Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins part ways with Todd Reirden, who should replace him?
Episode Date: May 3, 2024The Pittsburgh Penguins made a big announcement on Friday, announcing the firing of Todd Reirden. Hunter and Pat start the show by breaking down the firing and how the Penguins had no choice but to do... this. They analyze how badly the power play was (yet again) and discuss how this could make some of the core a bit uncomfortable, (which is good!). After that, they discuss how this should put the "rift" rumors between Sullivan and Dubas to bed. They then look at who could replace Reirden on the bench, including Jay Woodcroft. Hunter details what he was great at during his time in Edmonton and how he coached up a really good power play before he got let go. Pat then gives another option for who the Penguins could bring in before they end the show with some playoff talk.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monopoly GO!Get in the game and join your friends. Click HERE to Download MONOPOLY GO! now free on The App Store or Google Pay. The mobile hit twist on classic MONOPOLY.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARANTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – with any winning 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) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
The Penguins made a long-awaited change to their coaching staff on Friday, and that has a lot of fans pretty fired up.
You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.
Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.
I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes.
You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes.
Join by my co-host, Patrick Damp.
You can follow him on Twitter at Center for Ways.
and you can follow the show's Twitter at L.O.
or store penguins, of course.
Thank you all so much for making this your first list and slash watch of the day.
We are free and available on all platforms.
And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Monopoly Go.
Game off, we got to talk more about Monopoly Go.
The fast-paced game lets you team up with friends for tournaments to unlock awesome prizes
like unique stickers for trading, cool playing pieces,
and hilarious emojis for taunting your friends.
So download Monopoly Go now free on Google Play or the app store,
game on.
So Pat, getting back to the Penguins overall,
they made a pretty big announcement on Friday,
relieving associate coach Todd Reardon of his duties.
And it feels like this had been brewing for quite some time.
There was no way you could bring him back on your staff for next season,
especially with how the power play was this past season.
I know the players were really bad throughout the year.
I know Mike Sullivan also has to wear this as well.
but Reardon is the one that fully coaches up this unit and he did a pretty poor job throughout the year.
15.3%. That was the penguin's power play percentage throughout the season. That ranked 30th in the NHL.
The Chicago Blackhawks and the San Jose Sharks both had better power plays than the Pittsburgh Penguins.
And I have another number for you, excuse me.
12. That's the number of short-handed goals the Penguins gave up this season. That's tied for the league
lead with the Montreal Canadiens. Both numbers completely unacceptable for this team. And if you're
not going to get rid of any of the core players on this team, and they shouldn't, by the way,
and you're not going to get rid of Mike Sullivan, then getting rid of Reardon is the easiest thing
you could do. If you were to bring him back for next season,
that would have been like the Steelers bringing back Matt Canada to be their offensive coordinator
for the 2024 season. I know Canada was fired during the season by Mike Tomlin,
but the same kind of principle applies, right? If he were not fired, if he were brought back for another
season, that's basically what would be happening here if Reardon would be brought back. So this was a very
obvious move, and I'm glad that Kyle Dubus and Mike Sullivan both agreed to it. For sure. And I will actually,
before I get into the numbers of it all, I actually do think there is a little bit of a parallel
between Kyle Dubis and Omar Khan.
Obviously, there's a big difference in the fact that Omar Khan was internal and
Kyle Dubus was external, but you could kind of see it in Omar Khan's first season as the
Steelers General Manager.
He kind of just let things play out to figure out, all right, what do I need to fix?
What do I need to keep?
What do I continue to do?
What should I change?
And I think we're starting to see a little bit of that with Kyle Dubis, because if you remember,
he's hired on June 1.
That's two, three weeks prior to the NHL draft,
one month to free agency,
doesn't really get a proper offseason
to craft the organization in his image.
In this summer, I think we're going to see a lot of that.
We've seen it to begin already
with the non-renewal of the Wilkesbury Scranton staff
and now letting go of Todd Reardon
and bringing it all the way back to Reardon.
It's a little bit baffling
how bad that power play was this year because you look at the three big seasons from when he was brought back as the Penguins associate coach for his second stint.
And 21, 22, for some reason that year, power plays exploded.
They had a 20.2 percentage, but that was only good for 19th.
