Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins SMASH the Islanders as the playoff race intensifies!

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

The Penguins went to Long Island, hung eight goals on the New York Islanders, and took back second place! Patrick and Hunter start the show recapping the Penguins' DOMINANT win over the New York Islanders, and how, despite falling down by multiple goals multiple times, the Penguins were the better team throughout. (0:00) They then dive into the conversation about what to do about the goaltending. Is it time to call up Sergei Murashov and see what he brings, or should Stuart Skinner get an extended look amid Arturs Silovs' struggles? (15:08) Finally, the Penguins are back in action tonight at PPG Paints Arena, where they welcome the Detroit Red Wings, who are fighting for their playoff lives. (26:24)  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 Pittsburgh Penguins scored four goals in just over six minutes, chased the odds-on favorite to win the Vesna Trophy, and took back second place in the Metro Division. Let's talk about it on a brand new Locked-on Penguins. You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to the Tuesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Patrick Damp.

You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4Wet. Joined as always by my co-host, the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's Twitter account a follow at L-O-U-U-Square-Penguins. You can find us on Instagram at Locked-on underscore Penguins. and TikTok at Locked-on Penguins. Of course, as always, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget, we are free and available wherever you get your podcast as well as YouTube.

Plus, if you follow us on YouTube, which you should be. Make sure you've hit the notification button. That way you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. The penguins absolutely smash the New York Islanders on Monday night. We do got to talk about some goaltending issues, and the Penguins will be back in action tonight against the Red Wings. But let's start where I started there with an eight to three throttling of the New York Islanders. Now, this game is a funny one because I was puckered up the entire first period because

it was a back and forth game. It felt like a playoff game. Every time the Islanders crossed the blue line into the penguin zone, I was like, oh God, here we go, here we go, here we go. And it was a tight one. It was a very tight game. And then from about the midway point of the second period to the very end of the game, it was a laffer.

It was the penguins taking it to the Islanders. And there's no better place to start Hunter than the short-handed goal by Ricard Raquel. That is when the game completely flipped on its head. The penguins at that moment were trailing three to one. Brian Rust, Ricard Raquel, spring themselves short-handed, a nice little tick-tac-toe play into the zone. They score to make it three to two. And from there, the penguins never looked back and just completely thrashed the islanders. And this genuinely, I know that, we were a little worried when it was 3 to 1 after Braden Shen scored because realistically, and again, we're going to get into this later in the show.

It was not the best night for Arder Shilovs. But away from that, the penguins were for the majority of the game, including when it was 3 to 1, the better team. Yeah, I'm going to start in the first period because the pace to that period was unbelievable. It felt like a playoff game. You know, I'm sure everyone was probably pacing around their living. room like you would be doing in mid-April, early May, into potentially early to mid-June. It was awesome.

And I like the second half of that period more than the first. Penguins were finally getting to their game, cycling, getting some good offensive zone time, finally starting to test stroke in a little bit, but I did tweet out, Pat, you've got to get more traffic in front of it. You've got to keep getting him moving side to side. Otherwise, he's just going to keep gobbling these pucks up because he was able to see basically everything in that first period. But once we got to the halfway point of the second period,

they started doing everything I was wanting them to do. They were getting traffic in front of the Sorokan. They were getting him moving. They were taking away his line of sight. And they also took advantage of the Islanders playing no defense whatsoever. Let's be real bad. They also left Sorokan out to dry in this game. I low-key felt a little bit bad for him,

but also at the same time, not really just because he has. stone the penguins so many times throughout his career. But the Islanders had no, they didn't want to play defense. Well, I'll say this about Sorokin. I agree on the whole, with the exception of the two Manta goals, because here's the thing. Can we call this the patented Manta move, by the way? I think we can. We have the Brian Russ move where he goes backhand, forehand, right in front of the net.

What Manta does now, you know, forehand, backhand, five hole. He's done it so many times this season. That's just the beautiful Manta move. That's what we're calling it now, guys. And that's the thing is on the whole, I completely agree with you. Sorokin shoulders very little blame for what happened in that game last night, except the two Manta goals because one,

like you said, that has become his patented move. He does it all the time, but also both times, Sorokan bit really, really hard on it. And this isn't something. knew. None of us sat there and went, oh, wow, Anthony Mantha. That was, that was an interesting

move. It was like, yeah, he's done this at least 10 times, if not more. And each time, Sorokin just completely fell for it. Oh, 100%. Yeah, he bit pretty hard on both of those goals. But hey, Manta's just on one this year. 29 goals. He's won away from hitting 30. He continues to drive his price tag up. What a season he is having, man. And I can't give a. enough credit to Kyle Dubus for bringing him in. Hell, again, I expected him to be good this year. No one, and I mean no one expected 29 goals with still eight games left from Anthony Mantha. He has been one of the team's best players, just a fantastic signing.

