certainly is not the case. But anyway, back to the hockey team. We're I think two games away from the unofficial halfway mark, game 41 for the Penguins. And you know, it's been a roller coaster, but I really like how they're playing right

now. The fact is, they're 9-3 and one in their last 13 games. And I just think there's a lot of positives right now. That came in Philadelphia the other night, just the energy level from playing against a young team. They didn't have old legs against the flyers, and they really carried the play and controlled the tempo throughout. You can see them getting better

as the season goes on. There are certainly still flaws, and we know what they are, and I'm sure we'll get into that. But if you ask me right now, do I think they're a flyoff team? I kind of think they are. And we know certain people need to stay healthy. I don't need to remind people of that. But if the big guys can stay healthy, I feel like the Eastern Conference is incredibly deep, but also incredibly mediocre. And they're still on pace for close to 100 points. And if they keep playing like they are, I really do think they're going to get in. Right. And in my opinion, Josh, they really only played one bad period. I feel like over the last couple weeks, it was that game against Washington last week where they just didn't have it at all

that first grade. And the fact that they almost won that game speaks volumes because I think if they showed up in that first period, they probably would have blown that team out because I don't like the capitals or any good. One thing we've been talking about a lot on the show lately is the depth really starting to step up as well. It was really slow to start the year. There were some sparks at times,

but Pat and I were still like, okay, when is this team going to get depth scoring? And recently you've seen guys like Chavre Riedel get on the score sheet. Lars Ellers been playing a bit better. You've had, Dalsray Pustin really shows something since coming, coming up, excuse me, from Wilkesbury, Drew O'Connor has very much earned a promotion to of getting Malkins line. What do you think about the depth really stepping up as of late,

just because this was a big weakness I thought for the penguins heading into the season. I sold it they could use maybe another forward at the deadline. We'll get into that a little later on this episode. But what do you think about the depth lately that's been able to step up? Yeah, I mean, it's still probably as a concern looking at the big picture. Right. But those people you mentioned, I have to start with Drew O'Connor. I feel like the light ball just flipped for him a couple of weeks ago. He looks like a different guy.

He only had the one point in Philadelphia, but I thought he was one of the best players on the ice. He had that great game in Boston last week. And the first period in Boston, the goal, the assist, could have had a couple of other goals. He was so good. I really think Drew is coming into his own, and it's about time. It's taken him a couple of years, I think,

to figure out life at the NHL level, but I really like what I'm seeing from him. You know how it is. You need some young legs to win Stanley Cups at some point, and the penguins haven't had any for years. I think he qualifies as somebody who is really coming into his own. I don't think he's going to be a future star, but I think he can be a second or third liner for a long time.

He's big, he's fast, he does a lot of the things the penguins need. So that's helpful. We are seeing more depth scoring, and, you know, I know I'm going to irritate some people by doing this, But that's okay. I got to mention Jeff Carter. He's playing pretty well. He's got five goals in his last 18 games.

He's being implemented in a different role this season. He's not a 3C anymore. And Mike Sullivan, I think, was very stubborn in the way he used him last season. It didn't work out. He's okay in this role. He really is. He and Achari, you can put them on the ice at the end of games when you're protecting a one goal lead. They're going to help you.

They're providing a little bit of offense. I don't know that Harkins is really the answer on the left wing of that line, but I have to give those two a lot of credit. Carter's been much better lately, Achari, and the last month's been pretty good. And just look at the penguins, too, down the middle. You know what you have in Sid and Gino, but Eller and Achari aren't guys who are going to score a ton,

but they're both so good defensively. That's something the penguins have been lacking for a while, some forwards who can actually be good on the PK and good in certain areas like that. So the depth is, I still think Kyle needs to make a move before the deadline to help the bottom six. And I suspect he will so long as they're continuing this kind of play. But they're playing a lot better than they were two months ago. There's no doubt about that.

