Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins power play falters again in SO loss, can they redeem themselves on Monday night?

Starting point is 00:00:00 The power play blew it again for the Penguins on Saturday night against the Flyers. And for today's episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast, Pat and I are going to go over what went wrong on Saturday night, plus what the Penguins can get right for Monday night's rematch. You're Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:26 Welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, join by my co's Patrick Dan. You can follow him on Twitter at Cundrum for Wet, and you can follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O. Onscore Penguins, of course, you want to thank all of you for making this year first listen slash watch of the day.

Starting point is 00:00:54 We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Sleeper, download Sleeper app, and use promo code locked on NHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit, terms and conditions apply, see Sleeper's terms of use for detail. So, Penguins fall to the Flyers in a shootout on Saturday Night. They at least get a point, even though they probably didn't deserve to get that point after how they played in regulation. But let's start with the unit that we have criticized quite a bit on the show in the unit that everyone is criticizing right now.

Starting point is 00:01:27 And that is the power play. Yes, we are probably going to repeat ourselves at least maybe once during this episode when it comes to the power play. it continues to get worse and worse and worse. They had a golden opportunity in the overtime. A minute left, the flyers take a really dumb penalty, and you have the four on three, nope, can't score. You also have a golden opportunity when you're leading in the third period to extend your lead, put the flyers away after the penguins took the lead earlier than third period.

Starting point is 00:01:59 Nope, they give up a shorthand-a goal because they can't do anything on that unit. They had other opportunities earlier in the game to get a goal with that unit. No, poof. It vanishes, gone. Nothing doing there. This unit, again, continues to lose them games. And I'm still honestly stunned at this point that no one has paid the price for this unit. And I'm not even talking player personnel-wise because I do think most of this is on the players.

Starting point is 00:02:25 But I'm still getting to the point where I'm a bit stunned that Todd Reardon has not lost his job yet with how bad this unit is. because that's, I think, the easiest thing to do in this situation is to fire the power play coach and get someone else in here who can at least coach up this unit because you can interchange the players any which way. I mean, we saw that during practice on Sunday. Chris Lattang was back with the top unit, which, hey, I'm down to try that as well. You gave up on it way too quickly during the preseason. I'm fine with that. But it's just, it's mind-boggling that they haven't made a change for at least one of the coaches because Reardon, his system hasn't worked this year. It wasn't working last year.

Starting point is 00:03:02 I don't know how he continues to have a say or coach the power play or even just beyond the staff, I guess. And I guess I'm still maybe a little hesitant to fire. Mike Sullivan, I know we'll probably get into that in a little bit. But this power play shouldn't be this bad. I know I've said that so many times. And with that, at least one of these heads should roll. someone should be losing their job and it should be at least tarbiered in this case for how bad

Starting point is 00:03:30 the power play is. I think that's where I just want to start with this conversation, but I'll hand it over to you. I'm just laughing because I'm thinking about the text I sent to you after the game Friday where I was like, yeah, like I'm so resigned about the power play at this point that what I texted to you, I was like, fine, do it, whatever. Like, but at this point, I don't know if like God, Allah, Muhammad, whoever you worship, the rock, like, could fix this power play. Right. But the other thing I want to say on that is I got to give a shout out to our pal,

Starting point is 00:04:01 Danny Shirey from breakdowns and breakaways, his substack that you should be subscribed to if you aren't already. He does incredible work. He got a question about it in his mailbag and basically said, like, this isn't football. This isn't the offensive coordinator. Todd Reardon isn't on the bench just coaching the power play. He also helps with the defense.

Starting point is 00:04:22 He also mainly coaches the defense, which if you've watched this season, the defense has been five on five in the penalty kill, pretty damn good. So like he's doing a very admirable job there. And it's also the matter of the fact that it's not just him coaching the power play. It's not like Sullivan and Volucci just go, okay, it's special teams time and practice.