I don't know where this team would be without his contributions this year. He was great, but you also said it Pat. That game flipped on that short-handed goal. Penguins were short-handed. Islanders had all the momentum. But you have that give and go with Rust and Raquel, and Raquel's able to finish off that play. He continues to play lights out throughout the last couple weeks. And honestly, the entire month of March, too.

I think he's playing at a very high level. He had to play at center again because of Genie Malcon wasn't ready to return. And if I had to predict right now, I think he's going to play tonight against Detroit. He didn't go on the road trip to the Islanders, but I think he's going to be good to go for tonight. maybe I'm wrong, but I think he's going to play. But he did not look out of place last night, Raquel, that was. And after that, they just took the Islanders right to the woodshed. Ryan Shea, beautiful bomb off the post and end, continues his very stellar season.

Elmer also gets a goal. General Sherman, as Ricard Raquel called him in the locker room. When I heard that, I just thought of the Shermanator. Kudos to anyone who remembers that reference, by the way. A lot of a plus reference. But, you know, the vibes continue to be off the charts with this team. The fourth line made that first goal happen with the way that Achari was especially forechecking. He was also on one last night.

I thought Achari played a brilliant game on the fourth line. Elmer. I don't really know why Scott Mayfield decided to try to fight Elmer Soderblom. That was a loss right away. I guess maybe he wanted to try to get the Islanders back in the game. I mean, that is so funny. He's almost seven feet tall. The jabs that Soderblum was was throwing, like he might as well have just been jabbing him in the chin and just going, you sure, you sure.

You're sure you want to do this. You are sure you want to do this. All right, I guess we're doing this because that was a mismatch of epic proportions. Yeah, I really don't understand again why he thought. And that's the funny thing. Mayfield ain't small. He's six four. And he was still very badly outmatched.

Exactly. And another player I also really want to shout out is Ben Kindle. I thought he was once again brilliant in this game. He made a couple plays with the puck going back into his own zone, killing time, just making smart plays that, again, someone at 18 years of age should not be making. It continues to blow my mind that he is 18. And he's just playing like a season veteran out there. But he may bet Avery Hayes goal happened, Pat. Not one. but two shots to the net, the second of which goes right to the net mouth. Avery Hayes right there for the tap-in. Hayes almost scored the shift before that, too. Just went right over the net, had a really good chance on Sorokin. So I'm glad to see that Hayes gets his third NHL goal, but I thought Kindle was everywhere. Last night, I discussed Russ. I discussed Raquel.

I thought Sid also had a nice game in return. Had a couple of good chances early. One hits the crossbar, another situation, the shift after where he gets not one but two chances on Sorokin. Puck doesn't go in the back of the net, but he sticks with it for the rest of the game. It gets two assists. Now, the third most multi-point games in NHL history, that's number one, number two, 1,100 assists.

Congratulations to Sidney Crosby on both those accomplishments. And Pat, two points away from tying Steve Eiserman for seventh on the all-time points list. And could he do it tonight in front of his idol against his redwigs? That's kind of storybook. I can't lie. It's possible. It's very possible. But yeah, he had a big game last night.

I also really liked the chemistry between Sidney Crosby and Igor Chenekov. I thought those two fed off each other really well. And when Sid hit the crossbar in the first period, I said it on social media. Listen, great shot by Sid, one inch lower. And he's going roof. And we're talking about another great Crosby goal. But everything leading up to it, all Igor Chinnikov reads the play perfectly. knows he's got that room to make that play, hustles it out and wins the puck race,

and is able to battle his way to get the puck to Sid. And that is just something a special, special player does. And those two were feeding off each other all night long. It continues to be incredible how good Igor Chinikov has been since becoming a penguin. I also wanted to add this about Ben Kindle. I finally figured out a way to describe him for this team. And it's going to sound silly and it's going to sound like I'm almost denigrating the way he plays. But I promise this is a positive.