Well, I'm glad you brought up Carter because Hunter knows that validates every take I've had on this podcast about saying Jeff Carter's going to be better this year. So thank you for that one. But you did talk a little bit about how for as much better as this team has played over the past two months or so, there still are some weaknesses. And one of those is without a doubt the defense, especially one Ryan Graves and more or less just the bottom pairing. So in your estimation, is there some kind of an explanation for that? Because at first, I kind of likened it to the first year of Paul Martin when it came to Ryan Graves, where he was kind of unable to get to the system right away. He didn't really have a ton of comfortability in the penguin system.

And then from his second year till his last year as a penguin, he was smooth sailing one of the better defensive defensemen. But it's kind of not looking like that's the case with Ryan Graves. What are you seeing from him that makes this a struggle? I know for us, one of it has been he's a big guy, but he doesn't play like a big guy. Oh, there's no question about that. You know what's funny?

I actually think he's been a little better since he was moved to the third pair with Ruehiel. My big concern with Graves, and listen, his one-on-one defending has been very poor. His lack of physicality is unbelievable for a guy that size. It actually makes you want to pull your hair out. He's made one mistake after another. My biggest concern long-term with Graves and the Penguins,

Latang and Carlson aren't always easy to play with for certain defensemen. They're just very unique players. And it could be that he just doesn't have a clue how to play with those two. And Latang and Carlson aren't going anywhere for the next couple of years. Okay, they're the two guys on the right side.

If he can't play with either of them, it's just an enormous problem that the penguins are looking at because you don't want a third-parring defenseman making four and a half million, whatever it is the Ryan Graves makes for the next five years. He has been wildly disappointing. I find the blue line in general kind of interesting for the penguins.

I think Carlson has been okay. I don't know that he's been quite as good as I know the analytics say he's been wonderful. He's had a lot of games where he's not been good, where he's really bad decision making. But he's been okay. I think Lattang's been great. I think Pedersen's been really great. But then you have some other guys, P.O. Joseph hasn't been bad,

but do we know who he is? I don't know. I still don't know what the guy is. is or what his future with the Penguins is. John Ludwig is an interesting guy. I kind of like his game, but again, we're still not sure. So there's just a lot of question marks there.

And Graves is the biggest of all. They need him to be so much better than he's been, and he has just been hapless on most nights. It's a huge problem. I like a lot of the moves Kyle made in the summer. I didn't have a problem with the Graves move, quite frankly,

but he's been wildly disappointing. Right. Yeah, I didn't have a problem with it at the time either. I thought he was going to be a fine replacement for Brian Dumlin. It just hasn't gone that way so far. But Josh, one more thing before we head to break. This part at least has been a strength of the Penguins this year. Goaltending. I don't think anyone saw this team having a top five ball situation, say percentage this season at the halfway point of this season. If you thought that the Penguins are going to have that, I probably would ask what your lottery luck is, to be honest. But both Tristan Jari and Alex, Sidelkovich have been fantastic this season. What is your view on that situation just because this doesn't seem like it's a number one, number two, and very much seems like it's a 1A, 1B thing? Pat and I discussed this on our show on Tuesday. Do you view this as a goaly controversy or anything like that, or is it just great that

both of these guys are playing at a very high level? And it's great that they have two options that they can go to whenever they want. Yeah, I'm going to be a glass half full guy on this one. I think it's a good situation. I agree. And yeah, I think Nadelcovic has been better than Jari, quite honestly. And I don't think Jari's been bad. I think Jari's had about five games where he's been bad.

And there are still those inconsistent stretches. I can tell you, Jari's been good this season, right? But I think if you watch the Penguins enough, you realize that he just has these mental lapses of some games. Like that Washington game, it wasn't even the three goals he allowed. If you watch other things in that game, the way he was fumbling the puck, is how unsure of himself.

You could see, like, his head just wasn't there in that game. And the coaches are aware of that, and frankly, they're a little annoyed by it. He's almost 29 years old, I think. Like, it's time that doesn't keep happening with him. So could Ned get the majority of the playing time

in the second half if he keeps playing the way he is? It's not impossible. It's really not. I think this guy's really talented. He has been so good. I mean, really almost every. The only game Ned really didn't play well is probably the Boston game, and they still won that game.

