Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins set for a SHOWDOWN against the Islanders!

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

The Penguins will play their biggest game in two years tonight with some massive playoff implications. Hunter and Patrick first begin the show with a recap of the loss against the Dallas Stars. (1:00) They take a look at the officiating and how some lopsided calls tilted the game in Dallas’s favor, how the Penguins were able to keep themselves in it, and more. They also touch on how good Erik Karlsson continues to be, other things that went wrong, and take a look at the Eastern Conference standings. (11:34) Finally, they preview tonight’s game against the New York Islanders, what the Penguins will have to do to win, and how they can shut down some potent offensive weapons on Long Island. (21:00) Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Indeed Now, you can speed up your hiring process with a $75 Sponsored Job Credit. Just go to https://indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Robinhood You’re no longer just a spectator. Play by play. You decide. Trade Every Play with Robinhood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robinhood app now to begin. Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC., a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm. Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. During the tournament FanDuel is offering $300 back in Bonus Bets every day for ten days. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game.   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 were unable to get two points against the Dallas Stars this weekend. And Pat and I are going to recap that game. Plus get you all set for another huge week of Penguins hockey coming up 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 the Monday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

I'm one of your host, Hunts, Trojones. you can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes joined by my co-host Patrick Damp you can follow him on all social media platforms at Cendon Perwet. You can also follow the show's Twitter at LO underscore Penguins and you can find us on Instagram

at Lockedon 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. Pat, first of all, I think I'm cursed this year at PBG Paints Arena. I have never finished to see season below 500 in terms of wins and losses at PBG, that is changing this year.

I am 0.4. I think I might go winless this year. So, yes, I might get tomatoes thrown at me in the comments. That's fine. I'm probably not going to go back to BBG paints arena, at least to the regular season. My fiance wants to go to a playoff game. So maybe I guess people will say she can go with some friends. I don't know.

But I am just cursed at PBG this year, man. Yeah, it might be time to take. to take some time away from PPG this season. I'm 1 and 0. So maybe when the penguins, if and when the penguins make the playoffs, I'll head over there and keep my winning streak alive. You can also maybe just go on Tuesday.

I don't know, man. This is, I've never had this happen before. But the penguins, they get off to a really great start against the stars. I thought the first 10 minutes were great. They get that power play goal. Thanks to Anthony Manta,

his 27th goal of the season. Really nice to flex. Also, you cannot stop Eric Carlson. You can only hope to contain him. This is going to be another theme of today's episode because Eric Carlson was the best flare on the ice for the Penguins on Saturday. He then makes it two to one in the second period. And then Pat, the Penguins P.K.

Finally surrendered. I like the P.K. in the first period, they were doing a really solid job of killing off the penalties. but when you take as many penalties as you did against one of the top power plays in the league, it's only a matter of time before that unit strikes. And they did multiple times in that second unit. In that second period, I should say. And I am here to say this. All those calls were legit.

If you want to argue that the Parker Water Spoon call was a bit soft, I won't stop you. I think it was a little bit soft myself. But for the most part, all those calls. calls were legit. I had no problem with that. My problem was they weren't calling it consistently on the Dallas Stars. If you're going to call those on the Penguins, which that's fine. I think those are all normal calls. Call it fairly on the Stars. And I don't think they were doing that in this game. I was watching it in the stands pretty close to the glass. I was seeing

multiple calls just ignored by the officials on ICE. We obviously saw what happened on the game winning goal to make it four two, where Carlson's stick literally gets taken out of his hands. And you see him barking to the ref. The ref basically just cusses in him, rated our language. We're not allowed to say that here on the show. Stars score seconds later. And then you saw Carlson really give it to the ref right after as well. That was a common theme during this game.

But again, I don't want to spend too much time on the officials because I feel like we've been spending too much time overall these last couple weeks. All I have to say is this fat. It's that time of year where the officiating just gets worse and worse as each game goes by because we're basically in the playoffs. You're fighting for your right to get in. These are all virtually playing games for the playoffs. This is how games are going to be officiated. Yeah, I know.

It sucks, but we've all been here before for playoff races, playoff games, all that good stuff. That's what I got to say on that one. just want to see it called consistently. That's all. I'm going to hand this over to you because I know you have a small little rant to go. I mean, the consistency is the biggest part of it, right?

