Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins secure a point in OT loss on Saturday

Episode Date: December 16, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins got a point but weren’t able to secure the second in an OT loss but Hunter and Patrick are here to break it all down. First, they discuss the team’s overall play and how they may have deserved a better fate. Then, they discuss Jarry’s night and they dive into his very strange comments that he made after the game. Then, they discuss Blake Lizotte’s play and how Kris Letang continues to play some strong hockey before ending the show with an update on MP28 and a look at the week ahead.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Mint MobileTo get this new customer offer and your new 3-month premiumwireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to MINTMOBILE.com/lockedonnhl. Disclaimer - $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.IndeedStill searching for a great candidate for your company? Don’t search, just match–with Indeed. Claim your SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT now at Indeed.com/LOCKEDON. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. PrizePicksDownload the app or go to https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNHL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Penguins picked up a point against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, but they weren't able to get that extra point in a three to two overtime loss. Pat and I are going to recap that game, 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 Lockdown Penguins podcast. I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes.

you can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes joined by my host, Patrick Gamp, you can follow him on all social media platforms at Cinderinverwet, and you can follow the show who's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you also much for making this your first lesson slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms.

And finally, today's episode is brought to you by GameTime, down the GameTime app, create an account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. So we know we are putting out this episode, a bit later than usual on Monday. We were actually supposed to record this on Sunday with Jesse Marshall, but he had a couple of things pop up,

and then Pat had a couple of things pop up early in the day on Monday. So that's the reason why we're getting this out a bit later in the day. But we hope to have Jesse on for next week for Marshall Monday. But Pat, the Penguins, they pick up a point. They're now six, two, and one in their last nine games. They're continuing to play pretty solid, but they weren't able to get that extra point, and they lost three to two to Ottawa on Saturday,

thanks to a overtime goal from Brady Kichuk. My overall thoughts from this game, I hope the Penguins came out pretty lousy in that first period. A lot of won and duns against the team that played the night before and had to travel back from Carolina. Not good enough. I also thought they had a lot of defensive miscues in their own zone. Tristan Jari had to bail them out with quite a few timely saves in the first period, though. I will also say with Jari outside of those timely saves, and he did make quite a few in that period. And throughout the rest of the game, he played that Shabakal really poorly.

just no reason for him to flop around in his net like that. I just don't understand why he needed to do that. And then by the time he got, tried to get set, the puck was in the back of the net. So really poor form, excuse me there from Jari. Outside of that,

I felt like he played fairly well with a lot of big timely saves. We'll get to his comments about the Drake Batherson goal a little bit later because those were just bizarre, ridiculous, pathetic, whatever do you want to call it again? We'll get to that a little bit later. But after the first period, I thought the penguins really turned in,

on those last 40 minutes, they were in the offensive zone a lot more. They got their forecheck going. Linus Allmark was just stealing the show, man. That's what really it came down to. Linus Allmark, even though he played the night before, he was channeling his inner Bruins days with the way he was playing. He had a really rough start to the season. You look at his numbers right now.

They're not nearly as good as they were during his time in Boston with Swamen in that defensive system. But these last few weeks, he has been starting to play like he did in Boston. You saw that in the first half of the back to back. with Ottawa with his shutout, and you saw that especially in this one. That save on Eric Carlson, for example, was absolutely ridiculous. The save even later on Sydney Crosby, I have no clue how he made that save, but he's one of the best goaltenders in the league when he is on.

You saw that on display here. So, yeah, they were getting goal with even though the Penguins were playing fairly well those final 40 minutes, and then a couple of miscues in overtime really cost them. But as a whole, I felt the Penguins played generally well this game. I feel like if they could do over a little bit in that first period, I would like that. But in general, I'm glad they got the point. Would have been nice to get the second one because I felt like they potentially deserved it. But hey, they're six, two and one in their last nine.

They're at least still making things interesting. But again, you still got to bank the points if you really want to fully get back into this because the games in hand are not on their side right now. No, they're not. But I'll say this about Saturday's game. They were doomed by a slow start. I don't think they played particularly poorly in the first overall, but the first 10-ish minutes, they weren't great.

They were kind of sloppy and it led to a goal against. And you did kind of wince and think, oh, here we go. This is going to be a rough night, especially given the goal that Jari gave up where he gets pulled out of his net. He's not able to get set up again. and they're able to basically fire a slap shot into mostly an empty net. But he ends up stabilizing. He plays very well the rest of the way out. And the penguins find their game about 10 minutes in.

