Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins poor goaltending leads to two tough losses

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

The story of the 2024-2025 Pittsburgh Penguins continued this weekend when, despite playing well, they couldn't get a save from their goalies. Hunter and Patrick begin the show talking about how the Penguins' goaltending problems continued in losses to the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers at PPG Paints Arena. Then, despite the losses, they discuss the effort from Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. They look at how hard they continue to play for the Penguins, especially Crosby, since he's playing hurt. Finally, they look at the week ahead for the Penguins as they'll take on a trio of Eastern Conference teams.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!IndeedNow, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to Indeed.com/LOCKEDON right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply.Trade CoffeeGet 40% off your first order with Trade at drinktrade.com/lockedonnhl. Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR 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 penguins got some rotten goaltending against the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers this weekend. And Pat and now you're going to recap those games. Plus get you all set for the week ahead for the Pittsburgh Penguins 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 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 Hose. joined by my co-host Patrick Damping, follow him on all social media platforms at Send him for Wet. And you can follow the show's Twitter at L.O. Underswainting penguins, of course. Thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Fandul.

Right now, new Fandul customers can get $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. And yes, people, don't worry. Jesse Marshall is going to be on the podcast this week. but he's coming on Thursday. His kid got a bit sick to start the day on Monday. Very unfortunate, but don't worry, people. We have confirmed it with him. He will be here for a Marshall Thursday and hopefully next Monday as well.

But Pat, we have two games to go over today before looking at the week ahead for the Penguins. And two games that kind of sum up the season for the Penguins, if we're being honest. And we have to start with the biggest reason for both losses here. And that is the goaltending. It has been the biggest talking point of the season for the Penguins. and rightfully so. Tristan Jari has been terrible. He got sent down.

He got put on waivers and was sent down. Alex Ndilkevich has been mostly bad throughout the year. He did have that really nice three-week stretch before the break. And then he comes back against the capitals, Pat, and lays a complete egg against them. I mean, he gave up five goals on 14 shots for a 643 save percentage. Yo, Blumquist, not much better coming in for relief. 824 save percentage after that.

Like, you and I were texting. during that game, he was not coming up with any timely saves for the Penguins. I know they did not play well defensively in that game, and I also know that they are not a good defensive team. We have been saying that all year on the podcast, but there comes a point in time where as a goalie, you need to be like, okay, I got you guys at least a couple of times here. Go down there and try to go get one.

He wasn't able to do that in that game against Washington. And the same could be said for Blumquist after coming in relief and on Sunday against the Rangers. That penguin's effort against the Rangers, I felt was one of their better efforts of the season. It was, they were out shooting them 29 to 5 in the second period. And no, people, I am not joking. At one point, the shots in the second period were 17 to nothing. Literally, they were badly outplaying the Rangers.

But A, Egoor Shostorkan is just that dude. But B, the penguin's goaltending just was not able to get the timely saves. Especially in that second period, P.O. Joseph did not handle the puck the right way at the blue line. not like the way he played there. Comes down on a two-on-one. I need a save there from Yoel Blumquist. He shot that from Mars, honestly, man. I'm not trying to be mean about it.

He shot that from look like 30 feet out. I need a save on that one. You have the goal earlier in the game that tied the game in the first period. I know two penguin players go towards one of the Rangers players, leaving Will Cooley coming down the left side, but I still want to save there. It felt like Blumquist should have been able to make that save. And then the Fox one man,

Oh boy, that was just the icing on the cake for how bad his performance was. But the biggest reason once again, why the penguins lost both of these games, Pat, even though I felt like they played mostly fine in these two efforts was the goaltending. It's really the only discussion to be had. I know that everybody wants to galaxy brain themselves into some other take about what went wrong this weekend against the capitals and Rangers. but the long and the short of it is, they didn't get any goaltending. They were the better team for probably 35 minutes on Saturday for more than half the game. And again, I don't want to make excuses for this team's poor defensive play because it's not good.