Like you look at, you look at yesterday's game sheet and it's five straight penalties on the penguins. And none of those five were bad. No. They weren't bad calls. It wasn't because the run of the run of calls on the penguins are high sticking, too many men on the ice, tripping,

tripping, and high sticking. And all of them were very much deserved. I can nitpick a little bit with the too many men on the ice penalty because I think it that one is, it depends on the day. Some sometimes they let you get away with it. Sometimes they don't. But the rest of them very much were penalties.

Mantha got a stick up on bunting. McGority definitely tripped Myers. Watherspoon tripped Blackwell and Sutterblom got his stick in the Randon's face. all of those were legit. And you look at the time stamps of these penalties. First period, 1053, first period, 1216, first period, 16, 1st period, 1638, 2nd period, 545, second period, 945. That's nearly a full period of being shorthanded.

And I don't know if it would have been called differently, if the penguins would have come out with at least a point, maybe two. I'm kind of skeptical because I do think outside of the penalties, Dallas did wake up in the game. They remembered, oh, yeah, we're the Dallas stars, were maybe the second or third best team in the NHL and started to play like it. Yeah, after the first 10 minutes, the Penguins were the better team in the first half of that first period. The stores woke up after that. And yeah, part of it was because they were getting a bunch of power plays, obviously that helps.

But they woke up for most of the remainder of that game. But at the same time, just like you, I watched that game. I wasn't in person. I was watching it on TV. But, you know, I saw a couple trips. I saw a couple hooking penalties. I saw some interference. Obviously, you brought up Eric Carlson getting his stick ripped out of his hands right in front of an official.

And it leads to a goal against. All of that adds up to your team. team losing any and all momentum and losing any and all flow, because you're going to look at this box score and you're going to see that the penalties were five to four. So you're like, oh, it couldn't have been called that much differently, but it really was. And here's where I'll end this so we can get back to actually talking about hockey.

Shots on goal were 26 to 12. Listen, you ain't beaten Jake Ottinger in the Dallas Stars with 12 shots on goal. No. But here's the other part of it. the end of the first period and the majority of the second, when all the officiating stuff happened, I will give them a bit of a pass for that because it takes you out of the flow,

you're only killing penalties, and it doesn't help your efforts towards winning. The third period, though, they don't get called for any penalties. Dallas takes two. You've got to show up in the third. And they tried. I'm not going to say,

I'm not pretending like they didn't. Nolachari scores relatively early to put them within a goal, and then they battle. But when you're going up against a guy like Jake Ottinger, it's going to take a lot more than 12 shots on goal. Yeah, that's simply not good enough. Like, I know you're without Crosby. I know you're without Malkin.

We'll get to both of those a bit later on in the show, because at least one of them, I think, is returning on Monday against the Islanders again, more on that coming up soon. But 12 shots ain't going to cut it, man. I'm sorry. You need to fire. way more at one of the best goaltenders on the planet. I know some of his stats this year are a bit pedestrian,

but when Jake Ottinger's on, he is one of the best goaltenders on the planet. 12 shots is just simply not good enough. And you're right. They got it to 4-3 early on in the third. That was a really nice goal. It was a bit of a lucky goal as well. But they did get a power play later on after that.

The reps called it. Penguins were close to scoring on that, close to tying the game. A point here would have been a stolen point would have been huge. They weren't able to get it. The one thing I didn't like, I was going to save her the second second second time, but I'll just touch on it here. I didn't like how damn yous pull the goalie in this game. I felt that was too early for a one goal deficit.

If you're down to pulling the goalie with three minutes left, I got no problem with that. I mean, hell, we see Patrick Waugh of the Islanders pull the goalie with sometimes four to five minutes left when he is down to. That's just how he is as a coach. But when you're down by one, three minutes. left. I think you've got to wait at least another 30 seconds to a minute before pulling the goalie. Yeah, I know. It was a bit of bad luck where you get possession, shot gets blocked, and then it immediately

goes in the empty net. I understand that. However, I would have waited a little bit. I can understand his thought process. You know, you haven't been able to get a lot going. You're only, you've only thrown a few shots at the net. You might as well try something else. and you also don't know if and when you're going to get that kind of possession again

or if you're even going to get a stoppage in play in order to pull Skinner. So I understand the thought process. I just don't agree with it. Yeah, I just would have waited until about, you know, the two, two and a half minute mark to pull Skinner. And that one, I just thought it was a little too soon overall. But I think that's going to do it for this first segment. Coming up in the second segment, we're going to discuss a couple of other takeaways from this game, including Eric Carlson, continuing to be the best defenseman on the planet right now with