He's a safety valve. It genuinely feels like when he is on the ice and when he touches the puck, the team as a whole just goes, and everybody settles down. everybody gets to where they need to go need to go and it's just smart hockey it's not that it's not flashy it's not fancy it's just smart hockey and for an 18 year old who was playing for the frigging calgary hit men this time last year that's incredible it's just absolutely incredible so smart. He really is. Again, there were so many times, not even just last night, but throughout

this season, where he has taken the puck, whether it's on the penalty kill or right after a strong shift by the opposing team and is able to settle everything down, kill some time, get a line change, get the momentum back, and then boom, everything is fine. You saw that on display multiple times again last night, even when he's not showcasing his vision or showcasing, his release or his strong two-way game breaking up plays in his own zone. He is just such a smart player. It's paid such huge dividends for this team this year. And these type of games also help a young player like this.

They develop him even more. When you're playing in these high stakes games, you get that experience for later on in your career when you are a season veteran. Like this is so awesome for him. but he was great last night. I also thought Chris LaTang was better last night, too. I didn't really see a lot of egregious errors in his own zone. I thought he was moving the puck out of his own zone better last night.

I still don't like his pair with Gerard. But when I was zeroing in on Latang, I thought his zone breakouts were better. I thought his playing the offensive zone was better. It's a small step in the right direction. Let's see if he builds off of it. But I thought that was one of his better games this season. That was nice to see.

And one more shout out, Pat. Justin Brzoe, we really needed a big game from him because he's been quiet as of like going into this game. He had two goals in his last 21 games, had not been producing. And I expected to drop off in his early season production because he wasn't going to shoot at 35% for the entire season. But I needed to see more. And boy, did we get it last night. The vision that he had on a couple of those assists with Anthony Manta was absurd. He came to play last night. I also thought he was one of their best four checkers below the dots.

Really strong game from Justin Briseau. Yep, agreed with all of that, but it was not all sunshine and lollipops on Monday on Long Island. We do have to talk about the goaltending. And is it Sergey Murashov time in Pittsburgh? We will get into that when we come back right after this. But we've got a sponsor. We got to get to this break. And that is Robin Hood.

If 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 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 change the game. It's people moving the action, so when the momentum shifts, you can move with it. I always knew the game, but never had a dynamic way to apply that knowledge. Now I can actually take part in live 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 United States. Download the Robin Hood app to begin. Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robin Hood derivatives LLC, a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm. We're back here on the Tuesday edition of Locked on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes and the chatter is getting louder and louder and louder amongst both Penguins fans and analysts that it might be time for the Penguins to call up Sergey Murashav and give him a shot between the pipes as this team pushes to the playoffs.

And I'm just going to get my take out of the way early here, Hunter. I don't agree. I don't think it's Sergey Murashov time. And here's why. I understand and even agree that the penguin's big weakness right now is goal tending. Stuart Skinner, Stuart Skinner,

and Arthur Shilovs haven't exactly been at their strongest over the past month. They've had some duds. They've had some outings where you're scratching your head and wanting more. But here's where I diverge on the it's time for Sergey Murshov thing. this isn't a contender being held back by goaltending. If this was a team that was ready to go on a run to win a Stanley Cup, I would agree. You bring the kid up, you see what he's got.

And if he's not ready yet, you know he's not ready yet. But we are strictly playing with House money at this point. Obviously, the standard in the expectations have been raised with how good they have played. played where they are. But we do have to keep in mind that Kyle Dubus and his team have said over and over again, they aren't going to go for a short-term sugar rush. They're not just going to try to take shortcuts and be good in the immediate. They want to turn this into something that is sustainable,

where they're making the playoffs and going on runs for years to come, not just, hey, we're going to sell everything out and go for it one or two years and then we got to hit the reset button. Now, I'm not of the mindset that if you bring Sergey Murshov up now, that you're going to suddenly ruin him. But at the end of the day, this is a player and a goaltender that you see being your goaltender for the next 10 to 15 years. Yeah, I get it. We want our cookies. We want them now. but let him continue to dominate in the HL,

let him continue to win down there. And then next season, you shake Stuart Skinner's hand and say, hey, bud, thanks for everything. Unfortunately, you're in your late 20s. You're not part of our future plans. Go get paid somewhere else. Arishelobs, if you're not looking for too big of a raise,

here's an RFA extension. You're competing with Sergey Murshov going into the next year. Yeah, it's funny. I feel like we've had this conversation quite a, a bit on the podcast this year. As for Artie yesterday, I didn't like his second period one bit. And before everyone throws tomatoes at me, yes, the Penguins defensive issues are still paramount. I didn't like the way they were defending in front of them either. So before anyone comes at me, I wanted to throw that out there. However, I didn't like two of those three goals

