Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins shutout in Nova Scotia Showdown by Senators

Episode Date: October 3, 2023

The Pittsburgh Penguins lost in Sidney Crosby's hometown on Monday night but it's only the preseason, thankfully. Hunter and Pat recap this game by first starting with the power play. They give their thoughts on the unit and why it's fine to work out the kinks now rather than the regular season. They look at what is plaguing the unit and what can be improved before the regular season starts. After that, they look at some of the standouts from the game, including Radim Zohorna and Tristan Jarry. Has Zohorna played his way onto the roster? How was Tristan Jarry's performance after the first goal? They even go into Erik Karlsson's game and how he looked in another preseason game. Finally, the two dive into the waiver claim of Jansen Harkins and whether he can help the team in any way going forward.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!IndeedIndeed knows when you’re growing your own business, you have to make every dollar count. Visit Indeed.com/LOCKEDON to start hiring now. BirddogsGo to birddogs.com/LOCKEDONNHL or enter promo code LOCKEDONNHL for a free water bottle with any order. You won’t want to take your birddogs off we promise you.AG1If a comprehensive solution is what you need from your supplement routine, then try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkAG1.com/NHLNETWORK.eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win.  Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com.  Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.  GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime.Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Gametime.  Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS - GUARANTEED. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON 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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In typical penguins fashion, even though it's just a preseason game, they lose the Sydney Crosby hometown game in Nova Scotia to the Ottawa Senators for today's episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. Pat and I are going to recap that game and go into what went right and what went wrong. You're locked on penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. 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, Hunter Hodes, joined, as always, by the amazing Patrick Damp.

You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can follow Pat on Twitter at Cynum for Wet, and you can follow the shows Twitter at L.O. Undresor Penguins, of course. Thank you all so much for making this your first lesson slash watch of the day. And his episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, Crane account, and use code, Lockdown NHL, for $20 off your first purchase. So going into this, I had the graphic that I tweeted out and put on YouTube and all that stuff

as, oh, this is going to be Cindy Crosby's Big Night. It's his hometown game, all that good stuff. And boom, they get shut out. A goose egg, a 3-0 loss to the Ottawa centers. They put 40 shots on Yonis Corpus Solo, saves all 40 of them. He was tremendous in this game. Where do you want to start? Because I would probably start with.

how bad the powerpoint was. Yeah, we'll definitely have to get into that. But I do have to say, it's funny. I said it yesterday on yesterday's episode. Hey, you know, Jonas Corpusolo can play up to that level that he had last season. Ottawa might have solved their goaltending issues. And sure enough, yes, I know, free season, not that big a deal. But 40 saves, man, and a lot of them were big saves.

He made a lot of good stops. But yeah, we're going to have to get into. into another part of the Penguins game that was shut out tonight. And that's PowerPlay going a stout 0 for 6. And before we get to that in just a second, I loved the atmosphere for this game. Just everyone seemed really excited for it. There were really not many Sanders fans there.

It looked like to be mostly Penguins fans, but also I think just Sidney Crosby fans in general, if you're not rooting for the Penguins, you're rooting for Cindy Crosby. There were so many vintage Sid jerseys there where it's like, man, I want to get my hands on one of those past Crosby jerseys before he played for the penguins. I just loved the look of it. I thought the broadcast also, we can touch on that right now before we get into the power play pad. Really solid.

I thought Josh Getsoff called a good game. Colby Armstrong was energetic as ever. Could use a tweak to the scorebook. I think it's a little too small in the left corner. They finally put the shots on goal at the bottom. I want to see a little bit more of that. and also just some more stats in general at some point throughout the game. It's the first game, though.

It's preseason. They're testing some stuff out. But overall, I would give this a, at least a B-B-B-plus for Sportsnet Pittsburgh for their first game, even though their first regular season game isn't about a week and a half. Agreed. I thought it was solid. I agree with you on the scorebug. I hope they switched that up.

That was just for all intents and purposes boring. It was NESN, like, let's be real. Yeah. Yeah, it really was. overall, though, like you said, gets off. Great as always. Colby Armstrong, energetic, fun, brought a good perspective to the booth. I really liked, and I know that they're probably not going to be able to do this every single game,

but I'd like to see it more often. I thought Haley was great in the features. She did an intermission on Crosby's hometown and some of the people he grew up with. Obviously, you're not going to have that easy of a storyline every single game. game. So doing that kind of a feature is probably not a one-off, but probably going to be rare. But I thought she shined in that role of telling that story. So if we can see some more of that during the season, that'd be a great switch up to intermissions. But all in all, first preseason game thought it was a solid broadcast. Right. I agree. I thought Haley did a really solid job.

