Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins Olympians to play a BIG role in Italy!

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

The Penguins are sending four players to the Olympic Games, and all of them will be counted on to play a big role for their countries! The show begins on Monday with Patrick and Hunter taking a look at the roles Sidney Crosby, Erik Karlsson, Rickard Rakell, and Arturs Silovs will play for their respective countries at the Winter Olympic Games in Milan. (0:00) Then, it's time for a deep dive into Team USA. They discuss how this is still one of, if not the deepest, teams in the history of the United States at the Olympics, but it is still flawed. They also take a look at the women's tournament, which is shaping up to give us another classic between the United States and Canada. (13:10) Finally, they give their predictions for gold, silver, and bronze for both the women's and men's tournaments. To close it all out, they take a quick look at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and how Avery Hayes simply cannot stop scoring! (28:10)  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!IndeedNow, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to https://indeed.com/lockedon right 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 LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelIf you’re a new customer, bet just $5 and get $200 in Bonus Bets if you win. Make it count — because after the Super Bowl, the season is over. Last call for football on FanDuel, an Official Sportsbook Partner of Super Bowl Sixty.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 are sending four players to the Winter Olympics. Hunter and I are going to take a look at those teams, the United States and the tournament as a whole. All of that and more right after this. You're locked on penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. Hello and welcome in to an Olympic edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts Patrick Damp. You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4WET.

Joined as always by my co-host partner in crime and good friend, 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 L.O. underscore Penguins. You can find us on Instagram at Locked On underscore Penguins and TikTok at Locked on Penguins. Of course, as always, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget, we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube. And if you're following us on YouTube, make sure you've turned on notifications.

That way, you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. Ladies and gentlemen, we have made it at long last the men's Winter Olympics tournament has arrived. It's still a couple days away from starting, but they are making their way over to Italy for the games. The women's tournament has begun, and it has brought us some damn good hockey on all sides of the puck. We will touch on that as well on this episode, but four Pittsburgh Penguins are headed into Italy, and while they may not be sending a lot of players to the winter games. All four players are going to play significant roles on the teams they are going to. Obviously, Sidney Crosby officially, officially is Captain Canada. They made that announcement

over the weekend. Eric Carlson and Ricard Raquel are expected to play big roles for team Sweden. And then goaltender Archer Shilovs is going to have to be a huge part for team Latvia if they want to go anywhere in group C and beyond. So the Penguins, as I said, they might not be sending a ton of players over to the winter games, but all four are going to have to be a big part of each of their nation's efforts if they want to find themselves on the podium in two weeks. Right. And starting with Team Canada, you saw some of the practice lines that were put out there on

Sunday. And I got to say this, man, seeing all these practice lines come in, it's starting to Philly get real because it's been a long time since we've seen NHL players back at the Olympics and I just have a smile on my face every time I see some of these lines like we were robbed of this for way too long and I am so thrilled that we are getting NHL players back at the Olympics but that you look at some of team Candace lines for example on Sunday they are Sydney Crosby as the third line center on this team it goes to show how deep they are with Mark Stone and Mitch Marner.

An interesting line, to say the least. I want Sid to play with Celebrini just because, you know, those guys kind of have a bromance overall, but you saw Celebrini up on that top line with Connor McDavid and Tom Wilson, Suzuki with McKinnon and Marshand. But, you know, Mark Stone also did get some minutes with Crosby during the Four Nations face off.

So that's not overly surprising. I'm kind of wondering if they want that third line to be a little bit more of a shutdown line, even though it's funny. you know, Crosby's not the same defensive player that he used to be even a few years ago. But Stone, he's still really good defensively as is Marner. You know, Marner is really good in his own. Marner does it. I'll say this.

Marner does not get nearly the love he deserves for his 200 foot game. I agree. He is a very, very solid defensive forward. So you put those three together on a line. You've got a, you've obviously got some offensive threats between the three of them. But that is a line that if they need to, they are going to lock it down. especially for Stone and Martner, like, Marner, you said it.

