Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins power play remains a problem, even with a weekend split

Starting point is 00:00:01 The penguins had another split in their back-to-back games this weekend against the Buffalo Sabres and the Toronto Maple Leafs. And for today's episode, the Locked on Penguins podcast, Pat and I'm going to go over what happened in Buffalo and the problems that came out of that game. Plus, how they were able to bounce back against the Leafs the night after. You're Locked on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Welcome back to another episode of the Locked On.

Starting point is 00:00:43 Penguins podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, joined by the best co-host on the planet Patrick Damp. You can follow him on Twitter at Center for Wet. And you can follow these shows, Twitter, at L.O. Understain 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 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 condition supply, C-Sleevers, terms, use for detail. So it's a victory Monday on this edition of the Lockdown Penguins podcast for both

Starting point is 00:01:19 the Penguins, because of course they got the win on Saturday and the Pittsburgh's Dewers after they beat the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. But we're not going to start with that lease game. We've got to go back to what happened in Buffalo on Friday night, the Black Friday game. A three-two, really upsetting loss, I should say, to the Sabres. The Penguins had a 2-0 lead heading into the third period. Excuse me. They look to be firmly in control of this game, I would. would say. Alex Indelkevich was playing really well. I thought the penguins were playing well defensively. They scored on the chances that they got. I mean, at the start of the game,

Starting point is 00:01:51 they were maybe given up a few too many chances, but they settled in after those first five to six minutes. I thought they were in control after those 40 minutes. But a really bad penalty call on if Gennie Malkin in the third period, got the Sabres back into it. They got the power play goal on a PK unit that is one of the best PK units in the league. I'll say that. And then a really unfortunate bounce off Eric Carlson's stick goes in the back of the net and then the Sabres take the lead with only a few minutes to go. It's really annoying that the Penguins could not get a point in that game because it looked like they were going to get at least one, if not two. And it's also a little disheartening that this team continues to blow leads in the third period.

Starting point is 00:02:30 I thought they were getting better this season with that, but you saw the old problems from last year come back. They were kind of turtling, waiting for something bad to happen. And sure enough, did. This game honestly reminded me of that game against Buffalo last year where the Penguins took a three to one lead into the third period. And it was early in the season as well. Casey DeSmith was starting that game, I believe. And the Penguins allowed five goals in that third period to lose. It was four or five. It was five, three, six, three, something like that. And this game was eerily similar to that. You can't lose these types of games, especially against a team that, you know, let's say you're competing for when it comes to a playoffs, even though they're a bit banged up.

Starting point is 00:03:12 you have to bank those two points and the fact that the penguins didn't and that they continued to blow another third period lead that's a little concerning to me pat even though they won on saturday yeah there's going to be a consistent theme for me this episode and you know i'm wearing a steelers hat just because it is a victory monday for them but i was talking about this to you prior to we us hitting record here it's actually kind of funny how much these two teams are mirroring each other right now because let's talk about what you said one of the main things here, right, with Friday's game was one of the things that led to their downfall was a tic-tack call on a Genie Malkin behind the net where he essentially just gets called for hooking on a stick lift,

Starting point is 00:03:57 which regardless if it was the six three game, they scored, they didn't score five. I wanted to double check, but go ahead, Pat. Regardless of how you feel about that call. And as you can tell, I'm on record as saying it was a tiki-tack call. just like the Steelers yesterday when everybody was complaining, oh, they should have challenged that missed touchdown by Deontay Johnson. In both instances, do not put yourself in a position to put it in the hands of the officials. DJ should hold on to the ball.

Starting point is 00:04:23 Gettie Malkin either should not be in that position to take that penalty, or the Penguins should be up three nothing at that point, because late in the second period, what did the penguins have again? a power play chance with Alex Tuck in the box for an illegal check to the head, and the penguins were leading two nothing at that point. If they make the game three nothing going into the third period, that game is over. Even if Hvgeny Malkin takes that penalty and they score, it's three to one and they've got a lot, lot bigger mountain to climb with less time left on the clock.