And I do think we could use some of those features. Not all the time during regular season games. maybe there's a couple home games during one week. You can do one of them for something like that during intermission or, you know, however they want to do it. But agreed overall, let's get into the power play, though. I think that was the big reason why the Penguins lost. 0 for 6. It reminded me very much of that game against the Devils last year,

where they went 0 for 9 at PBG Paints Arena. The same issues from that game were in this one. And yes, it's preseason. They're working out the kinks, got a week until the first regular season game against the Chicago Blackhawks. So I'm not going to get upset. Anyone that's listening or watching this episode, you probably should not either. This is where you want to have problems preseason.

You don't want to have these issues during like game 10, game 15, heck, even game 41, halfway through the regular season. Even later than that, you want to be able to work out these kinks now. And they're still going through the motions. You can see that Chris Latang is not fully comfortable. in that Phil Kessel spot. Carlson at the point, you know, he's doing his thing, but it's still an adjustment. Even Sidney Crosby a bit down low, he looked a little uncomfortable at times too, which was

interesting. I also thought at times they were putting Latang, when he wasn't at the castle spot, they were putting him in front of the net, which I thought was a little weird. I thought just the deployment at times was a bit odd. Another big thing that really stood out to me, they were way too passive. I think they weren't aggressive enough on the power play. The zone entries, they were a mixed bag. Some were good, some were men.

They were doing that stupid drop pass again, which flared up, which is very, very annoying. Other times, I thought they were overpassing, too much perimeter play, especially. They weren't getting to those prime goal scoring areas in the slot right in front of the net, all that good stuff. But they also weren't getting as many pucks to the net in general.

I'm not one of those shoot-it people, that PBG-Pains Arena, like one of those wooers that just woo's and yells shoot and all that good stuff. But I did find myself at times while I was watching when I was taking some notes like, okay, fire this one in the net. Stop overpassing.

Stop doing all this. And I could tell they were getting frustrated, which led to them forcing stuff. And it was bad. It was really bad to say it at least. And they're going to have to clean this up in the next week for sure. There's something there.

I can see that there are the makings of a really good power play in there right now. It showed in spurts tonight. There were a couple of moments where they had some really fluid puck movement that led to mismatches down low, led to mismatches in the slot. Right. And it's going to take some time here. And I know a lot of people are going to see it and think, oh, it's a bunch of veterans who are very skilled and have been doing this for a long time. They should be able to just flip the switch and turn it on.

It's not going to be the case. Like we said, Chris Lattang, now working the half wall. Eric Carlson's taken over his power play quarterback at the point. They got to do some adjustment adjusting here. They have to adjust to one another. They have to adjust to the system. And it's going to come. It's going to be there.

O for six tonight is bad. I do think, and this is kind of an old school hockey take here, I do think they have to simplify. If there's a lane to shoot, take the shot. If there's a high percentage pass, make the pass. they are trying to do a little too much. The thing I'm worried about more than anything right now is I'm worried that the passiveness is because there's too many cooks in the kitchen.

There's one too many guys here who can be the number one guy on a power play, and that could lead to them kind of deferring to one another and nobody taking charge. At some point, Eric Carlson has to say, I am the quarterback of PowerPlay 1. I run the show. I'm the general. this is what we're doing. I think you make a really good point there because I did see during the game, Carlson looked unsure at the point,

and he would defer to Letang, who has obviously been with these players for far longer than Carlson has. And Latang, he would shoot it a couple times, but he would also just take the puck, dance around a little bit, try to go down low, but a few other times, it got picked off, and it's going back the other way. I also thought the penguins gave up way too many shorthanded opportunities tonight. That's not good enough either, especially when you have two defensemen on your power play.

And I understand, yes, they're not known for their quote-unquote defensive play. But when you have two defensemen on your power play, that in theory should lead to lesser short-handed opportunities for the opposition. And we didn't see that tonight. Now, I don't know if Todd Reardon feels like he's out of his depth. I did see some complaints about that. I'm not there yet on him. I don't think he had a good year this past year on the power play,

but it's still the preseason. I'm willing to give him a little bit of time to see what he can do with this unit. Now, my opinion can change during the regular season, but I'm not just going to go out here and dunk on Reardon during the preseason. I think that's a little foolish in my opinion, but agreed overall with what you said. But that's just also what I saw tonight. Yeah, I can't critique Reardon just yet. We're not there yet.

