Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins start a divisional back-to-back without Sidney Crosby

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

The Penguins kick off a weekend, Metropolitan Division back-to-back in New York City on Friday night but will be without the services of captain Sidney Crosby. Patrick and Hunter begin the show previewing the first game of the weekend back-to-back against the New York Rangers. They dive into how the Penguins can help their case with a win over the Blueshirts and how they can do so without their captain. Then, just 24 hours later, they'll head to Philadelphia to take on another divisional rival, the Flyers. Patrick and Hunter talk about how, even with the Flyers being a young and struggling team, this will not be an easy matchup. Finally, as we approach the home stretch of the 2024-25 season, they discuss their expectations for this club as the season draws toward a close.  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelSuper Bowl 59 is here, And there’s no better way to make every play more exciting than with FanDuel Sportsbook. New customers can bet just FIVE DOLLARS, and if you win, you’ll score TWO HUNDRED BUCKS in Bonus Bets. Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of Super Bowl Fifty-Nine. 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.

It is a weekend of back-to-back Metropolitan Division games for the Pittsburgh Penguins, as they'll take on the New York Rangers and then head to Philadelphia to take on the flyers. Hunter and I are going to get you set for both of those games and more on this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. You're Locked-on Penguins, your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Happy Friday, everyone. it is another edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Patrick Damp.

You can follow me across all social media platforms at Synonym 4Wet, joined as always by my partner in crime, the one and only Hunter Hodes. You can follow him on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. You can give our show's account a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Penguins. And of course, we appreciate you making us part of your daily routine. Don't forget that we are free and available wherever you. you get your podcasts as well as YouTube.

Plus, if you follow us on YouTube, go ahead and hit that notification button so you can be among the first to know when we drop our daily Monday through Friday episodes as well as any bonus content we may put out there with the trade deadline looming. Before we get started on today's episode, today's episode is brought to you by GameTime.

Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code locked on NHL to get $20 off of your first purchase. Hunter, big weekend coming up for the Penguins. They are going to finish off this portion of the season before we get two weeks off for the Four Nations face off. And you couldn't ask for two better games to close off regular season play before we head into this break. We start it tonight at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers, a big time rival in this era of Penguins hockey.

they have had several battles throughout the regular season as well as the Stanley Cup playoffs. There is a lot of history between these two clubs. And it has been, let's say, an interesting season for the New York Rangers. They started off early on, pretty hot, looked like they were going to be once again a contender in not just the Eastern Conference, but the entire National Hockey League. then around November, December, they really started to crater. And they're still trying to pull themselves out. At one point, as you said to me this season, they had lost 15 of 20 games.

They are still currently trying to pull themselves out of that. They're currently five points out of the second wild card spot in the Metropolitan Division and the Eastern Conference. So this is a team that while they really dug themselves a hole with that stretch of losing 15 of 20, in a way they're starting to kind of turn it around ever so slightly. They are 6.3 and 1 in their last 10. J.T. Miller, early returns for them after that trade have been fantastic. He's got four points in three games.

He looks like a man completely reborn. like I've said on the show. He may be a Pittsburgh guy, and I'm rooting for him as that as an NHLer, but he apparently is just a New York Ranger because when he puts on the blue shirt, he comes to play. He has been a great player for them for the majority of the time.

He has been with the franchise. But for the Penguins, this is a chance to actually help themselves if they can get a win tonight because they have a first round pick, from the New York Rangers that if it is outside of the top 13, the penguins will get that pick in 2025. So Hunter, big one for the penguins tonight.

What do they have to do to come out with two points? Yeah, you can make it a little bit harder on the Rangers with how they're trying to come back. You saw how desperate they were last week by making that trade for J.T. Miller. That moved to me, weaked of a general manager, Chris Jury, that is, of someone who knows. his job is on the line. If they don't make the playoffs this year, I think there is a good chance that Chris Derry gets fired because the Rangers owner will wake up out of his slumber,

aka James Dolan, and he'll be like, you know what? Hmm, this happened? Yep, you're out of here. I'm going to go hire a new general manager to run this team because this season this year has been unacceptable. So that's, I think, the main reason why they made that trade is because he's desperate. He's trying to add this core group of players, even though personally, I think their core group is good, but it's not great. I think it could be still quite a bit better. I think last year might have been their best shot at potentially winning a Stanley Cup with this score.