Starting point is 00:04:45 Everybody go down there. He's on the power play with Todd. And we're going to go drink coffee and hang out up top with Kyle Dubus. That's not how this works. Yeah. Yeah, maybe he's the. point man. Maybe he's the lead and he's coaching him up, but it's not like it's just him. Plus, and I think I've said this on the podcast, I can't remember or not anymore, but you can't

Starting point is 00:05:08 coach a killer instinct. You just can't. You either have a killer instinct or you don't. It's just, it's inherent. And it's wild to me that I'm saying that about a power play unit that now features four first, probably first ballot Hall of Famers that, and maybe that changes tonight. Maybe they go out, they get a power play, and they have Crystal Tang on this unit, and they score in 15 seconds, and it's efficient, and it looks great. Like, maybe that happens. I don't know if I'm huff and copium on that one or not, but that's okay. But like, that's my biggest issue with this power play is that they have no urgency. They have no killer instinct. And you can't coach that. You can't you can't X's and O's your way to, oh, look, we can

Starting point is 00:05:58 bury this Flyers team on this power play with a goal. There's just no coaching for that. So I'm not saying he needs to keep his job. I'm not saying he's saved his job. You know, good, great, whatever, get rid of them. But right now, I'm back to my initial thought of the onus is on the players. It's the coaches have responsibility. Absolutely. But right now the onus is on the players. I don't disagree with that because the coach, I don't think, is telling all these players to, hey, let's go out there, do all this perimeter play, not get really any shots from the slot or high danger area, and just fire the puck from the point. I don't think Tar Reardon is going out there and saying that to these players. I don't think he's also going out there and saying,

Starting point is 00:06:38 hey, let's not have a net presence in front of the net. He's not saying that. But I just don't think the players are listening to him at this point. And that's another main reason why. I think they might have to make a change there to bring someone in who I think they would at least listen to it because it doesn't look like they're listening to him at all right now. That's just another reason why I would make that change. It just feels like they're trying to go out there, do what they want, try to Harlem Globe trotter the puck into the net when a lot of times less is more. And just going off what you said about Danny, he put a stat out there this morning that

Starting point is 00:07:11 is honestly nuts. Evgeny Malkin has the most power play points on the team this year with six. that is tied for 69th in the league. Shout out to Danny for putting out that stat, and he has all the other penguin player stats there. I'm not going to put all those out there. But six points on the power plate. That's the most on the team, Pat?

Starting point is 00:07:30 What are we doing here? That's not acceptable with how much talent this unit has. And we keep saying it, right? This team is great at five on five. They have an amazing penalty kill. They've gotten the goaltending. We keep saying if they can just get a league average power play, they can win games.

Starting point is 00:07:49 And I feel like that remains the case because as long as this unit continues to stink and lose them games, you're going to see them stay with this same record. And I know the Penguins didn't play that well overall against Flyers. We're going to get into that in the second segment. But if you continue to get results like this on the PowerPlay, you're not going to make any headway in the standings, even though the standings are super tight right now. It's the same thing every time with this unit.

Starting point is 00:08:14 They come out there. It's hard for them to game the zone. They're overpassing. They're taking shots from the perimeter. They're not getting any shots from the slot area. There's no net front presence, no Patrick Cornquist there to really disrupt the goalie. It's a broken unit through and through. Well, you can make the changes to the personnel all you want.

Starting point is 00:08:32 We saw Chris LaTang is going to hopefully be on the first unit. I actually would like to see more of that. They went away from that too fast after some struggles in the preseason. Who cares about the preseason, honestly? Like that doesn't even matter. You can maybe have Latang run it from the top, put Carlson on that. left board spot excuse me see how that goes and then maybe if that doesn't work i mean you're going have to throw it i guess in a blender but until i honestly think a change is made with weirdin i i

Starting point is 00:09:03 honestly think that you're going to see the same stuff it's just it continues to be maddening that they won't make a change up there i can't totally disagree on any of that and i want to go back to what you said real quick before we head to the second segment it's the perimeter play that's killing me because look at what happened late in the game against the flyers how they tied the game they backed the flyers in they got to the front of the net and jake gensel scored a dirty goal yes and it tied the game to get it to overtime and i said it on twitter during the game on friday this team lives in front of the net at five on five and short-handed. And for some reason, as soon as the power play starts, they become allergic to the front of the net.