that he gave up, namely the second one to Barzell. To me, Eric Carlson is taking away that pass on that odd man rush. I think if Barzell tries to pass it, personally, I don't think that puck gets through. Just my opinion. Sheelovs is literally being swallowed by his crease there. Go out there and challenge him a little bit more. But he was basically just being, you know, eaten by the net. And when a shooter like Barzell sees that, he's going to go top cheese every time. I just did not like the angle that Sheelovs took on that one. I didn't like the rebound he gave up on the third goal to Brayden Shen either. I think he could have done a little bit better there. The first one, I'm not going to really pin on him as much as to very lively

bounce off the boards. I'm still going at the penalty kill because the PK just has to be doing their job as better, man. It's not been good enough since Blake Lazotte went down, but I feel like I, you know, I'm just repeating myself when I talk about. Yeah. And considering who they play tonight, I called their first goal, the rebound goal, a Joe Lewis Arena ass goal, because that's exactly what it was. I agree with you. That's a really good point. I still throwback to the Joe, which had probably the most lively boards we've seen from an old barn. But, yeah, I'm not going to pin that one too much on. And the second and the third one, especially the second one, was just not good.

And yeah, he rebounded in a way in the third, but also had the penguins to their credit. And I tweeted this, they needed to have their best third period of the season. And they arguably did. They kept the Islanders to the outside. They only allowed one high danger chance at five on five that entire period. Yeah, he did have that nice sprawling save. But for the most part, they didn't really ask she loves to do anything just because they were cutting through the Islanders Swiss cheese defense, excuse me, like it was nothing. So you look more of the underlying numbers for this game.

The Islanders only had seven high danger chances at five on five. They had one in the second period and they scored three goals. That just scares me a little bit. That's all. Like, it just gives me, you know, the hebie-jibis. I'm just a little nervous when it comes to Arnie. We've seen him playing at a high level in spurs this season. We know what he can be.

But as of late, I just think his play has dipped a little bit. Now, do I think Skinner is some long-term answer? No, he's been fine this year. But has he been a bit better lately than she loves? Yes, which is why I would be giving him. a little bit more of the starts. Again, I don't think he's some game breaker. He is what he is at the NHL level.

But I still just need to see more from Artishy Loves. I'm not trying to sound like a hater because I know we have some big Artis She Loves fans in our comment section. We get DMs about them all. We get DMs about him all the time. I just, you know, there's things to improve on. That's my point. Right. And here's the thing that I'll say is one, I think you have.

hit on what is the actual solution and it's not calling up sergey mershov it's basically making stewart skinner you're number one for the for the for a little while here you want to maybe at least through the end of the season or the next two weeks you just let stewart skinner play and see how he does give him an extended look and if he puts up good performances and you do make it into the stanley cup playoffs he becomes your game one starter because listen i'll say this there's a reason he kept the net in Edmonton in two runs to the Stanley Cup final. Was he great? I'm not going to pretend he was because he wasn't. But I say it on the show all the time. I'm a broken record about it. The only thing you can realistically ask of your goaltender is put

you in a position to win. And he did that for two straight post seasons with the Edmonton Oilers. Did he have his stumbles? Did he have his rough nights? Of course he did. He's not an elite goaltender. But at the very least, you know that he has been there and done that. As for R.E. She loves, he's 25. Yeah. There's a lot of runway ahead of him. And this could just be a momentary stumble. But given where this team is, you can give him a break. And you can just say, listen, we're not out on you yet. We're not done with you. We just, we want you to develop. We want you to become a better goaltender. And right now with where the team is and where we want it to go, Stu's going to take the

net. We're going to keep you around. Work hard on the off season. Then you're going to come in and compete with a guy who we see with franchise potential. And if you can hold him off, that's only going to help you. And it's only going to help him. So I understand the compulsion. I really do.

But this isn't 2016 with Matt Murray coming up. up. This is a Penguins team that is better than a lot of people expected. It's a Penguins team that is playing with House money. It's not a team that you're looking at and going, man, if they only had goal tending, they would be among the contenders. They could surprise some people. I can see them going into the second round. Hell, I can see them going to the conference final.

But at the end of the day, I don't consider them a contender. and I'm more worried about them getting in and getting some of these young guys the experience of playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs. So I'm like Ben Kindle. You think he doesn't need that type of experience in the playoffs? Like that type of experience just goes such a long way for a player like that. You know, say even like someone like Rock and McGorady comes back up

or maybe Avery Hayes gets into a playoff game. Those experiences will be with them for the rest of their careers and they will help as they continue to mature into full-time NHL players. Obviously, Kindle is already a full-time NHL player, but a potential playoff run here will do wonders. Obviously, there's a lot of players in this locker room that have been through playoff races, the big three, Eric Carlson, Brian Rust, Ricard Raquel, I can keep going down the list.