the way that he continues to play. And then later on, we are going to preview Monday's massive game on Long Island against the Islanders. That is coming up right after this. But before we get to that, we have to tell you all about our first sponsor, which is Robin Hood. What is sports were traded like markets? Now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robin Hood prediction markets. It's not just you against the house. It's you participating in a live market. You can buy or sell your positions live all game long. Use your sports knowledge in the moments that matter. Robin Hood prediction markets changes the game. It's people moving the action so in momentum shifts, you can move along with it. I always knew the game, but never had a dynamic way to apply that knowledge. Now I can

actually take part live in a market powered by people. You're no longer just a spectator. Play-by-play, you decide. Trade every play with Robin Hood, now available across the U.S. Download the Robin Hood app now to begin. All right, we're back here on the Monday edition of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-s, Patrick Camp, and Pat. Eric Carlson, man, we are not worthy, my friend, just continues to be the best player on the ice for the Penguins night in and night out. He's now up to 60 points overall. I predicted before the season, 70-point season.

actually get that right before the end of the season, the way that he continues to go, another multi-point game. He is putting this team on his back. The keep that he had leading to Achari's goal in the third period to make it four, three was beautiful. The shot that he had on the power play was right leading to Memphis deflection. And then his goal also in the second period, what a snipe past Jake Ottinger. He continues to play.

elite hockey man all three zones he is fantastic i don't have much more to say man he continues to outdo himself on a nightly basis you know what kind of disappointed me more than a more than a lot of things that happened in saturday's game against dallas i really if there's one thing about eric carlson's game that has always been there since he's become eric carlson it's that he is level He is very cool. He does not crack under pressure. He doesn't get very emotional. Hell, you'll see him in the most high leverage moments like grinning and laughing and having a good time.

So what disappointed me was when he freaked out on that ref, when he got his stick pulled out of his hands, I was really hoping that would be a rallying moment for the penguins in that game because if that guy's upset and that guys at that level, nobody else should have an excuse. It doesn't mean that everybody's got to suddenly start screaming and yelling at officials. It just needs to be a moment where everybody goes, yeah, we got to pick this guy up.

We got to figure this out. We got to get our, we got to get our you know what together here and start playing like we did the first 10 minutes. But overall, yeah, I mean, how many more times and how many more ways can we say it? Eric Carlson is the Penguins MVP right now, and he is playing at a level that you keep saying it, I'm going to keep agreeing with it. This looks an awful lot like 2017 Eric Carlson.

Right, and it continues to be one of the biggest reasons why I want the scene to make the playoffs. Obviously, the biggest one is because I want to see Sid Gino and Tanger get another run at a potential Stanley Cup. But also, I want to see a playoff Eric Carlson, man. I mean, this has been unbelievable stuff from him, the way that he is a one-man breakout from his own zone, the way that he is keeping the puck in the offensive zone, making absurd passes, every single shift, has that shoot-first mentality. He's basically, feels like he's averaging two to three points for game throughout the month of March. It's been unreal.

He is playing so freaking well for this team. And I really have to keep continuing to give credit to DMUs and the rest of the coaching staff for unleashing Eric Carlson because we never saw this level from him under Mike Sullivan and the former coaching staff. It's been unbelievable to see. A couple other thoughts from this game. Again, I liked the penalty kill the first period. I thought the way they killed off the five on three was great. I thought Stuart Skinner, excuse me, was especially really good in the first. However, they kind of laxed off a little bit in a second, which from a PK perspective,

you kind of understand because when you give a Dallas power play that is that good, that many chances, they're eventually bound to score one or two. I don't want to sound like I'm nitpicking, but I still feel like Skinner could have been a little bit better on a couple of the goals, namely the fourth one where Carlson, that was an obvious penalty, of course, on Dallas. But I don't think he tracked that puck as well to make a couple. at 4-2, he's got to be better there. I thought his side-to-side movement was also a little bit lackluster in this game.

I'm not sure what Damuz is going to do for the game on Monday. I can easily see him going back to Skinner, but I could easily see him going back to Shilom's saying like, hey, I'm going to give you the start here in the biggest game of the season. But to me, I felt Skinner could have been a little bit better here. He deserved to start. I was very happy to see him get the start, but I want him to play just a teeny bit better. That's about where I am.

