Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins send down Brunicke but McGroarty is safe!

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins made a big move on Monday, sending Harrison Brunicke back to junior. It's a move that upset some fans but Hunter and Patrick are here to tell you that it's going to be a good thing for the long haul. They discussed how Brunicke showed that he is far ahead of expectations as a prospect and how if he plays well at junior this year, there could be a spot waiting for him next year. After that, they dive into the lines from practice on Monday and how Rutger McGroarty appears to be making the team since he's still on a line with Lars Eller and Jesse Puljujarvi. They also discuss how the top power play has both Letang and Karlsson on it, which Hunter wants to see more of. Finally, they end the show with some BOLD predictions for this season!Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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.FanDuelPlace your first FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - guaranteed ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. 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.  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.

Harrison Brunick came very close to making the Penguins opening night roster before he was sent down on Monday, and Pat and I are going to discuss why this move makes sense right after this. Your Locked-on Penguin. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguin. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Huntser Hodes, joined by my host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on Twitter.

at Hunts or Hodes, and you can follow Pat on Twitter at Center for Wet, and you can follow the show's Twitter account at L.O. underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so 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 Fandall. Place your first $5 bet, and you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets. Guaranteed, visit fandle.com to get started. So Pat and I are back from wedding season this past weekend because Pat and his girlfriend went to a wedding,

and then my girlfriend and I went to a different wedding, but no more weddings for a while, because the season obviously does start this week, and the Penguins made some big news today as top prospect Harrison Brunick is going back to his junior team, so he will not be on the Penguins opening night roster this Wednesday against New York Rangers, even though we were both very much talking ourselves into it

with regarding him getting a nine-game trial. I was very skeptical for a time, and then I was talked into it just because, his play was really strong and I felt like, okay, maybe see what he can do. But I also wanted to stress to everyone that there was a legit shot that he could go back to junior. And that is exactly what happened on Monday. You can tell by reading the tea leaves at practice that it likely was just not going

to be for this year for Brunick. He was skating with Ryan Shea at practice. He wasn't involved in a lot of the penalty killing drills, none of the power play drills, obviously just wasn't as involved in practice as he was, say, last week during the preseason. and news came out about 30 minutes later that he was going back to junior. And I want to start with this. I understand a lot of people are going to be upset because of this move. And you're going to see takes like, oh, well, Mike Sullivan doesn't want to play younger players and all that.

And granted, I do think there are very valid criticisms of Mike Sullivan as a head coach. And I do think he could play some younger players a bit more. But I feel like in this case, you really can't use this against him. Harrison Brunich is still only 18 years old. He has a long way to go. Even though he is a lot closer right now to being NHL ready full-time than he was, say, at the time of the draft, he still has a little bit of ways to go. He needs to go out there and dominate Jr. this year. And if he does that, I think there's definitely a spot for him waiting on this team either next year or the year after.

He had an outstanding camp in a preseason. None of that should be taken away from him, even though he didn't make the team this year. He showed everyone that he's surreal, that he's coming, and I'm really excited about him in the future. Those are my main takeaways from this, Pat, let's say you. You hit on a lot of the things that I was also thinking of this morning when they announced that Brunick is going to go back to Junior. The other thing, and I brought this up last week, because I remember saying that it was a little bit of a non-committal take, but one of the things that dissuaded me from keeping him up is you have to keep in mind that with the current agreement

between the National Hockey League and the Canadian Hockey League, the Major Junior League, up in Canada and parts of the United States, is that players like Harrison Brunich are ineligible to go to the American Hockey League. They have to either stay in the National Hockey League for their entire season in their first year and they can't go down to the minors or they have to get sent back to their junior team. And that's what has happened with Brunich.

but the thing that kept coming front of mind for me was that he like you said he's 18 years old he's played in juniors and he has not played a genuine grind of an NHL season now there are certain things about playing in juniors that are grind within themselves a lot of long bus rides a lot of condensed schedule games where you're playing two or three games in a four to five span. So there are certain elements where he has done that in his career, but the NHL is an entire different level. It's much better hockey. It's an old cliche, but you're going from playing boys to playing men. There's guys in juniors he's playing that are 16, 17 years old, compared to the National Hockey League. He's going to play guys in their mid to late 20s,

early 30s, mid 30s, guys who have been seasoned in the NHL for a long time. So they really don't want to see him hit that rookie wall because you can't send him down to Wilkes Bear and let him play with lesser competition, get his confidence up, develop his game. You have to keep him in the NHL. And they have decided, I think correctly, send him back to Junior. He made a huge impression in camp. He showed that he is a very viable option. And should his development continue, I think next year with some contracts off the books, depending on what they do throughout the summer, he may be a real option to make the team next year. But this is all good progress.

