Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins NO SHOW in the first of two games in Sweden

Episode Date: November 14, 2025

The Penguins' trip to Sweden did not get off to a good start, somehow getting a point, but it was an unacceptable effort. Patrick and Hunter begin the show recapping the Friday afternoon game against the Nashville Predators. They talk about the 2-1 overtime loss, and how the Penguins were lucky to even get a point, as the team did not look ready to play, and paid for it. They touch on how Arturs Silovs put forth maybe the only good effort of anyone wearing a Penguins sweater. (0:00) The good news, however, is the Penguins will get a second crack at the Predators on Sunday. They discuss what the Penguins need to do to get themselves back on track and respond to Friday's awful loss. (12:45) Finally, forward David Kampf has been released by the Toronto Maple Leafs, and being that he's a Kyle Dubas guy, should the Penguins take a flier on the bottom-six forward? (24:35) Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!DripDropRight now, DripDrop is offering podcast listeners 20% off your first order.Go to https://dripdrop.com and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL. IndeedNow, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to https://indeed.com/lockedonright now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply.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.MonarchTake control of your finances with Monarch. Use code LOCKEDONNHL at https://monarch.com/lockedonnhl for 50% off your first year.FanDuelDownload the FanDuel app now by visiting FanDuel.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins.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 Pittsburgh Penguins allegedly played a game in Sweden this afternoon, two to one losers in overtime. Hunter and I are going to recap that game and get you ready for Sunday's morning game 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 in to the Friday. edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me across

all social media platforms at Synonym 4Wet, joined as always by the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's Twitter account a follow at LO underscore Penguins. And you can find us on other social media platforms such as Instagram at Locked on underscore Penguins and TikTok at Locked on Penguins. Hunter, this one was tough. You guys know our whole intro. We're on YouTube. Subscribe to us there.

Hit the notification button, but we can't wait any longer. We got to talk about this game. Penguins, two to one losers to the Nashville Predators in overtime in the first of two games in Sweden. And there's a lot to unpack here. And there is so much negative that I'm going to actually push that negative to the side for a quick second. And I'm going to start with the one and only positive from this game. And it was goaltender Artur Shilovs. If it was not for Shilovs, they don't get a point.

They don't get to overtime. Hell, they probably get their doors blown off by the Nashville Predators. Because for two periods, the Penguins decided that this was a Swedish vacation and not a business trip. So I know that you're pretty hot after this game, Hunter. So the field is yours. I am taking the leash off. Go run. I agree with you on Archer Shilovs.

He was tremendous. He was the only reason why the penguins were in that game. He was about to get a shutout before Sidney Crosby decided to literally gift Philip Forsberg that goal. I still think Ryan Shea could have been a little bit better there. I think if he didn't slide over to the other side and kind of stood in his position, I think he would have been a little bit of a better spot to not have Sid make that mistake or kind of clean up after Sid's mistake, if you will.

But Sid can't make that play. I will actually. I'm sorry. I'm going to put the leash back on here real quick. Sorry, I know you want to run in the field on this one. But I can't give Crosby too much crap for that. It was a clean face off win. Yeah, he should probably not win it that direction.

But as you said, the rest of the players on the ice, where they lined up was very curious. And maybe if you want to put that on Sid, I would say he's got a command. the other four players better to say, hey, I'm going to try to win the draw here, so be ready. But at the end of the day, you expect with a clean faceoff win that it's not going to end up being a threat and it turned out to be the exact opposite. Yeah, I mean, I'll never blame him for winning a face off.

He won the face off nicely. It was just the play after where he sent it back into no man's land and Philip Forbesberg was right there. Again, if Ryan Shea had kind of drifted the other direction, I think he would have been in a better spot to clean up after Sid's mistake. That's why I'm kind of blaming a little bit on Shea just because I think his positioning there wasn't the best. I haven't really cropped on Ryan Shea for a lot of this year, by the way, he's been awesome outside of the first few games. But for Sid, I just think he also has to be better there off of that draw. You just can't

make that pass. And I don't really know if he communicated that during the TV timeout and all that. Again, I just think the Penguins, especially Sid has to be better there. But When you look at this game as a whole pat, you had five days off coming into a game against one of the worst teams in the league. And that's the effort you put out? Come on, man. That's not good enough. I didn't see a lot of big effort from really anyone else on the ice outside of Archer

She Loves. And you know what? I'm going to shout out of getting Malkin as well. I thought Malkin was tremendous in this game. He was all over the ice. He had a couple of really great A chances in the first couple of periods that you see Soros stopped. And by the way, Soros was really aggressive in this one.