Starting point is 00:04:57 So again, tiki tack call, but again, situational hockey has to be played here. your power play eventually has to come up big for you. And once again against Buffalo, it's part of the reason they didn't win. And yeah, I mean, we can get into the power play right now if you want to with how bad it was in this game and why there still needs to be more changes. So I will say first, just to add on to more of the blown leads, I should say. The Penguins have lost 11 or the last 43 opportunities when leaving after two periods. That comes from the best stats person in the Penguins community, Bob, go by. love Bob so much and I will continue to love him forever.

Starting point is 00:05:36 He always brings out the best and worst stats for this franchise. That's for sure. But that's not good enough. It's unacceptable. I remember a day when the Penguins were undefeated after leading after 40 minutes. But those days are long gone, at least right now. But the power play, man, multiple opportunities in the second and third period to extend the lead or win the game and you're not able to do it.

Starting point is 00:06:00 You made these changes. You put Crosby and Malkin on different units. I was like, okay, I guess you can give it a shot, even though I haven't been a fan of it. Didn't work. Okay, you can probably put them back together now. But there's just nothing going on that unit. I feel like I've run out of things to say about the power play at this point. It's all perimeter passing.

Starting point is 00:06:19 The zone entries also stink. No one is going to the net. And it's just garbage. I feel like they're allergic to getting to the high danger areas when they're on the powerplay. No one has a shoot first mentality. it is a completely broken unit. And until they change the structure of the power play, you are going to continue to see the same exact things

Starting point is 00:06:38 game after game after game. That's why I finally said on social media after that Buffalo game that I think it might be time to make a coaching change with Todd Reardon, man. I don't think he's getting it done with this unit. I know Mike Sullivan holds him in high regard. But if you really want to send a message outside of just changing the personnel, fire the power play coach and bring someone else in that actually knows what they're doing.

Starting point is 00:06:59 with this unit because it's not good enough right now and it continues to lose them games slash not even get loser points when you could also use those right now. Yeah, I can't, you know, I know that I came on here on Friday and said I blame a lot more of it on personnel I do. I do. I'm not taking that back. I'm not walking it back. I'm not changing the stance. I still think the players do hold a lot of responsibility because of the way they're playing, especially on the top unit, because if you're going to play a one-three-one,

Starting point is 00:07:33 you eventually have to play that system to the way it's supposed to be played, which they're not doing. But at this point, you've seen more than enough. There has been more than enough of a sample size to show you that this is not working. It's not, whether it's the lack of will or a lack of skill, they're not good at playing this system. They just aren't. And that is a coaching problem because, like I said,

Starting point is 00:07:59 after the game on Twitter. I'm not putting this on Sullivan because you can't. Because look at the way this team adjusted. It's 5V5 play under Sullivan when they were struggling early on this season. And it's given them better results at 5 on 5. Hasn't given them totally better results in the standings because they're basically a 500 hockey team right now. At the same time, though, you look at the power play and you go,

Starting point is 00:08:27 okay, why are their only changed? has been shortly and not long changing the personnel. Well, you change the personnel and it still didn't work. And it's still not working when you brought them back together. So that tells me it's the system and that tells me it's the coach. And if you don't feel comfortable not coaching another power play structure or another power play system, then you're not equipped to be a national hockey league coach because you have to be able to adapt and adjust. I'm not saying you have to make wholesale changes root and branch,

Starting point is 00:09:00 but you look at the outcomes that have been on this power play. And then I said this again on Saturday during the Leafs game, it's not even that this power play is bad. It's becoming a net negative for this team. It rips away any and all momentum and any and all momentum this team has in a game. they don't, I'm not, like, if they were, if they went out and they didn't score, but they held possession, they got some chances, they kept the, the opposing PK on their toe, on their heels. Okay, that's fine, because that's what it was early in the season.

Starting point is 00:09:38 Early in season, the process was there. The goals just weren't. Now the process isn't there. And that's a problem. I agree. And honestly, I feel like for other teams at this point, take a penalty, put the penguins on the power play and have them lose momentum. That's what I feel like teams should be doing when they play the Penguins at this point.