And I think lastly, as Penguins fans, we have been so starved both rightfully and just generally of good prospects. So we've kind of forgotten what it takes for a prospect to get ready to play in the NHL. We want the end game. We want the plug and play. The guy who comes in, lights up camp, you put him on the roster, and we all have ourselves a Merry Christmas. But that's not where we're at with Harrison Brunick yet. He has a lot of potential.

He's going to be hopefully very good. But at 18, unproven, played against a lot of JV competition in the preseason. He did what you want him to do. But now you have him go back to junior, dominate in junior, come back next year, and he'll really push for a roster spot next year. Right. And there's also something to be said. He was the last junior player standing at training camp.

Out of all the junior eligible players in all the training camps in the NHL this year, he was the last one standing. That accounts for something, at least for me, considering he was not even a first round pick. There were first round picks that were sent back earlier than him. That goes to show how great of a camp he had, how great of a preseason he had. his time is coming. It's just, it's not right now considering you look at the Penguins blue line,

at least on the right side, Pat. Chris Letang, when he's healthy, you know, you're not taking him out of the lineup. Eric Carlson, he's now healthy. It looks like he's good to go on Wednesday. He's obviously not coming out of the lineup either. I think if Carlson, Carlson's injury, excuse me, was a bit more serious. I think they definitely would have considered it a bit more. But with Carlson healthy now, he's taking full contact. He was skating with Marcus Pedersen during practice on Monday. I think they were just like, okay, we know he's going to be ready to go. There's just really no point to, I guess, keeping him here, but, you know, putting him in the press box or something like that. And also Jackson is not taking away from his camp performance.

I think that is part of the reason he stuck around as long as he did. Because with Eric Carlson hurt, it opened up an opportunity for him to stay in the lineup, to take line rushes to play in preseason games. I think if Carlson's healthy, he probably only makes it past the, third or fourth, maybe fifth preseason game. Then they say, hey, you had a good camp kid. You made a good impression, but you're going back to junior. But with Carlson on the shelf for all of the preseason, it opened an opportunity for him to get an extended look.

Now with Carlson healthy, you don't have that window of, okay, we can play them for four to five, six, seven, eight, nine games and then send him back once Carlson's ready to go. But now that's not a thing anymore. Carlson's healthy and ready to go. so it kind of makes the decision for them that they can send him back. And also with Jackson, Ivany, he has very much earned a spot on this team as well. So I think they just looked at the overall health of the blue line now with Carlson back.

And I think they were just like, okay, we really aren't going to just crush your development while taking another player out in St. Ivany, who has proved that he belongs on this team as well. I think next year, depending on what they do in the off season, there could definitely be a spot for him on this team. overall. And also one last thing, I hate saying this. I don't want to watch an 18-year-old babysit Ryan Graves on a nightly basis. Sorry, I just really don't want to see that. We saw it for one game during the preseason. Graves was not good next to Brunich. And Brunich, I felt was fine, but I don't need to see Graves play terribly next to Brunich for a full season. I just really... You have to put him in a position to succeed at 18. You have to put him

in advantageous situations when you have them in the lineup. And pairing him with Marcus Pedersen, one of the most steady defensemen on the Penguins roster puts him in that position because he can make some mistakes in Eric Carlson, excuse me, Marcus Pedersen is there next to him to help mop up for that. If you're having him babysit a guy, you're trying to rehabilitate and he makes a mistake and then Graves makes a mistake, that pairing in theory could get absolutely caved in. And we have to remember, this is a team that has a stated goal of getting back to the Stanley Cup playoffs. They're not like, yeah, I know I've been saying that they've, they're looking at this season as a wash. They're going to see what happens next year when they have a bunch more

cap space, not they've got all the big pieces locked up. But you can tell that just from the way this team itself is talking, not coaches and management, the players, that they want to get back to the Stanley Cup playoffs. They want to be in the postseason. And if that's the, case, you don't want to run the risk of burning Harrison Brunick's development by putting him with Ryan Graves. And we know that Carlson Graves doesn't work. So at this point, given the health of the blue line and the fact that this is a motivated team that wants to get back to the postseason, you really can't take that risk on Brunich. Now, do I think he would be okay? Yeah, probably, but it's too much of a risk. It's too much of an unknown. And you're going to have so much more time

for Harrison Brunick to come in and be an effective defenseman, rather than trying to speed run to the end of it, like a lot of people want them to do right now. Right. I would have loved seeing him get a trial. I loved how he played in camp and preseason, but I also very much understand this move because they don't want to rush his development, and they like what they have, especially on the right side for this defensive group. But I think that I'll do it for this first segment.