But hey, crazier things have happened before. As for this game with the Rangers, it always starts to me with Shastarkin. Best goaltender on the planet right now. He's been awesome. My dog even agrees. Teddy over here is agreeing that Igor Shisterkin is the best goaltender on the planet.

She also just likes when I get her pets while we're recording. But he's been awesome once again this year. He's doing everything he can to try and will this team into the playoffs. He's ninth in the league in goals state above expected with 12.4 also has a 9068% 2.86 goals against average. A percentage. It's a little bit lower compared to some other years, but he's still top 10 in goals set above expected. He is having another very good season. And you know what you've got to do to really rattle him.

You've got to get in his cage. You've got to create traffic. That's when he starts getting mad. Shisterkin is probably the biggest goal in the league that feels like gets really upset when there's a lot of traffic around him. Has to be another classic Michael Bunting game here. Like a player like that, you got to get under Shistern's kitchen a little bit because he's going to get fired up. And once he does that, you can potentially get him off his game a little bit, get a couple goals past him. And then you're starting to really, I wouldn't say get in his head, but you're starting to really make him feel it a little bit.

Again, this has to be a classic game where you get a lot of really dirty goals, I think. Because with the way he is so positionally sound, you're not going to cleanly beat him a lot of times. It's possible you can beat him at least once. But with the way he plays, it's very difficult. So greasy goals, that's my biggest key for this one, especially with the way he plays. You've got to get him off his game. For sure. And he very much is in the same mold of his predecessor in Henrik Lundquist,

where if he sees the shot, he is going to stop it. He is, like you said, extremely positionally sound on top of being also very athletic. So you put those two traits together and you get an absolutely tremendous goalie because not only are you not going to catch him off of his angles, you're also going to end up on the losing end of some very acrobatic saves because he's an athletic goalie. And to what you said, the 906 save percentage is a little bit misleading. That is more a product of the struggles of the New York Rangers earlier this year. He has played just like you expect Igor Shasturkin to play.

There was just a very prolonged stretch where he did not get much help from the players in front of him. And he can only do so much as a starting goaltender. And also very similar to his predecessor, Henrik Lundquist, gets very annoyed when you have someone in his face. He does not like to be touched. He does not like to be rattled. And that is how you get him off of his game. The penguins have actually done this over the past few years with some nice regularity.

They have been able to rattle Igor Shisterkin on multiple occasions. And it has to continue tonight. The other thing for the Penguins tonight, we are monitoring this as we record the show here at 11 a.m. on Friday morning. We still don't know totally the status of Sidney Crosby. He is on the ice for morning skate, but we don't know if that's going to lead to him being in the lineup tonight. But this is going to have to be not just a classic Michael Bunting game, and it will be extra true if Sidney Crosby is out. this has to be a classic road hockey game. You cannot take too many risks. You have to play an extremely simple game where you are dumping the puck in,

retrieving it, not taking high risk pinches, being very simple in the defensive zone, making sure people stick to their man and not giving them any A1 looks because if you don't have Sidney Crosby tonight, it is going to be a severely impacted roster. even for all of the struggles of the New York Rangers this season, there still is a lot of talent on this roster. Artemi Panarin, once again doing his Artemi Panarin thing with 23 goals and 57 points. Adam Fox, just an absolute machine on the blue line, 42 points this year. 39 of them are assists.

J.T. Miller, like I said, since he has returned to the New York Rangers, has been very good for them. A down year for Mika Zabinajad with only 10 goals and 30. points, but again, he's a classic penguin killer. When he plays the penguins, he plays very well against them. Vinny Trochec has continued to prove the doubters wrong that he is a top six forward. So this is a team in the Rangers who still have a lot of talent. And if you give them an opening, especially with the way this penguin's team is constructed, they are going to walk through it.

