Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins split the weekend with a massive win over Toronto!

Episode Date: December 9, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins split their weekend back-to-back with a win over the Toronto Maple Leafs after a tough loss to the New York Rangers. Hunter and Patrick begin the show talking about that disappointing loss to the Rangers and dive into how a lot of the Penguins' bad habits showed up again in that one. Hunter discusses how they were too careless throughout the game and how they gave the Rangers too many opportunities off the rush while Pat analyzes how Alex Nedeljkovic didn't play well in net. However, 24 hours later, the Penguins answered the bell with a big 5-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs and discuss how the Penguins played great with the lead in the third period after Michael Bunting got his game-winner. They also discuss Tristan Jarry's performance, the poor officiating, and Blake Lizotte's game before ending the show with a look ahead to the next couple of weeks. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Mint MobileTo get this new customer offer and your new 3-month premiumwireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to MINTMOBILE.com/lockedonnhl. Disclaimer - $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.IndeedStill searching for a great candidate for your company? Don’t search, just match–with Indeed. Claim your SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT now at Indeed.com/LOCKEDON. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. PrizePicksDownload the app or go to https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNHL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The penguins split their weekend back to back against the Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs, and they ended it with a massive win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. Hunter and I are going to break down those games and more on this edition of the Locked On Penguins podcast. Your Locked on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. And welcome back to another edition of the Locked on Penguins podcast.

I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp. You can follow me on 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 account a follow at L0 underscore Penguins. And of course, we appreciate you making this part of your daily routine. Don't forget that we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts as well as YouTube.

Plus, if you're following us on YouTube, don't forget to hit that notification button. So you'll be among the first to be notified when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes. Before we get started today, today's episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on NHL to get $20 off of your first purchase. Now, it is Monday. Before we jump into everything, you have probably noticed if you're watching on YouTube, It is just Hunter and I to start this Monday. We will not have Marshall Monday today or next week.

Jesse let us know that he is absolutely buried with work obligations right now, which what's his employer doing, man? Shame on him, man. Shame on his own. Thanksgiving and Christmas. You're not supposed to have work to do right now. It's supposed to be a total screw off time of year. Why are you buried in work?

What are you doing to the poor guy? Let him talk puck with us. absolutely selfish from his employer. But enough of that, let's dive in. We'll start with the bad hunter and then we'll get into the good just because that was the way the games went this weekend on Friday night. The Penguins drop a 4-2 decision to the New York Rangers at MSG. And this was not a very encouraging game from the Penguins because it was just about everything that has haunted this team for the past couple of years. They were very careless defensively.

They gave up multiple odd man rushes. They would take a lead or tie the game and then immediately surrender it within two minutes of taking said lead or tying said game. They also, as we have hinted towards on this podcast, did not get very good goaltending from Alex Nadalcovic. I would say three of the four goals that went in, you can plausibly look at and say,

probably should have made a save. So it was a very disappointing night for the penguins in New York City. But I'll counter with this, however, just to maybe give a little bit of a glimmer of hope, you had to know that was going to be a motivated New York Rangers team. They had just traded Jacob Truba earlier that day their captain, whether or not you like Truba or you don't like him. He was the captain of that team for a reason. by all accounts, all of his teammates have nothing but good to say about him.

So that's going to really give them a push in that game. But you would have liked to have seen more from the Penguins on Friday night. Full transparency. I wasn't able to watch all that game live because I was at Steel Panther for a third time. And it's funny because they won the last time they played on the same night I went to see Steel Panther. This was two years ago that crazy game in Colorado where Crosby went off. and of course, Pat's favorite player, Jeff Carter, had a very good game in 2022 in that game.

So I was trying to see if the Penguins would go two in no on nights that I go see Steel Panther, but wasn't meant to be. They're now one in one. But after that, I came home, watched the game tape. And I just felt this game was really uninspiring for the Penguins. They just didn't play well in any face in this game.

It was nice seeing them tie the game in the third period. You get a little bit of momentum. But every time they scored, Pat, they just gave up a goal a minute, a man and a half later. You can't do that against a team like this. Even though the Rangers have been really struggling these last couple of weeks, you mentioned the Trubotrade. We talked about that a lot on Friday as well.