It's still very early. like we said, there's a lot of new faces and new places on this power play. It's going to take time to adjust. Now, if we get to game 10, 11, 12, and we're still seeing some of these issues, then it's fair to start questioning it, and it's fair to start having serious critiques of it. But right now, this is where you work the Kings out. This is where, like, Crosby even said it at the first intermission, that there's a bunch of new players here.

We've got to form some chemistry. have to figure out how each other work and we have to figure out what we do well together. So for the power play, it's not a good start. It didn't look good. But if you're looking at it strictly from a result standpoint, you're going to get to the fact that it was bad. But if you look at the process of it tonight, there were moments, there were times where you could see it starting to build. And if it keeps going in that direction, I think it's going to bear fruit sooner rather than

later. And I did see a couple of those moments during the second period where they were gaining the zone, moving the puck around really efficiently. Carlson had some brilliant passes from the point they were getting it low, going to the slot, getting some chances. But Jonas Corpusalo, let's face it, he made some really good saves during that game, especially on the power play. They could have had at least one goal during those power plays, especially again during the second period. But your goaltender is usually a team's best penalty killer. Sello definitely was that tonight. Now, in terms of just the two defensemen deployment on the powerplay,

I do think when Jake Gensel comes back, and maybe that's next week, and the power play continues to struggle, this is just a hypothetical, I wonder what they'll do in terms of maybe taking Latang off, having them be like, okay, Carlson, this is your unit. We're going to put Gensel back at his spot in front of the net, see how that goes. And if that goes well, we'll keep rolling with it. but if not, we'll just go back to doing what we were doing and trying to figure it out.

They have a lot of options, which is great, but that's just something that was in the back of my head sign as well. If they can't get this Carlson-Latang thing to work, and I do think it can work because the process has been there at times, they may have to take one of those cooks off, put one on the second unit. It's probably Latang, I would think. I don't think he's going to be that upset about it and then work from there. That's just my thinking, no. Yeah, I don't hate the idea of giving Latang the second unit. I don't think he would be upset about it either.

You just got to see what happens here. Trying to do the same things over and over again and failing is the definition of insanity. So let's see what happens. But I think if you have an honest, frank conversation with Chris LaTang and say, listen, we can really make some hay here if we put you on the second unit. And heck, you don't even have to make it to where he's off the first unit. You can rotate it. You can say that, all right, the first power play of the game. Eric Carlson's up top.

Second power play. If we get a second opportunity, we work in Latang. And just you can have a better division of labor, so to speak, as the season progresses. So we'll see. Right. I agree. Again, it's a work in progress right now. It's definitely not good.

But everyone that's listening or watching, don't freak out. It's okay. They've still got a couple more preseason games. They still got a week of practice. I don't think this is the way that power play is going to look next Tuesday. against the Blackhouse. But that'll do it for this opening segment. Coming up in the second segment,

Pat and I are going to give our thoughts on other things that we saw in this game, including Tristan Jari's play and the play of Redeems Warner, because I thought, especially that he was super impressive tonight. But before we get to that, we've got to talk about game time. There have been many times where I've just been really nervous about buying tickets, whether it's for a Steel Panther show earlier this year, whether it's the home opener, which I will be there for next week. But thankfully, game time was there to help.

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We're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm Hunter Hodes, joined as always by the amazing Patrick Damp. So let's get into Trishanjari for this game. Played the whole game, only allowed two goals, plus the empty-nutter, but that doesn't really count. Obviously, I didn't really like the first goal that he allowed from Ridley, Greg, Gloveside. I think it's one that he could have had. I think his reflexes were just a bit slow there.

Second goal, though, that's a bad bounce. He stops the first one. Second one goes in. Just a bad bounce there. But second and third periods, especially. He played really strong hockey, looked big in the net, looked poised, his movement from left to right and back the other way was really solid. I thought he played a good game outside of that first goal.

I will gladly take that effort from him in a preseason game. First goal's on him solely, I think. Just over the glove, mostly unscreened. That's one he's got to have. But like you said, second one, nothing you can do. Just sometimes the puck doesn't bounce your way. Stutzlough gets a pretty nice open chance on a semi-breakaway. Jari makes the save.