But here's the thing I want to add to that. It's not catastrophic. It's not to the point where it's such a deficiency that it gets in their way. it's not good, but we have seen, we saw on Saturday against the capitals, they can live with it. But you need to get saves because for 35 minutes, they took it to the capitals. The capitals looked like they were very sleepy out of the break. The penguins had their legs. They were playing a very strong game.

And I have said it on this show before. It's really difficult for a team to put together a 60 minute effort. as skaters when you don't have confidence in your goaltending. When you give, when you give up a softy especially against the caps, when you're tied to two, after a great individual effort by Sidney Crosby, and about four minutes later,

the onslaught begins, Chickren scores twice, Protas scores, then Wilson scores. Three of those four, you look at and go, can we get a save here? Like, what else can we do? And I know that it's the NHL.

I know these guys are well compensated, so they should be willing to put the effort in no matter what, but it's hard to fight against a tide like that. And it sucked them of all the momentum they had. And then it was not quite the same story on Sunday against the Rangers. The penguins pushed for 60 full minutes, and they just didn't get the saves they needed. So I'll start with this.

This is the Alex Nadelcovic experience. This is what happens with him. He'll play really well for two to three weeks, maybe four weeks, and then he regresses again because his ceiling is 1B. His basement is AHL goaltender. And in his time with the penguins, he's been everything in between. He's been a 1B at times where he looks like he can take the reins and be the starter. and he has moments where he looks like he doesn't belong in the league.

And that is what we got on Saturday against the Capitals. He regressed to that absolute worst. Then I also want to be a little bit of a calming influence for what happened on Sunday. Terrible effort by Yoel Blumquist. Probably his worst game as a professional. But this is what happens with young goaltenders. He's 23 years old. He's still learning.

how to be an NHL goalie. You can see the fundamentals are there. He's got great side to side movement. He has great reflexes. His vision is getting better. But it's going to take some time. You're going to have games when Yoel Blumquist looks like he is absolutely ready to be the next guy. And then he's going to have games when he looks like he's not quite ready for prime time.

Sunday was him not quite ready for prime time. But again, he's 23. years old. He's got a great body of work in the American Hockey League. And now the question becomes for Mike Sullivan, for Kyle Dubus, for Jason Spetsa and Amanda Kessel, is this part of the development process? Or do we have to maybe send him back? And I know a lot of people aren't going to like that. But we're going to find out over the next week or two what this is. Is he ready to go and this is just a bump in the road, or does he need to go back to Wilkes-Bair and refine his game?

Again, I know that's going to upset some people to hear, but you have to think longer term with this kid. You don't want to keep him up for the rest of the season if he's struggling this badly, wreck his development, wreck his confidence, and then you're right back to square one. Because the question is, do you want this team to be successful in this retool on the fly

and be ready to roll in two to three years, or do you want to be stuck in the mud for five to six? I hear you. I still think they're going to keep him up for the next week or two and maybe give him more. I don't think it's imminent. I don't think that after this game, you exile him back to Wilkes Bear and dig your grave and bring Jari back.

I think over the next couple weeks, you're going to see him get a few starts here and there. If it's the same results, then you have to really have this discussion. but this is part of the development process of a goalie who's 23 years old. No, I hear you. I just, I think he will get quite a few starts over the next couple of weeks,

mainly because he wasn't getting starts before that, because Ned was so hot. Like he was giving you really solid goaltending before that dud against the capitals. Now that he had that dud, I think I can see Mike Sullivan giving Blumquist a little bit of a runway here. Yeah, I know. He was awful against the Rangers. I think he was the biggest reason why the Penguins lost that game,

even though they badly outplayed a very poor Rangers team for that entire 60 minutes. However, I don't think he's going to play that poorly in most games going forward. I think you can rely on him to be a bit better than that. I mean, obviously, again, the bar is literally on the floor here, people. But I do think you need to give him at least a little bit of run of games here to see what you have in before you can make a decision. Okay, do we send him back down for the rest of the HL season, or do we keep him up for the rest of the NHL season here?