So that tells you how good power plays that were that season.
22, 23, they're 14th with a 21.7%.
And then this year, for whatever reason,
it just takes a complete nosedive, as you said, to 15.3% along with 12
shorthanded goals allowed.
So, you know, yeah, Sullivan has to wear it.
So to the players.
But really, you're not going to change this core group half because you don't need to.
They're very good players.
And half because they're very difficult contracts.
to move. So at this point, that leaves one person holding the bag, and that's taught rear.
Right. And I do think now moving forward with this core group of players, they have nowhere to
hide. And they're definitely going to be, I think, a little bit uncomfortable with this.
But when you ask me, good. They should be feeling at least a little bit of heat that someone
new is going to come in with fresh new ideas and fresh new innovations for this power play unit.
and we're going to find out pretty quickly if these players listen to the new powerplay head coach.
Obviously, this coach is going to work with Mike Sullivan to really change some things up with a power play.
A couple of things that I really want this unit to work on.
Number one, the zone entries, they need to be a lot cleaner heading in the next season.
And oh, yeah, get rid of that stupid drop pass.
And also, the way this power play was so stagnant during the regular season,
the way they played patty cake so often,
the way they were launching shots from the perimeter,
that all has to go away heading into next season
if this power play wants to get back to being at least an average one in the NHL.
So the onus really falls on the players to listen to the new powerplay coach,
whoever it's going to be.
For sure.
And you bring up a good point in the way these guys have to respond to the new coach
because a lot of guys on this team,
defensemen especially, had very, very good things to,
say about Todd Reardon.
And Chris LaTang has credited him with completing his game and making him a better overall
player.
And I think that his performance on the whole, not just looked at in a vacuum, does reflect
that he did a very good job working with Chris LaTang.
But I don't think the Penguins Country Club is coming back from the early 2000s.
When you have a head coach and Mike Sullivan and a captain like Sidney Crosby, they're not
going to let these guys get comfortable. That's just not how they operate. They're not those
kind of guys. But it is probably in the best interest of this group to make them a little
uncomfortable. I'm not saying take away all their toys and discipline them and bring in a
tort style coach who's going to kick their asses up and down because they don't need that.
But they need a change. They need a new voice. And yes, they like Reardon. I don't think Reardon's a
bad coach. I mean, he has a fairly good track record of working.
well with both power plays and defensemen, because even when you look at his time with the
capitals when he left to become their head coach after Barry Trots, yeah, part of it was, of course,
you have Alexander Ovechkin, Nick Baxter, T.J. O'Shey, guys who are very good, but ran a very good
power play, had a good defense. So it's all there for him, but eventually a message just goes stale
or even, maybe not even a message goes stale, but the time just runs out. And it gets a little
too comfortable. So I look at this as you can bring in somebody with a new perspective,
a new voice, and make these guys a little bit uncomfortable, which could push them to a higher
level. I definitely think the message from Reardon was getting a bit stale to the core players.
Now, the message from Sullivan, for the core players, I don't think that's stale. And I think that's
one of the biggest reasons why Mike Sullivan is still the head coach is because the core players,
87, 7158 into a little bit of a lesser extent, 65, and I'll throw 17 in there, Brian Rust.
they all really seem to like him.
And I think if they didn't,
I think Sullivan would be on a different team right now.
And speaking of Mike Sullivan,
we discussed all these rumors earlier in the week.
You saw, I think, more catnit from someone like Frank Sarabali
after this Reardon News came out.
I think this news should go to show everyone
that there's no rift between Kyle Dubus and Mike Sullivan.
Could Sullivan be a bit disappointed that Reardon is no longer on his bench?
Sure. And I mean, I think that's natural for him to feel that way. I think any coach that
loses an assistant would feel that way. Heck, Jim Rutherford did this four years ago, Pat.
He let go of a couple of his assistants. Was Sullivan probably upset about that? Sure, but you know
what? He gets over it. Do people really think that Mike Sullivan is going to get fired or resign
from this job because Kyle Dubus had the basically okay to let go of one of his assistants? No,
that's not going to happen. That's baby stuff. And I don't think Sullivan is a baby in this industry. So
this decision should go to show everyone that they are still very much on the same page.