You can't give them an opportunity to score that quickly after. Because as you saw, they will bury those chances. Alex And Delkevich, I agree, was not very sharp in the start. And let's face it, people, he has not been very good for most of the season. He had a really nice start against Calgary. The first couple of starts, I would say two to three on a start. of his season were pretty fine. Ever since then, though, outside of the Calgary start,

he's been bad. And it is nice seeing Tristan Jari play a bit better since coming back from Wilkesbury, but Ndowicz still needs to be a lot better on a consistent basis. The couple of Panarin goals, I think he could have made saves on there. But I know the Penguins also were out to lunch defensively in this game.

Too many on-man rushes. You can't be doing that against a team like the Rangers who we highlighted. A lot of their offense comes. off the rush. They are a rush first base team. And you can't do that. You saw, you know, Riley Smith take Matt Grizzly's lunch in that game. You can't do that. I'm sorry, you can't play like that against a team that is very good off the rush. Just, it's too careless. That's how I felt they were playing with the puck. They were way too careless with it. And, you know, again,

nice seeing Tomasino light the lamp once again. He's been awesome for this team. It's nice seeing, you know, Blake Lazot. What a snipe he had. And that game, we'll get to Blake Lazot a little bit later, because I'm wearing the brand-intana shirt today for the Pittsburgh clothing company who are tremendous. They make some of the best shirts in the world. If you're not ordering some of their shirts, you're doing it wrong. These people are awesome. Again, we'll talk about Blake Lazot in a few minutes. But I think careless is probably the right word.

That's how the Penguins were in this game, didn't get good goaltending. They played all their classic hits that they were basically doing well before that four-game winning streak. You're not going to win like that. I feel like they had a really big opportunity in this game. to, I wouldn't say bury the Rangers, but make their life more hell just because of the way they've been playing and the way the Rangers have been playing defensively, especially. Penguins didn't do any of that. It wasn't a good enough effort. Yeah. And the way I look at that game is both can exist on the same plane.

Alex Nadelcovic was not good. He's had just, I don't want to say a rotten season because he hasn't been disastrous, but he has not been good. You look at his stat lines. record of 4, 5, and 3.3, 3.37 goals against average and 882 save percentage. Do we need him to be, you know, Igor Shisterkin? No, but he's got to at the very least, B-League average. He's got to hover around 900, have goals against of 2.5 or right at 3, just because as I've been saying quite a bit, and everyone has been saying, we're at an era where the pendulum is swinging more to shooters.

in offense than it is goaltenders. So you're not going to get those Martan Brodor, Dominic Hossick, Patrick Waugh type stat lines anymore just because of the way the game's being played. But he has to be better. And at the same time, like you said, a lot of rush chances given up. They were very careless in the defensive zone. And on that, we obviously have been very critical of him for a while now. Sullivan kind of summed it up at the end of the game and just said it was one of the worst games that they played this season.

And I would be inclined to agree just because you had seen all the momentum they had built up in this six, seven game streak where they maybe they weren't winning every game, but they were playing a lot better. They were playing with a lot more fire intensity. And they were to quote him, they were focusing on the fundamentals a lot better. and they got so far away from that against the Rangers. And you have to have a mentality, like I said at the top, where you know this is going to be a desperate Rangers team. Yeah. Just traded their captain.

They have been sliding down the standings after a very good start. They're nowhere near where they're supposed to be right now. So you have to have a killer instinct mentality going into Madison Square Garden and thinking, yeah, maybe this is an argument. but we can also make it not the Rangers year. Exactly. That's a good point. You want to make it as hard as possible for them going forward because the Rangers aren't buried.

I mean, they're still very much alive in the playoff race. They're not a contender, at least with the way they're playing right now, but they're still at least a playoff team right now. I just wanted the Penguins to make it even harder for them going forward, and they just didn't do anything of the sort. In fact, they made it pretty easy for the Rangers during that game. Mike Sullivan, he told reporters on the. seen that that was the worst game they had played in the last month.