And this kind of leads into another quick discussion, Pat, before we head into the break. I don't really want the Penguins to wreck the development of Blumquist and Moroshoff, but I also want them to potentially bring in a new voice to help them. I was made aware of this yesterday. Andy Kyoto does not have a very good resume outside of coaching the Penguins goalies. He has been the Penguins goaltender coach, Pat, since 2021. He joined the organization June of 2018. He was coaching the Penguins prospect goaltenders in the minor league.

then he was promoted again 40 years ago basically June 2021 so almost four years since then how often have you seen the penguins get consistent average goaltending in a season not very often my friends so i personally think if blumquist if this doesn't change by the end of the season and he continues to be really inconsistent i think it would be time to bring in a new voice for a goaltending coach to see if you can help fine tune his game and to also make sure that you get the the development of Marashov right. He is putting up ridiculous numbers and wheeling. He's been great in Wilkesbury. He has traits that, like, you look at some of the elite goaltenders around the league, like he has traits like those goalies, man, with the way that he plays. I do not want the Penguins to screw up the development of both of these guys. And that's why I think you could look to see a change at that position after the season. Again, I was just made aware of how light his resume is yesterday when I had a person tweet me it. I think it will be time to move on considering that the Penguins goaltending these last few years has not really been good.

Yeah, and it's a real chicken and egg history or history, excuse me, a question for this because how much of this is that Matt Murray had his issues and then fell off? How much of it is Tristan Jari has his issues and fell off? Because we've seen Matt Murray go to Ottawa and then Toronto, and it's kind of been more of the same since he fell apart at the end of his tenure in Pittsburgh. And we don't know how much of it is due to coaching. Now, like you said, if this continues to happen with Blumquist, again, it's one game. So I don't think we need to really have an entire referendum on the state of the

goaltending in the Penguins organization because we could look back at this game against the Rangers in a month and say, we completely forget about it. because he plays well. Otherwise, but I agree, but at the same time, we, we remember that we, they kind of already pressed this button in 2021 when they brought in Kyoto as the goaltending coach because Murray had such a dramatic fall off. And there was also, we kind of forget, because we, we look at them with no pun intended, rose colored glasses, Mark Andre Fleury started to fall off quite a bit in the sense before he left for Vegas. So they've kind of already fired that bullet when it comes to goaltending coaches.

But again, I don't totally disagree with what you're saying. I also, we don't quite have the answer yet because we have to see what happens with Blumquist. If this is the beginning of a downward spiral, then yeah, they got to find a new voice. But it could just be a blip on the radar screen. I hear you. I just was also speaking in general because of the way Jari is game. has fallen off, Ned with how inconsistent he is.

I just think a change of voice in that regard could potentially be needed during the office season. I just want to correct myself, he was hired originally by the Penguins June of 2018, and then he was promoted a goaltender coach just regularly in 2021. So again, four years on this job, but he was hired by the Penguins in June of 2018. So it's been almost seven years, Pat, that he's been with the organization in general. But that would do it for this first segment coming up in the second segment, even though the penguins, these two losses, they help the tank for them.

We still got to discuss a couple cop positives from this game, including Sidney Crosby and the level that he displayed in both of these games. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about our first sponsor, and that is Wonderful Pistachios. Looking for a snack that's both delicious and nutritious, crack into a good source of protein with wonderful pistachios. Wonderful pistachios is one of the highest protein nuts. Each one ounce serving has six grams of protein giving you over 10% of your.

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I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-s, Patrick Tampen. Pat, I did want to say one more thing about the goaltending that I forgot to say during the first segment. I asked you this before we started recording. Do you remember what the Capitals expected goals was at five on five in that game on Saturday? I'm going to say it was probably what, like 2.5 or something?