But by then it was too late because as you said, Olmark played a hell of a game. He was the difference maker in this one because the penguins, at least in my viewing in the second and third period dominated that game. They were the better team by a mile. they were beset by a couple bad bounces here and there. But once you have that one-nothing hole, you start the game late, so to speak,

that kind of sealed their fate. They probably deserved that extra point in overtime, but it was a great goal by Kachuk, made a great move, better shot. Really, I know that the discourse always turns into how were the penguins or the team that lost at fault here. But in my estimation, Brady Kachuk, just decided to be a great player there for a moment, made a great play.

And in three on three overtime, that's a risky run. But overall, it's good that they got a point. It's good they were able to battle back on two separate occasions, because we've seen with this team over the past couple of years. They have frequently wilted under pressure, but they picked themselves off the mat multiple times. I like the effort overall. I would have liked it to be a full 60,

but like you said, they're keeping things interesting. They got a point. They're sniffing around the wild card. So if nothing else, overall, happy would have liked the extra point. But I can't burn this team too much for that effort on Saturday night. And they almost had a chance to win that in overtime. Brian Russ made one heck of a move. Looked like he had the game winning goal on his stick.

He looked like he was about to score just a better block. But it wasn't even Omar. I believe it was Shabbat that made the block. there, Pat. I mean, there's really not much you can do about that. When a player makes that type of play, you got to tip your cap. I think in overtime, the big mistake was, A, Raquel, when he made that play, can't do that. And then with Hibgeny Moulton kind of passing the puck to no man's land, can't make that buck either. And speaking of, Gino, I tweeted this and I want to reiterate this here, I think he's fighting it a little bit right now. You can kind of tell. You know, he had that

great start to the season. We all knew he was probably not going to keep up that level production considering that he's 38. But you can tell he's fighting it. He's had a couple really glorious chances in these last few games. The puck's not going in. I'm not going to sit here and say he's playing, you know, poorly or he's looking washed or anything like that. I'm just saying like you can tell he's fighting it a little bit. He's not getting the bounces to go his way. He looked at a bit gas and overtime. I think he's going to be totally fine. I think you're going to see a really nice stretch of play coming up here for him. But you can definitely tell that, I mean, he doesn't,

he's not going to produce an insane game, you know, every single time they play. Like he's 38 years old. Like that's the reality of the situation. But I just wanted to point that out because I didn't like his play that much in overtime. But again, I also know that he's 38. He's going to have these types of performances. I think very, on a lesser level,

it's a little bit similar to Drew O'Connor. Drew O'Connor's struggles have been much longer and much more proclaimed than Gino's. But it's similar in the sense that you can see him fighting it. You can see the efforts there. You had a glory to stand on Allmark. I believe it was in that second period. Pip didn't go in. And then even in the Montreal game as well, Sam Montembo had a really nice save.

You could tell he just said the F word right after it. He was pissed. Yeah, you can see that there's frustration. there's frustration setting in. He's playing fairly well, I would say. A couple hiccups here and there, like the turnover and overtime was definitely an issue. But it was born from a play where he's giving as much of an effort as he possibly can.

And sometimes that happens when you're going full tilt. So again, I can't truly fault him for it. But you can see for Gino especially, the process is there. The effort is there. it's eventually going to break. It's the same thing with Crosby. You can see the effort is there. You can see the chances are there.

Eventually this dam is going to break and everything will be okay. Right. You can tell they're both fighting it a bit right now just because they're not getting the balances. I mean, again, Crosby had that glorious chance on Lina's Allmark. And you could see when he basically almost smash his stick to the glass, he was just like,

what do I got to do to score at this right? Because that was an insane save. And speaking of goaltenders, Pat, we have to address the very weird comments made by Tristan Jari after this game. So he was discussing the Drake Batherson goal that made it two to one before Crystal Tang tied it to send it to overtime. And this is the full quote verbatim I want to just give the full context and excuse my language for one word in this goal. I'll say it right now. He says, quote, it's a shitty goal honestly.

I don't know how you take that out of the game, but I don't think you should be able to stand there and let the guy shoot it off you. I think it's almost impossible to stop, like he gets position on our player and he just parks himself at the back post and their guy just shoots it off of him. It is a tough play and I think it's not part of hockey. Okay, Tristan, I understand the frustration because you just lost.