Coming out of the blue paint, he was challenging shooters nonstop, even more than I normally see. He was great. And again, I really do think of Yanny Malkin played a great game. I'll also even shout out Parker Wildress. I thought defensively, he was really sound. Outside of those three guys, I don't really think, honestly, anyone else played a really good game. So that can't be the effort you put up after five days rest against one of the worst teams in the league. You said it bad.

It looked like they were just out for a vacation out of the country and not there to get two points. I was about to line up a tweet if they were to survive, excuse me, that final minute, 10 seconds saying like, hey, this was a classic survive and advanced game. You take the two points. You throw this game in the dumpster. But you know what? They didn't deserve the two points. They didn't. They played like crap for this entire game.

And that's concerning to me against a team that looked like they had quit on their head coach on Monday in New York. You can't have an effort like that. I don't care who you're playing against. For sure. And I do want to say that I didn't hate the way they played in the first period. I thought it was a pretty classic kind of, hey, we're playing a game in a weird environment. We're on a different continent. And that goes for both teams.

It was a very feel each other out kind of period, not a ton of back and forth, not a ton of great A chances. It was very much a let's get our legs under us. for the first 20 kind of period for both teams. The difference became the second period when Nashville just completely took over and took the game to the Penguins from the opening puck drop. And you can you can give them a little bit of room for that because they started the second period shorthanded and the Penguins did a okay enough job killing it off.

But then there was no pushback after that. It was just kind of playing timid, playing in a shell, to use some cliche coach speak, they were on their back foot for the entirety of the second period. And you could see that, but Arter Shilovs was absolutely fantastic, as we have said. And then of Gennie Malkin, and this kind of sums up the game, because when you look at the box score, the penguins were outshot 30 to 17. and Evgeny Malkin on one of the penguins two second period shots scores by banking the puck off of Soros's head.

And that was just kind of the game as a microcosm. The penguins got sort of a kind of a look, got lucky, took the lead. But at the end of the day, there's really not more for me to say on this because the effort just wasn't there. I hate being the podcaster who sits here in his little dinky room with his Amazon, Mike, in questions a team's effort. But I got to believe what my eyes show me. And they just didn't have the effort today.

I agree. And I wanted a response after what we saw to end last week. And you had five days off and this is what you come up with. It's just to me that that type of effort's unacceptable. I don't want to be seeing an effort like that in a game where when you have all that time off, that's what you're, that's the product you're putting. putting out there on the ice. The Preders had 15 high danger chances at five on five.

For a team that has been really struggling to score, that's also inexcusable. You can't be giving that up. They had in terms of expected goals, they had basically three expected goals, 2.97, but I'm going to round up to three there. Compared to the Penguins, Pat, which was 1.71. They got what they deserved.

They weren't playing well in their own zone. Nashville was taking it to him for most of this game. And, hey, if you want to say that about the first period, I hear it, I get it, I disagree. a little bit like at the beginning of the first i would say okay the penguins were carrying the play a little bit more after that and then for the rest of the game it was all national to me so i got to see a pretty big response on sunday we're going to get to that in a second but i wanted to see the response today and we didn't get it so i don't know just frustrated with the way they

played you and me both the one thing i will add to in because we're just putting everything on the pile here from this game oh for two on the power play when you see that on the score sheet you kind of shrug at it you get two attempts sometimes especially when you play a team like nashville that has a tremendous goalie like they do you can understand going over two on the power play the problem was this was not the penguin's power play that we have seen up to this point the puck movement was not very good the player movement was not as good they weren't getting looks and i'll end on this note and this is going to sound like such a cliche cop out after a loss when you get 17 shots, they passed up so many chances to

shoot today. And don't get me wrong, I understand when you play a goalie like Soros, you have to get him moving. You have to try to get him side to side off of angles. I totally understand that, but it has to be coupled with a willingness to shoot because not only do you have to get him moving. You have to make him work. You have to make his workload almost unbearable. Yes, you want to get him moving side to side. You want to get him off angles. You want to try to find that opening. But it has to be, again, coupled with you put up 25, 30, 35 shots to the point where by the end of the game, he is absolutely exhausted. And while the penguins did not have a great effort today. The thing I will say is watching that game today, they had plenty of opportunities to put