I agree with that part, like especially with how the Rangers generate offense. of it is off the rush. We talk about this every time the penguins play the Rangers. You have to stop their rush base attack. Like that's where they get a lot of their chances. You know, you, you want to make sure that your pinches are really diligent in this game. Because if you try to do a lot of those hope pinches where, you know, they're 25, 75 plays, 30, 70 plays, you're just going to get burned. You saw it last game when the Rangers were playing on national TV. I was watching that game a couple nights ago where they are short-handed goals. If Benjohn and Crider come down, easy goal for Crider.

They love those types of chances. So the penguins have to stay diligent with the way they play with the puck, especially in the offensive zone and make sure that when they're pinching, you're actually making a play that's above a 50-50 shot. Because if you give up too many two-on-ones, three-on-tos, it's bad against any team,

but especially this team of the Rangers with how they generate offense. With regards to Trocheck, he's been fine this year. He was a lot better last year. He only has 33 points in 53 games this year. He hasn't been as good. Same goes for Chris Kreider.

He's scoring a bent 16 goals, but only 19 points. He's not even on pace for 40 points this year. Like that's the way he's playing. A lot of his goals this year, kind of as you'd expect. You know, power plates happens. Like that's what you're going to get with the deflections and stuff. So penguins, when the Rangers get power plays, you have to make sure you know where he is on the ice, especially with how good of a net front presence he is.

He always loves getting those greasy goals against the penguins. He's also pat, a very big penguins killer. probably more than Mika Zabedajad, I think we're being honest. You mentioned J.T. Miller. He's been very solid four points in three games. You know, Adam Fox, he's doing his thing on the back end. I know the Raiders have been very disappointing this year, but there is still quite a bit of talent here.

Their bottom six, I don't really think is that good. They have Matt Rempbe playing minutes on an every night basis, and I don't really think he's that good. They have Will Cooley, who is okay, Jimmy V.C., whatever. Their main top talent, though, is as where you expect it is. Their top six, you know, Riley Smith, of course, former penguin is in their top six. He scored a goal against the penguins in their last game against them.

They have Alexei Lafranier, who he hasn't been as good as he was last year, but he's still having a pretty fine year. You know, their back end is where I think they're a bit vulnerable, though. Outside of Fox, I personally don't think there's that much there. Schneider's fine. Lingren, though, is not what it used to be. I mean, Jones is whatever. Borgon just got a big extension, even though I don't think he deserves that.

Kandre Miller, I think when he's on top of his game is a good defenseman, but he's been very inconsistent this year. So this is also Rangers back in that I think is kind of right for the picking a little bit, especially if the Penguins are able to get to their forecheck. I'm just curious to see if Sidney Crosby doesn't play tonight, who's getting those top line center minutes? Are we really going to do Ricard Raquel or Pat? Are we going to have potentially Emil Benstrom play center?

He was just recalled by the Penguins before this game. Curious to see if Crosby doesn't get in, is he going to be the top center in this game? Or do they promote someone like Kevin Hayes, Cote Glass, etc. But if Ben Shrum does get in in some capacity, I'll be curious to see how he plays because I still like his shot. I liked when he used it last year with the Penguins down the stretch.

He just hasn't been able to put it all together at NHL level, but still having a really nice point per game season for Wilkesh. Doing very well in Wokes Bear this year. He has 19 goals, 41 points, leads the team in both of those categories. But we have our answer. Mike Sullivan has. spoken ahead of the optional morning skate. Sidney Crosby will not play tonight.