And that's life in the big city and the big leagues, right? Is things change. People leave,
whether it's for better opportunities, people leave because they're not doing their job up to par.
And I've seen a lot of comparisons to Dubis and Babcock with Dubus and Sullivan.
And I don't think that's fair because as we have come to learn, Mike Babcock is, aside from all his other transgressions, which are totally unforgivable, he is an incredibly stubborn person.
And Kyle Dubus is not a stubborn person.
Yeah, he has pride, he has conviction, but he's not stubborn.
And neither is Mike Sullivan.
We have seen this throughout Mike Sullivan's tenure.
He forces guys to change.
He changes himself.
And that is a working relationship that can continue because it's not too proud, stubborn people,
budding heads.
It's two guys who are willing to change and willing to listen working together that are going
to have disagreements.
That's what happens in professional sports.
You know, you see these things like, oh, there's a power struggle and a rift.
They're probably having heated conversations, but it doesn't mean that they're at each other's
throats. This is a team that has had an unprecedented run of success in the modern era of the
National Hockey League, and they don't want to let go of that. And that time is going to come.
We talked about that yesterday. But it's not here quite yet. So these guys have to find answers
to keep this success going. Agreed. And for as hard as it can be to move on from one of your
assistance, it's still the move that you got to make if you do want to get this team back to
the playoffs but i think that i'll do it for this first segment coming up in the second segment
pat and i'm going to look into a couple of options that the penguins could look at to replace rearedon
on the bench but before we get into that we got tell you all about our first sponsor and that is
fandle it's winner take all time in the NBA and nchl and fandle's giving you a shot to bring home a big
win of your own right now new customers get 150 dollars in bonus bets with any winning five dollar
bet. That's $150 to bet on spreads, money lines, player props, and so much more.
Visit fandle.com slash locked on and make every playoff shot count. That's Fandle,
America's number one sports book. All right, we're back here on this episode of the
Locked on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes, joined by my host, Patrick Camp.
So I'm actually going to hand this over to you because I feel like I know which coach
you're going to say for this. But if you were Kyle Dubus and Mike Sullivan, who would you be
looking at to replace reared in on the bench to coach the power play and defense and whatever
else needs to be coached on this team. I mean, I think there's an obvious one in our good pal
Joshio. He brought this up in his article today. I don't listen, I don't think it's the right one,
but I can understand it. It's David Quinn. Him and Mike Sullivan are very tight. And here's my,
I don't want to say sell, because trust me, I can see your reaction. I'm not exactly advocating
for this because, you know, I think he's fairly underwhelming.
But the way I look at a guy like David Quinn, I said this to you via text message,
I look at it kind of the same way you talked about a guy like Sheldon Keefe and even a guy like
Mike Sullivan, to where these guys get their opportunity in their first shot and they probably
flame out in some way or another, it's when they come back is when they learn from those
mistakes and do things a little bit better.
I don't know if David Quinn's a good NHL head coach.
His track record shows he probably isn't.
But if you give him more of a focused opportunity,
if he's just working with the defense and the power play
rather than having to oversee the entire roster,
maybe he's going to be a little bit more valuable.
That said, he is not at the top of my list of guys to bring in.
Because I do think, and we have hinted at this before,
whoever they bring in could be a plug-and-play replacement if this team gets off to a slow start.
Well, I don't want that to be David Quinn.
That's for sure.
I've seen what he's done in New York in San Jose so far.
And let's just say I'm not too impressed by his resume at the NHL level.
But one coach that I do think would be a really good fit as an assistant and could potentially take over for Mike Sullivan if next season starts out really poorly, Jay Woodcroft.
I've said him quite often on the show.
I thought he did a tremendous job with the Oilers before he was fired to start this season.
And you go back to his time before this season.
The Oilers, they finished third on the power play, 2021, 2022, after he was brought in as the interim head coach.
The next full season, he was there for all 82 games.