Starting point is 00:09:57 On a serious note, if I'm on opposing team, I'm not going to be afraid to play aggressive against the Penguins. Because if we take a penalty, they're not going to score. So if you, especially if it's early on in the game, like say we'll talk about the week ahead and more in depth later on in the show. But if I'm John Tortorella and the Flyers on Saturday, play like goons in the first five, 10 minutes. Take some penalties because, you know, physically and it's not me saying, the Penguins need to go out and get a big bruiser and become physically intimidating. But throw some big hits, throw some borderline hits, take some penalties early on, scare this team.

Starting point is 00:10:33 Because if you think that you don't have the skill to keep up with them, beat them down. And if their power play is not going to score, who cares? And it's funny, the flyers, they have a few players who can really throw the body. So I would not be surprised if they maybe did decide to do that. And we all know how John Tortorella is as a head coach. But yeah, man, I mean, I was also on record saying it's more the players than the coach, but when these players continue to not get it done, you eventually

Starting point is 00:10:59 have to send a bigger message. And I think that message is firing the power play coach and hiring and hiring someone else in. But we'll part that conversation for I'm sure later in the week when the Penguins Power Play continues to struggle. Coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to get into that great win against the Maple Leafs and what the Penguins can build off of heading in this week's of games. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about collective. If you run a solo small business, you're an army of one, but you still need a CPA, bookkeeper, separate payroll solution, and more. Let Collective take care of the paperwork while you take care of business. Collective is the number one financial solution for freelancers,

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Starting point is 00:12:06 collective.com slash locked on NHL and tell them locked on NHL sent you. That's a $550 value for free when you go to collective.com slash locked on NHL and tell them locked on NHL send you. That's collective.com slash locked on NHL and tell them locked on NHL sent you. you. All right, we're back here in this episode of the Lock Time Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-O's Patrick Dam. So big penguins bounce back win against the Maple Leafs on Saturday night, a three to two win from the Penguins out. And it looked like for a while the Penguins were not going to get the bounces in this game, at least open the

Starting point is 00:12:43 scoring in the first period. But Jake Gensel comes back, ties up the game. Really nice pass from Drew O'Connor there, by the way. I thought he was really good in this game. I called him out on Friday night. I was kind of saying he doesn't look like he deserves the opportunity. Well, he's me up at least for this game because I thought he had honestly one of his best games of the year on Saturday night. It feels like anytime I call someone out, they just go out and have one of their best games of the year at their very next game. And then Noah Chari, I do not know he had that kind of shot in him, Pat. I'll say that. It was what a snive goal from, I wouldn't say below the goal one, but kind of at the side of the net, just a beautiful roof job of a shot there from

Starting point is 00:13:19 Noah Chari. Again, did not know he had that in them. And then Eric Carlson, point blast three, two, then the Penguins were able to hold the lead in the third period. I thought overall the first 40 minutes were really solid from the Penguins. That second period especially was great. They were taking it to the Maple Leafs. Third period, I will say they took their game down a little bit. But I'm not as low on that third period as a lot of other people were. And maybe my eye tests, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:13:45 A lot of people saw completely different things from what I saw in the third period. I love the Penguins defended the lead decently well. I mean, they only held the Maple Leafs to two hide in. chances at 5-on-5, though if you go to all situations, that's six, the Maple Leafs had some glorious chances on the power play, also a post or two. And you look at their expected goals for at 5-on-5 in that third period, 0.6-7, but then you look at the percentage, 80.5% of the expected goals for Tristan Jari was very good. But still, I thought the Penguins played a mostly fine third period. They defended the lead well. Tris-injari was excellent in that third period. I'm not as low

Starting point is 00:14:19 on that period as a lot of other people, where I don't think they were turtling or going into a I disagree with that sentiment just because, you know, I look at the underlines and what I was watching. But obviously, you could still do better than, you know, allowing the team to have 80.5% of the expected goals percentage. But overall, that's a big win, man. You get back to 500. You played a really good least team. We shut down Austin Matthews and Mitch Marner in company. And that's a big, hopefully, confidence booster heading into a week here where you play a Predator's team that's kind of on the same level as the Penguins.