I'm not going to go that far, Mike, because the game against Utah comes to mind. The game against Winnipeg comes to mind. There's definitely some worst games that really come to Maya other than that Rangers game. The Penguins played a bit better in that game compared to those two games I just mentioned. But again, I understand that he was pretty fired up about how poor they played in that game. I like that. I'm just like, okay, let's not say that. You can just say, hey, it's one of the worst games we played, not the worst game.

considering they've gotten blown out in a couple of other games before this war game winning streak, where they were- I will say this in his defense. In the context of how they have been playing over the past few weeks, he's right. When you put it in the context of how they were playing against Utah and how they were playing against Carolina in the lead up to those games, they were embarrassingly bad. But in the way they were playing in the lead up to that,

You weren't expecting them to flip a switch and suddenly look like the 2017 Pittsburgh Penguins. When you look at how they had been playing in the lead up to the Rangers game, we talked about it on the show. You looked at that game and went, they can beat this Rangers team. There's no doubt in my mind they can beat this Rangers team. Four or five weeks ago, we'd have been like, man, they're walking into the slaughter at MSG with the way they're playing.

And they just completely laid an egg. Right. No, they totally did. Yeah. Careless is the word I keep coming back to. That is how the Penguins played in this game. They were not good defensively. They did not get nearly enough chances that they should have offensively,

considering the Rangers are one of the worst defensive teams in the league. They are right down there with the Penguins, Pat, in terms of being one of the worst defensive teams in the league. They did not test Shastarkin enough. And if you don't do that, he's just going to gobble up those bucks. He sure is, and he sure didn't. Hey, Sullivan's words seem to resonate with the team, because just about 24 hours later,

They welcomed the Toronto Maple Leafs to PPG Paints Arena and got what Hunter and I can consider one of the better wins of the season to this point. And we will break down that victory for the penguins when we come back. But first, we've got to tell you about our first sponsor. And that is Mint Mobile. I love a great deal as much as the next guy, but I am not going to crawl through a bed of hot coals just to save a few bucks. It has to be easy. No hoops. No BS.

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but we'll call it a 3 to 2 victory since they got two empty net goals over the Maple Leafs. And it was night and day for the penguins from Friday to Saturday. penguins, as we talked about, didn't really show up against the New York Rangers. Against the Maple Leafs, they knew they were going up against one of the best teams in the National Hockey League, and they played like it. This was one of the better 60-minute efforts I've seen from the penguins. They were crisp in all three zones. I know that people will point to that Toronto got a lot of chances. They spent a lot of time in the Penguins end, but for the most part, the Penguins played very disciplined in the defensive zone.

They gave them some looks here and there, but you expect that when you play a talented team like Toronto. But there was not a lot of sustained pressure where they were getting multiple chances. It was a lot from the outside. And then when the penguins got their opportunities against the Leafs, they took advantage of them, especially the power play, which got two huge goals. And what do you know, the penguins walk out with a clean two points. Yeah, man, those are two pretty big points. And I honestly felt like the way after the Penguins played in the third,

once Michael Bunting got his game winner, and by the way, what a game winner, what a celebration, great call from Josh Gets off. I don't know how some people in this fan base don't like his calls on television. I think you people that don't like his calls are out of your minds. If you haven't seen it,

dear listener, go to the Penguins website, go to their social media pages, go to the app, wherever you consume your Penguins, content and watch that goal from Josh Getsoff's call because it was electric. Just he scores the goal. He does the, Gets off does the typical.

He scores. And then as Bunting is getting mobbed by his teammates, he just goes, remember me? And that was a very terrible gets off impression. I apologize to Josh. I know you're better than that. I'm just not an impressionist. But it was one of those calls where when you hear it,

you just get those little goosebumps like, oh yeah, this is why I love sports. Well, Pat, you're definitely not Joey Mulanero over here with terms of his impressions on social media. He is hilarious with any impression that he does, especially Colin Coward and all those people. But yeah, great call from Gets Off. But getting back to the game, the way the Penguins defended that lead in the third period really was superb. They kept a lot of the chances to the outside. The Leaves did have one pretty glorious chance after, thankfully, hit the post.

Other than that, they defended that lead well, and they also took it. to the Maple Leafs. They were getting chances of their own. They weren't turtling. They were keeping things simple. That's how you defend a third period lead, especially on the second half of back-to-back. Do that more often, just not on the second half of a back-to-back. And this is the opportunity now where I can really shout out Blake Lazott. He basically killed that entire six-on-five by himself at the end of the game. A little bit of a six-on-four as well. He was awesome in this game. He now has six goals, nine points in 13 games. He is one of the best bottom six players this team has had in the last couple of seasons.