Like, his 200-foot game is really underrated in the league. Stone is the same way. He's a really good 200-foot players. So I think those two can kind of be your shutdown players while Sid is driving the bus offensively because we all know how elite Sydney Crosby is still offensively. So I'm curious to see how that line goes, though if it doesn't work, you'll see John Cooper mix things up.

I wouldn't be surprised if you see, you know, Sid with McKinnon, for example, Celebrini, all that good stuff. for Sweden, Ricardo Raquel on the line with Mika Zabinajad, which that's not surprising because they played together the Four Nations face off, and Elias Pedersen, who is still good defensively, but his offensive game has, you know, kind of gone downhill the last couple of years. I still think Elias Pedersen, when he's on, is a really good player. And what I mean by that is he's a really good 200-foot player when he's on. It's just that his offense hasn't been there as much the last couple of years.

But I still am intrigued by that line. And then Eric Carlson was getting on a pair with a little bit with Philip Broberg. So we'll see if that sticks. He's also rooming with Victor Headman at the Olympics. Those two kind of have a bromance there as well. But Carlson's going to play big minutes for this team. And rightfully so he's been really good. I wouldn't be surprised to see him get top four minutes in some of these games as well.

And you saw that pat during the Four Nations last year. The Swedish coaching staff really knows how to get the best out of Carlson. So, excuse me, I'm expecting a really good tournament out of him. And then with Sheelov, he's going to be battling Elvis Merzleekins for starting time. I would assume he's going to get the starters roll over Merzleekins, but I still wouldn't be surprised if it's a 1A, 1B there either. The thing that's really nice for both Latvia and the United States as well is group C is probably the weakest of the three groups.

You've got the United States, Germany, Latvia, and Denmark. So for Archer Shilovs in Latvia, at least early on in the preliminary round, they can see who is going to be the better of the two. They can start one and then start the other in the next matchup. You figure that you would probably give at least right now Elvis Merzleekins the United States game because that is the opening game for both the United States and Latvia, just because he has more of a pedigree. And if he plays well, that kind of probably tells the Latvian coaching staff that

that's your guy, though I don't foresee Latvia being able to upset the United States. And we will get in to the U.S. in the second segment because we have so many thoughts. But yeah. And then the other thing that I think is weighing maybe not heavily, but something that is probably a point of pride for team Sweden is that the last time that the NHLers were at the Olympics, Eric Carlson was named Defender of the Tournament. And that's a, granted, it was a good long while ago. It was 2014, but it kind of shows you that you look at Sweden and Group B,

that's a sneaky, really tough group. You've got Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, and Italy. While I don't expect much from Italy, they're there because they're the host nation. There's always that we're on our home turf bump that you get. they're going to play hard for their for their people in Italy. Slovakia, they're always a pest in international tournaments. They may not be one of the better teams, but they always put up a good effort. And obviously outside of Canada and the United States, the next two you would talk about are Finland and Sweden.

So that's a really tough group for Sweden to be in. I really like Sweden's forwards, especially even without Leo Carlson. That's a team that can still win gold, in my opinion. They're also well-coached. They have three really good goalies. Defensively, Pad, you can make an argument that they have the best defensive group of the entire tournament of all the teams. Again, four groups.

They can run four lines. Are they as deep as the U.S. and Canada? No, but it's still a really good group that can cause both of those teams' problems. I would put Sweden right up there as a favorite to win this tournament. Because, you know, one of the U.S. or Canada is probably going to play Sweden in a semifinal, that's going to be a really hard game. I mean, even during the Four Nations, Sweden gave Canada everything it can handle. That game went to overtime.

Mitch Marner obviously won it for Canada. That was still a really good game between both sides. So do not be shocked at all if Canada, not Canada, of course, if Sweden does get to the gold medal game and potentially wins it just with how deep they are overall. A sleeper team, though, for me, Germany, especially with Leon Drysidal, Tim Stutzelah, J.J. Patirka, etc. Switzerland is also a really big sleeper.