Coming up in the second segment, Pat and I are going to discuss the other lines at practice today and why it looks like Rucker McGrorty might be on the opening night roster based on the line rushes and based on his other work during practice on Monday as well. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor

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Join by my host, Patrick Dam. So, Pat, the Penguins roster sits at 27 right now because Boko Imam and Sebastian Aja were placed on waivers on Sunday. I expect both to clear today. then they'll probably go down to Wilkesbury. So 28 for that. And then with Brunick going back to his junior team, you're at 27 players right now. So you need to make four more roster moves by 5 p.m.

That's the deadline for the 23-man roster for Monday. And my expectation, you're going to see a lot of players to IR. For example, Matt Nietto, he's not ready to go. That's going to be an LTIR thing, I think, for the Penguins. So you're down to 26. I also think Alex Nadelcovich. He's going to go in IR.

You're down to 25 right there. And then you have other. decisions, Vasily Ponamerev, who I don't expect on this team until later on in the season, he's hurt right now. So he's probably going to go on an IR, and then once he's healthy, he'll probably be sent down to Wilkesbury. So then you're down to 24, and then you have another decision to make. Do you put, you know, Brian Rust on IR with his injury? We still don't know the specifics on that. He's just not practicing. Do you put Blake Lazotte on IR? Because he has a concussion. He's not skating. I think most of these moves you're going to see today are IR-related.

that paves the way now for Rucker McGority to make this team. And you saw today with the lines in practice, Drew O'Connor with Cindy Crosby and Anthony Bavillier, Michael Bunting, of Genni, Malk, and Ricard Raquel. That's the top six for today. And then Rucker McGrady with Lars Eller and Yassie Pooley. Valtari Pustin was also rotating in with Furpool Yardy on the third line. And then Kevin Hayes, Cody Glass and Noachari,

defensively, Grizzlick-Littang, Peders, and Carlson, Graves, and St. Ivony. But as it stands right now, Pat, Rucker McGority might be making his NHL debut on Wednesday for the Penguins. It looks that way. And it's, I don't want to say it's well earned because I have gone over this that I thought his preseason in training camp was fine. He didn't look out of place, which is a solid way to start.

You didn't want to see him look overwhelmed, which he absolutely did not. He started to pick up steam near the end. And we talked about it on Friday. That third line of Magrorty, Eller, and Pauy Arvi really seemed to have some. something cooking. And yes, again, it's against the Columbus Blue Jackets JV team. And I think we can safely say this year that the Blue Jackets are not going to be a very good hockey team. They just considering that the Penguins JV squad was able to get a win over them earlier in the week, that kind of tells me all I need to know about the Blue Jackets so far going into this year.

But when you look at the process, you look at the way they played, you look at the way they played off of one another, it was an effective line. and there appears to be a solid amount of chemistry there. And if this is how you want to get Rucker McGrady into the NHL, we all had dreams and hopes of him taking up a wing with Sidney Crosby and being that vaunted winger for Crosby that we've always wanted. But he didn't really earn that yet. But then as we have seen as Penguins fans,

sometimes the line you didn't expect, ends up being one of the more effective lines. And the three of them just played a very honest, very straightforward, hard-for-checking, responsible game together that we need from this bottom six going into this year. They don't have to light up the scoreboard. We want to see them get on the board. But they don't have to be a reincarnation of HBK. But if they can get extended offensive zone time,

chip in a few points, and set the table for the top six to come out and build off of good momentum building shifts, that's a good place to be. And with more time, playing with very responsible players like Lars Eller, I think we'll see McGority grow into the player we want him to be. And then looking at the way lines were set in practice and then you get to special teams, he was getting penalty kill time with Drew O'Connor. And I can see this kid having a very similar development to say a guy like Brian Rust, where you start him off as kind of a Swiss Army knife. He plays in the bottom six, plays a hard game, does some penalty killing, develops his game, and next thing you know, in a year or two, he's a top six forward. Yeah. The big question I think for