Alex Nadelcovic will be between the pipes for the penguins. Igor Shasturkin will be between the pipes for the New York Rangers. So we will see what happens with this lineup, but it is the penguins and the Rangers from Madison Square Garden tonight at 7 p.m. And we will see what happens with these lines. You'll get that social media post on Twitter, Instagram, and everywhere else. We talk to win this one, my friend,

especially without both Crosby and Malkin. I expect Malkin back after the break. Crosby, if he's not playing tonight, not sure he's going to play tomorrow, always a chance, but who they're going to need a really great effort from a lot of players tonight with both these guys out. It's going to be a very interesting game to watch

without the two big guns. So we will see what happens. And obviously when we come back on Monday, we will recap that game as well as the one that we're going to preview in the second segment when we return. for that segment against the Philadelphia Flyers. But first, we've got to tell you about our sponsor, and that is Game Time. If you're looking for tickets to your next big event, whether it's a concert, a comedy show, or a sporting

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I'm Patrick Damp, joined as always by Hunter. Hodes and the Metro Madness continues to close off this portion of the penguin season when tomorrow night they'll go from Madison Square Garden. They'll hop on the train and head down to Philadelphia, who, boy, they're having themselves a weekend. I hear they've got some big game coming up on Sunday. I'm trying to confirm, not entirely sure what's going on with that. I'm not sure if the city is going to burn down this Sunday, though.

We have to see if that happens. I'll dig into that to see if I can confirm. if there's a big game happening for the city of Philadelphia this weekend. But I digress. So the Penguins will close out this portion of the season before they had to break for the four nations face off against Metropolitan Division rival, the Philadelphia Flyers. And yes, they are still very much a rival, but it has cooled off a little bit over the last few years as the flyers are in the midst of a rebuild. They're starting to turn a corner ever so slightly.

You can see some of their younger players are starting to figure it out. They've got Matt Vei Mitchkoff, who is everything they wanted him to be. That kid is a damn good hockey player, and he is going to be a damn good one for quite some time. But because they are the Philadelphia Flyers, because they are our rival, I have to twist the knife ever so slightly for them. They are currently in the midst of a three-game losing streak, losing to the Colorado Avalanche, the Utah Hockey Club, and then the Washington Capitals.

But I want to focus on that loss against the Utah Hockey Club that they lost three to two in overtime. Not only did they lose three to two in overtime, they lost with 0.2 seconds on the clock in overtime to Utah. You simply hate to see it. That was a great shot, by the way,

from Utah to win that game. And I got to know that Tortoella it was definitely seething after that one. But this Flyers team, this year at least, they're looking like the team that I thought they were going to be last year. Remember last year? They burst on in the scene. They were in the playoff race for basically the entire season,

never really let up until probably the last week to 10 days. That's when you could tell they were gassed, but they were still in the race because all the teams that were jockeying for that final playoff spot were so bad in the conference. Like that playoff race last year was just, like a mix of very mid-teams, to be fair. This year, again, they're kind of where I thought they would be last year, you know, kind of a bad team that's still rebuilding.

They just traded Joel Farby and Morgan Frost. It looks like they're going to have Coosemanko in the lineup this weekend. He was in Philadelphia. Last night, he was seen up top with Danny Breyer and Keith Jones. His name almost escaped me for just a second because he's the Flyers team president now. But he was up there just talking with them. So I expect Cozmanco to probably play this weekend. I'll be curious to see how he fits in.

with this Flyers team. But you look up and down this Flyers team. It all starts, though, with Travis Kineckney. He has been by far their best player this year. 21 goals, 59 points in 56 games. He has been fantastic. He's on their second line right now with Scott Lawn and Anthony Richard. You look up and down this lineup, it's bleak.

I know Kuzmenko is coming in here pretty shortly, but a lot of this lineup right now, man, is fairly bleak with the way it's gone this year. Though, I will say they are dealing with some injuries. Owen Tippett stated. day right now. Delore is on injured reserve. Ryan Paling is day to day, to day, Mr. Salina's day to day. You have Igor Samula is on IR. So defensively, their defense also looks a bit different as well. They got Eric Johnson playing bottom pairing

minutes. Jamie Drysdale is at least playing decent hockey for them. I like Cam York, not on the top hearing, but I still like him as a defenseman. They also have Travis Sandheim there. But the biggest issue for the Flyers is that the Penguins will look to exploit in this game specifically is their goaltending. Yes, Pat. We have found 18. that has worse goaltending in the league than the Pittsburgh Penguins have this year. My Philadelphia Flyers, Hunter, my Philadelphia Flyers having goaltending issues. That is so, so unlike them. By the way, guys, Pat just admitted that he's a Flyers fan doing a Penguins podcast.