Starting point is 00:09:50 And I don't get it because you watch the way they played on Friday at five on five. And yeah, the analytics aren't great for them and the underlying numbers aren't great for them. But if you go watch back and watch the film, they were in front of the net most of the game. They were going for, they were going for second and third chances. They were trying to get into Aeson or Eason or however you say his name's Erson. However, they were trying to get in his kitchen. And that's a good thing because he's a younger, unproven goalie, and that's how you beat goalies like that. And they just wouldn't do it on the power play.

Starting point is 00:10:26 So eventually you have to do something to change that mentality. And I don't know how you change that, whether it's coaching, whether it's personnel. But the fact that they turn into a completely different team when the power play comes is a big problem. it honestly kind of is funny that they can do this on a six on five situation put someone right in front the net jake ansell but yet when they have the power play whether it's a five on four whether it's a four on three heck whether even it's a five on three at times this season and i will say that i will say this about the overtime power play i liked what i saw because they did what you're supposed to do they just had 5,000 shots missed the net right they missed the net which happens

Starting point is 00:11:09 but they backed the Flyers power play in and got those mismatches that they needed. Like that was how that's done. They made it so that they, while they did stay to the perimeter a little bit, they spread the Flyers P.K. out and then backed them in so that you got those mismatches and they just don't want to do that at five on four. It's really strange. And as I said, just before, you know, you chimed in as well. And they won't have that net front presence on the five on four.

Starting point is 00:11:38 yet they'll do it in that situation a bit more and yet they'll do it on a six on five and usually this team stinks on six on fives so it's just it's hilarious that they can do it there but they won't do it on the five one four i don't know man that this unit i know we talk about it so often on the show and how bad it is hopefully hopefully at some point this unit can somehow turn around maybe that gets a little bit of copium there but i'm just i know i'm tired of it as well the talent's there they yeah the talent is there the will just needs to be there there. Yep. I think you said it best there, but that would do it for this first. I've been coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to get into more of our thoughts on the game as a whole and how the Penguins really just didn't play well overall. How they were kind of lucky to even get a point at this game before previewing Monday's game in the final segment. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about Sleeper, which is the official daily fantasy app of the locked on NHL network. Sleeper is a number one choice for daily fantasy sports and especially daily fantasy hockey because of Sleeper, you can win one. times your cash in daily fantasy hockey contest. You can do this by yourself. You can do this with

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Starting point is 00:13:44 on this edition of the show. I thought the Penguins kind of played like crap for basically that entire game. I thought there were moments when they were taking it to the flyers, but for the good majority of the game, I did not like the way the Penguins played. I thought they were very fortunate to get a point, especially with the way they were playing in the third period. You give up that short-handed goal, and then you give up the power play goal, and that's a Penguins PK that's been really good as of late. They were really lucky to get that tying goal with 20 seconds left, thanks to Jake Gensel. They just weren't doing enough in the offensive zone.

Starting point is 00:14:17 And yes, we can also give credit to the Flyers. I will say this type of game is exactly why I hate John Tororella hockey. It is super boring. It's not fun to watch. He has all of his players block shots. It's low event hockey. That's how he coaches his teams. It's been like that for a long time.

Starting point is 00:14:32 This was just a nice reminder of why I hate that style of play. It's just not the type of hockey that I like to watch. That said, and usually the Penguins have success against Torrella coach teams. They didn't in this one. And they just weren't connecting on their passes. They weren't forechecking good enough. They weren't playing good enough defensively. This was another game, Pat, where I'll throw this out there for you.

Starting point is 00:14:54 Ryan Graves not finished the game on the top pairing. He was down on the bottom pairing. John Ludwig was up there with Chris Lettang. And I've actually liked what I've seen from Ludwig with Latang these last couple of games. That started to be at least a little bit of a problem that Ryan Graves is not playing well. I mean, as each game goes by, I continue to think that they missed on that evaluation over the offseason after I was decently excited about it. I'll admit that. I was high on that signing. I'm looking like I might take the L on that. That's for sure.