Then the puck just happens to trickle past him on the rebound when Kachuk goes after it. So, you know, 50% of the time he squeezes that between his pads and we're just going to a face off. The other 50% it somehow squeaks in. nothing you can do. But outside of that, the biggest thing for me was the senators to open the second and third period's got some nice sustained pressure on the penguins, and Jari stood up. They got it, they got their chances. They got shots at the net, and he was there to make the stops he needed to make. So I can't really complain about Tristan Jari tonight. I think it was a bit of a slow start because I think that first goal was the fourth shot of the game. And even though you can't really

fully tell the story of a game through shots on goal. Early on, that's a save you want to make to keep the team in it, especially because first period, Penguins came out with some fire. They were the better team. I think overall they were actually the better team tonight. Just Corpus Salo had himself a night.

But the Penguins came out quick and they came out shooting. And then all that momentum kind of gets flushed down the toilet because you give up that goal. Right. It was just a bad moment to give up a couple, considering how good the penguins were playing in the first period. They were getting a lot of quality chances, firing a lot of pucks on that, feeding off that crowd. That was there to watch Sidney Crosby tried to do his thing. It was just unfortunate that they fell behind at that point and they were never really able to recover at that point.

Another player who I thought really impressed me redeems the horn. God, he has such a long reach with that stick. It's crazy to watch. fly i just every time i've tuned in during the preseason when he's played it jumps out at you right away that long reach and he did have a have a have a nice chance in the third period was kind of like a tick-tac-toe play where he got the puck on on his backhand deflected it on net corpus hollow with a really nice save there he did not look out of place at all on afghani malkins line next to riley Smith. And that's how I saw. I thought he played pretty well. I don't think he did anything to

lower his chances of making a team. In my opinion, I think right now he is playing his way onto the roster. I know you made the face there, Sal, I'll hand the floor over to you. I agree that I think at this point, Ritiam Sajorna has played his way onto the roster and he's going to be there opening night. However, I don't think he's going to be a long-term or maybe even short-term option in the top six. I just don't think he has the high-end type of skill to keep up with those guys for more than a handful of games. He's in the right places. He's not afraid to go to the front of the net. He's an absolute beast on the forecheck, half because of that long reach, half because he plays to his size and plays physical and goes to the areas he has to go to retrieve the puck.

But you could see in a couple instances, whether it was Malkin, Smith, Carlson, they'd find him in an area and he was just maybe a half a beat behind. And you look at that and think, okay, if that's a Jake Gensel, if that's a Brian Rust, if that's Ricard Raquel, they're going to turn that into a prime scoring chance, if not a goal. So I think what we're trending towards here with Zahorna is he's going to be a bottom six player that has some offensive upside, but is going to just do absolutely do dog and work in the offensive zone. He was a forechecking menace again tonight. I thought he got to quite a few loose pucks, again, used that long reach to his advantage.

Got a couple of quality chances. I thought he back checked pretty nicely in the defensive zone. I honestly just think he did everything you would want him to do from a player who, even coming into camp, was a fringe NHL player, but I think at this point has played his way onto the roster. I think I agree with you overall. He's not a long-term solution on if Kenny Malkinsline. Heck, he may not even be a solution for the next five or six games.

But that said, I do think he showed that he could play there for maybe, I don't know, one to two games if you need him to during the regular season. Again, not five or six. But one to two, I think he could play. he would be able to at least be a decent fit there if a bunch of injuries occur or something like that. I think his play really jumped out at me tonight. Another player who really jumped out at me outside of the power play, which we all know. We just talked about it.

Eric Carlson, I thought his movement tonight with the puck was absurd. There were a couple plays, especially in that first period, where I was just staring at the TV. I went to one of the bars down the street to watch because, of course, no YouTube TV for this. and I just kept staring at the TV after those two passes. I was like, how in the heck did you get the puck through all those bodies to a penguin player on the opposite side of the ice for a quality chance? And he did that again, a couple times in the first period. He had some ridiculous plays in the second and third periods, some keeps in the offensive zone.

But the plays that he can make with the puck on his stick, it's absurd. and I can't stop watching him. I honestly think he might have been the best player on the ice tonight. He was really good. And we cannot discount his vision. The way he sees the ice is going to be so valuable for this team, both at five on five and on the power play. I also heard a stat on the broadcast that blew my mind.

He had 25 goals last year. You know how many of them were on the podcast? power play. Five. Wow. So that's 20 even strength goals. And if that's the case, you look at a defenseman who has a season like he had last year and you think, oh, man, I bet he absolutely feasted on the power play, which I don't doubt he probably had a boatload of assists on the power play. But if you can get 10, 15 even strength goals and add in four or five power play goals, for him this year, I'm more than happy with that.