I think he's legit. You can call it a controversy, I guess. I call it a good thing to have. I'm going to go Yinser for a second and make a Steeler comparison. I don't give the Steelers' coaches credit for much at all, but they've handled the running backs perfectly, right? Zagie Harris, Jalen Warren, I think they've been great. Both of them down the stretch.

They've handled both of them, giving them both a certain amount of playing time. It kind of reminds me of that. Whoever's got the hot hand, you go with it. And there's nothing wrong with that. I'd rather have two good goalies and no good goalies. And I'd rather have two than one. And that's what the penguins have right now. So I think they will give Jari the opportunity to, you know,

claim most of the playing time. But if he's not going to claim it and if he's going to get outplayed by Ned, you're going to see Ned play and that's okay. Pittsburgh, a goalie factory, like everybody said and predicted before the season. But that's going to do it for this segment. When we come back, we're going to take a look ahead a little bit as Josh referred to. when Kyle Davis made his little bit of a challenge about the All-Star break. We're going to talk a little trade deadline, but we're going to go to a break,

and we'll be right back after this. Before we get back to our chat with the one and only Josh Yohe, we have to tell you about Fandul. The NFL regular season is wrapping up, but there's still time to get in on the action with Fandul, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place a $5 bet. That's $150 in bonus bets, win or lose. The app is so easy to use, and there are so many different ways to bet like live same game parlays,

find bets in the new Explorer tab, make a parlay in the parlay hub the best way to find popular parlays, and more. So visit fandul.com slash locked on and make your first bet a layup, Fandul, the official partner of the NFL. We're back here on this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of the host Patrick Damp, joined as always, by one of the best co-hosts in the business, Hunter Hodes, and Josh Yohey is here for our mid-season. check in and we're getting about that to about that time where if you're a high schooler or a college student, you're going to skip class because TSN's going to have trade deadline day.

And we're going to all sit here refreshing Twitter or X or whatever you're calling it these days to see who's breaking news about who's going where and what rumblings and discussions are going between teams. So we kind of talked about where this team is so far this season. Kyle Dubis kind of issued his challenge saying he's going to evaluate this team up until the All-Star break to decide what direction to go. By all accounts, this team has completely answered the bell and shown that they want to go on a playoff run.

So what do you, Josh, think if you had to almost, I don't want to say rank it because I don't want to go full cliche sports talk radio on give me your power rankings, but what do you see is this team's most pressing need that Kyle Dubas realistically could go out and get? first of all i have to tell a really quick story on uh skipping school trade deadline whatever when i was 12 years old in a sixth grader at peters township middle school in 1992 the special guest speaker at our school on trade deadline day was assistant coach pierre mcguire

i swear to god and it was pierre mcgwere that broke the news to 12 year old josh that the penguins traded paul coffee and mark rec he for rick tockett i swear to god oh i was a different time in the early 90s clearly um you're like don't we just got a lot tougher kids like he was actually i'm sure he said rick was from scarborough ontario i have no doubt but anyway uh probably called him richard i'm sure he did to get back to the question um you know it's easy to look at the blue line because there are question marks there um but i still i keep going back to the bottom six forwards i love them down the middle i think a bottom six winger would go a long way with this team i don't think Harkins is going to stick.

Pustinen is an interesting player, but again, I'm not convinced that he's going to be in the lineup, game more of the playoffs. Maybe. But he still has, I think, a lot more to prove. With Eller and Achari down the middle, that's pretty good. But I just

think they could use one more really impactful bottom six player. And I realize there aren't always guys like Brandon Tannup available at the deadline, but I think is somebody like Camus can just add to the team speed a little bit and make them a little tougher to play against, somebody who can provide some reliable offense in that bottom six.