Starting point is 00:15:20 Underline numbers wise, the Flyers had seven high danger chances. They had 17 scoring chances for, 12-20 chances against. They also led in shot attempts. Just not good enough of a performance from the Penguins in a game where you needed to send a message to the Flyers. saying, you know what, you're not good enough to be with us right now, but the penguins, they weren't able to do that and it ended up costing them in the game. Yeah, I mean, I'm going to disagree a little bit. I don't think they played as bad as people think. I think that this, like I said it on the on the show Friday, it's the most Tortorella team to ever Tortorella. It is.

Starting point is 00:15:57 Flyers. And when you play that kind of game with them and you don't get impatient and do things that will lead to a lack of success against a low event team, it makes you think your team is playing like crap. But I don't think they were as bad as people think they weren't good. Let's not get that twisted. Like there is a world where a team like the penguin should go out in dog walk, a team like flyers, but I don't think they were as bad as everybody thought. But again, you know, there were many moments in that game where they had chances to take over or play better and they just didn't. As for Graves, yeah, it's not been good to start.

Starting point is 00:16:43 However, I will say this. It, we've seen this before. We have seen a defenseman who they bring in from outside, specifically New Jersey, if I remember correctly. And their first year is rough. I'm talking about Paul Martin. If you remember the Paul Martin experience, the first season he was with the Penguins, he could do absolutely no right. And that's not just the fans being unfair. He was genuinely bad his first season with the Penguins. And then the rest of the way out, he was one of the best, most reliable defensemen the Penguins had. So I'm not going to throw the baby out with

Starting point is 00:17:21 the bathwater on Ryan Graves yet. Sometimes a defenseman of his ilk struggles in the first season with a new team in a new system. And then from there, it's smooth sailing. So the jury's still out for me on him. But in the immediate, yes, he has been very concerning. So, and that's obviously all we're worried about is the immediate. We're not worried about the long term. So other than that, though, I mean, I got to hit my hat to Tristan Jari. I thought he played really well. He kept him in that game. And listen, it's just, it's one of those games where you know you're going to be in for a boring slug fest. You know this is going to be a where you're going to get three, four, five chances max and you have to take advantage of them. And they just didn't. And that's a

Starting point is 00:18:07 problem. And they only had three high danger chances at five on five for that game. That's another problem for me. That's not good enough in my opinion. And again, I understand that John Trullo plays a very low-end system, his team, like, his teams, excuse me, they like to block a lot of shots. I get that. The only three high danger chances, especially after the win, that massive win that you had over the Tampa Bay Lightning, and it looks like the Penguins maybe broke the lightning with how they played against the Dallas Stars. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:18:32 From the weekend, that's still not good enough, though. Three high danger chances, you have to be better in that regard. And overall, the third period, when you take a lead like that, you need to defend it, especially when you get that power play, you've got to put them away there. And even on the off chance that you don't, you still can't give up a shorthand going. It's funny, I said, off chance that you don't because the ping was really having scored the power play at all this season. So I probably should have said.

Starting point is 00:18:59 And when you probably don't, you still have to defend that lead, not give up a shorthand an opportunity, and win that game at five on five, try to get a big goal to make it 3-1 at some point later on if you don't score on that power play. The fact that they let them get back in the MAA loud, not one, but two breakaways. to owe and tippet to tie that game, that's not good enough there. They weren't responsible enough in their own zone. And then the power play goal late in the third period, this just seemed like a recipe for a loss in regulation

Starting point is 00:19:30 because the penguins weren't playing that well in that period. But I also just didn't see enough in the first period. I didn't see enough in the second period. I want to see a much better effort on Monday night. I definitely hear what you're saying overall. I just think I may be a little more down on the performance than you are. Well, and we'll talk about here in a couple of minutes what to do tonight, but the tippet breakaways. That's a prime example of something you can't do against the Flyers team.

Starting point is 00:19:56 And I don't mean the obvious of give up a breakaway. You don't want to give up a breakaway against any team. But both of those breakaways were from the fact that, like you said, this is a Torteralea team. You know what their favorite thing, you know what his favorite thing in the world is? He needs it almost as much as he needs to breathe. Blocking shots. So unless you have a 1,000, sure open lane from the point do not shoot from the point because they will block it and it will lead to a quick out like it did with Tippett and lead to a breakaway. So if I'm a cherry picking by the way from Owen Tippett on that goal. He was totally cherry picking. It was a half of a cherry pick though because they knew what they were going to do. They played right into the thing the flyers wanted them to do.