the puck to the net. Granted, they weren't in the offensive zone as much as we would like. They didn't possess the puck as much as we would like. But there were several moments where they had an open look at the net and they tried one more pass or one more move or skating just a little bit closer to the net. When you play a goalie like Soros, shoot the damn puck. And one of them was the biggest later in the game pat clear two on one anthony mantha comes down prime scoring opportunity tries to force a pass buddy be selfish like i feel like we've been talking about this up for the penguins for the last few years where they are hesitant to shoot on two on ones please be selfish take the shot and mantho just tried to go for that extra pass and i literally like i looked at the tv

i'm like dude come on man just take the shot there that that was one of the ones that i wanted to bring up Yep, and that is going to do it for this opening segment. Once again, Penguins 2 to 1 losers to the Nashville Predators in overtime in the first of two games in Sweden as part of the global series. When we come back, we got to ask the question and we're going to try to find the answer. How can they bounce back after this one? We'll do that when we come back right after this. But first, we've got to tell you about today's first sponsor, and that is Monarch. let's be honest, most of us can't even name all of our financial accounts, let alone what

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opportunity slip through the cracks. Use code locked on NHL at Monarch.com for 50% off. your first year. That's monarch.com code locked on NHL for half off your first year. Back here on the Friday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast, I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodeys. And, well, the good news coming out of this loss hunter is they get another shot at this

team and not very far from now. it'll be 9 a.m. on Sunday morning in, well, 9 a.m. here, not 9 a.m. in Sweden, but make sure you got that coffee brewed or drink your favorite energy drink or just stay up all night and then take an afternoon nap because who knows what the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to be doing these days. But anyway, I digress. This one, I'm going to be pretty straightforward and simple on this. You got to have some pride going into Sunday. And no, it wasn't like the penguins got embarrassed today. They didn't get run out of the building. They didn't get a seven spot put up on them. They played a funky game in Sweden. Yes, Nashville took it to them.

But the fact of the matter is you went up against a team that has been pretty much dead in the water for the last two weeks and you no-showed for two periods. So going into Sunday, there has to be a level of pride of this. is not the team who we are. This is not who we are. This isn't how we play. This isn't an acceptable effort. So while I know it's the NHL and I know it's rare that you see teams get beat up, but the penguins have to go into Sunday with a mentality of we need to punch this team back and we need to punch them back hard. I wish I had like some sort of deep analysis for this type of preview, but I really don't. You need to respond and you need to show that what you put

on display Friday afternoon here in the United States was flat out unacceptable. You need to go out there and take it to a Predators team that, again, looked like they had quit on Andrew Burnett on Monday against the Rangers. They came into this game on a five-game losing streak Friday, that is. Losers of eight or their last nine, they're one of the worst offensive teams in the league. And, I mean, you saw that part on display. The Predators literally could not finish a chance to save their lives for most of that game. But the Penguins were still brutally outplayed.

So I want to see a response. I want to see an effort because I felt like I didn't get that today. And you're right, Pat. You know, I got my little, however much this mic was, I forgot. I like it very much. It's an upgrade over some of the other ones I've had. But, you know, I got my office here that I do this show on. I'm just some knucklehead doing a show.

And I hate questioning effort and compete level and all that stuff. I just didn't see it on display for a lot of this game. And I haven't really said that a lot this year because I feel like this team has played their butts off in a lot of games, even in games that they have lost, but you're starting to see them reeling a little bit. They've now lost six of their last eight games, including five of their last six. How do you respond? I know, injuries are part of it. I get it. It sucks not having Rickel. It sucks not having Justin Brizzo. It sucks, even Tristan Jari, who has been great this year so far outside of really one third period against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

It sucks that the injury situation is what it is. but you still need to go out there with the guys that you have and compete your tail off. That's what I'm looking for in this game. And you've got to win the game and get the two points. They're throwing away too many points so far this season. And that has been a concern, well, not even this season, this month, I should say, because it was totally fine in October. But for the first half of November, they are throwing away too many points.