I have seen Sidney Crosby and Evgeny Malkin score that exact type of goal. I'm exaggerating here, obviously, a hundred times during their career. They have done that so often. That might not be an exaggeration. Yeah, I mean, I was trying to be, I guess, nice about it.

But do you see other goalies complain about that? No, you don't. So I don't understand why he is so frustrated about that. Again, you can be heated in the moment because you lost. But for that exact moment, it's just a bad bounce, man. That's all it is. It's a bad bounce. It went off his skate.

If you challenged it, you would have lost it because it wasn't a distinct kicking motion. That's all it is, man. It's a bad bounce. Just shrug it off. take the L, we move on to the next game. But there is no reason for that quote. It just speaks of loser stuff for me. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be, you know, too upset about it, but it was bizarre.

It was weird. It was pathetic. And it just loser stuff for me. Sorry, I don't like that quote. As much as I'm frustrated that we were unable to get Jesse on and we had to wait until later in the day on Monday to record this episode, the silver lining for me is that I have kind of had some time to sit with this quote and think about it, which I have, which probably speaks to how little of a life I have that I'm thinking about a Tristan Jari quote for a day and a half,

but I digress. I don't like the quote itself. I agree it's loser talk. It's very whiny. I'll say this, though. I'm encouraged by the fire this team had after this game, because I don't think they played that poorly. But you could tell they were very frustrated and very aware that they gave away a point they probably think they should have had. And we have seen a lot of lack of fire from this team in the last couple years. They, you know, they lose a game and they're in front of the reporters going, well, you know, the process is there. And, you know, we just got to stick with it.

And we just got to keep, you know, doing what we're doing. and we should be okay and we'll figure this out. No, they lose a tight game in Ottawa that I think they played fairly well. And you look at everybody's quote to a man and they were upset. They were frustrated. There was fire. So there's some belief in this team. Now again, the actual words Tristan Jari used don't like them.

Listen, man, that's part. That is part of the game, whether you like it or not. Those are how a lot of gritty goals get scored. You're just going to have to adapt better to them. but this team to a man being this frustrated after a game like this tells me that, one, you may not like him and you may think his system and his time is out of date. This team hasn't quit on Mike Sullivan. Two, this team hasn't quit on itself.

This team still thinks that they can compete and that they can make a playoff run. So if that's the belief and they're going to act this way after a game and the results continue to follow, I'll give them some space to make this quote. got to pick better words, but at the end of the day, I am not going to be too upset about this team being openly frustrated and mad that they lost a game that they probably should not have won, but they think they should have. So at the very least, overall, the team's demeanor, including Jari's quote, even if I don't agree with the words, I will take that over what we have got in the last two years. Don't get you wrong. I get what you're saying. I just think,

choose different words next time if you want to be fired up about something. Like this, to me, it screams like someone who's a sore loser. I don't care what sport this is. I don't like it. You know, football, basketball, baseball, hockey, tennis, whatever sport you want to put out there. This type of quote, it's just loser talk. But again, I think I've kind of said enough about this. I think you've said enough about this. We don't need to be like the locked on senators podcast where they're just discussing this for 20 to 25 minutes in their postcast. I'm like, okay, yeah, he said a dumb quote, there's really nothing else we need to do. I saw memes about this on social media, someone putting the crying thing. At least that was funny. But again,

I don't need to spend 20 minutes ranting about a goaltender who made a dumb quote. But I think that'll do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to discuss Blake Lazant and his continued excellence with the penguins as well as given injury update on Marcus Pedersen. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about our first sponsor and that is game time. They are focused on togetherness this holiday season. And that means when you bring people together at live events, the experience is that much better. And it's the perfect gift. Game time has a new feature called GameTime Picks that makes getting tickets.

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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. So Pat Blake Lausant gets another goal for the Penguins. really nice back in and then the celebration was honestly the funniest part. He gets fired up and then he wipes out. Thankfully, he didn't get hurt or anything like that. But the wipeout was hilarious. He continues to be everything part of this bottom six has needed these last

couple of years and more. I know he's probably going to generate some trade interest around the trade deadline. I would not move him. I want him on this team for next season with the energy that he brings, the work ethic that he brings, the forecheck that he brings, everything. he is a perfect fit for this team. And I'm so glad that he got rewarded yet again with another goal. He continues to play lights out.