You're close, but it's lower than that. they scored seven five on five goals they had a 1.88 expected goals for at five on five again people the penguins were horrendous defensively in that game giving up too many odd man rushes but goaltending crushed them in that one and then you look at that game against the rangers they had 2.27 at all situations 2.27 expected goals at all situations at 5 on 5 it was 1.2 4 Rangers still scored three goals at 5 on 5 again the other thing you can't win with sub 7 100 to 800 goaltending in this league, man. I know that's stating the obvious on the show here, people, but you cannot win with this

goal tending. The other thing that I will add, though, to kind of, I don't want to say further the Blumquist discussion, but just something to keep in mind, when he came in on Saturday, the die had been cast. We knew where that game was going. Even if he would have put up a marvelous performance, that game was done and dusted by the time he took over for Alex Nadelcovic. So I don't want people to read too much into Blumquist backup relief performance against

the Capitals. The focus obviously has to be on the way he played Sunday against the Rangers. No, I agree with that. And I'm not sitting here saying I'm giving up on him anything like that. It's a very, and I mean a very small sample. I just hope that he can bounce back from this. And again, maybe the organization can help him out by, you know, changing some philosophy of these with goaltending,

bringing in a couple extra voices and all that stuff. But getting at least to a couple positives, even though Penguins lost both games this weekend. How about Sidney Crosby, man? I honestly felt like there was a chance he was going to miss one, if not both of these games, considering that he played hurt for Team Canada. But he continues to show how loyal he is to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

And even though he's clearly still banged up, he was so good against the Capitals and the Rangers, man. the goal that he scored against the capitals, a vintage Crosby back-in goal store is one of the best back-ins in the league. And loved that Sean McDonough did a nice little tribute to Mike Lang on that call. By the way, I had a nice smile on my face after hearing that call. Can I say this, though?

Yeah. Speaking of McDonough, who I've defended quite a bit, I think he's fine. I don't think he's as bad as everybody makes him out to me. But wasn't a big fan after the Capitals took a long lead in McDonough, said, well, Elvis and a lot of other fans are leaving the building now. I was like, oh, Sean, don't know about that one, buddy. Don't know about that one.

That one, yeah, I agree. That one was a little weird. Again, I just, I liked the, the Mike Lang one with the Crosby goal, but I do remember hearing what he said there. I was like, yeah. Don't like that one. Not the best time for that, but he was so good in that game against Washington all over the ice.

And that continued against the Rangers on Sunday. He was pepper and shasturking, basically every shift he was out. or his line alongside Ricardo, Raquel, and Anthony Vavillier, was just living in the offensive zone. He was so damn good this weekend, man. And for someone who was clearly hurt, and even though he knows the penguins aren't going anywhere this year, he is still playing his tail off every single shift. And again, man, his loyalty should never be questioned. No, I mean, I don't think anybody was.

And if people were, give your head a shake. casual fans sometimes question it for some reason. But I mean, what's left to say about Sidney Crosby in the way he plays? It's 37 too. And there's no, there is no logical reason for him to be playing like this right now because he emptied the tank at the Four Nations face off. He was one of Canada's best players, essentially playing with one good arm. He was throwing hits.

He was a monster on the four check. He was great defensive. and he like you said, I would not have been shocked if they have given him a day off at some point this weekend, whether it was against the caps of the Rangers. And instead he plays both games. He's a force in both games. And I just, it's why that I, it's why I have more faith than some in this retool on the fly, because he is going to elevate every chance he gets.

and he's going to elevate the players around him. And then you can't discount the intangible factor of it, where you're going to have a lot of borderline guys over the next couple years, whether they're draft picks, young players acquired via trade, you name it. We're going to see some younger players come in over the next couple years. And who better to learn how to be a professional from than Sidney Crosby? these guys might never become franchise players

they might never become all stars but he's going to get the most out of them because you hear the stories all the time it's the classic Colby Armstrong quote of Sidney Crosby trains like there's a league better than the NHL that he wants to reach

and he's still doing this at 37 and he would be well within his rights to take some days off to say, ah, screw it. I'm not going to do practice today. I'm not going to do the training today. I'm not going to go to the weight room today. But he's in there every day doing it.