Starting point is 00:20:39 They took a shot from the point and that was Tippett's cue to go because they were going to block it. So if you're Mike Sullivan or the rest of the coaching staff tonight, you tell the defense, listen, unless you have a completely clear open lane, shots from the point have to be few tonight because they are going to try to block shots to kickstart their breakout. And that will leave us at a disadvantage. So be smart with the puck when you have it at the point. Right. I hear you on that. I'd rather obviously get clean uncontestant shots from the slot compared to from the point because they're going to sell out to block those shots. Last thing I'll say on this game before we move to a preview for the final segment. Obviously, I'm not a big shootouts fan. I have said that many times on the show well before you joined as a co-host, Pat. I just remember a time where the Penguins actually used to deacon shootouts, but yet they won't do that anymore.

Starting point is 00:21:32 The Sean Gensurier goal was honestly really nice. That move that was gorgeous. I will put that. And I would love for the Penguins to even try that type of move in a shootout. And I know you're seeing fewer shootouts usually each season. Now the three-on-three overtime, and, you know, depending on what they do with three-on-three going forward, you may see even fewer shootouts next year and the year after that. But when shootouts do occur, this team just can't ever win one.

Starting point is 00:21:59 And that's so weird, man, because they used to be automatic in shootouts. And you know, part of that was Mark Andre Fleury. I will say that. He's probably the best goaltender in shootout history, in my opinion. But it also had players on a penguin. actually making moves on goalies and not just coming down and firing a dumb little wrist shot. For example, Cindy Crosby, he used to be great in shootouts. But it feels like every time he comes onto the ice now, he misses because he does one of two things.

Starting point is 00:22:27 He either tries to fire it, blocker a glove side, or he goes five hole. It's literally one of those two things. And at least you had, I believe it was Gensel that made at least a little bit of a move. But outside of that, no one else decided to do anything. thing. And maybe I guess Erson came out a little aggressive and maybe the Penguins weren't expecting that. But still, at least try to make a move in the shootout. I don't want to try to sound like I'm an old man yelling at clouds here. But it is frustrating that a lot of the players nowadays on the Penguins just want to come down and fire this low percentage risk shot that's just not going

Starting point is 00:23:03 to do anything. Yeah, I mean, you were right about Gensel. He acknowledged that Erson was playing aggressive. He was. He made the right deke. He just missed the net. He had. Adam beat. He acknowledged rightfully the aggression that Erson was using and pulled him to the side. He just missed the net. But give me more of those deeks. If one player is doing it, that's cool. But it feels like no one else on the team wants to do it. And you're right. And you're right about Crosby. Like as much as I love him, the book is out on him on shootouts. Goleys know what he's going to do. He's going to come down. He's going to try to open you up and beat you five hole. And they're just selling out to that. So he's got to develop

Starting point is 00:23:42 another move. Right. And as I said, he'll either go blocker or glove side. It's literally one of those two things. It's a shot to those sides or it's a shot five-hole. And he just doesn't want to deak anymore, even though he used to do this all the time as a younger player. But I don't think I can complain too much about the shooter anymore. You don't really see them that often. But I guess it is a little frustrating that they used to be so automatic in them and then they just really can't win them as often anymore. But that would do it for the second segment. Coming up to end the show, Pat and I are going to get into some keys as to how the penguins can balance back against the flyers on Monday night to try to get two points in regulation. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about Indeed.

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Starting point is 00:25:23 All right here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my host, Patrick Dam. So Penns Flyers again tonight, Monday night, this time in Philadelphia, the Wales Fargo Center. So I'm going to hand it over to you, man. what do you think the Penguins need to do to get back in the wind calm for this one against a team that they have played pretty well as a wait, but obviously didn't get the

Starting point is 00:25:46 result on Saturday night. I mean, obviously they just got to be better at five on five. If they can have the power play at least work a little bit, that will be good. I want to see them get the same goal tending. I'm not really sure who's starting at least at this time. I'm recording this at about 11, 11, 15 on Monday morning. But it all starts really with the 5 on 5 play. That has to be better for a little bit. I'm going to hand this over to you.