He's been absolutely awesome. And with each passing game, or each every other game, I should say, he continues to make me eat my words that he's not going to shoot at what is now a 38.9%. But until he comes back down to earth, I guess we just have to live in this reality that apparently he's the most lethal shooter in the national hockey league. It's going to come down. Yes, eventually he is going to

regress to the mean. That is going to happen. But you're right. The effort, the energy, the physicality, the secondary scoring that he provides, it is something that this team has so sorely lacked for the better part of probably five years. It's been a long time since they've had someone this valuable to the bottom six. And I know we're talking up in hyping up a guy who's got 11 points in 16 games. But in your bottom six, that is very solid production. And I will say this. I know that I've staked my claim on this pod.

I know I've staked my claim on this in writing. Yes, I would love for him to remain a penguin. But if he keeps up this level of production, there is going to be, as you always say, Hunter, a sucker out there. there is going to be somebody who is going to offer the sun and the moon for Blake Lizot. And if that happens and you're Kyle Dubus, you got to consider it because again, you look at his entire career. His high watermark in points was 22, 23 with 11 goals in 34 points. Now, could he eclipse that this year and have a career year?

Yeah, but I don't see him at age 27 turning from a. solid bottom six energy guy who chips in occasionally to a top six scoring center. So if somebody comes calling and offers you a Brinks truck worth of value, you got to at least consider it. I would love to keep them here. And I think at the end of the day, they will. But there's always a sucker. There's always somebody who's going to open the Brinks truck and pay a pretty price for someone like him. And you got to consider it. Teams always love overpaying for some bottom six forwards. You see it every year at the trade deadline. So if a team wants to come forward and give Kyle Dewis a pretty big offer that he maybe

can't refuse, then sure, you know, I'd consider it, especially if it's, you know, an overpayment. But other than that, I'm not really too interested in moving him. Again, unless you get a King's ransom for him or something like that. I can't even believe I'm saying that about Blake Lazot. I didn't not expect that to say that at any point about him this season, but he's just off to you that good of a start so far. I also want to shout out Chris LaTang for another great performance yet again. ever since coming back from that illness, he has played exceptional hockey, but I'm not seeing enough praise for it.

His skating looks to be more improved. His offensive ability is a lot better. His defensive play in his own zone has been great. He's been breaking out the puck out more cleaner these last few weeks. His all-round game right now is so much smoother compared to the first part of this season. It's really nice seeing him get rewarded. He already has seven goals this season. Yeah, whatever was ailing him when he was out with,

an illness. I don't know if it was something that was truly hampering him or if they used illness as a cover for an injury. But whatever was ailing him appears to be fixed because he has been absolutely tremendous since returning. And he continues to be the straw that stirs the drink for the Pittsburgh Penguins. As he goes, this team goes, yeah, you need your production from 87 and 71 and everybody else. But when Chris LaTang is firing on all cylinders, this team is going in a better direction. So very encouraging to see from him, he, like you said, the biggest thing I have noticed has nothing to do with production. It has everything to do with the way he's moving. It has everything to do with the way he's skating, the way he's possessing the puck, the way he's making his

first pass and his decisions. Those have all been so, so much crisper the last few weeks. Breaking news, this team is playing better when one of their best defensemen is playing better. And the same can be said for Eric Carlson. I thought he enjoyed another solid outing against Ottawa. He was up there in average games for top five among the penguins for that game. I know people are going after him for the play in overtime. But again, I put that overtime loss more on the play by Raquel than the play on

Malkin than the play on Carlson. If that was weird and jumbled, I apologize. I'll say it again. I put the overtime loss more on the Raquel and Gene. plays compared to the Carlson one. Again, definitely not the greatest, but I still felt like he had another very good game. And his level continues to get better these last few weeks.

Agreed. He's been quite good. I've liked a lot of what I've seen from him. And I think overall, he falls into that category of what I have been discussing with this team as a whole. He has really simplified his game. He's not overly pinch happy. Yeah, he's still pinching. He's still making aggressive decisions, but he's doing them in simpler, smarter ways.

Rather than just seeing a puck and turning into a dog, seeing a treat, he's not just lunging at it. He's going, all right, well, if I look around here, if I pinch and miss this, it's going to be an odd man rush. He's looking at it and going, all right, I don't have anybody jumping. If I get possession here, I'm going to keep us on the attack. And the same thing goes with his decisions to carry it through the neutral zone. He's not trying to beat three to four guys. He sees, okay, I can beat the first guy. I can beat the second guy and get us possession in the zone.