You all can flame him in the comments for that. Now, I'm just messing around. But his girlfriend's family is from Philadelphia. So just had to make guys. They don't like the Flyers. So I am indoctrinating her into the cult of the Pittsburgh. penguins as we speak. So good.

That's good. But you look at their goalies this year. Sam Erson's played 30 games. Fedatab, their young goalies played 17 games. Alexei Kolasov, 15 games. None of these goalies is above an 895 percentage. Their highest is Sam Erston who's at 894. Fedatob is 877.

Kolasov is 870. Goals against average for Erson, 2.84. So that's, you know, okay. But a state percentage is not good. Fedatom is 3.27. Kolesov, 3.7. point four five. All these goalies this year have been atrociously bad for the flyers. So Penguins want to win this game, they got to win the goalie battle.

And it looks like they're going to have Blumquist in this game because Nadelkevich, as you said, is starting tonight against the Rangers. That is an advantage for the Penguins with the way we have seen Blumquist play. And I'm excited to see him get another crack at this because of, you know, he hasn't played as much lately because Ned's been on a nice heater, which I totally get. but it'll be nice seeing Blumquist get in this game tomorrow. We'll have to fully see about Sidney Crosby. But again, based on what you updated us about a few minutes ago,

he's not playing tonight against the Rangers, not sure they're going to risk it against the Flyers, even though we all know he loves playing the Philadelphia Flyers. He really does, and the numbers certainly reflect that. I don't want to turn this into a discussion on the Flyers organization, and I will get into here in a second what the Penguins got to do against this Flyers team. But I will say this. made the joke about the goaltending. I do kind of think that Danny Breyer's thought process right now

is that they are going to use both the cap space and the assets that they have to go out and get an actual starting goaltender this off season because they've got three first round picks coming up this draft as well as four second round picks and just around $25 million in cap space going into next season. And along with all that cap space, they've got pretty much everybody they want to have locked up, locked up. So you can see that their one weakness is goaltending.

And I wouldn't be shocked if they leverage those at those draft pick, those draft pick capital and that cap space to go get a legitimate starting goaltender this off season. But as for Saturday night, you know what you're going to get out of a Philadelphia Flyers team that is coached by John Tortorella. There is going to be absolutely no easy ice. It's not going to be Broad Street bullies kind of hockey.

They're not going to be fighting. They're not going to be overly physical, but they are going to play hard because John Torterella teams have exactly one trait, and that is they work their butts off. And for even all the struggles that this Flyers team has had this year, because they're going through their growing pains of being a rebuilding team that has a lot of good prospects on the way, young talent already on the roster. They still play extremely hard. It is a difficult team to play against.

It'll be a long 60 minutes for the Pittsburgh Penguins. So it's a game where regardless of who is or isn't in the lineup, patience will be required because you're not going to, and it was genuinely surprising. earlier this year when they blitz the flyers because that's just something that doesn't happen to Tortorella teams. But when this team is playing the way they have this, for the most part, this season, you're going to have to win a slog. You're going to have to win two to one, three to two, maybe even one nothing. You're going to have to deal with a team that blocks a lot of shots, plays very physical, and makes you earn every inch of the ice. So the penguins have

to be prepared for that. Yeah, it's kind of similar to the New Jersey game a little bit that we saw earlier this week, even though the devils have a lot more high-end talent that can hurt you. It's still similar, though, because of the way the devils play, especially in their own zone. Torrance wants his team to play like that. The Flyers, they're not good, but they try and execute his system to the best of their abilities. And you said it, they're going to block a lot of shots. They're going to try to be stingy in their own zone. You mentioned patience a couple of seconds ago.