I can't actually get upset at the way Skinner played. He didn't get a ton of help. As for the PK, I know we've been tough on it recently, deservedly so. I think in this case, when you look at the game from Saturday with Dallas's power play going two for five, I think that's actually as good as you can get with how the run of penalties went and how consistently they were short-handed. I think they did a good job overall, keeping them their heads above water rather than completely melting down. So I applaud the penalty kill for hanging in there and doing their best with what was a pretty bad situation. Overall, I'm going to come back to it just real quick.

I would like to have seen this game played on more even footing when it comes to officiating because the first 10 minutes were. great. The penguins put on a clinic. I'd even say the first 20 minutes. Like I thought the penguins played really well with the exception to the run and the penalties at the end of the first. It was a good period outside of those really undisciplined penalties where the penguins simply have to be better at. Because we we have talked about this for a couple different games this season where it wasn't a case of, oh, the penguins stopped doing this, their opponent started doing that and vice versa. If this game is played on even officiating terms,

I think that would have been one of those games where the penguins have a push, Dallas has a push. Penguins have a push, Dallas has a push. Let's see who comes out on top. And I think, again, that that officiating at the end of the first and end of the second really disturbed the flow of the game, it benefited Dallas. And if you're Dallas, you're going to take those two points,

say thank you very much and keep it moving. But I look at that game and I'm actually feeling a lot better than I did this time last week about where this Penguins team is. They put up an effort like that, especially with the two games coming up this week. I like their chances a lot. The biggest thing continues for me is they got to get healthy. You're missing too many bodies. Obviously, Crosby and Malkin, we're back to practice on Sunday.

Sunday. That is huge now. Rust and Achari were both absent, but Damu's did say after practice that they were both maintenance days. They're traveling with the team to a Long Island. So I don't think there's going to be anything there unless they miss the morning skate on Monday, which to be determined on that one. But as of right now, I expect both of them to play. We're recording this late Sunday night. We're going to drop this right around 12, 1 a.m. Monday morning. But they just got to get the big guys back. Like that's, still the biggest thing that I continue to say. I thought they were defending a bit better in this game. I mean, you look at some of the metrics overall for natural statric. They only gave up five high danger chances at 5-1-5 in this game. I will take that considering the way that they have been defending over the last week or two where they're giving up way too many goals, way too many chances. But this team has got to stay disciplined.

Took too many penalties in this game. I get it. The consistency with the officiating was done. good enough, but you also, the onus is on you to stop taking obvious penalties right in front of the refs. So that's what I got to say on that. Last thing, though, I wanted more of a shoot-first mentality from the players. Again, 12 shots is not good enough. I'm not going to pile on someone like Igor Chinochov, who has been fantastic from this team ever since he was acquired. But there were a couple moments where I'm like, hey, man, just utilize your disgusting release a little bit more.

That's all. That's all I'm trying to say. And I'll throw a few other players in there, too. Justin Brzoe, for example, there are a couple of moments where I thought he could have released the puck, decided not to. It feels like a lot of the players were looking for that extra pass. Can't be doing that against a goaltender like Jake Ottinger. But again, I know it stinks to lose, but you did get some standings help. The Blue Jackets only got one out of four points this weekend. They blew a 3-0 lead to the Bruins.

They also lost in regulation of the sharks. Penguins will go into Monday's game against the Islanders in third place in the Metro with a chance to leapfong the Islanders for a second place with a win. And that's coming up. We're going to preview that game right after this. All right, we're back here to close out the Monday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host, Patrick Damp. And Pat, this is another major week for the Penguins. We are just about through the March continent.

you got two games left in the month before we get to the April schedule. And let's be real here, the schedule is about to soften up. Obviously, you still have to go out there and win these games. These teams are not just going to hand you free wins. But the schedule compared to other teams that they're fighting with does soften up. Their last six games are against non-playoff teams as of right now. And even, you know, these next two are against bubble teams, teams that you have beaten this year. Hell, even if you want to throw in Thursday against Tampa Bay, you have beaten

the lightning once this year. That is your toughest game remaining on the schedule. Again, still go out there and win it. But when you compare your strength of schedule to other teams that you are fighting with to try and get into the playoffs, the Penguins have the edge. But it all starts on Monday. I said I was going to say it today last week, and I will say it. This is the Penguin's biggest game in two years. I know I said it for Ottawa, but I told you I was going to say it here. This Islander game is absolutely massive. It's a team you're fighting for to get into the playoffs. Two points here gets you back in the second place. The Islanders just got a really big win over the Panthers this weekend. They were down to nothing going into the second period before they

realized, oh yeah, this Panthers team is just tanking for Gavin McKenna and they took it to them for the final 40 minutes. The Panthers were the better team in that first period. I had that most of that game on. and the islanders realize, okay, maybe we should wake up here a little bit. And they sure did. Now, it does appear to me that the penguins are going to be a bit healthier for this game. You know, Russ and a try, they seem good to go. But Crosby, he was back in his normal spot during Sunday's practice, took some contact who was the top line center.