I really like this team. I mean, you look at some of their lines. Fiala with Heeshier on the top line, you got Nino Niederriter on your second line. Timo Meyer on the third line. Defensively, you got Roman Yossi, Yonis Siegandthaller, J.J. Moser. Again, that's a sleeper too.

My two sleeper teams for this tournament, Germany and Switzerland, just be on the lookout for that. Those two teams have gotten a lot better since we last saw them in the Olympics. Germany definitely needs a lot. everything to go right. You brought up all those names. Those guys have to really drive the bus. If they're able to break through, especially in the preliminary rounds, that could put them in a very good spot. Finally, the last group obviously is group A with Canada, Switzerland, Czechia, and France. So it does feel like we are on a crash course for USA versus Canada,

because you look at group A and group C. Canada, Switzerland, Czechia, France, I'm definitely putting Canada atop that group. Group C, U.S., Germany, Latvia, Denmark. Assuming the U.S. can not get in its own way, which they're known to do, they're probably coming out of that group as well. So it really sets us up on that crash course

to get the U.S. versus Canada at some point, whether it's in the quarters, the semis, or even the gold medal game. So that is really where we stand right now. But we got all that out of the way. We do got to talk about our home country here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the United States. We will talk about everything U.S. men's team when we come back right after this. Before we do that, though, we've got to tell you about today's first sponsor,

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And let's talk about the United States men's team. This has been a huge, huge topic of discussion among American hockey fans and hockey fans in general, because a lot of good players are not on Team USA with Mike Sullivan and Chris Drury at the helm. Bill Garon as well. And listen, I'll start it with this. It gets lost in this discussion. No one is saying Team USA is bad. No one is saying this is a bad team.

This is a genuinely great team. There is more talent in the United States poll than there has been in a very, very long time, if ever, it's just the fact that they are overthinking it once again. We talked about Canada briefly in the first segment. I'm wearing my Crosby 2010 jersey. I know, I know. I'm still rooting for the U.S. I just don't have any U.S. hockey apparel anymore.

I either grew out of it or it got old and crappy and I had to donate it because I've spent so many years as a USA hockey member, but that's beside the point. Canada has a ton of talent, and I understand you want to counter it in a certain way, but the story has been the same since Vancouver. Hoover, you lose by one goal. They left goal scoring at home.

Canada didn't. This is going to be a huge, huge lift for the United States. I feel like I could start at a lot of different places, but I feel like this part here is best. I have no problem saying that this is the best U.S. Olympic team of my lifetime. You compare it to where we were in 2014. It's not even close. Even 2010, I really like that team, but look how far that.

talent pool has come, man, ever since then. This team is freaking good, and they will have a legit shot at winning their first gold since the miracle. But here is where I guess I have a small issue with the roster building for this team. Because I like most of this roster. My thing is, we don't need to add, you know, checkers or, you know, pure penalty killers and all that stuff. We are finally in a place where we can go blow for blow, basically.

with Canada. And I get it. Canada has the super weapon of McDavid, McCar, McKinnon, and Crosby. It is very hard to counter that. And I know that they've tried other things in the past to counter Canada's elite of the elite. But now we're in a place where we can finally go blow for blow. We have our own elite players. I understand Canada's are a little bit better. But we have our own elite players. I think defensively we are more deep. And I think we have the better goalie. You can add more skill to the Ford group and not bring, you know, pure penalty. killers or pure face-off specialists and all that. And I'm not trying to disrespect players like Vince Trocheck or like a J.T. Miller.