Starting point is 00:26:08 I'm not going to go X as and O's. I already said the part about no shots from the point. Just because you got to be careful with the Tortorella team that loves to block shots. But speaking of Tororella, he gave you the bullet and board material. He called you out after the game. When asked why they won the team, do you hear what he said? Yep. Because we have balls.

Starting point is 00:26:28 Yep. And while it was, yes, a compliment of his team saying his team is tough, that's him implicitly saying that they think you're soft. They don't think you can hang. They don't think you're a team that while is very talented and very good, isn't a threat. And that's what you just said about your team, your rival. And if that doesn't get you fired up to go play this team, nothing will.

Starting point is 00:26:54 And I talked about this before they went into Anaheim and they responded very well with that game. If you can't get yourself ready for tonight's game, don't bother coming out of the locker room. Don't bother because you shouldn't be here. And this isn't just some, this isn't just some West Coast team that handed you a tough loss on home ice when you were struggling.

Starting point is 00:27:18 This is a rival. This is a rival. And it is a team in your division that you are now behind. So you have to get up for this one. You have to be ready for this one. And listen, if nothing else,

Starting point is 00:27:33 You saw last game that when you don't play your best, you still took this team to overtime. Now if you guys actually show up and play your best, you're probably going to boat race this team. You just have to be willing to show up and do it. And going off what you said, you know, that speech worked, Pat, for the Anaheim game. It worked. And now you're going into a game against one of your top rivals. And it looked like at times that the rivalry was starting to come back in this game on Saturday night. There was some chippiness between those two teams, you know, Deloree, Ludwig.

Starting point is 00:28:03 A couple other players. That's always big. But overall, you know, for this one, again, I just want to see a better effort at five on five. You can't be giving up seven high danger chances to this team. You can't only have three high danger chances yourself. Get to the front of the net. A couple of the Penguins' goals, or at least one of them, and that game against the

Starting point is 00:28:23 Flyers, was one of the penguins just firing the puck to the net for the lead. And honestly, it was the same for the Crystal Tang goal as well. Well, Tang fired it. It went off Travis Sandheim's stick. went past Erson. That's the type of bounce that you need. And then the first Gensel goal, the one that made it two to one in the third period, it was just Gensel getting a friendly bounce off a skate and in the net. Those are the type of goals that I think are going to be required to beat this Flyers team on Monday night. Fire anything to the net when you see a shooting lane

Starting point is 00:28:55 because the penguins, they got a bounce or two in that game on Saturday night. That's big. And if you can get another one in this game and also get some clean looks and beat, whether it's Erson or Carter Hart, you can go out there and win this game or maybe even boat race them. That's where I'm going to be looking for with this one because at times, they did go to the dirty areas. They did fire the puck when they had the shooting lanes, but a lot of other times they didn't. If you do that a bit more, they can definitely win this game. I've already discussed the power play ad nauseum on this show. I'm not going to say it again. If you can continue to get good goaltending as well, obviously from Tristan Jari or Alif.

Starting point is 00:29:30 and Delkevich, they can also do it. I also want to see the PK be a little bit better. I thought they were a little, I guess a little lackluster against the Flyers. I didn't really like the power play goal that they gave up. I thought, honestly, Jari there could have been a little more aggressive, but that was also a really nice shot. I believe it was from Tyson Horster from the Flyers. Still, win the special teams battle, play better five on five, throws them, throw anything

Starting point is 00:29:54 to the net where you have an opening shoeing, where it's not going to get blocked. And Dave Penguins, I do think, can win this game. Yes, the Flyers are tough to play against which on Torella system, and they've exceeded expectations. But this is not a, I guess what, an impossible team to beat or anything like that. They can go out there and they can win this game. I really do believe that. Yeah, I thought the power, or the power play.