And we all know the team's bottom six has been pretty barren these last couple of years. Blake Lazoth, though, has been awesome. He's great defensively. He four checks well. He has a cannon for a shot. We saw that in the game against the Rangers. He then gets another goal in this game. I love this guy, man.

I thought it was a great signing over the summer. He was everything part of this bottom six needed. and more, he deserves his flowers and then some for his effort in both of these two games. That's why I'm wearing this shirt today, because honestly, low-key, he kind of reminds me of Brandon Tannav with the way he plays. He's physical. He will get in your face. He scores, has a great shot, like how Tanna did in the bottom six. Very subtly, it reminds me a little bit of Brandon Tanneth. I love his game. And you know, the way I've been approaching, season with their plan of the rebuild, retool on the fly is, yes, you want a lot of these guys

that you acquired to inflate their value, whether it's authentically or artificially, so you can dump them for more assets. But you know the other thing I've been saying. It's also an audition because this team is expecting to be at least more competitive in the next two to three years. So this is an audition for a lot of these players to be part of the solution, to be part of those teams that they expect to be competitive in the next couple of seasons. So when you're someone like Blake Lazot,

there is probably going to be a handful of teams that come calling around the trade deadline asking for Blake Lazot. I don't think you let him go. It's only one more year after this on his deal, but he's still young enough. He plays the type of game that this team has been so sorely lacking for the last few years. And as we saw against both the Rangers and the Leafs, it has a ton of value for this team because we know what we're going to get out of the top six.

We know what we're getting out of Crosby, Malkin, Raquel, Rust, etc., etc. We have missed a guy in the bottom six who you can. trust in basically any situation. You need him to kill a penalty late in the game. He's going to step up and do it. You need him to drag you into the fight. He is definitely going to do that. You need a guy to pop a couple goals here and there when the top six is being held

in check. Blake Lazot can do that as well. They have him on a very affordable deal for one more year and he is in my estimation when healthy out playing that deal. And if I'm dubus in the management, I hold on to this guy. and assuming he doesn't go on an insane run over the next year and a half, you can probably bring him back on a very similar deal next off season and he can very much be part of the solution moving forward.

Right. Yeah. If you want to trade Marcus Pedersen, you know, go right ahead. You know, pending UFA, you're probably not going to sign him. You can get at least a decent hall for him. Yeah, totally fine. Matt Grislich, same thing. Anthony Pavilion, same thing.

Maybe Deltkovich, okay, that that's fine as well. maybe another forward or two that can go, yes, you want to trade the guys that are pending UFAs, some players that maybe have a year left, that's fine. But just not the one that is Blake Lazotte, who, again, has a year left, but he plays his tail off every night. He's great in all three zones. He's everything part of this bottom six is needed for these last couple of years and more. Do not trade him whatsoever.

I want him on this team next year, no matter what. And it was also nice seeing Brian Ruskin another goal. in this game. Really nice seeing Ricardo Raquel get another goal. I thought we were going to come on here and talk about Matt Grizzler getting a goal, but it was deflected on that one. And I will say, it's funny, he's dreadful at five on five, but he can at least quarterback the power play. The second power play unit at least

looks functional with him out there. And I can't even believe I'm saying that considering how awful he's been at five on five, both I test and the underlying numbers confirm that. But he at least knows how to move the puck and skate well on the power play. the silver lining to his game this year. It's his work on the power play. And I even tweeted that during the game. Hey, if there's one okay part of how Grizzly's game this year is his work quarterbacking

the second powerfully unit. So, hey, it's the dumbest. It's the dumbest idea that's been floating around lately in sports about the MLB wanting to bring in the golden bat role. If we can bring in a golden power play role for the NHL where you can dress one extra guy and he only plays on the power play, give me Matt Griswick because apparently everywhere else in the game, he's an absolute and utter liability. But as soon as it's a five on four or a five on three, he's the second coming of Bobby Orr all of a sudden. So if we can just put him on the power

play, leave him there because you're right. Like joking aside, this season, he has been very good with the man advantage. And it makes no sense in the world. But hey, welcome to sports because there are things in sports that are completely nonsensical, make no sense. And Matt Griswick being a power play specialist is absolutely one of them. Going forward, let's just dress 11-7 play Matt Grisleck on the power play. And then the rest of the six defendantsmen can play at five on five or something like that right now. I'm just messing around. But it was still funny seeing him really contribute to that power play goal. And again, he's kind of really contributed to the power play, at least the second unit throughout the season.