I just don't think those two should be there over someone like a Cole Calfield or a Jason Robertson. Some people will counter with, well, you need guys that can PK. You need guys that can win draws. A lot of players on this team can already penalty kill and they already are stacked at centers. They have centers playing wing on this team. That is how stacked they are at centers. And again, I can rattle through a whole bunch of different players that can penalty kill. Matt Bellwody has the third most penalty kill minutes of anyone on the Minnesota Wilde this year. Dylan Larkin does it. Austin Matthews does it. Brock Nelson does it. I can keep going if you want me to. Jack Eichael does it for Vegas. Those are five elite of the

elite offensive players right there that can kill penalties. You really don't need a pure PK specialist. But, you know, when I still look at this team and when I look at some of the line combinations, I'm still smiling because we have come a long way and they still have a legit shot. I just wanted them to make a couple more, you know, better decisions to put them in a better spot because they've come up a goal short in so many competitions against Canada. Like you scratch Kyle Connor for some reason last year in the Four Nations face off. That makes no sense. No, even before that, you know, 2014, you could have played back aim until the cows came home.

They were probably never going to score against Canada. That team was also in the same way deep for Canada. And they had prime carry price and that's just very hard to go up against. But again, that's just where my small is. issue lies. But that right there, what you just said is the main difference now, the goaltending. We have it. For the last 20 so years, Canada and Russia were the goaltending factories. Canada no longer is. Russia still is, but they're not at this Olympics. We're not going to get into that. So nobody wins and worry about that. But now you look at the three goalies that the United States is taking to this tournament.

John Hellebuck, Jake Ottinger, Jeremy Swayman. I will take each and every one of those over the goaltenders that Canada is taking to the Olympics. You have your failsafe in place. You've got the better goaltending. It is the ultimate X factor in hockey. If you have the better goalie, you probably can have the better chance of winning. So if this was 8, 12, 16 years ago, I understand, Garland. philosophy then because you're probably not going to have the better goal tending.

You're probably not going to have the better roster. So you need to game theory this. You need to look at it and go, okay, how are we going to counter this insanely talented, insanely deep Canadian team? Because even when the United States didn't have the same depth, they still had talent. They were still very good. They were going to be in the top three or top four teams.

going to the games. So they always had a chance to get to that metal round, to get to the gold medal game and be one of the best teams there, but they still would have to figure out how are we going to counter Canada? Now you've got the talent pool in the United States that you can just say, and I get Garin's thought process. I don't agree with it, but I get it. It's just outdated.

It is a team where, yeah, oh, we don't need to send an all-star team. why not Canada does and they've reigned supreme for the last 20 years so it just feels like they try to recreate miracle and I get it man it's an all time upset but there's also a reason why we have it

won gold since then because it feels like they're trying to recreate that and it's like no we're not some plucky underdog anymore this country in my opinion should be considered a co-favorant to win this event it is time to start acting like it

And I will say this really quickly about the miracle stuff. We have learned the wrong lesson because we misinterpreted the lesson. Agreed. When in the movie, and I know it's a movie, I know they play fast and loose with facts and movies because it's not a documentary. But when Herb Brooks's character, when Kurt Russell says, I'm not looking for the best players, Craig, I'm looking for the right ones. That got misinterpreted. because hockey in the 1970s and 1980s in North America was bubble hockey. The left wing, the left defensemen stayed on the left, the right wing, the right defensemen stayed on the right, the center was allowed to roam.

In Europe, in Russia, in the eastern bloc countries, they played hockey the way we know how hockey is played today. With weaving, filling in lanes, pure skating. US and Canada didn't do that. Herb went, okay, I'm going to change the style of play, and I'm going to play the way they do, and the players he needed had to be able to skate. They had to be able to handle that level of skill. There were a lot of really good collegiate players

and semi-pro players in the U.S. that got left behind because they were really good at rod hockey. They weren't good at this style of hockey from Europe. That's what he meant by that. Not, oh, I got to get these character guys and these grit guys and these tough guys. No, he needed play. He looked at a lot of players who went, you can rack up 30 goals in the NCAA. But if I ask you to run a three-man weave, you're going to run into the boards because you don't know what you're doing.