The Penguins are going to have to be patient for their offense in this one. You're going to have to forecheck below the dots. You're going to have to work at low to high. The offense, it's going to have to have. to be hard earned. Even though the Flyers goaltending is not very good, it's been awful all season. There's skaters in front of them are still going to make you earn that offensive zone time overall. So also, it's a weekend back to back with travel. Like that makes it even harder. And you may not even have Crosby for that game as well. It's cool that it's the dad strip. I love that

they do this every year. It's also cool that they're doing it for two division rivals. But I really want to see the penguins work ethic in this one shine because of the way that torts teams play. Yeah. And you have in even, even if 87 returns tomorrow. Yeah. You are still going to have to play an extremely simple game because like you said, it's back to back with travel. New York City to Philadelphia, not a difficult trip whatsoever. But at the end of the day, it is still a trip that you have to make. You're going to be rushing out of the out of Madison Square Garden. you're going to have to either get on the bus, the train or the plane. However, they're going to get to Philadelphia.

Then you've got to check into a hotel, get yourself comfortable. You're not going to get a great night's sleep. And then you're going to be right back at it on Saturday night. But that'll do it for this second segment. Penguins, Flyers, 7 o'clock Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia. When we come back, we're going to close out this portion of the season and look ahead a little bit to the final. stretch of the season and talk about what some of our expectations for this Penguins Club is when they return from the Four Nations face off and we'll do that when we return right after

this. All right, it's the Friday edition, the final segment of a hopefully feel good Friday here on the on the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm Patrick Damp alongside Hunter Hodes and two games this weekend and then it's two weeks off as we get our Olympic advertising. I mean, the four nations face-off tournament in Boston and Montreal. And we kind of know where this Penguins team is and where this season is going. We're likely looking at a barring an absolute and total miracle, a third straight season without the Stanley Cup playoffs in Pittsburgh. So I want to touch on what some of our expectations are for this franchise for the rest of

this season. I will start with this. I don't think now that Marcus Pedersen and Drew O'Connor have been traded that we're going to see what many have called a fire sale, what many have called an active trade deadline. It doesn't matter what you want to refer to it as, but I don't think we're going to see a flurry of moves at the deadline. I do still think there's a couple of names on the Penguins roster who still could get moved. Matt Griswick and Anthony Bavillier among them. But should that happen, those are two players who have pretty much been every night players for the Pittsburgh Penguins. So if and when they get moved, my expectation is I want to see some of these young guys giving a shot. I want to see whether it's Vili Coivinan, whether it's Vasily Ponomerov, whether it's Rutger McGrory.

I want to see these guys post-trade deadline get a little bit of a runway. even if they struggle a little bit for a couple of games, we're not playing for the Stanley Cup playoffs here. I want these guys to get a little bit better acclimated to the national hockey league level. And also ditto more for Owen Pickering. I mean, obviously we saw his first in the NHL earlier this season where he looked apart.

He looked to be fully NH already. He got sent down just due to some roster situations and injuries and all that. But if they do trade grizzlick, and I expect that to happen, I think they're probably going to get a mid-round pick back for him or something like that, I want them to bring up Owen Pickering and give him top four minutes because if you don't do that, your left side, Pat is what? Ryan Graves, P.O. Joseph and Ryan Shea, like, that's bleak stuff. I know that they're not going to make the playoffs, but that's bleak stuff. Man, you got to bring him up once you inevitably trade Grizzlick to see what he can do for the

rest of the season in a full-time role before, I think, giving him that more of a full-time role for next because I think he'll be here full-time next season, and we'll have to see with Harrison Brunick as well after the camp and the preseason that he had. I agree with you on Covenant and Ponomerov. I think Coivinen has earned a call-up with the way he's been playing, Ponomerov as well. Magority, he's going to get the call really soon.