But then I can dump it deep. I can give it to an outlet. I can just pull up and let everybody catch up with me. And he's just making smarter, simpler decisions. And what do you know? It's leading to a better overall game and a better overall performance for this team as a whole. You're talking about more smart and simple decisions. We can honestly say that about almost,

everyone on the Penguins right now with the way they've been playing over this nine game stretch. They, it looks like are finally starting to listen to myself. And there have been plenty of times this year where it looked like they had quit on their head coach. Like they weren't listening to him. They were making all these brain dead decisions in their own zone. And don't get me wrong, they still are a mess defensively quite a few times. But it's still lesser now compared to where it was, you know, back in October, back in

November. At least this nine to 10 game stretch, they're playing more simple. they're not being as aggressive. They're not giving up all these odd man rushes like you were seeing, especially against Edmonton, for example. Heck, that Rangers game to start the season. It's a lot better now. It's more watchable.

The play in general has been encouraging. But again, I still need to see this for the next few weeks, and I need to see them bang some points before we can fully say, okay, they might be back here. They might be fully pushing for one of these final couple of playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. And then last thing, Pat, before we head to break, Mike Sullivan gave an update on Marcus Pedersen today.

And it's not fully bad, but it's also not great. Marcus Pedersen, week to week with an injury, definitely really poor timing for it just because this is going to mean a lot more responsibility for someone like Owen Pickering, who he's only played a handful of games. He's looked pretty good. But now he's going to need to play even better, especially with Pedersen out.

And same can be said for Ryan Graves. And also Ryan Shea. He is likely to draw back into the lineup, because of this injury. So we're going to see what a lot of these young guys are made of. We're going to see what Ryan Shea can do in a little bit of an elevated role. We're absolutely going to find out if this stretch from Owen Pickering is real or if it's a mirage because he is going to get a lot of responsibility on this blue line now without Marcus Pedersen.

He is going to now be forced to play in more weighty moments. They're going to have to try him on the penalty kill. They're going to have to try him in more high leverage moments, whether it's with a lead or trying to get back in a game or trying to press in a tie game. So I'm really curious to see how he adjusts and reacts and adapts to playing in a more elevated role. I think so far all the signs show us he'll be just fine. But we're going to find out the thing that we're going to talk about in the final segment, the thing that might play in their favor here. Oh, we've got a third co-host now. Nice.

Got a pup on the show. We love to see it. But we're going to talk about it in the last segment. Schedule's a little soft to end 2024. So if there was ever a time while you don't want to see people hurt, if there was ever a time for an injury like this, he's going to have some time to recover. And the competition could help with a depleted Penguins blue line.

Agreed. I just, I saw the pairings today. And Pickering, let's hang, again, totally fine. But Grizzly Carlson, I'm definitely getting a bit nervous. we saw how that pairing worked out earlier in this season. It was pretty bad to say the least. The underlying numbers were not pretty.

I'm going to dive into more of those tomorrow when we preview this game against the Kings. If they go forward with that pairing, I'm going to be pretty upset because it was very bad. And it's no wonder that Carlson has started to play better or one of the reasons he hasn't been playing with Grizzlake. So again, I just hope they don't stick with that pairing for too long, even though I know they don't have too many options right now considering that Pedersen is week to week. But that will do it for this second segment. Coming up here to end the show, now that my dog is out of the room, we're going to preview the week ahead,

look at some of the matchups against the Kings, the Predators, and the New Jersey Devils. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about a couple more sponsors, including Fandall. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with Fandall. That's America's number one sportsbook. Because right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $150

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Cancel your unwanted subscriptions right now and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket money, just go to rocket money.com slash locked on today. That's rocket money.com slash locked on. One more time, that's rocket money.com slash locked on. All right. We're back here in this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co's Patrick Am. So had another big week for the Penguins this week. It starts off with a bang on Tuesday playing a very good, and I mean a very good Los Angeles Kings team. I'm going to take the L on this because before the season, I really did not expect much from the Kings this year. I looked at their defense, especially without Dowdy. And I'm like, man, I just really don't see too much here, especially

with him hurt. But they have been one of the best defensive teams in the league. And they're also getting scoring from all four lines. This has been a very dangerous team to start the year. I'm not ready to say they're one of the premium Stanley Cup contenders, but this is at least a bona fide playoff team that can give some other teams problems in the playoffs. This is going to be a very tough test with the way they play defensively. The penguins, they're really going to have to work for their offense. And this one during the Tuesday episode. But that's a big one to start out this week.