The Oilers had the number one power play in the league for a 2022, 2020, 2023.
season. And I know that he's not doing everything on the ice because Connor McDavid is, who I think is the
best player in the world. And they have Leon Dryside out there and you have Ryan New Jersey Hopkins,
et cetera, et cetera. But he is still coaching that unit from the bench. And his staff at the time was
coaching that unit from the bench. And what I saw from that unit was so much movement. You saw
McDavid doing so much on the ice. You saw their zone entries being so easy. You saw them getting
to the high danger areas, having a really strong.
front presence. Their power play was a lot harder to defend against. And again, I know they have
players like McDavid and Drysod, but the Penguins also have world class talent. And I think Woodcroft
could bring some elements of that power play they had in Edmonton to Pittsburgh and really help
some of these core players, even though they're a bit older than the players that he had in Edmonton.
Well, it's it's the old Jeff Merrick line, right, that you might as well just call the game of hockey,
the game of goalie because Jay Woodcroft is won in a million examples of a guy who basically
lost his job because he didn't have goaltending and he had to fall on the sword for that.
And I'm right there with you on that.
If I had a guy on the top of the wish list, it would be Jay Woodcroft just because it's not
a one-to-one comparison like you said, but when you have world-class talent, you have to utilize
it in the correct way.
in the way that he got the oilers, I almost said Islanders, I don't know why,
the Oilers power play to play at that level, you would want to see that again from the Penguins.
Now, do I think that there's an opportunity for them to go that high?
No, but top 10, top 15, I'll take that because again, you look at this prior season.
If they're even in the top 15, we're sitting here talking about the first round today
and not what the penguins need to change to get back to the postseason next year.
Buddy, if they have an average power play for next year,
I'll be celebrating at least a little bit in my house for it.
But yeah, he's definitely at the top of my wish list.
I know you texting me another coach that will be at the top of your wish list as well.
I think he's a bit overrated.
So I'm going to let you cook and try to convince me as to why this coach would make sense.
I don't know if he's interested.
I don't even know if he wants to get back in the coaching game.
but a name that comes up every time coaching opportunities come around,
it's our old pal, Barbecue Bruce Boudreau.
And he wears the stink of playoff lack of success.
And rightfully so.
Eventually, it becomes more of a trend than it does just bad luck.
And this guy cannot get it done in the playoffs,
whether it's bad luck, whether it's goaltending,
whether it's just going up against better teams,
the guy does not have a track record of success in the postseason.
But he has coached teams with a myriad of talent.
He was behind the bench for a long time with the Washington Capitals,
especially when you had Ovechkin's Prime.
And that team hummed along to winning division titles,
winning the president's trophy, winning the conference.
And then they'd run into their old nemesis and the penguins and it would fall apart.
But he is a guy who brings a great attitude.
he clearly knows how to coach top tier talent.
And if worst comes to worst,
he's got a ton of head coaching experience.
And you can see it.
Like, you know, despite the, I guess,
reputation, I guess is the word I'm looking for here.
He got from 24-7 where he's dropping F-bombs left and right
and being a goof like that.
By all accounts, he's a positive head coach.
He's not a guy who cracks the whip.
He's not a guy who tries to kick your butt all the time.
He's just intense and passionate, but players love playing for him.
And if there's a world where he wants to get back into the coaching game,
at the very least, he's worth giving a call to.
He brings the vibes, that's for sure.
I mean, I remember when he was coaching Vancouver before he got fired and they were
doing the Bruce there to this chance when he first got the job.
And he does draw, his teams drive quite a bit of offense when he is the head coach.
And I do think he can bring maybe a little bit of that to the power play.
But so I've just always found it to be a super overrated coach throughout his tenure.
But hey, he could be worth a call it.
I would prefer him over someone like David Quinn.
Here's the thing, though.
Like I know this is cold comfort for a lot of people,
including us as Penguins fans,
but only one team wins the Stanley Cup every year.
31, 30 teams, depending on the season,
all go home disappointed and one of them is having a parade.
And sometimes that's just how the chips fall.
But at the same time, I look at this guy's coaching track record and being able to get the most out of elite talent.
And we're the Pittsburgh Penguins here, man.
We don't hire coaches who preach lockdown defense and conservative styles.
We're the team that picks up the coach that says, especially Mike Sullivan,
because if you remember Mike Sullivan's introductory press conference,
he said, yeah, we want to play the right way.
But we don't want to take the sticks out of our best players' hands.
Yeah, there'll be a bunch more 4, 3, 5, 4, maybe even 6, 5 games next season.
If you have Boudreau and Sullivan on our bench together,
especially with how much offense their teams like to drive overall.