I also would not be surprised if they kept him down in Wilkesbury for the rest of the season, but if they were to call up and I am leaning that way as well, I would be all for it because I think he's playing some really good hockey down there these last couple of months. The other thing I just want to see just for the rest of the season, just the same heart and energy that I've seen in the last three games, man. Like that, a lot of that road trip was really poor,

but they woke up a bit in Utah, had that really great performance. Crosby ends it with that nice goal. Nashville, they have a really nice emotional performance. They shut out that. They shot that team. You then are able to almost beat the devils. They probably should have beaten them in a shootout if Ned makes that save that on

Duggy Hamilton. But for the most part, the Penguins played fairly well in that game. I still want to see that continue in these two games this weekend, but I want to see that continue for the rest of the season. If you lose games, okay, whatever, you might get a top five pick out of it. I'll welcome that very much, considering how this season is gone. But I don't want to see them get embarrassed like they were the first month of the season where these games are just a chore to watch. I just want this team to be watchable. That's my main expectation for the rest of the season. And also, again, for trade purposes,

is if you want to potentially flip that pick that you got in the Pedersen O'Connor deal for immediate help, whether it's someone on the back end or forward around the deadline or over the summer, that's also something I'm looking for as well. I very much believe that they are going to flip that pick, and I think it actually makes the most sense to do it. I'm right there with you on that. And then folding in what you said with what I said, it's kind of been our mentality for this entire season of we're not going to be totally upset

if you lose games. Yeah, we want them to win games. We at the end of the day are still fans of the Pittsburgh Penguins and we would much rather them be successful and win games. But given where this franchise is right now and where they want to go, we understand that it's going to take a little bit of losing to get back to where they want to be. And if you lose games, say like you did against New Jersey where you play fine. You play actually you play pretty well. But you just happen to lose to a better team. You put up a good effort and it doesn't end with two points.

I'm not going to be that upset. I need to see them play hot. I play good hockey. But we understand the limitations that this team has on it right now. They're just, they're not what they once were. And to that end, if and when those young guys come up and when,

and when some of these guys who are already on the roster, who might not get traded, you are playing in what essentially is an audition. You are either auditioning for the off season when you hit free agency and does another team want to take a chance on you and pay you more money, maybe not even more money, but longer term.

And if you're one of those younger guys, you want to communicate to the coaching staff in the front office that come training camp, I'm someone you should consider putting on this roster full time because I'm going to be part of the solution over the next few years. So at the end of the day, again, not going to be that big of a deal if you lose. If you lose hard fought three to two, two to one, four to three, whatever games, and you put up a valiant effort, you look like you're trying, I'm fine with that. It just can't be like you said in the first month of the season,

when they were just getting boat raced left and right. They looked completely uninspired. If they're scratching and clawing and they pull out a couple big wins and lose a couple hard fought games, I'll have a little bit more hope going into this offseason and into next year. Yeah, and just from a historical perspective, give me Crosby another point per game season, please. That's another expectation for me.

The season is a success pat if they get that because I know they're not going to make the playoffs. Just have me get Cid the point per game record at this. That's what I'm looking for, man. Yeah, really want to see that because he, you want to see him make that history. I know he says he doesn't really care about it and that's fine. But you want to see him continue to cement his legacy as one of the best players to ever lace up skates in the history of the game. And considering that he was at morning skate today against the Rangers, even though he's not going to play, even if he doesn't play against the Flyers on Saturday, you figure once we come out of this break,

he is going to be back along with Hvgeny Malkins. So you want to see him continue playing the way he has played over the past month or so. But unless you've got anything to add Hunter, I think that's going to do it for the Friday edition of Locked on Penguins. Hunter and I will be back to recap both of these games from the weekend on Monday, as well as maybe have our good pal Jesse Marshall on the show for Marshall Monday. and we'll also talk a little four nations face off as that tournament will get rolling next week. But for now, for Hunter Hodes, I'm Patrick Damp.

Thank you as always for tuning in. We will be back with a brand new episode for you on Monday.