So I think the ceiling's pretty high right now for Eric Carlson as a penguin. And he showed it tonight just between the way he got himself into scoring areas, the passes he was making. And just he covered all 200 feet of the ice. Like it was no sweat at all. He's insane. It just even watching him during the preseason, I feel like I'm in awe, to be honest.

He had a couple of defensive lapses during this game. Those are going to happen with a player of his caliber. Crystal Tang, the same thing is going to happen with him during the regular season. But he was still an absolute wizard with the puck on his stick. And can't say enough good things. Again, those two during the first period, one of them he was coming down the right side and then just fires the puck to the left. Almost look like it was a no-look pass for a quality scoring chance.

I'm like, how did you see that? It was just a play that many defensemen this league cannot make. it's a master it's a master at work and if he can keep it up this season man i like this team's chances i agree i definitely agree with that is there anyone else that you thought stood out to you tonight good or bad to be honest i thought ryan shay was okay i don't think he really did anything to show me that he's ready for the number seven job while i also don't think he did anything to tell me that oh he should be in the a h a little start of the year i thought he was just kind of there again he was someone that I really have my eye on now that he's getting quality looks for that number six,

but most more likely the number seven job, but still don't think he really did anything to move the needle in either direction. Other than a couple of guys on the fringe here, the only thing I can think of is I wasn't a huge fan of Eller's game tonight. I don't think he was bad per se, but just he, it was a, it was a very pedestrian game. I saw a couple of mistakes. And if he's penciling as a third line center, we're going to need a little bit more from them. And then the last thing is it's another old school hockey adage to me. You know, if you have a game where you put up 40 or more shots and hold your opponent to under 25, most nights, that's good enough to get a win.

So tip of the cap to Corpus Salo, because that was a great performance, especially early on when the Penguins were coming hard. Agreed. I thought he was tremendous in this game. Do I have one more minor complaint. I thought the six on five was not good. And that was the first time we've seen it in our preseason game with everyone out there, minus Jake Gensel, he would be out there if he were healthy.

But a lot of perimeter passing, much like the power play, way too passive, not getting enough pucks to the net. And then Gino was absolutely gassed for that final empty net goal by Tim Stutzlaw. I mean, he couldn't keep up, which I saw him try to slash the stick out of his hand. typical Chino there, but and broke his own stick. He needs a little bit of work. Yeah, and broke his own stick

when he tried to do that, which is hilarious. Yeah, that's the last thing. And it's more of an overall philosophical thought is the Penguins got to listen to something that Mike Sullivan said when he first came in as coach. They got to play with pace and they got to play with purpose. A lot of the power play and then the six on five,

they did not play with a whole lot of pace or a whole lot of purpose. It was a lot, like you said, a lot of perimeter, a lot of moving the puck around, a lot of deferring. All it takes is one guy to take charge in a moment like that, and it completely shifts the momentum. Agreed.

I definitely agree with that. And I'm sure they're going to be working on the six on five over the next week during the regular season. It's a situation that you don't want to be in for most of your games, but they're going to be finding themselves in it, in at least some during the season. But that would do it for this second segment. Coming up in the third segment, Caldubis was at least a little. busy today claiming Jansen Harkins off waivers from the Winnipeg Jets.

What do the Penguins have in this player? Well, Pat and I are going to give our thoughts on that. But before we do get to that, we got to discuss Fandle. Right now, new customers get $200 of bonus bets guaranteed when you place a $5 bet. That's $200 of bonus bets win or lose. If you've been thinking about joining Fandul, there's no better time to get in on the action than right now. The app is super easy to use.

there's a wide range of betting options and winning spreads, player props, over unders, and so much more. So visit fandul.com slash locked on and kick off the NFL season. That's fandle, the official partner of the NFL and locked on. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm Hunter Hodes, joined as always by my co-host Patrick Damp. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. So Penguins make a waiver claim on Monday. Jansen Harkens off the Winnipeg Jets, a player who doesn't have too much NHL experience,

but he tore up the HL this past year on the Jets farm team in 44 games, 25 goals, 50 points, so over a point per game. If you look at his underlying numbers, he ranked in the 81st percentile for assists, 93rd percentile for shots, 99th percentile for scoring chances, 85th percentile for finishing, 96 percentile for goals four, it keeps on getting better the more you look at heck the 99th percentile for goals he was

electric in a shell now if you look at his initial underlying numbers those go down a bit 18th percentile for five on five offense as an ainsheller 90 first percentile for even strength defense finishing 41st percentile primary assists per 64th percentile a lot of red there when you look at his jayfresh chart but a h l wise again very good overall though, if you look at his initial numbers, his underlines at least, it's kind of in line with a lot of the moves that Kyle Oduvus has made during the offseason. Another defensive first, bottom six winger, but, but if he can bring that offense that we saw from the AHL to the NHL for the Penguins, and if he does make the team, since I'm sure he's

probably going to get a look in one of the two preseason games to end the year, heck, maybe he'll make the team out of camp heading into that first game against Chicago, or maybe the Penguins could have something there. Again, a little probability on that, I would think. But still a little bit of a chance on that. But what are your overall thoughts on this waiver claim by Kyle Dubus? Yeah, I don't like him. He's from Cleveland.