And if you're a 21-year-old second round pick who's trying to make their bones in the NHL and you see 37-year-old Sidney Crosby hitting the weights just as hard as you were at 20, you're going to look at him and go, well, what's my excuse? So I think when you put it in the totality of where this franchise is, I think having him is both good for your on-ice product and for your organizational development. Yeah, and especially if they can go out there this summer and get a younger player to, especially if they, for example, flip that extra first that they get for a younger player that can help especially well into the future as they continue this reboot on the fly,

which in my opinion, I think that's more of what this is. It's kind of more of a rebuild on the fly where they're going to try to be good in, you know, two, three years instead of five to ten. I had so many people coming into my mentions, all these casual fans this weekend, just, you know, just for my take on the P.K. Subbin and stuff, because he was going after a Kyle Dubus and them. And I was just like, okay, man, like, clearly over the last year, like they're doing a rebuild on the fly. They're just not going to be doing a rebuild. That's going to take five, 10 years. Like, you don't really see a lot of those big, big rebuilds

as much anymore in the league. Right now, like, there's a few that you see going on right now, but I feel like you see a lot more rebuilds right now that are taking a lot less time than that. And that's what I think the penguins are going for with this reboot on the fly where I think next year you might see more the same as this year. And then maybe the year after that or the year after that is when they start maybe getting into this contending window a little bit. And I think if they can again, go out and get a young player this off season can, you know, learn under the core players. And I think that could be really beneficial for the long term future of the franchise because I think again, Kyle Dubus is going to be. really busy this summer with a lot of moves. And then another thing I want to discuss from these two games,

Evgeny Malkin, the same thing, man. He was tremendous in both games. Every time he comes back from an injury, it doesn't matter how long he's been out. He's flying. Like he has his legs. Like, yeah, when he plays, you know, 30 to 40 games in row,

his legs start to go a little bit a bit. But again, he's 38 years old here, people. He's not going to have the legs that he had in 2009, 2012, heck, even 2016, which again crazy out's been nine years at this point since 2016. But still, he was flying all over the ice. I love that he was able to win that puck battle to open the scoring for the penguins on Sunday against the Rangers. Really nice stuff.

But he was knife and through dudes like it was nothing setting up other players for great scoring chances. Heck, even making some really nice defensive plays in his own zone. He was great for the penguins in these two games. Yeah. You know, we make the joke all the time when it comes to. to Crosby and Malkin of, oh, this was a vintage performance. Yeah. We love to say it was a vintage performance, but it really was from Gino this weekend.

You could see the jump in his step. You could see the confidence with the puck anytime he possessed it. And the biggest thing that Malkin was doing this weekend, both against the capitals and the Rangers, that really told you he was feeling it. He was going to the net. When Hvgeny Malkin is really feeling it, he lives in front of the net. It's an underrated, underdiscust part of Malkins game. But when he is truly on one, he drives to the net with the puck.

When he doesn't have it and he sees a scoring opportunity, he drives directly to the top of the blue paint. He was there all weekend long. You saw it in his goal against the Rangers. It was a bit of a broken play in a tap-in for him. But where was he right in front of Igor Shisterkin tied up with a Rangers' defense? defenseman and he's right there to tap that puck in. So that's a very encouraging sign for Evgeny Malkin that he had that trademark jump when he was possessing the puck.

And then when he didn't, he was not afraid to go to the front of the net. So great effort from Gino this weekend. Yep, a couple other players I did want to shout out from this weekend. I thought Cody Glass played really well against the Rangers. He was getting a lot of quality chances. That one that went off Shisterkin's blocker, I still don't know how he's that by the way. I mean,

that was a wicked one-timer from glass. Justirkin, again, I tweeted a man, he was on bath salts in that game. He was the only reason why the Rangers won that game.

Also, of course, with Lumpk was playing poorly, but Chisurkin was on one after getting chased against the Sabres the night before. And I also will say once again, that Rangers team stinks. Like, they are not good. I don't know how Chris Yuri is going to add to that team.