I don't need to tell you guys that if you want to make a playoff run, you better have guys in the bottom six who can score. And the Penguins probably don't have enough of that right now. So that's still the first area that I would think for them to go to. Hope on the blue line, I mean, you can say that annually. You always would like that. But I really think they need a bottom six winger. and you probably don't have to give up as much to get somebody in that spot as you do a defenseman.

I've been saying I feel like for a while, if they can actually go out and get maybe another center and maybe move Eller down, I feel like that would make their center depth even better. In my opinion, you can maybe move Atari to wing on one of those lines, probably the fourth line or something like that. That just makes your lineup even deeper, and you can also have a center that can maybe bring a little more offense compared to Elr and Ocari, who, again, Eller has been a big surprise this year, at least for me, and then Achari has been playing at least a little bit better, but I agree with you. I would like to see them at another bottom six forward in some capacity. Do you still think that they might add another defenseman at the deadline?

Because, you know, they're having this musical chairs here, right? P.O. Joseph, Ryan Shea, Chad, Chabrewoodle. It feels like no one is really taken charge of those jobs on the bottom hearing. Obviously, John Ludwig, I'll throw in there as well. He's played decently well. I feel like at this point the season, but at times I feel like I'm not noticing him as much when he's maybe not being physical, I feel like.

But do you think that Dubus maybe addresses that as well at some point? It's certainly conceivable, Hunter. The fact is the penguins have three defensemen who are capable of playing top four minutes right now. Brian Graves just, sorry, he's not that guy. So do you want to enter the playoffs? with P.O. Joseph in your top four? Probably not.

And Joseph is an interesting guy. It's not like he can't play, right? But he certainly has certain weaknesses. He's never really put it all together. If there is a team out there that's probably a non-playoff team that maybe has a veteran defenseman to trade who would like to bring in a young guy as part of a deal, might it make sense that Joseph would be a, you know,

a trade ship that Kyle Dubas can use to bring in a more veteran guy to play? with an Eric Carlson, that that could be, because the fact is, the penguins are designed for Latang and Carlson to be on the ice, one of those two 80% of the time, which makes sense because they're both going to be in the Hall of Fame. If you only have one pairing that you're comfortable with, however, Marcus Pedersen's great. He can't play with both of them at the same time. They need somebody to play with Carlson and or Latang.

That's just the way it is. So, yes, I think that would be on Kyle's wish list for sure. It might be more of a summer thing. It might be a lot easier to do something like that in the summer. But if the penguins are going to be viable contenders this spring, yeah, it would certainly go a long way to add somebody, not just a defenseman, but a legitimate top four defenseman. Because right now, unless Graves suddenly starts playing well,

they just don't have anyone on their roster that makes sense in that role. I don't want to put you too much on the spot, Josh, but I do have to ask a question like this just because I haven't really thought of any yet. And you're way more plugged in than I am. Do you have if there is one guy that you can think of, bottom six forward or winger that you bring up, who would be on your wish list for this team to go get realistically? You know, obviously if Jim Rutherford decided to wheel and deal tomorrow. and say, here's Brock Besser. Of course we would take them.

But like, is there anybody in particular that you might have your eye on? Because like you said, the Eastern conference is deep, but like nobody wants to really take charge except for Boston and the Rangers. So everybody's still kind of in the race. I love what you brought up in there, by the way, even though the Canucks are so good, Pat. I mean, it stemmed from a conversation I had with somebody who was like, did you hear that they might, that the Canucks might be interested in Gensel? And I was like, yeah, and if you're Dubus, you say,

you give me better or we don't have this conversation. That's right. You know, I don't have any names off the top of my head. I'm not doing that to dodge the question. I just haven't really even thought about the deadline that much. But I know what style player I would like them to get. I can tell you, like for years, Jim Rutherford always inquired with New Jersey about Miles Wood. He always wanted him in the bottom six and he's doing great in Colorado now.

So I don't think he'll be available. But a guy like that, a guy like that. a guy like a TAN of just a, you know, a disturber who can still score you at 15, 20 goals. And again, those guys aren't easy to find. But someone like that, I think, would be perfect for this team. I hate to use hockey cliches, but I do think they're very easy to play against at times. And I'm not talking about getting Ryan Reeves. I'm just talking about somebody who plays the game in an abrasive way.