No, it's a ho-hum move. Like you said, it's a guy who when he's in the NHL, he's a defense first forward great in the defensive zone very reliable there hasn't really chipped in a ton at the hl level 154 games 13 goals 27 points one goal and four Stanley Cup playoff games so that's not bad but you know i think at this point he's also probably making a little bit of a wink and a nudge to wilkes bear to saying like hey i'm not going to forget about you guys like some pass management So if nothing else, here's a guy that's going to help you out. Here's a guy that's going to help your team play some more meaningful hockey,

which there is something to be said for that. If your minor league team is playing meaningful hockey, it keeps your prospects in the guys who you're going to call up ready to go to a team that has Stanley Cup aspirations. So overall, it's a perfectly fine move. The Penguins are still under the salary cap by less than a million. but it's it is what it is i'm not i'm not chisling this guy into the hall of fame yet but overall it's a fine enough move if a guy like that comes up on waivers and you have the chance to grab them why not take the chance you get them for nothing you want to know what this is it's the

next mark donk how about that yeah it probably is the next mark donk or buzz flibic over there because every there's always one every year with this team some guy who you've never heard of just shows up and lights the world on fire. He'll come up from Wilkesbury if he gets sent down before the season when there's like a bunch of injuries and just score five goals in three games. Go back down there and it's like, yeah, we got a bunch of buzzfibits and Mark Dongs and all these other make-a-name players that you can do in EA sports, NHL and all that good stuff.

But I think you make a good point about, you know, Wilkesbury, there is something to be said about improving that team just because Wilkesbury last year, let's face it. They were bad. They were bad. They were bad. And I think the onus is on the organization here to get that team back to competing a lot more than they were last year. And I think this move could be that as well, considering how good he was for Winnipeg's AHL team last year with 25 goals.

And it helps the culture of the organization if you have a good minor league team because it's a lot, maybe not easier because once you get to the show, you want to stay in the show. You don't want to get sent back. but if you're getting sent back to a team that's competitive, a team that's in the hunt to make the Calder Cup playoffs or even a contender for the Calder Cup, a lot easier to go play for that team because you're going to go play meaningful hockey, especially if you're in an organization like Pittsburgh that's trying to win a Stanley Cup. So when you come to Pittsburgh, you're coming with the full intention of playing for a team that's trying to win. So it's a lot easier to be sent back if the team you're going to and the HL is doing the same thing. I agree. I think that's a good way to put it. And I don't really think we have too much else to add on this waiver claim. Probably get some time in the preseason to end camp here. If I had to put my odds on it, odds are he's probably going to start the season in Wilkesbury, unless he just balls out during the preseason.

Though he did have two precinctsing goals for the Jets before being placed on waivers. So he has played well in camp and preseason. We'll have to see if that translates over to the Penguins. But at the very least, he's a good depth option from Wilkins. Sparry once the penguin's usual round of injuries hit because we all know that's going to happen at some point this season. I know I sound like a broken record with that, but it's been happening for the last decade, people, decade plus, I should say. So you know what's going to happen at some point. Hey, you build an arena on top of what used to be an old hospital. This is what you get. Yeah, karma a little bit with that one, right? Yeah, but you got two preseason games left to go before the regular season starts.

He's probably going to get a look in one or both of them. And if he's something, great, you got something for nothing. And if not, you got a nice little piece for Wokesbear. So ho-hum. Fine with me. He makes $850K. There's no risk to it here, people. But I think that would do it for this episode,

be locked on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for listening to slash watching this episode of the show. Pat and I will be back on Wednesday. We're going to be closing out the preseason this week with a couple more recaps. We'll do an episode Thursday, of course, and then Friday. And next week, we are in regular season mode with the opener next Tuesday. But we have plenty more preseason stuff to get to this week. Our next episode will be on Wednesday.

Again, thank you all so much for tuning in. Really appreciate it. We'll talk to you all very soon.