That's what they did there. Now, I'll end with this. They still have a shot. They still very much have a shot. This is an extremely deep, extremely talented team. So we will see what happens. Real quick before we do a quick look at the women's games, have been great so far.

Got this little graphic for you. If you're watching on YouTube, go ahead and grab a screenshot. This will get you your schedule this week for the men's games. We've got the United States, Canada, Sweden, and Latvia. You can see there. We've got all three games for all four teams when they will be played. Most of the times are afternoon or early morning. I wasn't able to fit those all on the graphic, but you can see there.

you've got all the games for the U.S., Canada, Sweden and Latvia in the preliminary round. The playoff round begins on the 17th. The quarterfinals will be the next day on the 18th. The semi-final will be the 20th. The bronze medal game, the 21st, and the main event, the gold medal game on the 22nd. So one quick chance for you here on YouTube, grab a screenshot of that. You'll have that schedule set so you can follow all of the penguins and Team USA. who are at the Olympics. Speaking of USA, the women's team is off and running a 5-1 win over Chequia

and then a 5-0 win over Finland. And this is something that I think is both funny and encouraging. Watching the Chequenia game and then watching the Finland game, the women's game has grown exponentially. But the European. teams, the non-US and Canada teams, they are still very far behind, but at the end of the day, they are a lot better now. I think the U.S. should win this tournament for the women. I really do believe that. Yes, I understand.

Canada has the U.S. killer, Pat Marie-Philippe Poulan, who always loves breaking all of our hearts, but I really dig this U.S. women's team, man. Hillary Knight is off to one hell of a start. Alex Carpenter is also off to one hell of a start. They are kicking ass and taking names in these first two games. I expect the same thing today against Switzerland before that showdown against Canada on Tuesday, which I do think is going to be a preview of the gold medal game. I'm really excited to watch that one, but they are playing fantastic right now.

And these matchups haven't even been close. So really excited to watch the game later today, then especially on Tuesday against Canada. Circle that one. Yeah, 2.10 tomorrow afternoon. The U.S. and Canada women's teams go head to head. and buddy, that's the best rivalry in hockey. I don't care who you ask.

The Canada and U.S. women, when they get together, it is one hell of, look at the smile on my face, dude. I can't wait for this. It's going to be fun. Both the men and the women for USA versus Canada, those two teams just flat out, hate each other. So if we get it in the men, too, you're going to see fireworks. And you're going to see fireworks on Tuesday as well.

And just real quick, you know, for the U.S. men, because I didn't get this in. I really like a lot of these lines, especially the top six. The third line in general, Pat, I don't know if you saw this, by the way, but the third line of Cage Thompson with Dylan Larkin and Kyle Connor, that I think is going to feed families. I am really excited for that. I do want Clinton Keller playing over J.T. Miller on the fourth line. I just don't really see any to play J.T. Miller in the Olympics.

I just don't think he's had a good year. Clinton Keller has been awesome. Defensively, love me some Hughes, Moller. Ikevo. That pairing is sick. Sanderson Worensky, sign me up for that. That's their third pair, man. And they still don't even have Adam Fox, who I still think should be there.

But again, he's been banged up. If he was healthy, I still think, you know, he should be there, all that. But this team is really deep still. And I'm still really looking forward to watching them. And I would love to be proven wrong about, you know, some of these guys that are there over the other goal scores. If they win gold man, Bill Garon,

I'll usher you an apology, my man. You and me both, but we're not leaving the Olympic talk there. We do have some other penguins updates to get to real quick, but we're running long here. So we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, you got to do the same thing you do on every kind of sports talk show, right? We got to make some predictions. We're going to do that when we get back right after this. Before we do that, though, we've got one more sponsor to get to.

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premium placement it deserves at Indeed.com slash locked on. Just go to Indeed.com slash locked on right now and support our very show by saying you heard about Indeed right here on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, do it the right way with Indeed. We're closing out the Monday edition of Locked-on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodey's prediction time, Hunter. We'll start with the men's tournament.