McGority, at least to start the year is, okay, it looks like right now he's going to be in the open night lineup. That's awesome. I do feel like the final preseason game for the Penguins was by far his best preseason game throughout camp overall. His fit on that line with Eller and Plyarvy was great. in the offensive zone. They were cycling really well. They were forechecking, great. They were getting chances. It felt like basically every time they were out there

and their underlying numbers were tremendous together. And actually, I should say McGrathies, numbers individually among some of the best for the penguins throughout the entire preseason. I know, again, it's preseason, it's practice, but still, very encouraging overall for his development. But my thing is, once this team starts to get a bit more healthy, Ryan Rust, Blake LaZott,

I think he's probably going to come out of the lineup at that. point just because you know, you're not putting rust in the press box for no reason. Same thing with Blake Lazot. You signed him to a multi-year deal during the off season. I think he's going to be one of the players that comes out. But I'm still not going to be, I guess, super jammed about that once that happens because I know there's still more to his game that needs to be developed, excuse me. So again, I'm super hyped that it looks like he's going to be on this team.

But I also know that he still has a little bit to go. in terms of being, you know, a full 200-foot player in today's NHL. He does. And I also think, you know, to kind of use both the first and second segment together here, this is an opportunity for him to force the coaching staff to keep him in the lineup. Fair. We don't, we're probably not going to see Lazot for a little while because we know how concussions are.

You wake up one day, you feel great. The next day, you have a setback. And no two concussions are built the same. Maybe Lizotte's ready to go in a couple days, and this is all for moot. Maybe Brian Rust isn't as hurt as we may think he is, and he's ready to go come opening night. But assuming none of that happens and he gets a chance on Wednesday and then Thursday and Saturday, if that's how this all works out, he can play a strong enough game, especially with that third line that looks like they had something building in the preseason to kind of send a message to Sullivan and the rest of the coaching staff that I'm ready to be here. I'm ready to play.

and he can force them to keep him in the lineup because if he plays a good game, if he is effective in that third line role, it becomes a really difficult decision for the coaching staff because you also look at a couple of the other players who were in the lineup today. Maybe Cody Glass comes out. Maybe Valteri Pustin doesn't get a shot. And maybe there is an opening for him as this team gets healthy going into the rest of the regular season to where he can stick in.

and then by the time the team's at full strength, you can say, well, maybe Pustin does have to go down to Wokesbear. Maybe Cody Glass also has to go down and you can find a spot for him. But obviously, the ball is now in his court. He has an opportunity to show that the bet he's making on himself, being ready to be an NHL player, he has to make that statement over the next couple of days. Yeah, no, I agree. I think he has a great opportunity in front of the time. of them over this next potential week in change to show Mike Sullivan that he might have even

more tougher roster decisions to make once, you know, Rust is ready to go, once Lazot is ready to go, or all that good stuff. I'm just happy right now that we're able to talk about this forward depth being at least a little bit better heading into this season compared to last year where it felt like their options were very limited overall. I still don't want Anthony Bavillier getting top line minutes, but I know that right now, at least in my opinion, they really don't have much of a choice just because of the injury to rust and all that. But were there any other things that stood out to you during the lines today and all that stuff? I think not really surprising, but kind of how I think the end of this preseason shook out.

I think, you know, we have gushed over Jesse Pooley-R-V and his preseason. I think it's not so much an indictment of Valtary Pustodin as it is praise of Jesse Pooley-Yarvey. Pustinin was solid to good throughout the preseason, but Poole-Yarvey was that much better that I think he just kind of beat him out for that spot. And it's not to say that Pustin was bad or doesn't belong on the team because he's very much an NHL player. But when you look at the amount of forwards this team has

going into the regular season, he is just strictly a victim of a numbers game and the fact that one of the players he was directly competing with in Jesse Poo-Yarvey just had a better preseason, And I think, unfortunately for him, he's just going to get squeezed out. Right. I agree. One more thing, actually, that I did want to.