Starting point is 00:14:50 They had a bit of a rough start. We'll get to that a little bit later. and in the preview on Tuesday, then you have Tampa Bay. But hopefully the things they did well in this game, they can build on heading into this week. I like that performance a lot. I'm keeping the theme alive in this second segment, man, because again, it's another mirror image of the penguins and Steelers so far.

Starting point is 00:15:11 Because you look at the third period, right? And I agree. I think the way I said it to you Saturday night kind of sums it up. I don't think they were bad, but I definitely can't say they were good. And they leaned on the fact that they've played well defensively the past few weeks and that they have a good penalty kill when they could have very easily taken it to them. And then you look at the first two periods, just like the Steelers have found out the last few weeks,

Starting point is 00:15:42 that they have a pretty solid run game. The Steelers, the Penguins remembered, hey, when we play a responsible two-way form of hockey, even against the team like the Toronto Maple Leafs, we can take advantage and we can take over a game. And that's what they did in the first two periods. Because you look at the way they played and the underlines back it up. They were the better team by a mile in the second period.

Starting point is 00:16:07 And like you said, the most impressive thing is you look at the scoring from that game. The only big name from Toronto that even put up a point was John Tavares. and that was a primary assist. Tyler Bertuzi and Matthew Nyes scored the goals. Nothing from Marner, nothing from Nielander, nothing from Matthew. That's how you do it. That's how you do it, man.

Starting point is 00:16:29 And while I do think Toronto does have some solid depth as seen by Bertuzi and Nyes and Yarncroke, if the big boys in Toronto aren't scoring, you can play with that team. And then you look at who scores for the penguins, Gensel, Achari, Carlson. And that Carlson goal came, if I'm not mistaken, with the fourth line on the ice. You will gladly take two fourth line goals from this team in the same game for a win,

Starting point is 00:16:59 especially with the debt problems this team has had at times this season. I will one million percent take that in a win, obviously. I mean, if we had a sound board available for Lockdown, I'd play some sort of sound for this. You know, who had the secondary assist because they won the face off on Eric Carlson's goal? Jeff Carter. There it is. His first point of the season. But even though I'll say this.

Starting point is 00:17:25 Like I know everybody likes to give me the grief that I deserve because I go down with the Jeff Carter ship. The last couple of games, he's looked solid. Has he been good? No. No. But like I've been saying on this podcast all season and off season, he doesn't need to be good. He just needs to be not bad. he doesn't have to be a liability,

Starting point is 00:17:48 and he has not been a liability the past few games. Outside of that secondary assist on the Carlson game winner, I have to say, man, he had a little bit of that mini breakaway against Buffalo on Friday night where he had a step on the defender. It went exactly how I thought it would. He didn't even get a shot off. That is the Jeff Carter experience at this point in his career.

Starting point is 00:18:08 I had the thing is, though, and you can call me out, listeners and Hunter for making excuses for him. That was a great defensive play. that defenseman caught up with him and made a great poke check. That's true. Because it wasn't like he was clean breakaway. He wasn't like two, three steps off. The defenseman made a good play.

Starting point is 00:18:27 But you're right. Like that is the Jeff Carter experience at this point. You're not expecting a whole hell of a lot from him. No, I agree. I wasn't trying to take away from that nice defensive play with the stick from the Buffalo defender. But I was just trying to say that it was a very Jeff Carter thing to happen. When he gets a little mini breakaway trying to get one of his first, if not it, it may. I think his first actual scoring chance of the year and then it just goes sideways.

Starting point is 00:18:49 But again, back to the Toronto game and how the Steelers and Penguins have mirrored each other, that third period looked like a Steelers game in the fourth quarter when the Steelers have had the lead as of late where they're like, you know what? Our defense has been really good. We don't need to worry about our struggling offense. Let's just bend, but never break. And when you had a second period where you were taking it to Toronto, you were all over them. And I know score effects are a thing.