Stuart Skinnery just into back-to-back cup finals. But, you know, there's other young players. Hell, even Archer Sheelovs. You know, he's played for the Canucks and the playoffs. but he doesn't still he doesn't have a ton of experience in the playoffs so again there's things to work on with his game i'm a little bit concerned because i didn't like the way he played in the second period especially with two of the goals that he gave up but let's see how he responds after this he's going to get at least one of the starts this weekend pat maybe he gets to start on

thursday in tampa bay but maybe they go to skinner if skinner does play well tonight against Detroit. I start him on Thursday. And then I do the rotation on the weekend. Like they've been doing that all season on back to back. So that's what I would do for the goal he's moving forward. Also say this to end the segment, I trust Dan Mews. He's pretty much pushed every button correctly for this entire season. So I'll question some stuff that he does. I may not agree with everything that he does. But at the end of the day, Pittsburgh Penguins are sitting in second in the Metropolitan Division when a lot of us, kind of had them near the bottom to start the year.

So for now, whatever Dan Muse does, I'm going to give him the runway to do it and see how it works because so far it's worked pretty well. And we're going to hope it keeps working pretty well tonight when the Detroit Red Wings come to town for what could be the biggest game of the year, not for the Pittsburgh Penguins this time, but for the Detroit Red Wings. We will talk about that when we come back right after this. back here on the Tuesday edition of Locked-on Penguins.

I'm Patrick Damp right alongside Hunter Hodes. And it's the Penguins, it's the Red Wings to close out the gauntlet month of March at PPG Paints Arena. 7 o'clock tonight on Sportsnet Pittsburgh in man. This is, I feel bad for Detroit fans. Let me start there. Because here's the thing. I said it on the Monday show that this is a Detroit team that has really fumbled their position coming out of the Olympic break with them being a team that needs to make the playoffs because their new arena. Little Caesars has never seen a playoff game since it opened quite a few years ago.

But also, this is just kind of what the current iteration of the Red Wings do. They just stink in March. like it's weird like for some reason the month of March shows up and the Detroit Red Wings are like yeah we're good we're good it's weird they've only won seven of their last 20 games this was a team that had been a playoff spot for most of the season but they've been in a pretty big rut they got embarrassed by the flyers they did almost come back against them over the weekend but they were being embarrassed for quite a bit of that game they're just not playing playing well right now. It feels like everything is being hung on by, you know, an inch, basically.

I like a lot of the Red Wings top players. Dylan Larkin has been fantastic this season with 29 goals and 57 points. Alex DeBringt is probably going to finish the year with 40 plus goals. He's at 37 right now. Also 78 points in 73 games. Lucas Raymond, I will always say, is one of the more underrated players we have in the NHL. Great playmaker. His vision. is absurd. You saw how great he was at the Olympics for Team Sweden, 24 goals, 71 points, and 71 games. And then Mo Cider is a legit Norris Rovic candidate with 53 points and 73 games. Those four players are awesome. But when they're not on the ice, it's a different Red Wings team. This is a very top heavy Red Wings team. The Penguins have them beat at forward depth, even defensively, Pat.

The Red Wings outside of their top pairing, it's not that strong of a group. And I was fine with the fault trade, even though I feel like they kind of overpaid a little bit to get him, in my opinion. I understand why Eiserman did it, though, because you're trying to, you know, bolster your team, reward them for the season that they were having. You're trying to get them in the playoffs because if the Red Wings don't make the playoffs this year, kind of wonder if Stevie Y is out as GM. Like, this is kind of put up or shut up time.

This is by far their biggest game of the season. You go to the money puck odds for tonight's game. It went for Detroit, gets their playoff odds up to 45. 0.5%. However, a loss for them in regulation goes down to 22%. Now, roll reversal for the Penguins Pat, this is still a big game. If they beat Detroit, their playoff odds are up to basically 92% per money puck. You win this game. Are you a lot to get in the playoffs? No, but the odds are looking really good, especially because six of your last seven games are against non-playoff teams. Say you win tonight against Detroit, you get to 92 points.

That Tampa game is almost like a bonus in the way until you have that back-to-back against the Panthers. You sweep that back-to-back. And again, I'm just speaking here, that's 96 points going into your last four games where you might only have to win one of those last four to get in the playoffs. That's just why this week is so huge, because if you can bank these points where you have three of your four games now this week are at home, you'll have a really. really good chance of getting it.