Starting point is 00:30:18 The penalty kill was solid. The forest. It was a little lackluster in the last one, I should say. But overall, before that, it was still pretty solid. I just didn't like the effort on the high. It was a little bit of a busted play. And Forrester got a look, he probably shouldn't have. But that's what happens when, you know, you take a penalty during a power play and then

Starting point is 00:30:36 you have that four on four that turns into a PK. Sometimes you're scrambling and the opposition takes advantage of it. But aside from that, too, you know, let's assume that it's going to be Carter Hart that starts tonight. You've tortured this kid since he's come into the NHL. They have absolutely tortured him. And I said it on Friday. It was the one time Ron Hextall was right, that he said Hart wasn't quite ready to be an NHL goalie.

Starting point is 00:31:02 And we have seen that come to fruition, that he's not what he could have been because they rushed his development. But this is a kid that you have tortured since he came into the NHL. He has rarely, if ever, played well against the Pittsburgh Penguins. And you have to take advantage of that. And that's not going to be me saying the simplified thing I always say, or shoot from everywhere, take every shot you can. No, this is where I'm going to say straight up. you have to score early.

Starting point is 00:31:27 You have to score within the first seven to ten minutes because you have to get it into this kid's head that, oh my God, so penguins, I can't beat this team. This team has my number. They're so good. And just completely play on that kid's lack of confidence

Starting point is 00:31:41 against the penguins. Aside from that, listen, I'm not saying they got to go old school here and fight and hit and all that, but you know this team's going to hit. You know this team's going to come after you. Whether it's Ludwig,

Starting point is 00:31:54 whether it's the bottom six, whomever, you have to play with a little bit of snarl back at him. You cannot back down because all you got to do is be aggressive. Pucks in deep. First four checker throws a body, defensive zone, clear these guys out of the front of the net. And if you're a winger, don't be afraid when the puck comes to your point. Put body on that point, man. Just put a body on them.

Starting point is 00:32:17 Don't want to lay them out. Don't got to put him into the bench. Don't got to crush them. Just put body into them. The old slap shot line. Let him know you're there. But yeah, again, this is, it's an extremely winnable game. And it's, it's an important bounce back for this team because you didn't quite get.

Starting point is 00:32:34 You can beat teams in your division at this point. You know, you've only been in Columbus. You beat Washington earlier on this season. Outside of that, Pat, you know, you lost to the devils, lost to the hurricanes. And now you've lost to the Flyers. And of course, you lost to the Rangers. Yeah. Sooner later, you need to start getting better results against your teams in your division

Starting point is 00:32:52 because you play them the most times. out of anyone else in the league. And that's, I feel like where a playoff spot, especially for this team right now and how it was last year, it's won or lost. And you need to start getting better results against your teams that you're fighting with in your division. It has to really, I think, start tonight.

Starting point is 00:33:13 It should have started at the beginning of the season. And it kind of did with a couple wins, but it's fallen off since then. It's got to be better. And it's not like you got pumped on Saturday, I said Friday night earlier in the show, but it's not like you got punked by them, but you got beat. And that should be enough of a wound that you want to go out and get some revenge.

Starting point is 00:33:36 I agree. I hear you on that. And going off that, I think this is a night where you see a vintage Sydney Crosby game. I've been decent with my predictions as of late, I feel like on the show. The team is upset. Sid, I think, is definitely upset. I think you're going to see a big game from him tonight. and who else for it to be against than the Flyers.

Starting point is 00:33:55 So I think you're going to see a big sit game overall because he's not happy and I don't think the team is happy right now either. Listeners, viewers, do not adjust your Spotify or Apple. Do not adjust your YouTube. This is the December 4th, 2023 episode. Hunter is again saying that it's a big Sydney Crosby game. Hey, I only really say this when I feel like it's coming. And yeah, I've maybe said it a few times already this season.

Starting point is 00:34:19 But I feel like, especially after how they lost, in that game on Saturday and how Cid was a bit more quiet compared to normal, I think this is going to be a big game for men. I think that'll do it for this episode with Locked on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for listening to

Starting point is 00:34:36 or watching this one. Pat and I will be back with another episode for you all on Tuesday, probably around this same time, I believe to recap this game and then get you all set for the rest of the week for the Penguins and all that good stuff. But again, thank you all so much for listening

Starting point is 00:34:48 slash watching. Really appreciate it. We'll be back on Tuesday.

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