By the deadline, I think he'd be better off selling off some assets. I know they just traded for J.T. Miller, but the way they've been playing lately would not look to add to that roster with that. But I also thought Ryan Shea, really nice game against the Rangers, gets two goals. One, obviously a bit lucky.

Get that bounce going off someone's butt going in the back of the net. But I still felt like he was defending hard in that game. And I do think Mike Sullivan will maybe give him another game here this week. However, Pat, this leads me to my final point of this segment. I want them to get Koya Chana some games this week. You claimed him off waivers. You didn't play him this week. I was kind of like, okay,

you want to get some practice time with him in. I get that. Going forward, though, I think he needs to get in this week. I think you got to see what you have in this kid. Well, it's probably going to happen depending upon the health of Matt Griswick, who left the game after a absolutely dirty hit from Matt Rampay. I don't care what excuse you try to make. This isn't me trying to make hockey soft or anything like that.

He hits Matt Grislich in a vulnerable position, drives his head, into the glass and knocks him out of the game. I don't care that he's a million feet tall. It's not an excuse. If you're big and they're calling elbows on you, then yeah, I can hear the excuse because everybody just comes up to your elbow. There's nothing you can do about that. But this was not one of those cases.

So I'm with you on that. I think that Colichonach should be getting an opportunity here in the next week. You've had plenty of practice time with him now. And you're probably at least for maybe this week going to be without Matt Grizzlick because that was not a good look and hit for him. So I doubt we'll see him in either of the Flyers games. So that probably does open the door for Colichonok to get a look on the blue line. Yeah. And I really do hope that Grizzlic is not seriously her, obviously just because I want to see him back in the lineup quarterback in the top power play unit.

But also he's going to be one of their best trade chips in two weeks. And no people. I'm not joking. He is going to be one of their best trade ships. That's someone that can bring back a mid-round pick, something like that. Like, Raquel is obviously the biggest one, rightfully so, with the season that he's having. And I'll again say that I only trade him if you can get a King's Ransom. But if you don't trade him, Grizzlick is probably your second best trade ship that's going to be available.

Him and Anthony Bavillier, at least for the two UFA. So just really hope everything is okay with him. Because, yeah, that was a nasty hit. I might say a little bit of a hot take here. I was okay with the two-minute minor. I did not think the five-minute major was going to stick. I'm more curious to see if the Department of Player Safety asked him for a hearing just because of his history with them. So just curious about that.

Again, it might be a hot take to some, but I was actually okay with them reducing that to a two, even though they hit, you don't need it in today's game. I just, that's the big thing. But I think that will do it for this second segment. Coming up to end the show, Pat and I are going to look at the way. week ahead, including the Home and Home series against the Philadelphia Flyers. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about our final sponsor, and that is Fandall. When the game tips off, the NBA action is just getting started, and there's no better place to

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$5 bet wins. Just visit fandul.com to join today. That's fandle.com for your shot out of $150 in bonus bets, make every moment more. Thandall, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. All right, we're back here on this episode of the locked on penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-s, Patrick Dam. Well, Pat, if you like rivalry weeks, well, this week is definitely one for you because the rivals will keep coming to town. Penguins will play a home and home against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Starting on Tuesday, they'll travel to Philadelphia to play them, and then the flyers will come here on Thursday to play the Penguins, and that'll be the final two meeting between the Penguins and the Flyers this season before they'll play again next season. Two teams in a pretty similar spot in the standings, pretty similar spot when it comes to draft-lawity projections. And yes, people, don't get it twisted. There is a real chance at the end of the season the Penguins could get a top five pick in next year's job, especially if it keeps going the way it has been recently,

and especially if they keep getting this type of goal-tending. They literally might get a top-five pick in the NHL draft. And again, man, if they do, I'm all for especially if you can get an impact player that can make this team for next season and be a big key player for the foreseeable future. I would, again, sign me up for that. I know you would very much support that as all. But those are two games this week. They will also play the Boston Ruins this weekend. It's on Saturday, 3 o'clock start time.