Starting point is 00:19:15 I know the other team has agency, and sometimes they're going to adapt to what's happening in the game. But at that point, push back, push back on them. Keep playing the way you've been playing. You don't have to keep your foot all the way on the gas, but at the same time, don't let up because I don't want to say they got lucky because Toronto did Toronto has some issues right now. They're slumping a little bit. but at this point against a team like Toronto with the firepower that they have, if you take your foot off the gas, it can look a lot like what happened on Friday in Buffalo and much worse because that's a better team.

Starting point is 00:19:55 Agreed. Yeah, I don't think the Penguins fully took the foot off the gas in the third period. They played at least well enough to me, at least in my opinion, to win that game. Now, could they be a bit better in that third period and maybe get a few more chances? Yes, that's the one thing I'll criticize. the Penguins didn't get enough schooling chances in the third period outside of mainly just a couple late in that period. I want to see more of that moving forward when the Penguins have the lead in the third period. Overall, I still thought they defended pretty nicely.

Starting point is 00:20:22 They got some lucky breaks when they were killing that penalty on Toronto. They hit a poster too, but Tristan Jari overall was very good. And speaking about that and the Penguins' goaltending, the Penguins goal tending has been awesome this season, man. They rank six in safe percentage on shots on goal in 92.75. percent. Stats sixth in the league behind Winnipeg, Vancouver, Vegas, Boston, and the New York Islanders. I don't think that's being talked about enough with how good goaltending this team is getting from both Tristan Jari and Alex Indelkevich. I will say, of course, Jari has had some rough starts in there, but the Penguins got the very good version of Jari in this one, and he was

Starting point is 00:21:00 one of the main reasons that the Penguins were able to hold on in the third period. And with Dahlkevich, he's also playing honestly at a level that we saw. back when he was in Carolina. I would say that right now, in my opinion. And if they can continue to get goaltending like this throughout the season, I do think this team will eventually turn it around and make the playoffs. There are a lot of good things to like about this team right now, I think. The depth is finally starting to step up.

Starting point is 00:21:25 You have two fourth-line goals against the Maple Leafs. Lars Eller had another really nice goal against the Sabres. Nice pass by Matt Nietto, by the way. You always talk about Noachari. The top six is humming the second line. I will say needs to be a little bit better, but I think they will be. Riley Smith and Jeff Guine and Malkin, they've been a bit quiet as of late.

Starting point is 00:21:42 I think that's going to change. Once you get, you know, Russ back, once you get Raquel back, hopefully Raquel is able to start finding the net. I mean, a lot considering what he's done this season so far. But top six from the most parts playing well. The depth is starting to step up. You're getting contributions from the back end. You're getting good goaltending. If this team can just figure out the power play and have an average power play,

Starting point is 00:22:03 this team can turn a corner and be a playoff team this year. We also have the PK, top 10 in the league. There's a lot to like about this team. They just got to start actually having a functional power play. Yeah. And if we're going to pile on Jari when he's bad, we have to give him his flowers when he's good. You look at his last five games,

Starting point is 00:22:24 939, 972, 909, 839. But that was against a pretty piss poor effort against New Jersey overall. And then 900 against Columbus. and 9-18 on the season. Like, if we're going to. Those are good numbers, man. Those are really good numbers. And he's only played 15 games so far.

Starting point is 00:22:46 And with Ned back being healthy again in showing that he's a pretty darn good goaltender himself, you can start taking some workload away from Tristan Jari. You can give Ned a couple more starts. You can keep Tristan Jari fresh and ready to go for the playoffs should they get back. And it's a good place to be for this team. Goaltending is becoming an underrated strength for the Penguins.