One more really big player to shout out. Crystal Tang, I thought he was tremendous in this game. He had a great couple games this weekend, and he's been really strong these last, I would say, six to seven games, if we're being real. It seems like ever since coming back from that illness, he's had a chance to reset a little bit, and his game has been worlds better

compared to what we saw to start the season. So he was very good. I thought Eric Carlson was also really good in this game. He's also really good. starting to string together some great performances here. Gino, I thought I had a good game. Sidney Crosby was all over the ice against the Maple Leafs. And one more thought before we head to the final segment and discuss the couple big weeks ahead for this team as they will end the month of December against some teams that are right around them in the standings. The officiating,

we haven't really discussed officiating on the show that much this season. The officiating in this game stunk. Let's be real here, man. It was awful. Everyone likes to say, oh, Wes McCollies, this great referee. He stinks. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. He sucks as a ref. He talks a lot. That's great. He's a good personality. But he stinks as a ref. He was totally reffing to the score in the third period because I don't know if you've

noticed, the Leifes have gotten pretty good at those little blatant interference calls that a lot of other playoff teams get away with. And I remember a time when Leaves fans were complaining that, you know, teams like the Penguins were getting away with those little blatant calls. But now that the tables have turned, there's really not too much complaining going on. because, hey, they play in the playoffs a lot these last several years, and they've learned, oh, we can get away with this, especially during the regular season.

There were a lot of those calls that they got away with because, again, the refs just won't call it, especially when the Penguins have gotten so many power plays. Total repping to the score, Penguins probably could have had two more power plays in the third period. Again, very glad they got the win, but the officiating was dreadful on both sides. And it's funny because the Penguins,

if that game was tied in the final couple minutes, they don't get penalized there. It's just, again, totally reffing to the score. And I don't care which team it is. I hate it. Yeah, you're absolutely right. You said it there. They ref to the score.

You also said something that I noticed as well. And I know it's a cop out. I agree that refing to the score is dumb. If you're refing to the score, what's the point of having a rulebook? Because if the rules don't matter, what matters at all? At the same time, though, I know it's a cop out. I know people don't like it. but the officiating was bad for both teams.

So if it's going to be bad, just be bad all around. But that's annoying. One last thing I'll shout out before I throw it to break. I thought it was another very solid game for Tristan Jari. The Mitch Marner goal, the guy's an elite player. Sometimes an elite player does elite things. The penguins played the front of the net well. And Marner scores a highlight real goal while falling down.

And sometimes that happens. The Nielander power play goal, I would like to see him get over a little bit faster, but same thing as Mitch Marner. An elite player does elite things sometimes, and you just have to go, well, I mean, William Neelander, pretty good. If I had a nitick, again, this is very, very nitpicky.

I would want him to make a save on that Neelander one and get him across faster, but he made some other big saves in that game after. So again, I'm not going to crucify him at all. He played very well in this game, but if I had to be nitpicky, I would like him to get across a little bit faster and make that save on the new land. Otherwise, really good start. He continues to take at least another step here in the right direction, even though again, still got to see it a bit more.

Yeah, absolutely. But overall, I liked his game. Huge win for the penguins. And now all of a sudden, they find themselves with a golden opportunity going into the next couple of weeks and really to end the year in the rest of this month in December. Hunter and I are going to dive into that when we come. come back. But before we do, we got to tell you about our last sponsor of the day. And that is Fandul. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with Fandul, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if you win.

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Never waste a hunch and make every moment more with Fandul, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. All right, welcome back to the Monday edition of Locked on Penguins. I'm Patrick Damp with the one and only Hunter Hodes. And this is going to be a huge week for the penguins. They're going to play another very good team tomorrow when they play the Colorado Avalanche. However, they have been kind of up and down this year, a lot of injuries, some inconsistencies. We've also got some goaltending issues.

We'll get more into that when we preview the game tomorrow. But that's a very winnable game. And then basically to end the year, to end 2024, they have a very good opportunity in front of themselves. They've set themselves up to get back into the playoff race. You look at who they're coming up to play. They're going to play Colorado on Tuesday. And then it's a cavalcade of struggling teams. You've got the Montreal Canadians, the Ottawa Senators.