This is kind of from the weekend, but I wanted to discuss it a little bit to end the show here. It looks like the penguins are going to rock with Latang and Carlson on the top power play. And for me, personally, I'm all for it. I don't think it got enough of a sample size last year, in my opinion. They had a few games where they kind of tweaked with that idea a little bit, but they kind of just went away from it because the power play was struggling. so badly. Now, with a full year ahead of you, give it a shot to start the season. You have two guys out there that can quarterback the unit. Latang has done a really good job. I feel like quarterbacking that unit, especially during the preseason, but obviously for throughout his

career with this organization, maybe you can have him do that and then have Carlson at the half wall as both a playmaker and a one-time threat. I want to see David Quinn and Mike Sullivan experiment with this quite a bit during the season. Again, it didn't get enough of her one way. I want honestly it experimented on a bit more here. If I had maybe nitpick a little bit more, I maybe put Michael Bunting in place of Rickel on the top unit just because I like how bunting can clean up more garbage run the net, but I understand why Raquel is there with his release. But wanted to say back to end the segment, totally fine with both Carlson and Lentang on the top power play unit. When you have the amount of talent at your disposal for this

top power play, you really should to, you know, appeal to Hunter being such a Star Wars you have to make your top unit a death star. You have to put everybody there and force your opponent to choose who they're going to defend, to choose who, okay, who are we going to keep open and who are we going to determine is the biggest threat and keep those guys covered and hope for that mismatch. So I'm with you 100% on,

put them both on the top power play, figure out who you want to be your top trigger man, figure out who you want to be on the boards for a one-time threat and a passing threat and just let this thing try to cook. So load that thing up, force your opponent to choose who they're going to defend, and then find that mismatch and get the production out of it. Right.

I'm just super excited to see it inaction on Wednesday when this team hosts the Rangers for the first game of the season. And speaking of that, coming up in the final segment, Pat and I are going to give our big bold predictions for this season. Penguins specific bowl predictions overall. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our last sponsor. and that is Fandle. Hey, NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on Fandall, America's number one

sportsbook. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view life, play by play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets. Guarantee when you place your first $5 bet, that's fandle.com. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. joined by my coast, Patrick Dam.

So Pat, I'm going to hand this over to you to start for bold predictions today. We were pretty close on a couple last year. We were also way off the mark on a couple as well. I'm going to hand this over to you. What is your first bowl prediction for the Penguins this season? My first bold prediction, and this might not be overly bold, but it's one that given the way things went in the preseason, I feel pretty confident with.

This power play is going to finish in the top 10. of the National Hockey League this year, because we saw what ailed this power play last year. It was the thing that everybody in the upper bowl of PPG paints arena loves to yell, they were shooting the puck. Last year, they had a weird refusal to shoot the puck on the power play. It's a cliche and a dumb joke that everybody likes to make, but you could have sworn they were just trying to pass the puck into the net. Mix that with they seem like they have a newfound urgency on this power play.

They're willing to move. They're willing to attack. They're willing to finish plays at the front of the net. And with all this talent and a couple of guys in Michael Bunting, Brian Rust, and yes, even Ricard Raquel, who are not afraid to get their nose dirty in front of the net, this has the makings of a power play unit that could theoretically become an absolute weapon for this team. So my first bold prediction, like I said for this year, this is going to be a top 10 power play unit. Well, speaking of Michael Buncing, he's scoring 30 plus goals this year. That is my first

bowl prediction for this team for this season. And again, I know people. I was a bit skeptical on him coming back in the Genswell trade just because I didn't think he was a big centerpiece that you can just get back. Well, I look like a complete idiot. That's probably one of the worst takes I've had since I started the show five years ago. I can definitely put that down as one of my worst takes. But I was fully wrong, and he was everything the Penguins needed down the stretch and more. And I think that play is going to carry over into this season

on a line with Hvgeny Malkin and Ricard Raquel. He was the winger that Faggeny Malkin was badly needing on his line throughout the entire season. He was great on the power play. He was a great spark. And I think with the way he plays, I think he's going to score 30 plus for this team. He's going to get opportunities on the power play.

He's going to get plenty of opportunities at five on five. I think we're in for a big year for bunting. 30 plus goals this year is my first bowl prediction. I am going to keep that kind of idea going with my second one. And it's for one of his linemates, Ricard Raquel. I think he is going to have between 25 and 30 goals this year. Because I was pretty vocal about this last season. I think like a lot of things.

things last year. It was just a toxic recipe that derailed his season. He got hurt early. He never got into a groove. And then all of the problems just snowballed. Add in the fact that him and Malkin basically had a revolving door of wingers. There was no chemistry there. And that line just had Evgeny Malkin trying to carry two corpses across the finish line on that line. Now, he appears to be back. He appears like he's got his jump back in his game. He is looking like he's willing to shoot a lot more again. And with how good him, Malkin, and Bunting have looked together, I think all of the ingredients are there for him to have a very good bounce back season. So I think somewhere between 25 to 30 goals for Ricard Raquel is absolutely on the table this year.