And then they'll also play at home against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday, the third meeting against the Maple Leafs this year. This will be the second game against Boston. remember the penguins beat the Bruins in Boston. Very rare feet, by the way. It feels like it's very unorthodox for the penguins to win in Boston. Though I will say they did beat Boston in Boston last year. They did it this year as well. But before that, it's just usually very rare when the penguins win in Boston.

They had a very long losing streak during my teenage years there where every time they went to Boston, they just never won. But two really good teams coming to Pittsburgh this week. Well, I shouldn't even say two really good teams. Boston is okay this year. Toronto, they are very good, Stanley Cup contender. But the Flyers, a team that's right with you in the standing. So if you're looking at a more optimistic view in terms of wins,

those two games against the Flyers, very winnable. Same against the ruins with the way they've been playing. Maple Leafs game, though, that's going to be a bit tough. But if you're looking for the other approach when it comes to the draft lottery, then you're just hopefully expecting losses. But the schedule is honestly not that difficult this week for the Penguins. No, you saw how well they played against the Flyers right before the four nations break. It was a game they probably deserve to win because they pretty much dominated the game.

And it was one brain fart by Yoel Blumquist in that game that led to the loss. So you know this is a team that you can beat. So you should play with that kind of confidence. As for the other two games, I mean, Boston's not that great this year. they've really regressed they i'm surprised at how far they've fallen i thought they were i didn't think they were much better than this but i didn't think they were going to fall this far down or that's their thing and they're just they're too top heavy they're not deep enough i'm curious to see what they do at the deadline here i think and it's in the other thing i'll say is they're they

usually play the maple leaf's pretty tough and that's a very very good team you know memes aside it's still a very talented, very good team. Craig Barube actually has them playing a style of hockey that I think will be conducive to getting at least over the first or second round hump when it comes to the playoffs. I don't know if I'm ready to call them a contender yet because until they do it, they haven't done it. But this looks like a Maple Leafs team that has actually sort of started to figure out that you can run show in the regular season, but it's different game when the start and they're playing a very playoff style hockey as of the last couple of months. So it's going to be a difficult week because throw the record books out, even though

it's not the same as it used to be. It's still a rivalry when you play the Flyers. They always play Boston tough even if they come up short. And it's the same with the Maple Leafs. So this could be a real make or break week for this penguin season. If they can come out ahead, yeah, I'm not suddenly going to say they're back in the race. but if they kind of lay an egg all week, that might finally be the last nail in the coffin for this season.

Well, I think we've probably already reached that point, you know, the final nail in the coffin unless they win all four games this week, which, hey, no, always a chance, but still, I don't think that's going to happen. But I think in terms of, you know, draft lottery stuff, for example, if they lose all four games this week, that does get them at least closer to a bottom five finish or potentially even a bottom three finish. they keep losing. Heck, you know, there's a lot of different things that could happen this week. But the moral of the story is two very winnable games against the Flyers.

The Penguins have played the Flyers really well this season. We all know Cindy Crosby loves torching the Flyers. He did not play in Philadelphia in that last game. Neither did have Guinea-Malkin. I still felt like that was one of the Penguins better efforts of the season. They'll then play Boston, who they've already beaten this year. But again, Boston, that's a very winnable game. Swayman hasn't been as good this year compared to recent years.

They're not getting enough scoring. And then the Maple Leafs, you know what you're going to get with them. especially with how much offense they bring. They are also very stingy in their own zone. Goaltending has at least been okay for them this year. But still, it's going to be a really fascinating week for this team. And also, will we see any trades for the Penguins this week? The deadline is now 11 days away, my friends.

We're about a week and a half out. So you could be seeing Kyle Dubus start to do some business this week, especially if they do keep losing. But I think that will do it for today's episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for take the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with another show for you all on Tuesday to preview this first game against the Flyers and discuss any other Penguins news as well.

So for Patrick Damp, I am Hunter Hodes. Thank you all so much for tuning in, and we'll be back on Tuesday.