Starting point is 00:23:08 And if it holds, I like this team's chances to get back into the postseason. I just can't believe we're saying that after what happened last year and in previous years, but the Penguins goaltending is actually a strength right now. Just to go off what you said about Jari, he ranks seventh right now, man, and goals saved above expected. Seventh in the league. I almost spit out my coffee when I saw that on Sunday, man. It's just he's having a really good season outside of a few bad starts and hopefully

Starting point is 00:23:33 will have more good starts going forward compared to bad starts. But I think that would do it for this recap against the Maple Leafs. Coming up to end the show, Pat and I are going to look at the week ahead for the Penguins game against the predators, a game against the lightning, and then a home-in-home against the flyers. 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,

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Starting point is 00:25:02 I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my question. Coast Patrick Damp. And of course, thank you all so much for making this. Your first lesson slash watch of the day. So, Bat, Penguins, they'll go to Nashville this week, a city that I have always wanted to go to. I can't wait to go to at some point in my life. I've always loved that city, even though I know I've never been there.

Starting point is 00:25:21 But they'll play the Predators, a team that's won five in a row. They're 10 and 10 overall, same record as the Penguins. And that's interesting because the Predators, they had a really slow start to the season as well. They lost 10 of their first 15 games. but they've won five in a row since then. They're starting to get some scoring. Cusis Soros is playing it better.

Starting point is 00:25:38 We'll do a detailed dive into the Predators for our Tuesday episode, but that's still going to at least be a tough game for the Penguins, considering how hot Nashville is right now. I've always liked Andrew Brunette as a coach. He drives or brings a lot of offense, excuse me, I should say, with his system. It's not like John Hines the last few years with Nashville. You're going to get a lot more offensive with Redgers. Now, after that, the Penguins have the Lightning this week,

Starting point is 00:26:02 the first of two matchups in about a week span against the lightning. Andre Vasselowski is back, so that's big for Tamp Bay, and they're starting to figure things out it looks like as well. And then after that, you have a home-and-home against the flyers. You'll get to play them in Pittsburgh, and you get to play them in Philadelphia, and hear the annual Crosby sucks chant from the wonderful Philadelphia crowd at the Wells Fargo Center.

Starting point is 00:26:22 But still, there are opportunities this week for the Penguins to build off of what they did against Toronto. I do think they can beat the Predators, even though they've won five in row. The Lightning, the Penguins have. had the lightning's number over the last few years. They beat them all three times last year. It's always been, I feel like, a bit of a bad matchup for the lightning, honestly, these past few seasons. So I'm not really super scared heading into that game, considering the Penguins have

Starting point is 00:26:45 played the lightning well the last few years. Then the Flyers, though, they've been a bit better as of late. I don't think this is going to hold over a full season, but the rivalry games are obviously a bit different at any team, no matter how bad that team is, is going to wake up for that kind of game. Let's say that. But still, I think this is a big week for the Penguins to just get over 500 and stay over 500 for the remainder of the season. Like we were talking about the last two weeks, this is going to be another top stretch of the schedule for the Penguins because you look at this upcoming week. You go to Nashville on Tuesday, then you go to Tampa Bay on Thursday. You get a brief reprieve on Saturday when the flyers

Starting point is 00:27:30 come to town. Then you hit the road for an entire week. You go to Philly on Monday. You go to Tampa on Wednesday. You go to sunrise for the Panthers on Friday. Then again, another brief reprieve the week after that Tuesday the coyotes come to town. So does Logan Cooley, one underrated rookie, Pittsburgh native. And then it's right back on the road to Montreal and Toronto. So the penguins really have to take advantage of these next couple of games. because Nashville, similar to the Penguins, team fighting for their early playoff lives, team that's starting to figure it out, the team that's pretty hot against the Penguins team that's kind of been doing the win, loss, win loss, win loss dance all month.