Like, if you get to 96 points by the end of Sunday, I think your playoff odds are probably above 95% if you ask me. So I know this is the Red Wing season tonight, I think. This is still a really big game for the Penguins. And it would behoove them to still win this one nicely. Oh, for sure. And to give you an idea, because I've seen it floating around social media the last 12 or so hours,

how close this Eastern Conference playoff race is, you know what the penguin's magic number to clinch is? They need 15 more points. How many games the penguins have left? Eight. So they need 15 out of a possible 16 total points to clinch a playoff spot. Now, that doesn't mean that they've got to get up to that number. It's obviously going to fluctuate the more that this schedule plays out.

And it's just funny. It's just funny that at this moment, they have 16 points on the table with eight games to go. They got to get 15 of them as of this moment to get in. That's how tight this Eastern playoff race is. But with that in mind, I don't have a ton of X's and O's for this game because one, the Penguins have played the Red Wings really well this year.

We remember the Penalty Fest from New Year's Day. That game was absolutely absurd. And then you've got a 4-1 win two days later. This is the last one. the penguins can sweep this season series, but I got to build off of what you said. This is essentially Detroit's season tonight. The penguins won't exactly put them down if they beat them,

but it's going to make their road to the post season a lot more difficult. So you're playing a team that is cornered. You are playing a team that is desperate. They want to get in. And like you said, with Stevie Y, they might need to get in for him to have a job. though I will say he's Stevie Y. They probably give him the old firing by promoting where it's like,

yeah, Stevie Y, you're going to be our special vice president advisor to the hockey operations and alumni staff guy. So, because you're not firing CY, but I digress. For the penguins, you played last night. You got to essentially coast for the second half of the third period. So you weren't pedal to the metal, overtime game, breaking your back. You've got to get out of that game pretty easily. Now you are going to have to play a stupid simple game.

Pucks behind their defensemen, get in front of Johnny Whitehall because he is having a resurgence of a year, make his life miserable. And this is the Detroit team that is kind of miserable. you get a couple early ones, they're going to start doubting themselves. It's a big game, but I do think if the penguins win this one, we're not stamping our ticket to the Stanley Cup playoffs, but we are putting a big old down payment on a first round match.

You're getting close if you win this one tonight. Again, your odds are up to about 92%. I think one big key for me, you keep this one at five on five. The Red Wings five on five metrics are not very good. this year they're below water and shot attempts at five on five expected goals and actual goals now again the quartet of sider raymond larkin and to brinket they're all awesome but if the penguins are able to you know just keep them at least to a little bit of a minimum i trust their other lines to take advantage of the rest of the red rings lineup you kind of just have to play that top lineish with that top pair

to even and then try to take advantage of the other matchups that you've done half in this game. And the Penguins have done that in the two prior meetings against the Red Wings. I like the way they have played against that quartet of players. Now, can you do it again for the third time? That's going to be the thing. John Gibson, this will be his 12th straight start. He is having a great year for the Red Wings. 50 games, 27 wins, 9.05% percent, 2.5 equals against average. Maybe can you take advantage if he's gassed tonight because this is going to be his 12th straight start, get him moving, get a lot of traffic in front of him. So all the keys that you had to beat Sorokin have them on display here against John Gibson.

Their penalty kill, it's also below league average. Their power play, a little bit above league average. It's about 13 to 14th right now, depending on whichever site that you look at. So again, it could be another bit of a test for the penalty kill, which still not been good recently. And Blake LaZahn is definitely a big part of that. But it's also the fact that players just aren't getting simple clears and they're not making the right decisions with the buck. That's a really big part of it as well. And I think the goaltending also needs to be better on the PK.

So that's another key for me tonight. But you also said it, a simple, clean game. I want to see clean zone exits. Everything needs to be very methodical tonight. So that's what I got for this game against Detroit. And again, match their desperation. And I do think Afghani Malkin is returning tonight. Could be wrong, but that's why I heard a couple days ago.

100%. It is a big one. It's at PPG Payne Serena. it's at 7 p.m. And if you're not going, you can watch it on Sportsnet, Pittsburgh. But that is going to do it for our Tuesday edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Hunter and I, we will be back on Wednesday to recap this game as well as hand out our MVP of the week in another Warrior Helmet Wednesday. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I am Patrick Damp.

Thank you as always for tuning in. And we will talk to you on Wednesday. Thank you.