I do think he is going to play in this game. You know, you saw a couple of quotes after practice talking about, these are the type of games that you want to play in. He didn't confirm. was going to play, but just based on a couple of his comments, I think he is going to go. Evgeny Malkin, TBD. He was back in his normal spot at practice, took some contact, but he did stay on the ice long after practice ended, so maybe they're saving him for Tuesday against Detroit.

We don't know. We got to see what happens during the morning skate and all that. But if you get at least one of these two back, obviously huge for your chances to be this Islander's team. And speaking of that, Pat, this Islander's team, They are not good defensively. That is where they are most vulnerable in this game. They have given up the seventh most scoring chances at five on five this year per natural

Stadrick. And they've given up some of the most high danger chances, the second most I should say, at five on five this year. Now, the key has been Ilya Sorokin, who is going to win the Vesna. He's been the best goaltender hockey. But if you can get a lot of traffic in front of them, get them going to side to side, basically do what you did in that last matchup again. against him where you scored four on him and maybe get better goal tending from whoever starts,

whether it's skin or she loves. Penguins will have a really good chance of winning this game. But you've got to make Sorokin's life a living hell. You do. Like you said at the end of the last segment, against the guy like Sorokin, it's got to be a shoot first mentality. It's got to be a bang and crash mentality. You got to make his life miserable.

And they did that for the most part in the last matchup. The problem was they just didn't get. goaltending themselves, and that kind of came back to bite them because they were the better team. Let me set the stage for how big this game is on Monday. The penguins have actually gotten quite a lot of help. Now, we've said it on the show. We don't want to be the team that backs in. We don't want to be the team that makes it because everybody else decided they didn't want to make it.

But they're still in the driver's seat. Like everything is right in front of them. You win these games, you are going to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Up to this point, they have played 15 games this month. Only six of them have they failed to get at least a point in. Meanwhile, in the last couple of weeks, Columbus has lost four of five, and none of those four losses were three-point games, with the exception of, as we're recording this Sunday,

when they blew a 3-0 lead to the Boston Bruins and went on to lose in the shootout. The Islanders are 3-3 and 3 in their last 6. None of those three losses were overtime, so they did not get any points. The Red Wings, it's ugly. They have fallen apart since returning from the Olympic break. Ottawa has been one of the only good teams in this race

that continues to consistently win, but as long as the penguins continue to keep themselves in the top three, really we should say second or third in the metro spot, that's not really going to affect them. So if you are able to go out and take two points clean, no three point game against the Islanders on Monday, and then if you can beat the Red Wings on Tuesday, that's not going to punch your ticket to the playoffs,

but it's going to put you in a position where everybody is going to need you to fall apart and everybody else is going to need a bunch of other help. So if you take care of business to start this week, it puts you in a really, really good spot. Especially with the schedule you have coming up. And again, none of these games are giving me wins. I'm just looking at this on paper compared to the other teams that they are fighting with because the Islanders, they have a much tougher schedule. The Blue Jackets, their schedule is also going to be really nasty these final two.

and a half weeks. The Penguins, their schedule is going to lighten up, especially after this week. Now, the Islanders and Red Wings games, they're still tough games, but they're not asked how I feel like compared to who you just faced, Dallas, Colorado, even Ottawa, who you have really struggled against over the last few years. But your last six games, two against Washington, and yeah, they're still in the race, but by the time you play them, I'm not sure if they're going to still be in it. By then, New Jersey is kind of out of it. St. Louis has tried to play their way back into it in the West, but I still feel like it's too little, too late.

Schedule opens up for your. Anna, by the way, you have that home and home against, not even the home and home. You have a home back to back against the Panthers. What a weird scheduling setup. Two home games right in a row there against the Panthers, back to back nights. Feels like you don't really see that in the NHL scheduling throughout each season.