And I will ask you very simply, who gets gold, who gets silver, who gets bronze. And so proven otherwise, I am going to take Canada to win gold just because I still think they are a little bit better than the U.S. And, you know, in these types of competitions, Sydney Crosby does not lose, especially in the Olympics, Pat. So I am going to take Canada. I will take the U.S. to win silver. I will take Sweden to win bronze. Those are my predictions for the men, for the women. I'm going to go, the U.S. wins gold.

I think they beat Canada and Canada takes silver. Bronze, I keep going back and forth, Pat. I'm still not fully sure, but maybe I might go, actually, you know what, I might go Finland for that. I think, yeah, I think overall I'm going to go Finland for the bronze if they get there, for the women. But I think the U.S. wins gold for the women. For the men, though, I think they get silver and they fall a goal short.

That's kind of where I am looking at the men. again until proven otherwise the super weapon is going to take home gold crosbie's going to come home with his third Olympic gold medal we're all going to be happy and gritting our teeth that our captain did it but bitter that we didn't beat him i don't think the united states is getting silver i look at this group i look at this Olympic and I think Sweden is going to have a huge tournament. Okay. There's a lot of really good talent there.

They're in a group that's going to battle test them going into the playoff round, unlike the U.S. and Canada, though I don't think it's going to be a cakewalk for Canada or the U.S. They're going to have to earn their way there. Group B is just, that's a lot. So I think Sweden's going to come out of that battle tested.

They're going to make their way to the gold medal game, but not be able to beat Canada. I do think the U.S. is going to get bronze. I think they're going to face Chequia in the bronze medal game and they're going to get it done and get themselves a bronze. I do think that at the end of the day. I don't sleep on Chequia either, by the way. That's also a sleeper team as well.

This might be a little bit of copium. I think the U.S. is actually going to have a really good tournament. They're just going to kind of fall victim to it being a better tournament than it's been in a while, add in the motivation of an AP. players being back there. I think at the end of the day, Sweden is just poised to have a breakout tournament. It's less about the U.S. and more about them. As for the women, I'm right there, same exact predictions as you.

The U.S. takes home gold over Canada. Canada gets the silver. In Finland, a sneaky good women's hockey team that I do think can take home the bronze. That tournament has been really fun so far. We need to get this show wrapped up here. here so we can go watch the women's games today because there's a lot of good ones. But one last thing we got to get to Hunter. I know you've been grinning to talk about this.

So I'm just going to pass it off to you. Avery Hayes cannot stop scoring. It's his world and we're just living in it, man. I mean, a hat trick in his first came back to Wilkesbury to beat the Hershey Bears, by the way. What a performance that was from them. The scores on the power play. Great pass by Rucker McGordia A's goes right to the front of the,

the net, jams at five whole past the Hershey Goaltender, also showcases his filthy release on the penalty kill short-handed goal to get his second one. And then Pat, this is probably my favorite one. Four on three power play in overtime. He breaks his stick on the one-timer. Doesn't matter. He still gets enough of it where it beats the Hershey

goaltender to not only give Wilkesbury the win going into the HAL All-Star break, but he gets a hat trick for that. So just an incredible week for him. gets the hatty there, makes his NHL debut, scores two goals in that game, one of which was on his first shot in the first period of his NHL debut. What a week it was for him. And again, people, I'll keep saying it.

He is going to be a full-time NHL player very, very soon. Congratulations to him on one hell of the week. Huge week for him. And man, it's just nice. It's nice to have prospects to be excited about who are actually good and we're not talking ourselves into them, they're actually pretty damn good. But that is going to do it for the Monday edition of Locked on Penguins. Hunter and I will be back on Tuesday with more Olympic talk, more baby penguins talk and any other news that might come up between now and then. But for now,

for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp. Thank you as always for tuning in. And we will be back on Tuesday.