So I don't have any names off the top of my head. But if you want to play the game, it's very simple. You go find the teams that are out of a playoff spot and scour their roster and find some good bottom six guys. I mean, that's usually the way it works. And that's probably the way it will work. It's also probably going to be a tough market for the buyers because everyone in the East is going to think they can make the playoffs. And for good reason, there's going to be about 12 teams going for eight spots. So it certainly strikes me as a seller's market, which is not a good thing for the penguins given the limited resources they have to deal.

No, the deadline's going to be really tough. So we'll see. I agree with you. I think that's who they need to get somebody in the bottom six that brings that kind of snarl and sandpaper. But that's going to do it for this segment. When we come back, what do you know? It's a Wednesday. And Josh is going to join us for Warrior Helmet Wednesday where we name our MVP of the past week.

We'll be right back with that segment right after this. We'll get you back to our conversation with the one and only Josh Yohei right after this. But first, we have to tell you about our next sponsor, and that is Jace Medical. I know we come to sports to escape from some of the crazy realities of real life, but can we talk just for a minute about preparing for real life? According to the FDA, pharmacies are running out of antibiotics like amoxicillin, right in the middle of the worst flu season in over a decade, and that is scary. I can't imagine a more helpless feeling that if my significant other got sick while I supply,

chain issue, kept them from the life-saving medication they needed. Thankfully, we'll be okay because of Jace Medical. The Jace case is a pack of five different antibiotics to treat a long list of bacterial illnesses, including UTIs, respiratory infections, sinusitis, skin infections, among others. This stuff could happen to any of us. Visit jacemedical.com and complete your physician encounter. It will be reviewed by a board certified physician and your medications will be dispensed by a licensed pharmacy at a fraction of the regular cost.

It's never been more important to be prepared than it is today. Go to jacemedical.com and use offer code locked on to get $20 off of your order. Welcome back, Penguins fans, to the Wednesday edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host Patrick Damp, joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. And of course, our good pal Josh Yohe is here. And like I said, it's Wednesday. So it's time for us to crown our MVP of the podcast. past week, our warrior helmet Wednesday, where we give out our warrior helmet to the guy we think

had the best week in Penguins land. So Hunter, I'm going to throw it to you since you usually have a pretty good Warrior Helmet Wednesday nominee. So who do you got for us this week? Well, it's not from the top six, and it's not a goalie this time either. Drew Connor gets my warrior helmet for this week. Three points in the last week overall. He has been tremendous to watch over the last couple of weeks. I honestly thought his good play started against the Senators. When they came back to steal a point in that game, he scored one of the goals early on in the third period to really start bringing the Penguins back in that game

when the Penguins absolutely blitz the Senators in that third period before losing an overtime. Ever since that point, he has looked like a completely different player. Honestly, he's looked like the player that we saw in training camp in the preseason. And it's been awesome to see. He very much earned a promotion to have getting him all. line. Riley Smith also not playing that well, earned his demotion down to the third line. But O'Connor is getting chance after chance on a nightly basis at this point against the

Flyers. He dusted one of their defensemen, comes on a breakaway by himself, gets not one but two chances on Carter Hart. Could have had both goals there, to be honest. Hart just made two really nice saves. Almost had a goal against the Sabers over the weekend. Cindy Crosby was obviously off-sides. That would have been a heck of a goal from O'Connor after a really nice pass from Crosby. you have the crazy game that he played against Boston where he missed on 2-10 but assisted on Elers goal but then had a goal for himself. He has been on another planet these last couple weeks

and especially this last week, very easy choice for me to give him my warrior helmet. And I hope he keeps playing like this because the Penguins, they don't have a lot of young talent like this in their system right now. And the fact that at least one is playing at this level is a big deal considering how old that this team. is obviously. It's been a coin flip for me, so that was one of the ones I was going to go with.