But you have that coming up here this next weekend. on paper it's better compared to other teams. So I have to go out there and win those games. But the path is there for this team to make the playoffs. They just have to go out there and simply execute. You win these two games here this week, the first two on that back-to-back, just really increases your chances

and you have the chance to really put a huge dent in the playoff hopes of both Islanders and the Red Wings. And we all should say, Pat, the Flyers, all of a sudden, I've kind of played their way back into it. I remember we got a fan take Friday question about a week, week and a half ago talking about the Flyers, potentially playing the Penguins. And I said, I didn't think that was going to happen, but I also didn't think they were going to make the playoffs. Hey, the Flyers, to their credit, have been playing a lot better as a way.

Right now they're tied one-one with the stars. They can find a way to win that game. They're kind of getting back in the race here, my friend. I keep saying it. I wrote about it over the weekend. There's really only four teams in the East that you can say are legitimately out of it. and one of them is actually already mathematically eliminated. The devils, the Leafs, the Panthers, and the Rangers,

the Rangers are the ones who are mathematically eliminated. Everybody else is within five points of a playoff spot or less. And I know that that's a lot of ground to cover with the way the NHL sets up their system, but it's still very much in the realm of you have a hot week and one or two teams has a cold week. All of a sudden, you find yourself in a playoff spot or closer to a playoff spot. But as for Monday against the Islanders, this is, I'm going to give a couple quick keys here. Yeah. One, shut down Barzal, shut down Horvatt, shut down Schaefer.

Those are the three guys who do the most damage for them. A lot easier said than done, but I'll always come back to the Kobe Shack defense. If one of them has a night, that's expected. They're really, especially Schaefer. he's incredibly good. He is the runaway Calder winner this year. He's been unbelievable.

But you can let one of them run wild. Don't let all of them kill you. And as we said to start the segment, if it's Sorokin and net, bang and crash, everything to the net, take his eyes away. And here's the other thing.

I kind of said this about Dallas. It goes double, triple, quadruple, whatever the word for five. is against the Islanders. They are Freddie Kruger. They are Jason Voorhees. They don't go down. So do not get frustrated.

You could jump out to a 2-0 lead. They could tie it. Don't get frustrated. Don't get flustered. If you're playing well, just keep pushing because this is a team that it takes a while to put them down and it's probably going to take 60 to 65 minutes.

So just keep at it. Do not get flustered. Do not get frustrated. don't stray from the game. It's a team that is very pesky, and you've got to learn to live with it. That's how they play. And the Islanders,

too, also have a back-to-back, just like the Penguins do. This week, they'll play Buffalo on Tuesday while the Penguins play the Red Wings. I still think even with that, Sorokin is going to go against the Penguins because I think when you look at the two games, that is the bigger game.

So I think you're going to see Sorokin this one, and they'll play David Riddick on Tuesday against Sabres. Time will tell. who Damuse decides to start, whether it's Skinner or whether it's she loves. You mentioned it on Schaefer. Gotta find a way to shutting him down. He's going to play half the game, and rightfully so. He's been one of the best defensemen on the planet this year.

Should win the quarter unanimously, but you know a few Montreal writers are probably going to give it at least a few votes to Demadov. Hell, I had Demadov winning the quarter before this year. I look like an idiot. What that one? That just goes to show how insane Schaefer has been. But Horvats been great.

Barzell, very great play. maker, his vision is discussing. Anders Lee, if you can find a way to disrupt him in front of the net just because that is his game, that is also a big one for me. And again, getting the power play back running a little bit, especially if Sid is able to go, which I do think he will. That is a big key for me as well. So this is what we're made for, man. This type of game, biggest game of the year, biggest game overall for this franchise in two years. I am stoked for it, and so should you all. Tuesday, they'll play the Red Wings.

Another big game, standings-wise. Thursday, they'll head to Tampa to play a lightning team that's basically a playoff lock for just waiting to clinch at this point. And then they have that back-to-back against the Panthers at home, a Pamper's team that is literally tanking for Gavin McKenna. And it'll be hilarious if they do get McKenna, just because the takes will be great. But that is going to do it for the Monday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

Thank you all so much to take the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with a fresh episode for you all on Tuesday, recapping this game against the Islanders, and getting you all set for Penguins Red Wings from PBG Paints Arena on Tuesday. It's the stretch front, people, one of the best times of the year if you're a hockey fan. So for Patrick Damp, I'm Hunter Hodes. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We'll be back on Tuesday.