Starting point is 00:28:15 Tampa, like you said, they are notoriously good against Tampa Bay Lightning for whatever reason. They just seem to have that organization's number. And I'm with you. I'm not buying the Philadelphia Flyers yet. I think it's, they did the same thing last year. They started off strong, looked pretty good, and then fell directly off of a cliff. And then it's the same deal. A lot of the teams that you're going to, like, if the last couple of weeks were

Starting point is 00:28:41 you're going to play a bunch of teams who are going to be a serious test for you because they're contenders, the next two-ish weeks, you're playing a lot of teams that are struggling or trying to find consistency. So if you're the team that's trying to find consistency, this is a chance for you to find that consistency and stack some wins and bank some points and really start to get yourself back into the wild card if not the divisional race. And speaking of that division, that was the next point I was going to make. The Metropolitan Division and the Eastern Conference as a whole right now is super tight.

Starting point is 00:29:16 Just look at it. Outside of the Rangers, the Penguins, there are four points at a second place right now. You can string together some wins this week. You can be top three in this division by the end of the week. Heck pat, they're three points behind. the flyers. If you sweep that home and home and you don't give them any loser points and you also play well against National Tampa Bay, hopefully, you'll be ahead of the flyers and you'll be top three in that division. That's just how tight the Metro is. And again, the Eastern Conference in general is right now.

Starting point is 00:29:45 Heck, the Penguins are only two points out of fourth in division behind the Washington Capitals. And they just lost their last game as well, two points behind the Islanders who, you know, they still lost seven or the last 10 games. They're not playing that better. They're playing at least a little bit better, but not as bad as they were before. But this just goes to show how you need to string together a couple of really sound weeks now to really put yourself into the top three in the division. And then you're going to have to stay in that spot for the remainder of the season. All is not lost with this team.

Starting point is 00:30:14 They can still make a little bit of a run here with how tight the division is. They're not falling behind the eight ball that much right now, which is good. I'll say that. Columbus, who's having an absolutely disastrous start to the season, they're four points back to the Penguins. So the difference between, like you said, outside of the Rangers and the Bruins, there is not a lot of daylight in this division. So one good week puts you in a good spot.

Starting point is 00:30:41 One bad week doesn't exactly kill you yet. So you have to, at this point, you know the Rangers and Bruins have kind of separated themselves as the class of this conference. And then everybody else is fighting for second, third, fourth, and fifth. So now it's on you to finally take that step. And if there were ever an opportunity for the penguins to do it, it's this coming week. So I think if Nashville is a game, you should win Tampa, I'll give that one of 50-50 because

Starting point is 00:31:12 they get Vasilowski back. They're starting to find some footing. And I'm just going to say this here. If there is one moment for the penguins to make a statement and show that the Philadelphia of flyers or pretenders, they can win both games and should win both games. I agree. I think they should win both of those games. I mean, the Flyers, again, it's good that they've had a nice start.

Starting point is 00:31:33 They're getting contributions from all over their lineup. Carter Hart is also playing really well in goal for them again this year, which is nice to see. But you want to show this team that they're not ready for this. And heck, the Flyers, you know, they use the rebuild word already, go heading into the season. I'm sure they're happy that they're ahead of schedule, but I also don't think they're dumb enough to think. oh, we're going to make the playoffs this year, even though, you know, we're off to this good start and all that good start. I just don't see it with them overall.

Starting point is 00:32:01 But I agree with you, the Penguins. They beat the Predators twice last season, once in Nashville, then once in Pittsburgh. We'll try to do it again. This season is starting on Tuesday. And Pat and I are going to preview that game for you all on Tuesday. Right around the same time, about 10.3 a.m. We're going to record. Have that up by about noon that day.

Starting point is 00:32:18 And then we'll get, we'll just get you all set for that game. And then we'll recap that game on Wednesday, get you all. set for Tampa later this week and then we'll get you all set for that home and home against the flyers as well. But that would do it for this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. Really appreciate all of you listening to slash watching this one. It's been really nice to be back in my home studio recording this one for you all. I just can't record on that laptop and just in other weird locations when I travel. It is not the same when I don't have my mic and I don't have just my PC in general. But again, that will do it for this one. Thank you all so much for

Starting point is 00:32:49 tuning in. We'll talk with you all again on Tuesday. Thank you.

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