So I'm curious to see if Josh has the other one for me. So Josh, who has been your MVP the last week? Well, I guess it's always easy to say Sidney Crosby every week, but I'm going to think outside the box. I think the penguins are a much different team when Ricard Raquel at scoring goals. And he is really starting to look like Ricard Raquel again. And I can tell you guys just from being around this team every day, he was literally like sitting in the locker room with his head down after most practices.

Like he was really taking it hard. And he told me at one point in November, he said, I don't know what's going on. He said, I literally have never worked harder in my life that I did this summer. I really wanted to have a big season and I would put in the work. And, you know, he would just like throw his arms up in the air. Like, I don't know what to do. But all of a sudden, the goals are starting to come now. And that gives the penguins so much flexibility.

He can keep him with Sid, which is what I would do, let Russ kind of get his legs back, and I think he's good with Gino. And Raquel now on the power plate, and he's going to help that unit the way the guy can shoot the puck. I can pick a lot of different people. It's been a pretty good stretch for the peg ones, but I want to give him a nod.

I think they're a better team and a different team when he's scoring. Yeah, that's a great pick, and we're going to have three different ones here, because I got to go with Gino. I think he is starting, like, similar to what you said about Rick. Josh. Gino's starting to look like Gino again and he had himself a big week. He was an absolute force against the Flyers. And that's usually what we expect from Crosby, not Gino. We expect to see

the bad Gino against Philly where he tries to play Broad Street bully hockey and not penguin hockey. But earlier this week, he was like, you know what? I'm going to take some of the burden off of Cid. I'm going to be the best player on the ice and I'm going to torture these these poor fans wearing orange. So got to give it to Gino. He is starting to heat up. as well, and that is only good news for this Penguins team. So Hunter, I know there is one last thing that we want to bring up with Josh. So I will give you the floor for this one because I know it's going to be great. Yeah. So Josh, you know it's been 18 years since Michelle Tarion had his epic rant post game in 2006. I was only eight of the time. I still remember it decently,

vividly, especially when my mom kept watching it on a repeat when I was in elementary school. But I wanted to ask you, what do you remember from that moment? Because that rant will never get old, to say the least. It was an incredible week in Pittsburgh sports. Four days later, Ben Rathlisberger made the tackle after Bettis' fumble in Indianapolis and the Steelers Super Bowl 40 run. What a time that was. I've talked with Mike Taring about that rant in subsequent years.

years. He's really mellowed over the years, but I said, like, this was like maybe six or seven years ago. I said, Mike, that rant was unbelievable you went on. He looked at me and he said, well, we were soft. What do you want me to say? Like, he was, he was very defensive than anybody would have a problem with the rant. And they did start playing better after that. I don't know if that's why. But he was the coach they needed at that time. He really was. He wasn't pleasant to play for, but he knew how to get the most out of young teams. And that rant, I was not there and I wasn't covering the team yet during that ramp. But oh my God,

I wish I would have been that. I still watch it on YouTube quite often. Oh, it's so good. It's, and you know there had to be a part of that that was calculated where he was like, you know what, I'm going to go do this and it's going to wake this team up. So God,

just an absolute, like you can say to any Penguins fan, they soft and they know exactly what you're talking about. Are you happy about playing eight minutes? I'm not going to be happy about playing. like eight minutes. I'll just never get tired of him saying that. I know a penguin's employee right before that ramp, Tarian looked over and he said,

watch this before he watched that. So it was completely planned. 100%. Like he knew exactly. He did that a lot. Like there were days he wouldn't even talk with the media just to send a message to his players, or he would say God knows what to the media to send a message. Oh, Mike was completely calculating. but certainly a great moment in Penguins history, one that's always worth a lot.

It was incredible. But Josh, thanks as always, man, for hanging out with us. We know you've got to go do your radio show, so we appreciate you taking the time. For Hunter Hodes and Josh Yohey, thank you for tuning into this edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. Hunter and I will be back tomorrow morning with a preview of the Vancouver game. So thank you, as always.

We will be back tomorrow.