I like that one. This one, I think, is going to to be probably the most bold prediction. I have, I know the penguins have very much struggled in three on three overtime in shootouts these last couple of seasons. It has not been pretty, especially in overtime, because a lot of times it does not look like the penguins know what the hell they're doing when they're out there. I think that changes this year. I think it's time to reverse the course with three on three. They were dominant when it first came in. Last couple of years hasn't been. I think they will go over 500 and three-on-three overtime games this year.

This topic is not discussed enough, excuse me, among Penguins fans. There are struggles in overtime these last couple of seasons. It's one of the biggest reasons why this team has failed to make the playoffs. You know, one more point there. One more point there. No, one more point there. Boom, you're talking about a completely different scenario where this team makes the playoffs compares to missing the playoffs.

I think this year, they figure out three-on-three, they finish above 500, you figure out the rotations for three on three. You stop doing these weird experiments with who takes the opening face off versus who doesn't. You figure out the line changes. You score more goals. I do think they will finally figure it out this year. Get back. I'm not even going to say get back to how dominant they were when it first started, but just be better this year. That's why I think it's going to happen. And they will finish above 500 and three on three this year. I like it. I saved my scorcher for last because I can already see the comments. I can already see the tweets, and I will gladly take all of them.

And this one was a last minute edition for me after reading our pal Joshio, he's look-back feature this morning about when this team found life again and started to almost make the playoffs down the stretch last year. And that is that Mike Sullivan will be a finalist for the Jack Adams Ward. Because everybody, and listen, but when I say this, I say this because we know how this award goes. It's the we thought you were going to stink and you didn't stink award. Everybody top to bottom is saying the penguins are done.

It's over. And yes, are they Stanley Cup contenders? No, they are not. They are not Stanley Cup contenders. Are they a team that should make the playoffs? I absolutely believe so. And with that in mind, with the way I think this team is going to play this year, I think that puts his name into the nomination category just because everybody has written this team off.

And I think that when they make the playoffs at the end of the year, they get back to the postseason, a bunch of writers are going to go, man, we thought the penguins were going to stink this year. And they didn't. They're in the playoffs. Let's nominate Mike Sullivan for the Jack Adams. Is he going to win it? Highly doubtful. Unless this team goes on some crazy resurgent run where they win a division or finish in a top-seating place, he's not going to win it.

But if they comfortably make the playoffs, his name's in the ring for Jack Adams Award. Yeah, I'm not going that far. I think he might be out to lunch with that one, my friend. But, yeah, I'm not doing that. My last one I've been going back and forth on, I was going to maybe do something for Drew O'Codder again, but I was very close to getting that one right last year. I predicted his breakout. I just didn't get the goal total right.

But I do think he's going to have another big year for this team. I'm going to go with the captain here. He gets 100 plus points this year. I'm going to say it. I think he would have had it last year of the price. power play had been at least average. I think you will see the power play be better this year, how much better we'll have to see. I do think he will score 100 plus points and maybe even get around to that 105, 110 point

territory this year. Yeah, I know he's 37 years old, but I still think he has a lot of great hockey left in him still despite being up there in age. And with the way he played last year, why can't he carry that over in this season? So I'm going to go with Crosby 100 plus points for this season. potentially getting up to 110, maybe even more than that somehow. But I think that would maybe be pushing it a little bit, I think, for that. But those are our bold predictions for this season.

Let us know. What do you think of them? Do you think Pat is nuts for Mike Sullivan as a Jack Adams award finalist? Do you think, I'm crazy for Michael Bunting with 30 plus goals? Well, let us know down in the comments. You can send us DMs and all that stuff as well. But that would do it for today's episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast tomorrow. Pat and I are going to do our full season predictions for the NHL.

predict whether the Penguins will make the playoffs. We're going to predict the Metro Division, Atlantic, Central, and the Pacific as well. And then Wednesday, preview day, we'll get you all set for Penguins Rangers. And then Thursday, we'll recap that, get you all set for Penguins Red Wings. And then Friday, recap that, get you all set for the weekend. The week is finally here. The season starts this week. We are super pumped overall.

But again, that would do for this one. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We appreciate it. And we'll be back on Tuesday.