But then you have Nashville, even though they have not been very good this year, they're one of the worst teams in the league. They still have firepower. You know, Jonathan Marches-O, Stephen Stamcoast, Philip Foresburg. They still have UC Zarros and Net. This is still a very dangerous team that the Penguins will have to be prepared for. And then they end the week with a big matchup against the New Jersey Devils in Newark, a place that it's kind of a house of horrors for the penguins.

they honestly rarely play well there, but still two matchups this week against at least bona fide playoff teams and another matchup against a team with a lot of talent. That's not that good. But again, they saw have talent. It's going to be another big week, my friend. It's going to be huge. And here's the thing about L.A. They're nipping right at Vegas's heels in the Pacific.

They are right there. That's going to be a huge test. We'll dive a lot more into them tomorrow on the preview episode. But it's going to be a huge test. And for all my nerds out there, you don't got tickets yet. to tomorrow's game. You're a WWE fan. Get yourself to PPG for WWE night, okay?

Anyway, back to the hockey. The other thing is, and I know you're saying this about Nashville, man, and we'll obviously dive more into them on a preview episode against them. They're tied with the Blackhawks for the worst record in the NHL. They both have 22 points. Nashville can't score and they can't get a save. They're minus 28 this year.

That is not a very good team. whether or not they have the firepower, you still can't take them lightly. You have to get this win. If you have a week sandwiched between against Nashville, you've got L.A. who is looking like one of the better teams in the league,

so that's going to be a huge test, a struggling Nashville team. And then the Devils. So this is a week where you are going to have to have a great performance in one of those three games, whether it's against L.A. or New Jersey, because you have to be able to beat the bad team,

and you've got to extract at least two points out of one of those two that are the bun on the sandwich, so to speak. So this is a huge week for the Penguins, because that's the other thing to keep in mind, is you've got six games, or, yeah, six games left, seven games left, excuse me, in this calendar year. But then you've got a Christmas break in. there. You've got, you're off on the 24th, 25th, 26, 27. So if you can bank some points here while

the league goes on break and you're still right in the mix coming out playing the Islanders twice and then the Red Wings to end the year, you can start 2025 very much still in the playoff race. If you can bang four out of six points this week, say you win two of the three, maybe you win the national game and then you split the Kings and Devils game and then you're able to potentially win that Flyers game at home, which I do think is pretty winnable, I will more than take that heading into the holiday break. You have the back-to-back against the Islanders who, they just got some guys back. Pelick just came back.

Barzell just came back. Do clear it looks like is getting close to coming back as well. I still don't think they're very good, even with them fully healthy. They have not played good hockey at all this year. But if you can go, I would say, three in one during this next four-game stretch heading into the holiday break, I will more than take that heading into the final three games of the year where you play the Islanders twice and then you've also played the Red Wings too you know you're able to bank those points you get more back into it I think that will be

more than a success for this team obviously sweeping those games would be the dream but I think this week two and one that's a good week for me but if you're able to win that flyers game that's on the 23rd three and one yeah more over the next week I will more than take that you have anything else to add about the general just adding one last thing if you go two and one that's the obviously the ideal of the ideal is 3 and 0, but let's, you know, let's pump the brakes there. But if you go 2 and 1, hell, I can even accept 1, 1, and 1. If you are able to get a win, you lose one of them and you drop a point in overtime, I'm not going to be overly upset because like we said at the top of the show, if you're banking

points, if you're constantly getting points out of these games, you're putting yourself in a good position because we've seen it the last two years. They didn't miss the playoffs by some wide margin. They missed the playoffs by one and four points. So you keep banking points in every single game. You keep yourself right in the race. Yeah. And you'll get more into it again.

If you continue to bank those, even though the games in hand are not in your favorite right now. They'll sort itself out as we get later in the season. But all you can do right now is just continue to win the games in front of you. but I think that will do it for today's episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with another episode of you all on Tuesday. Probably right around, I would say,

1130, 12 will have that posting to preview that game against the Kings and then we'll recap that for you all on Wednesday, plus get you all set for the rest of the week with Nashville and New Jersey. So for Patrick Damp, I am Hunter Hodes. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We'll talk with you all on Tuesday.