Like, you look at that game against New Jersey. You should have won that game. Look at this game here. You are a 110 away from a survive in advance. type of game I can keep going if you want but they're throwing away too many of these points that by the end of the season you might be looking back at this stretch and being like man if we get this point here we get these two points here that's a difference and we've seen that be the difference not last season but the couple seasons prior where they barely missed the playoffs and

if that's what the core wants and we've seen on display what their quotes are you know got to start banking some more points they really do And here's something I'm going to do that is not so much previewing Sunday morning's game against the Preds. It's just something that I feel like, because I got a bunch of replies on social media after the game, which is funny because as we're recording this, the game ended maybe 45 minutes ago, but a lot of people are hot understandably after this game, including my dear co-host, Hunter Hodies, and myself to an extent.

I did not enjoy the way that game went, but here's something I want to add because I know that I'm agreeing with you. They're leaving too many points on the table, but I will say this about Friday afternoon's game. This was the first game really this year that I can look at and go, this was just a rotten game from the Penguins. Yeah, they had blown leads. They had games where they took a period or two off, or not the period of two, just a period off. There's injuries. And the thing that I want to kind of stress again. The Penguins, all things considered this year, putting aside preseason expectations,

just looking at what they are right now. Let's be completely honest with ourselves. This isn't a contender. It's a fringe playoff team. And the thing about teams like this, they are maddening because it's not that they're always good. It's not that they're always bad. It's that you look at game,

and stretches in moments and go, there were moments, there were moments, there were games, there were times, but that's kind of what fringe teams do. It's not me excusing the effort from Friday because the effort was terrible. But we do have to keep in mind. This is somewhere between a fringe playoff team

and a deeply mid team. So at this point, this is kind of the experience that you get. But again, the way I open the segment is the way I want to continue this segment. The good news is they get another shot at this team really soon, and you have a chance to go out and kind of get that taste out of your mouth. And I'll start with this.

It doesn't matter to me on Sunday if they start Soros again or if they start Annen. This has to be a game where you make the opposing goaltender's life hell in every way, shape, and form, whether it's shooting every single chance you get, crashing the net, always having a body in front, and then not to go full Bob Airy here, but every time you have a chance from the top of the lineup all the way to the bottom pairing, if you have a chance to put a body on a Nashville Predators player,

you take it. Whether it's in the corner, whether it's along the wall, whether it's open ice, this has to be a game where you come out and say, Friday was a fluke, Sunday is who we are. Yeah, I agree. I really don't have anything else than that.

Like, I think we've said everything we've needed to say with, you know, we've already previewed this matchup for the Friday game. We know who is going to be on the ice for the predators for the most part outside of who's going to start and goal. But, you know, I guess it's going to be sorrows, but you never know at the end of the day. The Penguins also might even go to Sergey Mureshov, for example, for Sunday's game. But yeah, everything you said is valid. I really, I know people are going to be looking for deeper analysis for, me but it's really just that simple show up respond punch back show a consistent effort through 60

minutes that's what i want to see and i want to see all four lines contribute again i know the injury situation but a lot of the lines today stunk and don't get me wrong i am one again not excusing friday's effort by the penguins that was a wholly unacceptable game for i'm going to say 50 minutes i'll give them the first 10 of the game but the rest of it was wholly unacceptable and then the caveat that I always add on this show. I'm not telling anybody how to be fans. I'm not telling anybody how to consume or enjoy hockey. If you want to be mad and really frustrated at this, I'm with you. I'm honestly with you because this was a tough game to watch. But I just want to make sure we're all on the same page in the sense that

we don't want to get our expectations so out of whack that we get ourselves upset at expectations that didn't actually exist with this team. A lot of good progress this season, but that said, you want to see that progress continue and you want to see them string together more consistency. And today was definitely not that. I'll add one last thing for a quote unquote preview

for Sunday morning's game. He's been good this year, really good, but I want to see an Eric Carlson game on Sunday. You're in your home country. It has been a celebration of you, of your home country, of the team that you're on. Not saying he's got to try to do too much and play above his head, but he has got to have a big, big game on Sunday and be the engine behind a really good penguin's effort on Sunday against the Preds.

He came out like a house on fire and this came on Friday. I thought the first period he was actually really good. It was one of the players that I guess I'll shot him out for a little bit. I think towards the end of the game, Pat, like a lot of the other players, he wasn't as good. He came out like a house on fire, though, in the first grade. So I will give him kudos to that, and you are right. He has been very good for the majority of this season.