They'll play a competitive Los Angeles Kings team who, not quite a contender, not a basement dweller, a good team that they're going to have to bring it against. And then they go to, then they play Nashville, a team that is very, very much underachieving this year after all of the moves. They made this off season. And then realistically, to end the year, they play the Flyers who up and down, young rebuilding team that's starting to figure it out, but still not among the league's best. You've got the Islanders twice who have been extremely mid, and then Detroit, who also has been extremely mid. They play their cards right. Now, let's not go to end the year.

Let's just go with the next two weeks. You've got five games coming up. And if you can get six to seven of a possible 10 points, you're right back in the race. Right. I think like we said at the end of last year, before they started really going on their big run to almost make the playoffs. I think it's fair to say, they have our attention at least a little bit right now.

You've won five out of six. You've climbed a little bit out of this big hole that you dug yourselves earlier in the year. You have 28 points right now. You're one point behind both the Islanders and the Rangers. They're both tied for fourth in Metro. You're one point behind those teams. Yeah, the Penguins have played more games than a lot of other teams in the conference right now. For example, the Tampa Lightning Pat, they have a lot of games in hand on the Penguins right now.

That's their biggest enemy right now. The Penguins, they've just played a lot more games compared to some of these other teams. But again, after this game against Colorado, you said it. The Canadians are not very good. The Sanders have been pretty up and down this year. The Kings are competitive. They're going to be a playoff team this year. I don't think they're a contender, but they are very much at least a bona fide

playoff team. Nashville, you did forget New Jersey. That's always a big struggle matchup for the Penguins just because of the way the devil's play in just their speed always gives the penguins fit. So you know that's going to be a tough game. The Devils have also been very good this year, as I expected. The Flyers you mentioned, yeah, kind of up and down the Islanders. I don't think the Islanders are any good.

They're loser point merchants this year. Yeah, they're tied for fourth, but I still think when it's all said done, I don't think the Islanders will make the playoffs this year, even if they do, they're just first round fodder for whoever they play anyway, but I don't think they're going to get in. You have those two games. And then you have the Red Wings on New Year's Eve, and it feels like the Penguins always play the Red Wings.

right around that time each season. So you're right. They have a big opportunity here. And I said it on Twitter. I'll say it here. I want to believe that they're turning the corner. I want to believe that this is not a mirage. I'm just not there yet.

Yes, they've won five out of six. They're playing better. They beat two really good teams this past week. They beat the Panthers. They beat the Maple Leafs. They lost the Rangers, sure. But I still need to see it on a more consistent basis throughout this month before I'm ready to push that button and say,

hey, we're back department, I'm ready to file a claim. Okay, I need to see it for these next three to four weeks to end the month of December before I'm ready to push that button. Obviously, again, that game against the avalanche, that really ends this big stretch against playoff teams to contender teams that you're playing against. After that, okay, let's see how you do against teams that are right around you in the standings for the most part. You have the devils who a little bit above you.

You know, the kings are playing well in the Western Conference. but for all intends and purposes, all these other teams are right around you in the standing. So again, next few to four weeks, that's really going to determine, Pat. Are they fully back and are they in this thing? Or, okay, was this recent stretch here just a mirage? You're right.

And I want to make it clear. I'm not getting ahead of myself and saying, oh, look at them, they're back. I'm saying that they have done enough over the past two weeks to put themselves in a position to get back into the player. off race. Does it mean they're suddenly a good team? I don't think so. But they can convince me that they're at very least a competitive team with how they play over the next two weeks and to end the month of December. If they go into 2025 in the thick of the playoff race, again, I'm not going to

declare them back. I'm not going to say they're a good team all of a sudden. But I will say that They're starting to figure it out. And then I won't totally adjust my expectations. But as we have said on the show, as I have said in writing, they talk about wanting to make playoffs and be competitive and all this stuff. I'm going to hold them to that standard, especially if they pull themselves back into the race to end the year of 2024. But we will get into more of that as the next couple weeks unfold.

And that's going to do it for the Monday. edition of Locked-on Penguins. Hunter and I will be back with a brand new episode in your podcast feeds tomorrow when we get you set for the game against the Colorado Avalanche. We'll also give you any updates that come out of practice over the next couple days and morning skate. But for now, I'm Patrick Damp for Hunter Hodes. Thank you as always for tuning in. We will be back, as I said, with a brand new episode on Tuesday and we will talk to you then.