But I think that will do it for the second segment.
Coming up to end the show, Pat and I are going to wish Wheeling a good luck
in their second round series in the ECHL playoffs and give our thoughts on the first round
of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
And I might give Pat just a little bit of crap for the Maple Leafs,
but they've really come back in this series so far against the Bruins.
But it's set up for chaos in Boston on Saturday.
Yes, I can see you doing those weird things with your eyebrows there.
You're not slick, Pat.
It's okay.
But before we get to all that, though, we got to discuss Monopoly Go.
All right, game off.
We got to pause here to talk about Monopoly Go.
I know what you're saying.
Flag on the play.
You already talked about that.
But there's just so much good stuff in this game.
In Monopoly Go, you can team up with friends for time tournaments
where you work together to build up each other's boards.
The more you win together, the more awesome prizes you unlock.
And there's so much to get.
You can get unique stickers.
You can trade with friends to complete albums for big prizes.
You can get cool new playing pieces to travel the boards with.
And hilarious emojis for taunting friends when you smash the buildings or heist their vaults.
Plus, Monopoly Go feels new and exciting every day with constantly changing tournaments and challenges.
A ton include their own unique mini games like digging for treasure or robot machine.
and there's always new time events that help you win big,
like massive multipliers for everything you win or rent frenzies.
There's always something fun to discover and Monopoly Go.
So get off the bench and go download it now,
free on Google Play or the app store, game on.
All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockton Penguins podcast.
I'm one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes,
joined by my host, Patrick Dam.
So before we get to the first round of the playoffs
and how chaotic game seven between the Leafs and the Bruins
is going to be on Saturday night.
We do want to wish Wheeling a very good luck in the Central Division final against Toledo.
Game one is tonight at Toledo 715 to start time.
Game two is also in Toledo.
That will be on Saturday.
By the way, happy Star Wars Day to everyone on Saturday.
May the 4th be with you.
Game 2 in Toledo on Saturday.
And then games 3 and 4 will be back in Wheeling Wednesday, May 8th, Friday, May 10th,
both 710 start times, and then game 5, if necessary, will be on that Saturday.
Saturday, next Saturday, May 11th in Wheeling before the final two games will be in Toledo.
Pat, big series here.
Really want to see if Willing can continue its strong momentum after the first round.
If you like offense, this series is for you because the, and the funny thing is,
this is going to be the unstoppable force meets the immovable object, because the Toledo
walleye and the Wheeling Nailers have combined this season for 500 and 20,
one goals. But then you go and look at goaltending and the Wheeling Nailers have the current
ECHL goaltender of the year. And then right on the other end, while I have last year's
ECHL goalie of the year. So it's two teams who can score and two teams who have great goaltending.
So this is going to be a really fun series. And I brought this up before about Wheeling and Toledo.
this is a straight up rivalry.
These are two teams that their paths cross all the time.
This is a big time rivalry for both these teams.
So when you talk playoffs,
these are the kind of series that make playoffs fun
because there's talent on both sides,
there is a history with both organizations,
and man oh man.
I'm excited for this one because,
along with always saying that you want your minor league teams
to play meaningful hockey,
Yeah, you get that.
But this just has every element of what you would want out of a postseason series.
Agreed.
And if Willing does want to move on to the next round, they're going to need their top players to keep producing.
For example, Jordan Martel in five games, four goals, nine points in those games.
He needs to continue to produce like that.
Justin Adamo, three goals, also nine points in five games.
And then Matt Kutman, three goals, six points in five games.
All three have been awesome for weeks.
in the Kelly Cup playoffs.
I'll be curious to see how they do in the second round against Toledo.
And again, speaking of the playoffs,
we're now going to turn our attention to this Stanley Cup playoffs.
I ask you this.
Are the Toronto Maple Leafs actually going to pull this off?
Or are the Boston Bruins going to break their hearts yet again on Saturday night?
No matter what happens,
we as hockey fans win because it's the ultimate memeable game seven.
It's either for the second year in a row,
the Boston Bruins blow a 3-1 series lead in the first round in lose,
or we get to make the same jokes about the Toronto Maple Leafs
not being able to get over the hump and beat the Boston Bruins.