And hey, wouldn't it be awesome if we got to see him score in his home country? That would be sick. That would be really fun to see. But that is going to do it for our quick preview of Sunday morning's early game. When we come back, a name that is pretty familiar to Kyle Dubus is set to hit the free agency market. And we're going to decide whether or not the Penguins. should take a flyer on said player. We will do that when we get back right after this.

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Stock up now before the heat comes back and starts hitting hard and keep your body in mind performing at their best with drip drop. All right, we're back here on the Friday edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes. And this might be a pretty quick segment because I think most people are going to know where we land on this one. But now former Toronto Maple Leafs forward, David Kompf, is on the market. The Leafs put him on unconditional waivers for purposes of terminating his contract,

which will make him a unrestricted free agent. And this is a Kyle Dubus guy. He is the guy who brought him to the Maple Leafs. He's the guy who gets kind of credited with putting him in an organization in a position to basically resurrect his career. after he left the Chicago Blackhawks. I'll say this about David Kompf. The problem with where the penguins are right now

and with Kompf becoming a free agent is if there were a way to almost put him on as a rental or a short-term contract or even a PTO, even though that's technically not really possible at this point, I would actually be for it because of all the injuries to the penguins. And as we've said, I know a lot of people hear that and say, oh, you've got to start calling up some of the young guys down in Wilkes Bear. But as we've said on the show, the problem with that is when they come up, you want to put them in rules to succeed.

You don't want to bury them in the bottom six and not get enough usage out of them. The penguins right now at this moment on Friday, November 14th, could use a depth piece in the bottom six, right now. But then the problem is this team's going to get healthy. Guys like Ricard Raquel are going to come back. Rutger McGrathie is going to come along. A couple other guys are going to work their way back. And then he's not going to have a spot. So it feels like he could be a fit. But the problem is once the penguins are healthy, he will no longer be a fit. That and also I just don't think he's very good anymore he's really only had to me one good season in the league 21 22 at the leaves he had 11 goals

26 points 82 games i guess if you want to say the next season where he had 27 points as a career high but you know his best goal scoring season came in 21 22 at the least when he had 11 goals other than that you know he's more of a defensive first bottom six player in my opinion and i think the penguins already have plenty of those types of players so even even if the team was healthy We obviously know it's not. I just don't think this makes any sense. Yeah, I know one of Kyle Dubas's guys. We all know the same, Pat.

And I show GMs, they love their guys. And I'm sure Caldubis admires David Kompf, but A, I don't think he's very good anymore. And B, he doesn't suit the team's needs. So pass for me. Yeah, that's my biggest thing is I don't think he, I do look at those two seasons where he had, 26 and then 27 points, 11 goals and then seven goals respectively. And that's a player that can be productive in your bottom six. I don't think he's that good as those two seasons because you look at the rest of his career.

He kind of hovers between 10 and 20 points. And in a fourth line role where he's taking those kind of minutes where he chips in every couple of weeks, gives you good two-way play, eats up some minutes while your big guns gets some rest. He has that kind of value. But like you said, the penguins already have enough of those guys. Yeah. And again, if it weren't for, if the injuries weren't a factor and this was just where the penguins are right now, I could definitely see a fit. But then you look at all the players who are waiting in the wings to come back. And it just, I know he's linked because he's a Kyle Dubus guy, but at the same

time, you just have to say pass on this one. They already have one, no one, you don't need another one. Like, that's kind of the comp I'm giving him here. Like, you already have one of them because their play styles at least to me are a little similar. So I don't think you need another. But yeah, those are my thoughts. Pass for me.

He can go to another team that I think there's more of the need, in my opinion. Which one of those teams right now, just to put my stamp down, this is. probably Montreal two big injuries for them today guys who are going to miss six to eight weeks they're really going to need some help because they have gone on gone on to a really good start and they're going to need to keep that going and kind of keep the ship afloat while they wait for them to come back so that would be my guess where he probably ends up but we will see but it is a pass for us here on the locked on penguins podcast and that is going to do it for our friday edition. When we return on Monday, we will recap the Sunday morning game against the Predators

and get you set for the rest of the week. But until then, for now, for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you as always for tuning in, and we will be back on Monday.