But if you had to ask me right now,
I do think it favors the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Just because you look at this series,
played at 5 on 5, Toronto's the better team.
They have been the better team for the vast majority of the series at 5 on 5.
The difference is special teams.
The Penguins power play is looking at the Toronto power play in this series and going,
what in the hell are you guys doing?
But we also know it's game seven of a first round playoff series in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
So you know what that means.
Game seven is going to be prison rules.
There is going to be one or two calls each way.
So the Toronto Maple Leafs do have to figure it out on the power play because one power play goal on either side.
could swing the decision of the game.
But overall, I look at the way Toronto has played at five on five in this series.
And they have now beaten Boston twice without Austin Matthews.
And they have played great defensive hockey.
They have played really good on the forecheck and in the offensive zone.
And if you're Boston, you're seeing ghosts at this point.
Because, yeah, you're looking at, we had a 3-1 series lead, sure.
But at this point, you're looking at Toronto.
like what do we have to do to kill this team and nothing for the last few games has worked for them.
That can go back to last year as well.
The Bruins have really struggled these last couple of years to finish a team,
whether it's the Panthers or whether it's the Maple Leafs.
I'm still going to go with the Bruins.
I pick the Bruins in seven.
I'm going to stick with it just because I need to see it in order to actually believe it
when it comes to the Maple Leafs beating the Bruins.
in a seven-game series.
And I am also five-for-five in my playoff series picks right now,
and I want to go six or six before hopefully Vancouver wins.
And then Dallas comes back.
And speaking of that series, that's cinema, my friend.
That is by far, I think, the best series of the first round.
And seeing how Dallas has been able to respond to Vegas after Vegas dominated the first two games
has been a treat.
There's not many teams in the league that can dominate Vegas like this.
but that goes to show why the stars were one of the best teams in the league this year.
Yeah, and I'll get to that in a second.
One last thing on Boston, Toronto.
Or Toronto, Boston has now lost six straight games where they can close out a series.
That is not a good trend for them.
So that is another 800-pound gorilla staring the Boston Bruins in the face.
But you're right on the Dallas-Vegas series.
There is maybe one team in this postseason in the,
the Western Conference.
They can go blow for blow with the Vegas Golden Knights, and that's Dallas.
And full marks to them because you lose the first two games in Dallas to that Vegas team,
and you're thinking, oh, man, our postseason is about to collapse upon itself.
So I'm really excited for that one.
And then I'm really curious to see how Vancouver responds, because this series has been a
vibes roller coaster for Vancouver.
They looked like they were poised to be the team of destiny, three different goalies, all kinds of guys chipping in.
We're going to get through this round.
And now it looks a lot more like a battle.
So that is a, I'm really, really curious to see how Vancouver responds.
They need to.
I thought they were going to win that game five, especially when they took the lead in the third period.
But full credit to Nashville, they battle back, won that game.
And now they'll try to send it back to Vancouver all tied up for game seven.
really need a Canucks Oilers series because I think both fan bases will melt.
That will make me very happy.
And we can say the same for Rangers Hurricanes.
That's going to be awesome.
I can't wait for that series.
A heck of a series.
And if you are a Penguins fan, which I hope you are if you're listening or watching this show,
rude for the hurricanes.
One, no one likes the Rangers here that listens to slash watches this podcast, I feel like.
And number two, we get closer to getting the Hurricanes first round.
pick for this year. So there's two main reasons to root for the hurricanes in that series.
That's going to be awesome. And then Colorado, they moved on, whoever they play in the
second round, whether it's Dallas or Vegas is going to be awesome. I think the second round of
the playoffs is going to be way better than the first round. It's setting up for some electric
matchups. Yeah, the second round is going to greatly outpace the first round. I think at this point,
we kind of figured the first round went the way everybody thought it was going to go.
And, you know, I'm looking forward to the second round more than I was the first because
this year there was a lot of disparity, especially in the east, in the east.
So I'm way more excited for round two than I was round one.
Oh, great.
100%.
But I think that'll do it for this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.
Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this episode.
Pat and I will be back with another show for you all on Monday
and we'll have shows all week next week
with the latest news and updates relating to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
So again, thank you all so much for tuning in.
We really appreciate it.
We'll be back on Monday.
